I had a chance to paint the Vampire Counts BSB, one of the outstanding new designs from the Warhammer Forge (part of Forge World). I am a huge fan of the Warhammer Fantasy aesthetic, and there are several elements of this sculpt that exemplify what makes Fantasy so great.
- It's so blatantly morbid that it actually goes beyond the barriers of good taste into a strange dimension of parody where they are allowed to get away with far more than they would normally.
- GW/FW is known for slapping armor on almost anything and no where is this more apparent than this sculpt. What could have been an anemic offering is rendered in gloriously damaged detail. This not only gives the sculpt a visual weight, but a physical one as well. The wight holding the banner is a strong piece of resin, not nearly as damage prone as it's plastic skeleton counterparts.
- The pose.
The pose, while static enough to fit the demands of the ranked units, still fits a lot of personality in. This is mainly thanks to the several gentlemen, or what's left of them, occupying the cross bar of the banner. It would be one thing if they had simply been impaled and left to rot, but the fact that their cold-dead-hands has been clasped around the banner itself is a testament to mad creativity at it's finest. While painting the glowing blue eyesockets of the Bearer himself, I decided to continue on and paint he eyesockets of the top-shelf gentlemen as well. After all, how much more fun would it be if they too were animated and throwing things at the enemy as the Vampires marched inexorably forward?
The only misgiving about this sculpt is the tiny connection point just above where the hand is holding the banner. The resin is extremely weak at this point, and it's worth noting that while the sculpt did hold up, I would have liked to have seen Forge World work a little extra creativity into ensuring this mold was solid.
Don't let that stop you though. This is a fantastic product, clean, artful, and simple. This is what every wargaming mini should be, and would be a fantastic addition to any Vampire Count army.
