Wood elf Vampire Convent Blog

[Sume]

Greetings everyone it feels like ages since I posted here. Well I first came to this forum way back in 2012. Seeking help on making a vampire count themed wood elf army. Initial post and my thoughts are here: Wood Elf Vampire Count Theme - Carpe Noctem. Life has taken me away from when I wanted to start this project. Like losing my job, and then my apartment shortly afterwards. To finally getting a new job where I was appreciated and getting things back together. In that time I repainted my old Sisters of Battle army, and a Slaanesh demons army also. I also put down my kitty friend last October, which took me a long while to recover from. Then of course as everyone knows covid-19 happened.

Well I am finally getting to start this project. What I currently have on the way is the Green Dragon kit, with the 2 Wood Elf ladies, 29 Wild Riders, 20 shadow elf sword arms, and this model I found from Avatars of War that I plan to use as my head vampire. I also have a box of Glade Guard still on the sprue. Going to be getting a box of skeleton warriors in a week or two. Then will share my progress as I slow convert this army up. I did include a picture of the model that I am going to start with.

This is going to be most likely for 9th age. As the death of warhammer fantasy is sad. I really miss old warhammer fantasy and GW is in my opinion taking to long to do Warhammer legends.

Following model should be here by Monday at the latest. I am looking forward to seeing what I can do. I didnt notice at first that she is topless. Oh well, just going to go with it. I also thought if the mouth was showing teeth, maybe green stuff sculpt in some fangs. I am going to be using the Lamina bloodline, as its my favorite from the old lore back from 6th ed. I am still debating on a autumn or winter theme.

Autumn and Winter from the 6th ed book. My only concern with Winter is that the greys might blend to well into bones, As I want to make a lot more skeletons then ghouls and/or zombies.

 

[kalimsshar]

Hi there!
I will follow your work as a fellow Dead elves player (Dark elves to me).
On my side I was looking for a grimish darkish style for my dead so I paint my bones close to black (a dark grey with a dark blue wash). With something similar the winter theme will be good. Maybe the bones in a dark grey/brown like Dryad bark from Citadel. It will suit the wood theme as well.

have found that for winter elf
Showcase: Wood Elves Glade Guard #1 - Tale of Painters
Too white to me but I love the fur stuff

 

[Sume]

Hi there!
I will follow your work as a fellow Dead elves player (Dark elves to me).
On my side I was looking for a grimish darkish style for my dead so I paint my bones close to black (a dark grey with a dark blue wash). With something similar the winter theme will be good. Maybe the bones in a dark grey/brown like Dryad bark from Citadel. It will suit the wood theme as well.

have found that for winter elf
Showcase: Wood Elves Glade Guard #1 - Tale of Painters
Too white to me but I love the fur stuff

Hey there. I have decided to go with a winter woodland theme. After a lot of google fu. I am actually surprised that there is not more out there. Guess that might been that the Wood Elf army was never that popular. I ended up finding my original copy of White Dwarf issue 309, was hiding on my bookshelf. Right after the new one I ordered came in.

I also did find the Green Twilight Dragon. So I decided why not. I am thinking of using the elves that come with it as banshees. I forgot that this model was all metal besides the wings. So I am unsure as of yet what I am going to do. The easiest thing for sure is I can tatter up the wings some, as they are plastic. I honestly after having enjoyed painting the original Sisters of Battle models. That I now loath painting metal models. I did learn a bunch about how to keep those Sisters from chipping though. Now that I have this dragon in my possession. It needs some cleaning up. Take care of the mold lines, and washed with soap. I will probably also need to do so some pinning. Really not sure how to "undead" this beauty up. Thinking mostly through my paint job. Maybe I can make some scratches in the belly scales. To make it look like it has was killed. Well I am going to need to hit up good old fee bay again I think. As I am going to need to pick up square bases. I used to have a bunch of spare ones. Which is no longer the case. I did find some chariot bases that where left over from when I built about 5k worth of Slaanesh demons.

