Road to Madness - Painting Log for my new VC Horde

[Generaltso]

Greetings all,

Well its time once again to muster my Undead forces to battle. I have been on a short break from WHFB this past year and am now ready to try out the new 8th edition rules with a new VC army. This will be my 4th VC army I've built and painted since the first book's inception in the late 90's. I picked up some of the new Mantic figs which I quite like - these will make up the bulk of my force. I will attempt to keep a running log of my progress as I move forward with the army and I welcome/appreciate everyone's feedback. This will be my first attempt at documenting my painting process on a forum so I will give it my best shot. Here's some pics of what I'm working with:

Cheers!
Erik

 

[Generaltso]

Ok here's how far I got tonite - Speedround #1 with the Ghouls: ~60 Ghouls primed(brush on matte sealant/ghoul flesh mixture) and drybrushed with highlights. Also, finished one of the Ghouls as a prototype example to illustrate what the rest will look like. Here's the pics:

Brush on primer - lighting doesnt show the shade real well

close up of primed ghoul:

Drybrush stage:

Finished ghoul next to Drybrushed ghoul(again my lighting is somewhat bad in these):slapface:

Finished Ghoul(minus basing/flock)

Will try to finish these up before the weekend.

 

[adam_dup]

Ghoul is looking good love the eyes!

That pile of plastic sure is damn intimidating though!

 

[Generaltso]

Thanks! I may try to add some splatter and gore to some of the final versions of these ghouls. I was pleasantly surprised how the eyes turned out and very easy effect to do

 

[Generaltso]

What I got done today below:

Wraiths, Banshee and Ethereal Vampire

64 Ghouls

 

[RoguePanda]

Very nice indeed - the more I see of Mantic's models the more impressed I am, and you have really done them justice with your painting here! I am particularly struck by your standard bearer in the armour in the first post - I can't identify the model, but I am sure I know it from somewhere? Help me out before I go crazy and let me know where it is from? Ta I look forward to the next update

 

[Fallen Angel]

Whoa! Awesome stuff here! Your ghouls look great! What models are your wraiths btw?

 

[Kirgan]

Nice stuff you have there :devil2:

 

[adam_dup]

Yeah..... So I think I may be stealing your ghoul eyes technique... Mind posting to make it easier for me to thieve?

 

[Generaltso]

Greatly appreciate the feedback everyone!
@RoguePanda - The Mantic ghouls really impressed me from the get go - from the sculpts to the cost. Really some great models and the heads you can interchange with GW for more variety so a win all around. The model I am using for that Wight bsb is a GW LOTR Castellan fig - chopped the left hand off, mounted the standard and sculpted a new hand around the pole. Here's one I did a year or so ago for my previous VC DrakenHoff Bsb:

@FallenAngel - those wraiths are Barrow Wights from GW LOTR - I had alot of extras LOTR lying around that I picked up real cheap a few years back and decided no harm in using them here since its a proxy army anyways The Ethereal Vampire is also a lotr model(can't remember what fig it is right now) - kinda has a crossover Necrarch/Strigoi/Carstein look to him that I really dig

@adam_dup - Yeah, the eyes are real easy to do and take less than 10 mins. to do a lot of 30 or so with a steady enough hand. Basically, this is the last detail step before basing. I go in with the whitest white possible and dab the eye of the model(make sure its just a small dab of white and as this is what gives the eyes that internal ominous glowing focal point). Then next I mix in a little transparent green(i use Vallejo) mix a small amount of a thinned down black wash -( this is subjective/just experiment with it to get the right consistency and test it on a couple figures before doing the whole run.) As a final step, apply tiny drops of this mixture to the whole of the eye sockets - this acts as a miny wash to the eyes themselves. Thats about it. Hope this helps!

 

[XER]

The wight king looks good and its exactly what i was searching for my own army. I dont know how i could have missed him until now

 

[Dogmar]

Wow, very fast progress here. I really like what you've done so far, especially the glowing eyes on the ghouls make for a nice effect. What you could do to improve the already great work is the following imo: Try to give the ethereals a final highlight, maybe just in the upper third of the model to make the face stand out more.

Also I'm not sure if the stag on your banner pole really fits with an undead army, it looks more Wood Elvish to me, but that's personal preference I guess.

Cheers,

Dogmar

 

[Generaltso]

What I have done today and yesterday:

Skellies primed

Grave Guard primed

Skellie test figs for the color scheme

Final paint and basing 30 Skellies in ~5hrs total work time. :O

dogmar-thx for the feedback and suggestions on the highlights - I should prolly go back and do that here at some point to brighten em up a bit. About the stag head on the standard - it does seem a bit out of place, I agree. I had a GG unit with the same standard head so thats why I ended up sticking with it thematically. I no longer own that army - went to a gamer in the Netherlands last Sping. One of the reasons I'm rebuilding with this lot above now

I think a couple beers at the pub is in order now that Skellies round #1 is in the bag. Cheers everyone! Should try and tackle the GG this weekend. Will try and post my progress if so.

