Another boardgame boy today – it’s the Big Bad …brains of the Castle Ravenloft boardgame – Count Strahd. Why does it seem like he should be called “Count Baron Von Strahd?” for some reason? This one wasn’t even started. I found him on the previous mess of a painting table primed, and that was it. He must have been like that for …well, getting towards 8 or 10 years to be quite honest. It was actually a bit tricky coming up with colours for him. In the end, I just went with colours based on the Undead Army that I put a lot of work into a few years ago. Because it uses a pretty generic scheme that works for undead, and also why not and good enough. He can theoretically be used in that force as well, but let’s face it – I have cooler Vampire models to use in a wargame! (I think that’s why I must have not even started on this model – I’ve got better models to use in Ravenloft!
Strahd isn’t an especially inspiring model, but I guess as a boardgame miniature from 2010 – or possibly earlier than that, given that many if not all of the D&D Boardgame minis from that era were repurposed from the D20 prepaints that preceded them – he works well enough. Certainly there’s no reason to hold him to the same standard that Not-Red-Valeria-Viking-Sonja should be. Also – oops! I forgot to do a couple of the lumps on his back-scabbard with a gemstone paint. Rest assured, that I’ll get right on that!
Most importantly, as the Junkyard Dog (and ONLY the JYD) would say… another one bites the dust!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
I had a similar experience with the Bones warrior women last week – I went to take their photo but when I turned one around there was an unpainted belt pouch staring back at me!
Nice work on this guy!
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Yep. It’s happened a fair few times when a “finished” model comes in from the photo booth to be parked back on the painting desk for that final bit to be painted before going back out for the photos…
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Very nice work, yep photo’s can be a bitch, Had similar things happen to me. But I’m old and blind, that’s my excuse. 👀
Cheers Roger.
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Haha no worries. Works for me as it’s a way of having the omissions pointed out to me. 😉
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Looks good! 🙂 Nice colour combinations!
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Cheers, John!
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I like the paintjob. He’s a bit older indeed – he was originally a ‘vampire vizier’ in the dungeons of dread set of WOTC prepaints, released 2008. I always found the choice a bit strange, since they did release a prepaint Strahd before that, and quite a bit more dynamic a sculpt it was too.
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Thank you – and I suspect as much on the model. I just googled “prepaint strahd” and spotted the running model with sword out? Certainly a lot more dynamic and interesting as this one. I guess he might have been chosen because pointing = “commanding”?
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Very nice. I’m convinced that people often forget to paint for the table top and instead paint for the camera….
Cheers,
Pete.
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A bit of each I think, works well for me.
Mine are all theoretially for the table – but I know that in reality – at least for a lot of them – they get more use and attention on these pages for a couple of days than they have as tabletop models in the last couple of decades, and who knows when some of them will be used in a game (if ever, for some of them?!)
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He definitely looks like a board game mini of that era with soft details that are tricky to paint. I think your color scheme suits him and you gave this simple sculpt a lot of life. Seeing him does make me long for some of the classic Warhammer Vampire minis which seem to have fallen out of favor at GW. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to disciples of Dracula, in my opinion! Great job knocking another mini out of the backlog as well.
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Thanks mate! I do have a few of those Vamps here, though no real plans to start on them anytime soon, though I guess it could be nice to slip the odd hero of that type in between trays (which I decided a week or two ago is going to be a thing – “reward” models between trays!)
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Ooh, those are some classic sculpts! I will be really excited to see them. I’ve thought about hunting down some of the old sculpts and maybe one day I will. I’d also love to paint up a Coven Throne as I think the sculpt on that one is just insane but who knows when I’d find the time to paint it up.
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I have that model (still boxed) – and yeah – it looks amazing, but also like an absolute nightmare to assemble, paint, store, move… let alone game with!
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Nice one, he’s turned out well. Yeah, I think that moment of looking at the photographs and seeing all the bits we’ve missed has happened to us all (I know it does to me on an all too regular basis). A mate of mine did it with a whole model once though. Now to be fair it wasn’t quite as bad as that makes it sound, it was the little snotling with the mushroom that stands next to Skarsnik and Gobbla on the most recent version of the model). He really poured a lot of time and effort into the main two figures and did a beautiful job of it I thought, could easily have got a finalist’s pin at Golden Daemon. Just unfortunate that he thought it was finished and the little gobbo right in the foreground wasn’t even basecoated… Being a good friend I didn’t try to wind him up about it at all…
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Ough! Good thing that you were clearly sensitive to his plight. I’m sure anyone could have missed the liddle snotling. They’re so small, after all…
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Nicely done mate – another one down
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THUMP!
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One more down from your tray – and nicely done too. I often find the camera showing errors of omission and commission – but like Pete and Roger allude I ignore if good enough for the tabletop.
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My OCD often (but not always) makes me fix them up, especially if it’s a quick fix. Other models and especially on stuff I don’t consider imortant get the “good enough, done and onto the next one” treatment. On this guy it only took a few minutes spread over a couple of hours to add in the gems and a seal with ribbon/parchment and now he’s done and in the case in the shed alongside the other painted models from the game…
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