The Vampire Condesa of Estalia

[Minty]

Today, I have been mostly painting Banshees.

Which is to say, I've been painting Blood Knights for the past two weeks and just needed a break from red-red-red.

I loved painting my Bretonnian knights. Every one has his or her own colours, heraldry, personality even. I painted 48 and never got board. Painting five Blood Knights in the same colours feels like a chore after that. I've been spoiled.

So I decided to switch things up and paint Banshees today. three of them. Too many? Perhaps, but I love the feel of them. they mightn't be the best choice in the army book... They might not even be the best choice in the Hero slot, but a man's got to follow his heart, and my heart says dead girls, yes please. (Not something to which I would normally admit...)

I present Lenore, Ines & Carmina

I think I've slightly improved my ethereal technique, but for that, it's the same style I used for my Hexwraiths, and will use on further ethereal models.

Like the Hexwraiths, they're highlighted with fluorescent dye which gives off light under white light. It's subtle for the most part, but when I compared one model with the dye to another before highlighting it really was a shocking difference. I wish it showed up better in the photos...

And with that, back to the... ohhh, back to the blood Knights...

 

[Borgnine]

Very nice banshees you have there! They surely look good when there are three of them, as a whole, three sister of some sort - I like it! And the green is so vivid, that's nice too. Those are reaper models, am I right?

And I feel you about bretonnians - it's so good about them that every single one is unique. Undead are totally diffrent from that and I'm also getting bored sometimes.

Good luck with the Blood Knights!

 

[thomasck888]

GREEEN:zombie::zombie::zombie:

I personally think the wolves are the most impressive of the lot so far... the touch of green around the dead flesh worked really well. I'm also really digging the green eyes across the board... I may have to do that in my army... it's a subtle way to tie all the forces together, and it ties into the lore! I just finished reading the Liber Necris today and it talks about the green glow in an animated subjects eyes... way cool.

All that being said.. I agree... not enough contrast on the reaper knights.

Oh and.. base your minis. if you just plain don't like the way it looks you just plain haven't figured out how to do it well yet. BASE YOUR MODELS. They deserve it.

 

[Constant Drachenfels]

I really like the skellies, very nice paintjob there. But the "raw" bases are a downer. It's like having a great new stylish suit and then wearing dirty sneakers with it. Luckily that's something you can correct any time you feel like it. ^^

 

[Minty]

GREEEN:zombie::zombie::zombie:

I personally think the wolves are the most impressive of the lot so far... the touch of green around the dead flesh worked really well. I'm also really digging the green eyes across the board... I may have to do that in my army... it's a subtle way to tie all the forces together, and it ties into the lore! I just finished reading the Liber Necris today and it talks about the green glow in an animated subjects eyes... way cool.

I envy you possessing that book, Damned if I can find a copy for less than a king's ransom... I also agree that the Wolves are probably the best of the lot, which is a shame in a lot of ways.

Oh and.. base your minis. if you just plain don't like the way it looks you just plain haven't figured out how to do it well yet. BASE YOUR MODELS. They deserve it.

I really like the skellies, very nice paintjob there. But the "raw" bases are a downer. It's like having a great new stylish suit and then wearing dirty sneakers with it. Luckily that's something you can correct any time you feel like it. ^^

Perhaps I've not figured out how to do it well (in fact I certainly have not) but has nobody figured out how to do it well? I look at other people's minis and see wonderful paintjobs, spoiled by basing.

Basing makes your minis look worse (to me).

There, I said it. It's true.

I admit, before I knew anything about the hobby I saw some random mini somewhere and thought 'Oh, there's even sand on the base, that's sort of cool'. I thought it was a fun gimmick.

Then I learned that it was, bizarrely, standard practice. It baffles the imagination. The idea that someone would take care to paint up a nice mini and then decide it's not done without beach sand and surplus asbestos fibres in a shade of atomic green unknown to nature.

Last year a friend of mine suddenly said in the middle of a game, out-of-the-blue 'hey, none of your models are based!'. He was surprised, shocked even. I'd been playing this guy for over a year at that point - he'd seen my Elves grow from 500 points to 2'500, week by week. He'd never once noticed that every mini has a plain black base.

Well of course he hadn't. The eye just slides right over a plain black base, ignores it, edits it out of reality. When he looks at my army all he sees are painted models (since I've never fielded an unpainted one). When I look at the painted parts of his army all I see are little squares of sand dotted with spiky tufts of acid-green pubes.

I am aware that mine is a minority position, but what bothers me is that my fully-painted (and I don't just mean three colours) armies with inconspicuous plain black bases catch more flak and provoke more opprobrious comments than the rest of my club's unpainted armies combined.

You'll never hear anyone at my club say 'Are you going to paint that unit, Clive?', but 'You should really flock your bases, Minty' is a regular thing every few months. It rather gets to a chap...


It seems that in our hobby, painting is entirely optional, but you have to sand and flock your god damned bases.

 

[Theerteen]

I think it's just a usual procedure on the way to build up an army. If you don't want to, don't do it. In my eyes the bases do the best job to show the (and yes, I had to google this word) togetherness of the minis. What they do even in your case too, of course. I like based minis a lot, for the fluff and the "finish" of the model, but heck, why should one be forced to do so?

