Zombie Legion - WIP #8 - Undead Stegadon

EDIT: The finished model can be seen HERE.

And here's the conversion process for the biggest rotten jewel in my horde, a crowning piece of it all - an undead stegadon. I saw a crewless one on eBay and thought to myself "why not?" - this beast as a filler was sure to take a lot of space!

Here's the beginning of it all - in October 2017. I started with opening its belly, adding some Milliput ribs, breaking off one of the horns, adding some entrails he'll be dragging along and some other damages to the body.

Following a suggestion I got on Carpe Noctem I replaced the weird 'ladder' that was lodged in the beast's leg with a zombie nailed to it. Something like Captain Ahab and Moby Dick. Not only it is an aesthetic improvement, but also adds another zombie to the composition, making it fit a bit better in the whole horde.

And by the end of the month, I managed to complete converting the monster itself, leaving me only with basing still to do. As you can see, I added all the zombie crewmen on top of it, ready to stab foe and friend alike - one of them holding a chain - that element was tricky. The flag will bear yet another symbol of my vampires, adding more verticality to the horde. There is also some more damage and dangling skin and I turned it into a beast of burden by adding all the pouches, barrels, bottles and other clutter. All of that was to emulate the style of miniatures from the 6th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle when they all had those little bags, potions, scrolls and other such things on them. I really like my miniatures 'busy' - as you can see below.

Zombie Legion - WIP #7

Zombiecrafting continues! These are from October 2017.

Seeing that I went from 350 planned zombies to 400, I needed one more command group - for I had only 7 sets of those. So I built these three guys. The cart for the musician is made out of balsa wood. Below them, you can see some of the more interesting single ones - like two additional creepy cultists, twins too! There's also guy proudly raising the shot bird, while also being pierced with an arrow.

And here are some more imposing beasts. First one is the Gorebeast from a Chaos Chariot - I bought some bits for it to get the horses - and it came with a complete Gorebeast. I made it into a zombie, of course. The second one on this picture is a mummified drake - a miniature from Fenryll. I bought it cheaply on eBay specifically for this purpose. It came with wings, but they were connected to the body rather awkwardly, so I left them out.

Here you can see a Skaven Wolf Rat converted slightly to fit in the legion. This also marked a moment when I used fancy and expensive models from Forge World to be used as lousy zombie filler in my army - I was really running out of ideas for fillers! The second one is a whipper mounted on a Slavic-style idol sculpture - more of those will come later. Idols, that is, not whippers.

Now, some cavalry. First one is a kitbashed Bretonnian 'knight'. It's supposed to look like something a necromancer would build out of scrap bodies, old wood, farming tools and a looted helmet to only resemble a real knight of Bretonnia. The second one is an Empire General - he didn't need much converting to fit in the legion as a headless horseman. The third one is supposed to emulate famous winged hussars. I used a metal horse of unknown manufacturer, mounted a skeleton on it and greenstuffed some flesh. The wings are made out of pieces of sprue with wire and greenstuff for feathers. Below them, you can see an ogre cannon that is being used for some of the more 'shooty' zombies as high ground. It's a great occasion to try some heavy weathering on all that metal.

Zombie Legion - WIP #6 - The Brutes

And we're back to zombies. I had 200 ready and I needed to have 200 more - so I started sculpting them. I really, really wanted to finish this project and move on to other things...

This time, brutes - big buys filling 40x40mm bases by themselves - all of them with some oppressive feel and using many orc bits.

First one is a converted WH40K Ork and he's carrying a breaking wheel - I always wanted to do something like this. Not being able to find any fitting bits, I sculpted the wheel from scratch and mounted a mangled zombie on top.

The second one is carrying a cage. At first, I considered building a carriage for it and have some wretch pulling it. Then I thought that omitting the cart and making the wretch buff will be much, much better. Still needs some rope - I'll add this when they're painted and glued together.

And a headsman/headhunter - I really liked the idea of someone large with an unnaturally small head hidden inside a helmet. It's also a good way to deal with all the heads in my bitzbox and to add some vertical elements to the horde.

Sir Baranowski

And now for something completely different - a Kislev Boyar from Games Workshop - painted in October 2017. There was a competition on Carpe Noctem with the topic 'Duel' - and I wanted to use this mini together with Kislev zombies to create a small diorama. I didn't manage to build the diorama, but I still painted the Boyar - the first living human in my current collection that wasn't a present of some sort.

Sir Baranowski is the nobleman who was leading a patrolling party that was sent from Kislev proper into Varsavia. Almost by accident, he met there with von Greifen brothers - his party was massacred by the undead forces, but he fled into the forest. He may be a gluttonous coward, but he still managed to brave the woods and inform his superiors about a vampiric presence in the land. Drawing attention to themselves and angering their powerful neighbor was the last thing von Greifens needed at that time.

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.

Zombie Legion - A Hardy Minotaur + WIP

Part of the Zombie Legion

An undead minotaur - painted in July 2017. I bought him specifically for this purpose - and instead of skinning him and hacking his limbs off, I just stuck a lot of weapons into him. It was probably the first time when I was using a heated scalpel to cut holes in a plastic miniature - quite handy, even if a bit messy too. He was fun to convert and the painting was much easier and quicker than I expected.

Numerous places in the world are festering with beastmen and Varsavia, being a woodland close to Chaos Wastes is certainly not an exception. Von Greifens often fought with them and it usually involved facing minotaurs. Those large, ravenous, bull-headed beastmen are very tough and can take a lot of punishment before they can be brought down. One of them was exceptionally resilient and it took almost an armory of weapons to kill it. Constantin found the beast especially impressive and raised it into his zombie legions, with all the spears, swords, arrows and axes still lodged in him - as a twisted souvenir of sorts. They severely limit its movability, but that doesn't make a big difference for a brain-dead zombie.

And how did he look before the painting:

Zombie Legion - The Stirlanders

Part of the Zombie Legion

Empire zombies - painted in July 2017. During all the years of hobbying, I managed to gather quite a lot of imperial bits - and this project was putting them up to good use. At first, I looked at the map and tried to choose a province neighboring Kislev to make it all sensible from the fluff standpoint - but I didn't like their colors at all. So I choose Striland which fits my color scheme, but doesn't make as much sense geographically... still, it's the lesser evil in my opinion.

Recently some provinces of the Empire were waging a war with Kislev - and it was a Strilander force that was moving through Varsavia. Von Greifens kept themselves hidden, not wanting to go between two large realms' war, reacting only when absolutely necessary. After skirmishes with the undead and the forest itself taking their men, soldiers of Empire were an easy target for Kislevites, who quickly crushed them and moved away. Since that time the yellow, green and brown of Striland became a very popular color amongst the zombies' ranks.

First, the cannon, together with zombies futilely trying to get it to shoot.

And the infantry of the Stirland Expeditionary Force - first, some historical-style pikemen. They are kinda unwieldy, so I understand why GW went for much shorter spears and halberds. But as I said in the WIP post about them - the effect of those pikes protruding from the undead horde are definitely worth it.

And the rest of the unfortunate soldiers.