Undead WiP Diary

Figured I may as well start a WiP thread for my Undead warband. I'll probably never get to use it, but a lot of the models will no doubt find their way into my Vampire Counts army for Fantasy.

Basically the list looks something like this:

Vampire - Sword, Bow, Dagger
Necromancer - Bow, Club, Dagger
Dreg - Club, Bow, Dagger
Dreg - Club, Bow, Dagger
Dreg - Club Bow, Dagger
Ghoul
Ghoul
Ghoul
Ghoul
3 Zombies

Total: 482

Anyway - I have got all the zombie models and the pieces for the necromancer (unassembled though) and I could probably scrounge together parts for the dregs. Still looking for a suitable model for my Vampire though - although I am leaning towards the Rhainie figure from the Reaper line.
Anyhow, heres a WiP shot of my first zombie. It's not great but I was trying out ideas for the skin tone and other colour schemes and am reasonably happy with the outcome. And no, it's not based (nor finished) and I don't know how'll I base it because it will also be used in my fantasy army.
So, what do you think? Comments and criticisms are more than welcome!

succes man, the first zombie looks good, keep it up

GOOD START!
The skin tone turned out well; a wash of a dark or greenish brown would emphasize the musculature/veins/ribs, but the waxy color you have is very appropriate for a corpse.
With a Living Impaired Warband or Army you have a LOT of leeway with the bases, MUCH moreso than other Mordheim Warbands. Basically [no pun intended unless you think it's funny ] anything that suggests a Graveyard [flagstone, bones, Gravestones] with a bit of grass, either living [a lot of soil enriching nutrients here ]or dead according to taste. That's basically what I've been doing with my Vampire commission.
There are SO many GREAT Vampire minis, choicing one CAN be daunting. I'm thinking of getting, when funds are available, Reaper's Gastaroth [kind of a Nostferatu Vampire type] for a Living Impaired Pirate Warband. AND beyond the Vampire specific minis there are even more minis that if given the proper skin tones WOULD look good as Blood Suckers. Of course, getting more than one Vampire WOULD allow you to have more than one Warband using the same Grunts with different Heroes(?) [GREAT excuse there for getting an extra mini or two, eh? ]
I look forward to your Warbands's evolution; SO get busy!

Thanks for the comments.
Deaf -
I was going to give him a brown-ish wash but I got carried away with the 'blood' stains. As I said it is still a work in progress - I have to finish his eye, do the shoes, touch up a few areas and base him as well (by the way I find pretty much everything funny - even really bad puns elicit a laugh and groan ).
I was thinking a brown edged base with a bit of dirt/gravel strewn accross it.
Just don't expect too many updates - with life generally getting in the road of things it will be a while before this band sees completion but I will try and update it at least weekly. I figure that I can get one model done/worked on in a week to at least keep the thread alive. That's the plan anyway

GOOD PLAN! Painting & modeling are activities to be savored, NOT rushed through. Spending a bit of extra time will give you a band of minis you'll TRULY be happy with.

Posting weekly is MUCH better than I'm capable; I do a snail-mail to Fearless Leader Tom &, soon, Ashton to get pics posted, partially due to The Daemonically Possessed Chaos Camera from HELL and partially because I'm an Idiot!

Glad you don't mind the attempts at humor; it's just my nature to see life's absurdities EVERYWHERE! Puns can effect folks adversely rather like farting in an elevator .

Great start there ET.

I must say, your extremely high-def picture is very daring of you. It is closer to the model than even the human Eye can see. Keep up the good work and photos

Look forward to the updates

More excerpts from my 'Undead Diary'. No pics though.
______________________________________________________________________

10 September 2008

So, I started (finally) on an Undead War band. I'm cheating a bit with this one because a lot of the models will find their way into my eventual VC army for fantasy.
First off the rank I decided to work on the Zombies. There were two main reasons for this. First off, I already have the models assembled, and secondly I have the models with me at the moment.
Because I don't really have a lot of spare time to devote to this, I am trying to get a model done per week. Not a great deal of work, at least for these guys. The characters might be a bit different.
Anyway, I got the first Zombie started and I am pretty pleased with how he has turned out. He is in the classic reaching pose and I painted him up in a suitably bloody manner. Still not 100% complete, but the basics are there. I still have to go back and fix up his eye, paint his shoes and base him, as well as touch up a few areas. But in the end I am pretty pleased with how he looks. I call him Bitey.


