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:

Iakob the Savage - WIP

After Havel, here I am with even more vampires! Just a conversion WIP though.

Back when WFB was a thing, there was a possibility to build a vampire character that's a murdermachine and melee and yet possesses the ability to use magic from the Lore of the Beasts. Thanks to the vampires' unique rules, they could retain their powers while using the spell that transformed them into monsters. A mountain chimera in this context was stupidly overpowered. Of course, it cost a lot and was very easy to counter, so nobody used it seriously. Still, I loved this idea so much that I wanted to at least model a vampire to fit that description, a powerful barbarian just barely containing his inner beast. And after that, of course, the transformed versions...

This is my take on this. The model is based on a Khorne Exalted Deathbringer from GW. I redid quite a lot with him, I expected this conversion to be much easier, but the ideas just kept coming. Because I'm using the same head as the one on Gavros, I kept his ears small and sculpted some weird tendril hair on his previously bald head. I'm really unsure if I like it... if it's bad after getting some paint, I'll just rip it off.

It's a miracle I managed to fit him on a proper 20x20mm base!

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.

Viktor von Greifen, Captain of the Prenzlauer Guard

Finally, Victor von Greifen, the Devil of Nemnov is finished!

Quite some time ago I kitbashed myself a model to try out an upgraded color scheme for my The Prenzlauer Guard, my Blood Knights converted out of older Chaos Knights. He was fun to convert, but then it was time to actually try out this new 'renovation' idea of mine.

The main idea was to avoid flat and featureless red plates on the armor and to replace them with something clearly similar, but fancier and more detailed. I went with a marble pattern because I really like painting those and it seemed like a good idea to give some regal, noble note to the model. This first step was messy - wetblending, sprinkling, washing, more sprinkling, glazing, all at once. When that was done I could comfortably move to the other parts - adding more contrast to the metal elements, actually highlighting the flesh on the black horse, etc.

While I like the dark and grim style of Viktor, the old vampires still have some charm to them. Still, I leave the judgment on whether I improved on the old The Prenzlauer Guard to you readers. All things considered, I'd sooner convert new Chaos Knights into Blood Knights than try to repaint anything.

The elite unit of the Prenzlauer Guard was with the von Greifen brothers since their killing of their own sire Laurentin - but they were a blood-crazed and unruly bunch. To keep them in check, Constantin turned a promising soldier from Kislev into a vampire and made him a captain of the unit. He may be more level-headed and intelligent than his subordinates, but he still managed to bloodily beat some discipline into them and it would be a grave mistake to consider him forgiving or compassionate. Known as the Devil of Nemnov, he keeps the settlements under his care in line mostly through fear - dealing bloody retributions for the merest of slights. While Constantin prefers a more pragmatic and humane approach to his mortals, he’s willing to sacrifice those people and tolerate Viktor because he gets the job done and keeps the flank secure, freeing the brothers to focus on other parts of their lands. That and his hammer in an invaluable help in any battle.

Viktor von Greifen, Captain of the Prenzlauer Guard - WIP

The Prenzlauer Guard are one of the oldest miniatures that I have in my undead collection - which means that they grew to look a bit dated to me - and I think about repainting them to my current standards from time to time. This would mean not painting new things and not moving forward, so I never actually did it. An opportunity showed itself when I found a Chaos Lord horse cheaply on ebay - it has a similar style to the Chaos Knights that I used last time, so it was perfect. Besides, I love that model. I decided to kitbash on it a leader for that unit, allowing me to try doing another take on a chaos-based-vampire.

In the end, the kitbash ended looking very similar to the original Lord - he is made mostly out of Skullcrusher bits, with a head from the Terrogheist kit, a big hammer and a shield and a cloak (which will be on the next installment of Sculpting Tips). After starting with Instagram I also found tons of cool kitbashing inspiration - and that's why he has so many little details hanging around, I love that style. It's still quite reserved, though - I will try doing something much more cluttered in the future.

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?

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.

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.

Eshnuu

A necrarch vampire from GW painted in April 2017. First minis I did which were a single character in two options - which I think it's a cool thing. He's rather simple and I guess it works for a guy I think as an 'acolyte' of sorts. I wanted to add Babylonian script all over his black robe, but when I was trying it out in photoshop, rather than mystical, it looked like some cheesy pajamas. So I left him simple. Besides that, painting all those little details on him was really fun, I like those 6thEd. style minis when they each had vials, pouches and spare daggers all over them.

As a curiosity - his dagger was polished instead of painted. The possibility to do that is one sure advantage for metal miniatures.

