What better place than to start with Heinrich Kemmler and Krell?  I've considered building a small campaign around them and a large Undead escalation in the Badlands, but since time is limited, the campaign has never gotten past the preliminary stages.  You will find Kemmler & Krell in the Special Characters section of this website along with the rules for the Army of the Cairns (Kemmler's specialized army list) in the Dogs of War section.  I intend on using these lists when I push them forward.  Regarding the models, both were EBay purchases.

Tim Murray is also going to be playing with the Army of Cairns list and produced these renditions of the two Special Characters.  Kemmler wears a Cloak of Mists & Shadows, which makes him Ethereal, so Tim chose to paint him in a pale tone with "Scooby Doo" eyes to give him an Ethereal appearance.  Krell is an undead Champion of Khorne, so he chose to suit him up exclusively in the colors of his Patron Diety.

[Above] Another view of Tim's Kemmler model.

Zacharias the Everliving is another Special Character from 6th Edition brough back to life in the Special Characters section of this web site.  Typically it's not wise to deploy your Vampire Lord on a Zombie Dragon in smaller armies because he is an easy target, but the model will come in handy for battles larger than 3,000 points where a pair of Lords can be used and this model need not be your General.

I believe this Vampire is an old Games Workshop model.  Back when we first got into playing Warhammer my brother Duncan was fielding an Undead army and many of the models in this showcase are his contributions.  I currently hold this Vampire in my collection as the model has the versatility to be winged or have some other basis along the Von Carstein blood lines.

This model is a Reaper gargoule that I painted in my Strigoi/Ghoul color scheme to be used as a winged Strigoi Vampire.

Another Reaper model I picked up to use as a key character in a Strigoi army is this Ghoul King from Reaper.  The problem is that he is mounted on an Ogre-sized base and I am not sure how this will work in conjunction with the rest of the army.  He also has Nurgle possibilities, such as a Herald of Nurgle, to join one of my Chaos Daemon armies.

A Lahmian Vampire also picked up on EBay.

I'm not sure what the role of Necromancers will be in my 7th Edition Vampire Counts army, but I know I have plenty to spare because you could build an all-Necromancer army as recently as 6th Edition.  I believe the Heinrich Kemmler list permits a large amount of Necromancers to be fielded, which is why I continue to hold onto the ones I have.  This is a Games Workshop model which, I suppose, could pass as a Vampire as well (due to the paint scheme).

The Necromancer on the right is a 3rd Edition model mounted on an original metal skeletal steed.  This comes from my brother Duncan's collection.  I found myself in possession of a Mouth of Sauron model that also looks like it'd make a good Necromancer for this army.  Thus, life goes on after the Lord of the Rings.

On foot I have this pair.  The model on the left is a Ral Partha model painted by Tim Murray.  After a brief stint as a Chaos Sorcerer and Empire Fire Wizard, he has found a home as a Necromancer.  The model on the right is a 5th Edition Games Workshop model.

This is another rendition of my Necromancer above, but this one is from Tim Murray's collection and was painted by his daughter Ashley (age 13).  We're both pleased to see this kind of work coming from his offspring!

This model of unidentified origin is a Shadow Druid from Tim Murray's Army of the Cairns.

There remains several painted models from my brother's old collection that have not yet found a role in the new army.  This is a two-pose model released by Grenedier back in the 1980's.  I presume it will be some kind of Necromancer or Vampire.  Currently I have the model on foot destined to be a Shadow Druid for my own Army of the Cairns collection.

Likewise, these Wights are from my brother's old collection and will be taking on the role of the army Battle Standard Bearer and a Wight King.  The Battle Standard Bearer is a Citadel model with a custom made banner while the other is from Grenedier.

Vampire Counts Core Units

Zombies are a necessity in every effective Vampire Counts army, but my current count of only 24 is one of the elements that hampers me from deploying an effective army just yet.  This is a group purchased off EBay (I somehow lack the creative insight to make a bunch of cool Zombies), with a few Mordheim models thrown in.

Command section of the Zombie unit showing the multi-model standard bearer and the scene to the left where one model puts a scythe through the head of the other.  I also liked the work done on the woman in the dress to the right.

