The Little Ones

It's time to finally close the set of minis that I got from the Black Crab Miniatures 2 Kickstarter. After the Cultists and Followers, I have the Little Ones ready - small familiars, that were added to the package if someone ordered all 8 of the regular miniatures.

There's nothing too fancy about them, just continuing with the same color scheme as before with those guys - only this time with less dirt and cuter. Still, they nicely close off the collection, circling back to the High Council, being their assistants. That is until Black Crab Miniatures comes around someday (maybe).

High dignitaries of the Cult of the Radiant Wheel are sometimes accompanied by diminutive helpers who carry their belongings or perform simple tasks. People see it as just another strange, probably magical thing that is related to those mysterious figures and don’t think too much about it. Select few may connect some facts and start thinking about those moments when the cultists demand a newborn to be given in exchange for bringing a relative back to life - or when they take care of sick or injured children, only to inform the family later that they couldn’t save them. Such voices are quickly silenced - through persuasion, coercion, or darker means - and life goes on, with the small creatures continuing with their duty as they were made to.

Followers of the Radiant Wheel

After the cultists, it's time to bring even more miniatures from my little 'Radiant Wheel' series. As with the beforementioned cultists and the High Council, they are all part of the Black Crab Miniatures collection made by Meridian Miniatures, inspired by @blackcrabart. They have a similar style, which allowed me to spun this little narrative around them, while being distinct enough to let me divide them into smaller sub-groups.

The High Council wore pristine robes, all in the proper color scheme, while their underlings were dirty and wore mismatched clothes, to show how distanced they are from the leadership. Today's group, the followers, are even lower on the ladder - they wear only a token amount of red and black, without any fancy patterns and they are even dirtier than the cultists - at least that was the idea.

Just as it was with other minis from this set, it was a pleasure to paint them - exploring the idea of how forgotten and downtrodden are the common folk living in the background of this whole story of undead power struggles that I spin here.

The Cult of the Radiant Wheel is spreading through Varsavia quickly, but most of its influence is in spying activities and cultists acting as advisors to leaders and chieftains - the faith needs more time to properly persuade people. Most of the villagers are treating it as yet another novelty that will pass soon - but some of them, those treated harshly by fate, as much easier to convert. Crippled veterans, victims of plagues, people who lost their families to marauders or monsters - they are convinced by the stories of rebirth, the support of the cult or the dark regenerative magic some of the cultists use. Their numbers grow - but until they are stronger, they keep their allegiance subtle, mostly through the use of color accents in their clothes.

Artwork - Varsavian Idol Constructs, Concept

Another 'filler' that I prepared a long time ago for a time when I won't be able to post regularly - I guess now it's the time.

Here is a concept that I drew for my own take on the Ushabti from the Tomb Kings range, as a part of my adaptation of their units to fit my Vampire Counts army in an unified legion, kinda like I already did with the Necrosphinx and the Carrion.

I actually remember coming up with this idea in 2016 - to take the Slavic idol statues that I use pretty often on my bases - and build whole walking constructs around them, creating patinated, ramshackle versions of the pretty constructs from Khemri. It's actually quite sad that I didn't manage to even start those things - but the amount of scratchbuilding needed encourages me every time to rather try something else. Now that the concept artwork is in the open, I have fewer excuses! Now I just need some time.

Cultists of the Radiant Wheel

Some time ago I painted my first Kickstarter miniatures - Black Crab Miniatures, a great set of minis made by Meridian Miniatures and inspired by amazing artwork by @blackcrabart. They were so successful that the author went with the second set of similar miniatures - which I naturally bought. Now they are getting painted - and here are the first four out of twelve.

I used the minis from the first Kickstarter as the leaders of a cult founded by the wights in my little narration - and those individuals here are their direct subordinates. They use the same color scheme as the High Council, but while the leaders were clean and ornate, the cultists are dirty and wear some additional clothing that doesn't fit the original color scheme - I wanted to bring them closer to the unaffiliated, poor villagers that they try to convert by breaking the purity of their 'uniform'.

As with the previous miniatures, those here are great sculpts with very good quality. Their robes are flatter than before - and thus not as interesting to paint, but they were still fun, especially with additional textures and weathering.

