army from nothing

[ghostmachine]

having had some luck on ebay getting
40 skellies
20 ghouls
40 zombies
1 black coach
3 fell bats
4 corpse carts

i just asking if this is a good start for an army
and any ideas on color schemes

 

[RoguePanda]

Looks like a solid start to me, the only thing noticeably not there seems to be the heroes to lead it - take your time and find some character models for your vampires, wights, and necromancers that will look good. About the only obvious thing is that at the moment you have mostly infantry, so you will be moving slowly towards the enemy - you will need plenty of necromancy to keep them in shape to do damage when they reach the opponent!

Colour schemes... that's really up to you, but some colors are kind of "classic" so you can start there? Eg; Bone, deep Reds, dark Bronze metals, Dark Green or highlights of "glowing" Green (almost luminous colours), or Purple or Deep Blue. If you've got the army book have a look through, have a browse round this forum, or try a search on Cool Mini Or Not (try a Google search for that site) and see what others have done with their Vampire Counts - just remember, go with something you like

I guess start with asking yourself is this a "Cold" army, or a "Hot" army. What I mean is that when choosing colours blues, purples, and other dark/deep colours will make the army feel like it's carrying a chilly feel with it, while brighter/warmer Blood Reds or luminous Greens will make it feel more aggressive and animated.

Just my two pence worth - don't forget to post pictures when you get chance - regards, 'Panda

 

[ghostmachine]

The main reason for asking is that i am really bad at painting.
I have seen a figure that i would love to theme the army after its redarmys secret santa
but i have no clue where to start

 

[Santawraith]

Ask red for advice he is a really great guy and I am sure would be willing to give advice and pointer's. Also I can email you a few tutorials I wrote that are simple as I have yet to get them on facebook yet.

 

[Mannerheim27]

Hey there

Well the best way to look for a theme is to develop a way that you want your army to "feel". What setting are they in? What environment?

Also do you want your army to have a "warmer" or "cooler" feel to it?

A warmer feel is using colors with more red and they tend to be a bit more bright. This is generally used for armies to look very prominent and easy to see. Warm colors can make an army look larger than it is and a bit imposing.

A cooler feel is using a lot of colors with more blue in them. This is great for giving the appearance of armies in shadowy environments or overall to make them look more menacing. The vampire I painted was painted with a bit more red in the colors giving it a dark but warmer look to it. I wanted the vampire to look very imposing so I used warmer colors on areas that would act as accents (the cape, the eyes, ect).

You could try painting your army a darker spectrum, making sure to highlight the very edges and most prominent spots, but then use lighter accents to give some character. It's normally the way I paint and I enjoy it a lot. Just my two cents

Jake

 

[ghostmachine]

i will post some pics of what i have done if i can ever get to undercoat
and do a few test/mess up figures
I have had a good look around and found some interesting ideas and conversions
also i have just finished my figures from mantic today
20 skellies
20 ghouls
20 zombies

 

[SotF]

Along with the cold/hot difference, there are a few things that work well in the middle.

One such thing is to have one thing to tie the army together and another for the units.

For example, I've got a frozen blue glow I'm trying to make work for the eyes while the brighter colors work for the clothes and armor.

 

[Dogmar]

Great advice, Jake. Nothing to add from my part on colour theory.

What you might find useful though is to develop a heraldy for your army. You can show that through different banners, slightly different colours on your units or simply by adding something special to the unit champions alone - depending on how deep you want to go with the heraldy thing.

Also, while it can be good to add a contrast of either complementary colours or warm/cold colours to create eye-catchers, don't overdo it with them. Generally try to keep your army tied together by a limited palette and some recurrent elements throughout all units.

An example for this would be a frozen army with blue clothes. You could decide, that the higher ranked your mini is, it gets more white in it or vice versa. Then when you reach your Lord he'd be almost entirely white or blue, depending on what you chose. But still add in something in the other colour to tie him to the rest of the army while still being outstanding due to the colour difference.


hope this helps,

Dogmar

 

[ghostmachine]

ive finished putting the GW stuff together so im going to post a pic of all that stuff
many thanks for all the ideas i like the idea of frozen/icy bases
with a warm theme on the mini
i was thinking of using only 3 or 4 colors total except skin/bone