 

[Nikos]

Superb looking unit, great choice of colours and really well painted. Looking forward to seeing the GG.

 

[count kill alot]

Very cool stuff you’ve got their, and the choices of colours are great.
The basses are also awesome, my favorite of all so fare is your (DrakenHoff Bsb).
Might I ask how you did the eyes for the ghouls they look splendid.

 

[Generaltso]

Niko - Thanks, I am pleased with the colors myself. Hoping to get to GG tomorrow

Count - the eyes are real easy to do and take less than 10 mins. to do a lot of 30 or so with a steady enough hand. Basically, this is the last detail step before basing. I go in with the whitest white possible and dab the eye of the model(make sure its just a small dab of white and as this is what gives the eyes that internal ominous glowing focal point). Then next I mix in a little transparent green(i use Vallejo) mix a small amount of a thinned down black wash -( this is subjective/just experiment with it to get the right consistency and test it on a couple figures before doing the whole run.) As a final step, apply tiny drops of this mixture to the whole of the eye sockets - this acts as a miny wash to the eyes themselves. Thats about it. Hope this helps!

 

[Generaltso]

Well, finally got to the GG and painted them in a similar color scheme as the skeletons with a variation on shield heraldry making it white and red instead of yellow and red. Tied them back to the skellies by making the helm plumage yellow; but painted the armor bronze to give it a more archaic feel. Here they be:

http://i390.p
hotobucket.com/albums/oo347/death_by_1000_stings/Works%20in%20Progress/gg3.jpg

Here's some other stuff in the works:

Black Coach(need to find me some larger wheels for this mobile tomb)

Still need to add shingles and some other little details as well

Necro

Vampire

Up next 40-50 Skellies w/ spears. Finish a unit of 6 dire wolves. Also ordered a 40K nid Gargoyle kit to do 10 zombified/ghoulies with wings as fell bats. Time to bust loose on the green stuff again soon for that project. :zombie:

 

[Fallen Angel]

LOVE your necro! Awesome Idea with the skelly head!

 

[RoguePanda]

I will be keen to see what you do with the Black Coach - a moving tomb like that is a very inventive idea. There was an article on the GW site a long time ago where someone made Strigany wagons of what is probably the same size for a VC army. Sorry, I can't find the link right now but if I do I will pop it up, it might give you some ideas.

 

[Nikos]

Good grief, this plog is becoming increasingly great The necro conversion is good, your GG look superb, they look connected to the same army as the skellies but the more "superior" unit and the black coach is unique and coming on nicely.

 

[Generaltso]

Thanks everyone for checking my progress and all the helpful comments and encouragement! RoguePanda, if you locate that link I'd be very interested to check out those wagons.

Tonites progress was without pics but i hope to get some shots up tomorrow or Friday. I put the rest to the DOOMMOBILE together minus the horses and the yoke. She's a 6 wheeled Tomb death dealer! yEEhAW! Also finished making some movement trays out of masonite, balsa wood strips. Army is starting to rank up quite nicely

 

[RoguePanda]

Drat and Blast... sorry Generaltso. The link on the web is dead. However, if you can find someone with either a copy of White Dwarf issue 298 (this one - http://www.gamehobby.net/white_dwarf_magazine/white_dwarf_298.html), or someone with an archive of the material from the old US Black Gobbo Issue 25, you will get the stuff I am talking about. The strigany gypsy vardo's I remembered were by Chad Mierzwa, US team hobbyist, and were shown both in the white dwarf and black gobbo... problem is that although you can get to the Black Gobbo issue through the Wayback Machine here (http://web.archive.org/web/20070822205414/us.games-workshop.com/e-zine/archive.htm) that particular article is unavailable Sorry - I tried!

 

[Generaltso]

RP-Thanks for looking into that - I appreciate it. I will try and locate that issue - someone I know may have it! I will ask them this weekend. But in the meantime, here's my DoomWagon I've been working on. I finished the base and primed the tomb and yoke - waiting to pick up some chaos maurader horses a friend has for me to put up in the front:

And These are the maddening shelves of DOOOM:

 

[Generaltso]

Been working on my fell bats the last few days and just finished them tonight. I am liking how they turned out

 

[Mr Saturday]

They look great, gargoyles wings, is it? The wing membrane colour contrasts very nicely with the skin tone. I might have made more of the bases though, if'n you'll pardon my saying. Maybe some rocks or other scenic bits. Flying bases are good for letting your basing go crazy, as there are no models actually standing on them generally.