Vash1313's Bretonnian Themed Vampire Counts

[vash1313]

I have been working on a Bretonnian themed Vampire Counts Army for the past 8 months, and despite having finished a good deal of it, have decided to start a painting log anyway. I need to get the whole thing finished in time for a tournament in July and hopefully this will help motivate me. So far I have completed 2 Lords, 2 Necromancers, 3 units of Skeletons, 1 unit of Grave Guard, Black Knights, Dire Wolves, and a Varghulf. I still have to complete 3 Corpse Carts, 30 Ghouls, 40 Zombies, another Vampire, and a Wight King. I would love to get some comments and criticisms, better ideas, suggestions, cooking recipes, etc...

First Up: Characters
Mounted Lord

I am not a big fan of the GW Vampires. They all seem to have fangs that are too big and they seem to have traded all of their old armor for new armor that has bat wings and other stuff on it. For my lord I simply took the Bretonnian Lord with great weapon and swapped it out for a sword. I then painted him a suitably dark color with pale dead skin. On his own he may not look sufficiently undead to some, but when fielded with the army he fits right in. This army relies quite a bit on the appearance of all the units together to really communicate that undead feel.

[vash1313]

Next up: Characters

These are three characters that I painted up for the army. The gentleman with the sword is a vampire on foot that I made out of a men at arms figure and some empire swordsman bits.

The other two are Empire Wizards that were modified only slightly and then painted suitably evil and now parade around the battlefield as Necromancers. I am especially fond of the Necromancer with the vial of green skull gas. The arm across the face is classic horror film pose.

[vash1313]

Most recently I finished my Varghulf. I really like the new GW model for the Varghulf, but I wanted something that was a bit more Bretonnian in feel. I ended up taking the Green Knight and modifying him to be Raynald the Beast also known as the Red Knight. I envision him as a vampire who has succumbed to the beast within and is now a mad berserker on the battlefield. I might later try and convert another Varghulf from the Archaeon figure who will be named Sir Gregor after the Mountain that Rides for you GRRM fans.

To convert Raynald I swapped out the head and used one of the heads from the driver of the Corpse Cart. I fleshed out the back of the head and neck and then sculpted a chainmail coif. The sword was swapped out for the axe from the Grave Guard champion. The plume of fern leaves that was on the head of the horse was removed and I had to re-sculpt the ears as well as some of the armor on the head. The red color will really make him stand out from the rest of my army. I dirtied him up and rusted up his armor to give the impression that he has succumbed so completely to the beast that he no longer even takes care of his equipment.

All in all this was a really challenging and fun project to try and make a figure as distinctive as the Green Knight look evil.

[tancrede]

Nice idea, cool conversions and very good painting !
Consider me subscribed !

[Kaos]

This is what i talking aboot! Good stuff in here and very cool feel in the colors and modeling. I give you the ermission to show us more pics and do it soon, or i will start crying like a little girl. You dont want that do you?

[vash1313]

Next up: Black Knights

These are the guys that started this whole idea for me. I can not stand the GW Black Knights, which left me with two choices: Empire or Bretonnia.

I really did not convert anything on these guys except to tear up the banner to make it look old. I wanted to challenge myself by making these guys look evil and undead but only through the paint. I also did not want to add skeletal parts and such, mainly because they would look too brawny in the Bretonnian areas and then have this skinny bone coming out. Instead I imagined these guys as incorporeal beings that inhabit their old suits of armor because they foolishly pledged their loyalty to the Vampire Lord and it is because of that oath that they still serve after death. Perhaps they even wish he would be killed on the field of battle so they would be released from servitude, but they are powerless to do anything because of the oath. I think these guys came out pretty good. On their own they may not scream undead, but with the rest of the army they work out perfectly.

I have posted these guys on here before but I am posting them again for the sake of completeness.

[vash1313]

Thank you everyone for your comments.

Dire Wolves

These guys came out pretty good, but the pictures don't really do them justice. I decided to bloody them up and then use gloss sealer to make it shine, and the camera really doesn't pick it up very well. The Doom Wolf in the center was the victim of some experimentation with the dip method and as a result most of the detail was obscured. I went back over the model and re-sculpted 99% of the surface to give it back detail. This also made him appreciably larger than the other models... at least it only happened to one.

[zigoR]

Brilliant army mate!!! love the dark atmosphere... I used almost the same style of painting on my own VC, only difference: mine is more Imperium influenced... can't wait to see more

[Kronos]

the painting is very good through out and i love that green/red knight conversion.

great job

[PopeAlexanderVI]

very nicely done.

[Darkritual]

Damn this is nice looking!! keep em comming plz!

[vash1313]

Skeletons!

I painted these guys using the dip method... sorta. After brushing on the varnish I went back and painted on the rust and bits of clothing. It did not save me as much time as the dip method is supposed to, but it did save me some time and I really like the effect it achieved over all. There are about 8 skeletons with Men at Arms shields and helmets in every unit. I figured a vampire would not be too particular about who's dead he was raising so I wanted to have a good mix of different looks. The shields of the Men at Arms skeletons also carry a variety of different emblems. Many of these are matched to the heraldry of the Black Knights to represent the peasant levy's brought by the various knights when called on by their lord. The men at arms are not organized by the lord they are sworn to, but instead are mixed into the different units willy nilly. The lord is not going to be so concerned with making sure all of his undead minions have matching outfits and he sure as hell isn't going to care if you get to be with your old buddies when it's time to march. Living Bretonnian lords are pretty indifferent to their peasants - I figure undead Bretonnian lords will be even more indifferent to their dead peasants.

[vash1313]

Skeletons Group 2

[vash1313]

Skeleton Group 3

[vash1313]

Grave Guard

These guys are a bit of a mixed bag for me. I like the way they turned out but they just don't look Bretonnian. They don't stick out like a sore thumb but I would prefer something a little more in line with the theme I am going for. I might try mixing some of the Knights of the Realm plastics with the Men at Arms and see if I can make some knights on foot. You have seen my army up to this point - how do you think the current Gave Guard I am using look with the rest of the army?

[huron]

I really like the weathering on the black knights and the skellies are really cool too.

[Mr.chair]

Great work. These are some seriously cool paint jobs. The dead flesh looks awesome. The fade paint on the shields is incredible as well.

[grhino]

This army is the ****! Looks absolutely stunning. The freehands are amazing! We want more!

[JLEH]

Fantastic stuff! One of the best armies I've ever seen. The Bretonnian influence works really well.

[Griffonclaw]

The theme is not that original, a LOT of people have tried this before, but you sir, are the first to really pull it of!!
This army is made out of pure win, with a topping of awesome.
That Red knight is superb, all of the conversion work is done smoothly with very cool ideas in it, and the painting tops it all off, a real great job.
Consider me subscribed!