Gudvanger's Monster #13 - The Pegasus - WIP

Fifth new member of the Crypt Horror unit. This one went through numerous revisions before becoming what he is right now.

First, that was supposed to be a mockery of a vampire, with wings, a Vargheist head and claws. Then I noticed that I don't have any good clawed hands to use, so I gave him hoofs on the hands. Then it was mismatched either way, so I used horse heads, because I had some of them laying around. The wings were supposed to have some tattered membranes, but it wasn't looking very good, so I got rid of them. In the end, he turned into a mockery of a pegasus, rather than a vampire, which is also quite cool.

Gudvanger's Monster #12 - The Arm Horror - WIP

Undead stitched monsters are still going strong, here I am with more conversions.

In the original unit, there was one that I called a "head horror", covered with way too many heads. This one is continuing the theme, being an "arm horror". I gathered a lot of Crypt Ghoul arms and some extra chonky Cygor fingers to create this busy-looking creature. Simple and fun.

Gudvanger's Monster #11 - The Cannonman - WIP

Third one for the expansion of my ogre-ish Crypt Horrors. After the Skullman and the Moleman, it's time for the Cannonman.

I managed to secure some Leadbelchers and I always wanted to use one of them for this project - with some tentacles writhing inside, it's a close combat creature after all. The results are rather messy, but that is often the case with my minis, isn't it? The head was a spontaneous decision here, I wanted a tiny head on a tall neck, but during the sculpting I noticed that a whole body could fit there - so I added an extra arm there. Well, when their mad creator is stitching them together, he doesn't really have to keep the standard humanoid anatomy, anything goes.

Gudvanger's Monster #10 - The Moleman - WIP

Continuing with the unit from last week, I'm still in the build mode.

Lots of sculpting on this one! I wanted to create a mole-man of sorts, with giant, thick arms and hands, tiny head and using the Vargheist hairy back. Here you can also see my new approach to stitches - while in the olden days I just rolled a greenstuff 'thread' and cut it into small segments to be used as stitches, this time I'm using a brass/copper rod that's bent and cut. There is lot less of those stiches that way, but they are way more substantial and 3d. Hopefully a mix of two approaches will look ok in the finished unit.

Gudvanger's Monster #9 - The Skullman - WIP

Converting an Ogre Bull last week reminded me of a project that I wanted to start years ago - to expand on my 8 Crypt Horrors, which were all converted from ogres back in 2014. Since then the concept for my undead army evolved and I also could afford bigger units. Since I'm in the mood for converting, I'll try moving this project in the right direction, we'll see how many I'll be able to do! My skills also got better since then, so it will be a lot of fun to revisit the unit that taught me how to convert.

First guy here is based on an idea I had in 2014, lots of bones and that wicked Irongut sickle. Adding a skull instead of a normal head was a spontaneous decision and a one that I really like, one can clearly see it's an undead monstrosity and not just a Nurgle one.

Gatzek

A Wolfbomination from the Zombicide game turned into a vampire monster, to be used in the game as an alternative Varghulf - you can see the conversion process HERE. He will be my second Varghulf, the first one can be seen HERE.

It was nice to finally paint a monster that wasn't a part of the Zombie Legion. I didn't have to rush everything, I could take my time and really enjoy the painting process, trying out things I've read about during this last year. Even the color scheme was already decided - light bluish skin and dark, reddish wings and fur - to fit together well with my other Varghulf. First, I painted its skin, wetblending light blue and dark blue paint to create areas of light and shadow - and then I kept adding many layers of glazes, both light and dark, to strengthen the contrasts and bring out the details. It was probably the first time when I really tried to think about zenithal light instead of just raised areas and recesses. When the skin was done I did the same with the red parts. After that, I added some subtle dark red glazes in the shaded areas to make the contrast between that and the cold highlights even stronger.

In the end, I think that he turned out pretty well and I enjoyed painting him. I like monsters of this size and the limited amount of colors also made things a bit less chaotic - especially after all those zombies! I'm thinking of doing some more alternative Varghulfs later, maybe this time scratchbuilt instead of converted.

Also, as I said in the WIP post, the word I used to name it, Gatzek (spelled in Gacek in Polish) is a Polish name for a family of bats - and also a kinda silly colloquial term for bats in general.

