Red, Highlighting

So, how do i highlight the red colors.

In my opinion, red can be a very difficult color to highlight. A normal highlight would be done by taking the base color and add some white to it to get at lighter tone, but what happens when you mix white into red? You get pink.. and i don't think that pink is a option for highlighting red.

So this is some of the methods i use when higlighting red.

New shiny armor:
A good example of this is on space marine armor, were i normally do higlights by adding a very fine line of white to all edges of the red areas. If i finish the miniature with the Army Painter light shadows (which i almost do on every miniature), i tend to exagerrate the  highlights quite a bit, as the Army Painter shadowing method tone all colors down (highlights included).

Worn old dirty armor:
On fantasy armor, i use different types of higlight. Most of the red areas i paint at the moment is for miniatures in my vampire Counts army. In this army, the red is mostly armor on various skeleton miniatures. This type of armor does not need a powerfull highlight at such miniatures must reflect the decay, the rust and the dirty look on the armor. I do apply a white line of highlight on the edges, but normally it is more effective to do "scratched metal look" on edges of such armor types. This can be seen on the Wight Champion with the red armor i did for my skeleton spear regiment. I will add closeup photos as soon as possible.

This is an example of what i mean. Please note that the model shown has not been applied with any highlights or shadows. It is just to give an idea

New clean clothes:
I sometimes get a good result when highlighting red with yellow (also as seen on this undead Wight Champion helmet). Another great method is to paint the clothes in a much darker red and then highlight up to the tone of red you actually want. When applying Armypainter Quickshade (even the light edition) it can be a good idea to thin it down, to soften then darkened effect on the shade.

Worn old clothes:
Same as the above although i start out with a much darker basecoat, to darken the red tone.

I picked up a few methods on the internet that i want to try out. These are the methods:

• Vomit Brown + Blood Red mix
• Blazing Orange + Blood Red
• Use Mephiston Red as a base and highlight it with a mix of Meph Red & Tallarn Flesh (Cadian Fleshtone) or Meph Red & Macharius Orange (Jokaero Orange) shaded with a 1.5 to 1 mix of Baal Red & Badab Black.

More techniques will be added as i discover them and i will ofcourse comment those tried out.

Vampire Counts Necromancer

Actually I painted this model a few years ago. I bought him a long time ago as I thought he was a powerfull looking miniature and I still think he is a nice miniature. And furthermore he is still available on the games workshop website :)

Melkhior on Winged Nightmare

A long time ago i bought a small box with a Vampire.. I think i bought it because i thought it was neat with a vampire mounted on a winged nightmare.

Melkhior on Winged Nightmare

Many years later i then discovered that this mounted Vampire was in fact Melkhior the Ancient, the mentor of Zacharias (on his zombie dragon), which i had also bought.

Today i decided to begin painting this miniature. I began with the winged nightmare. Since it is actually called a "nightmare", i decided to keep its colors "hellish" colors. So i undercoated the nightmare with Chaos black. The colors are kept very simple, being black and red. I am not done yet, but this is how far i have gotten with the Winged Nightmare:

Melkhiors Winged Nightmare

Melkhiors Winged Nightmare

The Wings of Melkhiors Winged Nightmare.

The staff on Melkhiors Winged Nightmare

I figured that the bloodveins on the nightmare's wings needed some extra highlights, so I actually painted orange right on top of the red and I do like the result:

I have also done a bit of work on Melkhiors staff and book:

02-11-2013
Today i nearly finished the base. I still need to do some highlight on the stone though..

03-11-2013

Today the worst thing happened!!. I accidentally dropped the miniature on the floor. The miniature got ripped of its base, the back of the chair fell off, Melkhiors staff fell off and the right wing got a bit loose. So i am trying to glue it all together again (this is the really bad thing about multipart metal miniatures). Once this Nightmare's several new layers of glue has hardened, i am going to give it a real neat layer of varnish and hope that it will keep the model assembled.

