• It's time once again to ferret out those murderous vampires in a new VAU - Vampires Amongst Us. A cross between Cluedo and a roleplay, sometimes gory and often hilarious! Find out more and sign-up! here.

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Some more skeleton progress:

skeletons03_zpsyhrpseed.jpg


I reached a hang up on the test batch, due to being out of the browns I want to use, and I can't buy more till this weekend probably, so I've started on the ghostly effect for the rest of the first block of 30.

I do think the effect's starting to come together, though, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. Since I can't really progress any further on the engine or the front skellies until the weekend, so I'm aiming to get the rest of these skeletons, plus 20 grave guard and maybe, if I push myself, 10 black knights up to where the test skeletons are now before then.

Here's the list I'm trying to get painted by the 26th for an event:
Main List
- Arkhan
- Wight King with Black Axe
- Necromancer
- 1 Morghast Archai
- 10 Black Knights
- 20 Grave Guard
- 30 Skeletons
- Mortis Engine

Summoning Pool
- 6 Spirit Hosts
- 3 Bat Swarms
- Terrorgheist

Scenario Markers
- 6 influence markers (gravestones)
- 1 runner (single spirit host spirit, or maybe a Mordheim dredge)
- 1 Flag Marker (Wight King BSB)
I've got a long ways to go...
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Progress continues:

progress03_zpsesdbs7p5.jpg


Here's my finalized list for the store event (adepticon rules) on the 28th that I'm trying to get stuff painted for:

Main List (1800 SDK)
- Arkhan the Black
- Wight King with Black Axe (commander)
- Necromancer
- 1 Morghast Archai
- 10 black Knights with command
- 20 Grave Guard with shields and command
- 30 Skeletons with spears and command
- Mortis Engine
Total: 1793 SDK

Summoning Pool (750 SDK)
- 6 Spirit Hosts
- 3 Bat Swarms
- Terrorgheist

Scenario Tokens
- Runner (?????)
- Flag (Wight King BSB)
- 6 Influence Markers (Grave Stones)

This list is as more about having models I like and something that visually approximates a painted army than it is about something I actually expect to play well, hence the black knights in particular. I'm also trying to stick to units in the Grand Alliance: Death book so that I don't have to flip through multiple rules sources or carry around a bunch of print outs, hence the lack of Tomb Kings units (such as my prized Necrosphinx), and the 'Wight King with Black Axe' as my commander instead of Krell proper.

I'm hoping to give opponents a good time more than to win the event. The AoS 'community' is on very shaky footing locally, and I want to make sure what opponents do show up are energized by a good experience.
 
Last edited:

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Malisteen Lovely looking army so far. Is you plan to keep the banners & clothing black/dark-coloured? This works really well with your glowing ethereal army scheme.

Keep up the great work!
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Current plan for banners and clothing is very dark green (incubi darkness with a black wash or two, limited highlights), maybe with simple freehand skull sigils in the ethereal scheme on the banners. Metals will be silver (dull or shiny depending on how elite the unit is), gold (in limited amounts on elites and characters), and black lacquer (plain black with neutral or bluish-grey edge highlights). In particular black on the large tomb kings shields and paneled/layered armor plates (like Arkhan's armor or the barding on Razarak), etc. Some other stuff will be a very dark brown with maybe some lighter edge highlights (think the studio paint job on neferata's steed), including the mortis engine cage, the bones on the Morghast and Razarak, spear hafts, etc.

But yeah, in general a high contrast betwene the ethereal bits and everything else is the effect I'm going for.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to maintain that effect as the non-ghostly parts of the models progress from black undercoat to dark colors.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Very little progress saturday and sunday, just getting the basing in on the spirit hosts and arkhan, and the green wash on arkhan and the other characters. I'm falling a bit behind. However, on the up-side, I have unearthed a treasure trove of tomb kings, retrieved from a friend who's selling me his old army, including:

1 necrosphinx
1 empty warsphinx
2 skull catapults with crew
1 ushabti
1 bone giant
1 casket of souls, missing only one of the guards' swords
6 riderless necropolis snakes
11 empty chariots
11 riderless skeletal steeds
20 metal tomb guard
10 plastic tomb guard - unopened in box
several metal characters, including tomb king, liche priest (foot and mounted), herald (foot and mounted
a handful of plastic sprues, including some horse archers and three of the necropolis riders

