Valkia goes Vamp !

[Magpie]

Hi guys.

When I saw the new WoC Valkia mini I knew I just had to have her. Fortunately she fits pretty well into my army as I do has a "winged assault vampire" as part of my standard list.

Sooo here she is.

Finecast seems to have come a long way over the last 12 months and the quality is becoming much more consistent. They are laying the sprues out better as well and making the minis in more parts. Spearate heads are always a good thing.

Still very difficult to get a straight sword tho'!

I decided to make some modifications to Valkia to make her a little more Vampiric.

I added some hair and turned her spear into a sword. I also took off the amazing captured daemon shield and replaced it with one from my Black Knight/Hexwraith kit. I took the skulls from the Daemon Shield and attached then to the new shield just to give it a bit of individuality.

The shield took the most work as I had to cut it right back to her arm then add on some GS to make the bindings around her arm match in with the shield. I was pretty happy with the result.

Once undercoated she was looking good to go.

And the finished result I love how she looks but for the droopy sword ! Maybe I'll replace it if I can find a plastic alternative.

And finally the face and makeup !

Hope you like it, any feed back most welcome.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

Hate to be this guy as I love that you did this conversion.... But she should be on a 20mm base

 

[Magpie]

nah 20mm won't hold her, she's a top heavy babe..... so to speak

what determines base size ?

 

[Reaper]

nah 20mm won't hold her, she's a top heavy babe..... so to speak

what determines base size ?

Really nice conversion

Base size is determined by troop type. Infantry - 20mm, Monstrous infantry - 25mm, Cavalry - 25x50mm, Swarms - 40mm, Monsters - 50mm, Chariots 50x100mm

 

[Magpie]

Thanks Reaper!

Looking around I see my Vargies are 40mm bases and Warriors of Chaos are 25mm, so it seem to be just an arbitrary thing.
Doesn't matter to me and I don't think there is any advantage of her bing on a bigger base other than not ending up on her face so I don't care too much anyways.

Besides this thread is about her awesomeness and my feeble attempt to do it justice. I know she's not really a viable or tactically sound mini but for me Warhammer isn't about that.

 

[Melle]

its about rules, and her fitting in a unit, but I get your point.



it looks really great, pretty cool with makeup

 

[Reaper]

Thanks Reaper!

Looking around I see my Vargies are 40mm bases and Warriors of Chaos are 25mm, so it seem to be just an arbitrary thing.
Doesn't matter to me and I don't think there is any advantage of her bing on a bigger base other than not ending up on her face so I don't care too much anyways.

Besides this thread is about her awesomeness and my feeble attempt to do it justice. I know she's not really a viable or tactically sound mini but for me Warhammer isn't about that.

I'm a bit confused about the Vargies being on 40mm, but maybe swarms and rank-and-file monsters are 40mm and single monsters are 50mm? And chaos warriors are 25mm because they are indeed monsterous infantry(unlike chaos marauders which are 20mm for example).
No intention to criticise your choice, just wanted to make it clear.
It can be on any base as long as you like it

 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Think we all saw the Valkia Converts coming.
At the moment however I am saving mine for the next GB.

Great work though mate.

 

[Magpie]

I'm a bit confused about the Vargies being on 40mm, but maybe swarms and rank-and-file monsters are 40mm and single monsters are 50mm? And chaos warriors are 25mm because they are indeed monsterous infantry(unlike chaos marauders which are 20mm for example).
No intention to criticise your choice, just wanted to make it clear.
It can be on any base as long as you like it

Chaos Warriors aren't MI and Marauders are 25mm base as well mate. It really does seem to be that you can pretty much use what ever base you want. 25mm certainly suits her as the 20 is just too unstable.

Sure it will be a little bit of a pain to fit her into a cohort of troops but given she has to be in the front rank I don't see it as being a huge worry.

I can't find any rules that actually nominate what a base has to be (please tell me if there are !) nor can I see an unfair advantage gained by her being on a larger base, honestly I think it is very much a non-issue.

