Spells and Spirits

I took a break from building scenery to work on a few models on my painting desk...

 

The two Flesh-eater Courts endless spells Cadaverous Barricade and Chalice of Ushoran are finished. I'm really happy with how the barricade turned out, and it painted up pretty quickly. 

 

The chalice was even easier to paint– It's essentially bone and blood with simple drybrushing and washes.

 

 

I've added a Spirit Torment to my Nighthaunt force. Blending the ethereal portions of the robes is one spot where I keep getting hung up on these models. Everything always goes smoothly and then I hit a wall blending from dark to light while maintaining just the right shade of greenish-blue. I used this model as a test piece to work out my blending process, and I think I've got it down to something manageable.

 

 

I did some more work on the Grimghast Reapers, stopping short of blending their ethereal robes.

 

 

I'm using GW Stegadon Scale Green and Coelia Greenshade to blend from black out to blue. Then, I use a mix of GW Nihilakh Oxide and P3 Thrall Flesh to blend out the tips, and finish off with Vallejo Ghost Grey and more of my Nihilakh mix to shade it.

I prefer to use an assembly-line system to paint large units, and painting blends like this doesn't really suit that style because I can't really use one color to halfway-blend a section and quickly move on to the next model. But, if I spend the time to completely finish off the two or four models of each unique pose, I should be able to make some steady progress, and then go back and paint all the arms and weapons in normal assembly-line batches.

 

 

Speaking of things that go bump in the night... GW previewed this image back around Halloween. Looks like a zombie that has a tree stump with roots or branches entangled with his corpse.

 

 

The blurry trees in the background are what have my interest, however. In my Soulblight predictions post, I forgot to mention the vulture that was in one of the rumor engine images. Those trees look like they could have birds or bats in them. I'm not sure if it's a custom piece of scenery, or perhaps some unique trees with carrion birds in the branches. Maybe this vulture is part of that– a piece of Death faction scenery that features trees filled with crows and vultures, to tie in with the other birds that have been previewed? Or, as others have suggested, maybe it's one of the Beastclaw Raiders' vultures. It could be part of a new Ogor model, fitting with this fur-lined, metal-clad boot that was previewed last Christmas and has still yet to be revealed. Here's hoping we find out some time before this Christmas...

 

 

'Til next time!