The Eternal Court of the Carmine Rose

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre I like the (dryad?) piece on the base directly beneath the pegasus, it's a really nice touch. Nice details that you've added - I'd probably add a few thin straps/belts to show that those pointy bits are armour and strapped on rather than randomly stuck the the steed.

Lovely conversion so far mate, it's really striking the way you've pinned her in the air

 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks! Yes, that's another dryad branch on the base, I have to keep reminding myself to bring the themes back in.

No progress this week due to a heavy cold. Picked up another couple of nice minis to add to the army, keeping those under wraps again for now, I'm so mean! Still aiming to get everything modeled this month and then every spare hour in November will just be painting...

 

[Borgnine]

I thought you wanted to finish the army, yet you buy more The ride never ends! I can only wish you a productive November right now

 

[ZeroTwentythree]

Trying to catch up after being away from the forum for quite a while. I love that RP giant. I like the way that both that, and the big dragon bring in large areas of other colors that compliment your overall pallet.

Great, dynamic pegasus. I agree with the previous comments about some straps, but otherwise looking forward to seeing it painted.

 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks, colour-wise I'm trying to keep to a limited palette but not just paint everything dark red, black or bone. I've used green quite a lot, and with not using it on my bases it stands out quite well.

I added an armoured head piece and ankle straps to the pegasus, I think it looks more believable now, thanks for the feedback.

Updated to Do List

I've simplified this a bit - everything is WIP now so I dropped the * too.

Vampire Lady on Dragon
Vampire Lady on Winged Nightmare
2 x Mounted characters
7 x Foot Characters
Zombie Minotaur
Death Elemental
5 x Black Knights
Skeleton regiment (counts-as 50 models with unit fillers)
4 x Skeletons
Corpse Cart re-boot
Classic Corpse Cart
2 x Doom Wolves
1 x surprise!

There may still be additions - I have a lot of stuff left I could make fillers or scenery or big bases from, and new models might catch my eye...

 

[Shadespyre]

Some new things....

Updated to Do List

I've simplified this a bit - everything is WIP now so I dropped the * too.

Vampire Lady on Dragon
Vampire Lady on Winged Nightmare
2 x Mounted characters
7 x Foot Characters
Zombie Minotaur
Death Elemental
5 x Black Knights
Skeleton regiment (counts-as 50 models with unit fillers)
4 x Skeletons
Classic Corpse Cart
1 x surprise!

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre Really cool fillers, you've done really well with them - I bet they sit nicely amongst your infantry units.

The corpses in the cart are painted nice and subtly so that they're not standing out like a sore thumb - this bodes well for your army. Nice swapping the zombies for wolves too.

 

[Shadespyre]

New models...

More random skeleton types. Here we have Mr Bones, from the Reaper Kickstarter, a very old Citadel FTS9 Skeleton with Dagger and a Wizards of the Coast undead Dwarf. The old Fantasy Tribes skeleton looks more like a halfling nowadays!

And here is Ye Olde Corpse Cart, a much smaller model than I remembered it being (again...)

 

[Borgnine]

Dude, that vase with grass in it, it looks so good! I think I saw such things on real cemeteries. Those leaves are just put there? I don't even imagine how one could glue them...

The corpse cart is also great, those high-contrast metal helmets on the wolves make a really good focal point on the front, leading into the rest of the mini - and those beasties work really good as the pullers. It's a bit strange without a driver, though

New models are also cool! Especially that undead dwarf As for their size - halflings are a perfect explanation for them

 

[Shadespyre]

@Borgnine Glad you like the new stuff. The vase is a bit of scrap metal I found, I think off an old light fitting. The grass comes with the leaves included, they are made by MiniNatur. Great product.

I'm pleased with how the corpse cart looks with the wolves, makes it little more dynamic. And I'm working on a new "driver", don't worry.

Updated to Do List

Vampire Lady on Dragon
Vampire Lady on Winged Nightmare
2 x Mounted characters
7 x Foot Characters
Zombie Minotaur
Death Elemental
5 x Black Knights
Skeleton regiment (counts-as 50 models with unit fillers)(7 done)
2 x Skeletons
1 x surprise!

 

[Shadespyre]

If you think vampires and necromancers should only be human, look way now!

Presenting the Dreaded Magistrix of the Darkest Magics, Buttercup!

And so you can see how tiny she is, here she is in her proper place:

(This cutesy Halfling sorceress is from Heresy Miniatures)

And she is joined by my first Dwarven Vampire!

Really pleased with this model, which is the Dwarf Anti-Paladin from Stonehaven Miniatures.



Updated to Do List

Vampire Lady on Dragon
Vampire Lady on Winged Nightmare
2 x Mounted characters
4 x Foot Characters
Zombie Minotaur
Death Elemental
5 x Black Knights
Skeleton regiment (counts-as 50 models with unit fillers)(9 fillers done)
2 x Skeletons
1 x surprise!

 

[Shadespyre]

Skeletons...

Zombie Minotaur (a Chainmail miniature)

And this is one of the recent things I've discovered - Halfling 'Vampire' mounted on an Undead Unicorn!

Another awesome model from Stonehaven Miniatures, how could I resist?

