Zombie Legion - The Lost One

Part of the Zombie Legion

An idea came to me one day - to convert one of the controversial Stormcasts into a small, lousy zombie filler. I bumped him a bit, scratched, crippled his hand, stuck a stick in his neck, covered with mud and added some patina - and here he is! The one that got lost in the WFB universe. Painted in November 2016.

This giant, armored knight stumbled into the forest one day, looking somehow lost. Without a word, he got into a battle with the undead forces as soon as he saw them. While he proved to be a tough opponent, zombies just kept coming and after all the cuts and jabs, he was felled down just like any other and was quickly incorporated into the same horde he so valiantly fought. Constantin considers him an interesting curiosity in his horde.

Zombie Legion - WIP #2

Two fillers for zombies I did by converting Age of Sigmar miniatures. First one is a sigmarine / Stormcast Eternal - I really liked the idea of turning one of those into a lousy zombie filler.

The second one is the so-called 'Bloodstoker' - that guy looks pretty gruesome on his own and isn't yet another steroid monster like other new khornates - actually a pretty cool mini! He was way too fancy for my army, so I started simplifying him - by making his 'fake arm' much more proletarian. After that, I thought, why not go for something more - so I turned him into a fat cossack. A fun mini that was fun to convert.

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.

Group Shot 03

When I finished and posted my Nagash on January the 31st 2016 I thought of it as a good reference point - so when 31.01.2017 came I decided to make a photo of everything I painted during that year:

And while I was at it I also took a photo of everything I had in Berlin back then:

Gudvanger's Flying Horrors

Heavily converted Carrions from the Tomb Kings range - painted in March 2017. This was a rather spontaneous project - there was a competition on Carpe Noctem, with the topic being "Special Unit" and I found three cheap Carrions on eBay. A quick burst of inspiration later I bought them and rather hastily turned them into what can be seen here. The general concept was inspired by this artwork. The mess in their bellies represents the first try of the visceral fleshcrafting / body horror I would like to add to the Bog Dwellers faction - think something like from The Thing.

The unpainted version can be seen HERE.

Built from strange varieties of bones, feathers and flesh, held together with steel and skin, the Flying Horrors are another mad creations of the flesh-stitcher Haralamb Gudvanger. What sets them apart from others, are their bellies - in which he planted seeds from the Lady of the Bog. Amongst all the dead, necromantic tissue molded by the stitcher, those writhing tendrils of the blooming flesh are the only living parts, twisted as they are. The hungry mass of viscera catches and consumes all nearby body parts - be they alive or dead - with unending appetite. As long as the Horrors won't devour themselves, Gudvanger can deem the experiment of joining dead mass with the living flesh as successful. When they are not fighting with Wretches over waste bodies, they are useful in flesh-stitcher's modest force for scouting and terror tactics.

Gudvanger's Flying Horrors - WIP

The painted version can be seen HERE.

A rather spontaneous conversion turning old Tomb King Carrions into a mix of something from this artwork and creatures from The Thing. The heads are scratchbuilt, teeth are needles, the fleshy sack on the middle one is made out of greenstuff balls covered with several layers of Liquid Greenstuff, the rest should be rather self-evident. It was a fun project, I plan to do more of such visceral horrors in the future.

First the three monsters together:

And some closeups:

Sirins & Alkonosts

Despite being quite distinct, my Slavic 'counts-as-Fell-Bats' are still supposed to be one unit - that's why I will show them together too. After some bad experiences earlier, I wanted them to fit together even when placed in direct contact with each other. It forced some larger variation in their poses, so that's a double plus!

There are also separate posts for Alkonosts and Sirins and the WIP post can be found HERE.