Minor Progress and a Look at the New Soulblight Undead

January has kept me pretty busy, so I didn’t have much time to work on personal projects. Still, I can’t let the month go by without posting anything, so here’s a quick look at what’s on my painting table. 

 

 

I’ve barely been able to put any paint on my Tomb Kings, but I got the red laid in on the archers’ skirts. All the bone and basing is already painted, but I still have quite a way to go before they are finished. 

 

 

Another project that I have been slowly chipping away at is the re-basing of my Execution Guard, the Grave Guard with great weapons. I started with the models that were on four-man regimental strips, and transferred them onto individual 25mm bases. With the command models, that's half of the unit ready to go.

 

 

I also put the static grass and tufts on the 40-man spacer tray that's been sitting unfinished for months. Now one unit of Red Guard skeletons can hit the table with a properly finished movement tray. 

 

 

This month, GW also announced the new Soulblight Gravelord models for the Age of Sigmar. I think they all look pretty great. I'm not really interested in The Age of Sigmar anymore– I haven't completely abandoned it, but that setting has become purely narrative for me with regard to Korak and Olivia's stories. So, while I might do more with my Age of Sigmar forces, it will be in service of furthering the development of those characters, and not necessarily playing the game. So, I'm looking at these new models purely as potential for The Old World.

My Vampire Counts army is so vast, I don't know that I need to add much more. Some of my characters could use upgrades or alternate mounted versions, however. This Vampire Lord on a steed, might make a nice Vampire Thrall hero. The steed looks like it's not a horse, though, I need to see a better view of the head. Still, pretty cool with a lot of potential.

 

 

The mounted Wight King looks fantastic, and I really appreciate the alternate builds for him. If I had any issues, it would be with the "stringy" cloth hanging down. Seems like it would be a pain to paint around, and is begging to snag on something or break. I'll likely pick up one of these, as I only have one mounted Wight Lord/ King in my army, and could probably use a few more.

 

 

I had been holding off on this model, but with the upcoming releases, I became concerned that they might stop producing the kit, so I grabbed one. He looks a bit more traditional in terms of armor and cloth drapery, so he'll fit in with my Legion just fine.

 

 

It's great to have new Black Knights and Grave Guard kits. I think the knights are perfect. As I mentioned above, I already have so many Black Knights (40 to be exact), so I can't justify getting these. Honestly, If I was looking for a cheap way to build a cadre of mounted Wight Kings, I'd pick up this set and convert them because they look fancy enough that they would stand out from the rest of my knights or from the current Black Knight kit. This also makes me wonder what will become of the Black Knight/ Hexwraith dual kit. 

 

 

Similarly, I have a ton of Grave Guard and don't really need any more. Still, I had considered getting the new ones to build a "hand weapon and shield" unit to replace my older unit. But even though these look really nice, something about them felt "off," and I figured out what it was: They don't have full skirts. They have the same tattered remnants of cloth handing down that the new Deathrattle Skeletons have, which doesn't distinguish them enough. Grave Guard have always had full skirts concealing their legs, and heavier armor making them look a bit beefier than their fellow skeletons. If I were to get any of these, I would need to figure out a conversion to put the upper torso and thigh armor over a set of fully skirted legs. (And flaming head, of course!)

 

The absolute winner of this preview, is Prince Vordrai. No notes. This model is everything I've wanted in a zombie dragon for ages. First off, it's a proper dragon, with four limbs and wings, as opposed to the current zombie dragon which has wings for its forelimbs, making it more of a wyvern. The rider is beautiful, with a splendid cape and an impressive saddle that kind of serves as a back banner. He's also got reins for steering his mount, something that was absent for generations, but has become more prevalent in the newer plastic kits now that that sort of engineering and tooling is possible. It's also nice that the special character Prince Vordrai finally has his own model rather than using the sabe basic kit as the generic Vampire on Zombie Dragon. I will definitely be picking up this model to convert a new version of Seth von Koss on a dragon!

 

 

'Til next time!