The Undead Rise

So now the frantic painting of Bolt Action has finished I really want to make a concentrated effort on getting my Vampire Count army ready for the tabletop. I was to try and get the majority all built in the next few weeks and then hopefully have decent weather to prime as much of it as I can so I can spend the winter months painting it all up.

I've had a box of 40 Mantic Zombies sitting in my wardrobe for about three months now. I know raising the dead is one of the bigger things for Vampire Count armys and I wanted to make sure I've got enough zombies for my army list as well as raiseables. I've already got about 30 GW Zombies so they're going to form the front of my army and then the Mantic Zombies will be backing up the ranks. I've got to admit there is a great amount of poses from the three different legs and bodies you get in the box set. Adding some Renedra gravestones to the odd ones also breaks up the full unit and gives them some character.

Sitting down on Friday night I started working....

15 Zombies Soon Became....

....40 Zombies!

So yeah it's pretty impressive seeing the 40 strong shambling horde all done. To speed up the process of painting these I've got some Army Painter Necrotic Flesh primer which will give me a basecoat of a rotting skin looking colour. I'm not sure how I'm going to be colouring them afterwards. I've got an idea of using numerous different washes over the skin colour to give the Zombies a range of rotting skin colours. Though part of me is thinking about giving the skin a Athonian Camoshade wash to give it that dark green rotting colour and then differentiate the Zombies with different colours trousers and wraps. If I do a test on five or so models then I can decide which will be the best to do. The others that don't cut it can easily be used as raiseables because lets be honest they'll soon be taken off the battlefield anyway!

Basecoated Necrotic Flesh

I've also made a start on my Terrorgheist. I wasn't that impressed with the huge base it comes with and the piddly amount of scenic rocks that the Terrorgheist was mounted on in the stock version of the model. I've seen a couple of different ways people have modelled the dragon using the Garden of Morr set and I wanted to incorporate that into the base. My initial idea was to have two different crypts from the set and have the Terrorghiest crawling on top of them. I got the look ok but the height of the model was ridiculous and even the large box I've got to carry my VC around in was too shallow for this.

I've decided to change it around a bit instead and have just one building at the front. The aim to have the Terrorgheist climbing up it and I've got a pose I'm happy with. I've not glued down the model yet though as I want to paint the base and the Terrorgheist separately as I can see it being a complete ball-ache to do them at the same time. I added some extra gravestones and one of the wall pieces to the base too, I think having these extra little bits will really make the Terrorgheist the centre piece of the army. Let's just hope I can do the painting justice!

Time to be completely honest. I've never painted scenery before so having this big piece on the base of the Terrorgheist was a daunting project. I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like but didn't have a clue whether it would look right with my painting. Having sprayed the base black I then used the GW Large Drybrush to do a heavy coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey and then when that dried highlighted the edges with another lighter drybrush of Administratum Grey. The stonework and the buildings really came out looking exactly like what I wanted so I'm relieved/pleased that it worked ok! I've drybrushed the ground Rhinox Hide, my aim for the whole army is to have a muddy winter basing theme with army painter flowers scattered around to really give it a contrast of life against the death of the VC. For the Terrorgheist I'm going to highlight the ground with a lighter brown and then add some dead grass tufts, scatter snow across certain areas and ontop of the gravestones/walls and then also have the flowers scattered around on the base. I need to detail some bits on the building, for example the skulls and roof top spikes.

It's nice to just take my time on painting and actually enjoy what I'm painting. Don't get me wrong the Japanese were great to paint but being against the clock and having to have them done by the tournament really took out some of the enjoyment in the project. Thankfully with the Vampire Counts I can take my time and really enjoy what I'm doing. There's so many ideas I have for them I just hope I can do it justice!