 

[Corien Sumatris]

I'm going to have to agree with Theerteen here. It's sad to see a fully painted army on the table that isn't based. You spent all of this time painting these models and it takes very little time to "Finish" them. I mean, I don't even flock mine, and I glue the sand onto them during the building phase, so now my basing steps are literally included in my painting step.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Cudos on some very nicely painted models. But must have a stab at the basing yes or no. Or ugly or not. Im all for nice basing but hate just Green bases with some static on them. You say you think it looks ugly to base. So i just wanted to show you just how nice bases can be. And this is Not My models im not even half as good as this guy but plz look at them perhaps you will change youre mind.
http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=38416.0

 

[Minty]

@Rigor Mortis... At the risk of sounding deliberately obtuse, I actually consider those bases worse than most.

Don't misunderstand, I appreciate the technical expertise, the time and effort that's gone into them. But really, some of those minis are almost half obscured by the basing. It comes up to their waists! The Demigryphs... I had to examine the picture closely to tell where the Demigryphs stopped and the bases began... A wonderful army ruined by basing. I'd take sand and flock any day over that mess.

The only basing I've ever liked is this. And even that doesn't really improve the models much, merely doesn't detract from them.

 

[Minty]

My first army was High Elves, a fact I alluded to above, in fact...

Actually, I sold my elves just a couple of weeks ago. I was new to the game and didn't fully understand how the armies played and the truth is, I started High Elves partially because they are in Island of Blood. I know, bad way to make a decision.

Anyhoo, I bring it up because I really enjoyed painting my High Elf Dragon Princes. Wonderful models and I had a blast doing it. They turned out okay too! Bonus!

So you'll understand, I was really looking forward to painting the Dragon Princes I bought to be blood Knights.

It just wasn't the same. Painting them just dragged, it wasn't a lot of fun and painting red, red, red oh and more red sapped the soul. Bretonnia has spoiled me.

Nevertheless, after taking a break to paint my Banshees (bags of fun) I buckled down and finished the Blood Knights.


We all know that if one's not having fun painting, the finished product will be poorer than it ought to be, nevertheless, all criticism is appreciated.

The only part of the paintjob I'm really satisfied with, and the only part I really enjoyed painting is the banner (those two facts are directly related). The Condesa's symbol is an eclipse, but until now, I've not really had anything to paint it on.

Actually, I really do have to get some more banners in the army. My favourite scenario is Blood and Glory, but this army is terrible at it right now!

Well, they're done now. Now it's time for my Black Knights and Wight King... Oooh, just wait for my Wight King! Hehehe!

 

[Minty]

I bought ten Hexwraiths, because I love them, and got Black Knight bitz in the boxes, of course. Some time later, I swapped some minis for a few biscuit tins full of ods and sods, including eleven 4th ed Skeletal Horses. These facts combined gave me ten Black Knights!

I painted their metalwork dull and rusty, mildewing and mould-crusted. I like it and it matches the rest of my skeletons.

I have to say, I really like the models, though. they were fun to paint. Moreso than the Blood Knights, though that may be because there's simply more to painting them than red everywhere!

They have a feeling of age to them which really appeals. The only downside is that these citadel Skeletons and Horses have no eyes, and thus, no glowing green eyes as the rest of my army has. I considered greenstuffing things, but I simply haven't the fine skill to do it.


In amongst other things I've also painted up another fifty Zombies, and two Banners.

Banner one is the Death glyph from Mage: the Awakening. I painted it as though daubed in blood. the Zombie carrying it has had his head lopped off and the banner pole stuck in the stump.

Banner two (which I didn't take a shot of!) Has 'Un Sol Negro se alza' (A Black Sun rises) written on it, with no picture or charge. Again, as though daubed with paint. I cannot imagine any of my characters spending too long making nice banners for Zombies. Banner two is simply thrust into the back of a zombie.

 

[Shareya]

Oh god The zombie that ripped it's head off looks awesome.

 

[Minty]

Thanks!

S'funny how these things work out, but I never noticed that it looks like he pulled his own head off! I always imagined that one of my Necromancers cut a random Zed's head off, stuck the banner pole in and then he picked it up again. He's trying to put his head back on, unable to process the fact that there's a ten foot pole sticking out of his neck and getting in the way.

I mean, I wouldn't trust a Zombie to carry anything remotely important, much better just to ram the pole through one and not have to worry...

 

[Ustrello]

Ah that is a pretty awesome banner man good job!

 

[Minty]

Often, when I'm writing a list I find myself with points left over. Quite a few points, but not quite enough to add a whole 'nother unit. I find myself thinking that a naked Level 1 Necromancer would be just right.

I took the time out from painting yet more Bretonnian Knights (feel free to assume I'm painting them all the time unless explicitly told otherwise) to add a third Necromancer to my army.

I took some group shots.

My Master Necromancer, The Unholy One is in the centre, flanked by Valentina on the right and the new guy, Vicente, on the left. And Vicente's little friends (say hello to them).

