Strigoi Incursion of Averland - The Story of Danilo Blagojevic - Updated 8th April 2016

[Leithel]

Out from the dark catacombs of the black fire pass crept the mutilated and mutated form of the Strigoi. He had been human once and known to the court of the empire of old as Danilo Blagojevic, though now those who see him no longer know his name as he is greeted with screams or shouts of "Strigoi!".

I love the story of the Strigoi and my army is being build from their background and my ideas on what a Strigoi really should be. I will try and keep this first post updated with links to each of the parts of my army as they progress.

I've only been into Vampire Counts for about 3 months or so. I love the game and I'm sad that it has died by my gaming group is sticking with 8th for now and I am loving the hobby again so I'm going to keep at it. I don't buy many GW products, most of my minis are alternative so you might see some models you don't recognize. I'll try to note the manufacturer of each when I post it.

Core
Chapter 1 - Arrival (Zombies)
Chapter 2 - Otmar Geiss, (Necromancer)
Chapter 3 - Thrall (Black Coach)
Chapter 4 - The enthralled (Ghouls)
Chapter 5 - Virgil Neuberger (Vampire - Counts as Konrad Von Carstein)
Chapter 6 - Porážkou Dobytka (Mortis Engine)

WIP
Skeletons
Crypt Horrors
Crypt Horros Update 2
Virgil WIP 1
Virgil WIP 2

 

[Leithel]

Did the blood sacks that made their lives a the base of Blood Peak really deserve anything but death? Their meaningless existence growing brown weeds from the ground to do nothing but extend their short useless lives would serve to end the hunger of the Strigoi. He ate the women, and the children. Oh the children, such delicious young flesh. But the men, with their able bodies, they would serve in death as the Strigoi returned to conquer the empire and make it as it was.

So I really, and I mean REALLY, don't like the GW zombies. They have massive hands and tiny torsos and just look so comical how could anyone be scared of them? Lucky for me, Mantic make fantastic zombies. The only problem I had with the mantic zombies is that they don't fit perfectly body to legs. Looking at at the pictures below I'm not sure that matters. I did not use any greenstuff for the zombies below, only a little for the two diorama bases.

Painting these guys was really easy and I could easily get through 10 a night without much effort. Most of the time is waiting for the ink to dry. Here is the forumla:

1. Base-coat of bleached bone
2. Ink of 1 parts Vallejo Black Wash to 1 part Vallegjo Brown wash. Add Purple, Blue, Green in 1 part to vary the colour. Whole model washed.
3. Once fully dry, dry-brush Vallejo Rotting flesh
4. Watered down wash of part 2
5. Paint the clothes, not army colours as these are just villagers so lots of different colours.
6. Ink the clothes with black wash
7. Blood is a mix of Vallejo Black Wash and Vallejo Red Gore, ratio to taste.
8. Go over the blood with Vallejo Gloss Varnish
9. Cleanup (any other colours like hair or weapons, command items etc)

 

[Borgnine]

Welcome to the plog forum! Mantic zombies really do fit the Strigoi theme better I like how diverse they are all, certainly a random combination of corpses found wherever. I wonder how will you expand this army, Strigoi theme should be quite interesting Good luck for the future!

Also, I commend the decision to make an index Right now it looks pointless, but makes things easier later on. Cheers!

 

[Mad 'At]

Nice and diverse bunch of zombies you got there =)

Looking forward to seeing more. Always liked the Strigoi.

 

[Leithel]

@Borgnine Thanks for the welcome. Ghouls are the next addition, mostly already painted. Blagojevic is going to need somewhere to sleep too and some minions.

@Mad 'At Thanks for your kind words, more are coming soon.

 

[wheeljack]

Nice job on the Mantic Zombies, they are fun to paint.

 

[Tawg]

I'll admit the mantic ghouls have grown on me (As zombies of course), although I still am not the biggest fan. Though the GW zombies are not exactly in the best taste as they stand. God what I'd give for them to just to a re-sculpt that isn't utter non-sense.

Either way, a decent first offering, certainly get the job done, and better than most anything I have.. since most everything I own is unpainted :ghost: I am the worst at getting around to finishing things, so congrats on getting things moving.

