Sokolov Halberd Regiment - WIP

The Sokolov faction is by far the smallest one in my little Varsavian chronicle - represented by just two characters! They may be fairly impressive, but that's still not much of a faction. I bought some additional models for them during the years, but they never got too much attention.

Now I am starting with the most basic core troop for them - skeletons! Because I have a big unit of them already, I wanted to do something different. The first change was to convert them into halberdiers - making them more similar to the Empire army, on which Lady Sokolov bases her forces. I stole this idea from the 9th age army book for their skeletons - I found that idea really neat and I like halberds too. The second change - I want to flex my freehanding muscles and paint the faction's coat-of-arms on their shields - so I cast copies of Bretonnian shields out of greenstuff for them - a much better canvas than ragged, round shields of normal skeletons. Finally, I will paint them with the Sokolov color scheme, relatively clean and with lots of red - I saw skeletons like that many times and I always wanted to try doing something similar.

I am currently working on some characters for this faction, so that is coming too. I will also do a similar unit of skeleton pikemen for them, but this will probably take some time!

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.

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.

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!

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.

King Zlyshko

Plastic Wight King from GW painted in November 2015 - kinda as a 'byproduct' when painting Nagash with the same color scheme. He got slightly converted to look more Slavic than the standard version, much less clean too. The idea about him came from the visible part of the shield which I interpreted as a spider - and then I spun the narrative around that, also painting a fitting design on his cloak. There's also a tiny bit changed that should be easier to spot after reading the backstory.

Zlyshko got a nickname 'the Spider' during his youth for having six fingers on his right hand - and while it was said with derision at first, he embraced the moniker - for he has cunning as a real spider during his rule. Later he became known for being the first ancient king to bend his knee before the Avatar of the Death God. While others before him perished without even a memory of them left in the world, Zlyshko was clever enough to notice when should he put his pride aside. Thanks to that, he was blessed with extreme longevity and eventually - undeath. Ruthless warrior and an effective tactician, he led many armies against the enemies of the ever-expanding Varsavia, before eventually being put to a rest in an exquisite tomb. While still susceptible to some degree to the necromantic powers of von Greifens and Hautfell, he manages to show a large degree of independence from those who raised him. That, coupled with the fact that wights tend to listen to him rather than the necromancers, makes him a dangerous wild card in modern Varsavia. Thankfully for the vampires and necromancers, he considers the younglings (as he calls the denizens of the modern world) useful allies.

Kiril the Woodsman

GW Krell, the Lord of Undeath painted in January 2014, finecast. The first wight character I painted - and his painting scheme was just a logical extension of the way I did my Grave Guard. This time the yellow freehands got a little more illustrative - and that will also prove to be the staple of my wights. His axe was also a good excuse to paint some marble.

During his life, Kiril was a sturdy lumberjack in the thick forests of Varsavia. He felled innumerable trees and many chaos marauders that wandered near his house. This lasted for many years until a big war between Varsavians and Chaos forces rumbled through his forest. When the ancient soldiers led by the summoned Avatar of the Death God found themselves being pushed back, Kiril himself was able to pulverize a big enemy camp when he finally stumbled upon it. After that, he was invited into the army and barbarians quickly learned to fear the sight of a burly man with a two-handed axe, especially after he took a liking to take the enemy armor for himself. Dressed as a chaos warrior, he became a hero, a living legend amongst the Varsavians - a Bogatyr, as they called such people. While he wasn't that much of a tactician, he made up for that with his death toll. After his death, he was laid in a ceremonial tomb along with the magic armor made from northern scraps and a special cursed axe made from green marble - a gift from the prophet. Being a revered hero, the rituals laid on his dead body were much more potent and necromancers weren't able to suppress his will - Kiril retained all of his old memories. Still, he was willing to fight alongside his wight comrades in defense of Varsavia - doing what he does best as always.

Wight Knights

Black Knights from Games Workshop, painted in September 2013. I tried to paint their horses to look part-spectral - thus the green parts on their barding - all to make them fit the rules and fluff of the game. Today I dislike that look and when I'll be doing more of those, I'll strip paint at least off those horses. As described in the fluff, I intend to give them some kind of heraldic symbols on the barding. Time will tell how that will go.

In another tomb, the cavalrymen of the ancient Varsavia were found. Buried along with their horses and barding, they rode again after being raised. While warriors themselves were definitely substantial, their steeds shifted into some spectral realm, allowing them to easily traverse Varsavian forests and marshes. Each one of the warriors bore an intricate, yet dulled, symbol on their barding - these were like heraldry and signified honored soldiers in the armies of the ancients. Extremely loyal warriors, they demanded to be brought to one of their chieftains. In the absence of such, they were pressed into the vampires' armies as really effective shock troops.

Wight Infantry

Grave Guard wights from Games Workshop, painted in September 2013. When I was painting them I still didn't have a theme for the whole army - only a vague green color scheme. First I wanted to make them look a bit roman - and all that's left of that idea are the laurels painted on their robes. I also made their armor patinated teal, to make them fit the greenish scheme - it was also quite easy to paint. Those two things became the defining characteristics of my wights and other units belonging to the 'Ancient Varsavians' faction.

After returning to Varsavia, von Greifens found out that many hundreds of years ago, a peculiar death cult was strong in these lands. Interested in the old necromantic ways they may have been practicing, they finally found a tomb filled with dried skeletons of ancient warriors, still with their patinated armor and weapons. Brought into unlife with the help of Alexander Hautfell, these wights proved to be much more than mere skeletons. Their grayed bones were unnaturally tough, their grip stronger than that of a living person and most of all - they retained some of their old thoughts and memories. They were the sworn warriors of a death god which name was lost to history and fought in Varsavia when there was no Empire or Kislev and beasts thought to be mythical roamed the forests. While they posessed their old wills, necromancers were still able to at least bend them to serve them to some extent. Their cursed weapons and drilled discipline made them most useful warriors.

Hautfell's Skeleton Regiment

A Skeleton Warriors unit from Games Workshop painted around November 2013, plastic. Probably the first unit that big with so similar poses - it wasn't easy on my nerves. But in the end, it came out pretty well. I still had to re-glaze the green parts on them a moment before taking first pictures because I found the shade not fitting the rest of the army.

Preferring regularity and order, Hautfell rose to be a specialist in raising skeletons rather than other undead. Unlike zombies or other wretches, skeletons are very uniform and easily form row upon a row of soldiers ready to obey any order necessary. Reminiscing the empire troops he was used to, necromancer outfits his skeletons with matching colors and long spears, pushing them forward as a hardy block against their enemies. Lack of the usual undead smell is an additional benefit.