Brotherhood of Blood: Week 8

Greetings Dash28 fans! I apologize for the week off, Masters and all the travel that goes into it made writing an update, or really getting much painting done, impossible. However, I am back and plugging away at the Brotherhood of Blood at the close of Week 8, which when this releases will actually be midway thru Week 9!

I have managed to maintain a LOT of hobby momentum, in part because I was so enthralled with my listening of Skin Game, the most recent book of the Dresden Files. Book 15 in the series, I am fully on the Dresden fan wagon. It is such an amazing combination of character development, humor, lore, and great action. If you haven’t given this series a try I strongly recommend it.

Thanks to Mr. Butcher I got quite a bit done, despite playing catch up on household things post masters. First, I finished a troop of “Skeleton” archers. Some simple head swaps, and repainted skin I think makes this unit a fun addition to the army.

One detail I have unintentionally really enjoyed playing with, as this army grows, is the variety of wounds and gore that an Undead army lends itself to. First, it was the blood on the Soul Reaver weapons, as well as the gore on the unit leader. Now it is the two zombie heads for these archers.

I am quite happy how this gore turned out, it gives some visual variety to the models, and really reinforces the horror of an Undead force. I achieved these gore effects rather simply. First I base coated with a dark red, GW’s Khorne Red, I splayed this out from the initial wound area, so it gives a bit of feathered, oozing appearance. I then gave a little bit of a bright red highlight to this, focusing on the origins of the wound. At this step, the wounds didn’t look good, in fact they looked bad; however, once I applied the secret sauce it ties it all together.

The third step is to take some of GW’s Nurgle’s Rot technical paint, and apply it to the edges and inside the wound. This gives it a little bit of a pus, gross look. I then applied GW’s Blood for the Blood God technical paint, applying it in globs over the pain wound, then feathering it off from the wound. Both these paints are somewhat translucent, and dry shiny, giving the wound it’s wet, oozing appearance.

In addition to these archer bros, I rebased the first Vampire on Foot for my list, using one of my favorite paint jobs, and miniatures, Isabella Von Carstein. I was extremely excited to work some pink, my favorite color, into the army. In a pinch she can also fill in as Lady Illona!

I also finished basing, and prepping my catapult, which will be a Brettonian Trebuchet. All I need to do is finish the two crew members for the base, and that will be another component for the army. Once this is done I plan to finish the second troop of “Skeleton” archers. After that I have some decisions to make, which brings me to the final part of this blog post.

After playing at the Best of the Rest at the U.S. Masters, which you can read here, I returned extremely excited about two units I hadn’t initially had in my Brotherhood of Blood list, Werewolves and a Vampire on Dragon. After their stellar performance at Best of the Rest, I really felt compelled to incorporate them in some way in the army.

This would serve a few needs, first tactically it gives me a hard hitting, fast element, which will support the army really well. It also cuts down on the model count I need to paint by the end of April. Finally, since my goal is to first and foremost make a contender for paint awards, I need a centerpiece model to pull people over, step in Mr. Dragon, and then further spectacle to win people over. Three units of Soul Reavers doesn’t quite achieve this, so step in Werewolves.

For the Dragon, I plan to use a model I already have, sticking to my utilize my unused minis mantra, but for the Werewolves I just wasn’t happy with the minis I had. So, after conferring with some friends, I ordered 6 Werewolves from Atlantis miniatures, these minis are the perfect representation of the classic Werewolves, and I think will draw some attention from prospective paint judges.

Now, canny readers will realize these both are expensive units, so what am I loosing from my initial paint goals. The Werewolves, with the obligatory Brew of Strength, and the Vampire on Dragon with Sanguinary Scripture, come in at 620 points! So I had some reworking to do. Here is my new list to work towards:

Unplugged Gt 1995:

x2 Skeleton Spearmen Regiments 210 Points (Undead Footmen)

x1 Soul Reaver Infantry Regiments 250 Points (Vampire Knights)

1 Werewolf Horde with Brew of Strength 295

x3 Ghoul Troops 210 Points (Awesome Heresy Miniatures Ghouls)

Lady Illona 280

Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon with Sanguinary Scripture 325

Ghoul Gast with Wings 135 Points (Need some Warmachine Protection, plus an answer to flying)

x2 Troops of Skeleton Archers 140 Points (I wanted more drops, had good models for them, I also never used these in my old army)

1 Balefire Catapult 95 Points (Lending me a bit of ranged punch, and counter battery fire, plus I have a mini for it).

So this is the reworked list, trying to allocate for how much time I have, and giving myself realistic goals. It lost some punch, with 1 Soul Reaver Reg just gone, the other replaced by Werewolves is comparable. I have 60 points left over, so I will have to contemplate what to do with these points.

It’s more character heavy then I would normally want, with 740 points in characters (yiiikes), BUT with my primary goal being getting this done and ready, that is fine. I can always add units for later events.

For Vanguard, the event is 2250, meaning I have 310 points to play around with. In an ideal world this would be filled in with a Soul Reaver Infantry unit; however, since the last one took me a month to paint, that probably isn’t realistic. Instead, with the goal of less to paint, I think I will add Mhorgoth, and a Deathpack Regiment. This gives me access to some power, moving damage, and another piece of chaff. Not ideal for the raw power of the list, but, only adds another 6 things to paint!

Well, wish me luck, and you all will hear from me next week (well actually this) week :).