Show us your Coven Throne/Mortis Engine

[Kassill]

Thanks guys! This is my first vampire counts model. I'm looking to get into fantasy and this model appealed to me. I'm not sure what to buy next...

That's a wicked Mortis Engine! Mind sharing your ethereal recipe? That's what has been keeping me from painting mine.

I was inspired by a tutorial of a technique in the Invocation #6 newsletter on how to paint spirit hosts. It is stickied in the Announcement section. It's quite easy. I hope that helps

Woohoo! Looks like my Engine will be getting some brush time this weekend! :konrad:

 

[Shareya]

Also, stuck804 - how long did it take you to paint that engine? O _ O

 

[stuck804]

Also, stuck804 - how long did it take you to paint that engine? O _ O

I'm not sure on the hours but i finished it in about a day. Its a lot easier to paint if you assemble it into parts, paint them, then assemble those parts together. Also, I didn't use any advance techniques

 

[Shareya]

Uhm, but are the parts not tiny at times? Can't you easily get confused on what color exactly different parts need? x)

 

[Nagashizzar]

Also, stuck804 - how long did it take you to paint that engine? O _ O

Also, I didn't use any advance techniques

Feel free to post a tutorial

 

[stuck804]

Here’s how I did it:
1. Assembly: I assembled the mortis engine into several components: spirit hosts, necromancer, throne and the bone, the candle thing inside the cage, and the three banshees. I also left the gates that surround the candle thing off. This allowed me to access to all of the nooks and crannies of the engine.
2. Primed everything black.
3. I painted the spirit hosts and banshees by painting the top 3/4ths of a spirit host with a dark grey, then drybrushed the bottom quarter of the model with the dark grey (over the black). Then I applied a lighter grey from the middle of the spirit host up to the top, then drybrushed the lighter grey over the dark grey but stopping before I got to the black. I then painted the top of the model with white and drybrushed white over the lighter grey section. Next, I washed the hosts in thraka green.
4. For the armor I applied chainmail, then a nuln oil wash, then spot washed with seraphim sepia and dev mud, then I created a wash by putting a variety of rust pigments in a cup and mixed it with paint thinner (I added a lot of thinner so the rush effect would be subtle). I then spot washed sections of the armor with the rust wash where I thought rust would naturally collect.
5. The bone and throne was drybrushed with a dark grey followed by a lighter grey. I applied a heavier drybrush of light grey to the throne and washed it with nuln oil.
6. For the flames I painted them snot green, then I painted the bottom ¾ with scorpion green, then the bottom quarter with yellow, then a little white at the very bottom of the flame (I’m not sure if I did the white on this model though). Then I washed the flames with thraka green.
Everything else is pretty straightforward. Assembling this thing was a pain though. If I do another engine (which I probably will) I’ll make sure to place tape or something over the places where the throne and spirit hosts glue together before I paint them. That way, I can remove the tape and the pieces will bond together better.
I hope that helps!
Scott

 

[abhorash_chile]

Here is mine, I just finished it:

Other pictures of it:

 

[Adam_Barrow]

Really clean, a_c. That Engine crushes it.

 

[Theerteen]

Slowly my motivation fades to paint mine I should spend less time in this forum. Very cool and inspiring work.

 

[Soulblight]

Holy Cow! Those thrones are splendid!
Gonna try that ethereal on some of my testsubject for my brand new army!

Thanks for the tutorial!

 

[Burnanation]

abhorash_chile and stuck804 those are soooo cool. I love the colors you guys picked.

 

[Petterwass]

Well, my biggest work so far for my Vampire Counts army is done and I'm quite pleased.
Conversion work is minimal (swapping out a single hand) but it was somewhat challenging non the less.
Also fluff, because fluff amuses me.

Draegoth the Defiler on Ghost Giant, with pet Necromancer and Blasphemous Tome
(Mortis Engine)

The Necromancer who made the mistake of raising Draegoth from the dead.

All his remaining power is invested in controlling the ghost giant in battle (and thus preventing Draegoth from murdering him) and preventing Draegoh from going of and murdering the vampires that are (nominally) in control of the army

Blasphemous tome.

