Silver Bayonet 1850

The October PaintComp was for something “spooky” so I looked through the remaining minis and came up with this Heresy miniature, vampire in bat-form.  A lovely sculpt in Siocast thermoplastic.  Hardly any cleanup necessary which is good.

I went for a high contrast zenith undercoat – black with a white focus directly at the face over the leading arm/wing.   This was then accentuated with progressively lighter washes of Murder Scene, the burgundy purple shade Speedpaint on the upper surfaces.  Underneath I washed the black with that and some added dark blue to emphasise the shadow.  The upper details were then highlighted with progressively lighter and thinner layers of Murder Scene and Vallejo Air Wolf Grey, until I had neat but very dilute Wolf Grey at the end.  Eyes then had a dot of pure white and once this was dry a dot of red ink.  This was highlighted with Vallejo Fluro Orange/Magenta blend and shaded with a drop of Murder Scene.  Finally very small dots of white to give the eyes focus and direction.

That’s the shot for the PaintComp.  This is what he looks like against a plain background, although the camera didn’t fancy focusing properly for some reason.

Local Gendarmerie in the Habsburg uniform of the late 1800s.  The tunics are Speedpaint 2.0 Absolution Green.

A swordsman ready to join your party and the local blacksmith.  I just love his fez.  It can’t be practical but no doubting his origins.

I bought some of the recent releases of Silver Bayonet minis from North Star.  I particularly liked the pir of vampires who have a very Ancien Regieme look to them, clearly they fled the Revolution but kept the look of Versailles.  I was a bit stuck on colours but then found very similar looking vampires in the new Castlevania: Nocturne series on Netflix.  Their vamps are all in pastels and that decided things for these two.

They head a cult who honour a mysterious being known as “The Count”.  Their household staff are enthusiastic converts, North Star minis again.

The cult has also attracted a small unit of soldiers who were billeted on the estate.  They seem to have lost their connection to sanity in the process.  Still they look happy enough about it.

These are Warlord Games Crimean Russian bodies from a free sprue on the front of WI.  They have been given Frostgrave cultist heads.  A simple but effective conversion that is directly copied from someone doing a Grimdark 40K force on Insta.  I’d like to credit them but can’t find their posts at the moment.  They did a great job and the unsettling head tilts on these are directly copied from their work.

Here they are together.  This faction is nearly done.  There are some West Wind Production Empire Dead cultists that I’d like to add but that will wait until after Christmas when I start buying minis again.

The Baroness and her Landsknecht, inseparable in death as they were in life.  Beautiful sculpts from Bad Squiddo that already start to tell their own story.  They will lead the skeleton horde who appear in the catacombs of the ruined keep on the edge of the great forest.

Gripping Beast do a lovely litle range of witch hunters which Ben reminded me about when he was giving the Blood- Maw a Golden Button.  I had to have them so here they are, ready to go.

In this scenario they form the Hexenjaeger.  Allied to the Church factions but even the fanatics or the Ordo find their mode of devotion distasteful and their methods shocking.  Whilst they outwardly respect the Church’s objectives they are also operating to their own unknowable agenda.  They are prepared to go to any lengths to achieve their goals and innocence is no defense if witchcraft is suspected.

Firstly the Grand Master, his Confessor and the Sergeant-at-Arms.  Painting wise I’ve gone with Grim Black and Murder Scene (the dark purple shade).  Everything else is the usual Speedpaints except the metailics where I went for Vallejo Model Air Black metallic with a highlight of Vallejo Metal Colour Pale Burnt Metal.  To finish, I tried a new matt varnish product on these.  Mr Super Clear Matt from Mr Hobby.  The can is twice the size of the Mr Hobby Matt Topcoat I’ve been using and results seems similarly flat  Looks good.

The soldiers who come in two packs from GB.  The torches are a bit bendy as the connection between hand and firey bit is quite thin but a least they bend back again easily.  Flame effect follows the directions I gave in the earlier Villagers Mob post and are based on the instructions from North Star Magazine here.

Executioners.  I love the equipment details on these models.

Order Militant Fanatics.  Clearly their solution to living in a scary world is to be the scariest thing in it.

And finally a group shot.  Good luck dealing with all of this lot.

I had a vampire knocking about that I think is also a West Wind sculpt.  I rebased him for this game.  I also ordered some Silver Bayonet cultists and a couple of Bad Squiddo skeletons and popped this nice bat swarm onto the order from North Star.

The vampire is basic acrylics in layers with couple of dots of red ink in the eyes for the blood glow effect.  The bats are speedpaints over zenithed undercoat, Grim Black on the bats and Dark Wood on the stump.  Light drybrush with Citadel Foundation Dhneb Stone to finish.

Frankenstein’s Monster is from Monolith Designs, part of the Graven Images line of 1/48th scale (36-38mm) Jim Bowen sculpted minis.  This one is from the range called Cliffhanger.  Be prepared to wait if you order, this is very much a side interest business.

The torturer/executioner is regular 25/28mm size so provides a good idea of the size of the flesh golem.  I can’t recall where he comes from, so if you know a comment would be welcome.  I think he might be an early Hasslefree but he isn’t still in their range seemingly if he is.

Technique (an painting quality) are a little older as these were exisiting paints just rebased for this game.  Simple single acrylics for the torturer, layered acrylics for the Monster.

A few “ordinary” werewolves finishes Loup Garou’s faction.  Same technique as before, greys blended to give a variety of colours for this group.

Then their mortal enemies the Wulfen Jaeger.  Lovely sculps here and their equipment and additional wolf trophy laden garb is very evocative.

Looks like they’ve got one.  Not sure they would be so confident tackling Loup Garou himself though.

The game uses D10s and a deck of cards.  I like my games to have an immersive feel so that means getting accessories to match.  First though is a slight bugbear of mine when using D10s; in this game the 10s are high (i.e. the numbers run from 1-10) but most dice only show 0-9, so I tried to track down some with the correct 1-10 instead.  I needed red (skill) and blue (power) and managed to find some.  No luck with the monster dice which are suggested as black so I went for a blend of black and dried blood colours.  Finally I also needed some cards.  This set is a reproduction of a set from 1858 (close enough for me).