Karel the Black, the Commander

Third Sokolov vampire for the collection, after the red one, the white one, here comes the black one. I even managed to find two variants of the model, so I was able to get him both mounted and dismounted.

A horse was unavailable for him, so I had to find something else. Through a weird trick of fate and horrible post service in Germany, I actually have two Bretonnian Green Knights... one of them will be actually used in my Bretonnian collection, but the second one was rather redundant, until I found that this vampire fits very well. This gives him a lot of extra flair. Shields were also missing, so I found them some replacements, simple ones to accomodate some emblems. Just like with Havel, I needed to add some detail to their clothes and barding and let's say that black isn't a very easy color to get it right... Everything is either completely drown in blackness or turns everything to grey. I tried finding some equilibrium and it kinda works, but I think it would be much more pronounced and pretty if I wanted to have him blue or green.

He's also my proposal for the "Mirror, mirror" challenge amongst polish bloggers - with an idea/character mirrored into something different, yet similar. So, instead of a chivalrous Green Knight, I have a cruel Black Knight, on the same horse model.

Three male vampires serve lady Ecaterina Sokolov - the red warrior, the white bodyguard and the black commander. The last of them, Karel the Black, is most usually tasked with leading his mistress’ forces. Brooding, cruel and with strong personality, this one, while still loyal, is the most independent amongst his comrades. Good quality for a commander, but this also makes him an unpredictable servant, ready to object Ecaterina’s orders more than anyone. She tolerates this, because in the end he cares deeply for her interests, even if he thinks his means are better. During the battle with von Greifens he was on a diplomatic mission, so Ecaterina had to lead herself. Next time Karel will lead and make sure that his mistress comes up victorious.

It was difficult to make photos of both models (the lance takes so much space!), so here they are once together and then separated.

Leader mode:

Fencer mode:

Havel the White, the Protector

It's been a very long time since I painted anything from my "mainline" undead WFB force... This guy has been lingering in the drawer half-painted for a while and I got just enough motivation to actually finish him.

Lady Sokolov from my collection has a red-black-white color scheme and she has one red-themed servant, Vaclav. When looking through eBay and looking for an excuse to buy more Blood Dragon miniatures, I decided to give her three servants, each with a dominant color. This guy is obviously the white one - and there's a black one on horseback that's in the queue to get painted soon as well.

The big cape on his back was the biggest topic here, I needed to make it special. Painting a big emblem seemed too simple and random scribbles wouldn't do, so I decided to make it a feathery pattern, inspired by the avian sigil of the family. This part probably made me stop painting him back then, but in the end, it wasn't that bad. To make the model a bit different, I switched his two-handed sword for a halberd, which also fits a bodyguard role I thought up for him.

Vaclav isn’t the only male vampire warrior serving lady Sokolov. While the red warrior soars through the sky obliterating her enemies in the field, the white one is her personal bodyguard. Havel the White, for that’s how he is known, is a silent and dutiful warrior residing usually in Castle Sokolov. Anyone intruding must be ready to face him and his halberd, one which split in two countless foes. Skilled as he is, he tends to be overly organized - while it makes him a perfect warden, it makes him also predictable. Ecaterina underestimated von Greifens and left him in the fortress during their battle - a decision which cost her dearly. Feeling guilty, Havel refuses to leave his mistress’ side now - ready to make those who wronged her regret it dearly.

Vaclav the Red, the Dragonrider

Finally, after starting this project in November 2016, I managed to finish it!

It started with me buying an old model of High Elf Imrik - I loved that model ever since I saw it as a child! Then I wanted to incorporate it in my undead army - but I also wanted to avoid butchering the model turning it into a zombie. I decided to make it look scarier and more evil - a dragon befitting a vampire. To achieve that, I covered him almost completely with new, pointy scales out of greenstuff. It was a tedious task, but I managed to change the details while keeping the original form still there. Then I mounted on it a vampire that was leftover from the Terrorgheist set. The whole conversion process is documented in THIS post, while the base with the falling trees is documented HERE.

THIS photo and THIS artwork were the main inspirations, both for the sculpting phase and the painting one.

