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The Venetian Court - Update 25/05 - Kingdom Death Crypt Haunter


Chris Tomlin

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Afternoon all,

As I do not have a blog or anything for my Flesh-eater Courts army I thought I'd post some pics in here for anyone interested.
There have been quite a lot of pics on Twitter this week as well as some videos. I particularly like the videos actually as they really set the tone with the backing music - this is also how I displayed the army at the recent narrative event; Realms at War (#RAW16).

If you haven't seen the videos, check out the media on my Twitter feed (@the_black_sun) and they should be relatively near the top.

A lot of these models I have had and collected for a long time (upwards of 2 years in some circumstances). I love the Venetian/masquerade ball aesthetic, combined with an Assassin's Creed II twist and knew I wanted to use the models for something. The original plan (post WFB End Times) was to do an Undead Mordheim Warband with the models. I also have a big love of Manticores, which works perfectly as it ties in with the Lion of Venice; the theme was just meant for me!!

I started doing some models for this army quite some time ago, knowing I wanted to use a limited palette for a night time look to the army. I have painted this scheme on a Malifaux crew before and it is heavily inspired by some of Tim Fisher's works (his two Eshin armies).
When painting a monochromatic army like this, you need some pop. For my Malifaux crew, that was some glowy green eyes, weapons etc (Tim had used the same colours to represent Warpstone on his armies). For this project I decided that after all the sprays, washes and drybrushes I would pick out some metal areas (most the models have masks) in a bright silver, Runefang Steel, to provide an accent and contrast.
This would be finished off by adding blood across the army.

As well as the army itself, I wanted to really push the theme home and bring it to life. I did this in a few ways;

  • The display. This speaks for itself I think and really puts the army at "home" and instantly helps tell the story.
  • The music. When display the army I had a bluetooth speaker in the tower playing handpicked tracks from the Assassin's Creed II soundtrack. This really gave the display some atmosphere I felt.
  • The costume. I myself dressed up in a Venetian plague doctor costume whilst playing the army. This was a lot of fun (would've been more so had I not felt unwell).
  • The story. On episode 99 of my podcast I did a dramatic reading of some of the fluff I had written for the army. Again, people listening to that and then seeing the army would have a further idea of what it was all about and what was going on.

So as you can see, I did immerse myself into this project and really committed to my own vision. I think that is key as the models by themselves are nothing special (well, the sculpts are all beautiful, I mean my colour scheme etc).
I will post a list of colours if people are interested. I think there are 2 sprays and around 10 paints/washes used.

I'm try to keep this brief so have probably missed a bunch of stuff out. Ask questions if you have them and I can answer for you :D 

To wrap it up for now, I was hugely proud of how it came together and genuinely thrilled to set it up for everyone at #RAW16. Thanks so much to the organisers (@Thornshield@Jimbo@Devilreefman@Mitzy) for deeming it worthy of a Best Army nomination and massive thanks to anyone who gave it a vote as I was able to take home the 2nd Best Army trophy, behind a deserving winner in @Bishmeister and his fantastic Moonclan.
After having some good success with my Ironjawz in recent months painting awards wise (a more traditionally and nicely painted army) I was a little worried how this would be received, so I was over the moon that people "got it" and like me, thought it was cool.

Hope some of you guys here like it as well,

Chris

(I think there are some better full army shots around. I will try to get these added here)

 

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I saw these on Twitter and was really impressed so it's great to see some close ups! My favourite part is the display board. I also love the lions (are they all KD models?) Lastly, does every ghoul have a harlequin mask? Fantastic stuff and a real treat and inspiration to see. Thanks for sharing man :) 

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On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 3:29 PM, Gorkamorka is scottish said:

This is stunning man. Real unique looking army and very well displayed. Really interesting use of models and bits, some of which i cant put my finger on. Like i said truly inspiring work.
Wouldn't mind picking your brain (no pun intended) at some point on some of the models you've used, if that would be ok?

Thanks man, that would of course be ok. Which bits were you interested in specifically?

