Hobby Update: Vampires

My Undead army started out as a few spare units I figured might be fun to have on hand to lend out to my Undead-playing friend. That's still their main purpose, but the collection is growing. Here are 1000 points of vampires!

That really is 1000 points. Vampires are expensive...

The vampire hero is just a Reaper model, and has the benefit of being cheap, dollars-wise. In game, she’s pretty expensive! This isn’t a great sculpt, but I already had picked it up a while ago for some Dungeons and Dragons, so I decided to paint her up while I was finishing up the units. She can now pull double-duty. Reaper has a number of more… practically-dressed vampires, which I may splurge on at some point down the road.

The Soul Reavers are Perry Bros Foot Knights with some head-swaps from Mantic’s Ghouls to showcase the vampirism better. These models are fantastic. They also make a similar-looking mounted knight kit, which I may pick up at some point for fun.

36 of the 38 models come on copies of this sprue. Then there is 2-body sprue for a kingly model and a potential bannerman.

I chose the Perry Bro's kit because of its "gothic"-looking armor. I thought it would lend itself nicely to a vampire aesthetic and guide my future undead hobbying in a later-medieval direction. I really like these models. Each body has a slightly different pose, which actually you build a pretty dynamic unit. I would highly recommend these, and I was anticipating a great deal more head-swapping, but the knights had a lot of Sallet helmets, which, with the open jaw area, I kept. They seem fantastically appropriate for vampires!

Not too much to say about these with respects to the game. They are a very strong unit; with a staggering number of powerful attacks, Lifeleech, and pretty good defense too. However, they are also a very expensive unit, and still just infantry, meaning they may get picked apart by artillery or other ranged attacks or hit by speedier cavalry or monsters if not property protected. Most Undead lists I see online shy away from them, so having three regiments on hand is probably overkill by several magnitudes for a practical, balanced list, but oh well. I like how they turned out, and they should provide a very powerful addition to my little collection of Undead!

Hobby Basics: Water/Mud Effect

There are more advanced tutorials out there to get you some splash effects or ripples or sea foam or wading pools and such, but this method embraces my simple approach to hobbying; providing me with a neat little effect for very little time, money or effort.

My hobbying experience is largely limited to wargames, so I am not familiar with a lot of things at your typical craft shop. After trying a few different clear nail polishes trying to get this effect, I ended up buying a bottle of what I suppose can be termed a "glaze" product. I ended up with Winsor & Newton's Artists' Acrylic Glazing Medium, which promised a transparent, glossy finish. And it worked well to create the muddy effect, so I'm sharing it with you.

You will need:
-A painted, finished base, with flat spots (presumably the water or mud).
-An older, flatter brush
-The glaze
-A small test base, to see how thick you need to apply the glaze

The process here aims to do one thing: make things glossy. I assume your muddy or watery spots are painted the way you want (and dry). I recommend these areas also be flat, because of gravity and realism.

Some spooky Soul Reavers traipsing through rocks and mud and blood... it helped to use a few different colors for the mud, to give it a more deeper, layered look prior to glazing.

Apply some of the glaze in varying amounts to the spare base in a few spots. Let it dry overnight. This should clue you into how thickly you need to apply it to your bases, and approximately how long it takes to dry without wasting a ton of your time. 

Out of the bottle, the glaze is a milky-white fluid. I you apply it to thin, it looks transparent from the start, and doesn't dry well. I applied it until every area I wanted glazed had a kind of milky-white look to it, and let it dry overnight. It was fine by morning.

When you are ready to work on your bases, simply apply it to the parts you want glossy, in the amounts your test determined, and let it dry When everything is done and dry, you should have a nice shiny effect without obscuring the paint job below.

You can almost hear the squelches...

In terms of "technique" this is pretty easy: just apply it. Good job. The  difficult parts are all the prep and planning stages: making sure your have enough smooth or flat terrain on your base to use this effect, and then painting the effect (along with a few brush strokes against the feet of the models to "sell" it). 

All in all though, this is still a pretty simple effect to replicate, and one that I am happy to both have in my repertoire and to share with you.

