An Altar (and BLOOD!) for the Blood God

And here it is - the Temple of Skulls. Done and dusted (highlighted, varnished and tarnished!).

I was pretty much thinking this the whole time I was painting this bad boy. Come on, we all were right?! KALIMA...The main idea was that the "Temple" is in fact a misnomer and that this is more of an arena and that prayer, is in fact a bloody ritual combat or ripping someone's skull straight off of their spinal column... eeewww. Too far? Yep. 

The idea with the skulls was to pain them in a style that would use the sponge technique that I recently tried on the Magewrath Throne. But when I replicated the same colour as I'd used previously the model became a bit too monochrome in appearance. So I needed to change the skulls to a different colour. I toyed with the idea of having them a tarnished metal colour, which would have been fine. But the dark obsidian colour has really grown on me and I would say that it's definitely original, which is always a plus. The other benefit of obsidian is that fact that it's such and "otherworldly" stone, despite being a naturally occurring rock. This really suits me because not only is it daemonic, magical but also subtle and "realistic". Winning... at painting!

It was surprising quick to do as well, despite a couple of false starts on the skulls and dark brown on the base sections. A few pics below for close-ups. Love to hear what you think about it. Can't wait to use this sucker.

A close up shot of the bloody corner:

Stairway to... death?

As the crow flies:

Palette time!

Prime:

Black Spray

Undercoat: 

Skavenblight Dinge (entire model)

Bedrock:

Highlight successive layers of

Stormvermin Fur

Baneblade Brown

Karak Stone

Stone slabs:

Mechanicus Grey (the dark one)

Dawnstone

Administratum Grey

Skulls: 

Basecoat: Chaos Black (how could I not?)

Sponge: Midnight Blue (it's a really old colour and not sure if it exists anymore, it's so blue black and has even got a hint of purple in it, which it great)

Sponge: Eshin Grey

With the sponge I tried to use the leopard print technique again on different sections to make sure that the Midnight Blue and Eshin Grey did have some cross over sections but were on different parts, with Eshin Grey on the more raised areas.

An Altar for the Blood God

Blood for the Blood God! Raaaaagghhh! .... etc

Got this one because I saw on the GW website that it is ominously "No Longer Available." It's such an imposing set I thought I better get one before they are no longer in stock. Plus I want to have all of the "special terrain" in the rulebook.

After this shot I noticed some fairly heavy gaps in the skulls, which I'll need to Green Stuff before beginning.

I'm wondering what colours I should use... I'm thinking I'll need at least two different grey tones and I'd like to try the sponge technique I used on the Magewrath Throne on the skulls for the granite effect.

What colours do you think?

Now where's my spray can and air brush....?

There's a storm a brewin'

Got these cheap off of eBay with free postage and I'd bought the rulebook late in 2012 at a reduced price again! Score!

Really fun to paint, though the Balewind Vortex was the most challenging part trying to get smooth colour transitions using wet-blending on an un-smooth surface. Probably bit off more than I could chew...

Colours I used were: Incubi Darkness, Kabalite Green, Syrabite Green and White Scar. I put them all into my colour palette and deliberately left a space between each so that I could mix a 'mid' colour between each so that the blend was even. Finally, I washed it down with a  mix if Coelia Nightshade and Lahmian Medium. I think the green was a good choice as I toyed with the same Aqua Balefire colour and also a yellow to red "flame" transition but I think this looks more eerie and magical.

I also trice another new technique on the rocky skulls: sponging! I wanted a granite type effect and am really happy with the overall effect. Initially, I basecoated with Adeptus Battlegrey then followed this with the sponge technique, hitting the recessed areas with Skavenblight Dinge. Then I chose Karak Stone and used a "leopard spot" technique in the more raised areas or in place adjacent the previous sponge layer. Then I used Rakarth Flesh in a similar way, targeting raised areas. It was a bit light at this stage, so I then used Codex Grey to sponge around and over some brighter areas. I washed the whole skull section with Agrax Earthshade + Lahmian Medium. Using the hair dryer to speed up the drying process, I then used Nuln Oil to add more depth to the cracks and inside the skull eyes and nose. I repeated this on the eye/nose area to really make them stand out.

