Shabbadoo's Vampire Counts Army Project Log

[shabbadoo]

First of all, let me say that I blame Harry for this thread. Thanks for making me and many others just plain look lazy! You're a real **** that way, you know? I am in no way the painting machine that Harry is, but there is hope for one such as myself, and maybe for some of you too. Now, on to the fun stuff.

While I have many Warhammer Fantasy armies, for some reason I have been able to sit down and paint quite a few of my Vampire Counts minis. Maybe it is because I feel I can cut corners on them and paint them “dirtier” than I normally would other armies(I am actually known for painting in a very “clean & neat” style). Or, maybe it is just that I like the undead just enough to actually be able to focus my ferret-on-crack mind on them for long enough to actually accomplish something. Whatever the case may be, here begins(and hopefully continues) my Vampire Counts army project log.

I have the following models assembled/painted:

*Blood Dragon Vampire(long-haired) w/ Fluted Heavy Armor, Sword & Dagger- PAINTED!
*Blood Dragon Vampire w/Heavy Armor, Dragon Shield & Sword- PAINTED!
*Blood Dragon Vampire(mounted) w/Heavy Armor, Lance, Barded Nightmare- primered & mostly assembled steed.
*Necrarch Vampire (mounted on Zombie Dragon) with Staff & Scroll- assembled, needs minor putty work and basing.
*Necrarch Vampire(mounted) w/Barded “Zombie-fied” Nightmare Steed, Staff & Skull-primered.
*Necromancer w/Staff & Sword- primered.
*Mordheim Necromancer w/Scimitar & Skull- PAINTED!
*Necromancer w/Sword & Skull- started.
*Wight Lord w/Heavy Armor, Shield & Sword- PAINTED!
*Necromancer(mounted)- unprimered, needs feet sculpted.
*Wraith(mounted)- assembled.
*Banshee w/Sword pointing- PAINTED!
*Banshee howling- started.
*2 Wraiths- PAINTED!
*32 Skeletons(w/Command) w/Lt. Armor, Spears & Shields- primered.
*30 Skeletons(w/Command) w/Lt. Armor, Shields & hand Weapons- PAINTED!
*32 Zombies- 2 PAINTED, 5 started, 3 primered, 22 assembled.
*25 Grave Guard(w/Command) including Command- 2 PAINTED, 2 started, 17 primered, 4 unassembled.
*24 Ghouls( 2 of each pose that GW made)- 1 PAINTED!, 2 started, all cleaned & primered.
*2 Doom Wolves & 20 Dire Wolves- 2 PAINTED!, others assembled.
*4 Bat Warms- primered; reposed to actually be *flying*.
*5 Spirit Hosts- PAINTED!
*4 Fell Bats- primered.
*9 Black Knights(w/Command)- 1 PAINTED!, 8 partially assembled.
*1 Corpse Cart- assembled.
*10 Dire Wolves(new plastics)- 1 assembled.

I also have the following models that languish unassembled in my undead bitz coffin:

*Blood Dragon Vampire w/Greatsword
*Blood Dragon Vampire(mounted) w/Greatsword
*Blood Dragon Vampire(mounted, long haired), Fluted Heavy Armor, Sword
*Blood Dragon w/ Heavy Armor, Sword & Shield
*Lamia Vampire w/Snake on Arm & Dagger
*Lamia Vampire w/Skull Staff
*Lamia Vampire Floating w/Sword
*Lamia Vampire(mounted) with Skull Staff
*Lamia Vampire(mounted) with Snake Staff
*Necrarch Vampire w/Scroll & Dagger
*Necrarch Vampire(Mounted) w/Haired Skull & Dagger
*The Red Duke
*The Red Duke’s Wight Lord Henchman
*Mannfred von Carstein(mounted) w/ Staff & Sword
*4 Fell Bats(still in blisters)
*16 Skeletons(unassembled & on the sprues)
*27 Zombies(unassembled & on the sprues)
*25 Armored Skeletons(metal, w/Command) w/"Spears" & Shields
*1 Wraith
*2 Ghosts(old models)
*4 Wights(old Models)
*Lich from old Undead Chariot
*Lich on throne from Scenario Pack

Yes, I have way too many Vampires. I don’t have any Strigoi because I didn't really care for the models, or for running a “Ghoul King” type of army. On to the pics...

