From BillA: Vampire Cultists (60 points)

I haven't had nearly the free time to paint that I'd anticipated this winter; over the past two years I've also become an author of adventures for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and right after I'd signed on for this year's AHPC, I got commissioned to write a 25,000 word scenario set in Victorian London.  At four cents a word, that's a hard proposition to turn down, and so much of my free time has been devoted to that over the last few months.  I've still made some time to paint, and by sticking closely to the bonus rounds I'll still have hit my goal with this entry.  Hopefully next year a project like this won't hit during the winter months and I can get a bit more painting in.

Anyways, on to this entry.

As mentioned previously, I've begun building a new Dragon Rampant warband for use against my friend Neil's goblin army, with my army consisting of a vampire and the mortal cultists she's bewitched into servitude.  Today's entry is one such unit of cultists, fanatical devotees of the Countess Winterthorn sworn to defend her with their lives.  They've draped themselves in red-dyed robes and hoods and taken up an assortment of rusty blades in her service, and are just itching to hurl themselves at the Countess' foes.

These are constructed from North Star Miniatures' "Cultists" plastic boxed set for Frostgrave which is an absolutely lovely set to work with.  The figures have plenty of animation in their poses, you get a ton of spare heads (including zombie and skeleton ones to make cultists who didn't let death get in the way of servitude) and some fun little accessories to glue on to figures' belts including lengths of chain, various daggers, skulls and potion-bottles.

The figures were primed black, and the robes base coated in Reaper's "Deep Red" before getting a heavy drybrush of "Fresh Blood," while the pantaloons and undershirts were basecoated in "Midnight Blue" and drybrushed "Twilight Blue." Gloves, boots and padded leather jerkins were based with "Ruddy Leather" and highlighted with "Oiled Leather."Any metal bits were given a wash/glaze of GW's "Seraphim Sepia" shade to make them look slightly rusty.  All in all they were a quick paint - probably five hours divided between two sessions.

So that's a dozen 28mm figures at 5 points apiece, netting me another 60 points.

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Part of the fun of plastics is their customizability. Cultists are particularly customizable, seeing as how they work in so many settings, from Ancients to Fantasy to modern Pulp settings and back to sci-fi.

You've got quite a nice little warband going there, Bill. Paint up an apprentice for the countess, and you'll soon be ready to take to the Frozen City.