Hobby Basics: Basing with Stands

A lot of the models I have been working with lately (Mantic Undead, Warlord Romans, Halflings, etc) have a stand as part of the model. While this small disc helps with painting, as you have a spot to hold while you paint the model, it can be a pain when it comes to basing the model, particularly with regards to multi-basing.

One could do all the basing first, blending little hills or rocks among the stands, and then paint everything. However, that seems crazy to me. Depending on the models, or size of the unit involved, it could easily be a nightmare to get the paint brush between legs or around weapon tips and into those middle models to paint. And that’s even ignoring the frustration of trying to paint any details (belts, gems, etc).

So, we'll have to paint and then base. Still, we'll need to deal with these stands. How? 

There are three basic approaches I have been using recently, regarding basing models with stands, which I figured I'd share here. Nothing below is particularly revolutionary, but a new hobbiest may find something helpful.

Basing with Paste

I still really like Vallejo paste, and am still using it frequently.  If you want to use the paste with your stands, it’s actually pretty easy, and I've been doing this currently, with a lot of my halfling units. I start with painted models.

-Base the stands of the models with the paste, and wait for it to dry.
-Paint the now-based stands
-Glue a rank of the models to the base.
-Add paste around the stands of that rank. Stopping short of where you want the next rank to be. I use a toothpick to move the paste around narrow areas, like in between feet. (It’s a cheap tool.) 
-Repeat. And repeat. And repeat… Keep adding a model or whole ranks, and pasting around it until you are done. Wait for it all to dry.
-Paint the newly pasted areas from above.

Add a rank... add the paste.

Above is a WIP pic with some halfling ponies I was testing out the process on. These models had been pasted and then primed and painted. This eventually led to a mismatch in color, with the parts under the ponies being darker than the surrounding areas due to the black primer on the stands. While painting can overcome this, it may be easier to paint first, and then add the paste, so all the paste starts out as that uniform color. 

Finished! Using a few shades of paint helped to blend the disparate paste color.

Using paste is relatively simple, though depending on the stand size and height, you may need to add another layer of paste to certain areas to better camoflage the stand, or you could be lazy and use grass tufts to obscure the bumps.

Basing with Milliput or Sculpting Putty

Greenstuff is usually the putty of choice for hobbiests, as it holds detail well, however, for basing, I prefer Milliput as it is cheaper and easier to smooth out. Whichever two-part putty you use, the general process should be the same: combining a bit of each part and kneading it together. For basing, we are looking to gently grade an area around the stand of the model, and have a "rolling hill" kind of result.

-Knead the putty, and just add little bits around the model. Use a wet tool or wet fingers to press it around the stand and smooth it all out. Wait for it to dry.
-Paint it up.

Milliput won't do much to make your base interesting on its own.

On the left, you can see the combined efforts of putty and paste. On the right, you can see an earlier stage. Some models have been puttied; the rest of the models have pasted, and are waited to be glued to the base and pasted around.

The putty doesn’t add a whole lot of interesting things on its own, so you should add flock or static grass or pebbles or something to get it to look interesting at the end. I

Remove the Stand

Depending on your dexterity and/or tools, you may be able to deftly slice the stand from the feet of the model. A sharp hobby knife or small hobby saw should be enough to deftly cut it, but ankles are generally weak points on models, so you have to be very careful. Additionally, it can be hard to get the cut flush with the stand, so you might clip a few toes accidentally… Depending on the model involved, this can be a difficult approach. However, you can prime/paint whenever you want with this approach. Priming/painting prior to cutting helps, as the stand does give you something to hold on to while you paint. Basically, the final steps are:

-Cut off the stand
-Finish all your basing, whatever it may be.
-Glue model to the finished base.

This technique can help you group your models closer together for a visual effect (like a swarm of tightly packed zombies), or if you only cut off a few models, it could allow for easier painting of the base itself, as you could glue these models on after everything else is painted.

To make a more interesting base, I’d recommend you combine some of the techniques above. Below is the start of a third Soul Reaver regiment. The models have been pasted, and glued down. I'm just about ready to add paste around the stands. Off to the side, you can see a model who has had their stand cut off, so I can still them close to the horse.



