Final Countdown: A Tale of 4 Armies

When I set myself the goal of getting my existing Warhammer Fantasy armies tidied up with their backlogs fully painted, I didn't think that I'd have two of them done by the beginning of February.

Admittedly, the Bretonnians were already done, but I have got my entire Vampire Counts army fixed, touched up, in some cases repainted and everything from my Lead Mountain finished off.

These two are the final nails in the coffin of this particular section of my personal challenge. A mounted Vampire Counts and a Wight Lord Battle Standard Bearer.

One of them has been in my army for a long, long time, whilst the other was constructed totally from my bits box.

The Vampire Count has been built to represent the Red Duke, the main villain from the Circle of Blood campaign pack and the body was taken from an Empire knight (I think) I had kicking round. The armour reminded me of that worn by Gary Oldman in the Dracula movie in which the main villain was Keanu Reeves' 'English' accent.

He's mounted on a spare Bretonnian Warhorse as the Red Duke is Bretonnian, so that makes sense. The head is actually the original one from the model serving as my Necromancer on foot. The cloak comes from a Frostgrave sprue, the sword is from the Empire Militia kit and the shield is actually from the Zombie Dragon rider.

I had to get a little creative with the right shoulder pad as the Bretonnian arm I used didn't match the left arm. However, I turned to that most useful of kits, the Horus Heresy Leviathan Dreadnought, and carved something appropriate out of the ball socket on the spare foot.

I'm not sure if it comes out ont the photos, but the armour is done with Fleshtearer's Red contrast paint over silver, again trying to evoke Gary Oldman...but also, he's the Red Duke.

I still have a transfer shortage and so Salamanders decals were used to match the Black Knights. Also, it looks like a dragon, and armoured vampires are Blood Dragons, so it works in my head cannon.

Overall, I'm pleased with him. I now have all the Undead characters I need for the Circle of Blood and I have three different Vampires to lead my army: on foot in an infantry block, mounted with Black Knights, or on a Zombie Dragon being shot by cannonballs.

My Battle Standard Bearer is from the ancient Skeleton War Machines boxed set. His name is Reaper as he used to carry a scythe and be holding a decapitated head.

Due to breakages he got repurposed into a BSB Manny years ago, but his banner was actually the horned skull from the from of the chariot. Rebuilding that model meant ripping this one apart and so he got stripped, repainted and a new banner added.

I'm quite proud of this banner.

Long time readers of the blog will know that I usually avoid freehand like the plague. However, given the fact that I couldn't really lay a transfer over the stitching on the flag, I felt I had no option.

I went for stippling with a variety of blues the creat the sky, and then did the same with great for the land, which I carefully edge with pale grey to give it definition. The tower is a very simple affair with only notional highlighting, but I think it works.

The banner doesn't quite fit the colour theme or mood of the army, but that helps it stand out, and I like the idea that it's a tapestry torn from the walls of his castle and restitched together.

With these two models done, I've now completed the 'revamp' of my army. I still can't quite do full armies for the Circle of Blood as the first scenario requires 1500 point force drawn only from Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls, Spirit Hosts and Skeleton Horsemen (which aren't a thing in Warhammer: The Old World), led by a single level 2 Necromancer.

I will need to put some thought into how I tackle this. Perhaps I can draft in Tomb Kings allies as the Skeleton Horsemen, get some Dire Wolves (as their battlefield role is similar) or more likely add a unit of ghouls.

However, that's for later. My Vampire Counts are done for now and I'm moving on to rebasing my Wood Elves.

In other news, I went to my first show in a long while and attended Vapnartak at York Racecourse. As ever, there were lots of excellent boards on display, my favourite was possibly this Battle of Scarif table done in a very small scale.

Display boards are great for getting ideas, and although this board was trying to sell me a medieval game, I was more interested in where the Trebuchets came from.

They are apparently from WizKids and come as a single piece, either painted or unpainted. Either way they are significantly cheaper than Games Workshop's offering and looked really good on the board.

Shows are a great way to remind yourself of lapsed projects and this Venetian board (which I don't think was actually for Carnevale) made me recall that I still have some Gondoliers to paint.

Obviously, going to a show meant buying a few things, and one of the best features of Vapnartak is their bring and buy section, which always provides a bargain or two.

This year it provided a Mordor Troll still on sprue for Lord of the Rings and a painted Bretonnian Knight, who is destined for the back of a flying beastie.

Still on a Bretonnian theme I picked up a box of Fireforge Mounted Sergeants to use as Mounted Yeomen. They were reduced in price so 16 models ended up costing about half the price of 3 from Games Workshop.

Finally, I popped by the Crooked Dice stand to say hi to Karl and pick up the Resistance leaders from 'V'. My 7TV: the 80s Kickstarter is due to be delivered this month and it includes some more Visitors, and so I figured I'd need to start the fight back.

So I've achieved a good amount, but I've also gained miniatures. However, I'm pleased I'm now at a point where I can, according to my own rules, add to the Vampires as I see fit.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 146
Lead Mountain: 851