Against my tendency to start things from the bottom, my first Vampire Counts entry deals with the bloodthirsty leaders of the Old World’s undead.

The models in this group were painted over quite a long period, between 1999 and 2014. I started my vampire counts army shortly after the release of the 1999 army book (by Tuomas Pirinen and Alessio Cavatore) which introduced rules and models for the four major vampire families. As you can see I decided for the clan of Lahmia.

This is, I believe, the first Lahmia miniature released and also the first undead model I ever painted. It gets deployed in almost every Warhammer game as general of my army. This is not a spectacular model but a very solid one. Hiding the dagger behind her back adds a nice touch of sneakiness to the model.

This miniature appeared somewhat later. By that time Scab Red had become the standard colour for my vampires; it looks like velvet and has the great advantage that the highlights don’t look pink. The cat serves as a familiar though I think there are no rules for familiars in the current edition. Note the Egypts-style tiara and the silk handkerchief.

This lady of the undead persuasion is some special edition model. I got one in 1999 or 2000 when I was working for GW. My boss (M.T.) asked me to paint it for the company’s showcase. When the company moved to Germany I gave it to him in exchange for another unpainted one. It took me 13 years until I painted this one. I’m very happy with the result except for the sword. I think a plain iron sword would fit better.

This is the Vampire leader of my very successful Mordheim gang which retired at value 347 points. All my Mordheim models use round bases. I found the original Mordheim vampire too feeble so I used this Blood Dragon miniature.

This army standard bearer is the most recent addition to my undead army. It is not a Lahmia vampire  but I suppose from time to time they form alliances with other families. One can see that I am not very fond of painting banners. All the motifs I liked were too complicated to paint. I think I spent an hour when I run out of patience. But other than the banner this was an easy model to paint, well sculpted, producing good effects just by adding wash and some highlights.