[shabbadoo]

It all started out with painting up a warband of Mordheim. I have yet to finish the entire warband(it is close though!), but it gave me the wild hair to work on a full blown Vampire Counts army. I already had the miniatures- I just needed to paint them.

First we have a couple Dire Wolves that I painted not only for my Mordheim warband, but as test models for a Vampire Counts Dire Wolves unit. I bought two boxes of Goblin Wolf Riders to get the plastic wolves, as the metal heads that come in the Dire Wolves blisters don’t really look all that different so I didn’t see the point of spending crazy amounts of cash on some simple mutts likes this. The extra Goblins from the sets went into my Goblin units, as the sprues come with both mounted legs and infantry legs. This is a great way to get the plastic wolves on the cheap for Vampire Counts, plus you get the extra Goblins for your Orcs & Goblins army! If you don't have an Orcs & Goblins army, well, just trade or sell them, or pull out a Wind of Death scroll(or whatever) and turn them into a bunch of Goblin Spirit Host bases! :skull:

After the Dire Wolves are some Ghouls, a couple of Grave Guard Command, and a Mordheim Dreg.

[shabbadoo]

Like the Orks I have begun painting, I decided that if I were to ever be able to have a fully a painted army for any game I would need to simplify my painting enough so that I could paint models more quickly, but still be satisfied with the way that they looked. That’s not necessarily as easy as it sounds, but I think I have reached a tolerable balance of the two. To this end I chose to limit the shading/high-lighting on the models to as few colors as possible; even on the character models. Now for some more pics.

Next up we have some Banshees, Zombies, and a Wight Lord on foot.

[Anardakil]

They look great! Nice work.

[shabbadoo]

Next up we have a couple of Wraiths, the "Grandpa Munster" Mordheim Necromancer, and a Vampire.

I didn't really want to paint these too much different from how GW did theirs as I like the way they looked. I also planned on doing my Vampire Counts army in a mostly Blood Dragons scheme, though I did want to keep open the option to field them as another faction. That the rumors say that separate rules for the factions will not be in the new Campire Counts army book suits me just fine. I'd prefer to build my own Vampire with powers that suit my own back story anyways.

[shabbadoo]

Here we have the first Vampire I painted for my Mordheim Warband. With heavy armor, shield, and a sword he is pretty tough to take down in that game. He also makes a formidable opponent in WFB.

Next up is my only painted unit of ranked infantry- Skeletons. These still have their Khemri-esque standard and horn, which I plan on replacing with something faction neutral like the plastic command bits that became available a while back. I like the plastic skull drums and skin standard better anyways, and being plastic they will be less likely to tip over on such light models as Skeletons. The new Skeletons look great, but after having put this much work into a full unit and still having more to paint and build, I’m not sure I’ll need to get any, even though I may want to.

Then we have my Bat Swarms. I hated how the bats stuck straight up off of their bases so I cut them off of their bases and made them flying straight forwards on the attack. I think they look MUCH better this way.

Lastly there are my Spirit Hosts. I simply used one pack of spirit hosts and split them among the bases, mixing them in with some plastic troops and a couple old skool GW ghosts.

[lz7947]

Lovely work you got there! I'm so impressed with your VC force! It looks like a very striking and cohesive army! Great job!

[Harry]

It's about time. (Folks normally have to know me much longer before they work out what an '****' I am. )

Lovely painting. Your vampires and Banshaes especially.
Wonderful grubby bone and unearthed armour effects all around on the raised stuff.
Not convinced about the green edges to the bases but thats a small thing.

Delighted if anything I have done has helped bring such great painting out of the shadows.
Look forward to seeing the rest of this army as it appears.

Happy Christmas buddy.

[shabbadoo]

The green base edges harken back to the old school way of doing things, and you’ll note that the newer models are still painted this way too. I prefer Camo Green over Goblin Green though, as it is a bit more muted and natural looking a color. Catachan Green would work well too. Not sure if I'll change them or not. One thing I am in the process of changing is the gravel color on the Skeletons to brown instead of grey so that the minis stand out a bit more on the bases. I did this on the more newly painted models, but I have yet to go back and fix the others.

