Minions of the Von Carsteins.

A Vampire Counts Army needs a Vampire Count to lead it. Bring in the new Crimson Court Box for Warhammer Underworlds Direchasm.

By Sigmar these are such amazing models! I like them so much I will forgive their silly-shaped bases.

Anywho….meet the general of my army, PIETER VON CARSTEIN.

When playing the Vampire counts on Total war I’ve always enjoyed how the randomly generated lords are commonly given the Von Carstein name. Much like any true Grognard of the Old World, I also love reading the fluff in the Army books. Pieter von Carstien was featured in one of the little short stories that I found on the page describing the Grave guard. I imagine him to be sired by Vlad or Isabella von Carstein.

This short story also gives me a name to my Wight King, who I will now call ASTERON, ‘Long dead king of the Dolgars’.

I painted the main volumes of Pieter with my airbrush.

The deep red Armour was started with a dark mix of warmer reds. I mixed GW Maphiston Red with Vallejo Hull Red and Vallejo Black and layered down an even base coat to the armour panels.

I then highlighted/layered the Armour with GW Miphiston Red and Vallejo Hull Red.

Each layer is applied whilst attempting to cover less than the last, concentrating towards the centre of the previously covered areas and trying to mimic how the light would be coming from above by mainly shooting the airbrush downwards on the model. 

Another point would be that the mixtures include airbrush thinner and flow improver. I’d say this is essential when dealing with thicker paints like the GW layers when using an airbrush with the tiniest of needles. Any video by Angel Giraldez on youtube will show the consistency of paint that should be mixed before building the paint up in small bursts. I’m clearly no Angel, but I’m pretty chuffed with the results I’ve achieved by trying to copy his  ‘basics’…which are by no means basic. F*ck!!!! Airbrushing can be stressful. 

The next layer is pure GW Mephiston red.

The Armour was then finished by edge highlighting with a regular brush. The first edge highlight was GW Evil Sun Scarlet.

The last Edge highlight was picking out the spiker bits of his armour with  GW Troll Slayer Orange.

Using a reasonably spent brush, I then used MIG Liquid mask to cover the armour areas around the cape/skirt.

Once the mask was dry i used a mixture of Vallejo Flat Green and Vallejo Black to lay a base coat to the cape through the airbrush. I then layered some Vallejo Flat green onto the extremities of the cape being sure to leave a decent amount of the base coat visible towards his waste.

I then added some Vallejo game colour-Escorpena green to the Flat green to the mixture and layered over the previous coverage leaving a similar gradient between layers as I did to the base.

I didn’t like the results where his cape folded over at the back so i then used the liquid mask again to cover the cape area that was not ‘folded over’. I then repeated the above airbrushing steps to clean up the fold.

I then peeled the mask away using some fine tweezers…..this bit is possibly the most satisfying thing to do in our hobby.

Once the mask was completely cleared I applied an edge highlight of Vallejo  Game Colour – Escorpena Green to the cape. I finished this by applying Vallejo game colour – livery green to the points/ extremities of the cape.