Beginning of The Vampire Counts

So as well as my Japanese Bolt Action I've also made a start on my Vampire Count army. I ended up buying quite the backbone of my Vampire Count army from one of the lads at the club for just over £100. He tried getting into Fantasy but it wasn't for him so it was a great piece of timing to start my Vamps army.

I've spent the last couple of days sorting through it all and this is approx what I've got so far; 

Zombies x 29
Skeletons x 30
Grave Guard x 10
Ghouls x 30
Hexwraiths x 5
Black Knights x 5
Corpse cart x 1
Varghiests x 3
Flesh hounds x 1
Black Coach x 1
Necromancer x 1
Wight King x 1
Forgeworld Wight King Battle Standard Bearer x 1
Count Mannfred on Horseback x 1
Army book

Not a bad starting section for the army. I've also managed to pick up the limited Christmas run box The Restless Dead from eBay for really cheap so that'll add another Wight King (though I'll probably not really use another one), 10 more Grave Guard which were definitely needed, 20 more Skeletons which again are always needed and 5 more Black Knights/Hexwraiths which I think I'm going to make into 5 more Hexwraiths. I've also ordered from Blyth Models a box of the Mantic Zombies so that'll add a much needed 40 extra Zombies to the army because let's be honest, Zombies are everywhere in a Vampire Count list. Especialy when you can raise even more throughout every magic phase.


I've had an idea for a Vampire Lord for my army using a Empire Warrior Priest as the basis of my model. I recieved one for Christmas but already had the model in my Empire army so went to work with the clippers and knife to trim away the different parts of the Finecast model to create my own Vampire-looking model. It's the first time I've used Greenstuff on models, the only other experience of using it was with my Flames of War Volks and that was just for the basing. So this the final result of the conversion, pretty simple but effective. I'm still trying to look for a cloak to use on the back but have yet to find one that's the right length and also need to think of a Count name for him. He could very well be my general for the army.

Like a few VC armies out there I'm going to be using the Garden of Morr scenery set to create some unit fillers for my army. I've already had a bit of a play with the different pieces for units and so far only settled on the big gate for the back rank of my Grave Guard. It takes out the need of 8 men but in a future 40-man block won't look too out of place. I'm planning on having one of the Grave Guards walking out between the gates to give the unit filler a bit of life. I'm loving the magnetic tape I've bought off eBay to magnetise everything as it really keeps big pieces like this securely in place while playing the game and transporting.

With the VC army I and the huge amount of models for the army I wanted something easy and practicaly to transport everything around. I've decided to go for the Really Useful Boxes, I've got a shallow 10 litre box for the core troops (though the standards have to be laid on their sides) and then a deep 18 Litre box for the cavalry, scenery unit fillers and the recently purchased Terrorgheist and Mortis Engine once their built. I've put Steel sheets onto the bottom of the boxes and the movement trays have magnetic tape on the bottom so it's nice and secure to stick to the bottom of the box and carry around. It definitely makes the back room look a little less untidy with being able to take the whole army and pack it away in the cupboard.

As I've been getting through the Japanese for the Bolt Action Welsh Open in Oct, I've not had much of a chance to do any painting for them, I've done a couple of test Crypt Ghouls which I'm happy with. They're pretty easy to do but look rather good all together so once the Japanese are sorted I'll whip through them. My zombies will be sprayed with the Necrotic Flesh army painter sprayed, details and clothes will then be basecoated before dipping the whole lot of them. It'll speed up the painting for these no-end and the prospect of doing 60 and probably another 40 later on this year is not really that appealing.

Need to Decide on Basing

Finally I made a start on one of the Flesh Hounds as a tester. I'm not overly keen on the models but for some chaff in the army I'm not that fussed to get anything else at the current time. I'm sure over time I'll either find some different models or do something a bit more extravagant but for the time being I'm happy with the look of these. I'll be adding some Blood for the Blood God in the near future to certain areas to give them that undead feel.