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Soulblight Gravelords Hobby and Lore


Nactigal

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My prep work has been more modeling than painting oriented...

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Failure!  To the oblivion of Hysh's Perimiter Inimical with you!

Time for some mortarchs with a bit more muscle on their bones, and a bit more blood in their veins!

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Mannfred gets Arkhan's hand-me-down dread abyssal - half-painted, rebased, primed over to start again, ripped apart & rebuilt, then primed over one (?) more time.  Nothing but the worst for Warhammer's resident Starscream.  Loss of detail from all that honestly isn't as bad as I might have feared, and is nothing on the rider, steed's head, and steed's chest armor which are all new, so it's fine.  And the broken statue adding an extra contact point for stability with the ghost carefully cut to be flying through it remains nice work, imo.

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Neferata is newly built, apart from the sawed-in-half old arcane ruins obelisk to provide a similar extra contact point for her base.  She gets an extra ghost since she's older and, in my headcannon at least, stronger.  And because I glued her steed down a bit off center to balance her big flowing skirts all off to one side, which made room for it that wasn't quite there on Arkhan's Mannfred's more dead center posing.  Unfortunately half the blood drop gems hanging from her steed's plate armor were broken off some time in the years her sprues have been in storage, yes on both copies I had, so I just lopped them all off altogether.  Unfortunate, and since that piece is separate and easily removable I might bits order a replacement some day.  For the moment I'm fine without them, though.

I know this is an ~ancient~ observation, but the classic mortarchs really do fit so much better on AoS's big oval monster bases than they did on the old chariot bases.

The riders and the steed's chest armor are separate pieces stuck on with a bit o blue tack, so they can be separated for painting.

...

As for Arkhan, it's a bit off topic since he's supposedly not in the Gravelords book, but I didn't really kick him to the curb.  I've just replaced his abyssal terror mounted model with a slightly more old school conversion, which I've shown off elsewhere on these boards already:

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Not quite as tall as the official dread abyssal version, but still pretty impressive, and I love that og style.  The 'all black & green' color scheme might be a bit too limited, though.  Might go back and add a few spots of indigo & violet here and there.

 

Edited by Sception
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some more minor prep work:

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The first family, rebased & primed.

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Of these, Isabela is in fragile, terrible failcast while the other three are the finest, paint-chippiest metal.  Ugh.  Shame the transition to full plastic hadn't happened back when these were released.  Anyway, note the minor conversions to Young Man Mannfred, to distinguish him from his more mature self - a less elaborate cloak (no big spikes out the back, no ghosts out the cape), a slim and simple skull rod in place of the hooked staff, and, most importantly, he still has his hair.  Well, I guess the hair is a bit hard to see just primed, but take my word, it's there, a nice, slicked back widow's peak, as is traditional.  I'm more than a bit a bit annoyed at myself for never getting around to painting these guys back when they had their own rules.  Hopefully the new battle tome has customization options for vamps sufficient to make these guys unique and cool.  If not, there's always the Anvil of Blood, since most of my games are casual/narrative enough to allow it.

...

I also started rebasing to rounds on another old model.  Just a minor piece that I half started painting but never bothered to finish because it was just that unimportant.

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got to sculpt a few more stone slabs to match the Arcane Ruin platform that fit its old rectangular base so well.  This one's going to take a while, & I'll probably burn out on effort and have to put it back on the shelf for a year or so another two or three times before I get back around to progressing on the actual paint job.  A process carefully and deliberately tailored to match this unit's habit in the lore of spending most of its time in convalescence due to compulsively over-extending and subsequently flaring out every time he bothers to get himself out of bed.

Because I'm not just a narrative player, I'm a narrative hobbyist as well.

 

Edited by Sception
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I’m really excited to see what awesome jobs everyone shares here!

I don’t have any myself, yet, but I’m preparation gif the future, I have a question! Has anyone tried Neferata’s head on the 40K Yvraine model? I think it would fit really well, but I’d like to see it before spending the money on a model I’d otherwise never use.

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More inventory & prep work:

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One painted zombie dragon.  Honestly, it really wants me to go back with another highlight, maybe some other touch ups and changes, but I promised myself 'no messing with finished models until you have a fully painted army to go with them' so I won't be doing that any time soon.

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Two rider options for the dragon - a painted conversion with old TK bits that I currently use for Prince Vhordrai, and a generic vamp lord as is out of the box.  Prince Vhodrai also needs some touch ups, maybe a spot of extra color.  Maybe purple highlights on the black armor plates?  Maybe a non-ethereal deathly skin tone?  Again, though, the 'no messing with finished models until I've got an army worth of painted stuff' means he's staying as is for now.

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The sepulchral guard.  I've got a few extra generic skittles that go with these to round them out to a regular unit of 10 with command, half painted like these, and then a whole second set of the same box + 3 extras unpainted.  They had been intended as a couple minimal units to camp objectives or fill out battleline or battalion requirements.  As is, I don't know what I'll be doing with them.  I do mean to finish painting at least this lot, as my room mate's recently been getting into underworlds.

