Vampire Counts - Von more project to finish

[Russ Veal]

To be honest I had a practice game with a m8 who came to stay last weekend (not the one just gone) and I really wanted to shoot myself I was so bored.

Its a wierd one, I think that was bad list design I think the thing that bugs me about VC is not being able to push the game or have many tactical options. I didnt have vanhels only had 7 PD (sheffield system) No wraiths, not much chaff and spread my combat power around so couldn't break any skaven unit.

I think that changes when you have wraiths, vanhels and some punchy units/characters just need to find my way with them. I love the background and image of the army so that generally shines through for me.

In more ways than one I find the army challenging to use effectively and there are so many options to make interesting lists. No one really uses them consistantly on the UK scene and does well and I think I have a lot to learn about the army which makes it exciting. I get frustrated with them at times but Looking back at the games ive played I have not played the army particulary well and tbh I think they are challenging to use well and compete in Uk tournaments with emphasis on scoring Big wins. Although they are pretty safe there is the X factor of loosing the vampire lord and its game over really makes the army appeal to me, that weakness you need to protect. I think Vampires are a players army if you want to win tournaments and you need to be spot on with your play style and List design and Its appealing to me at the moment.

while I have the enthusiasm I will paint them who know's in 6 months time I might saying how much I love the army or I might have put them away to gather dust until 8th edition

[Russ Veal]

On the front left zombie on the unit (the green one) what colours did you use for that skin if you can remember?

Well I painted him about 7 years ago but if i remember correctly - Catachan green, the highlight by mixing camo and then rotting flesh into it and then i gave it a brown ink wash and touched up the highlights.

Not 100% on that but that rings a bell somewhat. I may have not bothered with camo green and just mixed rotting straight into catachan

[WingWong]

Hey Russ... yet another gorgeous army!

Where did you get the trees used on your ghouls bases please bud?

Cheers

Mark

[Russ Veal]

Cheers mark, I wouldn't quite go that far its far from gorgeous at the moment but has potential.

Hopefully the gimmicky basing and such will make people bypass the paint job as its not as good as my warriors but should attract more attention due to the converted/basing methods used in the list.

The trees again as i mentioned earlier are the Small Tree Armatures from Woodland Scenics, you get like 50 in a bag and just need to twist them into shape. I have cleaned up the mould lines on them before bending and then greenstuffed the join of the tree to trunk and also the injection marks on the trunk... its a bit of a pain but worth the effort in my opinion.

Looking forward to cracking on with my vampire lord, need to base him trying to think of an interesting basing method - I am tempted to make a special base for him so he can slot into 20mm infantry or cav... but I think I might forget about that as Its going to be fidderly.

[Russ Veal]

Previous stuff is very nice. How are the bases on the grave guard done, is that sculped cracks or just painted on? The frostbite weapons on them look so sweet.

Oops missed this also - the Bases are good old Wills plastic moulding sheets used for model railway

Crazy pathing - I use it quite a lot same stuff on my high elves just a different texture

I plan on doing some long grass and leaf scatter to make my bases more interesting tbh.

[dave3555]

Previous stuff is very nice. How are the bases on the grave guard done, is that sculped cracks or just painted on?

I would guess that the cobbled bases are plastic card sheeting. It looks like 'will's' plastic card to me - used in railway modelling.

Lovely looking army. Great to see these progressing, and thanks for posting the method you are using to paint them - very inspiring.

Dave

[slamdunkdesign]

Russ, I really like the colours, particularly the deep red you have used. The graveguard and the coach are lovely. There is a lot of character in the units. When you assemble them do you put a lot of thought into the poses before you arrange them?

[Russ Veal]

honestly steve it depends. The grave guard I put a lot of thought into the bits used but not really overall how they rank up together - I try and have a mix of guys moving left right and then some guys cutting down and a lot of the movement is just head position to be honest. I did snap a couple guys at the waist and re glue them when I wanted them to look more animated. But it was a while ago I built them.

The Coach tbh the only difference is the horses which I pinned and they ended up that kind of pose and I liked it so just stuck with it but it was more accidental than intentional - I just had the intention of using manfreds horse (the old manfred).

[Russ Veal]

Ok another update...

I dipped the ghouls last night, tonight I have just drybrushed up the bases.

Here is a pic of the dipped ghouls







Pretty happy with them so far, got a bit more work to do.

I need to obvious paint up the grave stones and trees, then I need to matt varnish the ghouls then paint the eyes and do the highlights on the bone.

I want to make sure it ties in with the rest of my army so going to put a bit of time on the bone. Then its just flocking the bases and magnetising them.

Then the spruce up stage will come when i add one highlight to the skin but that can be done at a later date

So hoping to have some more headway on them tomorrow night and hope they are at that stage by the weekend.

Then its onto the next bit - not decided what yet but got plenty to do.

[Terrible Tim]

Sweet looking army Russ.