So. Today I went, at 10am, into Manhattan to watch the FA cup final. I am not a football fan by nature but my hometown managed to reach the final and I wanted to go and watch out of a homesick nostalgia.
Pompey 1 Cardiff City 0
So I left the bar in a very good mood. Amplified by the 5 pints of cider, and full Irish breakfast (Irish bacon, house fries, black pudding, white pudding, toast, baked beans, 2 eggs and a sausage) I had consumed while watching the game. I decided to stop in at Games Workshop to treat myself to something new and shiny.
I bought my first of the new releases. A box of graveguard (I wanted a unit of 20 but they did not have enough in stock) I got this at a discounted price in payment of the maille I made for them.
I got home and began assembly.....
I am not impressed.
As great as they may look they are so out of scale with every other unit of my army that they are very nearly unusable, After building only one I lost interest and went to play with my other toys.
So. I did this:-
The great thing about these new movement tray kits is all the alternate uses you can find for them. In this case a base for my Black Coach. I have been wanting something different for my coach. Not just to keep it more in theme with my army but also just to have fun converting and making something unique.
So I took my bits box and set about planning. I have 2 black coach kits through a random turn of events that occurred back when it was first released. I cut one to bits to make a vampire counts chariot which was never actually completed.
So I took the functioning parts and added them to the model I already had:
I knew I wanted 4 horses. I knew I wanted to eradicate as much of the ridiculuos "vampire" related decoration as I could. and So I went about cutting and filing and filling.
What I had was good:
But there was something still not right, I decided that the curtains and their ridiculous tie decorations had to go. I planned to cut and file the curtains away and replace them with yellow tinted, glass, with a diamond lead pattern effect. But I have very limited tools here and I messed up. So the whole thing had to go. Curtains and frames and the roof now sits in their place:
According to my fluff the Black Coach (Which I don't even think I am going to paint black) is a vampire locked in his coffin and bound with magic. Once the mortal enemy of my Vampire lord, death was deemed to be an unfitting end. So he was given the blood kiss and sealed within this mobile tomb. The mad rage of the unliving inhabitant powers the coach onwards. The vampires starved blood lust drives friendly units and pushes them onwards. The unrelenting screams from within causing terror in the hearts of all who would stand against it.
I did a lot of work on the rigging. I think what I came up with looks rather impressive.
I think the outcome is pretty cool. Maybe someday I will get the urge to revisit this and scratch build a new top portion for the coach. For now though I just want to get it painted and into my army.