The Ivy Castle

[Klenval]

Hi there ! Here come my painting log, named "the Ivy Castle".

The first time I thought to make a VC army, I wanted to do it with a "NOrth" theme, like the Scourge in the Warcraft series (and more like in Wrath of the Lich King). Frost skeletons, snow bases, Death Knights count as Vampires, Frostwyrm with the Zombie Dragon kit, etc. But I changed my mind when I thought about a new theme.

I chose to make an VC army with a "plant" feeling, beetwin an evil version of the Briar Rose Castle ruled by a Poison Ivy vampire.

A ruined castle invade by tendrils, brier and ivy. The place is saturated with black magic, which corrupted the plants. A Lahmian interested in this magic effects chose to make this place her lair.


I found etched brass ivy tendrils on the internet, this will help me.

I usually use sealing plaster (?) to make miniature bases, but mine is totally dry, so I tried to make bases from "fimo".

And now painted :

I will add details, fill the brown space with dried tea, add leaves (from birch catkins) etc.


Next, I'll show you WIP of a Vampire on foot, a Necromancer and "Gargoyles" Vargheists.

Thank you for watching !


Klenval


(PS : You can find this in French on my brand new blog. Hope my English is not too bad !)

 

[Brahm Tazoul]

I really like your work on the bases, and your theme (I LOVE themes) sounds very interesting! Subscribed!

Et votre anglais n'est pas mal --->hope THAT wasn't butchered too badly; I haven't spoken french for nearly 2 decades!

Brahm

 

[Cuzzy]

I agree with Brahm, the bases look very nice, although they would look even better when the look more crumbling, if you catch my drift. They all look a little straight and clean, and not really ancient and worn. Maybe that´s an idea for future bases?
The plant theme also sounds very interesting, some dark purple flowers wouldn´t look out of place and add an extra collour to your army (which is always great).
I´m intrigued to see what will happen.

Cheers

 

[warspawned]

Well, I think your theme is well chosen and I look forward to the results!

Your bases look great and I'm interested in the method - it would be good to see a tutorial as the dried tea fascinates me (although I'm English so it's also a horrid waste of perfectly good tea ).

Your English is fine, far better than my French I assure you

Welcome to CN

 

[Klenval]

Hi, and thanks for your comments !

Here are my reposed Vargheists. I wanted to make "gargoyles" Vargheists (like if the mistress of the Ivy Castle had turn them in stone ? With a magical poison and / or an enchantment ?). The left one is less petrified than the middle one, who is less petrified than the right one. The middle one received a Crypt Horror back.

The left Vargheist was quite easy to repose. The right wing was just glue in another pose, I just had to cut a bit the plastic.

His right side is almost all in stone, his left side is turning into flesh.

The right Vargheist was more difficult to repose, I Had to cut a part of the arm and re-sculpt it. But I think it turned OK.

The vargheists are almost finished. I must make bases, and add a Grey codex glaze to soften the purple fades (not sure about the word)



This Necromancer is now waiting to be painted. It was kit-bashed from the Empire Sorcerer box, I just add a zombie scythe at the top of the staff, cut the hair and sculpt a green stuff hood.

Finally, this is a Vampire on foot WIP. It's the first time I try to sculpt chainmail, I hope it won't turn wrong when painted.

Next time, the first 20 skellies with bases. Thank you for reading !


Klen

 

[Brahm Tazoul]

Where are those legs from?

Superb work on the vargeists! They look stupendous! +1 from me...

Brahm

 

[Count Homogenised]

Very nice work on the Vargheists and some good looking 'greenstuffing' as well

 

[krinas]

best vargeist idea i have ever seen for a theme army and most original painting sheme!
good job, I really look forward to see more minis from your army!!

 

[Unanswered]

great work so far, that is some awesome sculpting on the chain mail, i see some advantages to how you sculpted it, sometimes the GW chain mail isn't deep enough and gets too shallow, i think its going to come out extremely well done.

You also started this years fashion trend for petrified Varghiest... you should probably get it trademarked

 

[Cuzzy]

I love your petrified vargheists. It is very well executed and looks amazing.
The chainmail looks really good for a first time. Mine looked more like scales or mutated flesh :lol:

Cheers

 

[F3ar]

Awesome work man, I always wished I would have done more with my bases like a cool textured floor or whatnot, also I love your drybrushing technique on the vargheists, its very effective looks wicked

 

[SotF]

With the Vargheists one thing that might work well for basing is to go with a parapet style, going with a view of the vampire using them to watch from above like the ones in Gargoyles

 

[Klenval]

Thank you all for your feedback !

Where are those legs from?