And there may be more coming, hopefully in particular the remaining necropolis riders and, fingers crossed, 5 more ushabti. I'm not sure what all I'm going to keep and what all I'm going to try to sell or exchange for other stuff. Something to worry about later.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dragonet

Mad 'At

Dumb enough to work
Staff member
True Blood
Apr 2, 2011
2,378
Grödinge
Best of luck getting all that painted before the 26th. If you need another spur I'd recommend getting the Mortis Engine finished before the 8th so you can enter it into the Turning the World to Darkness Challenge.

The ethereal effect sure looks incredible when used on a whole army like that. Very much looking forward to seeing the progress of this.
 

Dragonet

Wight King
Feb 3, 2015
450
Bromley
Sounds like an awesome haul Malisteen! I shall have to sort myself a war sphinx before I run out of time, or find a better alternative; I've seen a couple of bone mammoths, Undead rhinos etc. but nothing I'm desperate for.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Well, I never did finish that batch in time for the tournament, which was hilarious - only six players showed up, every one of them playing undead, haha.

Since then, I've been working on other things, but with the the generals handbook and summer campaign coming, I've been feeling the undead thing again. Unfortunately, the army I was working on isn't really going to fit the new matched play rules at all, what with only having one battle line unit & such. While I haven't worked out a specific list I want to build towards, I do want to work on more battle line options, and I have been slowly filtering through that tomb kings haul, so... Time to start working on some chariots, I guess:

chariot01_zpsydd18vti.jpg


chariot02_zpspo5kohik.jpg


I used some craft sticks to raise the floor of the chariots slightly, since I'll be using VC skittles as riders and they're a bit shorter than the old style skittles these chariots were built for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dragonet

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Malisteen Nice to see you back at your undead! It'll be cool to see your VC-ified chariots and how you use the VC skeletons as the charioteers. Are you keeping the glowing ethereal theme going with these?
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Yup, will be keeping the green ethereal theme going on these, at least on the skeletal bits. Chariots will be black w/ silver trim I think, though I'm not committed yet.

The crew are mostly assembled, just waiting for some sea guard bow & quiver bits to arrive in the mail - the chariots come with bow & quiver bits to mount on the chassis, but they're too big & blocky next to the VC skittles.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Farmer7574

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Horses are done:

chariot03_zpsqz2hfwrl.jpg


Picture's not the best, I'm stuck using room mates camera.

The ethereal scheme I'm using is:

celesta grey (x2 thin coat over black primer)
nihilak oxide
celesta grey drybrush
bit of green wash in some recessed areas
very light white drybrush over some raised areas

Honestly, you can skip the green wash and white drybrush. If you do those, be very sparing. The ethereal effect is actually highly dependent on low contrast, going overboard on the dark and light end leaves the model looking less ghostly and more just green. It's a problem some of the models I was working on before have fallen into, and I'll need to do some re-working of some of those models when I get back to them.
 
Last edited:

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Please tell me that the lighter ground around the horses is painted and it's not just a photo effect - because it really sells that etheral effect! I guess it's hard to do on skeletons and their tiny bases. Outstanding work!
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
It's camera flash / paint splatter, the painting process on the ethereal is messy. The base still needs to be painted over that.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Demigryph -> Necroknight proof of concept conversions
please excuse terrible pictures

As models, they're looking pretty good. The unfortunate issue is that the demigryphs just aren't quite as large as I anticipated. They're only a little bit larger than the skeletal steeds the current black knights are riding, and a lot smaller than the snakes the official necropolis knights ride.

I did a regular, non-command model as a proof of concept first, and put it on a 90mm oval base to be closer to the base size of the necroknight unit, but he's kind of swimming in that base...

necroknights01_zpsy9jwk100.jpg


necroknights02_zpso7cvmjcz.jpg

I really liked how this one turned out, apart from the base issue, so I did up a champion and a standard bearer. These two aren't glued to bases, but they're shown standing on the 75mm bases which are a better fit for these models, but a worse fit for the unit they're trying to be...

necroknights03_zpsbrh5lodk.jpg


necroknights04_zpsglafdvjr.jpg


necroknights05_zpsc1jmahkr.jpg


necroknights06_zps69s29jvw.jpg

Here's some size comparisons next to a black knight, and a necroknight snake:
necroknights07_zpsaiovjmj6.jpg


necroknights08_zpscqijforf.jpg

Keep in mind the official necroknight riders are standing on top of that snake that's already a fair bit taller than the demigryphs.

