This article will take novice Warhammergamers through the basics of collecting, building and painting a Vampire Counts army. Raising an army of the dead couldn't be easier



Starting a new army in Warhammer can seem a bit daunting even for experienced players and for new comers it can be completely baffling. But have no fear, this guide is packed full of helpful tips to guide you on the first steps toward building a Vampire Counts army that will be ready to take on all comers. We'll cover how to assemble your models and then give them a simple but visually pleasing paint job using a small number of different paints.

This guide assumes that you have the following modeling equipment; plastic cutters, a craft knife, plastic glue & paints.

When building any Warhammer army, the best place to begin is the Army book for the particular army. You will find that you constantly refer back to this book, as they not only provide you with the rules and army lists for your Vampire Counts army, but the hobby section contains loads of tips on painting, assembling, and selecting your army. In fact if you have the book I suggest you have a look at the hobby pages of the army book right now, go on...

Right, finished perusing the army book? OK we'll continue...

To get your army of the ground we'll start by getting your first unit assembled and painted, for this tutorial we'll focus on one of the core units of a Vampire Counts army, skeletons.

Games Workshop skeleton models come in the form of a plastic kit and with all plastic models the first thing you have to do is cut them from the frames that they come supplied on. To do this use your plastic cutters and when cutting try not to cut too close to the model parts themselves as this may damage the model, leave a small (less than 1mm) stub attached to the model and use your craft knife to trim this off. Remember; when using a craft knife you should always cut away from yourself.

Once you have your skeleton parts free of their frames you just need to clean up any mold lines or remaining frame stubs (as mentioned above). Cutting off frame stubs is just a matter of slicing them off (once again cutting away from you), you can also use your craft knife to scrape off mold lines by holding the blade across a mold line and dragging the blade along it.

Your models are now ready for assembly, this is where the plastic glue comes in, a simple infantry trooper like a skeleton is pretty easy to assemble and I'll not go into how to do this in any length, I suggest looking in the army book for inspiration on poses.

Once your models have been built they are ready for painting, the technique below will .

Step 1: First you should undercoat you skeleton model white, this creates a good surface on which to apply the rest of paint job.

Step 2: Once this is done apply watered-down brown paint to all the exposed bone or wood areas. Be careful to get the brown paint mix in all the cracks as this layer forms the foundation for all the following steps.

Step 3: "Wet" drybrush all the bone areas light brown with an old brush. Drybrushing is a technique where you load your brush with a small amount of paint (so that it is almost dry) and brush it across the raised surfaces of a model, leaving the recesses unpainted. A "wet" drybrush requires more paint to be used and will consequentially colour more of the model .

Step 4: With a normal brush, paint the axe handle dark brown. Paint the area that need to look metallic black.

Step 5: We will now add another drybrush layer, this layer needs to be much "dryer" than the last, but is still not a true drybrush. Apply a 1:1 mix of light brown and cream with this technique in mind. Now, drybrush the axe handle with light brown. Be sure to leave some of the darker brown showing near the hand and the axe head.

Step 6: Paint the metallic areas silver; you can also paint the trim on the metallic areas gold.

Step 7: The first true drybrush now needs to be applied to the bone areas, this dry brush should be a mix of 3:1 cream to light brown. You should brush in a downward motion only at first, to catch the ribs, knee caps, and joints. Next, paint sideways over the major leg and arm bones to get better coverage in these areas. Drybrush the axe handle lightly with a mix of 9:1 light brown and white.

Step 8: Apply a black wash over the silver areas and brown wash over the gold trim. A wash is a technique where watered down paint is used to paint (usually darken) recesses, paint should be watered down with at least 3 parts water to 1 part paint.

Step 9: Now, do a final cream drybrush, making sure to brush downwards only. Drybrush a 1:1 mix of light brown and white onto the axe handle. Drybrush silver onto the metal areas (make sure the washes have dried first). Re-apply gold paint to the gold areas, leaving the wash near the rivets.

Step 10: Carefully apply a 1:1 wash of brown paint and water around the knee caps, over the toe and knuckle joints, under the shoulder blades, between legs bones, and into the eye sockets. Apply a bit more silver to the top of the axe and the crown of the helmet. Mix a some silver with gold and edge the top of the gold trim. To pick up the gold in the helmet, you can edge the shield with a similar gold effect.

And that's it…. That was pretty easy wasn't it? All you need to do now is paint the rest of the models you got in your first box and you've completed your first Vampire Counts unit.

Where do you go from here? Well now that your first unit is almost ready for the tabletop, what do you do next? Well for a start there are a whole host of other unit types that can form part of a Vampire Counts army you should study the army book careful when selecting these and when you do these will be these will also need assembly and painting. Finally, of course, you'll need an opponent to obliterate with your newly built Vampire Counts army…