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Keenan and Krell, another nice old school blast from the past to go along with the previously pictured Von Carstein family.

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Generic vamps, a Mordheim debutante and my converted 7th edition casty lord, from back when the most terrifying thing a vampire lord could do was stand behind a giant block of grave guard buffing & healing them with spells and gifting them his weapon skill.  This guy's half the reason I had my fingers crossed for a generic caster-specialist vamp hero.  Ah, well, there's always the anvil of blood rules.  I could have sworn I had more generic vamps than this, but between these and the VC's, I've already got more vampire models than I need, so w/e.

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Generic necros.  Again, the painted one could use some additional work, but rules are rules.  I must say, a couple empire wizard bits really go a long way when it comes to adding some unique personality to necromancers.

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Generic Wight Kings, including a BSB converted from a LotR Barrow Wight with some old empire general bits.  That guy used to be the Drakenhof banner for that big unit of grave guard I was talking about before.  I really should finish these, they're good models, even if I doubt they'll see much table time once I've got my hands on the new mounted wight king.

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Cursed City crew, minus the skittles and zombags, based and ready for priming.  I'm still bitter about what went down with cursed city, and the rules implementation of these guys in SG (or lack of implementation in the swarms' case), is still really frustrating, but I can't stay mad at what are, overall, a really nice set of models.  I had considered for a while adding some wings to the vargskyr to use as a varghulf in my barely started FEC collection, but I don't think I'll get around to starting FEC in earnest until they get a new book, and I can't imagine they'll get a new book without GW replacing the resin Varghulf with a much nicer plastic model anyway, so lazy.  If I play any FEC between now and then I'll just proxy the Skyr as a ghulf anyway.  I don't think anyone will care.

Still feeling extremely hype and motivated for this release.  Which is good because I've got a fair bit more prep work to do before new stuff comes in, without even counting any actual painting - including a corpse cart to assemble, basing and priming to do on Neferata, priming the cursed city pile, etc.

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So the only thing that you get specifically for Bloodknights if you go with Kastelai is that Set up Rule and Blood Knights Battleline, am i right? The other ability is for all Kastelei Vampires.

I think we have to see the other Bloodlines, because only for the Set up Rule its not worth going kastelei in my opinion.

Edited by Erdemo86
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Just now, Erdemo86 said:

So the only thing that you get specifically for Bloodknights if you go with Kastelai is that Set up Rule and Blood Knights Battleline, am i right? The other ability is for all Kastelei Vampires.

I think we have to see the other Bloodlines

I think you want the other thread, but yeah, you've got it.  That said, out flanking from board edges is a pretty nice thing for blood knights to be able to do.

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2 hours ago, Nactigal said:

I've been playing around with different dead flesh recipes and I've found one I really like.

Zenithal then build up sunset purple  or hexed lichen; scurvy green; dead flesh

What of that do you do with airbrush vs. regular brush?  What paint line are those colors from?

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25 minutes ago, Sception said:

What of that do you do with airbrush vs. regular brush?  What paint line are those colors from?

I base everything in S75 sunset purple with an airbrush and zenithal the Vallejo scurvy green. After that I mess around with Vallejo dead flesh highlights. Finally I glaze back in the green and purple. For some reason the forum isn't letting me upload a better picture.

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More prep work - not as many total models worked on over the last couple days, but assembly from scratch takes longer than basing/priming, so....

Spoiler

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corpse cart, which was most of yesterday's work, and a unit of vargheists in honor of the Legion of Night preview today.

I've got pretty much all I'd need to run that speculative list I posted in the other thread, which would feature both of these units.  Half-started terrorgheist would need to be re-based, though.

This bunch still needs texture paint on the bases and some greenstuff gap filling before they're ready to prime.

 

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I've been trying to figure out what I want to do color scheme-wise for my models. Or more specifically, for mount barding, as I've figured out what I want for general schemes.

Vampire armor: Black with brass trim and red cloth

Deathrattle armor: Brass with rusted steel trim and black or dark grey cloth

Mount armor: ???

 

Leaning towards either a reverse of the Deathrattle (steel with brass trim) and red cloth like the vampires, a dark red with brass trim, or just have it be the same as the vampire armor, at the risk of one-note Blood Knights. Open to suggestions, though!

 

 

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5 hours ago, RocketPropelledGrenade said:

Mount armor: ???

Assuming Blood Knights, I think the mounts would look excellent in the same scheme as their riders. Add some turquoise or reds for the cloth to make them pop.

5 hours ago, RocketPropelledGrenade said:

Deathrattle armor: Brass with rusted steel trim and black or dark grey cloth

Painting a lot of these could be a hassle if you're doing all that trim. I think oxidized brass armor without the trim with the black cloth would be easier and look just as good.

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1 hour ago, Nactigal said:

Assuming Blood Knights, I think the mounts would look excellent in the same scheme as their riders. Add some turquoise or reds for the cloth to make them pop.

