Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares

I was absolutely thrilled when this model was announced at Warhammer Fest, back in May 2021. A twisted combination of noble Vampire Knight, Gargoyle and Bat creature all wrapped into one monstrous form. I’m a huge fan of Vampires, and more broadly the Gothic Horror genre, and the new Soulblight Gravelords are a perfect representation of that in Age of Sigmar.

The one thing I had trouble deciding on was what colour to do the armour. I was incredibly torn between the purple armour of her default look, or trying to go for a rich, blood red armour, which is usually the standard for Vampires. In the end I choose a deep, almost black purple, as I thought it gave her a more royal appearance and wouldn’t clash as much with blue of the base.

The colour pallet was an easy choice for the rest of the model. I was really happy with how the bases for Morgwaeth’s Blade Coven turned out, and decided to do something similar here, but with a bit more contrast.

As you’ve noticed, I made a couple small additions to the model in the form of some cute bats! I love these little critters. They were taken from the Cursed City set, which I am happy to say is making a return, and they add a little more life to the base and help add to the overall Gothic horror vibe. And who doesn’t like little bat friends?

I’m really looking forward to painting more of the Soulblight Gravelords range, starting with The Crimson Court, one of my favourite warbands to be released for Underworlds: Direchasm. I plan to do their base in the same scheme, along with any other Vampires I get my hands on for a consistent look.

While I wasn’t fond of the idea of starting another horde army in Warhammer Fantasy, one army of numerous rats was plenty for me at the time, I’d love to start a low model count force focused around the large creatures of the night that Lauka Vai leads.

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