Soulblight Gravelords: Vampire Lord
For Christmas this year, I wanted to make a special gift for a former employee. They’re into cosplay, Magic the Gathering, and the Total War: Warhammer series, among other things. They don’t own any Warhammer models, but in Total War they like the Vampire Counts army. So for this project I wanted to paint something from the Age of Sigmar Soulblight Gravelords line.
This was my first time painting a model for someone else and I could not be more pleased with the final result. You can follow my process below or skip ahead to the Finished Model Gallery.
Plan
My concept for this project is a lone vampire warrior walking through the snow. I’ve selected the Soulblight Gravelords Vampire Lord model for the project and don’t intend to do any kitbashing or conversions.
Box art image of Soulblight Gravelords Vampire Lord (Image Credit: Games Workshop)
My specific goals for this project were:
Paint a model to a level of detail I’d be pleased with in my own collection
Edge highlight for first time
Use resin to make an ice effect for first time
Use fake snow for first time
Use fake blood for first time
Do
Assembly
Assembly of this model was straight forward. I built it in three sub-assemblies: head, shield, and body attached to base. None of the pieces were too difficult to work with, although I did opt to leave off two small bat wings meant for the elbows. I kept the matching pair that are attached to the knees.
From the outset, I was nervous about painting the hair and bats. I spent some time digging through my bits box to find alternate (i.e. less fragile) head options. I ended up keeping the default head, but you can see the alternatives I considered in the gallery below. From left to right the heads are: original Vampire Lord, Neave Blacktalon, and a Vanari Auralan Warden.
I ended up keeping the original head because the bats and fangs are the only features that make this model clearly a vampire as opposed to a generic warrior of any race.
Painting
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to paint this model. Below are the paints and materials I used. All paints are from Citadel unless noted otherwise.
Mace - Leadbelcher (base on mace head and grip), 3:1 Abaddon Black and Leadbelcher (base on handle)
Shield - Retributor Armor (gold parts), Mephiston Red (base on emblem), Trollslayer Orange (full layer on emblem), 3:1 Abaddon Black and Leadbelcher (base on remainder of shield)
Hair - Mephiston Red (Base), Cassandora Yellow (shade), Trollslayer Orange (full layer on hair)
Face - Rakarth Flesh (base), Coelia Greenshade (shade), Pallid Wych Flesh (Layer)
Armor - 3:1 Abaddon Black and Leadbelcher (base), 1:1 Abaddon Black and Leadbelcher (edge highlights)
Bats - Abaddon Black
Skull - Corax White (base), Seraphim Sepia (shade), Ushabti Bone (highlights)
Ice - Ahriman Blue or Baharroth Blue (base) can’t remember which I used
Blood - Citadel “Blood for the Blood God”
Basing
Snow - Valhallan Blizzard
Ice - Fast-curing UV Resin, Army Painter “Winter Snow” (small ring around skull)
Grass - Army Painter “Winter Tuft”
Mud - Stirland Mud
Stone - Mechanicus Standard Grey (base), Agrax Earthshade (shade), Dawnstone (drybrush highlights)
Reflect
I had a blast painting this model and I’m pleased with the outcome. My former employee loved the gift and plans to use it in an upcoming Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
Total time to complete this model was three hours. If I ever paint another one of these, I could probably do it in two hours now that I have experience with the new techniques I attempted and I know which steps were overkill.
Finished Model Gallery
Lessons Learned
Painting a model for someone else felt amazing. I need to do this more often.
I tried to achieve a metallic black look for the armor using 3:1 Abaddon Black and Leadbelcher, but this wasn’t worth the effort of mixing. Would just use Abaddon Black in future.
UV resin was ridiculously easy to use. After watching hours of “How to create water effects” videos, I thought you needed to be an expert but apparently not.
Citadel “Valhallan Blizzard” looks like real snow. Army Painter “Winter Snow” looks like hail stones. It’s possible that adding glue and water to the Winter Snow would make it more like actual snow, but I will stick with Valhallan Blizzard moving forward.
Citadel “Blood for the Blood God” is incredibly realistic and easy to work with. Far superior to using a red paint to mimic blood.
I made an absolute mess of the face and hair. I think this could be fixed with some practice and patience.
Edge highlighting did not go well. I felt that the paints I selected were not high contrast enough. Another practice opportunity.