The Cult of the Radiant wheel is spreading through Varsavia well, but the members of the High Council are not doing that by themselves - they appoint loyal cultists from amongst their apprentices and send them away to surrounding villages. Those wretches then try to infiltrate the communities, earn their trust and become useful to them - from where they start influencing the local leaders’ decision while covertly spreading information about the cult itself and serving as spies. Affected by the wights’ magic to some extent, those cultists tend to look weird, but the people of Varsavia are used to it and accept them - with the amount of dark and chaotic magic flowing through the land, the poor villagers here are rarely as ‘normal’ as their cousins in the Empire.

Vekoslav the Beuatiful

I guess it's finally time to finish the project of Varsavian Bogatyrs, various hero-sized characters that I made for my Undead army - you can see their WIP versions HERE.

After Yarema, Drachitsa and Drazhan, now I present you Vekoslav the Beautiful, the proud Battle Standard Bearer for the wight army. Unlike everyone else from this group, he's not a kitbash, but an old discontinued Forge World model. My only change was to file off the vampire-themed image on the banner itself, make it smooth and mount a separate, plasticard sigil in front of it and add a ghost on top.

The reason for that was because I already painted a banner with an elaborate freehand for my Grave Guard - and no amount of additional freehands would make this one more special or prominent. To go a step further, I made a big sigil to move into 3D, beyond the two dimensions of a freehand. With the sigil itself being golden and on a black background, it even fits with the color scheme of my wights.

The ghost on top was a spare from the Nagash kit and an additional attempt to make it more special. Unfortunately, it somehow discouraged me from finishing this mini, so it got postponed to after Drazhan was posted. Still, it was a pretty good project - and a good addition to my collection as the only Vampire Counts model made by Forge World.

During his life, Vekoslav’s gift was his beauty and noticeability. Tall, handsome and imposing, he has drawn everyone’s attention to him. Maybe a wrong skill thing for a spy, but perfect for a statesman - born as a farmer, he managed to become a locally important chieftain. When he found himself in the Varsavian army, not only he led the most elite units but was also honored with the Great Banner of the Death God. Standing or marching with it on the battlefield, nobody could miss Vekoslav. He was always there with the standard, no matter the situation, visible, proud and unwavering. The bearer was so good at his position that he got buried together with the whole banner after death - all the better for Wight Kings when they raised him back to unlife. The great symbol was covered with patina, the flag was tattered and Vekoslav himself was reduced to a bony wight - but they were still inspiring awe on the battlefield, even amongst the dry-hearted wight soldiers of Varsavia.

Drazhan the Younger

Another small update of one of the wight heroes - only this time it's not much of a hero, but rather a constructor, sculptor and an architect - Drazhan the Younger, the Magnificent Maker.

The whole idea with him was to kitbash a version of a Necrotect from the Tomb Kings roster that would fit with the aestethics of my army - the conversion can be found in the link above. I painted him in the usual color scheme for my wights - only now he's not a warrior, but a craftsman. The metal parts are rather minimal, the patterned black and yellow cloth is also small and it's the red hat that's the focal point of the composition - I tried to create an impression of an building site foreman (who also often wear differently colored headwear).

Besides being a gaming piece, he's also narratively a creator of constructs (like the Effigy of Death) and a reason to start creating my own takes on iconic Tomb Kings constructs such as the Ushabti, Tomb Scorpions and Bone Giants.

Zlyshko was very satisfied with the Effigy he managed to bring back to life, but one was not enough for his plans. The fact that all remaining ones were destroyed didn’t help. Only way to deal with this was to get their creators to make more. They may be all dead, but that wasn’t as much of a problem nowadays. A wide search was conducted - it wasn’t easy, for the architects-sculptors-engineers that made those marvels often omitted their own name out of humility. Only one - Drazhan the Younger - was honoured (or prideful) enough to be buried with all the information about him. An egocentric, brilliant creator and a harsh overseer, Drazhan was most pleased to be able to glorify the Death God with his creations once again and with them, drive away nonbelievers from Varsavia.

High Council of the Radiant Wheel

Today I bring you first miniatures that I got off a Kickstarter - some amazing pieces from Black Crab Miniatures, a very interesting collection made by Meridian Miniatures and inspired by amazing artwork by @blackcrabart. Those guys were right up my alley and made me finally use kickstarter for something - normally I am more than okay to wait for the stuff to get sold in retail. Second part of that Kickstarter ended not that long time ago and I also bought them, so expect them in the future!

