Lady Annika in the Old World (Part 1)

 I decided I wanted to add a bit of diversity to my vampire counts and, while I was at one of the local game stores, this kit called out to me.  So I decided to give her a shot.  I knew her cloak/robe-thing would flow off of her 25mm base, and I thought I could make that work.  But what surprised me was her height. (More on that in a moment here). So I built her up anyway.  I was stuck trying to determine which arm to take: the one holding the mask or the bat winged one. Mrs. Neverness thought the bat winged one was best so I went with it. 

Too classy for her base. 

Back to the height issue; She is definitely taller, by a considerable margin, compared to most of the typical Old World humanoids. But I think I am OK with this as it allows her to stand out rather dramatically during play.  I swear I think AOS has gone to a 32mm scale. But that's a topic I haven't enough knowledge to truly explore at this time.  So long as she's attached to a unit on the right flank,  her clothing can flow off to the side and not interfere with the joined unit. 

It's like a flank bumper. 

Now to figure out how to paint her (and her zombie pirate buddy's as well).  And eventually this unit of 20 pirate zombies will be getting their own post as I work on them more. 

"Arrrr, brains!"

This army is starting to come together and I'm having a lot of fun with it so far.  At this point I have a fully painted Tomb Banshee, Spirit Hosts and Skeletons with Spears. And there is definitely more to come! 

Saving the Cygor

On a recent trip to Knoxville TN, I swung by the CM Games store in Cedar Bluff where they happened to be having a 50% off sale on their used miniatures. This Cygor stood out to me as a very good bargain considering the current after-market prices for this guy, but more importantly I felt like I could save this model. 

"Save me!"

Mostly I just need to finish the basecoat, and just build up the colors from there. Except for that big boulder he is holding. That thing will be completely repainted. Don't get me wrong, I admire the original painter's attempt to make this appear molten, but it just doesn't work for me with this model. 

In the Neverness Hobbyzone being studied.

And I need to rebase him also.  And that's where I am starting this project.  I removed him from the large oval base and sized him up for his 60x100mm square  base before gritting it up and priming it. And of course, I felt compelled to go ahead and paint it prior to affixing the Cygor to his new base. 

The new base.

I used Skeleton Horde on any of unpainted bones and skulls. Volupus Pink was used on the big guy's tongue and mouth. For the big rock I used Adeptus Battlegray Foundation Paint on the rock. That stuff is still amazing. I was able to coat it in no time and get that thing looking like a big stone again. This revealed details to me that I hadn't noticed before such as the vine of ivy growing acrossed it. 

New base attached. 

I liberally applied Bloodreaver Flesh over most of the fleshy areas, which immediately began. To brighten up the model. 

Bloodreaver Fleah. 

Bugman's Glow was added over that which really started to bring this thing to life. 

Bugman's Glow.

And then I topped the fleshy bits with Cadian Fleshtone. This seemed like a good place to stop on this part. 

Cadian Fleshtone.

Stop? No way, I was having too much fun! I used white ink to fill in the recesses on the big stone (I made a mess of it really, but I tried). Then I decided to use Tesseract Glow on the recesses. 

Super glowy rock. 

After that I used Adeptus Battlegray Foundation Paint again to sort of dry brush over these groves in an effort to restore the glowy spirals. Although this turned out OK, my choice of Tesseract Glow clashed with my choice of green for the ivy. 

White drybrusbing on the hair/quils/fur areas.

The solution was to paint over the ivy using thinned Khorne Red. This kind of gives it a bit of poison ivy look which also gives it the benefit of contrast against the Tesseract Glow. 

Fur Contrast Paint over hair/quils/fur areas.

And then I worked up the leather wraps using the original Blood Angels Red as a base for Screamer Pink which was then washed in Nuln Oil and thinly highlighted with Pink Horror.

The bones (of which there is a staggering amount adorning this fella) were finished off using Screaming Skull, Wraithbone and White Scar. Pretty much the same process I used on the skellies I painted up recently. Except I was way more conservative with the use of the White Scar. 

With my final touch-ups I'm calling this Cygor done! Enjoy the next few pics of this model from different angles. 

And here is a final shot to help give those of you who may not be familiar with this model a sense of scale...

"Wow, you're a big one!" 

He should fit in well with the rest of my Beastmen Brayherd, of which, he is the first one with a finished paint job.. Actually, working on this guy has inspired me to do more, and hopefully I will do so soon. 

Walking Bones with Spears

 What's an undead army without skeletons? * Well, here are my first batch of 15 skeleton warriors ready to spear your fodder.

Primed.

After priming these guys with the appropriately named Wraithbone spray paint I next painted all of the bone areas using Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint.  

Skeleton Horde base.

Next, I decided (pretty much on a random whim) to paint all of their spears red. I guess the '90s nostalgia vibe from the box photos was far too potent to resist? After I paint the first one I knew that this was the right choice. 

Red spears for that '90s vibe. 

Then I added layers  to all of the bones using Screaming Skull followed by Wraithbone. 

Screaming Skull and Wraithbone.

Touched up.

I decided I wanted to give these guys glowing eyes in the same color as the spirit hosts that I painted recently. I figured that the color would help tie the units together a bit more.  But when I got down to it, I really liked them the way they were. So I compromised and added a subtle glow around the bottom or the edge of their empty eye-sockets. Some of their eyes have a rotten eyeball in them and these I painted with the Briar Queen Chill paint as well. 

Subtle glowy eyes.

After I added the grass tufts to some of these models I felt they could use a subtle highlight of White Scar.  

White Scar highlights. 

And with that it's a wrap. Oh, and I want to mention the model in this next pic, the one in the foreground to the left: 

Beastman skull headed guy to the left. 

His head is from the Skulls boxed set. There is a variety of beastman skulls in that set and I decided to stick on one of these skeletons after getting frustrated with attaching the horns to the beastman skull that comes with this set. I think it worked out good in the end. 

*Lame! The answer is LAME!!!