The Eternal Court of the Carmine Rose

[Shadespyre]

Now here's a ginger vampire for you...

This is Monique DeNoir from Reaper Miniatures, every Vampire army should have one, it's such a nice miniature. The armour is black with a very, very dark red highlight, it's not so clear in the photos.

And here's a more traditional hair colour...

This one is Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire, from Privateer Press. A rare fighty female on an undead mount. Worth noting that they will sell you bits of models, so you could get the horse or rider separately if you wanted.

Updated to Do List

Vampire Lady on Dragon
1 x Foot Characters
4 x Huge Werewolves (counts as Crypt Horrors)
1 x surprise!

 

[Borgnine]

You're going quickly through your list! The ME is really impressive, especially seeing how quickly you built it The warrior on the pegasus is as sweet as the rest of your vampire amazons in shiny red armour BTW - is this just gloss varnish over red, or something more sophisticated?

The blonde one is very good made, the shade of her hair and skin, together with shaded eyes make a very, very good connection - I'd paint my girls like that if I was going for 'lively' ones Monique Denoir is also very well done, the color scheme is spot-on - that green scabbard looks great with her red hair.
The mounted one is great too of course I especially like that dark and shiny metal - it sits well with her dark red robes.

 

[Shadespyre]

Glad you like these. The red is simply shiny red paint, no extra varnish needed. I paint the armour red, use a heavy black wash, and then build a couple of coats of shiny red back on top. I think the layers give it a little extra depth.

For some reason the eyes on these three have come out more heavily shaded and a little bit large and cartoon-like, but I'm fairly happy with them. I struggle with faces still. If I can get two matching eyes then I stop! I'm tempted to go back to some other models and try again in this style, the models generally look better in your hand than they do in these big pictures.

 

[Shadespyre]

(Latest SheWereWolf WIP is in the What's Everyone Working On section...)

 

[Borgnine]

Oh yeah, there was so much from you that I missed it.

That cold blue is nice, would make for a nice contrast amongst your predominatly warm miniatures - but in my opinion it's way too light. I envisioned her as being almost completely black, in various shades of black actually, warm and cold for example. While you may find that excessive, some washing may make her darker and cooler. Hair could use then some warm brown highlights to bring out the contrast even more.

Nevertheless, it's a great model and you're doing a fine job on it - although I still cannot take seriously a werewolf with boobs

 

[Shadespyre]

I've got four of these enboobened* werewolves to paint, I think I've decided they will all be different colour schemes. I don't hate this one enough to start again but I don't like it enough to paint three more. A nearly all black one as you describe and a reddish-brown one I think, then maybe a much paler one too.

*enboobened is totally a word, used recently in the "Grrrl Power" superhero web-comic about a female were-creature.

*Also, for a discussion of female werewolves and boobs, there is a bit in "The Brothers Cabal" by Jonathan Howard where the effects of the difference in number of nipples between wolf and human is discussed. It's not pretty!

 

[Shadespyre]

Grey SheWereWolf is finished...

Quite happy with this colour scheme now, but I'm still going to paint them all differently...

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre The ginger hair has turned out really well with the black armour and red clothing. I've seen this mini painted a fair few times and you definitely took an interesting approach to painting yours.

The grey wolf looks great too. She looked a bit blueish in the previous shot but you've tied the colours together nicely. Cool mounted vamp too, she's got a really striking pose and, once again, the colours you've used fit really well.

I'd like to see an army shot of yours when you finally get through your list. Doesn't seem like that'll be too long now

 

[Shadespyre]

Glad you like the new additions We are indeed coming to the end of the list...

Updated to Do List

Vampire Lady on Dragon
1 x Foot Characters
1 x surprise!

Plus I will take a last sort through my collection in case I missed anything...

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre Excellent work mate. I really like the way you've painted the she-wolves, the black and blonde ones in particular. That's a very interesting unit of minis you've got there.

 

[Shadespyre]

@Farmer7574 Thanks, glad you like them. I've got to admit I haven't enjoyed these minis very much - I didn't find them easy or fun to assemble or paint, to be honest - but they have come out pretty well in the end.

I started going through my boxes looking for any models I missed. I found a Reaper Bones lady who I think will become the permanent rider for that thrown-together ME and some models which don't fit the theme of the army (i.e. too male!), but not much else...

Vampire Lady on Dragon
2 x Foot Characters
1 x surprise!