 

[Melle]

ur right, ruleswise u can use the basesize of model it is(ie vamplord here) 20mm OR bigger, so its ok, just looks out of place when in a unit, cuz u need put it outside the formation, at the edge.
feels like we really rained on your parade about this, sorry for that.
she do looks great, and that is what matters

 

[Reaper]

Ah, it seems you are right, so sorry for bad info. Btw. the only rule determining the size of the bases I was able to find is "The model must be on the base which is included in the box for it"(Funnty thing - it also means you can use square bases for daemons in wh40k, because daemons come with both round and square bases).

 

[Ravenstein]

A trick to fit the bigger figure on a base is to build upwards and outwards and weight it inside with lead or stone or coins or whatever. This is what I did with chaos champion recntly. also it help to rank up a hero in a unit as he is higher and not fighting elbow rooms.

 

[Magpie]

So glad that the 5 minutes I spent on the the small square of plastic is the main focus of my build and not the 3 days I spent on the resinish bit of minor detail above it.

 

[Abbysal]

So glad that the 5 minutes I spent on the the small square of plastic is the main focus of my build and not the 3 days I spent on the resinish bit of minor detail above it.

Yeah, I'm a bit saddened to see that no one could have just dropped it asap and praised your great work!

First post for me in a long while but your beautiful work has brought me out of hiding.

Love the conversion, subtle but striking, nice work on switching the blade around, nice choice of shield and great GS hair. your brush work has tied everything together beautifully and you can't see the conversion work.

What is your game build for her? I presume flying horror but what about the rest? Will she be in a unit or lone?

How do I subscribe to this thread now guys?

To contradict myself just one tip for top heavy models so you don't get any more crap and just praise, a coin stuck to the bottom of the base and maybe fill it with modellers putty.

Keep up the great work, can't wait to see the rest of your army as it develops. :zombie:

 

[Magpie]

Sorry I shouldn't be such a princess.

Thanks for you comments. I do need to do some work on the base as the resin GW uses doesn't fare well n the Tropics so I'll have to do some pining I think to keep her upright.

I'm a bit in two minds as to how I'm to use her, TBH she's more about lookin' cool than being useful.
I may just team her up with my Vargheists or possibly whack her in a blob of skellies and have her leap out to ravage unsuspecting enemies as I see fit.

 

[Von Calyptra]

The wings came out great! How did you paint them?
In the picture of the sprue I can see a mark of Khorne on one of them, but I can't tell in the pictures of the painted model if you left it there or ground it off.

The bent sword is finecast? I've managed to avoid getting any finecast models so far, but I've seen some stuff about using boiling water to straighten bent model parts. I don't know if it's too late now that you've painted it, but it might be something to look into.

I weight the underside of the bases of top-heavy models (such as standard bearers) with lead. I usually harvest it from some ancient Grenadier or Ral Partha thing I'm never going to use for anything from my bit box, but fishing weights would probably work.

 

[Santawraith]

Love the model but have a hard time seeing her as a vampire I think its the horns that throw it off for me. but well done in the painting department.

 

[xFallenx]

I really like how the face turned out & her hair came together much better than I thought it would. I was thinking of using her for a DE/Slaaneshi Lord & with how well yours came together, she's turning out to be a pretty versatile fig overall.

 

[Ravenstein]

I do like this miniature but I would discard the horns on the head, this is the one part of the miniature that is screaming out as original miniature Valkia. The other conversions of weapon/shield etc is redundant when main focus for most miniatures is look at the face. You see the face, its Valkia, not a vampire. Well, this is not meant to be a harsh judgement at all but honest advice.
You painted a good model regardless man and should be proud of efforts.

 

[Magpie]

I did worry long and hard about the horns, but in the end left them on there mainly because they make such a focus on the mini and that it fits more with the "flying horror" theme.

But I do take you advice.