I finally managed to get a decent shot of Valentina's orb thingie. First (and so far only) wet blending I ever did. It actually sort of works too. Doesn't get much better than that!

 

[untitled_musketeer]

Awesome looking army. You have a real nice mix of minis. Gotta hand it to you, I really like that ethereal green. I also really like the metal work on the Black Knights. How did you pull it off, I want to do something like that with some Chaos Knights I've started but not finished.

As for the bases, I can see your argument, but I have to also admit the base is one of the favourite bits to model and one of the things I can toil at for several hours/days. I think 10 years ago, basing was something that was just about sand and acid green static grass. It never really did much for me either. But then I discovered Jakob Nielsen's basing technique and fell in love with basing a little more. There are so many awesome products out there now it's become so much more than beard stubble on builder's sand.

At the end of the day, you have to do what works for you, and as others have said, basing is always something that can be done at a much later date. The hobby is a very personal thing and I think for many of us, myself included, minis don't seem done until they are based. This is perhaps a failing because so long as the paintwork is good what should it matter?

Anyway, if you do ever think it's something worth pursuing, you might want to check out these guys. They are people who make basing look cool.

http://www.jrn-works.dk/

Honour Guard Facebook
Honour Guard CMON

Massive Voodoo Basing


Look forward to seeing more of your work pal,

u_m

 

[Seneschal]

The knights are great, as is everything else. I love the attention to detail.
That green effect...wow, it's like what I was trying to do years ago but couldn't quite perfect.

 

[Minty]

Thank you both!

It may be that glowy green is my one legit skill as a painter. Must resist urge to use it on everything!

All the same, I'm thrilled that it seems to work!

Awesome looking army. You have a real nice mix of minis. Gotta hand it to you, I really like that ethereal green. I also really like the metal work on the Black Knights. How did you pull it off, I want to do something like that with some Chaos Knights I've started but not finished.

The Knight's metalwork is fairly simple. primed white and block-colour boltgun metal. A heavyish drybrush of scorched brown on some places, a heavyish drybrush of goblin green in others and a light speckling of blazing orange on top of the brown.

 

[benvoliothefirst]

Your whole army looks great. I love the colors on the ethereal stuff.

I may have to steal your idea for the zombie standard bearer... great work!

 

[Minty]

By all means steal (and post pictures!) In fact, I think half the reason for army journals is to inspire others (the other half is to be criticised).

 

[Thindol]

Nice stuff. I really like your painting style. You seemed to pull it off with some skill. I follow your Brets too. I really do like your stuff.

One last kick at the can for basing, have you tried the new GW texture paint? Maybe that will be what you are seeking. Heck, if you want I will buy a couple pots and mail them to you if you'd like to try them on empty bases to see how they look. The stirland mud, blackfire earth and lustrian undergrowth would all be sharp.

Also, why on gods green earth do you have the my little pony avatar?

 

[Minty]

Thank you kindly!

I'm familiar with texture paint, GW and others. What people seem to miss about basing, or at least, my specific beef with basing is that it doesn't matter how technically accomplished it is. Basing detracts from the model. The 'better' the basing, the more obnoxious it becomes. A plain black base is invisible on the tabletop - the mind simply edits it out, ignores it.


As for my avatar:

A) Princess Celestia is my favourite pony.

b) When I was a growing up in <country deleted> there were only two English-language cartoons, He-Man and My Little Pony. I watched both. Everyone did, boys and girls watched both because that was all there was.

In other words (and I feel dirty even using the phrase, but it's actually true) I liked My Little Pony before it was cool.

 

[Minty]

Long old time since I've posted anything here...

I've been painting Wood Elves (and a little Bretonnian spice here and there) so nothing new to show for my Vampires.

Until now.

I've wanted a BSB for a long time. A Vampire BSB. Yes, I know Wight Kings would appear to be the better choice, but dammit, no! Vampires are cooler.


Anyhoo, I want a BSB, but the whole idea doesn't sit right with me. A BSB waves a flag to inspire the troops. Stop me if you see where I'm going.

Our troops are dead. Moral ceased to be an issue long before they reached the battlefield. Our BSB does not inspire troops, but mitigates Crumble. That is, our BSB should not be carrying a flag, but should provide some kind of magical reinforcement. Should enhance and empower the spells which animate the army.

So, how does that happen?

Simple - a Vampire BSB rips out the enemy's souls and uses them to fuel the dead.

Allow me to present my BSB, Calliste the Defiler.

I wanted a model which stands out as much as a regulation BSB, but which fits my feels about undead BSBs. A stealer of souls. A sorcerers nexus of necromantic power.

I don't know if I nailed it perfectly - these things never look as good as they do in the mind's eye, but she certainly stands out.

YOUR SOUL IS MINE!

 

[Seneschal]

That is a very original idea, I must say. I may have done the vampire's armor differently but that's just personal preference.
Good job.

 

[Minty]

I may have done her armour differently too, but my Lord's armour is black with gold details and... Y'know, now that I come to put it into words that seems like a really arbitrary reason to chose a model's colour scheme, but what's done is done.

Thanks, though!