Painting a lot of these could be a hassle if you're doing all that trim. I think oxidized brass armor without the trim with the black cloth would be easier and look just as good.

Blood Knights + Neferata and maybe a VLoZD (not that it has barding) for Vampires.

For Deathrattle, I should clarify that "trim" in this case doesn't mean the detailing on the cuirasses, but the sections of mail in various places. I was using the same terminology for a different thing.

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On 5/13/2021 at 2:46 AM, Sception said:

More prep work - not as many total models worked on over the last couple days, but assembly from scratch takes longer than basing/priming, so....

  Reveal hidden contents

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corpse cart, which was most of yesterday's work, and a unit of vargheists in honor of the Legion of Night preview today.

I've got pretty much all I'd need to run that speculative list I posted in the other thread, which would feature both of these units.  Half-started terrorgheist would need to be re-based, though.

This bunch still needs texture paint on the bases and some greenstuff gap filling before they're ready to prime.

 

My favourite part of the hobby is the building so i love see minis unpainted haha ty for pics.

Btw why you use aluminiun paper(it seems) under the cork in the corpse cart?

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3 hours ago, Doko said:

Btw why you use aluminiun paper(it seems) under the cork in the corpse cart?

That's actually fine slate gravel that glued down on top of the cork & in some of the nooks & crannies, to paint up as crumbling rocky ground later.  It does kind of look like aluminum foil in the pictures, though.  Weird.

More hobby progress:

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Priming on the Cursed City crew and the Crimson Court.

...

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Texture paint on the bases for neferata, corpse cart, & vargheists; some greenstuff gap filling on neferata and the corpse cart driver (not shown), assembly of the cursed city skeletons and zombies.

I've got another pack of the cursed city zombies coming in. They're cheap on the secondary market since they're weird so nobody but me likes them and ebay sellers haven't adjusted to the fact that skellies are out and zombies are in this season.  With that and one box each of the new models I'll have one full unit of both without rebasing any of my existing infantry.

...

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Re-basing work continues on Nagash & the Terrorgheist.  Greenstuff work is about done - nagash's new round base is filled out with enough new stone slabs that II think the rest can be done with gravel and texture paint.  The green stuff on the Terrorgheist's base is to smooths out the difference in height between the remains of the original base it's still attached to and the new round base that I just glued it down onto after sanding the bottome flat.  The transition is smooth enough now that it shouldn't be too noticeable once I slap some texture paint on there, especially after painting is done and I add some patches of modeling snow, too.  A few small bits of slate help further break up the transition, and tie the basing material together with the rocky outcrops that are part of the model.

I really should have painted both of these in sub assemblies.  I'm not looking forward to getting back to work on the actual paint jobs.  Oh, well, no hurry, plenty of easier stuff to do while I build up the motivation to tackle the big guys.

 

Edited by Sception
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Hey guys I want to do a headswap on bloodlights. I’m searching for some long haired heads that could fit. Does someone have an idea? Have something like this in my mind. Maybe tree revenant heads but they are hard to find. Hope someone of you guys have an idea.

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2 hours ago, Erdemo86 said:

Hey guys I want to do a headswap on bloodlights. I’m searching for some long haired heads that could fit. Does someone have an idea? Have something like this in my mind. Maybe tree revenant heads but they are hard to find. Hope someone of you guys have an idea.

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Have found a good alternative, I’m going to take these. Not all of them but some. Like some blood Elve Vampire style. 😌

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Edited by Erdemo86
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On 5/14/2021 at 8:28 PM, RandyRyan said:

Question for those in the know - I want to build Vhordrai but prefer the posing of the Terrorgheist. Is there anything stopping you building it as a Zombie Dragon but in the pose of the TG?

I've done this with my VLOZD though it takes some greenstuff work. Getting the VL to sit right was the hardest part though all very doable.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjtJ7uvn-wS/?igshid=gkvpvjoo9j9z

Edited by Nactigal
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On 5/7/2021 at 11:47 PM, Nactigal said:

A friendly space to share hobby progress and narrative stories for anything Soulblight Gravelord related.

Thank you @Nactigal for creating the topic :)

Before the recent release of new models and battletome, in my mind I had this idea of what Soulblight Vampire Lords should be: a powerful combination of warlords & necromancers able to command / influence / manipulate way beyond the limited scope of Deadwalkers/Deathrattle (i.e. Nighthaunt and Fleash Eaters).

Anyway I am happy about the release (even if Legion of Grief might disappear, and even if Nighthaunt might no longer benefit from any large-scale resurrection mechanism).

Those WIP concepts attached are from 1-2 years ago but they still fit with what I think SBGL are :)

 

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So I've been working on using the spare zombie dragon head from my terrorgheist kit to make this fella! First two pictures are its current state (still wip) and 3rd picture is an earlier one showing where I'm planning to magnetise a vampire lord to look like he's summoning it from the portal.

Quite looking forward to getting it finished and it's even ended up being the right sort of height/width to use as a z-dragon and not just a terrain piece ;)

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