06-11-2013
So i finally got the beast glued back together again, using several types of glues (i am still looking for a great metal glue which can be bought in Denmark...). The base is also finished and this is the result:

Melkhiors Winged Nightmare

Next up is Melkhior himself. I decided (so far) not to glue him onto his nightmare, but this decision depends on how good the Melkhior miniatures sticks on the nightmare, once both have been painted and varnished.

07-11-2013
So now Melkhior has been basecoated with a white. The reason for basecoating white is due to his - soon to be - pale skin color. 

23-11-2013

After a short break in painting (i have had a lot to attend to in real life), i have now painted Melkhior with his base colors as shown below (sorry for the poor quality of the piture)

and some more pictures from my "extra hand" setup. The best tool ever!!

This is the final result

Melkhior on Winged Nightmare

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This is what HammerWiki writes of Melkhior:

Melkhior was a Necrach Vampire and a disciple of Wsoran, the first of the Necrachs. It is therefore likely that Melkhior was once an acolyte of Nagash and was turned vampire by Wsoran. After fleeing Nagashizzar when Alcadizaar had assassinated Nagash, Wsoran and his fellow men, including Melkhior, went into hiding to study Necromancy.
One of Wsoran's finest and most diligent students, Melkhior seized one of the moments in which his master's soul travelled the spirit world to betray and kill Wsoran. Some say it was the Book of Nagash, given to Wsoran as a reward, which wispered Melkhior to do so, though his true motives are unknown.

The next that is known of Melkhior is that he lived in a hidden tower in the Forest of Shadows in the Empire where he caught Zacharias redhanded while the Necromancer was sneaking into his tower to steal the Book of Nagash. Melkhior granted the Blood Kiss to the thief, turning Zacharias into a vampire and his pupil for the following years.

Melkhior taught Zacharias everything he knew but never let his student near the Book of Nagash. Melkhior, however, was keen on indulging in "bloodfests" coinciding with fits of insanity. On one such moments, Melkhior returned to his study to find Zacharias reading the Book of Nagash. Melkhior attacked, but Zacharias escaped. He then sent out his dark servants to hunt down Zacharias, who remained out of his grasp.

One day, Zacharias returned to Melkhior's tower on the back of a great Zombie Dragon. A great battle ensued. No-one knows what the result was, some say Melkhior was killed, other say he escaped and hides, plotting his revenge, but the Book of Nagash and the magical wealth that Melkhior had acquired fell into Zacharias' hands.

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From Unholy Tombs Website:

	M	WS	BC	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Melkhior	6	6	6	5	5	4	8	5	10
Winged Nightmare	6	4	0	5	5	4	2	3	4

Points: 760

Weapons:
Painbringer

Armour:
None

Mount:
Melkhior rides a Winged Nightmare into battle (see Vampire Counts army book, page 48 for the monster's special rules).

Spells: 
He is a level 4 wizard and always uses Necromantic spells.

Bloodline Powers:
Melkhior the Ancient has all the powers of the Necrarch family as well as the normal +1 to cast spells of the Necrarch bloodline.

Insane:
Melkhior is a gibbering horror who lost his sanity a long time ago. He is completely immune to all psychology, like other Vampires, except that he is subject to the rules for Stupidity. See the Warhammer rulebook for details.

Painbringer:
Painbringer is the black sword of Melkhior, said to be made from the magical life force of insane men. The mere touch of this blade brings insanity and hideous pain. If Melkhior hits his opponent, his enemy is immediately wracked with great pain and will suffer a -1 penalty to all his To Hit rolls for the rest of the battle (note that only one -1 penalty is applied, regardless of how many times the opponent is hit).

Grimoire Necronium:
The Grimoire Necronium allows Melkhior to cast one of his five Necromantic spells without using any Power dice. Note that you must choose which spell this is at the beginning of the game, after you rolled to determine his spells. Melkhior can cast this spell once per own Magic phase (ie he cannot recast it using dice) and the spell is cast at a power level equal to its casting value (Invocation of Nehek is cast at power level 7, for a 2D6 strong spell). Each time you use the book roll a D6: on a roll of 1 it runs out of power and cannot be used for the remainder of the battle.