From the moment I saw those guys, with their overall style and all the bones they have on them, I knew they would fit perfectly as mortal followers of the Death God, so I used here the same color scheme that I use for all my Death God-worshipping wights. I think it fits them quite well. The minis themselves were very well made, with sharp detail and very fun to paint so I am looking forward to some more minis from this series.

Right after being raised, Daremnych started with raising back his old commanders and additional troops for the wight army - but that was not enough in his opinion. To really secure their position in Varsavia in the long run, he needed the support of the mortals living in the land. The old faith in the Death God was reduced to myth and superstition - and to bring it back, the old Liche created the Cult of the Radiant Wheel. He took the old Kolovrat symbol the wights use and repurposed it as a wheel of birth, death and re-birth, to which all the creatures are bound, promising eternal life after death, forgiveness of misdeeds and protection from the enemies. People preaching it (and achieving quite a success) are fairly normal humans, but the High Council that Daremnych formed to steer the cult in the right direction are anything but. Their faces hidden behind ancient masks, wrapped in bangades, with pale, grey skin, they are a mystery. They reside in a hidden village deep in the forest where they write the sacred tomes, gather the bones of their saints and organize their faith, but their real motives are known probably only to Daremnych himself.

Drachitsa the Slayer

After Yarema I have yet another wight hero painted - or a heroine to be precise - Drachitsa the Slayer, the Fearless Maiden and the Killer of Dragons.

After all the wights that are basically the same with their patinated armor and patterned cloaks, this one has something special - a dragonskin cloak. Still, I didn't want her to stand out too much so I kept her in the same color palette, with only a slight tint of green added to the scales. Other than that, she was a rather standard fare for me.

Every society has its heroes. One such in Varsavia was Kiril the Woodsman, another one was Drachitsa the Slayer. From her earliest days thought to be without any fear, she was the only one to undergo a quest to find the legendary Oakspear and slay the terrible dragon Zmey that was terrorizing his countryside. She killed the beast, took it’s skin as a cloak and returned as a heroine. Since then she was slaying beasts and other enemies of Varsavia and the Death God and made many, many more tales about her, until finally succumbing to old age and a bitter rival. After an excavation under one of the mountains, ahe was found by the wights and subsequently raised. Thanks to the powerful enchantments on her tomb, she retained all of her memories, skills and famed weapons - and like Kiril, she joined her undead brethren to do what she did best - slaying.

Yarema the Giant

Recently I kitbashed a bunch of wight heroes - and today I am finally bringing you the first one of them painted - Yarema the Giant, the legendary Bodyguard of Kings.

Just as with Alarich who started the collection of Necromancers, Yarema was also the most straightforward of them when it came to painting. Verdigris on the armor, reddish fur, dry bones and a black cape with yellow freehands - just like Zlyshko for example. Still, his size makes him extra imposing and the patterns on the back are always fun to do, so I'm quite happy with him too.

Yarema didn’t kill a dragon on a lone mountain, he also didn’t change the fate of any battle by himself, but he was so good at his job that he got buried with all the ceremonies befitting a hero. Yarema was a bodyguard to Varsavian Kings - a giant so imposing and intimidating, his mere presence was enough to deter most attackers - and others got quickly pulverized by his monstrous mace. He was also surprisingly perceptive and clever, able to uncover assassinations plots before they could come to fruition and dismantle them quickly. Thanks to that, Yarema managed to outlive three different kings, who all died because of natural circumstances. After his raising, Zlyshko is more than happy to have him as his personal bodyguard, practically eliminating the danger of assassination.

I also made a small comparison of Yarema and Zlyshko to show just how big a wight built around a space marine cape really is.

The Bogatyrs of Varsavia - WIP

Time has come to finally get this project started, after years of slowly planning it and gathering bits: kitbashed wight bogatyrs (heroes), because those are always fun! Here they are all together, below I will explain every one of them and how they came to be.

Now, the singular heroes. The one that started it all is Yarema, the bodyguard giant.

