In the process of preparing this mini for assembly I decided to leave the spikes. They're not that bad-looking on an undead model and definitely add a sinister, evil feel to it. The Chaos star, on the other hand, had to go.
First, I filed it down to the skin level (it sticks out in one or two places). Then, I filled the gouge with Vallejo Plastic Putty, a great material for just that kind of work. It comes in a tube and has a very narrow applicator which makes the work one hell lot easier and cleaner. It is also sandable and can be drilled into, albeit gently. 
It took three or four application-sand-repeat cycles for me to get rid of the star and still it isn't completely gone, but I will be covering it with a set of severed heads hanging from the chainmail tunic. Here is the horse 'after'.
With these alterations taken care of, I could assemble the horse and begin painting it. As it had some nasty gaps in very prominent places, I decided to use green stuff as an adhesive. By squeezing it out of the joints, I could scrape the excess, leaving a very small amount of the putty showing. When working with green stuff and its quantity on the model, less is definitely more. The less GS you use to fill the gaps, the less you'll have to sculpt it and struggle to make it invisible after painting, which sometimes is a pain to do. I was happy to find out I managed to achieve it somehow. Here is the horse (plus some other parts of the model) after assembly and mounted on handy implements, ready to be undercoated and painted.
When waiting for the GS to cure, I handled the base. I had to mount this model on a standard 25x50 mm cavalry base, since no VC character can be mounted on a 50x50 mm monster one unless it rides the zombie dragon and mine doesn't. Using a two-part epoxy resin glue I stuck two rare earth magnets to the underside of the base. I also cut out the holes for the horse to stand in. By using magnets I was able to stick the model to some kind of mount in order to touch it as rarely as possible when painting. Here, I've used a tall, sand-filled jar.
The idea for the unit came to me after very much pondering, discarding what was considered unfit and generally brain masturbation. I had a major nut to crack when trying to make the zombies both in a winter theme and that bit unorthodox. The frozen river motif sprung up out of the blue really, but was in a way inspired by the zombies from one of my favourite music videos (sincerely recommend the band as a whole too, they rock). The idea of having sombies emerge from the down under was just too cool not to try.
I've treated this project as a test drive for both my idea for the aquatic zombies and my skills in actually making that idea come to fruition, plus the aptitude of my workshop too. I tried two major things here, the overall unit theme and the magnetized bases, pictured left. To make the magnets (3x3 mm, 1mm thick, rare earth) work, I had to place them directly in contact with the movement tray. The underside of a standard GW base has 2mm of space left. Faced with the choice between using thicker magnets and making my own bases, I went with the latter.
The unit consists of twenty four models, complete with a musician and a standard bearer. To get across that water emergence thing, I modeled the ranks as literally emerging, starting from the rearmost. To the right, you can see what I mean.
The movement tray is made out of a 130 mm by 80 mm steel sheet, 1mm in thickness, with balsa sides glued on and textured.
One of the valuable bits of knowledge I got from making these is the increased familiarity with the P3 Formula metallics. I realize that I scoffed at them some weeks ago, but when putting them to a diligent test, they turned out maybe not awesome, but decent, and much better than the GW ones. In my upcoming project I will put them to much more use and i think I'll be able to say decisively where do I stand on them. For now, look at the musician's bell and decide for yourselves.
I've started the character part of this project with the necromancers, partly because of the nice models, partly the ease of their execution. Pictured left is the first of two corpse entertainers I got. Nothing much to comment upon here, the model is quite old and therefore not THAT good, but still quite a decent piece.
The second wizard is a bit more 'cluttered', but still, to my mind, possessing only a few accessories, which is exactly what I was after here. The model is very characterful, second only, I think, to Heinrich Kemmler in dark and brooding appearance, drooping mustache and all. The only things I don't quite like on it is the staff headpiece and the weird Phrygian cap he wears. Other than that I find the model very much to my liking.
Definitely one of my favorites when it comes to undead minis, with the addition of the oversized, IVth edition style banner pole. Younger gamers might not know that, but in the times of the IVth edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle there was this weird trend of making the banners and banner poles bigger than their bearers; sometimes this was very characterful, sometimes very awkward. This model falls into the former.
of Arkhan the Black. Here is its uncolored version, painting is, of course, mine. I have reinforced the paper photocopy with a 0,20 mm polystyrene (yes, apparently they make is that thin) and I sincerely recommend it for any paper banners. They don't rip, but can still be twisted and cut with ease.
My bats are, as you see, pretty unorthodox. I told you last time about my thinking phase when working on a mini, well, these are the result. I'm kinda proud of these bats, them being one of my most ambitious projects to date and I'm at least partially happy on how they turned out.
After much pondering, I decided to go with something akin to gargoyles. Having no gargoyle models handy (in fact the only gargoylesque-looking mini I could find distributed in my country was the Reaper Crypt Bat, pictured left)... not at all what I was after. It seems to me that mini designers always tend to forget about proportion when it comes to wings. The pinions always seem to be undersized, looking more of a decoration than capable body part.
I wanted something different. The wings on my gargoyles aren't the right size as well (to be honest, the should be at least twice the size), but I think they at least look right, they convey the feel of being capable of flight. At some point I thought about using the ghoul bodies instead of strigoi vampire ones, but I simply like the strigoi much too much to leave them out of this project. I knew I just had to include these models somewhere in the army and I think I've found a perfect spot.
Now, the pictures above show the bats-gargoyles as they were originally based. Barring the snow (which was the reason for rebasing), I've used ruined columns on the bases to get a feel of the creatures dwelling in some sort of crypt or ruins. The column bits are manufactured by a local hobbyist from dental plaster and are a very decent product. I definitely will be using them in my upcoming Warmachine Cryx project.