I am also working on acquiring a lot of Glade Riders. Its a pretty jumbled mess. Should have 29 models. Forgive me if I use old Vampire Count terms. Tell I learn the 9th age renames. I am going to make some of these into Hexwraiths. Then the rest I think into Black Knights. Black Knights will be where most of the conversions come in. As these guys are supposed to be armored skeletons. Wood Elf horses dont have much in way of armor nor do the riders. As Hexwraiths, this will be way easier. I was going to sculpt some green stuff "ghostly tethers" onto the spears that you see on the current GW nigh haunt stuff. Then I am going to try to use the ethereal technical paint. Unsure if I do blue or green.

Things I am waiting on still is the foot model from the first post, the lot of glade riders, and shadow warrior sword arms. Then when I get paid again. I will pick up a box or two of skeleton warriors and see about a box or two more of glade guard. That should be enough to keep me busy for a month or so. Along side this project I am also working on a Tau Farsight enclave. The tau army was meant for an event in July, of course Covid-19 made sure that didnt happen. So I figured I should get that out of the way too, earlier the better. I am not the biggest fan of 40k, but I do like this event. Its a 4 person team event that is meant to be beer and pretzels. For my time, we wanted to do a theme of earth, water, air and fire. I picked fire.

Other things to work on is picking out a final color scheme. Thinking blue ethereal. Then greys, whites, browns, light blues some greens on the models. Vampires I am thinking a pale blue. I want to get a muted look. I will probably test some different looks out before coming to a idea I like best.

 

[Sume]

Did get some work done on the dragon and the barbarian miniature came in. Going to be trying out the contrast paints for the first time.

 

[Shadespyre]

Nice to see some life on the forum. This is an interesting project! My Vampire army isn't Elves, but there are some models in it which might interest you - I used Dryads as Ghouls, for instance. Also there are a couple of interesting models from Warploque miniatures, a (sort of) Undead Unicorn and a Giant Stag, which I used.

 

[Sume]

Hi there Shadesypre. I agree there has not been a lot of movement on this forum here. I thought I share the topic here along with one on the 9th age group. Since I first mentioned it here. I checked that company out. I may end up picking up some of the models. Going to be looking for the eagles or alternatives for some eagles to be "undead bats." I do plan on making dryads into ghouls. Its looking like the eternal guard box will be my main go to though. For skeletons, wights and barrow guard.

 

[Unas the slayer]

Are you planning to field a army that uses VC rules, with modified WE models, right?
Not the inverse (WE that looks undeadish, but use WE rules)

 

[Sume]

Yes that is the plan. I am going to use the VC rules for this army. There are some things I will just end up getting vampire models for. Like the dire wolves and varguls.

 

[Unas the slayer]

If it would have been the other way around, your efforts could have been posted in this thread.

 

[Sume]

I always really liked the idea that was presented in the white dwarf issue 309. Can't believe its been 15 years now for that one.

I thought it be cool to make a vampire army out of a different army. I may end up playing it as a wood elves army also. I always been found of the undead though.

 

[kalimsshar]

About the dragon, I was wondering if a crackling technical paint would do a good death job on the skin. Kind of dead earth skin with the woody style of the dragon.

Other things to work on is picking out a final color scheme. Thinking blue ethereal. Then greys, whites, browns, light blues some greens on the models. Vampires I am thinking a pale blue. I want to get a muted look. I will probably test some different looks out before coming to a idea I like best.

I personally really like the WD winter scheme with the shadow grey (blue-ish) and the khaki. From that I would go for an other option for the ethereal colour. A red would be nice as it's match blue and green. It will give some warm to the cold colour scheme. I have done mine as Blood haunt and blue-ish colour, a lot of black (more dark elves vibes) and a bit of green. (I will post a blog maybe on the forum)

 

[Sume]

A quick update.

I wanted to provide an update. I get a few hours most nights to paint. So far I got the green body, mouth/tongue and bones all highlighted and done on my zombie dragon. I have the wings and green scales to finish highlighting. Then I am going to pick out the vines that are all over the body and going to paint the critters etheral looking. Figured that would do the trick. Then of course will work on the base after that.

I also managed to get what I was told was a mixed up lot of 29 glade riders. Turns out I managed to get 24 out of it. Will need to get some more calvary bases though. Still think thats a pretty respectable amount for what it was. It also came with some extra bits. Mainly I got 7 sword arms from it. I am going to take 20 of these and paint them up etheral to be my hexwraiths. I am going to take the extra ones and see about finding some mounted elf models or bits, and make a wight and a mounted vampire or two. Maybe a necromancer also.