I started work on the "surprise" model. It's really a surprise because I don't know what to use it for. It's a cracking model though, one I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone use here. I'll probably post a picture at some point and ask for ideas for how to use it...

 

[robtion]

@Farmer7574 Thanks, glad you like them. I've got to admit I haven't enjoyed these minis very much - I didn't find them easy or fun to assemble or paint, to be honest - but they have come out pretty well in the end.

I started going through my boxes looking for any models I missed. I found a Reaper Bones lady who I think will become the permanent rider for that thrown-together ME and some models which don't fit the theme of the army (i.e. too male!), but not much else...

Vampire Lady on Dragon
2 x Foot Characters
1 x surprise!

I started work on the "surprise" model. It's really a surprise because I don't know what to use it for. It's a cracking model though, one I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone use here. I'll probably post a picture at some point and ask for ideas for how to use it...

Any hints on what the surprise model might be? Maybe we could have a guessing competition

Plog is looking great by the way. You have been busy. I particularly like the Vampiress on nightmare and ginger vampiress

 

[Nagash Worshiper]

Perhaps it's an undead jack in the box?

 

[Shadespyre]

@Nagash Worshiper Hahaha! Nice one!

Having a nightmare day, I wrecked two miniatures by trying to spray undercoat them when it's too cold - paint went all bobbly and cracked, so I gave up and binned them both

Clues? Okay it's female, and it's not a GW miniature...

 

[Borgnine]

Werewolves are simply terrific. My favourite has to be the black one probably, with the blond one second - but they are all great. You gave them much flavour with that colours, they don't look like random minions, but a good, characterful unit

And regarding that surprise. I wanted to ask if it's a vampire, but that wouldn't be probably much of a surprise. Is she a ghost maybe?

 

[Shadespyre]

Definitely not a vampire, but "ghost maybe?" is a good description!

 

[robtion]

One of the reaper ghost ladies perhaps? They have lots of nice ghost models.

 

[Borgnine]

I have my idea what could it be, but I don't want to spoil the surprise if I'm right - and maybe I'll be surprised still

 

[Shadespyre]

@robtion They sure do, but that would just be a counts-as banshee or wraith or spirit host; not much of a conundrum.

@Borgnine If you put it in a message to me I'll sit on it until the big reveal, then we can see how clever you are

 

[Shadespyre]

Here we go.... the last Necromancer?

This lady will be the permanent pilot of the thrown-together Mortis Engine

And here's possibly the last Vampire on foot...

Another nice model from Reaper, I went with the red lacquered armour effect again. Perhaps needs one last layer of highlights on the skin, but nearly there.

To Do List:

Vampire Lady on Dragon
1 x surprise!

Yes, probably a few more things in future, but...

 

[Borgnine]

Cool work on them! You surely know how to turn any female model into a vampiress Love the second one, especially her red armor - I just can't get enough of this in your army That silver sword breaks the reddness of that model nicely, nice composition. What's on her shield?

 

[Shadespyre]

Oh, her shield has a similar batty symbol to Monique's, in this case I did it in gloss red as well. I know I should have filed them off and replaced them with roses, but it's a lot of work and a risk of damaging their lovely hair!

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre Totally agree with Borgnine on the armour, it's very Vlad-the-Impaler-esque and looks really cool! Great work as always

 

[Shadespyre]

Thank you sir

Started in on the Dragon. This is very much "sketching in" colours, not even a proper basecoat yet. All my "zombie" dragons are green, but I want to keep this red because it's a Carmine Dragon! I know where I want to go with the scales - highlighting very dark red up to approximately the old Red Gore colour - but not sure about the rest. I think I want to keep the underside dark and neutral, which is why I've gone for dark grey so far. And "natural" horns and claws. My first instinct was purple for the mouth, but I'm wondering if green / turquoise might work, as these are spotted around the army.

Not pictured are rider and her seat. She will be in "traditional" Mechrite red cloth, maybe some ivory colours, and gold, while the chair is mostly grey stone and roses.

Any and all suggestions appreciated!

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre Awesome miniature, glad you've gotten around working on it

I love your choice of colours, the dark red scales will look great with grey and the naturally-coloured claws & bones will stand out perfectly against the red. Purple would've been my choice for the mouth too but you may be onto something with turquoise!

Looking firward to seeing you progress with this mini. Nice basing BTW.