PICS ARE IN THE FIRST POST


I am also working on a background story for my living impaired group. I recently wrote a piece concerning a Vampire and am happy with it, but the more I dwell on Nikolai the more I want to make him into a Dramatis Personae for the eventual campaign. Weaving his way in and out of the story on his personal quest for vengeance.
However, this leaves me with the task of creating another Vampire and subsequent back-story and reason for being in Mordheim. I am thinking of doing something similar to the Nikolai vein (heh, pun intended) and tying it in with his quest. But instead of chasing the archfiend my Vampire will be seeking revenge on the Necromancer.
Who knows, if I get my finger out and work on the stories maybe I will post them sooner rather than later.


11 September 2008

Just a quick update today. There are no new pics to go with this yet, I might take some later though I painted the shoes of Mr Bitey with snakebite leather, coated his eye with bleached bone (in preparation to give it a coat of skull white) and painted his base with graveyard earth (somewhat appropriate I thought).
As for the rest of the group I have almost finished roughly cleaning up another zombie model. The painting will be quite a bit more involved for this one though due to the hanging entrails and whatnot - it will also be the first crack I've had at painting intestines and I'm a little unsure as to how I should proceed, I'll post pictures of my attempts when I get around to it. It probably won't be this weekend though. The fiancé has her football grand final on this weekend and I would be in a lot of trouble if I missed that one...
Still searching around for another zombie model or two that I like, I based most of them on long bases though (4 to a base) so I only have a few single based ones, and now I have to find them.
I also ordered a box of Crypt Ghouls today from an e-bay store in the UK, so it will take a couple of weeks probably before I see them. Hopefully I'll have the Zombies done by them.
Why did I order from the UK when they are available in my local store? Because it was $15 cheaper and there was no postage. I think that all my future GW purchases will be done this way - I can save over $50 on the battalion size boxes!
Still trying to find somewhere where I can get my hands on the Reaper Miniatures I want, a quick look for shops in Australia that stock them have turned up relatively few. So it could be a while. In the meantime I will try and get myself another Empire Wizards box and make a necromancer (and possibly Warlock) out of that.
I also had a crazy idea of writing the 'diary' from the Necromancers perspective. I might toy with that and see what it comes up as.

Not disappointing a Girl who ENJOYS kicking things is a WISE MOVE, Thomo!

The Chronicle of your the progress of your Warband is a VERY COOL idea, rather like a couple of different on-going articles that have appeared in the W.D.. Punctuated with some pics, this will make for an enjoyable read. I LOVE watching things evolve. Seeing your original concept develop & change as your work on it is a progresses is something I can relate with & draw inspiration [read steal ideas ] from. COOL, one can never have enough theft-worthy ideas !
I like the idea of doing a first person narrative from your Vampire's viewpoint. It IS, afterall, HIS story!

All right, been a while and my current progress is....not much better. Looks like the weekly deadline thing kind of died.
I have pulled apart and cleaned up another 3 zombies - giving me one more than in my initial list as a spare - and pretty much stalled there. But that being said I have been away every single weekend for the last 3 weeks.
While I'm on the topic of zombies - does anyone know of a decent hook that could be used for a hand? I have this strange idea floating around in the back of my mind. One of the zombies I have is missing an eye and inspired by the recent Talk Like a Pirate Day I decided it would be funny if he was a Zombie pirate you forgot that he had a hook for a hand...Lame I know but I'm like that at times. So, any good plastic hooks that can be recommended, or should I just suck it up and carve it out of plasticard?
Still, good news is at hand. My box of Crypt Ghouls that I purchase from the UK have arrived and hopefully I will be able to get a couple put together this week. After we move the office into another room...
Still, I must admit that the cryp ghoul models certainly are ugly little buggers - ugly in a good way. All I have to do now is decide on a skin tone for them and away I go.
Sorry about the lack of pics and updates, I will eventually get some up - I promise!

Exarch Thomo wrote:

While I'm on the topic of zombies - does anyone know of a decent hook that could be used for a hand? I have this strange idea floating around in the back of my mind. One of the zombies I have is missing an eye and inspired by the recent Talk Like a Pirate Day I decided it would be funny if he was a Zombie pirate you forgot that he had a hook for a hand...Lame I know but I'm like that at times. So, any good plastic hooks that can be recommended, or should I just suck it up and carve it out of plasticard?

I LOVE it! Maybe you could have an eyeball stuck on the end of the hook. I'll try to find a hook in my Vault of PackRattiness AND then figure out where it came from...if I ONLY had a Brain!