The whole concept for him came from this cape - I saw it on an auction site long time ago and bought it to kitbash a wight, mostly because other undead heroes had similar capes, like Zlyshko or Kiril. Then, when it came, I realized how big are space marine capes! It barely fits on a 20x20mm base, but I didn't want to cut it or change too much, so I created a whole character around it - an imposing giant of a wight known for bodyguarding ancient kings and princes.

I wanted to use some other bits to build his body, but they were all too small, so I had to sculpt him mostly from scratch. His head is also made out of one of those older skulls, ones which were much bigger - I tried using a modern skull, but with that giant torso and cape, his proportions were becoming comical. Interestingly enough, his hands were taken from a TK charioteer, a miniature that was laying around in my drawer for more than 12 years now! It's good that his parts have found some purpose.

EDIT: The painted miniature can be seen HERE.

Next one is the fearless heroine, Drachitsa the Dragonslayer.

Similarly to Yarema above, her whole concept started with the cape - I bought several of those because of the potentially-useful dragonskin texture and those high collars. After getting them I came up with the idea of another wight hero who would drape themselves in the skin, to create some kind of monster-slayer - because it's both a good concept for a wargame character and because it's such a well-known trope for a fairy-tale hero of old. Her legs were taken from the same charioteer that gave his arms to Yarema.

EDIT: The painted miniature can be seen HERE.

Then, the standard bearer, Vekoslav.

I used here the single only Vampire Counts model ever released by Forge World, a Battle Standard Bearer. The model is nice, well made and I didn't want to convert it in any way, but the standard with sculpted vampiric iconography was a bit problematic - not fitting in any way with my other wights. The simplest solution would be to file it all smooth and cover it with freehands as I always do with those dusty skeletons, but I already had standards like that and this one should stand out as THE most important one in the whole army.

To achieve that, I decided to give it an additional dimension - instead of yellow markings on a black background, I will have a separate golden sigil hanging in front of a black flag. Wanting to push it even further, I dug up Nagash's unused hand, one with the ghost springing out of it and mounted it on top of the standard. This will be kind of a more reserved version of another Battle Standard Bearer I did in the past.

And the last one, Drazhan the Younger, the wight construct-architect.

This one will be my version of a Necrotect from the Tomb Kings armybook. Original GW miniature of him is equipped with a whip - and while I think it fits the image of ancient Egypt that TK had, it didn't fit in any way in my army. I wanted him to be a sculptor and a constructor, so I gave him a hammer, a fancy hat (inspired by the hat of the TK Necrotect) and a pointing hand - now he should look like the responsible, authoritative person on the construction site. The base for this kitbash was one of the skeletons that came with the Necrosphinx kit - both because the pose and proportions were good for this purpose and because it reflects his TK roots. He will be also a narrative excuse to build more constructs for this faction - I have a lot of ideas for those!

EDIT: The painted miniature can be seen HERE.

Wraiths of Siekerno

Finally, I managed to paint my rather unpractical unit of Cairn Wraiths, made out of converted Grimghast Reapers. I built them like this because I always wanted a unit of them, but I couldn't find the right models - and those wraiths were a perfect converting opportunity for that. They required very careful positioning, basing, additional weight underneath and can stand in only one configuration - but they do work! Good to see that it was possible to squeeze an AoS unit into such a tight WFB formation.

Unfortunately, the converting process wasn't the hard part, painting all the ghostly bits was. Maybe it was just me, but I really struggled to cover it all without missing anything in a reasonable amount of time. I guess the new Nighthaunt aren't really for me! Still, I am quite happy with how they turned out and must admit that it was all worth it! Also, I finally found a good model to try out verdigris and etheral effects at the same time - something that people have been suggesting to me for a long time. Now I have to consider making more minis like this.

Wanting to represent the 'Chill Grasp' rule from the 8th Edition WFB I also painted some frost on their scythe handles, just like I did years ago on my first Cairn Wraith.

The whole conversion process and problems related to it are shown in the WIP post HERE.