One of the most useful beasts used by von Greifens is the so-called Fledermaus - a vampire turned into an animalistic monster by their father, Laurentin. When a Necrarch scholar Eshnuu joined the brothers in Varsavia, he quickly became interested in replicating the process. Together with Lucan, they started catching - and if necessary - creating vampires to be turned. The experiments weren’t easy and many ‘applicants’ perished messily in the process. Only one of them survived - its past already forgotten, it began its new unlife as a muscle-bound bat-like monster with a distended jaw full of sharp teeth. Its mind broken and wiped, it is driven solely by its neverending, horrific hunger - with only commands of obedience burned into its brain keeping it at bay. Lucan named it ‘Gatzek’ - using a local, colloquial term for a bat - similarly to how Constantin calls his monstrous pet 'Fledermaus'. Only while Constantin says it with some kind of affection, for Lucan it's only a joke - he won't spare any feelings for mere weapons.

Gatzek - WIP

EDIT: The finished model can be seen HERE.

Okay, it's time for something that's not zombies! I took a short break to play Total War Warhammer 2, but it didn't stick - I went back to the hobby table rather quickly. Still used to the speed and amount of work that the zombie legion needed, I have about 5 or 6 different projects going on right now - and today I will share with you one that's presentable enough at this point. The word I used to name it, Gatzek (spelled in Gacek in Polish) is a Polish name for a family of bats - and also a kinda silly colloquial term for bats in general.

Some time ago I bought a Wolfbomination miniature from the Zombicide game (I didn't take a photo of the unconverted mini, so I am using one from the official website of the game):

I always wanted to have some werewolves in my army and this one looked good enough to be used, probably as an alternative Varghulf. Then it lingered on my shelf and in the meantime, I decided that I wanted to get some Skin Wolves from Forge Wold at some point. Now that Wolfbomination won't fit those (even less from a fluff perspective) so I started thinking how to use this miniature differently. The obvious way was to make it a vampiric monster, to make it really look like another Varghulf. I even had some extra Vargheist bits laying around, so that was actually doable!

I decided to give it a Vargheist head with a creepily long and wide jaw full of teeth - so I removed the wolf head, added the vampiric one and build some base for the lower jaw out of milliput. At this point I also I noticed that the Wolfbomination's arms were actually compatible with one set of Vargheist wings - so I glued those too. You can see that stage of the conversion below. Looking at it then I also thought that it definitely could use some more mass - especially on those tiny legs.

I rolled tiny, pointy teeth out of greenstuff first and then I set them in the creature's gums later. When I was doing Flying Horrors last year, I used needles for teeth and that turned out a bit artificial - greenstuffed teeth look much more varied and natural. While I was at it, I also made it's claws on the left hand longer - I envision them to be magically retractable, like vampires in Witcher have them. Then it was just a case of sculpting some additional muscles on the back, legs and one of the arms. Well, that and changing the tail too, of course.

Below you can see the finished conversion - he will make a fine companion to my other Varghulf, the Fledermaus. I also sculpted a fallen tree on the base, it will create a good framing composition together with the wings.

Serrana - the Strigoi Sister

'The Harpy's Embrace' miniature from Gamezone painted in August 2015, converted to serve in my army as a Strigoi Ghoul Queen. The idea to make one came to me when someone on the net mentioned that there's no rule against giving vampiric power 'Beguile' to a Strigoi Vampire. One thing I changed to make her more 'vampiric' was adding bat ears - the conversion post can be found HERE. Just as her brother, she too can be mounted on a Terrorgheist base - which can be seen HERE. The painting itself was much more challenging than expected - it was the first time I had to paint so much smooth skin and it was difficult at times to discern what is what. Despite that I still think that the mini's sculpt and design is outstanding - the way she's cradling his head, the way she blocks his hands with her legs - tender yet deadly.

While von Greifens tend to look down on Strigoi vampires, Haralamb Gudvanger isn't so discriminating. He took care of two Strigoi siblings and helped them crush the witch hunt that was following them. Thankful, the feral vampires help the flesh-stitcher as shock troops and ghoulish commanders on the field.

Gavros' sister Serrana is a rare sight - a female Strigoi. One would be gravely mistaken to think she'll be docile though. While not as rage-driven as her brother, she definitely makes up for that in sadism and cunning. Loft upon giant bat wings, she often beguiles her prey with her sleek, shapely physique and a bit of vampiric magic - when the poor fool notices her wicked face it's already too late. Draining one unfortunate completely, she just jumps onto another one, more often than not playing with her meal before finally snapping the neck. Being the only other person her brother listens to and having a cooler judgment, she makes manipulating them a little more difficult than Gudvanger would like to.

