Thinking Of Doign A Lahmian Army, with a heavy bretonian feel

[morbidangel]

Greetings, i am new to the board, i came here cause i was looking to get some feedback and info on an idea of mine.
I am really wanting to do a new fantasy army, this time one i can take my time on and make them look really good, with really no rush to play them till probably next year sometime.
I decided the idea of doing a vampire counts army, but with a heavy influence being that they are a fallen bretonian army, and better yet the bretonian lord(now a wight lord or the seduced victim) was seduced by a lahmian vampire posing as a prophetess.

So now i am looking at what units to take in a lahmian force, as i have never fielded a vampire army and only gone up against a von carstien or strigoi list in the past(maybe a few blood dragon lists too).
I know lots of skeletons, but i am not to keen on the zombie's but if ya think they are worth taking, then nothing wrong with converting a unit.
Being that my list is from a fallen bretonian army, i plan on taking at lest 2, maybe 3 units of black knights as my special choices.
Also...getting idea's on what i should do to convert each unit. Yes i plan on pretty much converting the whole army.

Ok...looking at the model ranges, i was thinking that i would like to see a very huge bretonian look but with some undead mixxed in. However, that definitly leaves the archers out, so i am left with the men at arms box set as a base box set for conversions from the bretonian range for the bulk of my force.
Now how to convert the different units.

Skeletons/graveguard. Both are undead skeletons, one is much more heavily armored compared to the other. So should i just use the men at arms box set with some skeleton parts added for my graveguard, or use the grave guard models and save the other idea for my skeletons, or for the skeletons use them as mostly skeletons with a few bitz and pieces from the men at arms box set thrown in.
Zombies: if i field any, i could easily convert the men at arms with the zombie sprue, this also means making the skeletons more like the zombies just with more bone and less rotting flesh, and thus working out adifferent idea for my grave guard.

Black Knights: well obviously taking bretonian knights and adding skeleton bitz to em.

Wight lord: using bretonian hero's for them with some major conversions to look more wight like, but not necessarily skeletal like.

Necromancers: either use the stock models or convert prophetess's to be the actual necromancers with more dark and liche like bitz to em.

Vampires(lahmians) using the regular lahmian vampires, or using prophetess models in their place but make them look more vampire like, can't do the other idea if i do it for the necro's.

Most of the other units, like dire wolves, and bats would be no change, i probably won't field a black coach( if i did major conversion task for it) and if i did field any ghouls, i could maybe takethe ghoul models and use as stock or add some bitz.

Last but not least, the over all color scheme, any suggestions on it besides doign just red/black.
Should i do them as a fallen bretonian lords colors, or work up my own dark color scheme (perhaps black/and some bright color like pink, yellow, orange, aqua blue, or purple).

Trying to get some idea's on it all, i plan on starting the initial investment over the next week or so, getting the first units and starting the conversion, probably knights as i know what i want to do conversion wise for them.

[darknesseternal]

Firstly welcome to the Keep, and yet again, great to see another player willing to give the Lahmians a go!

I love your concept I have to say. My own army's fluff is also very brettonian (eventually I will be fielding a Swain who will be a fallen Paladin from Mousillon), a cursed/damned army raised in the fields of Mousillon based on the history I have done so far.. but I am only a new player (have just completed my first full year in the game) and so converting a Bretonnian army is beyond me this stage. I have stuck with GW VC units myself.

My own preference would be to pass on the Zombies. I don't like them as units myself (useless smelly things), and then Im always thinking of a Lahmian army as being this great skeletal hoarde, so they don't fit in for me that way either.

As for the Grave Guard and the Skellies, it's a tricky one. I think using men at arms and just swapping in skeletal parts for the Skellies works fine. The Grave Guard, well Im just not sure on the Bretonnian unit/model range, but I'd be looking for something to represent a heavily armoured foot shoulder. You are basically looking for something that would be like a knight on foot basically to represent Grave Guard, but not sure what is out there and available to use.

Black Knights, definitely use existing Bretonnian knight models. You wouldn't even have to go so far as to add skeletal parts to them. You could get away with just giving them a really good paint scheme suitable for your army.

Which brings me onto the next. You mentioned the overall paint scheme for the army. Personally, I'd love to see you take the existing colours schemes of one of the Brettonian provinces (whichever one you choose they are from for your fluff), and then just dirty it and darken it down. I mean, think about it. The majority of these units will have pulled themselves up out of the ground and up out of their graves when the necro's and the Lahmian Vampire has called them from their slumber. God knows how long they have been there, they are certainly going to be looking dank and dirty and just a bit tattered. I think using the original colour scheme of their provence but dirtying it up would work quite well.

As for the Necro's, again it depends on what you are going for. With my own Lahmian army, I have this unwritten rule that all the characters are going to be female, with the one exception of the Swain who will be a fallen Paladin. So for me, I don't use the GW necro figures and instead have found some Reaper female ones that do the trick (and for once manage to look young and sexy and eternal rather than like hagged old witches). For GW sponsered tourneys though, it means I can't use because they aren't GW, so to get around that I'm going to paint up some damsels suitably for my scheme and use them at GW events. So i think it depends on what you want to do overall with your fluff.

See how you go but hopefully I've managed to be somewhat helpful

[Preacher]

For Grave Guard I would use the standard model as they will convert very easily to a Bret theme. Use your idea for the men-at-arms for skeletons/zombies. You could use the damsel models for both vampires and necromancers. In reality they probably wouldn't look any different. Just pick something more impressive for the vampire.

I pretty much agree with all of Darknesseternal comments on style as well. Standard bret colour scheme but just much more dark and dirty looking.

[morbidangel]

OK, thanks for the advice you 2.
So as it stands....
skeletons/zombies = mix of bretonian men at arms with undead parts
Black knights =bretonian knights with undead parts
necromancers = converted prophetess
Wight lords = bretonian hero's
Spirit hosts = mix on the base of a knight and some men at arms/archers and painted to look like spirits
Vampires = using regular lahmians(as they didn't really change, just got a new army)
every other unit standard models


Bulk of the force will be the converted models, so most units will be skeletons(maybe a zombie unit or two), and knights, with some wolves/bats thrown in and some spirit hosts.

As for my color scheme......well dirting models isn't really my speciality, but here's what i am planing, going to make the army based off the Dragon icon(as my symbol) done in yellow. That means i will use the transfer sheet to get my dragon(so less freehand work involved) and then paint it up to yellow, so it will become a fiery yellow dragon since the transfer is a red dragon. The back ground of the shields will be Black and a choice of (blue, purple, or a turquoise color). The bardings on the horses and banners will be done inteh same split tone color with the fiery dragon, and some of the flags and models might have touches of the yellow here and there.
I want to keep it dark, and sinister, to make em be a vampire counts army, yet i want them to feel like they use to be noble brettonians.

Also....what are the thoughts on taking a lahmian vampire on a zombie dragon. the idea would be to help emphasize the dragon theme on the shield, but probably wouldn't field in every battle.

So now, the major choice and selection is deciding between Turquoise, blue, or a purple as the last of the colors(this will be the other quarter panel color with black, having the yellow dragon symbol on top.