The painting proved no less tedious than the sculpting! I didn't consider the fact, that with those new scales, its surface area increased significantly. Other than that, it was really difficult to hold this spiny beast. I have been holding it by the wings the whole time and painted them only after I glued it to the base. One of them even broke off after all the turning and rotating. Then there was the fact that red is quite a difficult color to work with - I had to go several times with basecoat, shades, wetblended layers, glazes, hightlights - all that through every scale. Thankfully, after that was done, the rest was much easier and more enjoyable.

The base itself was quite a challenge too, but a welcome one - it was the first opportunity to use dirt mix on such a big base instead of the usual drybrushed sand. Besides, I bought a lot of basing materials specifically for this occasion after paying extra attention when I was biking through forests this summer. I even used my Johann (he would be probably more like Jan in my story) model to make it extra special.

One of the main reasons why Lady Ecaterina wasn’t replaced by another upstart pretender during all the years is Vaclav, known in Varsavia as Vaclav the Red. He’s unconditionally loyal to his mistress, ready to do anything for her - yet nobody, perhaps besides himself and Ecaterina, knows why is that so. If the fact that he’s one of the true Blood Dragons and has the skill to prove it isn’t enough to deter enemies, his giant red dragon - his loyal companion and mount - usually is. Together they impaled, incinerated and torn into pieces countless foes. Still, even they weren’t able to overcome the numbers and wit von Greifens brought with them - and Lady Ecaterina was forced to parley. But if not for him, she probably would be forced into unconditional surrender or killed outright. Their current cooperation with von Greifens is questionable at best, but Constantin is willing to improve it if only to get the dragon knight on his side.

And the second picture, because I couldn't fit all the views I wanted to show in a single one.

And a little bonus picture!

Such is the life in Varsavia - if the dead are not rising from their graves, if the witches are not kidnapping your children to make soup out of them, if the mythical beasts are not slaughtering your livestock, then it's the dragons that are dropping trees on your head!

Vaclav the Red, the Dragonrider - Finished Base

EDIT: The finished model can be seen HERE.

This is the project (whole WIP can be found HERE) that I shelved in September 2017 when I decided to focus on the Zombie Legion. When that massive project was finally done I could go back and actually make a proper base for this dragon. The problem was, the most important parts of it were two trees that the beast was supposed to be felling down - and I was completely sick of making those for the legion. So, the project waited more and more.

Only about a week and a half ago I moved my ass and actually sculpted the bark for those two trees and set them in the right place - one being broken and another being uprooted. When that was done, the rest of the work went really smoothly. I was supposed to paint my Blood Bowl Bretonnians first, but it was difficult to resist messing with the base. I just kept adding more and more stuff, changing, reposing things, checking the composition, etc. I wanted to create an impression of the dragon emerging from the forest and into the fray.

I did quite a lot of those trees for all the zombie fillers, but this was the first time when I added plastic branches to them. Real thin twigs I used for this purpose earlier are REALLY breakable - and for this project, I wanted to avoid it. They took much more time, but they should endure more too - I hope they'll look okay when painted. I will describe how I did those branches in an upcoming tutorial describing the process of making those trees.

Here you can see the base without the dragon on it.

And here it is with the dragon and Vaclav on it, everything ready to be primed and painted. I would like to say that this was my most elaborate basing project, but the one I made on Nagash was still way more complicated and took MUCH more time...

And now only the painting remains! Only if it was that easy... Currently, I am struggling with choosing the right color scheme. I know that he should keep my usual red-black-white scheme, with the red one being the most prominent. Below you can see some of my rough sketches. From those I am mostly torn between 2 and 5. 2 is a classic look, like a DnD dragon and looks the most natural, but 5 looks more sinister, more vampiric, so to say - and I still need to think what do I like more. Fiery belly on 4 is also an interesting idea, but adding fire to this busy composition would be disrupting in my opinion - not to mention that it suggests, that those belly plates are thin and/or open somehow.

Any ideas or opinions?