OK, here is the "simple" method I used to paint the Skeletons. You could probably cut some corners and still get them to look pretty similar, but here it is(*Note: everything starts with a basecoat of black primer touched up with a thin coat of Chaos Black):

Bone:

1. Heavy drybrush with Snakebite Leather.
2. Drybrush with Bleached Bone.
3. Light drybrush with Skull White.
4. Touch up Chaos Black in the bone's joints/spacing where any dry brushed colors have gotten into; pick out some details of the bone with thinned Skull White, particularly the teeth and around the eye orbits. This bit can take a while.

Rusted weapon blades, armor, shield bitz, and other rusted steel things:

1. Boltgun Metal.
2. Wash with Black Ink.
3. Splotch on Flesh Wash for a rust effect.
4. Splotchily drybrush with Chainmail.

Wooden weapon hafts:

1. Paint thin wood grain lines, allowing some of the black basecoat to show through in between them, with slightly thinned Ghostly Grey over the Chaos Black basecoat.
2. Stain with Brown Ink.

Gold sword hilt parts and command bitz:

1. Shining Gold.
2. Wash with Flesh Wash ink.
3. Highlight slightly with Burnished gold.

Leather items:

1. Scorched Brown.
2. Highlight with Snakebite Leather.

Shields:

After the rusted steel rims and bosses are painted using the method above, the background gets a touch-up coat of Chaos Black, followed by a half-arsed coat of thinned Dark Gray. I use Vallejo Model color #994 “Dark Gray”, which is a great highlight color for anything black. Besides, as I use this color so much I’d hate to have to mix it every time, so I always make sure to have an equivalent of it on hand.

I really like the way the Skeletons turned out, but jeez, this is supposed to be the simple method of painting things fast? Obviously not! But, there’s only one more unit of them to paint so I’ll have to stomach it. Believe it or not, each of the character models took about the same amount of time to paint as each Skeleton did. If skeletons can’t have spears in the new army book I’ll have at least 32 models to alter.

[mrtn]

This looks like it will be a very nice army.

[lz7947]

Oh.......The methods to paint the Skeletons is very useful. Thanks.

[shabbadoo]

I decided to get my replacement Skeleton Command out of the way, so here follows a pictorial of the Skeleton painting process I use.

Once again, everything starts out with a coat of Black Primer, touched up in any of the hard to reach places with a thin coat of Chaos Black.

Step 1: Snakebite Leather "drybrush". I leave the paint semi-wet so that it goes on a bit heavier (I call this "wet-drybrushing", the painting paradox! ). When this step is done, the mini reminds me of some fossils I have seen, like this one: http://www.rth.org/tarpits/mamoth1.jpg

Step 2: Bleached Bone drybrush. This step uses a "true" drybrush method, but I do build it up fairly heavy.

Step 3: Skull White drybrush. This step also uses a true drybrush. I usually vary the amount of white I drybrush on each model as it makes them look a bit different.

On these three I have barely built up the Skull White a bit more than on the other Skeletons I have finished painting in the previous unit pic. The flash photography makes them look really bright white, but I assure you they are not. The previous pic of the Skeleton unit was not taken with a flash, so when these three are done I will insert them in the unit, take a pic, and you can see for yourselves.

Now that I have finished the basic dry brushing, most everything else not bone gets a thin layer of Chaos Black to clean it up in preparation for the application of the metallic colors. Then I touch up the bone joints/crevices with some thinned Chaos Black as well, if the drybrushing filled them in a bit too much (which it usually does).

That is all for today. More to come…

[Danny76]

Love the skellies and the ghouls

great stuff!

[shabbadoo]

On to the next phase- the rusted steel metal.

By the way, if you save the pics to a file in order you can scroll through the pics like a flip book, seeing the painting progress as you go along. I've made all the pics as close to the same in pose and size as is possible to allow for this.

The fist pic shows how I have touched up all the areas to be painted the metal color with a thinned coat of Chaos Black. Nice and neat.