So, all in all, I'm happy with how the conversion look on they're own, but I do worry that they're not big enough to really work for what I want to use them as. And I'm not sure whether I should use the 90mm bases that are more appropriate for their rules, or the 75mm bases that are more appropriate for these conversions specifically.

Heck, even the 90mm bases seem too small for the official necroknight models...

Feedback welcome. For now, I'm sleeping on it.[/spoiler][/spoiler]
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Farmer7574

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Malisteen The conversions are looking good so far - the Black Knights seem to fit nicely on those demigryphs. As for the basing issue, they do fit better on the 75mm bases but corking that 90mm base in the first picture doesn't make him look as bad as you think. Nice concepts so far.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
thanks. I ended up going with the 75mm bases. They look better on the models, but the decision was mostly made for my by the GW webstore, which didn't have the 90mm bases in stock. The local scene has been alright with the conversions so far, but if anyone objects I can always substitute in something else without hard feelings about it. lots of death stuff divides evenly into the 160 points of a necrosphinx batch, including tomb scorpions, skeleton warriors, and grave guard.
 
Jan 14, 2014
36
The ethereal look to your skeletons looks great, they really pop. Also great work on those vampire conversions, especially the mordheim ones they look awesome I can't wait to see paint on them. Great idea for the necropolis knights, the size issue doesn't seem like it'd be a huge deal depending on if you play in a friendly or competitive environment.
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Big thanks for testing the conversion out and showing us that size comparison. I really expected them to be bigger, but when you think about it, dudes riding them are still normal sized, one cannot make those demigryphs that much bigger... Still, I will be getting them!

A bigger base is an excuse for some nice basing, but I understand your decision to go with the smaller ones, they fit nicely there :) Now we are waiting for some painted ones ;)
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Alright, haven't updated this thread in a while, mostly because the undead demigryphs ended up being just... too small to use as necroknights, leaving me with expensive, effortful conversions that I don't have any actual use for in game. Highly disheartening.

Many years have passed since then, long enough to get over the bitterness and disappointment, and thanks to some recent trades, I have acquired the base models for some new counts-as necropolis knights, this time of a more appropriate scale, though converting them into passable death faction models will take considerably more work this time around. Still, it will let me explore the 'undead stormcasts' ideas I've been thinking about lately.

So here's progress on the first test model for my unit of "Stormghast Immortals - Necrothian Knights"

necrothian01_zpslipmrrew.jpg


necrothian03_zpsem3cwbxl.jpg


necrothian02_zpstgu5ep9r.jpg


I replaced the head with a dread abyssal head (one of each mortarch leaves enough spare heads for 6 of these conversions, though sadly only two using the head from Neferata's steed as above, almost certainly the best head for this conversion of the three, I'd do the whole unit with them, apart from the champion maybe, if I could), shaved away a bunch of lightning bolts and twin tailed comets, glued a spare scarab beetle in place of the gem on the chest plate, and used press-molds to apply some details and faceted jewels from morghast & mortarch kits in place of some of the shaved-away detail. The runed scrollwork I decided can stay.

There's some gap filling yet to do around the head, and I may cut off the tail part way to replace it with a ghostly wisp cut from a spirit host kit, and I have yet to decide what, if anything, to do about the rider's shin armor, where I shaved away some more lightning bolt design. I might leave it as is, or I might try to press mold some bonework or skull whatevers or something, I don't know.

Haven't thought about how I plan on painting the thing, probably stoney with green glow showing between the scales, or else ghostly for the whole mount. Deciding that can wait until after conversion work is done.

Still a long way to go, and I expect this to be a pretty slow process, overall.
 
Last edited:

About us

  • Our community has been around for many years and pride ourselves on offering unbiased, critical discussion among people of all different backgrounds. We are working every day to make sure our community is one of the best.

Quick Navigation

User Menu