These Zombies come from Tim Murray's collection and are another unit painted by Ashley.  Of note is the man with the tie on the far left and the Joker standing in the front rank.

Vintage players will recognize these skeleton archers from earlier "pre-Vampire Counts" editions of the army.  These were painted by my brother Duncan and are currently part of Tim Murray's collection.  He could use them as skeleton warriors with javelins for his Army of the Cairns collection, simply by giving the bows the stat performance of a javelin.

Likewise, light skeleton cavalry such as these have been reclassified to the Tomb Kings army.  These are part of Tim Murray's collection and have a role in the Army of the Cairns as Undead horsemen.

Currently I have about 40 Ghouls completed.  These come from a variety of sources- all of them early metal models.  There are Games Workshop models from 3rd through the latest edition before they converted them to plastic along with models by Reaper, Black Tree Design, Ral Partha and Icore.

This first image shows several generations of Games Workshop Ghouls with the oldest (3rd Edition) models on the right.

I believe this bloody bunch comes from Icore.  I'm typically not a fan of the Blood Red mess in weapons and models, but I didn't have much of a choice since all of them are gnawing on some body part.

This third batch has models from Ral Partha, Reaper and Black Tree Design.  Some of them (the two on the left) weren't even considered Ghouls, but they seemed to look close enough like they would fit (except for the fact that they are wielding relatively modern weapons).  I can justify this by stating they picked them up at the graves as they looted them.

The Dire Wolves are of the type used from 4th through 6th Edition (essentially standard wolf models with different heads).

Profile look of a Dire Wolf and the Doom Wolf.

Tim Murray uses 7th Edition Chaos Hounds for his Dire Wolves.  These were painted by Ashley.

My Bat Swarms are in need of some cleaning up and rebasing.  Accompanying the 6th Edition Games Workshop bats are a pair of Ral Partha bat swarms on flying stands that date back to our Dungeons & Dragons days.  I am considering mounting them vertically and mixing them in with some GW bats so that they don't look so out of place.

Tim Murray held onto the bat swarms that came from my brother's collection.

Vampire Counts Special Units

These Black Knights are from Tim Murray's collection.

Like the Bat Swarms, Tim's Fell Bats also came from my brother.  Tim remounted them on standardized bases to give the unit a uniform appearance and blend it in with the rest of the army.

Tim's Spirit Hosts use a paint theme taken from what I did with my Army of the Dead:  He washed them with colors before dry brushing them with greys to make them faded and appear translucent.  In this regard, however, he did a much better job.

Vampire Counts Rare Units

Tim used the same technique on his Cairn Wraiths and Banshees.

My Army of the Dead were painted up for use as a Dogs of War unit that will fight alongside Aragorn in my Elythis Campaign.  However, they also have a use in my Army of the Cairns as a unit of Glooms.  But, for the sake of my 1,700-point standing Vampire Counts army, however, I count them as Grave Guard.

A pair of Twilight Ringwraiths join the Captain of the Army of the Dead.  I used the same blended paint method described in a contemporary issue of White Dwarf to paint these models and was dissatisfied with the results.  It seemed I spent a lot of time layering paints on top of one another to get models that I could've just as easily replicated in 20 minutes with a quick wash and a dry brush.  Thus, my advice to Tim for his Spirit Hosts was "what not to do" rather than fuss with them the way I did with this particular unit.

This is an old Barrow Wight model produced by Mithril Miniatures for the Lord of the Rings figure line back in 1985.  Seeing how they have long since lost the Rights to these models, I felt I needed to keep this model and use it somehow.  At the moment, it is earmarked to be a Banshee with my Cairn Wraiths unit (which will be Lord of the Rings Wraiths).

Last, but not least, is the Black Coach.  I am currently wrestling with how to go about rebasing it to make it consistent with the rest of my army.  It currently sits on a thick chunk of balsa wood, so I may simply try to gouge the grass coated surface off of the base and keep the fragile hoofs of the steeds glued down.  (Essentially working around them).

As you can see, this Undead collection is about 50% Vampire Counts and 50% Army of the Cairns.  At some point I will blow out the Army of the Cairns models to their own Showcase.  But, for now, it is what it is.  Thanks for visiting!