I thought I would make my first post here on my current project, my undead army. I call it an undead army, but in reality it’s a Soulblight Gravelords army for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, that could also be used as a Vampire Counts army in Warhammer fantasy battle. Saying undead makes it simpler. In the future small groups of Nighthaunt and Tomb Kings will be added as allies. Everything is going on round bases to suit Age of Sigmar, but I have some tricks up my sleeve for how I will get it to work with Fantasy. Lorewise I only think of the army has being in the Mortal Realms of AOS. Most of it would work for both universes, but I have chosen to base the lore around the universe and game that still exists.
No one knows for sure how long Angelique’s forces have been marching across Hysh. Their point of origin mostly lost to time. Like a force of nature they move across the realm, heading ever closer to it’s edge where magic is at it’s most unstable but strongest. Those that stand in the way are cut down, only to have their bodies and souls enslaved to her will.
This project came about because of a combination of Warhammer Quest Cursed City and buying odd issues of Mortal Realms magizine I liked. I realised I would have a small undead army accidentally halfway through 2021 and decided to expand it to be a legal playable army. I always wanted an undead army, but never had the patience for Fantasy when I was a teen. As I’ve grown older the old world setting and fantasy in general has interested me more. I decided to sell off a bunch of my pile of shame at the start of 2021 and that gave me the money to buy up some models I always wanted and to get this army project going.
Completed models so far:
Vampire Lord Angelique
Angelique’s name (as well as the name of this series of posts) comes from the 1960’s supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows. The soap opera also plays into some of her backstory, which I hope to get into in future posts.
The model is a Isabella von Carstein I bought many years ago with the intention of making a into Rogue Trader for a INQ28 project. It never happened. Then last year she almost was made into a Rebel Lord for Necromunda. Again it never happened. So when I started this project I remembered I had the model still unpainted in my bits box, and felt is was destiny. I decided to make her a custom character as I didn’t really want to have to hunt down a Vlad model and they are both very dead in the AOS universe. Maybe I will one day make her a Vlad stand in for games of Fantasy.
1990’s Tomb Banshee
I’ve always loved this model, and it ended up being the first thing I painted for the army. I decided to go white and grey rather than a ghostly green many people use now for banshees (I know it is not easily seen in this picture.). I saw this paint scheme in a early 2000’s White Dwarf and it felt so much more creepy than a brightly coloured ghost. Grey skin is so close to normal, but is clearly not, and that makes it feel more uncomfortable than something completely unrealistic.
The people of HelFort found her alone in the woods on the outskirts of town. Her clothing raggy and hair a mess, she must have been a survivor from the nearby CandleVault which came under attack by unknown forces not long ago. Her experiences had left her pale, and silent to the townsfolk. They welcomed her into their city, and brought her to the Town Magister in hope she could relay to him what had happened at CandleVault. When she opened mouth the sound of her voice shattered his eardrums and broke every glass bottle in the manor. She had been at CandleVault when it was attacked, but she was not a survivor.
Skelly Squad 1
I have a few skelly units planned. This one is made up of 1990’s spear skeletons. Some are the multipart ones, but others are easy build and can still move their arms. They ended up being a bargain at about £1 each and there is still another 10 to do for this unit.
Contrast paints helped a lot with these. I don’t think I would have the motivation to keep painting more if they were painted traditionally.
Currently in my paint queue for this project is:
- 10 Black Knights (7 done ).
- 1 necromancer.
- 2 Wight kings.
- 20 sword and sheild 2010 skellies.
- 10 graveguard.
Needing paint stripped
- 10 1990’s spear skellies.
- 10 2010’s sword and shield skellies.
- 20ish 1990’s plastic zombies.
Unmade
- Far too much to list, and some may end up resold.