 Also I spent ages painting the step areas in three separate base colours: Charadon Granite, Adeptus Battlegrey and Adeptus + Chaos Black (1:1). I then highlighted up with Stormvetmin Fur and then Codex Grey, followed by a wash of Nuln Oil.

Aldorf Elites

A bit of a modelling side project. Years ago I bought an Empire battalion, to add to my grand army. I haven't done anything with it, but since getting the Karl Franz model and the fact that my main force is from Carroburg I'm thinking that the battalion and some other Empire models in my collection could work really well as an 'advance force' that march out with Karl Franz when needed to aid Carroburg which is really close to Altdorf. Reading the Sigmar's Heirs roleay book (that has heaps of great "fluff" ideas) seemed appropriate. And so the Altdorf Elites are born:

They're a combination of parts from the Greatsword and Empire soldiers kits. I saw this done by Mike Anderson in a White Dwarf ages ago and thought it was fitting to have them more heavily (and thus expensively) armoured and equipped than the norm, as befitting Altdorf. Also, everyone in the unit must have a large feather, again showing their ostentatiousness. What I'm going for is the outer layer of pomp/flashiness (with the feathers) but as you look closer the heavy armour and more "grizzled" head choices make these guys that little bit "tougher" than ordinary Empire soldiers.

Now I just need a name for their Sargeant and back story...

The 20 man unit

Command group close up shot

A sample of five of the swordsmen

Dawn of the (Un)Dead: Corpse Cart

Finished cart and load!

Balefire is done to keep the ethereal colour scheme throughout the army and I think looks nice.

Now just need help to get the corpses into position as they don't seem to slot in neatly. Any ideas?

Dawn of the (Un)Dead: Corpse Cart

A couple of close up shots of the corpses from the corpse cart. 

I used Alexandra from Girl Painting's tutorial for doing "Stage 2" zombified flesh, which worked really well.

The glowing eye effect was something that I thought looked really cool from Warboss Tae's version and so I went with a glowing blue effect. I think this turquoise colour is really becoming a spot colour in this army now, what with all of the ethereal troops.

I also repainted the eyes on the ghouls as well to link all of the units together.

More shots of the cart itself to follow soon, as I just have the blood gore detailing and balefire OSL turqoise effects to go!

Waiting for the four guys and driver to come in the mail....

Dawn of the (Un)dead: Corpse Cart

Thanks to "Cheatin'" Gaz I now have a corpse cart (super mega thanks!) and am I the process of repairing it Pimp my Ride style. There were a few hands and heads that needed to be repaired (including the rat head on the top of the pile) and I've added a few more weapons and skulls for detail.

I was able to get four new zombie bodies for the front of the cart off of eBay, as they literally became a spare parts grave yard to fix the corpse pile - fitting really...

It's very subtle but there is repair work and more rusty weapons to cover up some previous "hack and slash" efforts to get parts for my Empire wizard conversions. Note: the axe arm and shield, new head on the top corpse and the new rat head (squeaking to the moon no doubt) and a few hands poking out from the pile and a few more skulls. It a bit of a Where's Wally effort I know!

Now I need to find a necromancer to man it, as the body was used in a conversion gift to Gaz. I'm thinking of using the body of the necromancer from the Storm if Magic release and some of the robes and arms from the Corpse Cart kit that were on the sprue. 

Fingers crossed that I can fit and attach the arms that are holding up the corpse on the spear!

Sneaky business: unfinished business

The final redux if the Dark Elf assassin.

I've gone back to the original sea green themes with blue and black.

The blue/green in the sleeves are:

Russ Grey

Thunderhawk blue

Thunderhawk blue + Rotting flesh (1:1)

The green potion and glow effects are the Kabalite Greens in the Dark Eldar range. I also used the technical paint Nehekaran Oxide on the golds, as I'd imagine that this would get damaged by all of the time spent at sea. The silver blades wouldn't because they're magical. Poisoned blades have a Coelia Nightshade glaze.

 

Dawn of the (Un)Dead: Cairn Wraith

A couple of shots of the Cairn Wraith that I've added to the slowly growing Undead horde.

Since Cairn Wraiths are also 'ethereal' troops I've gone for the same ethereal colour scheme throughout the army. 

I've bought some of the new technical paint, "Blood for the Blood God" and will be adding a bit more graphic details to the Ghouls soon.