At some point in his life, Lucan wanted to learn the secrets of magic beyond his innate vampiric ability. He ventured into far southeast in search of undead sages that study magic during eons of their life. Lack of patience and studious dedication prevented him from learning anything useful, but he met other learners. One of them was Eshnuu, a relatively young scholar in the whole assemblage - he knew a wide variety of magic arts but was more interested in testing his knowledge in the field, not to sit around, read dusty tomes and perform bizarre experiments. He remembered the stories about Varsavia he heard from Lucan and some years later joined him in this strange land to let the real world experience what he has learned. While he’s certainly not a master in what he does, he is helpful when flaming missiles or other traditionally non-vampiric magic arts are needed. Other than that, he helped immensely with the study of the language, customs and rituals of ancient Varsavians - all relying on preserved evidence, not stories told by unreliable wights.

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:

Monsters from the East + WIP

GW Vargheists painted in March 2014. I bought the set mostly to get Crypt Horror bits for my upcoming Zombie Ogres conversions and these were kind of a side-effect, but in the end, the turned out quite cool and worked well on the tabletop too! I needed to do them in my typical vampiric red + blueish gray, but I didn't want them looking like thinner copies of my Varghulf, so I decided to make their skin dark instead of light. I also added some striped 'texture' to their flesh and black patterns on their wings. It was all a bit tedious, but also made them more interesting.

Giant mutated vampires created brought to Varsavia by Lucan returning from the far east. Nobody knows for sure, but they seemed to be created in a similar way to the giant Fledermaus, but the process had to be much more refined and meticulously planned. Their mind is even more degraded, but they retained much of their vampiric speed and gained the ability to fly. While Lucan and Sorin like them for their honest love for bloody violence, Constantin finds them much too hard to control after let loose. Still, they are a very useful tool for making hard-to-reach enemies disappear into a bloody mist.

And here's also the picture of the unpainted champion of the unit, the Vargoyle, as the rules were naming them. I didn't like those little wings that were supposed to mark them, so I converted one of the Vargheists to be a little more imposing than his comrades.

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.

Ecaterina Sokolov

The Coven Throne, a rather big vampiric chariot finished in March 2017 - plastic from Games Workshop. That was a hell of a project, took quite some time. Challenge for the mini was to really push the red-black-white scheme to the max. It works for the carriage itself, but it gets lost in all those green spirits. But still, in the end, it was all kinda worth it. You can see the WIP post HERE- with the subassemblies and some techniques described.
First are the photos of the whole model.

After returning to their ancient homeland in Varsavia, von Greifens found themselves at odds with another vampire that rose to power during their long absence. A small, bloody court was held here by Lady Ecaterina Sokolov - once a wife of a Kislevite Boyar, now a vampire countess on the lands of Varsavia. Yet despite her pride, her position and forces seemed weak, which provoked brother’s attack. They came out victorious - only barely, though. She kept her own domain in which she still rules unquestionably, together with a personal army - and von Greifens were obliged to defend that land. In exchange, Brothers were free to govern and expand Varsavia as they liked. Before both parties concluded their meeting, the Countess shared a secret with the newcomers - information an ancient Varsavian death cult, which much later led to unraveling the story of wights and their Death God, changing the local balance of power forever. Ecaterina herself, when enraged by something personally, brings down her wrath from upon an exquisite throne loft upon by ancient spirits and accompanied by her two most loyal handmaidens.

And some close-ups.

Ecaterina Sokolov - WIPs

EDIT: The finished model can be seen HERE.

In December 2016 I slowly started putting the Coven Throne together. The whole model is impressive enough, so the conversions I planned were rather small. 

First, I gave the Countess a new haircut (inspired by THIS picture) and her handmaidens got some fur trims on their clothes. The plan was to make them look a bit like old russian nobility.

The project kept growing while I was working on it. While looking for inspiration on russian noblewomen, I noticed that they used a lot of pearls. So I ordered 1mm ball chain and used it to add pearls to the whole carriage. ALso, the commoner scythe in the skeleton's hands was replaced with a much more noble halberd.

Then, the base. I wanted the Countess to be both connected to the forest theme the rest of the army has and also be somehow more civilized. So I planned a stone path coming from her palace into the forest - the idea with the bent fence came a bit later. I joined some bent and cut nails with drilled sprue pieces and then held it carefully over fire to make the plastic bend too. Maybe it's not as wide as a proper entrance to the forest, but it works much better than my first idea - having the ghosts phase through the fence. That doesn't really work without translucency.

Next, the spirit horde. It was a big challenge to make the normal ghostly parts different from the metal parts while still keeping them distinctly uniform. In the end I painted ghostly parts white, metal parts light silver - and then glazed it all with blue and green. The effect is subtle, but that's what I needed. There are some freehands on the robes, but that's also very light. The whole thing was quite a pain to reach everything with the brush.

Now, the carriage itself. As most of my vampires, Countess and her entourage are kept in the black-red-white colour triad - except any special effects that is. The whole carriage was thus a one big excercise in painting everything in those three colours. It was a bit demanding, but turned out okay in the end.

And as the last WIP picture, the Scrying Pool. I wanted to paint an image there, because the background in the book describes it like that and I never seen anyone doing it on this model. My first attempt (above) was rushed, sloppy and flat. Next one took much more time but also turned out much better.

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