Black Cloak of Lahmia:
This cloak is one of the great treasures of Lahmia, the city of the Vampires. Merely looking at the cloak can make eyes bleed and sanity vanish. No shooting attacks can be made against a character wearing the Black Cloak of Lahmia. This means that Melkhior may not be targeted by war machines or normal missile fire at all. He can be targeted normally by magic missiles (arrows from a Bow of Loren, etc) and spells(such as Fireballs).

Zacharias the Everliving on Black Zombie Dragon

I have this old general miniature, which i am defenitly looking forward to paint. The miniature is Zacharias the Eveliving on his Zombie dragon, Erebrus.

Sadly enough Zacharias was removed with the 7th edition of warhammer rullebook. Sad, as i loved the story around this character. The story below is his tale in short, as Hammerwiki describes it:

From Hammerwiki:

------------------------------- *** -------------------------------

Zacharias studied Necromancy from Dieter Helsnicht. Little is know of what he was before, but one day he discovered the location of Melkhior's hidden tower which lay in the Forest of Shadows in the Empire. Melkhior had stolen the Book of Nagash from Wsoran who had been given the book from Nagash himself. Zacharias set off and sneaked into the tower in an attempt to steal the book, but he was caught by Melkhior's Undead minions. Instead of killing the thief, Melkhior turned Zacharias in a Vampire and taught him the dark art for many years.
Zacharias first damned his master for making him a vampire, but he soon complied and was a good and quick student. However, the Book of Nagash was kept far away from his curious eyes and one day, when Melkhior was indulging in the blood of his freshly killed servants, Zacharias descended to the tower's crypt and picked up the unholy tome. Unfortunately, Melkhior caught him and the two fought. Zacharias escaped with his un-live and fled to hide in the Middle Mountains east of Middenheim where he frequently had to move to escape the minions of Melkhior who where searching for him. At last finding a save hiding place, he fell into a slumber for a decade.

When he woke, he discovered that he had gained company in his cave for a Black Dragon had chosen the exact same place to rest, unaware of the vampire's presence. Zacharias drank deeply from the Dragon's blood and survived a month on the beast, gaining untold strength from it. It is said that drinking the blood of a dragon frees the vampire from its need for blood. After the dragon was empty, Zacharias raised the dragon from death and flew back to Melkhior to extract his revenge. Melkhior was driven out, or killed, no-one knows, and Zacharias, attaining the Book of Nagash and all the other wealth Melkhior had gathered, took residence in the Necrach's tower. He there rules the Forest of Shadows, men and Orc fearing him alike.

------------------------------- *** -------------------------------

I dont have the official rules for this character (still looking for it) but at time of writing this is what Games Workshop lists for this miniature:

Vampire Counts Zacharias on Zombie Dragon
Zacharias now rules over the Forest of Shadows where both the Orcs of the mountains and the people of the forest live in equal fear of the vengeance of Zacharias the Everliving. Zacharias is one of the most powerful wizards in the Old World, and can easily hold his own against a handfull of lesser mages.

This set includes 1 Zacharias on Zombie Dragon.

Availability:  No Longer Available
Part Code:  99110207101

Points: 1015 pts

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Vampire Lord	6	7	5	5	5	3	7	5	10

Unit Size: 1 Magic: Level 1 Wizard Equipment: Hand weapon Special Rules: The Hunger; Undead; Vampiric

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Zombie Dragon	6	4	0	6	6	6	2	5	4

Unit Size: 1 Special Rules: Fly; Large Target; Pestilential Breath; Scaly Skin (5+); Swarm of Flies; Terror; Undead

------------------------------- *** -------------------------------

This is a potential setup discussed on VampireCounts.net: (thanks to 123birds for working on this as well as other comments posted regarding this setup)

Zacharias the Everliving Rules Balancing
So a friend and I are trying to work out a way to make Zacharias. He has to be incredibly good at magic, considering he defeated Melkhior, and has to suck in CC due to how he almost died when he was being chased by Melkhior.

