Finished Skellies and the start of my ghostly Hexwraiths

With the debut battle for my Vampire Counts army happening tomorrow night with Stephen I stepped up my painting speed to get at least a couple of units painted before the great unveiling. This first unit of Skellies actually didn't take that long but finding time to get them done was tough. I tried a whole load of new techniques but mostly I've been experimenting with inks over a white undercoat and almost all of the GW technical paints (all of which are a godsend for someone trying to make a unit look good quickly) 

I've also managed to get these Hexwraiths nearly done. All the need now is some drybrushing on their bases and some flock and they're good to go.

You'll notice the lighting is a lot better in these photos and that's because I managed to get one of these in a sale - Daylight lamp I really really recommend them as the light is perfect for painting and photos.

 

Necromancers ready for the brush

Annnnnnndddd here are my converted necromancers ready for their undercoat. They're going to be a nightmare fitting into a unit but look at how amazing they are LOOK AT THEM!

Skellies!

Here are the first finished skellies and the next rank too! Once I start it's very easy to get these finished quickly so should have the whole unit done by tonight! Got the army's first battle next week with Steve (of Stevo's blog) so want to get as much painted as possible.

Necromancer?

A long time ago I won a bunch of miniatures which included this lovely model. I've not done anything with her yet but I'm thinking she'll make a great necromancer for Gaussenlund's force. I want to convert her so she's different from the original. I'm thinking of removing the box and having the spirits coming out of graves or even corpses. Hmm this might be tricky.

Absolutely BATtered

I got 4 of the Reaper Bones bat swarms as they've got a lot more movement and character than the GW one. I used 1 on my Vampire Count so that left 3 to make a unique unit. I left one as it was and converted the two remaining with bits I had left over. Looking forward to seeing these in action.

My Vampire conversion and hobby station!

Apologies for the double post but thought I'd show you this lovely conversion I did

I've used the Vampire parts from the Terrorgheist kit and some bats from the Reaper bones range. What I'm going for is the Vamp is reforming into his man firm after flying into battle as a swarm of bats!

Also got my permanent hobby area sorted and my basing kit arrived so here's some pics of where I paint and what I'm using -

COUNT on me (more vampires!)

Today has been pretty busy! I'm still sorting out my painting area etc so apologies for the low quality of these photos.

I managed to do the details on the first five skeletons of 20. Agrax earthshade over white primer, then a drybrush of white for the bone. Tried a bunch of different things with these and learned a couple of lessons. 

First off Oxide is a great finish for undead metallics.

Secondly you don't need to do any metallics at all.

And finally sometimes a quick ink does the same job as hours of shading

I've managed to prime and wash the rest of the skellies so they'll get drybrushed tomorrow. Also my basing kit and these babies arrived.

I got 4 and 3 will form a unit . The remaining swarm I'm going to use with my vampire to make it look like he's reforming out of them (been watching Dracula Untold).

Also Lucy (my exceedingly better half) convinced me that a display cabinet would be a great idea so now this has gone up in the bedroom.

Undoubtedly she is incredible. Also it's not Vamp related but in the same place we found the cabinet we also discovered this awesome work of art for the bargain price of £2! THAT'S CHEAPER THAN AN EXTRA VALUE MEAL!

White undercoat - the revelation

WHY HAVE I NEVER USED WHITE UNDERCOAT BEFORE?!!!!!

I've always been a stalwart defender of a black undercoat then layering up your paint. But look at this:

JUST LOOK AT IT! - 

That's white spray with one brown ink wash over the top of it. The bone is basically finished! Took me 3 minutes! Sure doing the swords etc is going to take a bit longer but I could base coat a 20 model unit in 15 minutes with shading! Today I will be experimenting with metallics and getting some colour on these bad boys but I think I'm a white guy now. Spray that is, I'm not going through some hideous Michael Jackson based procedure. 

The Dark has risen!

It's been a long time since I blogged here but I'm back with a new project! These are the newly risen undead forces of the notorious vampire Gregori Von Gaussenlund!

This project is something I've wanted to do ever since I saw the very first tale of 4 gamers. Also I'm challenging myself with something new by using white spray for the most part then inking. Fingers crossed!