See you next Friday!
I decided that today I will show you the black knights. I am proud of how these turned out, if not as happy as I might have been if I had sat to working on them properly and devoted as much time as they deserve. Well, too late to shed useless tears now, let's see the models, shall we?
These black knights were no different. From the start I knew I didn't want to convert them from the imperial Knightly Orders or Bretonnian knights - let's face it, very good as they might look in some people's versions, the idea is so worn-out I definitely wanted to do something else. Secondly, I DID want my rotten cavalry to wear barding (I've even thought of giving them caparisons, but I simply couldn't find a way to make these look good, tried as I have. Besides, I didn't want my knights to look too goth). All in all, I accepted the fact I was left with no models but the GW Black Knights.
I also wanted to model my bases with some sort of a twist. I have never been very good in the base department and one of the things I'd like to achieve on the Vampire Counts project is the improvement of my bases. You have seen the wolves and their bases; on the knights I've had the idea of them riding through a cemetery. In the end it didn't work out as well as I predicted, but I think I'm making progress.
I've used round, 3mm by 2mm rare earth magnets for the knights, two per model. The force that through the magnet sticks the mini (kudos to Dylan Thomas for inventing possibly the weirdest title for a poem ever) is astounding; I'm even thinking it is too strong... but I'd rather have it a bit too strong than a bit too weak. I could easily have gone with a single magnet if the minis were all plastic, but given the metal rider, a single magnet wasn't strong enough (tested'em).
Some eagle-eyed cherries... readers might notice the unit champion is just a tad different from what GW serves us. It's a 4th edition Skeleton Horseman with Axe model, which I am very fond of. It simply oozes character with its torn chainmail, cut breastplate and all other other nicknacks it possesses. Very creepy. The photo shows him in his pre-rebased state.
Regardless of the delay, here to present itself before you today is the Dread King, more affectionately known as The Man. It is a very, very old mini, apparently from the Warhammer Quest line. I am not sure of its origins in the least bit and having no time or patience at the moment to browse through the Stuff of Legends, I'd be grateful for any information about this mini's provenience.
Getting the throne to stick together was a pain, as the model I was supplied with (second-hand, bought it online for an amount proportional to my love for it, and that's a lot) had some ridiculous amounts of glue - the nature of which I was unable to ascertain by any means I had handy, it wasn't epoxy, it wasn't cyanoacrylate, it was sticking as the ninth hell - in some strategic spots. The glue blobs were so hard and so resistant to every kind of debonder I possess that I was left with no choice but to actually sand and sometimes even carve them out. Luckily, I managed not to ruin this piece of heavenly cream and got it stuck together.
In the meantime, I was busy ruining the vacuuming I had done in my room earlier by carving the rock out of extruded styrofoam (commonly known by the brand name Styrodur - yes boys and girls, capital letters here, it's a trade mark of BASF). I don't have a hot wire cutter, therefore I had to use one of my favorite tools - my jewellers' saw. My fondness for it comes from the miraculous resilience of its blades; they can be strung with the force that is comparable to this with which piano strings are, yet they still maintain their power when cutting.
On the gaming side of things it is a filler. Yes, I can hear you moaning and groaning, and I can relate. I'm not that keen on unit fillers myself. On this baby however, I decided otherwise. Firstly, I love this model so much I just had to include it in the army, period. Secondly, I do also have a unit of grave guard made from the old Armoured Skeleton models, and having no money to order a full twenty-five strong batch of these, I had to have a filler.
These dire wolves were made form the warhounds of Chaos models. Some heavy conversion work went into the making of these, cutting, sanding and sculpting all in contribution to the effect that is other than uniform, plastic dire wolves GW is forcing upon us.
Here, I cut out the tail and the spike on the wolf's sole (that's right kids, the sole; all canines, felines and similar walk on their fingers only) and glued on the bone parts from the plastic undead horse model - here thanks are due to Robbie B. for supplying the horses. The ribcage in the abdomen area was gouged out with a rotary carbide cutter. i was unable to find a picture of this extension anywhere; it looks like a spherical razor. It is generally used in engraving and is wonderful for cutting out pieces of a mini too.
This one has had its tail, right leg and the top of the head removed and replaced, again, with the horse parts. I don't like the way in which the head turned out, on second thoughts I'm positive I'd be better off with gouging out pieces of the head area and gluing the bones in instead of shaving off the whole head top. Overall, my least favorite of the five.
This, on the other hand, is my beloved. Almost no conversion here, save for adding the bony tail, filing down he spines and sculpting the fur. The model is undead enough as is, with a ruptured stomach and skin peeling off the skull. Lovely!
The warhound used above comes with a second, optional head, which is also splendid in terms of being undead-looking. It would be a terrible waste not to use it, so I did - on the fourth model. This one has a very menacing baying pose and this was fine, but its original head was a pain for me. It sports two sets of horns, which is very nice for a Chaos warhound, but not so much for an undead wolf. Having a spare hornless head, I cut out the horned one and swapped it. The amount of green stuff used here is copious, as was the gap between the head and the body, but overall I'm very pleased with it.
The fourth wolf also didn't have any major conversion work put into it, again cutting down the spines and resculpting the fur did the job.
Some final words... the flesh of the wolves was made using the formula found on the Brushthralls website, under 'Painting Dead Flesh' article. The Thralls are a lovely, very professional bunch of hobbyists and their articles solved many of the problems I've had on various occasions during the pursuit of my hobby.