 

[Leithel]

@Twag Models are a form of art and they'll never conform to everyone's taste. I don't like the Mantic Ghouls as zombies because to me they're too clean, but I've seen a few people use them as zombies and they have done a great job. I wanted my zombies to be a mangled mess to represent their total lack of any skill with a weapon. Thanks for your compliment, hopefully you find the inspiration you need to get some of your stuff completed.

 

[Leithel]

Otmar Geiss drove the nail deeper into the cavity in his own skull. The glorious pain helped him come to terms with the power surge he felt coming from the north. He would travel there, he would find this power and he would harness it. But first! He turned to the body parts lying on the table in front of him. Ogres, orcs, maybe a human bit here and there all sewn together with human skin. They would make a nice gift.

Otmar is my necromancer. I really loved this GW model and have had it for years only getting inspiration to convert and paint it just last month.

If you can pick the model I'll give you a gold star!

I have tried to paint and model him as wearing a steel wreath embedded in how skull. He is a master of the dead and truly gifted in the arts of re-incarnation. The skull and hand are extra bits from my bitz box. I don't really remember where they are from precisely. The head arising from the ground is a mantic zombie head. Too many different paints to go through them all, but if anyone's interested I do remember each paint I used for each part.

 

[Farmer7574]

@Leithel I like your zombies mate. They look totally messy and blood-caked!

The mixed skin tones in a horde of zees definitely look better than all painted the same.

 

[Dark Prince]

Otmar Geiss drove the nail deeper into the cavity in his own skull. The glorious pain helped him come to terms with the power surge he felt coming from the north. He would travel there, he would find this power and he would harness it. But first! He turned to the body parts lying on the table in front of him. Ogres, orcs, maybe a human bit here and there all sewn together with human skin. They would make a nice gift.

Really like the stories, And the zombies look great. But zombies not good with weapons? yeah they will never be as good as Luke Skywalker again, but swinging around a rusty bit of jagged iron like a madman is always better than trying to bite and claw through chain mail lol.

 

[Leithel]

@Farmer7574 Thanks mate, appreciate the compliment.

@Dark Prince Cheers mate I live writing them too. Makes painting the army feel so much more fun if they have a little back story. And hey they have weapons, some are wielding severed heads, others are wielding severed arms, one has a bell and one has a long stick that could be interpreted as a standard. ;o) At WS 1 I can tell you my zombies don't do much killing against my predominantly chaos enemies anyway I guess this makes them feel more realistic.

 

[Leithel]

He had a real name once, but he could no longer remember it. Bog te Jeb'o his master had named him and he wore the name with whatever this creature called pride. He was the master's first, enthralled for centuries living under the black fire pass. He remembered the days of old when the Strigoi ruled the empire and the thought brought a smile to his face as me dragged the coffin of un-holy soil along the dark path. He stopped for a moment and rested on the remains of a destroyed horse drawn coach, the skeletons of majestic horses scattered across the path and the once grand cabin buried mostly beneath the soil. As he sat a firey blue glow begain to emminate from the cavernous skulls of the dead horses and he knew this gift for what it was, and he looked it straight in the mouth, a mouth of glorious invocation and reverence to Nehek.

My friend had an old undead army and he gave me some of his old models, one of which was the Black Coach. I love the model even if it's not great in the game and so I painted it. It's my first attempt at OSL and it came out ok. Had to do it twice to get it how I wanted it and still I think next time will be better. I love how the black coach plays and while it's not a great choice (compared to all the other awesome rare choices) it's super fun to play anyway.

Has a ball painting it, even if it took forever. Feedback is appreciated. I really have to get better at photography, the flash on the grass I'm using is very unforgiving of any mistakes.

 

[Leithel]

They came in search of the master, they came in droves. Those with a questionable moral compass, a misguided sense of right and wrong and the insane were always drawn to real power like that of the master. Bog te Jeb'o would find them first and ease their suffering and guide them into the thrall of the master. He would feed them the black, a gift of the master and ensure their loyalty and in return they would demonstrate their allegiance through the desecration of their own bodies.

So this is the last of my completed works, some WIP will come next. I like the GW ghouls but I just couldn't justify the cost for a good size unit of them so I tried the mantic ones. I didn't really like the models so I speed painted them up to tabletop quality. I think they actually came out alright and while the paint job isn't great if you look close on the battlefield they look just like I wanted them to, a horde of savage ghouls crawling over each other to get at the enemy. Would love to hear your thoughts.

