This Old Black Coach (Part 3)

Not that there was all that much to finish from last time, I still managed to finish this. Well, mostly. 

He's here to do the reaping.

The biggest change is that the driver is now fully painted and mounted onto his seat. I used the same color palette for his skin that I used on the ghosts. His robes were painted up from black to a light gray and then washed over using Naggaroth Nightshade. The blade of his scythe was painted with a dark brown, then a bit of old Tin Bitz was dabbed on it before finishing it with an edge highlight of Stormhost Silver.

I imagine this thing bouces a lot. 

Also, this post was a chance to re-photograph this thing with a different color background so that the ghosts stand out better. They blended in a bit more than  I would have preferred with the previous one.

Rear 3/4 shot.

The coach is now securely attached to it's base. I added a few tufts of grass on the road edge. I think I might go back and place a few leaves as well, but we'll see if I can remember to do that.

Profile shot. 

The last thing to finish is the coffin and it's resting occupant. He was fun to paint, although a bit challenging. I have wonder how challenging sculpting this was for the artist who produced this. I had an idea to try to magnetize the lid using thin straps of sheet magnet. This, however, utterly failed. I think it was a polarity issue and after several attempts, I decided to abort the whole magnet idea. Frustrated, I stopped there for the night. 

Sheet magnets on the coffin rim.

The next day I looked at it and decided the sheet magnets had to go so I stripped them off, repaired the damaged paint, and applied three tiny magnets. These magnets were acquired back when the misguided notion of slapping out Marine special weapons was something I was keen to do.. Anyway, after attempting to reverse some of polarity on these new magnets I was impressed when they actually worked! 

Small magnets added. 

There is a significant gap between the lid and the coffin, but without getting really fanatical about the whole thing, I decided I would live with this. If I had known how this would've resulted beforehand I would've attempted to add a small green LED light to the inside of the coffin to make the light seep out of that gap. That might've looked creepy-cool. 

Not as a tight a gap as I wanted but it'll do.

The coffin fits in the Black Coach now and I am not at risk of losing the coffin lid. Well, unless I lose the whole thing, but that would be far worse blunder. 

Happy trails.

I think this is a good opportunity to take a look at all of the Vampire Counts miniatures I have built and painted so far. Interestingly, since I started painting models for Warhammer: The Old World last summer, I seem to have painted more for this army than I have any of the other ones. I suppose the Dwarfs are coming in second in that race but we'll see if they can retake that spot back over soon. Note the cluster of primed pirate zombies over to the right, just waiting for their paintjobs to enhance their grossness. And I have a few more vampires waiting as well. Currently, the only painted vampire is conked out in the back of that Black Coach! 

The spooky crew so far...

This Old Black Coach (Part 2)

 Since Part One of this project was posted I have made some progress on this grisly model. Quite a lot in fact. 

Yes, it's mostly finished but the most obvious thing I have yet to do is to secure it to it's base. 

As far as painting goes,, here is what I recall: The red areas, the cushions and curtains specifically, were finished off by using Carroburg Crimson in the recesses and Pink Horror for the highlight. The wooden areas, the wheels mostly, were painted using Wyldewood Contrast Paint. This is probably my good go-to for anything wooden, I just love it! 

The gold (-ish) filigree was painted using a copper which was drybrushed over using Sigmartite and finishing if off with a highlight of Stormhost Silver. 

The Black of the coach was highlighted using a light gray. Then I washed over all of the Black areas using Naggaroth Nightshade. 

I didn't want the flames on the pair of torches to be typical flames, but rather something warp and evil. Green flames would fit the bill and stand out against the other colors on the model. 

The last two bits to complete are the driver and the coffin. That also includes the occupant within it...

This Old Black Coach (Part 1)

The Black Coach rides forth.

I have always loved the old Black Coach model. It was so Gothic and regal.  It was also loaded with stoic charm despite it's implied movement. All this made it  a bit creepy.  I also really like the current plastic one with all it's energy and spirit mayhem. However, it 's price point made it unattainable for me. Lucky for me I found this old one for a fraction of the cost. While putting it together I kept finding images of the newer kit, and it's ghostly attendants were really starting to grow on me. 

Primed to the right.

As you can see, I came up with a solution. I found a pair of ghosts attached to a single sprue on ebay. I believe they may have been part of a Warhammer Underworlds team. After a bit of trimming and tweaking I was able to make it seem as if they were whisping forth from the window of this herse. 

Primed to the left. 

I was excited to get cracking on this so I primed the whole thing in Wraithbone and after it dried for a few hours I set about applying Contrast Paint for a basecoat. 

Contrast paints for the basecoat.

I started off with Skeleton Horde for the bones (horses and corpse-on-a-stick), Wyrmwood on the wooden wheels, Black Templar for the bulk of the coach,  Briar Queen Chill on the ghosts and Baal Red on the curtains, cushions, padding and the top knots on the horse's armor. 

Spooky ride. 

The things I didn't paint is the armor on the skelly horse's heads, but I will get to that when I do the touch-ups. After that I proceed to the mid coats and build the whole thing up with highlights.  I am satisfied with it enough to call it battle-ready,  but it's fsr from done in my eyes. 

A piece of a spooky road. 

Of course to truly make it battle-ready I would need to stick onto it's base, which is mostly done at this stage. It just needs a bit of grass tufts and maybe some fallen leaves. But for now, we'll save that for a follow-up post.