The legs of the vampire are... the legs of the vampire. The same kit, from the Zombie Dragon. I just cut the upper legs (because he wad sit) and make new upper legs with green stuff, then add the chainmail.

You also started this years fashion trend for petrified Varghiest... you should probably get it trademarked

I'm not the first one to make "gargoyles". I planed to use ghouls with tyranids wings as fel bats, I converted them one year ago but never finish them (need to add some green stuff).

With the Vargheists one thing that might work well for basing is to go with a parapet style, going with a view of the vampire using them to watch from above like the ones in Gargoyles

I thought about that. I bought the Garden of Morr to make bases, but the bits are too tall for the Vargheists. I will probably use them for a second rank of Vargheists (maybe with more reposes ?)



I worked on the bases, and glue the tea (with some birch catkins pieces and static grass) :

The tea could make dead foliage and/or drak soil. Just let dry the tea after drinking, cut the tea bag and spare the tea in a box. Tadaaam :

I have a little box full of tea for more than twelve years ! A history teacher gave me this advice when I was younger (he was a historic wargamer and lead a miniatures club at school ! Good old memories).

I would add more details on the bases. I have flock, and other materials like this "amazone moss". Seriously, I have this for 12-13 years, I don't know what is this. Probably a lichen more than a moss (here is a close up, the little "mushroom" things reminds me some lichen species). It may represent briar tendrils.

And another lichen well known in modelling :

I'll add the details later, I glued the 20 first skellies to the bases. They need more highlight, colours, and of course the banner so it's still a WIP.

And that's a teasing of my work on the Terrorgheist :

Stay tuned. And thank you again for your comments !


Klen

 

[Ravenstein]

I always like skeletons and autumn/dead leaf themes for basing.
The tea you use for basing looks great, can also try dried ground tobacco for basing scatter for variance.
Your regiment is very good work sir!

 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Nice work on the Lord.
I know reposing those legs can be a pain in the arse.

I was considering doing one at some point but laziness always put me off because I know I would have to scratch build a cape as well.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

Please check thread dates gentlemen

 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

6 Months is not that bad and it is a good thread.
Only spotted it because it popped on recent posts to be honest.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

12 months Duke

 

[Ravenstein]

I didn't realise appreciation had an expiry date. My bad.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

It does when you are necroing a thread. Send a PM send some rep but dont dredge up old threads. Locking this topic until the OP requests otherwise

 

[Klenval]

Threadomancy ! Thank you all for your comments. And thanks Jonhy Crass for re-opening the thread.

I'm quite busy painting Space Marines, Warmachine, and lately Tau (and writing, and playing video games, and procrastinating) but I try to paint Vampire Counts to.

So here come my Necromancer, painted a few weeks ago :

And now with his base and more colours on the spellbook (those pics are not great, that's why I posted the previous step) :

Vargheists too have now bases !

I think this basing method is much more convincing that the previous technique. I use wall filler (some kind of plaster ready to use in a tube) that I put on the bases. When it's dry, I sand it, then I carve the line to make paving stones. I'd probably make a step-by-step tutorial with pics, someday.



And now, totally new : the Black Knights. The green on the caparison could be darker, to contrast with the green on the ivy tendrils. I don't know yet if I want to change that.

Some close up on the unit Champion and the musician :

I don't know what is coming next. My Vampire Lord conversion is ready to paint, I have 12 Grave guards and 20 others Skeletons already primed. I need Dryads bits to finish the Terrorgheist and the Mortis "Garden" Engine.

As usual, you can see my other work (mostly Warmachine at these times) on my blog (in my sig).

 

[Raven Torrid]

Ooh, some very nice things here. Love the necro, the smooth conversion looks so natural. Great work on the book as well. Also, always liked the combination of green and red colour, and you pulled it off very nicely. Kudos!

 

[LevDaddy]

Great stuff! Really great looking figures.

I particularly like the scheme you used on the Varghiests.

It's tough to tell with my colorlblind eyes if the skin is green or gray. Do you mind sharing how you did the flesh and the wings?

 

[Shadespyre]

Really glad that this thread has been raised from the dead as it is not dissimilar from my own project. I was wondering about introducing creeping vegetation to some of my models - it would be climbing roses in my case - and now I've seen those Knights I can see how effective it could be.

 

[Mad 'At]

I think the green on the knights' barding looks just great. The ivy helps to tie the colours of the models together very nicely so I'd advise you to keep it like it is. Though I do understand how you feel, I too hate it when two things that weren't supposed to (or would by nature be unlikely to) have the same colour end up pretty much the same way, but for the sake of colour balance it could be worth keeping.

The book looks awesome too, nice idea for image in it.