Armies on Parade is marching ever closer, with submissions opening on the 1st of October. Whether you need some motivation, or just don’t know where to start, you can follow along with Tyler Mengel’s growing Soulblight Gravelords army.
The last time we caught up with Tyler he was finishing off a Necromancer and his dedicated bodyguards, the Kosargi Nightguard. This time he’s tackling his bigger units. Read on to discover more about his speed painting process and how he switches up his colour scheme between a greater number of models.
Tyler: As my Soulblight Gravelords army continues to grow, I thought it was time to bulk out the "shambling" part of my shambling dead a bit. Part of the appeal of a Necromancer and Deadwalker-centric army is the visual impact of a bunch of zombies taking over the board. Last time I focused more on a Hero and an elite unit, so this time I decided to focus more on the core of the army.
I painted up the second set of ten Deadwalker Zombies, finishing out my first unit of twenty. I'm painting these models in groups of five, allowing me to give them all a bit of individuality, as well as to get them done in chunks.
I tried doing all 10 at once but quickly split them up into two batches. This lets me do a few different skin tones, mix up the colour combos on their clothes, and add an appropriate amount of bruising and gore. All of the clothing on my models is purple, light purple, and black. Despite this, I can make each model look a bit more unique by varying if they have black pants and a purple shirt, or vice versa.
Before I moved on to even more Zombies, I decided to start working on a unit of Dire Wolves. I absolutely love these new sculpts and they fit the bill for a zombified army, so I knew from the get-go that I was going to include some. It's also important in an Armies on Parade entry to have a bit of diversity in your unit selection.
After painting up a test model, I did the rest in batches of two. This is due to the bruising around the wounds, which took a bit more time compared to the zombies.
Lastly, what horde of zombies is complete without a Gravekeeper to tend to them? I've wanted to paint Gorslav the Gravekeeper since I first saw the preview for the model. In the lore for my army, he won't be Gorslav himself, but rather some other Gravekeeper. I like to think that maybe there's a fraternal order of Gravekeepers across Shyish, all plying their trade to various masters and overlords.
I painted his skin slightly differently compared to the rest of my army, opting for more of a greenish tint. I did zero conversion on this model since I loved it so much. He'll look great on the finished display herding the zombies into battle.
With all of this completed, I'm well on my way to having my Army on Parade done. I'm also planning on taking them to AdeptiCon in March, and I'm almost at the halfway mark when it comes to points. Next, I'm hoping to finish the other five Dire Wolves, and maybe something a bit bigger.
I've also just pre-ordered my Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork, which I will be converting into my Supreme Necromancer Lord on Zombie Vulture (otherwise known as a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon), so there's a lot still to come for my Soulblight Gravelords.
Thanks again for keeping us updated, Tyler! While the submissions window for Armies on Parade is rapidly approaching, it will stay open for the entire month of October, allowing you to get those last-minute entries in. You can show us your progress over on our Instagram, Twitter, and the Warhammer Official Facebook page – make sure to tag it with #ArmiesOnParade2021.