Vlad's Army

Continuing my theme of only painting plastic models as I'm currently out of superglue, I've turned my attention to the 7TV feature pack Vlad's Army, in which a supernatural strike team of Nazi undead take on the stalwart Home Guard of Walsingham-on-sea.

Although there are some official models from Crooked Dice, I've taken the opportunity to raid my bitz box and lead pile for this project. I have bought the model for Hauptmann Kurtz (the vampiric second-in-command), but he's metal and so has to wait.

I've been really quick and dirty in terms of painting. If I don't mention it, just assume I've gone for a straightforward contrast-drybrush-wash approach.

Major Schreck is the vampiric leader of the invasion force and star of the villainous cast. He was built from a German Winter Infantry sprue for Bolt Action that I got free with Wargames Illustrated some time back.

His pale skin, red eyes and blood trails on his chin mean he's unlikely to ever line up alongside my Fallschirmjäger army any time soon.

The Nachtjagerkommandos are lesser vampires who act as elite troops for Schreck. Despite the wings, these guys can't actually fly.

All three are different Heroclix Man-Bat sculpts I'd collected over the years. Their uniform trousers and the addition of some German equipment to their belts (which you can't actually see) are my only concession to their military service.

The scenarios require a host of Totgangers (zombies) and so my first four are made from the rest of the German Winter Infantry sprue.

Fortunately, these models are all in motion and so I was able to pose them as staggering forwards. Open hands from a range of sources, a couple of lost limbs and a liberal dollop of Blood for the Blood God complete their transformation into the undead.

The zombie skin is my usual recipe: Kislev Flesh, green wash, drybrush Ushabti Bone, Agrax Earthshade wash.

The rest of the Totgangers are made from a Fallschirmjäger sprue I had spare. Unfortunately, some of the poses were not very zombie-like and so I took more time to use spare zombie bits from old Studio Miniatures and Wargames Factory sprues to get them looking right.

This also led to a more gruesome appearance meaning that the fictional Vlad's Army TV show would be almost certain to draw the ire of Mary Whitehouse.

As a historical note, at this point in the war the Fallschirmjäger shouldn't have camouflage smocks. However, I'm not sure I'm massively worried about the historical accuracy of my zombies...

The final model is not actually for Vlad's Army but fit the theme and was easy to do. There are Wolves in tje feature pack, but they are smaller than this beast.

This is a Fenrisian Wolf from 40k. It's likely to pop up in different games when I need a Dire Wolf, Warg Chieftain or other monstrous dog. Despite having two eyes I can certainly work as Black Schuck, the spectral hound from the Children of the Fields programme guide.

As mentioned, I still have Hauptmann Kurtz to paint and some bats to rebase as swarms, and I have some undead wolves from Descent I can use to complete the cast.

After that, I need to move on to the Walsingham-on-sea Home Guard. I had intended to just use my Operation Sealion/VBCW models to represent them, but after being given a set of Warlord Games Dad's Army Miniatures at the last 7TV day, it would seem churlish not to use them as Captain Mainwaring and company are the obvious source material for Captain Bannerman's command in Vlad's Army.

A good chunk of progress only slightly undermined by the arrival of more Space Marines this week. With them being plastic and the Dad's Army miniature being metal, I'm likely to return to the 31st Millennium before completing the Home Guard cast.

Acquired: 130

Painted: 141