Points: 875 counts as a lord and a hero choice
M WS BS S T W I A LD
.6..5...3..3..5.3.5.2.10

Magical Items:
Staff of Kappon:
Allows Zacharias to cast on spell each turn at the casting value listed for free. This is in essense a "Free" spell and does not count towards the 1 casting spell a turn maximum

Books Of Nagash:
Whenever Zacharias uses invocation of nehek, he summons d6+D3 models, and he counts as having Lord of dead, Summon Ghouls, and Summon creatures of the night. Lastly, instead of only restoring 1 wounds against non infantry, ethereal, and vampire models, he restores D3 wounds.

Cloak of Night:
When shooting at Zacharias or his mount, the shooter receives a -2 to hit penalty.

Pendant of Nagash:
The Pendant Gives Zacharias a 3+ ward save.

Special Abilities:
Master of Magic:
Zacharias knows all the spells in the Lore of Vampires, Shadows, and death. He also counts as a Level 4 Wizard and generates a total of 6 Power Dice and 3 dispel dice.

Necrarch:
Descended from the great line of W'soran, Zacharias has a +2 to all casting attempts he takes.

Mount:
Zacharias enjoys Flying around on his zombie dragon, Erebrus, such is the power Zacharias put with this dragon that if can act independant from Zacharias, and even has its own personality. Also, due to the power Zacharias puts into him, he always counts as being under the effects of Vanhels Danse Macabre in close combat. But, should the dragon die, roll a dice. On a 1-3 Zacharias suffers D3 Wounds. If you roll a 4-6 he suffers D6 wounds. He cannot save any of these wounds in any way. These wounds cannot kill him though, and he cannot regain them through invocation of Nehek or any way.

Entire Vampire Counts army project

So i took some pictures of the assembled part of my -to be painted- undead army. I still have a few sprues of unassembled skeletons. I know that there are some core units missing (ghouls etc) but they must be added once the painting bit of this part of the army is done.

Below: This is my two possible generals. On the left i have a Vampire Counts Zacharias on Zombie Dragon and on the right i have is the Vampire Counts Melkhior on Winged Nightmare. Both seen below

I do also have the garden of Morr also to be painted (with a vampire in the gates) and not part of the army but a fantastic scenery

As you can see on front the garden i have some empty horses for the black Knights (old metal ones) with a vampire lord in the middle and a undead chariot to the right of the picture.

Warhammer Vampire Counts Skeleton Regiment

This is my first Warhammer regiment which I have finally decided to finish. It is a collection of all sorts of skeletons. Skeleton from the old plastic sprue kit. Skeletons from the small box-sets containing 8 (I think) plastic skeletons and some old metal ones. I often buy used sets of miniatures if I can see that they are worth repainting and some of these skeletons are from this pool of miniatures as well.

As you can see on the pictures above, some of the miniatures are almost complete, some haven't even been base coated yet and some needs a repaint :)

I did create a smaller customized banner bearer with a banner arm/pole from the Khemri skeleton plastic sprue and i also took some parts from the Khemri skeleton Plastic box set for the musician.

This is the champion (Wight) i use for this regiment. It is an rather old metal miniature, but fun and nice to finally (re)paint.

Wight

I am now almost done with this first regiment and only need the basic painting on three skeletons

Most of the miniatures are now completely done with the basing. This is some of the miniatures:

The rear rank consist of these five skellies. The one on the outer left is somewhat converted as i straightened a plastic skeleton up to a straight position. Furthermore i changed the spear-head with an axe from the skeleton hand weapons sprue. The skeleton in the middle also got a loop around his neck.

The next rank consist of three (from the left) repainted skeletons from the small skeleton pack with fixed shield/arms etc. The second skeleton from the right has been converted in a way that hee looks like he is emerging from the ground.

Two of these four skeletons are to be placed in the fron row. I have not decided on both, except the one to the right. I have "tied" a rope to the spear.

This is the command group with a musician, standard bearer and Wight Champion.

The base is a basic GW green base, were i glued sand to the edges and did some painting and flocking :)