Updated to Do List

Vampire Lady on Dragon
Vampire Lady on Winged Nightmare
14 x Mounted characters
4 x Foot Characters
Death Elemental
5 x Black Knights
Skeleton regiment (counts-as 50 models with unit fillers)(9 fillers done)
1 x surprise!

 

[Ol'timer]

Looking good, yep the ye old corpse cart was pretty small compared to the new one, but still a awsome mini. I've been tinkering with changing that old plastic GW liegion chariot into one.

 

[Nagash Worshiper]

I'm very curious of how the pagasus hoovs, the tombstone and the Base is held together. Did you actually pin all the way through the tombstone or is it just very strong glue?

 

[Borgnine]

You really stepped up your game with those diversity vampires! I love Buttercup and that dwarfess is beyond awesome - the colors and the idea suit her great, your work is so much better than the one shown on Stonehaven's website How did you paint her armor? Maybe that's the shade I'm looking for

The minotaur and that little halfling are also very cool! Maybe his axe could use some grime and dirt, but just maybe You just keep putting more undead minis from obscure places, when one can think you got the all already Great stuff!

 

[Shadespyre]

@Ol'timer - I've got a couple of scrap ones I thought about using, but they might end up as a Mortis Engine. Still not sure if / how to do one.

@Nagash Worshiper - Yes, metal pins join the tombstone to the base and the hoof to the tombstone. Both joints are also reinforced with milliput after the superglue dried. It's pretty strong. If the front hooves were attached to something too, maybe I could do without the pins, but it's not hard to do so better safe than sorry.

@Borgnine - thanks, glad you like my varied vampires. Some of the vamp / necro models I've used are quite Elvish, so this made sense. The dwarf armour is just Warplock Bronze with Balthazaar Gold and then a third lighter highlight, the model itself does a lot of the hard work for you. And to be fair there is nice OSL on the model on the website.

Surprising myself by picking up more character models to slap paint on, I think the sheer numbers of that last Skeleton unit are putting me off a bit. I might try to get some base colours sketched in on the last few characters so I know what direction I'm going.

 

[Woodsie]

Love that old corpse cart.....

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre You've got a nice variety of characters going on there. That list is slowly but surely getting smaller. I wander what that surprise is!

 

[Shadespyre]

Me too, me too!

 

[Shadespyre]

Another job done...

Five final Black Knights to make a total of 15. The colours don't quite match the rest of the unit, which were leftovers from my previous Vampire army and partly repainted, so I don't really know what paints I used, but I don't think it'll be too noticeable.

Updated to Do List

Vampire Lady on Dragon
Vampire Lady on Winged Nightmare
1 x Mounted characters
4 x Foot Characters
Death Elemental
Skeleton regiment (counts-as 50 models with unit fillers)(9 fillers done)
1 x surprise!

Additions:
4 x Huge Werewolves (counts as Crypt Horrors I think)

 

[Nagash Worshiper]

The knights look awesome! The red and black is so fitting to the undead and I think especially in your collection!

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre The classic black knights really fit into your army well, and the painting is beautiful as always.

Which werewolf minis are you using for your Crypt Horrors?

 

[Shadespyre]

There's a reason why black and red is *the* classic look for Undead, certainly!

I picked up a box of the Raging Heroes "WereSheWolves" in their recent sale. I've had an eye on them since the concept drawings, but they are very expensive. At 40% off they were hard to resist!

Putting them together at the moment, they are a bit fiddly and I have no idea how to get them onto suitable bases, one of them doesn't even fit on the 50mm rounds provided...

So I'm just putting them on 40x60 bases, just about big enough!

 

[ZeroTwentythree]

Awesome work as usual. I love that vampire dwarf. The armour, red cloth, and face all work well together on this mini -- great work. I think I commented on the mounted halfling elsehwere -- you've really put Stonehaven on my radar (for me) with these figures.

I'm not as fond of the minotaur. Not that your painting is bad, but the figure is odd. The pose is awkward, the proportions just slightly off, and that axe looks more like a standard than a weapon. Not just the size, but what happens when he tries to swing it from that pose? (Note the position of his left/upper arm.) It also almost seems like it was only made an "undead" figure as an afterthought too. Like it was a regular minotaur, but a couple of boney spots were added to make it look undead.

Nice job on the oldschool (middleschool?) black knights/wights, too. Those are on my Deadcember plate as well. I love that they're a nice mid-point between the unarmoured plastics and the newest black knights. Your basing is one of my favorite basing schemes, but looking at these I was thinking these were a good example of how well you balance colors and details/composition to set a great scene without detracting from the figures themselves.

 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks for all that praise! The paint scheme on the Dwarf just happened that way, sometimes the mini seems to do all the work for you. I stumbled on some Stonehaven halflings on ebay and was instantly impressed, so I was keen to get some of their minis into this project.

You're very right about the minotaur sculpt, on reflection I could have painted it to lessen that contrast between undead and live bits. It's not a great model but I wanted to inclue it as reference to my Beast man army.

I've toyed with adding barding to those horses but didn't like it. They are a classic model of their time, which works in an Undead army if anywhere! There's no great plan to the basing, but I think any army basing scheme needs to enhance rather than overpower the models. It's mostly about tying an army together and giving them a hint of a story.