The second pic is of Step 1, which is just painting the metal areas Boltgun Metal. This is simple enough on these models as there just isn't that much metal on them to begin with.

The third pic is of Step 2, the Black Ink wash. I thin the ink quite a bit as it is very strong. You want the metal to be darkened slightly, and the recesses to be darker still. You don't want the metal to be too dark though.

The fourth pic is of Step 3, the Flesh Wash Ink rust effect. Just get a bit of the Flesh Wash Ink on your brush tip and splotch it here and there, leaving some of the darkened metal randomly showing. If you apply the Flesh Wash Ink too strong in an area, just sponge some of it back off with your brush tip and put it elsewhere.

The fifth pic is of Step 4, the Chainmail splotchy dry-brush. You just want to hit the raised areas with the Chainmail, and then splotchily apply some more of here in method similar to what was used for the Flesh Wash Ink. I apply a little extra around the edges of dented areas and sharp edges, as this is where the rust would wear away the most.

More to come…

[Angelwing]

Great bat swarm idea. I might change mine accordingly...
*reaches for clippers*

[shabbadoo]

I used .32 brass rod for my bat swarms, though I'd recommend using slightly thicker rod. Steel piano wire, or a thick gauge paper clip, would be even better.

[shabbadoo]

Here's the next update, which takes the Skeleton Command almost to the point of being completely finished.

Pic 1 shows the first step in painting the wood. Thin lines are painted in GW Ghostly Grey(a discontinued color which Vallejo has an equivalent of in their Game Color range named conveniently enough "Ghost Grey") over the Chaos Black basecoat. You don't need to be too careful when doing this or make the lines too straight.

Pic 2 shows the wood after it has received a Brown Ink staining. Apply multiple layers of Brown Ink if necessary to get the look you want.

Pic 3 shows the bases having been painted Scorched Brown, and the drummers drum skins painted Kommando Khaki.

Pic 4 shows the bases drybrushed with Snakebite Leather, and the drum skins highlighted with Kommando Khaki mixed with Skull white in about a 50/50 mix. The stitches attaching the drum skins to the skulls have also been painted Scorched Brown and highlighted with Snakebite Leather.

Pic 5 shows the edges of the bases painted Camo Green.

At this point, all that needs to be done is to put some clumps of static grass on the bases, glue the shields onto the unit champion and standard bearer, and give them all a coat of matte varnish. I could very well just leave the standard plain black, but as that would be kind of boring I think I will put some sort of design on it. I'm thinking of painting a skull dripping with blood(a symbol of Iuz actually) on the banner.

Finished pics to come...

[shabbadoo]

And so I've gone ahead and jumped into painting my other 30-model Skeleton unit. I decided to re-do the command section in this unit to be all plastic too. The champion on the left of the un-primered models has yet to receive his helmet, and maybe some shoulder armor, but otherwise is done. As I already used the plastic skull drums for the musician in the other unit, I used a bell from the Zombies sprue to be the instrument for the musician in this unit. I’ll get the new command primered and painted up to the point the rest of the models have reached before going any further in the painting process.

[MacDeath]

Awesome army! You must be psyched about the new VC's!

[shabbadoo]

Yes indeed! I am looking forward to the new VC book. Based on all of the info I have heard, it should be an interesting book. I will miss full-fledged Necromancer style armies though, as I tended to favor Necromancers a bit more than Vampires, but whaddya gonna do? It will still be a fun army to play.

I've been sidetracked lately, but I got back on track and have an update on the second Skeleton unit. The first pic shows the finished unit champion, and after primering them black, the whole unit got a drybrush of Snakebite Leather. The second pic shows the Bleached Bone drybrush, and the third picture shows the light Skull White drybrush. Now begins the painstaking process of cleaning up any of the joints that got filled in during the drybrushing stages with a bit of thinned Chaos Black and also painting all non-bone areas with Chaos Black. It will take some time to do this on 30 Skeletons and this is the biggest pain in the butt stage of painting Skeletons the way I do, but it really does make the separate bones and equiptment stand out nicely. This stage isn't difficult, just tedious, and it is totally worth the effort. Once past this stage, everything else is a breeze in comparison.