 

[Sessioni]

@Leithel The unit filler and the overall pose of the mantic ghouls makes that unit of ghouls really look like they're swarming over anything, furiously. Also yellow color theme for Vampire Counts army is one thing I don't see everyday. As you said, they look good enough even tho they are speed painted, I also speed paint some of my units. Looking forward the next update of your plog! Keep at it.

 

[Mad 'At]

@Leithel: Those ghouls certainly looks like they are swarming forward. The added scenery works greatly to enhance that effect. Considering they are speed painted they look really well too. Definitely worthy of the battlefield.

 

[Farmer7574]

@Leithel Pretty cool looking colour scheme you've got going there. That ghoul leader reminds me of the bald vampire in that movie '30 Days Of Night'... pretty eery-looking. Nice work.

 

[Borgnine]

Fine Black Coach! Are the little pieces of cloth on the horses your work or your friend's? Quite a good addition. You could improve the OSL here by making it a little more gradual, fading away from the fires and much more lighter/intense on the nearest parts. As of now, it looks quite uniform, but that maybe also the photo's fault. On the ghouls I like very much the relationship between the skin and their clothes - these colors look good together.

And as an additional question - from where did you get the name for the Black Coach driver?

 

[Leithel]

@Sessioni @Mad 'At @Farmer7574 : Thanks for your compliments fellas, glad you think they're achieving what I wanted from the unit. The yellow represents the Averland army colous and will be a feature of most of the arm. Also, '30 days of night', great film. Haven't watched the sequel yet though.

@Borgnine I added the cloth myself, wasn't all that hard actually. I didn't really like the original horses, they are very old and just not great models and I looked around to find a good alternative and in the end couldn't so I greenstuffed up some cloth and wrapped it around the bones. I'm not great with greenstuff so I'm pretty happy with the result. Thanks for the advice on the lighting and I agree, the photo definitely shows it without much transition, actually it's the same on the horses, but I'm getting better at my transitions and trying wet blending now too which is what I used on the blade.

The name, Bog te Jeb'o... well it's a bit embarrassing. The Strigoi origins are Croatian, at least in our history so I went on the internet to find old Croation curses. Bog te Jeb'o apparently means "God Fucks You", or in the warhammer world, "Sigmar Fucks You", which I just though was too good to pass up. Hopefully it doesn't offend anyone.

 

[Sessioni]

@Leithel That name cracks me up But hey, this is an unholy forum, the name shouldn't offend too many

 

[Farmer7574]

@Leithel Hilarious! Not many Sigmar believers around this neck of the woods...

 

[Leithel]

WIP Skeletons

Ok I've come to the end of my finished units. Here is a work in progress unit, Mantic skeletons.

I actually don't mind the GW skellies, but the mantic ones are also awesome, have eyes (which fit my theme) and have better clothing / armor. Also they have spindly little hands which I think is better than the massive comical ones of GW. Sticking with the Averland theme of yellow and black but I've forgone the green feather because I thought it looked silly. Now... only 50 more to paint *sigh*

With the bones I've gone with a cool white instead of the warm white, I.E. Wolf Gray base instead of bleached bone. I did this so that it wouldn't clash with the warm yellow and so it would match the cool blue eyes. I really like the mantic skellies.

 

[wheeljack]

Skeletons and ghouls look great, especially since your using yellow, probably one of the hardest paints I have found to work with. I do everything possible to avoid yellow in my painting lol.

 

[Leithel]

@wheeljack Thanks for the feedback. Actually the reason I chose Averland and yellow / black is because I'm a DE player and I'm just sick of painting purple! I needed a different colour and I thought I'd try yellow, partially because it's hard and partially because I hadn't done it before. Most yellows have awful coverage and the Vallejo ones are no different. Here's my formula:

1. Base coat in army painter Oak Brown
2. Highlight (almost full coverage) with Vellejo Leather Brown
3. Re-highlight (smaller coverage) with Vallejo Leather Brown as it's quite thin also
4. Highlight with your chosen yellow
5. Re highlight the highest points with the same yellow

It comes out nice and dirty, which is just how I wanted it though the photos make it look a little cleaner than it is. After writing it down it seems like a lot of steps, but each one is super simple so it doesn't feel time consuming. The bones? They're where about 70% of the time is.

 

[Farmer7574]

@Leithel You've got a good recipe for yellow here. I've never considered doing a yellow army but have noticed the bad coverage the paints have (just by painting squig eyes). You've done it well.