In the ages past, when Daremnych was waging a difficult war with another ancient tribe, he came to the village of Siekerno, asking for help. He wanted to ask their well-known and fearsome axemen warriors to sneak through the forest and attack his enemy’s flank during an upcoming battle. The men agreed, but when the time came, they didn't intervene, favoring the chances of the Great Priest’s opponents. Unfortunately for them, Daremnych prevailed through the bloody battle even without them - and came to confront the warriors after that. Already knowing his methods, the axemen of Siekierno fell to their knees, asking for another chance, willing to help and serve. The Priest gave them exactly that - killed them all and bound their spirits to his will, telling them that he will call upon them in the future - only then the axemen will get their second chance and opportunity to serve. Then he captured all the remaining villagers, divided them into small groups and forcibly integrated them into various tribes he had under his command. Now Daremnych, needing an edge against his vampire enemies, came to the forgotten ruins of Siekerno and called the axemen back - to finally serve him as they wanted so many years ago.

First, the whole tightly packed unit of wraiths:

And all of them separated:

Underworlds Warband - Kiril's Retinue / Vechernyan Wights

As you could already see in one of the previous posts, I bought Shadespire and started assembling the teams that came in the box. Besides those two, I got the Sepulchral Guard too, of course - I am collecting undead after all! I liked the miniatures so much, I would get them even if I wasn't planning to play the game.

Ever since I saw the previews of this band, I wanted to paint them in my usual patinated color scheme, like all my other WFB wights. But, on the other hand, I wanted to integrate all my Underworlds bands into AoS setting somehow. So I came up with my own little land in Shyish which would be a twisted reflection of the Old World - set in the Mortal Realms, but also still vaguely connected with everything that I invented for my WFB army. Now I could paint the same patinated armor and yellow freehands, like always! I actually painted them parallel with the Grave Guard, but seeing as they are more special and not a horde, I added additional layers of shadows and highlights, which took some extra time.

All in all, I enjoyed painting them - now I need to finish the two main bands and try out the game!

Vechernya is a land in Shyish, ruled by a plethora of warring princes, tsars and dukes - but held together by the influence of the local god - the Withered King. He survived the Wars of the Dead, but since then remains in a weakened state, slumbering, beneath the notice of Nagash and his Mortarchs. Still, he affects the land by forcing his dreams into reality - dreams of a realm otherwise forgotten, perished in the bygone times. Although the inhabitants of Vechernya have free will and progress through their own histories, their lives and events tend to reflect the Withered King’s memories - trapped unaware in cycles of deadened existence. Even death isn’t a release from it, for dead Vechernyans are known to raise from their graves - all to continue one of many existences lingering in their god’s mind. One of such groups of undead is the Kiril’s Retinue, roaming the land, wishing to rejoin their old unit and leader. No matter how many are destroyed, new ones always seem to come and group together. All of them are driven by the same purpose, one they often cannot completely recognize as their own, yet still hopelessly following the Withered King’s dream.

First, the individual wights:

And the whole warband:

The Wight Warriors Host

A weird update today - not really something new, but rather more of something old!

Grave Guard from GW were the reason why I started collecting Vampire Counts a long time ago. I got my first, 20-wight strong unit of them pretty quickly and it was thanks to them I got the idea of making my army Slavic-oriented and started using the popular patina/verdigris color scheme. Only later I noticed that 20 Grave Guard wasn't that much - and pretty often I had to proxy them. After that, I started buying more boxes of them, planning to expand my unit sometime. And now, 5 years later, I have finally painted all of them - and my big bad death star of 50 wights is complete!

During those years I expanded the Slavic theme in my army, so when I was building these guys, I made a lot of pointy helmets for them. Some of them turned out rather crazy high - but I still have yet to decide if such exaggeration is good, or if I should tone it down next time. Like the old unit, they also have different blades on their weapons (swords from the Skeletons box), because I never liked the original ones. The painting side of the whole project was, of course, the same as 5 years ago, only this time it was probably much quicker and tidier.

Wight warriors are the most effective undead troops in Varsavia - but that amounted to nothing in the face of innumerable hordes of zombies and ghouls available to the vampires and necromancers, the wights’ rivals in the land. Zlyshko wanted to bolster his forces ever since he was raised, but finding the right tombs was difficult, especially if he had to stay beneath his ‘allies’ suspicion. Only when Daremnych joined him, they could strengthen their forces with new warriors - all of them skilled, clad in heavy armor and wielding the cursed blades of the ancient Varsavia. With this new host, they could start openly fighting for their rightful place in this realm.

