The Vampires of Aufruhrburg

[ExcelDamage]

In the sprawling Mansion of Aufruhrburg, looming eerily over the sombre town of Essenstadt, live ancient creatures of incredible power, The Aufruhrburg Vampire Count Family! Torn by bloodlust and familial feuding, they are slowly losing their grip on their land, and must secure their dominion over the poor, unfortunate souls of Essenstadt, before it is too late...
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Just a little fluff for you there will post some more/better when I'm less tired!

For now, on to the log! I've made a Hobby Pledge at my local GW, to collect/paint 3,000pts of Vampire Counts, plus 750pts of SoM Gribblies, by 01/07/2012!!

Fairly foolish, I know (for my speed of painting at least), but not impossible... it helps that I already have most of the army as well! So I decided this would be a great time to make my first Project Log here, as I've been lurking/occassionally posting here for a while now, and want to get a little more involved

So as stated, the goal here is 3,750pts by the 1st of July. The army is primarily based around a decently sized core of Skeletons (2 units of 40, and another of 50), led by a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon and supported by 3 Vampire Heroes, two on foot, one mounted.

The army also contains a unit of 5 Vargheists, a unit of 5 Black Knights, and a Black Coach. Not as much as I was hoping to fit into an army of this size, but I suppose thats what I get for taking all those beefy characters!

Still not sure what I'll be doing for the Monster allotment, but I'll get to that later.

For now, I'll just show what I've got started on and leave it at that...

Vampire, Lena, first finished model for the army

Vampire, Eckehart, husband of Lena and one of 3 heirs to the House

Skeletons, really need to get started on these, there’s a LOT in this army!

Vargheist, 1 of 5 done (still needs to be based)

Zombie Dragon, very slow WiP between other things for now

That'll be all for now then I think... sorry if the pics are too big ^^; will try and fix that soon!

C&C very much appreciated, as well as any other questions

 

[Mannerheim27]

Great work so far. You're really moving along with your force. Your choice of colors is good. One thing you could try would be to try some washes on the minis. You could use some Devlan Mud on the skeletons and the Varg. This will help create incredibly smooth results on your minis. Just a thought. Looking good otherwise.

All the best,

Jake

 

[Jacques Dauger De Cavoye]

Looks like a great start, and I agree with the washes, they will really improve the contrast, make the brights really pop, etc. I like the colors and your use of highlighting as well, keep this updated.

 

[Dogmar]

I really like your painting style. It is unique and confers nice results. Just like Jake said you could use some washes on your models to improve your results even more, and that without a lot of additional work.

Only thing I'm not that sold of is the purple/pink flesh colour on the Zombie Dragon. I'd have gone for a more red-ish colour for muscles and kept it darker to be more in tone with the rest of the model. I don't know, it's a bit hard to explain, I hope you get it. In the end it's all personal preference of course.

Cheers,

Dogmar

 

[ExcelDamage]

Hey cheers very much for the comments all!

On the subject of washes, do you guys mean an all over wash, or just something in the recesses/undersides of everything... as as much as i do appreciate the advice (trust me, i really do), I also really like how the skin came out on the vargheist and kinda want to avoid messing with it as much as possible ^^; (good god, i always do this when i get helpful advice! Xo )

And as for the Zombie Dragon's pink muscles, I did them that colour to match the Pink/Blue scheme of the rest of the army, though of course he's far from done, as the bone is going to be almost white at the end, and the skin will be blending quickly from black to turquoise, then on the edges from that to a light blue-grey (chaos black -> hawk turquoise -> space wolves grey)... that's the plan for now at least... I'll do a test area on it first to see how it looks, and then just kinda wing it from there (speaking of winging it, i still have no idea what colour to do the wing membranes themselves, maybe black to warlock purple?)

No more updates just yet, but should have some coming real soon thanks again for the helpful comments!

 

[Dogmar]

Ok the answer you won't like about washing things is this: It depends!

I'd generally advise to put a wash into almost all recess areas except when you already started your layering with a quite dark tone as you've done on your Vargheists for example. They are looking very good already (I especially dig the wings) and don't need a wash, although I wouldn't ruin the model either if you are careful. But for those already finished models being careful is the most important thing. Normally you can apply a wash by sticking the brush directly into the pot and putting it all over the model. In this case though I'd use a small brush and only apply it to the very recesses where you think a certain detail looks to flat or that a certain area needs a little more shading. On the bones of your ZD and Skellies though you will LOVE devlan mud. Apply it all over them and have the wash do half the layering (which you are a fan of obviously ) for you.

Hopefully this helps. Really, don't overuse washes on the models already finished, give it a careful try but don't mess up your clean highlights I normally wash before applying crisp details and I think this will work best for your as well.

 

[Santawraith]

Love the highlighting, and as was said above you have a unique style that pleases the eye.

Your blending is awesome, though I do kind of agree with the others. A wash of any kind helps in the blending process beautifully. (Though I do admit to being addicted to the washes, I swear I go through gallons of them within the course of a year! )

All in all, I look forward to seeing more from you. erv:

 

[Brahm Tazoul]

Hey cheers very much for the comments all!

On the subject of washes, do you guys mean an all over wash, or just something in the recesses/undersides of everything... as as much as i do appreciate the advice (trust me, i really do), I also really like how the skin came out on the vargheist and kinda want to avoid messing with it as much as possible ^^; (good god, i always do this when i get helpful advice! Xo )

If I may make one quick comment;

Not everyone can pull of what I like to refer to as "anime painting". I think you did an excellent job on the vargheist, and you seem to have your style of painting down. It's different, it works, and so long as you like the final outcome, don't mess around with it. You've got a very distinct highlighting method, and from what I've seen it carries throughout the entire army. Stick with it, my friend. Looks good to me!

Brahm