On top of that. I also got 2 unopened boxes of hexwratith/black knights, and 2 boxes of skeletons. I also got 24 glade guard on sprue, along with 10 more that I need to stripe the very thick white primer off. Also going to see if I can get the arms off. If not thats not a problem, will be cutting into them also. Then finally I have one of the spellweaver models. This one is resin and has some paint on it. Which also needs to be stripped.

 

[Unas the slayer]

It seems you are really busy...

 

[Sume]

Well I feel ashamed its been nearly a year since I actually got to work on this project. A lot of that actually is cause of my new kitty I got about 6 months prior to starting this. She is still very playful, and I was having a hard time doing anything with her around. As the little one wanted to eat the paint brushes and if I am not careful she will eat plastic. Found that out after she ate a tau antenna part, that I forgot to put away. Luckily I had spares of that.

I have not forgotten about this project. I have since added 10 dire wolves. Have on the way 50 eternal guard that are all ready built, 2 varghouls, ordered a really nice looking model from Lux for a vampire, a box of shadow warriors and should be getting 10 more dire wolves. I also tried to use a dremel to hallow out some of the hooded heads I have. That way I thought I could place a trimmed down skull or zombie head inside. Oh wow was I so wrong on that. I actually reached out to Zealot Miniatures and I had custom STL files made for some hooded skulls, hooded zombie heads, and some helmeted elven looking skulls. This actually what spurned me to get started again. Oh almost forgot I managed to get hold of some 5th edition Brittonian knights which I decided would make some great Vampire Knights. Not sure if I should leave them all nice or try to dinge them up.

I managed to get 40 dryads onto 20mm bases. In order to do so though. I had to get creative and use some 40 mm bases. Since the branches on the back tend to get in the way. These originally where on 25 mm bases so they can make for a tight fit. I also drilled holes into the legs and some of the arms. I got the bright idea to use the dremel and while it was much faster, was a mistake. Since the holes came out far to large for what I wanted and I had to scrap plastic off the bit. Expect I had to do that also with hand drilling. The scraping of the plastic off the bit.

I am testing out painting some dryads now. I found a winter scheme tip from one of the Warhammer TV videos when Duncan Rhodes was still with GW. The recipe which I think is rather nice. Mechanics standard grey, with skavenblight dinge. With a wash of agrax earthshade, then they went and dry brushed krak stone, and at the ends usbahti bone. I added some screaming skull at the very end. Still not sold on how I did the vines. I used deathworld green, and then some orgyn camo, followed with krieg khaki. I then put some serphia wash over this to make it a little more dingy. I thought to use the contrast paint plaguebearer flesh but it was just not working. I even thought to make the blossoms like a cherry rose color I found on a different video. Which I think is a really nice touch. I am not sure what color to make the sand yet. Maybe a dark brown? I am planning to add some army painter frozen tuffs, snow technical paint and add some greenstuff world frost effect stuff on at least the leaves. I got a work in progress picture of some of the extra dryads. Not too sold on the drybrush look as it honestly is a technic I really dont like. The pasty look it leaves. Well maybe I will try some with very clean edge highlight lines, which I am sure will take forever. I am trying to make sure everything is not a dull brown, or grey. As looking through actual winter pictures of forests and stuff. You do see some greens, browns and reds through out. So its not all white, or grey.

 

[Unas the slayer]

View attachment 61657

Dryads are often present in undead-themed armies. I like them a lot

 

[Sume]

Dryads are often present in undead-themed armies. I like them a lot

They are neat models. I remember way back GW released the 6th ed version of Wood Elves. I was entranced with the dryad models. Wanted to make a wood elf army but I had the oh new army, must try it. That all I did was buy the army books and daydream. Well when the army books only costed 20 dollars. Didn't seem like breaking the bank to get. Then when I came back for 8th ed. Yea, no extra army books cause of the price tag. I went and gabbed a second set of 5 to try edge highlighting on. Not sure, if black eyes, or red glowing eyes yet. Also if I dont end up liking the first 5. Well I made more then 40 and relooking at 9th age. The unit be capped at 40. I ended up making 46 out of the sprues I had gotten about a year and half ago. So they can be test models or stipped at a later time.

