Righty-O, well, spurred on by Lord Commander Eidolon's log, and also the release of the new Vampire Counts book, I broke out my old Vampire Counts army.

Some of these models date back to the days of 4th Edition, when I first started playing WFB (originally with Dwarfs, and then with my favourite WFB army - the Undead). This is the third incarnation of my Undead army, the first (comprising of Skeleton Chariots and Horsemen) long broken up and disappeared. The second was essentially this army but with a worse paint job - it got repainted and absorbed into this:



Which consists of the following units (all have Full Command):

20x Skeletons with spears and shields
20x Skeletons with HW/shields
20x Zombies
15x Grave Guard (now with Great Weapons as Halberds are apparently a no-no now :huh: )
7x Black Knights
3x Wraiths (inc. Banshee)
4x Bat Swarm bases
4x Fell Bats
5x Dire Wolves
5x Dire Wolves

And, Character wise:

Lady on Nightmare
Lady on Abyssal Terror/Zombie Dragon - mounts to be added
Lady on foot (Blood Dragon)
Vampire BSB (banner to be added)
Vampire BSB on Nightmare (banner and nightmare to be added!)
2x Vampires
1x Necromancer on foot
1x Wight King

Which is quite a bit. I have closeups that I will bombard you with, but first, some shields that I'm proud of:


L-R: A (bad) pic of the champion's shield; an Ungor with shield; a scratch-built coffin lid; and a Khornate Marauder!


L-R: Unit's heraldry; Sigmarite; Arabyan; unknown pagan symbol (;)).


L-R: Unit's banner; triskele; star of David; castle; hourglass with unit number; intertwined snakes; champion's personal heraldry - Tyrkan* heraldry painted over his original Michonne* heraldry.

*And Now, Some Background:

Tyrka is a Border Principality which borders the southernmost province of the Empire (Wissenland), Bretonnia, Araby, and various other regions of the Warhammer World. Originally it was the Principality of Michonne, but vampires infiltrated the aristocracy and eventually took over. The ensuing civil war led to the War of Succession and then the Second War of Succession, which became the Wars of the Princes. Michonne's ruling family, which had fled to exile in a neighbouring border principality, has kept up a centuries long war to try and reclaim their lost lands. The onset of the Great Invasion has led to an upsurge in violence...

Yes! More Fantasy logs for BoB!

Some very nice models there though, all tied together with some characterful bits and bobs.

What have you got planned for painting this month?

cheers for the heads up, that banshee you have is the best one GW did, looking forward to see those fellbats of yours, also close ups of the black knights please :)

For painting this month:

1 Zmobie (metal, oop, with vulture eating head)
2 Wraiths
3 Grave Guard

And if I can afford it, I'll make a start on a Battalion box!

Right, some closeups (none of the Black Knights as only one is painted and he needs touching up after his sword broke off):

Legio II:

Tyrkans and assorted others, raised to fight again.

Legio III:

This lot were missing two Skellies when I dug them out today, so I built a new champion and a replacement for the back rank. :)

Legio IV:

The Zombies! This unit, the only one which won't be raised during games, is made of soldiers from Michonne...

It's a double post, but what the hell.

Legio I:

The first unit of Grave Guard - 15 strong, and with Great Weapons. Not halberds. No. Not at all. No. In no way do they have halberds.

Ohhhh...very nice.... :)

All these Vampire logs are making me want to raise my own legion of the dead, we'll see if i want to buy some for Easter...

DK

You should. You really should.

After all...

As you are, we once were. As we are, you will be!

Clever sod, that last bits mind boggling :D

DK

i pretty sure that last bit is lyrics from that crap band that kurt cobain was in, for the life of me can't remember the name of it

Nirvana?

No, it's not. It's a quote from the Designer's Notes of the 5th Edition Undead army book, the first to be called Vampire Counts:

"As you are, we once were.
As we are, you will be!"

The very last piece of text in the entire book! :D

Army list that I'm working towards will be posted later, but for now, I aim to have:

2x 20 Skellies with spear
2x 20 Skellies with hand weapons
1x 20 Zmobies
1x 40 Zmobies to be raised during games
2x 10 Ghouls (or 1x 20)
2x 15 Grave Guard (1 with GW, 1 with HW)
1x 7 Black Knights
1x 5 Blood Knights
6x Bat Swarm bases
6x Fell Bats
6x Spirit Host bases
2x 5 Dire Wolves
1x 5 Wraiths
2x Corpse Carts
1x Black Coach

And character wise:

Lord on Zmobie Dragon
Lord on Abyssal Terror
Lord on Nightmare
Lord on Hellsteed
Lord/Thrall on foot
Thrall BSB on Nightmare
Thrall BSB on foot
Thrall on foot
Thrall on foot
Necromancer on foot
Wight King
Wight King BSB
Wight King on steed
Wight King BSB on steed

Options, options, options! :P

not much then eh matey!