Gavros - the Strigoi Brother

Strigoi Ghoul King from the Terrorgheist set from GW - painted in August 2015. I built this one to be used on foot instead of riding the Terrorgheist - but if there's a need for that, he can be mounted on the monster's base no problem - which can be seen HERE. I changed his pose to fit his status as a foot vampire better, added some bestial bat-ears to him and changed his hands to ghoul ones - the conversion post can be found HERE. Much of it was inspired by Rob Hawkins and his Marduk the Ghoul King. The mace, taken from a chaos warrior, was added to accommodate the idea of giving him a magical weapon on the tabletop. That was valid in 8th edition, but I really don't know if that's still a thing in Age of Sigmar.

The color scheme is the same as with all my vampires - pale blue, red and black - and proved to be a bit troublesome on this one. There are not much elements on him that are not skin and at first, I painted his loincloth red - which made him look like a stripper... In the end, only the handle and the little pouch are red.

While von Greifens tend to look down on Strigoi vampires, Haralamb Gudvanger isn't so discriminating. He took care of two Strigoi siblings and helped them crush the witch hunt that was following them. Thankful, the feral vampires help the flesh-stitcher as shock troops and ghoulish commanders on the field.

A muscle-bound brute, the brother - Gavros is all one can expect from a Strigoi Ghoul King. Fuelled by rage and hunger, he's easily manipulated by Gudvanger. He also possesses a peculiar knack for leadership, somehow inspiring the flesh monsters to perform better on the battlefield. Known for very short bursts of extreme strength bolstered by blood magic - during this moments he can crush stones with his hands and rip apart fully armored knights - that together with his supernaturally quick strikes makes him a truly terrifying foe when on the offense, even if somewhat lacking in defense. If not fighting with his poisoned claws, he enjoys using a monstrous mace he took from a killed Chaos Knight.

Strigoi Siblings - WIP

A short post showing my conversions of two minis I use as Strigoi vampires - Gavros and Serrana. Both of them got large ears - which was inspired by Turelim vampires from the Legacy of Kain franchise - I just really like feral vampires with laarge ears. I heard also people saying it reminds them of gremlins, so there's that too. More detailed info on them is in their separate posts.

Gavros the Strigoi Ghoul King is first:

And his sister Serrana, the Strigoi Ghoul Queen:

The Netherpyr

A Terrorgheist from GW painted in August 2015 - the first miniature I painted after moving my whole workshop to Berlin. Weirdly enough, it's not converted in any way. Still, I magentized it's wing for ease of transportation - following a tutorial by Rob Hawkins. It was also his idea to place a 'slot' into the base to field him with a character 'riding him' or not - the process is described HERE. The black tar-pit on the base was my own idea and I documented the whole process HERE.

I wanted to paint him in 'inverted' color scheme - Terrorgheists are usually dark/black with light/white bones - and I went for pale skin and dark brown bones. It made him somewhat different from the standard and also tied him with my other fleshy undead which are also pale green. The execution of that plan, especially on the wings, got messy. Shades were drying badly on those large surfaces and tap-water in my new place was leaving a lot of nasty white residue and it was still difficult to make them look interesting, even with reddened holes in the skin. In the end, I sprinkled him with GW Athonian Camoshade, using an old toothbrush. That made it look grimy, dirty, rotting and much more interesting - since then I add this to most of my fleshy, messy undead.

Netherpyr is a personal pet of the Strigois and yet another reason Gudvanger - and by extension - von Greifens - try to stay on the siblings' good side. Resurrected thanks to their innate magic, this giant monster, still possessing some of its wicked character, quickly made itself known in the Varsavian countryside as the 'Netherpyr' - which is a bastardization of a native word for a bat. The unnatural death shriek it possesses boils the flesh and shatters the bones - thanks to that, it's often called forth when the Varsavian undead fight with the servants of Chaos - for their sturdy armor is not a defense against the agonizing screams of the Netherpyr.

The slot makes it possible to 'mount' a Strigoi Ghoul King (or Queen) on his back. Posts about those two minis can be found HERE.

Gudvanger's Monsters

Converted zombie Ogres from GW - serving in my army as Crypt Horrors - painted in May 2014. The WIP post with the unpainted conversions can be found HERE. As I wrote there, I chose ogres because I wanted my crypt horrors to be much bulkier than the standard option - and to have more than 3 poses. Ogres may only in two poses, but the hands can be reposed and there's a TON of customization options. That allowed me to make every one of them somehow special. Painting all the flesh, grime and wounds was interesting and fun. It was also the first time I used liquid green stuff to add some texture to smooth surfaces - which can be seen on the champion's hand blades.

