Work in Progress Wednesday

Sitting on my bench today is my 2nd Vampire Counts Skeleton Unit. Three VC Character Models, Wight Lord, Vampire and Manfred von Carstein. And 3 Reaper Bones bat swarms that I will use at VC Bat Swarms.

I should be able to finish them today since I have the day off, kids are at school and wife is at work.

What's on your bench?

Xin/Jeff

Lovely new Minotaur

I stumbled across this new Minotaur figure from Rebel Minis. The pose and painting are superb. I couldn't help myself. I ordered it right away. Don't tell the wife.

 

Cheers, Xin

Digging up the Undead

So for the last month or so, I've concentrated on painting up the Undead. Now that I have some core units done, I'm looking at Heroes and Lords.

I dug this guy up in my basement last night. (get it, dug him up.) 

I painted him about 1992, give or take a few years.  He will now be repainted and added to my growing(risen) Vampire Counts Army.

Cheers, Xin

WIP Wednesday

I am pushing hard on my Vampire Counts so I started a 2nd unit of Skeletons. What's on your table?

Dire Wolves for Vampire Counts

The next unit in my Vampire Counts Army is Dire Wolves. I don't have any official figures, in fact I really don't like the current version that GW is selling. 

I love the older version, but they are a little hard to find.

 I rummaged around the basement and found some BattleMaster Wolves. The goblin riders long gone these would do just fine.

I used milliput to cover up the saddle. I am a sculpting noob and can only handle the most rudimentary jobs.

 A mix of Medium Gel, sand and rocks for base texture.

 I usually get the bases painted before going on to the figures. I leave flock as the very last step.

 Very quick and easy to paint. Black, grey, bone, red and red. Just 5 colors.

 Add the flock and they are ready for their photo shoot.

The only draw back with these figures is the mono pose. But for virtually free, I can't complain. 

Next up another Skeleton Unit. Zombie unit on deck and Bat Swarm proxy figures on order from ebay.

Xin

Starting a Vampire Counts Army.

A few months ago, I bought a collection of Vampire Counts from someone on TMP. Sadly I forget who. Anyway, it was a nice collection of old figures. I bought it on a whim, because I can't turn down a good deal.

About a month ago I decided to paint up a single unit of the VC. I went through the collection and came up with 20 plastic skeletons. I never really looked at them back then as I was strictly a Empire player. As I sorted through them I really started to like them. They have a lot of character. They were already assembled but needed some minor repaits. I am really gonna like this project.

So here's pics as I go through my painting.

For plastic figures I glue lead fishing weights to the underside of the slotta base. This helps keep the figure stable and gives it some heft. I also glue on sheet metal base stands so I can use magnets in my storage and movement trays.

The top of the base gets Medium gel with sand. I also randomly scatter on rocks and stuff.

I primed them Army Painter Leather Brown, and went right to a dry brush of GW's bone colored paint.

Then I very light white highlight.

Skellies paint up fast.

A few bits of armor. I will stipple brownish red paint on all exposed metal for rust.

Got the bases all painted.

Shields are next.

Just need to flock the bases as my last step.

And we are done, so I thought...

I have some old GW movement trays, lined with sheet magnets. I painted the edges to match the base of the skeletons.

The Movement stand holds 25 figures, but I only painted 20. So there was an empty row at the back of the base. I came up with the idea of filling up the space with gravestones.

So I mounted some gravestones on slotta bases and painted them up like the rest of the unit. Then it occurred to me that I've seen players do this sort of thing to stretch out there units. Unit filler is the term I think. And here I thought I was being all clever.

I put together a quick little diorama. I painted the back ground on some pink board and flocked a base for it. Using GW trees and the Garden of Morr set, it was good to go.


I really really liked the skeletons. So much so that I bought an unopened box off ebay. I'm now painting up my 2nd Warhammer army in 25 years. Yeah I'm slow.

Work in progress Wednesday

So here's what's on my painting table at the moment. Some old old GW plastic Skellies.

I got the bases weighted with lead fishing weights and also glued on metal bases so I can use magnetic movement trays. Some sand and rocks glues on. I'll start painting today.