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.

Mannfred Von Carstein, Mortarch of Night

I recently received a third Mortarch for my birthday, and since I already had the other two this one had to be Mannfred.

 After building two other Mortarchs I managed to put Mannfred together quite quickly.  I even managed to get his dread abyssal to stand more upright.

 The ghosts are snaking their way through the tombstones.

I think Mannfred looks cool but I don't like his sword.  It just looks like a really lazy sculpt.  I think the older versions of him had a better looking blade.

see

It might take me a few weeks to get this bugger painted as I've got a chaos space marine army to finish for an upcoming league at my club.  Aside from that I have more martians on my desk in the paintingg que too.

Operation End times no17 Screaming Skull Catapult

In this installment a squasher of troops, a slayer of monsters an assassin of generals... a screaming skull catapult.  Ok its not the massive GW one, its the Mantic one.  But you know what I like the Mantic one better.  Its less cartoony.

Now screaming skull catapults have three crew, this one only comes with two.  So I need to find another. Audition time.

Could work, but I'm not sure I can trust him.

Hmmm... nah! makes the catapult redundant.

Arrow could work, but being in the employ of the undead might go against his moral compass.

Badass, but I think he lacks the training.

Ah f**k it! an extra skeleton will do.

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.