Being capable at stitching corpses into larger entities, the monstrous Flesh-stitcher Haralamb Gudvanger is almost never satisfied with normal reanimated zombies. He instead binds them together into much larger creatures, adding and removing parts as he sees fit, creating true monstrosities. His minions are endlessly scouring Varsavia in search of bodies (alive or not) to drag them underground to their master's lair. There Gudvanger can hack, saw and stitch it all to make his flesh-wonders. Being usually based on ogres, the resulting monsters are extremely resilient, relentless and mindlessly loyal to their creator. Weapons and bodies of those monsters drip with poisonous reagents used by Gudvanger to keep the rot away - even a small bruise inflicted by them can mean death to a living being. They serve as the main force of the Flesh-Stitcher forces and as heavy 'mercenaries' von Greifens pay dear prices for.

Gudvanger's Monsters - WIP

I wanted to have some Crypt Horror, but I used the original kit to make some Vargheists and I didn't want my Horrors to be too similar. So, the right way to do it was to convert some ogres to do it - and I always wanted to paint some ogres. I got 8 of them and converted them into stitched frankenstein-monster-things and it was very fun to do - the ogre kit is perfect for conversions - them being larger than normal minis and such. It was also a great opportunity to use all the different bits I had laying around. I plan to expand the unit and have 15 of them in all. Or maybe 18?

The painted versions can be seen HERE

The first two, the champion of the unit (4 attacks of course) and the 'head horror' - sculpting that last one was a blast - and by that I mean quite creepy.

Next two - the 'standard bearer' and the 'battle damage' one. First one was the reason why I had my Corpse Cart built with a whip instead of a spear. The second one was worth some trouble when I tried to drill through him and it got so hot that the plastic melted and almost fused to the drill inside - getting it out was quite a challenge - so it pays off to be patient when doing some things.

And some more of them - one is a Frankenstein Monster / Kratos from God of War mix and the second one is the obligatory 'hole in belly with guts spilling out' one. Seriously, so many undead ogres I found in the internet were done this way!

And last ones - a chaos themed one and a dark elf themed one.

Varsavian Wretches

A unit of 50 ghouls painted in March 2014. 30 of the bodies used are Games Workshop and 20 are from Mantic Miniatures, but almost all of them have GW heads. This makes some of them look 'partially' feral and ghoulish, a mixed bunch, which I like. Getting the shade of their skin was troublesome - I wanted to have it brown and dirty, but then the green was getting lost in it. Lots of washes and glazes later, they look like dark orcs... I would probably repaint them at some point if I had the time.

Hunched, wicked and cannibalistic creatures known as Ghouls or Wretches roam the lands of Varsavia, hiding on the marshes and in the forests, digging through graveyards, looking for dead or alive to devour. While they are not undead themselves, packs of them often accompany unliving armies in hope of an easy feast. Necromancers can’t exert their will over them like they do with the dead, but strangely enough, vampires can force them to do their bidding with enough willpower and authority. Small groups of them usually followed von Greifens when they were marching, but big hordes of them were brought only after meeting Haralamb Gudvanger. He alone is able to boss them around effortlessly, strengthening any army needing durable and vicious infantry.

The Fledermaus

Varghulf from Games Workshop painted in July 2013. After collecting Bretonnians and then having a long pause, that was the first monster I painted in a long time. Actually, it was also the first Vampire I painted for the army and it kinda set the whole color scheme for the rest of them. Back then I didn't have a very precise concept for the whole army, just going with whatever seemed the best at the moment. I didn't want a green Varghulf and I wanted in light colors - and so the pale blue + red scheme was born. Only later I came up with an explanation that vampiric creatures will be red, to make them stand out among the rest of the green undead.

A long time ago, this creature was a rival of Laurentin von Greifen. He got captured, tortured and subsequently turned into this monstrosity, often affectionately called "Fledermaus". Oppressed and kicked around by Laurentin, he found a strange friend in Constantin, who treated him with a certain affection, like an interesting pet. Thus, it wasn't very surprising that he helped the younger von Greifen during his rebellion against his creator. He has been loyally following Constantin ever since, ready to wreak havoc in the enemy lines or scaring rivals in exchange for a steady supply of meat and blood.