My Vampire Counts army is coming along nicely, ready for the release of Island of Blood. Here are some pictures of the crypt ghouls from the VC battalion box. I decided on a leviathan purple wash which has come out quite well.
I used the painting guide on the GW website so the bones are 'cathlan brown - bleached bone - devlan mud - skull white' which I actually prefer to the method I used to paint the huge unit of skeletons finished earlier in the week. I also learnt from my mistake and laid off the skull white for the final highlight so they retained the colour of bleached bone.
Yesterday I started on my first character, the ubiquitous winged vampire, and I'm pleased with the results. I have found red armour so difficult to paint in the past and as I scoured various forums for tips, I finally came across a viable method. In the end, the armour was 'mechrite red - red gore - blood red - baal red wash'. By avoiding the recesses of the armour (in classic 'eavy metal style') the effect was dark enough for what I wanted.
The wing was tausept ochre follow by various watered down highlights of dheneb stone, elf flesh and bleached bone.
As I was painting, little areas of paint kept coming off so naively I decided on a purity seal finish. After reading the horror stories of 'the frost effect', I shook the can vigourously and ensured it was at room temperature etc. and even did a test model. Then it happened. On drying, 'frost' appeared on the leg of the vampire and on the cloak. I managed to rescue the vampire by adding another wash of baal red on the leg and badab black on the cloak.
Why would GW continue to sell the purity wash if the frost effect is so commonplace? I admit I had one of those 'it'll never happen to me' moments and thankfully the 'frost' was limited to two small areas but for those who regularly finish minis with a seal, it must be like Russian roulette!
On a trip to a GW store today, I purchased a varghulf and Konrad von Carstein to add to the army. I've also got some dire wolves to finish as well as some zombies and skeletons for those raise dead moments and then I'll finally have a solid WFB army to take on what I imagine will be many skaven and high elves armies.
Good lookin' army you have there! I'll definitely stay tuned- I'm actually on the market for a VC army myself and can use the inspiration. It's still in the concept stage and I'm focusing on my Tyranid force for now.
ReplyDeleteI also had the "frost" effect on my Hive Tyrant... except like an idiot, I never researched it and sprayed the model. All over. Twice. I managed to save the model, but yea- I feel your pain on the GW Matte Spray.