Includes the RQ/Gloranthan runes for Discord and Undead which I found appropriate and I find such cross-pollination to be delicous.

Ghost Giant, carries Draegoth into battle since such a great conqueror would never walk by himself.

Draegoth the Defiler. Once broken by Sigmar, he now wrestles with the vampires for control of their undead army.

 

[robtion]

@Petterwass: Great looking conversion and a unique idea for a mortis engine. Love the fluff

 

[Petterwass]

@Petterwass: Great looking conversion and a unique idea for a mortis engine. Love the fluff

Thank you. All part of my master plan of not using GW models for anything unless I really love the models or there are no better alternatives (meaning I'll only use them for Varghulf and any skeletal troops, because I like GW's skellies).

Fluff is fun, it usually comes up naturally during the painting process and I enyoj making it up a great deal.

Also, should anyone wonder (probably not); The ghost giant is from Titan-Forge, the Necromancer from Avatars of War and Draegoth and the book-slave from Reaper.

 

[benvoliothefirst]

Reminds me of the artwork from the HeroQuest supplement, Return of the Witch Lord. Very nice painting and a great concept!

 

[Shareya]

I do like Draegoth look and the lore. Though he clearly should have seen reason and just bowed down to the vamps fully ^_^

 

[Petterwass]

I do like Draegoth look and the lore. Though he clearly should have seen reason and just bowed down to the vamps fully ^_^

Thank you, I am pleased with it.

Fluff-warning:

Fluff-Draegoth is old. Old as in: he fought Sigmar.
His (now un-)sealed barrow is located on the grounds that the vampires have recently inherited/taken over so he views them as young upstarts and usurpers to his army*


*Fluffwise all my skeletal units belonged to Draegoth when he marched against Sigmar and are still bound to him, which is why the vamps don't really want or dare to move against him.

My zombies were raised by my vamps to provide a more numerous counter to Draegoths more elite forces. So now the two are locked in a standoff were they will work together against external forces but don't trust each other at all.
The vamps need Draegoth and his forces to anchor their line and provide more skilled soldiers than they can raise themselves. Draegoth is prevented from murdering all the vamps as long as his "controlling" necromancer still lives.

 

[ulrik]

[attachment=2143][attachment=2142][attachment=2141][attachment=2140][attachment=2139]

this is my homemade version of the mortis engine, made from odd bits and old miniatures lying around. the lich on top is some old zombie from 1980's. the construction the figures are standing on is made from spears, bones and hands from the zombie plastic kit.

 

[Ustrello]

 

[LifeEnder]

Here are my mortis engine / coven throne. magnitized so i can swap between em!





http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/LifeEnder/media/DSC_0270_zpsd2853ba2.jpg.html

 

[Corien Sumatris]

@Ustrello: Dude, that thing looks great, very similar to mine, except that yours doesn't sparkle! It should sparkle bro.

@LifeEnder: Thats crazy man, I wanted to do that with my first throne, then I looked at how it was built and just went nnnooooooppppe. You plannin on basing that bad boy?

 

[Theerteen]

Looks cool, both of them!
A little bit too colourful for my taste, but I know LifeEnder's other work and so it fits very well in the army Mine will follow soon, the banshees and basing is still missing :silent:

 

[LifeEnder]

@corien: yeah i will base him, as soon as i get a good idea of what to put on the base.. any suggestions?

@theerteen: true, i like some colour in my vamps since i have the purple/blueish theme for my whole army the coven fits in perfectly! although i still need a decent camera, the pics are a bit low quality and makes the work seem a bit grimey.. :/ looking forward to yours Theerteen, almost done?

 

[Theerteen]

I wanted to paint the banshees yesterday, but my roommate and a bottle of Havanna Club rudely interrupted me...I promise to make some progress this evening (10/13/13) and upload at least a banshee wip pic!

For the base, I planned to make something similar like my ZD (I hope it isn't against the rules to post this here -> please remove if not)




instead of the skellies I'd put some ghost models on the base, like there are spirits assembling from the ground to carry forth the ME. Maybe some of those skull-ghost-worm-thing that's included in the ME kit... I think this will work out nicely, of course it's a good piece of work

 

[ObliviJohn]

So this is my Mortis Engine, just finished.