First, the whole host:

And now some single warriors:

Belomor

Continuing with the ancients, here we go with the second liche. This one is a model from Frostgrave - I found it when I was looking through their range, looking for something fitting to incorporate in the Zombie Legion. With his pointy hat/helmet and ragged robes, he was perfect as another liche - I didn't have to think long about buying him! The painting scheme is the typical one for wights/liches - and while Mertvet was interesting because of how much fabrics he had on him, this one has just the right amount of clothes, bones and metal parts and I think he turned out pretty well.

The second one of Daremnych's lieutenants was Belomor - an eager Varsavian priest that tried to convert some chaos tribes to his indigenous beliefs. He was found and saved by the Great Priest just when he was about to be sacrificed by the barbarians. After that, he quickly took faith in the Death God, the one that spared him after his old gods ignored his pleas. Soon enough he proved to be one of the most fervent members of the cult - spreading the faith however he could, by force if necessary. He was also known for always maintaining a kind, fatherly attitude, even while burning the villagers one by one to make an example for the rest. Killed during one of such spectacles and only now raised, he wants to show the unbelievers that he went too soft on them the last time.

And now I can show Daremnych with both of his lieutenants/disciples together. Now my wights have some magical support!

Wraiths of Siekerno - WIP

Long have I wanted to have a unit of Cairn Wraiths - the least used and the least popular 'Rare Unit' from the 8th edition Vampire Counts armybook. They were just way too expensive for what they did - but I still wanted to get them, for the sake of completionism at least. Using the same character Cairn Wraith 10 times wasn't an option, I didn't want to hunt for all the oldhammer instances of them and I couldn't find a good base for converting/building them too, so the idea was waiting in the backlog for years. Then GW released Grimghast Reapers and I knew those are the ones I was looking for! Still, some conversions were in order - thankfully I already had an idea in mind.

I didn't want to have a full 10-ghost unit of grim reapers, because I find that a bit silly, so I decided to replace the blades with axes. Cowls and blinded faces were also a little weird, so I replaced them with normal skulls and Slavic pointy helmets, adding some cloth around it too. That made them more similar to real warriors rather than angry farmers - while still keeping the fantastical theme pretty strong, so all was good.

Then I had to mount them on bases. That was a problem because they were designed to stand on loose 32mm rounds, rather than on tightly packed 20mm squares that WFB cairn wraiths used. To make it work I converted them completely first and only then began mounting them on bases, moving, switching and adjusting them together. I found a good configuration but that not only required cutting some ghostly strands and bending others but also left many of them standing very off-center on the bases. To remedy that, I had to immediately magnetize them and build a tray for them - without it, only 2 of them are able to stand upright! I like them like that, though - they stand so close to each other, they blend into one ghastly mass, like a Wild Hunt of some sort. Only after seeing them like this I decided to add those branches on the ground - both to reinforce my forest theme and to hide their connection points a bit.

Now I really look forward to painting them!

EDIT: The painted unit can be found HERE.

Mertvet

As promised, here I am going with more wights - or in this case, liches, disciples of Daremnych. This one here is a gorgeous model from Otherworld Miniatures, bought a long time ago, finally painted. He was something different in this typical scheme of mine - there was just way more clothes than metal, so I couldn't just drown it in verdigris! Still, I think it worked in my favor in the end - I got lots of space to paint freehands on, the red robe reinforces his image as an evil wizard and patina got used only as subtle, yet effective accents.

Immediately after being raised, Daremnych started to look for his old lieutenants - to replace living necromancers as soon as possible. The first one found was Mertvet - the most reliable one. That wasn’t thanks to his loyalty or stability, no - rather, the opposite. He could be simply expected to always act in his own interest. Where a loyal man could be broken in the most unexpected moment, Mertvet’s betrayals could always be planned for. He got recruited into Daremnych’s cult when he was busy terrorizing the countryside as a powerful, immoral wizard conducting experiments on people he captured. In exchange for his help in the Death God’s army, he could continue his deeds while enjoying the newfound security, without being harassed by heroes trying to slay him. That and he didn't have to risk the price of denial - fighting much more powerful Daremnych - which was in the end, the reason for his death a long time ago. After being raised, Mertvet and the Great Priest decided to simply continue their agreement as if nothing happened.

Daremnych the Great Liche Priest

The unpainted conversion can be seen HERE.

