Operation Endtimes no 23 Melkior the Ancient

I know Melkior was well dead before the Endtimes even happened, but that doesn't stop me using him as vampire lord on an abyssal terror.  It also struck me as a bit daft the Vlad was the only soul from beyond the grave to accept Nagash's offer to become a Mortarch.  Melkior was fanatical to Nagash's teachings, it seems to me that he would have jumped at the chance.

Enough waffle, here he is

Operation Endtimes no 22 Necromancer

I've just finished a necromancer for my undead, he's also my necromantic cleric from my gaming groups upcoming dungeons and dragons campaign.  This necromancer is from Heresy Miniatures.  He comes with 3 head options. The one I used. One with long manky hair.  And an evil devil sorcerer one with horns and a goatee. He also comes with an optional hat.

Operation end times no 20 Cry of the Banshee

First of all I'm totally listening to Cry of the Banshee by Brocca's Helm as I type this.  Secondly I've painted a banshee.  That is all.

Operation Endtimes no18 Vlad VonCarstein, Mortarch of Shadow and Friends

Is that title too long?  I've had a wee binge on painting my undead this week, although the mountain is still pretty high (there's still lots that I've not even assembled yet).  Never mind this introduction drivel you came for the minis so here they are.

Vlad VonCarstein, Mortarch of Shadow

I've had Vlad for a while (he's metal not finecast), and for that while he was only half painted.  I decided to finally paint him.  I think I've outdone myself on him.  Out of the four mortarchs I've painted he's the one I'm most proud of.  I've gone for dark armour to offset his ghost cloak.  I decided to go with an ethereal cloak rather than the spirits escaping from a red one that the eavy metal team have done because it's far more striking.

More wraiths.  These are the previous iteration of the wraiths.

And even more wraiths.  The one on the left with the knife is a 4th edition wraith, the one on the right is a conversion.  He's a wraith from a black coach (which has been scattered to the winds).  Since he was sitting down I decided to plonk him on a gravestone and have dubbed him lazy wraith.  Despite being top heavy he's actually quite well balanced.

Last but not least a Necromancer.  I made him from Empire Wizard kit.  I decided to keep him dark to contrast with the sword.

I think the time has come to start Nagash.  I've got a lot of free time coming up in March so I'll have a crack at him then.

Operation End Times no16 Hordes of Worthless Peons

Well they're not entirely worthless.  They're job is to hold enemy units in place while a vampire beats the crap out of them or something bigger outflanks them... Or I buff the hell out of them and laugh my arse off as they become unhinged killing machines... Actually ghouls aren't too bad in a scrap... Behold my situationally worthless peons.

First up are some skeletons

They final wash on some of them isn't quite dry, hence the shiny bits.  These are mainly Games Workshop skeletons with a Mantic one infiltrating, see if you can guess which one.  The Games Workshop skelies are in my opinion the best in the market.  The Mantic ones aren't bad, the the just don't look as cool.  The GW ones have the Jason and the Argonauts vibe that drew me to the undead in the first place.


Now some zombies

A whole two of them.  Again we have a Mantic (left) and a GW (right) figure.  The Mantic zombies look far better than GW ones, the kit is nearly twenty years old and is very dated.  Please Games Workshop make new zombies and don't make them an overpriced dual kit.

And finally more ghouls

"Oh no not more ghouls! Most of you posts have ghouls."  Yes more ghouls.  You'll get ghouls and bloody like it.  Actually I think I'm running out of ghouls.  It's the usual mix of GW, Mantic and Heresy.  I'm kinda running out of things to say about them.

Other things on the painting block is my second Dreadball team and some Malifaux.  To break up the fodder for the next Operation End Times I'll paint of a fodder squasher... a screaming skull catapult.

Operation End Times no15 Neferata Mortarch of Blood part 2

After several grueling hours of painting I've finally finished painting Neferata.  As with Arkhan, and I expect Mannfred, the dread abyssal took an age to paint.  However unlike Arkhan, Neferata herself took a long time to paint.  Being a lady she has a lot of fine features about her not to mention she's a lot more opulent than Arkhan.  For a comparison to Arkhan you can find him here http://necrothrallshallsofthedamned.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/operation-end-times-no7-arkhan-mortarch.html

Well here she is, the first vampire in all her glory.

 I put a bit of water effects on the jewels to make them sparkle

 I posed Nagadron so that it was pawing like a cat.  I little nod to the Nehekaran Egyptian influence.

I deliberately didn't add any gravestones for two reasons.  Firstly the spirits ended up being lower down than Arkhan's so the base would look a wee bit cluttered.  And secondly as a lady who finds the fresher dead and ghouls loathsome she wouldn't be hanging out in a cemetery, she expects certain hygiene standards from her associates.

Operation End Times no 14 Who you gonna call?

Guess what? It's more ethereals, this time in the guise of spirit hosts. 

group shot

first host

second host

third host

The plastic spirit hosts look so much better than the old metal bed sheet ones.  Although they look cool they are a pain in the arse to paint.  They're clumped quite close together, which makes it quite hard to get the brush in amongst them.  Unfortunately there's nothing you can do to stop it, they're designed to fit together and that way only.  Also there's no variation in the box other than which base the wee gravestones go on. Even so I'm tempted to get another box.

Operation End Times no 13 How I paint Ethereals

It occurred to me that I've been painting a lot of ethereals lately and thought I'd share how I do it.  This will be my first tutorial so go easy on me.

Stage 1 gather your materials

first you'll need some ethereal miniatures primed black.  I've got some classic wraiths here.

These are the paints I used.  If you can't find these exact ones try and find something similar.

Stage 2 the cloak

First paint the entire cloak fenris grey.

Next over brush the cloak with space wolves grey leaving the fenris grey showing in the deepest folds.

Finally give the cloak a heavy wash of thrakka green and let it dry... watch a bit of Netflix or something while you wait.

Stage 3 The Bone

Paint the bones earth.

Now over brush the bones ushabti bone.

Next give the bones a wash of agrax earthshade.  You should also paint the weapon blades and armour with rhinox hide while you're waiting.

Stage 4 details

Here I've dry brushed the scythe blades with boltgun metal.  I've also painted the skull holding wraith's ring and I've painted the scythe blades black.

The wraiths are more or less finished.  Now the only need to be varnished and based.  Job's a good 'n.

 Here's a few close ups to finish.