Resurrecting the Old School Undead

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

One of the things that has been on my mind concerning these guys is that since since I list them as Graveguard, they are Wights, which means Wight Blades, and how I might portray that while still keeping to a "realistic" grimdark tone.

I found my answer in combining Copper Verdigris with some ancient GW Emerald Green and thinning the hell out of it. The blade's somewhat bluish tint reads either as ancient corrosion or eerie glow, and using the same color in thier eye sockets will mark them as unique unitwise.

I was also able to in most cases keep the outer sockets dark.

Highlighted the shields with Red Gore and attempted some freehanding of three fangs on each. They didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, so I'll probably make another attempt later. The device of three fangs over red is a common one for depicting the coat of arms of Elizabeth Bathory, who was probably a design influence on Isabella Von Carstein, and since lorewise Vlad tended to favor her whims, the idea that opposing unit champions or worthy warriors would be brought back and Wight-ified into Isabella's bodyguard makes a certain sense. It also gives me some nice "historic" options for banner design. The red also unifies them with the classic vampire's capes. It amuses me also that the red/black/white color scheme of classic vampirism and the Emperor's Inquisition is also the same as the local high school teams. Thus my efforts here constitute a certain demented form of civic pride mayhap...

[Glitterwolf]

Good progress!

Love the Skellies!

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Well the Vallejo Fieldgrey plays nicely with the spray primer, no glossing occured.

Here it is glued into place. The roots will wait until tomorrow once the glue dries.

I need to go over the left tree again with Ebony Flesh to tie it in with the roots, then it will get the same Fieldgrey mix as the second. 

Tree three awaiting contour putty. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Tonight's theme is fun with contour putty.

Due to tree 3 being a bit wobbly on the cork, I'm going over it in sections.

It's coming along nicely. Tree 2 on the other hand...

The glue was dry enough I decided to go ahead and start on the roots. Tree 2 fought me on this every step of the way. This side came out more or less as I'd hoped for although the far right side needs a bit of touch up.

The top side came out much thicker than I'd planned, but when I put the leaf cover down I should be able to hide most of it.

Attempting to appease the tree, and also convince it that yes, root systems are a wonderful thing for trees to have, I carved out a small knothole to provide a bit of character. When my patience bar refills, I have quite a bit of gap filling to do here. The difficulty I'm encountering is gravity, and the putty's tendency to split off rather than stretch at certain angles/levels of dryness. 

The plan is to get most of the putty work done tonight on the three, so that when I paint them I can mix up a large batch of the fieldgrey mix rather than two smaller ones. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Tree 2 gap filling is done.

And tree 3 has all of it's major branches done.

And I think that's it for tonight.

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

And fun with trees continues...

The last two smaller branches are puttied in.

Tree 1 had Ebony Flesh applied over the top.

And tree 2's lower half is based. I'll probably have to go over sections of it again though, as the deeper indentations can be a problem. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Tree 3 has it's first coat.

Next I started basing the metallics on the Grenadiers.

Blackend Steel with edges in Cursed Gold. I also put some gold in the indentations of his tunic, next session I'll add some red to it.

More Ebony Flesh on his clothes and Shadowed Steel on the edge of his ax.

Same colors on the unit champion.

And that's it for tonight, my hands seem a bit shakier than usual. 

 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Trees 2 and 3 had a second coat of Ebony Flesh, and while waiting for that to dry, I went back to the skeletons for a bit.

This is about halfway through a highlight layer of thinned down Graveyard Bone. His forward hand has been hit, the arm it is attached to has not. 

The two on the right are highlighted, the one with the ax is next. An almost invisible step, but it provides a nice base to the upcoming tint with Sepia Liner. 

Applied three or four coats of Dragon Red to the Grenadiers. After another cup of coffee, it's back to the trees...

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

After what feels like forever, tree 1 is done. Sort of. Still needs another highlight and a wash.

 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Tree 2 is done.

Tree 3 is going to be put off til tomorrow. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Feels much longer than 5 months since I worked on these guys. But looking at the cut off date, I can see where my obsessive corona virus research began and derailed things. At least I wrote down enough here that I can pick up where I left off, although having Undead, Witches, and Witch Hunters all occupying the same table might bring a certain squabbling amoungst them! 

Continuing with today's theme of skin tones and trying to make progress on the various minis about the table, both Vlad and Isabella have had a layer of Vampiric Skin added.

I went thru the thread a little while ago and wrote down a more or less comprehensive list of the skeletal "bone tones" I had planned, so while I have no idea of where my sudden increase in patience points came from, I'll be taking advantage of it, hopefully bringing both the Mirilton and Heartbreaker groups to finished bone tonight. I think my original plan was to have the terrain done around the same time as the unit and the vampires, but I think I'm going to revise that and and power thru the unit and the vampires, this way not only am I getting some space back, but hopping thru 2-3 armies is one thing, hopping thru 2-3 armies plus terrain is quite another! 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Thinned down some Brown Wash almost to a tint, and slathered it on.

Watered down some Snow Shadow to a tint and applied it to Vlad and Isabella.

I like to give my vampires a slightly blueish hue, inspired by some of the pictures of Von Carsteins in the Vampire Counts army books, and the eyes of pure black from 30 Days of Night, because it highlights that they may be human shaped, but they aren't human anymore. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

So the next step on my list was a layer of watered down Graveyard Bone.

Before and after, going from left to right. Not really a dramatic difference, but when seen as a group it is there.

So now they've caught up with the Miriltons, and the next step will be Sepia Liner dilutted to a tint, followed by a final highlight of Linen White. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

And the skin on Vlad and Isabella is finished with a layer of Vampiric Highlight.

 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Finally got the motivation to return to the table! 

Watered down some Sepia Liner almost to a tint. Decided to skip the Linen White highlight stage, as I'm happy with where they're at now. So the Miriltons are in the garage, drying from the sealer...

....and now it's time to get the armor finished on the Heartbreakers.