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 4:29 PM, Mitzy said:

LOVE THIS ARMY <3

 

Love you! <3

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 4:52 PM, Andy Talbot said:

Such a cool army dude! Even nicer seeing it in the flesh at RAW. Even made me want to play Assassin's Creed :)

Haha cheers, me and @Forestreveries said the same!

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 7:15 PM, enTHRALLed said:

Quite inspiring =- a really cool theme love it! Well done Mr Tomlin!

Thanks mate, glad you like it! :D 

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 8:34 PM, bottle said:

I saw these on Twitter and was really impressed so it's great to see some close ups! My favourite part is the display board. I also love the lions (are they all KD models?) Lastly, does every ghoul have a harlequin mask? Fantastic stuff and a real treat and inspiration to see. Thanks for sharing man :) 

Cheers dude. Yeh I think the display brings it to life. I honestly don't think it has the same impact without it. The two smaller lions (Varghulfs) are Kingdom Death White Lions (from the Monster game) with Varghiest wings. The 3 big lions (Zombie Dragons/Terrorgheists) are Mierce Miniatures Manticores. All 60 Ghouls have had their heads replaced with Dark Aelf Sisters of Slaughter heads...this also involved greenstuffing a neck joint.

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 9:21 PM, Methuselah said:

Excellent theme and execution.

i admire your vision, sir.

Why thank you, most kind :) 

On ‎26‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 1:08 PM, Ravenwing said:

Beautiful work. Maybe it could use a bit more contrast but great as it is.

Thanks for sharing :)

Cheers bro. The silver is intended to provide the contract but I was keen to keep it subtle and not go ott with that. I have considered adding some to the display board though.

On ‎26‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 3:17 PM, Nacnudllah said:

Awesome work!  I'd really love to see a close-up of the bigger guys (Crypt Horrors?).  What models are they made from?

Thanks! They are Butchers, again from Kingdom Death: Monster. Like the Manticores they are single pose models and there was only so much I could do to repose them. I wanted them quite stoic regardless so I think it works. I'll get some pics though and add them here.

Thanks again for all the replies and likes :D x

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On ‎28‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 2:37 PM, Barimbino said:

This is awesome, amazing work. Loved listening to the little teaser story on your podcast also. Those shades of greys with the splashes of blood, works really well.

Cheers man, glad you like the army. Also pleased you listened to and enjoyed the fluff reading on the podcast. That was a lot of fun.

@Nacnudllah - Gimme a prod on Monday if I haven't added additional pics of the Horrors. I'm a useless individual really, just ask @HobbyHammer to verify that!! :S 

Chris

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1 minute ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Cheers man, glad you like the army. Also pleased you listened to and enjoyed the fluff reading on the podcast. That was a lot of fun.

@Nacnudllah - Gimme a prod on Monday if I haven't added additional pics of the Horrors. I'm a useless individual really, just ask @HobbyHammer to verify that!! :S 

Chris

Indeed, still awaiting... O.o

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On ‎17‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 9:30 PM, gumbi said:

Look amazing!

How did you find playing the army?  I worry they are a bit tedious for opponents?  Looking forward to hearing about it on the podcast.

Hey man,

Sorry for the delayed response...even by my standards, this is poor :S 

Thanks for the comments. Oddly, I prefer the aesthetics and theme of this army as opposed to actually playing with it! I can't think of any other time that's happened for me. Usually if I'm that into an army, it translates onto the table. At home I just have it laid out for display in my gaming room as per above. I haven't played any games with it since #RAW16, although I came close to choosing it for a campaign we've started this week (but then, ya know, Ironjawz!). I guess one of the issues is that for the most part, as soon as it comes off display and is placed on a "normal" table against a regular army, the effect is kinda lost and it looks like what it is; a dark, mostly drybrushed army!!

Gamewise, I wasn't overly keen with how the army actually played, though this in part could've been a result of the unique battleplans we were playing. I probably owe it to the army to play it at a matched play event. Problem there is that I'd probably need more Crypt Horrors and those models are pretty hard to acquire.

I will be recording a podcast soon on the Flesh-eater Courts warscrolls so will discuss in more detail then.

Cheers, Chris

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