Garage Days Revisited – Part 1

Recently I received a gift from a friend, a box of miniatures which he’d been given by a friend of his. Apparently when my friend was helping his friend clear out his garage they’d uncovered the models, neglected and filthy, on the floor (I wasn’t there of course so I may be misrepresenting what happened – they may have been clean and on a shelf for all I know but where’s the harm in a little dramatic licence?). The owner of the garage (and the miniatures) didn’t want them (the miniatures – I think he kept the garage, I’m slightly hazy on that part) so donated them to my friend, who passed them on to me. It’s a nice little pick-and-mix of old models and you can expect to see them appearing on the blog over the coming months as I get around to painting them, but to begin with there are a few that have jumped the queue by insinuating themselves into upcoming or existing projects. First of all we have this vampire, who’ll be joining the ranks of the undead I painted last year.

I’ve been fond of this model for a very long time but never managed to pick one up so it was amazing to open the box and find him lurking inside. Painting him turned out to be a lot of fun and getting to play around with two different reds on the one model made me feel quite arty.

If you’re reading this then a big thanks to Tom’s mate (whoever you are) and my apologies if I have met you or do know your name and have just forgotten. Hopefully whatever you were doing with your garage has worked out as you intended – at least your old models have found their way to a loving home.

Meanwhile the keen eyed among you will have spotted that he’s on a round base. Could it be the start of something? At this stage, who can say?

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Out For The Count

On Friday night I finally finished off the long awaited final models for my Vampire Counts army (not the most rock and roll start to the weekend but even I stop once in a while). On Saturday I uploaded them to this blog with, I’ll admit, very little fanfare. However, all things considered, that’s rather unfair. With one notable exception these are models I bought back in 2010(-ish, my memory isn’t so good) when I harboured plans for a massive undead army of the sort that might pour forth from Sylvania, spread eternal night across the land and so on. Instead they lurked in boxes (not even crypts – the shame of it!) as the years passed. Some of them were painted, to varying standards, many suffered through in nothing but bare plastic. Then, around New Year 2016 I resolved to resurrect them. Cue maniacal laughter and the distant howls of corpse-wolves!

Fast forward a few months and here we have them, a shambling band of wights, ghasts and revenants, ready to trouble the living once more. And all without needing to move into a castle, hire an assistant named Igor or even buy a shovel. How, then, could I let the moment pass without a few glamour shots and a group shot or two?

Let’s start with the finished squad of dire wolves, a kit which is (perhaps rightly) much maligned and yet for which I have a deep affection, in spite of its flaws.

And how about some suitably creepy mood shots as my corpse army advances through the dark-magic saturated gravelands of their Sylvanian homeland.

And of course no project of this sort can come to a close without a group shot.

Of course, no army is ever finished and so it should come as no surprise that I’m already planning to return to these. Hopefully it won’t be another seven years before they’re reinforced. Hang some garlic by your window, bury me at a crossroads and watch this space!

Hounds At Your Back – Part 4

Well, in spite of my doubts, here’s the last two dire wolves painted, which rounds out my Vampire Counts army for now. Fans of the undead fear not though, everyone knows that Vampires always come back eventually…

Hounds At Your Back – Part 3

Beneath the light of a desolate moon two more dire wolves join the hunt…

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With a new edition of 40k coming soon, and new Death Guard apparently just behind, it’s time to make a dent in all the models currently loitering on my painting desk; to finish off the old in anticipation of the arrival of the new. Of course I’m well aware that I won’t be able to shift even a fraction of my unpainted models in time but at least I can make a start! First off I’m keen to wrap up my Vampire Counts, at least for a little while. I bought most of these models almost a decade ago and they lingered in part-painted shame for a long time, so it’ll be nice to see them all completed soon. I even hoped to get them all finished this week but, by this point, it’s starting to look unlikely. Still, here’s a couple more dire wolves done, which only leaves two more to paint over the weekend, an achievable goal I reckon.

Hounds At Your Back – Part 2

To my slight shame and chagrin my efforts to get my undead collection painted seems to have stalled a little, with not a single shambling corpse seeing paint in March. Still, even the great Von Carsteins went through phases of inactivity (the aftermath of Hel Fenn being a particularly bad one) and, as there’s no time like the present, I’ve picked up my brushes again and returned my attention to my pack of dire wolves. Cue dolorous howls from the gloomy forests and desolate moors…

With the addition of two new packmates the wolves rise from their loamy beds and go in search of prey once more.

Daemons Are A Ghoul’s Best Friend

Before tackling the Chapel, or any of the other forthcoming projects, there’s still the little matter of the living dead to be dealt with. After the struggle to get the skeleton’s painted tackling the ghouls was remarkably uncomplicated. Partly it’s the fact that ghouls are a lot easier to paint than skeletons, partly it’s that I really like the models (not that I have any bones with the skeletons mind you) and partly it’s that a combination of the previous factors means I did a much better job of painting them last time I tackled this project so there wasn’t nearly so much work involved this time round.

Although I first created this chap back in (roughly) 2010 he always makes me think of IRO, fellow blogger and fan of ghoulish jesters.

I’m sure you know the drill by now but any feedback or suggestions you have are more than welcome in the comments box.

Came Back Haunted

Rising from the ground to haunt the living, it’s one of my favourite of GW’s plastic character models – the Cairn Wraith. I debated for quite a while over what colour to paint him, considering both a ghostly off-white and a bloody red to match his vampire master. In the end I decided to go for a haunting green, tying him in to the bases of the army and hopefully creating the impression that he’s rising spookily from the cursed soil.