The SOULBLIGHT GRAVELORDS army is ready now!

OH YEAH, HOW NICE! I've just finished painting this 2000 points (or a bit over with the new points costs) army of Soulblight Gravelords a.k.a. Undead. It was very pleasant and effortless experience altogether. No hobby fatigue or getting bored at any point. Simple & effective paint scheme with clear intention on having a cohesive and unified force with almost monochrome appearance on tabletop. 

The 60 Zombies were painted in one batch. The 33 Dire Wolves I did sitting at the cabin's veranda over a two weeks period, yet not that many actual working hours went into them either. All the characters and other stuff were mostly done during the last few weeks, a few afterwork hours and some long nighters here and there. Surely the fastest painted army I've ever done, and I really like the bloody cold moonlit presence they have on tabletop. Can't wait to get playing a game with them!

Soulblight Gravelords army list

* Belladamma Volga 200pts

* Radukar the Beast 315pts

* Vengorian Lord 280pts

* Vampire Lord 140pts

* Necromancer 125pts

* Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone 80pts

* Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier 80pts

* Mortis Engine 200pts

* 60 Deadwalker Zombies 345pts

* 20 Dire Wolves 270pts

(13 more Dire Wolves are resereved for Radukars summoning ability and Belladamma's spell)

Total 2035 points

Raising the Army of the Dead (final pt.6) - WIP Mortis Engine, Necromancer & Vampire Lord

Not much to show this time. I just completed painting the army, and decided to separate these few last WIP pics in their own post (the finished miniatures will be in the next). Pretty much the same paints & techniques used as before with other Gravelords. Just a bit glazing with Carroburg Crimson on the Necromancers details to get slight differentiation from the regular zombies on him. Any idea about the manufacturer of this wonderful Necromancer miniature (the metal one with finger pointing up)? There's also some fine line / scratch highlighting on the Vampire Lords robes for a change. Oh, I did a simple conversion on a standard Necromancer miniature by replacing it's staff with an enormous clawed hand from a Crypt Ghast and look - now it's a horrible and evil Vampire Lord! 

Raising the Army of the Dead (pt.5) - WIP Corpse Carts, Mortis Engine & Vengorian Lord

I've been blessed to have lots of hobby time this week, so continued working on the Undead hordes. Just when I thought that I might be able to finish this Soulblight Gravelords army (a bit over 2000 points with the updated points costs) today, I realized I still need to come up with a Necromancer and a Vampire Lord on foot. And oh, maybe some Gravesite markers as well. 

The Vengorian Lord & Corpse Carts are pretty much done now. Just waiting for the glue/brown paint mixture and pizza herbs to dry on their bases. After that I'll seal the bases with a mix of diluted PVA glue and some Citadel Washes (Seraphim Sepia & Athonian Camoshade have usually been the chosen ones) and paint the base rims Matt Black. The Mortis Engine (walking zombie tree / gallows / ghost -configuration) still needs one or two layers of drybrushing, some orange wash for shading and maybe a little detail work here and there. Then matt varnish, followed by dirt & blood splatter. 

Raising the Army of the Dead (pt.4) - more Wolves & Radukar done - WIP Belladamma & Vengorian Lord

Back from the cabin! I had another 13 "Dire Wolves" and a Werewolf dude who will be used as Radukar the Beast with me. Not forgetting the necessary 14 paints, brushes & mixed pizza herbs required to paint this army. It was nice and relaxed session, and I really enjoyed taking time "speed" painting these wolves.

The ones made from Chaos Hounds (that are just emerging from the ground) were actually 50% Blue Stuff mold copied. I only had pieces for 5 full Hounds, but needed to make a unit of 10, so I Blue Stuffed each separate half of the Hound, filled the molds with Green Stuff & stuck them on the "real" halves of the plastic Hounds. Then I did some minor sculpting on the seams to disguise the joints. This worked VERY well. I also super glued some cotton wool to hide weird gaps and provide nice texture. 

Accompanying these half-wolves are two Barrow Rats & a Warg from Reaper Bones. I just bought a couple more of these Barrow Rats today, as my Skaventide army could also use their attendance. Anyhow, here are the 13 Wolves and Radukar the Beast painted, along with WIP shots of Vengorian Lord & Belladamma Volga. Next up will be the Mortis Engine and a duo of Corpse Carts.

Raising the Army of the Dead (pt.3) - painting Dire Wolves & Vampires

Assembled some Dire Wolves & old Chaos Hounds (without their mutated horns & tails). OMG these new Wolves are slow to clean... About thrice the time that it takes to paint them. But they look great, and I need lots! I painted the wolf packs outdoors at the cabin. The impact of the weather conditions were surprisingly formidable. One layer of Drakenhof Nightshade wash took several HOURS to dry, as it was so moist and cold. On another day it was so hot that drybrushing became difficult. Even the PVA got glumpy and non-cooperative. 

I also bought the new Vengorian Lord kit. It's among the very few modern GW miniatures that I actually like. Way too much tiny trinkets and useless detail nonsense everywhere. But the look on this guys face, coupled with the positioning of the crooked fingers - I was TRANSFIXED immediately as I saw this miniature. Pure awesomeness. Not sure if I should paint some areas in different colours (than the pale blue-grey with blood splatter everywhere). VERY bloody sword or talons? Blue or white skin? Work and thoughts in progress.

Browsing through the Soulblight book I started to lean towards the Vyrkos Dynasty. So I just had to get Belladamma & Radukar join this army as well. Was going to convert Belladamma from some Reaper Bones miniatures, but in the end just went lazy and bought the actual GW kit. It's okay. Had to save some money on Radukar though, so invested three euros on a nice Bones Werewolf, who was accompanied by two little Vampire lackeys (Lord of the Rings Goblins). Mysterious incident occured, as I was spray MATT varnishing Belladamma (with a brand that I had successfully used for years). The end result wasn't matt for sure. Too thick layer? Too hot weather? Never happened before. Maybe I'll just throw this one away.

Raising the Army of the Dead (pt.2) - The Mortis Engine

Been a while since the last post! Much holidays and vacations and very painful leg situations. Also enjoying family times & sauna at the cabin. And of course adamantly mustering more undead creatures to the hordes. 

I wanted to include a Mortis Engine in my army, but couldn't find one from the friendly local gaming shop, the always awesome Fantasiapelit. They had one on the upper shelf, as I later found out. Dammit! I even went as far as to visit the local official Warhammer shop, but since they don't accept regular honest cash money, I couldn't buy anything from them. So I had to make my own version of the Mortis Engine. Had an idea that it could be a tree / gallows pole type of configuration, growing out from a shambling group of Zombies. I'll be adding more of the Zombie / root growths, as well as a ghostly figure that's hanging from the gallows and kind of pulling the whole thing forth menacingly.