It has been quite a while since I've done any meaningful work on anything related to miniatures, thanks to several months of intermittent and recurring health woes that have kept me unable to sit down and concentrate on art projects of almost any sort.
There were a couple days in there where I managed to do some chopping, pinning, and putty work, the result being a custom flying vampire critter, made from a walking beast from the Heresy line.
Last night I finally picked up a brush for the first time in months. That vampire is primed and now base coated. Hoo-ray!
I'm also working on a skeletal horseman for this unit. It appears that when I expanded the cavalry unit I miscounted in my ebay purchases and ended up 1 short of what I should have had for a nice block of troops. So while the fanfare won't be great, as the completion of that unit has already been celebrated, this one lone skeleton does deserve small mention, if not his own photo, since in the end, he'll be just another in a pile of similar troops.
I'm already beginning to wring my hands again over the next unit, which would be the last of this undead project. I'd almost convinced myself that the current unit of flyers would be the last, and that I'd sell of the mishmash of spectral figure I still have in a box. But, the more I think about it, the more I think that since I have them, I might as well do them. Variety is one thing my undead collection lacks (its pretty much all just skeleton troops), and since I have 6-8 wraith type figures done already from the old days, I might as well fill out the unit. The only problem is that the rest of the unit was always going to be more ethereal/ghost type figures, and I'm not sure how to paint them. I had always planned to have enough combined figures that I could field a unit of ghosts or wraiths as I chose, and just put the more appropriate figures of whichever type in front, rather than collecting two whole units of each kind of troop type. I still think its a good idea, I just don't know how I want to paint ghosts. My first tests were not satisfying... perhaps I'll do some more. But, now that I feel better, the one thing I know is that I'm going to try and not put it off any longer. My mind has been awash with things I want to paint, projects I want to finish. . . I just need to get this undead army out of the way first, and then I can head off into parts unknown. So I'll figure something out.
If you have any experience with, or example techniques for painting ghost/ethereal/spectral figures, I'd love to see them.
