Undead - Vampire Knight

Today we have a miniature I've been slowly ticking over in between other projects. It's taken months of five minutes here and ten minutes there to complete him. But finally, Stephane Dreux, vampire knight, is finished.

This fellow is a mounted vampire knight by Reaper Miniatures. I picked up the model many years ago. I originally started him to use as my champion in games of Full Tilt (and I still may) but life got in the way and he never got finished. Rather than have him linger in the half-done box, I resolved to just pick away at him when I had a minute. 

He's a metal model, and required a fair bit of clean-up and some lance repair. Colour-wise I used Juan Hidalgo Miniatures' 'Eavy Contrast - Blood Dragon Vampire Lord tutorial (mostly) for the knight's armour. The horses armour I got from the Citadel Colour App for Blood Dragon horse armour. I wanted a darker, more sombre red for the horse armour.

The black horse was a bit tough, as I wanted it to have some reflection to simulate the sheen from a horse's body. The lance I painted as a kind of semi-fossilised bone. The shield is black, but has a few gradiated coats of red glazes. All the tackle, straps and belts etc. are worn brown leather. 

Purple cloth, some aged brass and a vibrant orange jewel for contrast finishes him off. 

Stephane Dreux is another long-serving character in my armies. A former knight of Bretonnia cut down and turned into a Blood Dragon vampire, he amps up the self-pitying anti-hero schtick to eleven. You can read more about Stephane in my old page on the Horde of Dreux. Here's a snippet:

When Stephane grasped the grail it burned him terribly, but he would not release it. His body smoked and blackened as the new-born vampire clung onto the holy object. He wanted to die rather than exist as a perversion of the man he had been only scant hours before. As he burst into flame the lady moved to save him. Aregisel was built over a spring sacred to the Bretonnian deity, and she had sensed the host of men battle valiantly against their enemies. Stephane had defended her shrine until he had been transfixed by his enemies blades, and she resolved that his fate was not to die in agony and failure.

Oh yeah, feel that angst. I bet he broods a lot on cliff edges.

Anyhow, there you go, that's another Mumble in the bag for now!

Silver Bayonet - Baba Zoya

This dark Winter's eve I bring you Baba Zoya, grandmother to all the lost souls of Morozov's command.

A devoted sister to the great mother, Baba Yaga, Zoya is nonetheless a powerful witch in her own right. The souls of the dead vie to light her way to the Sabbath, such is their love of Baba Zoya, for she makes the crops ripen and the cows give milk, and her wrath can wither the flesh from the bones of the impudent and the unfaithful.

Baba Zoya travels with Morozov and tends to the souls of his retinue. Her soft whispers and potent salves can bring precious relief to the damned, and they would no more offer her disrespect than a man would curse his own family. She is as the bones of the land, and so from the highest vampire to the lowliest walking corpse, they defer to her in all things, and would shield her from harm with the last scrap of their withered flesh.

Baba Zoya is, for now, the final member of my Silver Bayonet squad. She was a bit of a tricky mini to paint, and despite her small size, required me to paint her in three pieces, her arms and cloak being painted separately. She is a Reaper Bones mini, and the detail was soft in places, requiring a little improvisation, but she came out well I think.

There are quite a few doodahs under that cloak. A bird, some manner of banjo(?), what looked like mathematical instruments, and other bits. None of which you can see now, once the cloak was glued in. I spent a great deal of time on her face, which I enjoyed immensely. She's a creepy looking gal. I can't but think of Hellboy when I see any Baba Yaga reference.

So that's that! I'm looking forward to playing some more games with a full squad. I may come back to paint a mounted undead Cossack in time, if the whim strikes me, but for now, Morozov and his creaky crew are ready to take to the haunted fields of 19th century Europe, and at the rate the expansions are coming out, far beyond.

Reaper Goes Plastic - Bones

Looks like Reaper has taken the plunge in to plastic and has a new material called 'bones' which they are starting to roll out. The quality looks great, as does the price, at €2.24 for their purple worm, that's pretty fantastic. A very exciting development I'm going to watch with great interest, as Reaper have an enormous and excellent range.

You can read the promo information here, and watch the video intro below.