Adding some character

Hello and welcome to Drazhar's Miniworks on this wonderful day. Wonderful, because I've just recovered my hardware from a major virus infection and I'm in the process of bringing it back to shape, which also explains the late update.

Today I want to show you the characters for the Vampire Counts army project, at least these I've made so far. They're still one character short - the general.

I might have told you that I didn't want any vampire models for this army. Of course I will use the rules for vampires, Blood Dragons at that, whenever I actually play a game, but as far as the models themselves go, no vampires.

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.

I restricted my color palette on these to a very limited set of colors, in fact there are only two major tones - black and dark green, with some neutral colors to break the dark feel. I thought of the necromancers not as some really powerful sorcerers, but rather practitioners still on their way to damnation. This also affected the choice of the models, obviously.

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.

The third, last character, and at the same time the penultimate in the army, is the foot battle standard bearer. Here, there were no choices, I immediately knew what model I was going to use. The older fans surely have guessed by now; presenting - the IVth edition skeleton banner bearer, AKA the bellman, model extraordinaire:

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.

Also, veterans might recognize the banner as being none other than that 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.

These are the characters I have made so far. The general is still not even started, so I won't go into any massive detail about him. All the beans I can spill here is: expect some conversion work and a truly imposing, mounted model.

Now, I'd very much like to show you the zombies come Friday, but that requires some discipline on my side and I don't know if I'll be able to conjure it in equal amounts. Still, keep your fingers crossed. Oh, and GW Space Wolves Grey is possibly the worst paint ever made. Honestly.