Blutmane von Nachthoof

And a spontaneous side project that I painted to enter a Halloween 2017 competition on Carpe Noctem - a vampire horse! I finished it few days before the beforementioned holiday. It was quick, but it was also a good excuse to try two things: copying a horse tail using greenstuff mould and painting glossy red armor - both of which will be helpful in the future.

Behold, Blutmane von Nachthoof, a genuine Blood Dragon horse!

Ever since the times of ancient Lahmia and first vampires, words were spoken about a mysterious terror galloping through the nights, searching for worthy challengers. He changed his names many times through the ages, but now he's known as Blutmane von Nachthoof, the stallion of blood. Countless men, women and beasts were felled by him and even whole empires crumbled because of his influence - and nobody knows how he does it because anyone that sees him drawing a sword, dies. If you ever hear someone challenging you using horse puns, know that Blutmane has come for you.

Vaclav the Red, the Dragonrider - WIP

And now it's time for the project that is being worked on for the longest time - a Vampire Lord on a Dragon. I liked the Dragon that Imrik is riding ever since I saw it as a child - and I still think it's the best dragon GW managed to produce (maybe it's nostalgia speaking, of course). So I asked myself - why shouldn't I incorporate it in my army? I wouldn't make it a dirty undead dragon, but a proud and fierce red dragon - a dragon fitting a bloody vampire. Simply repainting the original wouldn't be enough. I wanted to keep the main form of the dragon but change its detail and appearance. THIS photo and THIS artwork were the main inspirations - I wanted to cover it completely with new scales. It would be a very tedious task, but I am nothing if not patient and persistent.

This was the state of things in November 2016.

And here in December 2016. I added a saddle on top of him - the Vampire Lord that was left from the Terrorgheist set was perfect for this project.

After a long break I came back to this dragon in April 2017 - wings are finally attached, together with some new scales for them. You can see that I drilled some ridges on the wings to make them more interesting and easier to shade.

By the end of April, I managed to bring the pointy scales up to the dragon's nose. While greenstuff on this lizard was drying, I was building and converting zombies.

Now it was time to go back with the scales - this time, on the underbelly. This was in May 2017.

And finally, in September 2017, I managed to finish the dragon itself - adding the underbelly plates and covering the remaining limbs with scales. All that work made the dragon much more imposing, scarier and bulkier. Another great part of it all is that there are no mold lines!

There's still basing to be done. I want to have the dragon push on some trees - to reinforce the forest theme I have going in my army and to make its arms a little busier - they look a bit weird by themselves. One tree will be uprooted, another will be snapped.

And that's all for now - I will be back to this one after I finish my zombies.

Abelard von Greifen

GW Blood Dragon vampire converted into a Battle Standard Bearer painted in September 2016. You can see the unpainted WIP HERE. The first vampire miniature I painted that also had to have much green around him - which clashes a bit with the idea that vampires should be black/red/white and other undead green. Still, it was better than having that flag red, that would be overkill - and in the end, I'm rather happy with him.

Before being turned, Abelard was a loyal and honorable soldier from the eastern parts of the Empire. After becoming one of Constantin's gets, he kept those qualities, only now he was supporting the von Greifens’ cause. He wasn’t bright enough to be entrusted with governing or leading, but as the bearer of the House Standard, there’s no one better. The giant icon with the family’s coat of arms needs inhuman strength to carry it - and the cries screamed by the souls trapped in the cursed banner require great mental durability to withstand them. Abelard possessed both qualities and Constantin was never disappointed with him.

Abelard von Greifen - WIP

Some WIPs of the Vampire Battle Standard Bearer I have. The base for him was an old GW Blood Dragon miniature, with the sword replaced with a flagpole. The dragon skull on top is from the Terrorgheist set, the shield is plasticard and the flag is greenstuff built around a metal wire. On that numerous faces and hands were glued on to achieve the 'stream of spirits' kind of look.

The shield was missing from the miniature I bought, so I had to replace it. I used some round shield I had in my bitzbox, but then I wanted to have a bit more interesting. To get that I 'painted' a relief image of a von Greifen griffin skeleton - and it's done with many layers of Liquid Greenstuff. After that, I covered it with two layers of varnish to make a bit more durable.