 

[Sume]

I will need to make sure the digital camera has power and find the uplink cord as I have not used it in ages. Takes way better pictures then the phone. The 2nd batch I am much happier with. I used the same colors and did more of a wet dry brush to some areas, then added layering. Tried one with one of the spirt creatures as painted ethereal. Then one with a skeleton. The skeleton I might need to do a greyish look so it does not blend into the bark, so much I think. As for the base color. I am thinking of going with a dark brown of some kind. Probably go pick up a bottle or two of a cheap craft store paint. That way I can use it watered down on a display board latter too. Without wasting to much of a more expensive paint. I watched about 10 different youtube videos to see how others did snow as it is something I have not really done before. I was more interested in what people used as colors beneath the snow. I was on track for thinking a brown or grey as I am going for a winter theme too.

 

[Sume]

I so do need to find that charger for the digital camera as the phone camera does these ghouls no justice. They look way better in person. Also need to touch up the first 5, and then finish the last set of 5. Then I have 4 40mm bases that have 3 on each. I originally was looking for a unit of 50 but I guess 9th age has them now capped at 40. I am going to see about some more unit fillers to split it off into 2 units of at least 30 each. I also made up 8 wraiths using left over flaggants and some hexwraith torsos. Looking forward to finishing the ghouls and then I'll probably paint the wraiths next.

On a side note, I received a spam message trying to direct me to an adult sigh. I was like sigh really? Hopefully that is not a common occurrence as it actually was uncomfortable to get. This is a hobby forum and I don't appreciate that sort of thing.

 

[Unas the slayer]

On a side note, I received a spam message trying to direct me to an adult sigh. I was like sigh really? Hopefully that is not a common occurrence as it actually was uncomfortable to get. This is a hobby forum and I don't appreciate that sort of thing.

I feel you, but spambots of this kind (and also different ones) are a thing not only here but also on other gaming forums.
When it happens just report it, we'll ban the account and the related IP.


EDIT:
speaking about your excellent dryad models, would you consider to post them in our current competition? they fit the theme, in a certain feral way...

 

[Sume]

I feel you, but spambots of this kind (and also different ones) are a thing not only here but also on other gaming forums.
When it happens just report it, we'll ban the account and the related IP.

Oh I all ready reported it when I got the message. It was a few weeks back and it clearly was a new created spam account. It was just a side note, and I am sure it will creep up again. As I seen it on MMO game forums before too. I am sure it was all taken care off all ready.

 

[Sume]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Sorry for the bad lighting and quality of some of these photos. I took some pictures of the back parking lot at work. Since it started to snow on Christmas day and had some melt. I took to help give me a reference to snow after it has started to melt and then refreeze and with fresh snow coming in on top of it. It also helps me visualize what sort of colors are generally present during the winter. As you can see in the photos there are some greens, even red from some of the bushes. Also brown from the trees and shrubs. I also participated in the local Warhammer store Secret Santa and one of the things on my wish list was a zombie dragon. I was pleasantly surprised to get the Start Collecting Flesh Eaters Court. Which I am sure is actually a better overall deal to just a zombie dragon. I need to take pictures of my 10 hexraiths and wraiths. I shared a picture of the wraiths before painting them up. I didn't take any work in progress on the hexwraiths. I actually found some left over sprues from my Tomb Kings. I was shocked to actually find them in a box. Since I thought I sold them with the Tomb Kings and Bretonians back in 2017. It must had been something that I forgot about after I moved into my current place back in 2017.

 

[Sume]

Long time coming will have a rather large photo bomb for this project in the next few weeks.

 

[Sume]

This bad boy took me 7 days to print. Camera phone sucks but I will see about bringing the digital camera with me Saturday and or see if the tournament is going to have a professional picture taker. Since everyone loves dragons. I will be adding more pictures in the upcoming days. I saw that some stray melted snow got on the pool of blood. I removed it since then and for kicks I added some frost effect to it. To just see how it looks after giving my zombies a bath in it.

 

[Sume]