The Legion of Albrecht Van Bras - W.I.P.

[ElementZero]

The dead of HelFenn rise after many years of decomposing. The look that I was going for is warpstone fueled bones for the skeletal units and decomposing flesh on recently deceased units such as zombies and dire wolves.

My vampire lord is Albrecht Van Bras, a "retired" witch hunter who was forcefully turned by Walach Harkon at Blood Keep after showing perseverance in the arena. At first he submitted to Harkon but whilst at Castle Drakwald, he read about Jerek Von Carstien and his exploits as an Empire-loyal vampire. From then on he worked to help the empire in a clandestine manner.

He was prepared to die as Nagash rose due to his disloyalty but it seems that he is not perceived as a threat. THis may be due to Vlad's uneasy "alliance" with Karl Franz.

Enough with backstory, here are the miniatures so far (About 1750pts):​

Finished Morghast (not green because not from HelFenn)

1 Unit of dire wolves

Skeleton Warriors

Necrotect and Tomb Prince (from left to right)

The inside of my Casket in progress (The Garden of Morr)

Grave Guard with Van Bras

Albrecht Van Bras himself (Needs highlighting)
​

That is it for now with my WIP army. I will post more once the Casket is finished.
What I have so far overall is this

Vamp Lord
Tomb Prince
Necrotect
50 skeletons
10 Dire wolves
30 GG
20 Zombified Gnoblars
2 Morghast Archai
Casket of sould conversion

Not sure what I need next but am working on these until I know.
Thanks preemptively for any comments.
-Zero-

 

[Mad 'At]

Nice background. Undead helping the living is always interesting in my book.

Can't see the images though. Testing the links they lead to I think it's because we need to be logged in to the sharing site to view them. Many use sharing sites like photobucket or imgur for this reason.

 

[ElementZero]

I have uploaded the images to Photobucket and thank you for telling me as I could see them perfectly and would never have spotted the problem.

I will upload more as soon as I have done my next few minis. Should I post army photos? Should I show conversions I am doing in progress?

I am soon going to convert the Morghast kit into one Necrolith Colossus and one Hierotitan.

Sorry for another post but I was just clearing the earlier problem up.
-Zero-

 

[Mad 'At]

Images works fine now, and what's in them looks great. You have a nice eerie feel to the minis, and I definitely approve of removing the ghost bits that hold the Morghast in the air. Making him use his feet looks so much better.

Here in the Dead Shall Walk subforum many member keep their own plog (painting blog), which are progressively updated with posts of the latest additions to their army. A plog is a very personal place where you can post whatever you feel is fitting, and want to get response at. And we all love pictures so the more you post of that the happier we get

 

[Adam_Barrow]

That Casket is looking awesome.

 

[ElementZero]

Thanks Adam, I am pretty happy with it, fortunately, and I am happy I found my Garden of Morr. The guards and wizard on the casket will be on separate bases so as to be removed as they are warmachine crew.

I was going for sort of an inevitable doom look with my army. In my other armies I really liked doing mobile miniatures jumping off rocks and down stairs but for this army I like slowly walking evil creatures coming for you.

Any way, some quick pictures and some questions:

Another picture of the casket of souls
The spirits are the wing bits from the Morghast kit that look like they are being sucked downwards to create the power dice

I have an obsession with including pet birds in my miniatures as the ones that have birds on them seem to perform better in games (a theme throughout my armies)

My Morghasts
​

Q&A
I have no clue how I should do the blades on the Morghasts. Suggestions?
Some comments have emerged that the Morghasts don't blend with the rest of the army. Do you agree and if so how could I fix it?
Do you want more close ups of each miniature and/or army pics?
Do you mind that I paint pretty quickly as I may be uploading pretty often over the next week and it may be a bit of an onslought?

Thanks
-Zero-

 

[ObliviJohn]

Wow, those are really nice looking. I like the undeady green color you got going on the cleaver and wings.
Very nice barren looking bases. I wish you had a WiP picture since I'm not too familiar with the mortghasts.

Maybe just bone scythes?

 

[ElementZero]

Thanks ObliviJohn, In the final army I will have 4 Morghasts and as such will post pics when I get the second box of them.
What specifically did you want to see about them, I will try to include it when I convert the next two?

The green is the theme throughout my army. The skeletons that have been in HelFenn have become laced with all of the warpstone that is resurrecting zombies left right and center.

I am trying to make the bases blend in more with the glowing skeletons but am going to finish everything first.

The tufts that I am using are actually out of production now which sucks as I only have 3 big ones and 6 small ones left.

I need a GW miniature to convert a VC looking Hierotitan from but am stumped. Any ideas?
Same question for 3 VC chariots

Thanks
-Zero-

 

[ObliviJohn]

Top of my head says the scythe guy from the necrons for hierotitan. Maybe I'll have something more when I sleep on it =)

 

[Adam_Barrow]

C'tan Nightbringer Is the Necron guy. I use him for my Heiro. There's pics on the last page of my plog. Link in sig.

 

[ElementZero]

Update!!

I have converted some zombie summoning filler and painted more grave guard. I have used the grave guard painting as a task to gain me the reward of painting more of my casket. (Not much more though as I don't want to be too productive)

If you want more information on my method I could post a sort of guide for doing the miniatures. (Due to my limited painting skill it has to be pretty simple.

