Mantic Zombies - Part 6 - All Finished

I've finally finished all the Mantic Zombies I've got! Yey! they came from a mixture of the zombie boxed set, dwarf kings hold and the crazy bag.  No matter their origin they all got based on 20mm bases so they can join my warhammer vampire counts army.  I have 41 zombies in all, the new 12 are shown below and then finally a picture of the completed horde.

Warhammer Vampire Counts Hexwraiths

These were so quick to paint it was a joy, a simple white base washed with green (blue for weapon blades) and the rehighlighted white.  I could have done more I admit, but the queue is starting to block up again and these were a nice easy win and I'm pleased with the result.

A Few More Mantic Ghouls

Another 10 ghouls from mantic games, these came from dwarf kings hold: ancient grudge and the crazy christmas bag.  I've painted them the same as my otehr ghouls, but have sprinkled a few mantic zombie heads around as well to add a bit of variety.

Warhammer Vampire Counts Plastic Wight King

Another addition to my Vampire Counts army today, this time the new plastic wight king from games workshop.  It's a rather fantastic model actually and the plastic medium allows GW to create a good 'layered' effect that just isn't possible in metal or resin-plastic.  Like all the new plastic warhammer characters coming out of GW this is single pose only and comes with its' own moulded base.  This model will have a dual use, also standing in as the Reveannant King for use in Dwarf Kings Hold. 

Mantic Zombies - Part 5 - More Zombies & A Standard Bearer

The next batch of 12 of Mantic Games Zombies has rolled off the production line.  This lot includes a standard bearer as well, the standard actually came from the orc command sprue I got in my mantic crazy christmas bag, which fitted easily to a zombie.

Lords of Undeath: Warhammer Vampire Counts Special Characters

The recent re-release of the Vampire Counts army has made me dig out three special character models that have been languishing in the queue for some time.  To be honest I've been a bit scared of both Vlad and Kemmler, with their cloaks and undead flesh to paint, but I've manned up and finally painted them, and to be honest I'm pretty pleased with the result, but as always feel free to judge for yourselves.  All three models are the old metal versions and not finecast.

Vlad Von Catstein

The Lichemaster, Henrich Kemmler

Krell

Army Focus - Warhammer Vampire Counts

With Games Workshop releasing the new Vampire Counts book this weekend I thought it would be appropriate to put my vampire counts army on show and see what the new book will bring to it.

the army

This army has grown organically over a period of around 13 years and I started it back when the Vampire Counts were first seperated from the old 'Undead' army that also had Tomb Kings and Nagash in it.  I'd always wanted an Undead army and the new plastic skeletons persuaded me to take the plunge.  As with any army grown over such a time it contains a variety of models (and a variety in quality of paint job) and has grown over the last year with an influx of models from Mantic Games, who now comprise around a third of the army.  As I've said before I'm a big fan of mantics Ghouls and Zombies in particular.  The army has always been designed as a 'Blood Knight' army, with all the vampires from the bloodline and taking martial skills.  I always imagined my lord as a corrupted Bretonnian lord leading his former men-at-arms and knightly(hence my blood knight conversions) followers in undeath.

the regiment that started the army, still in its orginal paint job.  Also this was origanally two regiments of twenty and in the box is a second command group if I wanted to go back to that.

Whislt I've still won more games than I've lost with this army, I've always found it hard to play with, you are very reliant on magic and it can be frustrating(I'm not a fan of magic at the best of times).  I tend to play with a center anchored with big regiments of skeletons and revenants, supported with a corpse cart, flanks held with blood knights (far too unreliable to hold the center) and dire wolves, and my general leading a regiment of black knights behind the line to act as a reserve, to bolster the line or deliver the killing blow as needed.  I'm also a big fan of my fell bats, and whilst they don't kill much they often get in the way at just the right moment.

Whats the future for this army then?  First off I need to finish the rest of the zombies and the revenants that are sat on my painting table and my General needs a repaint, then it's looking at the goodies from the new book.  I think some Hexwraiths will be first (whats not to love abouth etheral fast cavalry), and I'm also tempted by some Vargheists.  The army also needs a big centerpiece, and I'm planning not on the new Coven Throne/Mortis Engine (I think it's too 'busy' as a kit and I'm not keen on it), but on a unridden terrorghiest (I'm not a fan of placing my general on a big nasty saying 'shoot me' when my army will then start to discintergrate).  Will these plans come to fruittion?  Well at this point I don't know.

the sprues from Mantic's Crazy Christmas bag still need to be painted as well