I'm getting close to finishing painting my Vampire Counts army and slowly catching up on publishing photos and posts on my blog. It is time for a post about the Bat Swarms and Dire Wolves, which I associate with the classic Dracula film (1931), where the titular vampire was played by the late Bela Lugosi. The scene in which young Jonathan Harker is welcomed by the Count Dracula in his mansion and wolves howl in the background has become one of my favourite moments. The words spoken by Dracula: "Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!" inspired me to name this entry.

As for the Bat Swarms, I obviously couldn't take the easy way out and buy ready-made models. After all, you know how I like to push myself, so I created my own designs. The wings were cut from plastic transparent covers for blister packs. There was a condition that these pieces should be reasonably flexible and thin. For their curving, in turn, I used the heat from a candle. The bodies were made from foamed PVC sheet (3 mm thick) and the muzzles were sculpted from the Green Stuff putty. It all took me a lot of time and work, but I am very happy with the final result: a chaotically flying flock of bats. The bases elements in the form of tombstones and the damaged fence are a combination of foammed PVC sheet and pins. I achieved the cracked and dried-out effect on bases traditionally using the Green Stuff Crackle Paint Badlands. I hope you like this version of the bats.

I have posted pictures of Dire Wolves earlier, but now I can write a bit about them. I really like the new designs from Games Workshop for Soulblight Gravelords because of their variety and dynamism. The open wounds, exposed bones and blood give a really incredibly creepy view. I decided to paint them using a traditional grey colour, with no additions like glowing eyes or ethereal bones. In making the wounds, I used Blood for the Blood God Citadel Technical paint.