Here are some of the new minis:

The Gnombies (or Zomblars)

GG unit filler step something

GG unit filler step something later

All of the GG on my agenda

Guard of the casket and the Necromancer proxy until I get the mini

Casket so far

GG unit so far once bases were done
​

Not much on the agenda for the next few weeks of this army other than painting up what I already have.
I am set on getting the morghast kit to create one Necrolith colossus and one Hierotitan. The Necrolith colossus will have the two swords from the kit and will be positioned so as to look vicious. The Hierotitan will have a large Tome and a staff and will be positioned stolidly. The god Ptra would have had Morghasts for more than just the purpose of fighting bad guys, so that is my reasoning behind the conversions.

Some quick info on my conversions. I do not do conversions without having reasonable lore to back them up so I will not be using the Ctan Nightbringer although it is a good idea.

I will also be converting a gaggle of vampire miniatures as a cult of them who follow the empire as I like to think that Albrecht has converted some vampires back into loyal empire warriors. Look out for those if you like what I have done so far.

That is all for now I believe
Thanks
-Zero-

 

[Theerteen]

Boy, your stuff looks awesome so far. A really good idea what you are going for, that warpstone thing everywhere works great! I'm excited where this will go

 

[ElementZero]

Here is another update on what I did recently. Some work on the bases and the unit filler on the skeletons. I also continued work on the casket and started the wight king.

Here are then pics and then some Q and hopefully A:

Wight King

Unit filler

Skeleton unit

Casket-W.I.P.

Casket from the side
​

I am trying to get the Wight king to blend in with his unit but also stand out as someone regal but am having trouble doing so. Any ideas?
Does anyone know which kit would be best converted into a VC chariot unit?
Any suggestions for miniatures that may benefit the army (anything that is lacking)?

There will not be a lot of interesting conversions in future as I am focusing on finishing what I have but I may do some small things that I am planning on summoning in future.

Thanks again
-Zero-

 

[Atrophus]

I think for the Wight king a cloak would help.
That or something to stand on to raise him up.

For the chariots, the tomb kings kit isn't bad, change the skeletons for vc ones and change the iconography to more VCish stuff, bats/wings/fangs/spirits.

And awesome job, I especially like the morghasts keep it up

 

[ElementZero]

Thanks for the advice. I was going to use the TK chariot but want to try to include one chariot that is slightly different just for fun. May use the altar of Sigmar mini.

I am sorry for another post but thought that I should do some army pics:

Casket and dire wolves

Skellies with TP and Herald/Necrotect (not sure)

Albrecht and unit

Zomblars/Gnombies and Morghasts

Whole army
​

I am planning on converting a female vamp character with the black periapt. Could you nae some female GW miniatures for me to base the conversion off?

Thanks again and sorry for the extra post
-Zero-

 

[Theerteen]

Has it to be GW? If yes, DE witches or the ME maidens (mounted vampires? Or on foot?) If there is no urgent need for GW, try Leonora from Gamezone? (have her too, love the model)

 

[ElementZero]

Thanks but it has to be GW miniatures as I mainly play at a GW store and the people there are slightly serious about that particular policy. What are the ME maidens.

 

[Adam_Barrow]

The vampiresses from the Mortis Engine. ME for short.

 

[Theerteen]

Ah ok. Yeah ok that was misleading, I meant the female vampires on the coven throne...Good chance to get them as they are spare parts when the kit is used as Mortis Engine

 

[Count Vashra]

Nice work here. Albrecht looks quite impressive in the first post.

 

[ElementZero]

I just re-purposed my old LOTR miniatures and my empire battle wizards over the weekend into some spirit hosts and 2 necromancers for my army

Here are the photos:

Spirit hosts

Numbah 1

Numbah 2

Leftover dude

Necros (I know they are pretty similar, it doesnt bother me as they will usually be summoned or something anyways)
​

That is all so far, I will paint them over the week.

The list saw 2 games over the weekend and came out pretty well but I am slightly disappointed about the stopping power of my units as hey manage to do almost no wounds and win only by the prowess of my vampire and the durability of my GG. I wanted to know if you guys knew of a unit that can act as both a hammer and an anvil? Also is if I place my vampire in another unit, is there a way to keep my GG viable as they lose alot of wound dealing capability? (I cant take Great Weapons as the minis are already built but was thinking along the lines of characters)

Thanks
-Zero-

 

[Hutobega]

Wow looks so cool!!!!! I love the green ethereal look. Most of my ghosts, wraiths and hexes look kind of like that! I went with a normal skeleton look but damn your stuff looks so cool! I need to get end times book so i can take a look at those morghasts they are cool models are they good in game?

 

[ElementZero]

They have not died in one game as it is easy to restore wounds to them and they are pretty durable with T5 and 4W. They win combats as they deal 1-2 wound each on average to most units per round of combat and do not take many wounds in return. The aura of -1 wound combat res is very useful surprisingly and has saved my GG unit and my Vamp lord from combat res. The best way to take them is in twos or in 4 in a 2x2 formation as they lose no attacks. It is also very easy to flank with them.

Hope this has helped
-Zero-

 

[Adam_Barrow]

Good synopsis, @ElementZero .

 

[ElementZero]

Very quick update as it is late:

WIP Necromancers
​

I am overhauling my list and am adding 2 LVL 2 Undeath necromancers
I will get more done tomorrow
Thanks
-Zero-