Mostly Characters bizzarely. I can finish everything else with two Battalion boxes, a box of Empire Knights, and a box of Grave Guard...!

Update!

First, pictures of my Vampire, Lady Selçuk D'Arque, governor of Mostar province, Tyrka:



That's:
Magic Level 3(4), Nightmare, Dreadlance, Talisman of Protection, Crimson Gem of Lahmia, Mistress of the Black Arts, Dark Acolyte, Lady of the Dead (465 points!)

And then of the first three of my five-strong Wraith unit - the other two Wraiths are still in their blister packs:



And now... an 'army list' of sorts:

Thoughts?

Neat. And yet another army that makes me want to start VC.

Thanks. If one person starts VC as a result of my log I will be very happy indeed! :D

To recap, this month I intend to paint:

2 Wraiths (100 points)
3-6 Grave Guard (36-72 points)
Zmobie (4 points)

And build and paint:

6 Spirit Hosts (260 points)

For a total of between 400-432 points worth of models this month. :)

And there was me thinking this was yet another guard army Steiner :P

Looking good so far; I really like the heraldry on the shields and the green and white colours look good, although I do think the shields look maybe a little bit too clean.
Also, I think that the wraith on the right could do with a little bit more definition in the face and the hourglass; so possibly an ink wash for the head and some shading on the hourglass?

I told you you wouldn;t be aqble to escape ;) :P

i like the banshee. i feel my will power slipping towards VCs. but then again, thats why i started empire, so i could stop myself from buying any more fantasy armies. however, i may have room for an IG company and an emperors fist squadron. hope you approve, General. oh, btw, what happened to your 16 guard armies?

*sobs silently*

Why must I be taunted so? Mortal chaos ... daemons ... dark elves ... VC ... why must GW re-release all my favourite races in the same year?! Why must they do this to me?

Awesome models, very nice and also very well painted so far. But ... is there any chance of changing the base colour to brown ...? ;)

MM

The Wraith may or may not get improved - I'd quite like the army to showcase my improving painting skills over the years. :)

As for the bases, hell no, Goblin Green they are and Goblin Green they'll stay! :P

Brambleten - still in progress. One army is slated for completion this year, though!

try knarloc green. its basically goblin green, bit it goes on in one coat better than GG
good to hear you haven't abandoned the Guard to lead the vampires

Neat looking zombies, looks liek a regiment just got up and started fightiing again after dying to a man, alot better than an adhoc shambling mess of dead pesants!

Why thank you! Those zmobies are a mix of swordsmen, halberdiers, archers, and unarmed bodies. All of them wear the red and yellow heraldry of the exiled princes of Michonne.

Any future zmobies will, on the other hand, be a mix of peasants, soldiers, and free company (otherwise known as 'the new Empire soldier set is rubbish' syndrome :lol:). They'll be raised in-game as opposed to starting on the table like Legio IV.

Out of intrest Steiner, are those the current fell bats there? I ask because I;'m thinking of using them instead of warhawks for my Wood Elf army but I jhave no idea whether the glade rider legs would fit on them..

Thanks!

Oh, and on a side note, the google ads you get at times are brilliant; this thread brings up search death records and death certificates UK ;)

shameless plug of own thread now, arhalian i have the current fell bats about to go up on my log if you want to looks

Yes, those are the current fell bats, I doubt a Glade Rider'd fit without major repositioning to be honest.

Coming later tonight! PIPs of Wraiths! Undercoated Grave Guard! (Perhaps) a Wight King Battle Standard Bearer!

"And after the break, we will return to the log, to see Grave Guard, Wraiths, and more! All in the next update: exclusive, and unique to the AB!" ;)

Sounds awesome ...

MM

OK, my fiancee has moved in with me and in the hectic-ness painting has rather taken a backseat. I do, however, promise, in the next hour, photos of:

Grave Guard (prepped for painting), PIP Wraiths and an undercoated Zmobie for Legio IV.

I promise ya! :P

Finally an update!

What I have to paint this month:


L-R: Grave Guard, Zmobie, Wraiths

What I'm working on:



Comments and constructive criticism welcomed! :)

mate, to finish off those wraith i suggest a very light drybrush of codex grey followed by a black ink wash, in all honesty you should of done the black first and bone second as that what i will be doing when i get round to doing wraith

I rarely highlight my black. ;)

Personally, I prefer to let the natural light highlight black while, in the case of the Wraiths, well... they're so black because they represent almost pure evil, an incarnation of death.

More pics later!

i extreme highlight flat black but with wraiths cos there etheral, i think a light drybrush will make them more ghostly