"Necromancer Lord" from Avatars of War range, one sculpted by Gary Morley - the same one who sculpted the old clown-style Nagash for GW - so this model can be seen as his another take on the topic, even if for another company and under a different name. I liked this mini the moment I saw it, but I still had to convert it a bit to make it fit my Slavic wights better.

And speaking of those wights, man it was good to be back to this patinated color scheme! It was more than two years since I painted anything like that and I had to remind myself of how to do it, but once I did (thankfully the tutorial is helpful to me too!) I had a real blast, kinda nostalgic! I took out two liches and a bunch of Grave Guards too - and I did the whole process on the all at once. Then I did the usual bone, blacks with freehands and reds, only this time concentrating on the giant liche here. I will be posting the rest during upcoming weeks. Daremnych was especially interesting because he had this ground with bones rising up from the base - I never painted something like this before. Well, that and flames too, even if I hate painting those!

This guy opens a new 'season' in my upcoming projects too, expect much more from this subfaction in the near future!

Alexander Hautfell and his necromancers were crucial to raising, sustaining and supporting the wight armies that were the most effective fighting force available to the undead. That gave them much independence and influence in the local politics. That lasted until King Zlyshko managed to find another well-hidden wight barrow. Necromancers, not knowing into what they were getting into, helped to raise another ancient wight. He introduced himself as Daremnych, the Grand Priest of the Death God and the Hierophant of Bones. Towering over everyone else, he was one of the rare Varsavian Giants, a powerful necromancer and a very old, experienced schemer. Centuries spent in the barrow rusted his precision of handling the wings of magic and he didn’t know the new, refined invocations of the modern sorcerers, but his incredibly powerful, if somewhat wild and unpredictable magic skills were enough for the wights to finally stop relying on the feeble, human necromancers. They could go forth really expanding their armies. Still, even if discarded and without protection, Hautfell wasn’t ready to give up yet.

Daremnych the Great Liche Priest - WIP

A small conversion work. Miniature from the Avatars of War range, one called the 'Necromancer Lord'. He was sculpted by Gary Morley, the author of the infamous oldschool Nagash model - and seeing how this model looks, it's safe to say that this one is a much subtler reimagining of that old clown. I bought the miniature because I found it really cool, even if I didn't have absolutely any use for him on the battlefield - there are no necromancers or wights in WFB or AoS that big! Still, he'll be a good excuse in my background to greatly expand on the wights and the rest of the 'Ancients' subfaction.

As cool as this model is, I needed him to fit the aesthetics of my other wights, make him more Slavic and get rid of the 'mysterious eye' symbols that were all over him. To achieve that, I gave him a pointy crown/helmet and added much more Slavic iconography. I also scratchbuilt a new sword scabbard for him, as the original one was way too weird and fantastic for me.

Also, only on the photos, I noticed that the needle in his helmet is showing - I need to fix it up! His dagger is also missing here, but I still need to consider if I need it at all.

EDIT: The finished model can be seen HERE.

Sirins & Alkonosts

Despite being quite distinct, my Slavic 'counts-as-Fell-Bats' are still supposed to be one unit - that's why I will show them together too. After some bad experiences earlier, I wanted them to fit together even when placed in direct contact with each other. It forced some larger variation in their poses, so that's a double plus!

There are also separate posts for Alkonosts and Sirins and the WIP post can be found HERE.

Sirins

Second set of my 'counts-as-Fell-Bats' miniatures - Sirins - my take on putting those mythical creatures on the tabletop. I didn't like any of the minis that could fit Fell Bats well so I converted my own - these are built around Wood Elf Warhawks from GW. The whole conversion process can be seen HERE. Those were even more interesting to paint than their light counterparts - bones in black hair, dark eyes, pale skin and how it connects to those dark-green feathers - I really like the style they represent, even if the shoddy sculpt made it a bit difficult to work with.

Those two together with their sisters Alkonosts can be seen HERE.

While very closely related and similar to Alkonosts, Sirins are never taken for a good omen. Their feathers are jet black and numerous bones are braided in their hair - they are believed to bring those deemed unworthy of a good death into Death God's embrace. Lurking in the dark forests, Sirins are vicious, bloodthirsty hunters and are often willing to support vampires or necromancers in their battles.