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.

Group Shot 02

Second group shot - one I did in July 2014, right before going into a hiatus. I collected here everything I managed to paint or build up to that point. Unfortunately the carpet had to be used as a background... It was 1,5 years worth of work.

Vilks

Standard Dire Wolves from GW painted in May 2014. Lots of gaps to be filled, but other than that, they are vanilla. The color scheme is also my usual zombie style with pale-green skin. They turned out to be quite the scavengers, painting-wise. When I was painting my ghouls I was left with too much bone color so I painted bones on them. Their skin was painted when I was working on the zombie ogres - add manes, gore and some details and they're ready. Simple minis but they performed so well on the tabletop.

Sorin always appreciated how well prepared for their roles were the nature's beasts. From tiny spiders to giant mammoths, animals fascinated the Manhunter. So it's no surprise that he's especially fond of raising wolves from the ground as his minions, their unmarked graves scattered across the Varsavian meadows and forests. Vilks - the Varsavian wolves with wide heads - helped him many times when hunting down an especially elusive prey. Often he takes a wolf form himself, leading the ravenous pack at the front of it. He's also more than willing to let them support his brothers' battles, flanking the enemy or acting as a bloodthirsty vanguard. While they are easily killed once again by any relatively capable soldier, there is usually much more of them in the ground to replace the losses.

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.

Haralamb Gudvanger

A converted Nurgle Lord from Games Workshop painted in October 2016.

I invented this character back when I did my zombie ogre crypt horrors, I needed some guy who stitched them together - so I looked up a name and bought a Nurgle Lord mini for him. At first, he was just a weird, mutated necromancer, but then got into a much more important character, with unique properties and introducing yet another faction into my story. I got to like him very much, that's why I really did my best on the mini and drew that little comic for him.

As for the model - conversion can be seen here - he became a collector of hands, gathering them and using for some unholy purpose. I tried my best while painting and I'm still very satisfied with him - I finally learned the true value of strong contrasts. I also tried to make a puddle on the base, using Vallejo Still Water, but it didn't turn out that good. I had to use about 20 layers - and the middle part is still concave... Ghoul-gnoblars were a late addition, as I got those guys from the Ironguts set. Those merry companions of his fill the base and frame the flesh-stitcher nicely - I will make a whole unit of those later.

Being faced with an impending Chaos incursion on Varsavia, von Greifens needed some way to tip the scale on their favor. One possibility was to force their enemies through the Bog - a giant swamp that since time immemorial resisted any attempts to map or civilize it - rarely anyone makes out of it alive, even less make it out sane. But before throwing Chaos marauders into it, Sorin was sent to gather some intelligence about it. The vampire found himself surrounded by thick fog and attacked by bizarre creatures. Not so easily fooled, he managed to locate the dilapidated stone building in the center, hiding enormous underground labyrinth of passages and rooms. After fighting his way through it, he was approached by the master of the place. A strange, corpulent creature, surrounding himself with severed hands and deformed servants - he called himself Haralamb Gudvanger. The vampire, normally very confident in his abilities, found himself confused and completely unable to assess his opponent. Before the situation could escalate into something unpredictable, the creature said that he’s impressed with the vampire reaching so far into its lair and offered a deal - a cooperation to further both parties goals. Gudvanger wanted to communicate with the rest of the world and use the influence vampires got in the land - and in return, he will help them fight off the barbarians. That meant giving them some of his undead creations - for he was a necromantic master of fleshcrafting. Gudvanger’s monsters were certainly helpful, but their master was way too enigmatic to be simply accepted as an ally - only time will tell how this cooperation will turn out.

And the miniature itself:

Haralamb Gudvanger - WIP

A Nurgle Lord from GW I bought to convert into some kind of necromancer long time ago. At first, I only intended to give him some knives and a bag, but while doing it I came up with an idea of giving him cut-off hands as his definitive feature. Also fits for my storytelling for this character. The hands are taken from all the leftover bits I managed to collect through the years and the spikes are made from cut-up sprues.

The painted version can be seen HERE