The last pic, below, is all three regiments of Soul Reavers, still works in progress. The back two had a combination of milliput and paste to create some rocky ground and flatter, muddy-looking areas, while the front unit had that, plus a few stands clipped to get the vampires closer to the slain horse. The work was spread over a few evenings to allow things to dry: the first the putty; the second to paste; the third to paint. Even combining all three approaches, this was a pretty painless way to work. It just took a little time to get it all squared away.

Not quite finished, but close. The bases aren't fancy, but they work.

So there you have it. Some basic tips for working with models with stands. Thanks for reading!

Hobby Basics: Snow Effect

I've been meaning to write this up for a while. Previously I did snow bases with just Elmer’s Glue (basically PVA glue) and lots of baking soda dustings. However, the process was terrible. It took a lot of time; was messy; and arguably most importantly, after a year the glue starts to turn yellow as the glue got older. All in all it was a bad system.

That approach was pioneered a few years ago. In the interim, I’ve grown a little as a hobbiest.. so here is my new method for snowy bases. Admittedly it is probably similar, if not identical to anything you will find on the internet regarding snowy bases. You will need the following:

-Painted, Finished bases
-Elmer's Glue (PVA Glue)
-Baking Soda
-White Paint (Don’t use paints for your miniatures; buy a tube from an art store, it's cheaper)
-Something to mix everything up (toothpick, or a plastic utensil, or something else)
-An old brush to apply it to the base.
-A disposable picnic plate. Mixing everything together there and throwing it all out when you are done is nice and easy.

Behold! Supplies!

The itself process isn’t difficult, and you can experiment a bit with the proportions to see what you like. I start with roughly equal portions of paint and glue, and start mixing it together. Then I stir in baking soda... adding more and continuing to stir until the mixture starts to look grainy. If it is too thick for your liking at any stage, a few drops of water can dilute it.

A pile of stuff to mix.

Once the mixture is all ready, take an old, broader brush, swipe it through the mixture, and start applying to your bases. The mixture basically destroys brushes, so use an old brush, and rinse it out frequently (I usually rinse after each base) to prolong the life of the brush.

Some bases drying, along with my current snow brush. The bristles have flayed out due to the mixture...

If you want a “wind swept snow” feel, brush only in one direction, similar to dry brushing. The mixture will cling to the basing. You can also just slop it on thickly, more akin to deeper snow drifts. The mixture takes some time to set, but should be ready to go after an hour or two, depending on how thickly you applied your mixture.


This approach works easiest with stand-less models (where you can do up the base, and then just glue down the painted models at the end). If you models have stands, get your basing and models painted and finished, and then use a smaller brush to apply the snow mixture as a finishing touch.

Some finished, snowy units.

This is producing far superior results to my earlier approach. The process is quick and the materials are cheap... all contributing to a nice, simple basing effect.

Hobby Update: More Halflings!

The halflings had an enjoyable first outing, and since games tend to drive my hobbying, instead of focusing on finishing up other projects already in process, I’ve been hobbying on some more halflings. Oops. I’ll get back to my other projects later…

The new recruits!

My goal with the halflings was to build a fun, slightly under-powered army for me to field for smaller introductory games, which I’d say has already been achieved. 

However, I still have a ton of models sitting around from my original purchases. This surplus, coupled with the game, has led to the formation of a second goal: boosting the army up to 2000 points! I still have a goal of playing some epic, large-scale games in the future, and I’d like to have the Halflings guys on hand as additional good guys.


The new recruits (3 Troops of Halfling Rangers, a Regiment of Knights, a Troop of Knights, a Volley Gun, a mounted Sorcerer and two Master Sergeants) bring me up to about 75% of my goal for the halflings. Up next are:

-A Horde of Spearlings
-A Regiment of Archers
-A Battle Shrine

I have all the models (and still more to spare), so thankfully, no new purchases are needed to reach 2k, so it’s just a matter of time and hobbying effort. I’m hoping to finish off one unit a week, and be done with the halflings soon. We’ll see how that goes… More to come soon!