WWW.SKULLFORGESCENICS.ETSY.COM

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Tending to the Scriptor Mortis

It took a while, but I finally got my hands on a Scriptor Mortis. And now that my schedule has opened up a bit, it's time to get to work on him!



I wasn't sold on the third arm; I like to imagine my ghosts as once humanoid, not spectral monsters or Chaos mutants, so I came up with a plan to ditch the arm but keep the lantern as part of the model. The two handmaidens from Lady Olynder became attendants for the Scriptor Mortis. I removed their hair and sculpted hoods.


 

Rather than use the tiny handmaiden arms, I scavenged arms from my parts box. One of the attendants got the lantern arm from the Scriptor, and will hover over his shoulder.


 

The other attendant received the book arm from the Black Coach relic bearer, and is carrying a stack of books for his master. The books are from the Celestial Hurricanum, and Ive decided to use the extra books to make bookshelves for a scenic base.


 

My Nighthaunt don't really participate in the "burning candle" motif, so I removed the candles from the bottom of the model. I'm not sure about the candelabra on his back; that's a very distinctive component, and the model might feel naked without it. I'll have to see how the piece shapes up as a whole before deciding if I can remove it.


 

For the remaining books from the Hurricanum, I built some bookshelves out of PVC foam board. The PVC foam is rigid, but soft enough to flex and etch wood grain into it. I tried to bent the planks to create sagging shelves and bowed supports.



 

Here are the finished bookshelves. As I was typing this, however, I started to think that the wooden shelves don't really match the aesthetic of the rest of the army, or the basing. I don't really have wooden structures, or wooden bits on my basing, it's mostly tombstones, masonry, and skulls. So I think I'm going to have to come up with a more in-theme style of bookshelf for the Scriptor Mortis and his many tomes. 


 

'Til next time!

6 comments:

  1. What if the bookshelves were blazing with ghostly fire? Or standard fire, but the books themselves were ghostly?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Too late. :D But the ghostly fire doesn't really go with my Nighthaunt motif anyway.

      Delete
  2. Very cool! I'm always impressed with your sculpting and how well it blends into a model, always looks like it's supposed to be there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! My goal with conversions these days is to not be able to tell where the model ends and the sculpting starts. (Probably why everything takes forever!) ;)

      Delete
  3. Looking great man! I love the attention you are giving to your custom pieces. Your converted models are unique and often cooler than originals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, sir! I've reached that point where I just can't leave anything stock, particularly when it comes to character models.

      Delete

All comments are moderated. Any comments containing links will not be approved and will be marked as spam.