Painting Desert Bases

Omentet the Librarian and the Necrolith Colossus get shiny new bases!

Both of these models were painted a while ago. I had based the colossus with the intention of re-basing him to match whatever aesthetic I settled on for my Tomb Kings army, so it was a simple matter of popping him off the base, scraping away the flock, and then modeling a new base around his foot holes. Omentet was essentially finished, but since Liche Priests have been bumped up to 25mm bases, I needed to break him off his base and make a new one (and re-sculpt his foot in the process).

 

 

For the basing scheme, I went with lots of skulls and bones buried in the sand, along with some sandstone ruins on the larger base. Here's my recipe for painting it all:

Priming

Spray with black primer, and then with Tamiya TS-3 Dark Yellow. (GW Zandri Dust spray works as a substitute; just something to lay down a quick yellow-brown undercoat.)

The Sand

Basecoat the sand with thinned yellow ochre color (in this case, Formula P3 Moldy Ochre thinned with a bit of water).

Wash everything with GW XV-88 Brown, thinned with water.

Drybrush the sand with ochre and then lightly with GW Screaming Skull.

The Bones

Basecoat the bones with Screaming Skull.

Wash them with a thinned mix of XV-88 Brown and GW Aggaros Dunes Contrast.

Then, paint straight Aggaros Dunes into the recesses of the bones and onto the "shadow" areas of the sand (in this case, around the rubble and where the foot impressions would be).

Add some darker brown ink in the eyes of the skulls (in this case, Liquitex Transparent Burnt Umber Acrylic Ink).

Finally, Drybrush the bones with Screaming Skull and then with a lighter mix of Screaming Skull and Army Painter Brainmatter Beige.

The Ruins

Basecoat the ruins and rubble with a mix of equal parts XV-88 Brown, Ochre, and Army Painter Ash Grey.

Wash it with GW Skeleton Horde Contrast.

Drybrush it with a mix of ochre and Ash Grey and then lighten the mix with a little Brainmatter Beige and drybrush the highest edges.

Finishing Up

Paint the base rim with a 50/50 mix of GW Mournfang Brown and GW Steel Legion Drab.

Add some Army Painter Mountain Tufts.

 

 

The models look great on their new bases, and are Officially™ the first miniatures finished for my Army of the Baltizzar Necropolis.

 

 

I was also able to get my grubby hands on an Old World rulebook! With no idea how many more months it might be before the rulebooks come back in stock in the US, I finally broke down and purchased a Bretonnian army box that was still lingering on the shelf at my local shop. (Watch, now that I've bought this big box just for the book, the rulebooks will probably get restocked before the end of the month!) 

 

Edit: Ha! True to form, buying the army box ensured that the rulebooks would be restocked sooner than later.  I think they were available on the website about a week after I made this post.  You're welcome! 😆

 

 

I'll have to find something to do with the Bretonnian models. I've had an idea of building a Bretonnian-themed Vampire Counts army as far back as Warhammer 7th Edition. In fact, the backstory of Viktor von Harkon, leader of my Blood Knights, is that he went into Bretonnia after the fall of Blood Keep. 

 

 

The time period of The Old World is set during period between the destruction of Blood Keep and when Viktor would have rejoined my undead legion. Perhaps I'll expand his lore and see what he was up to before the Von Koss vampires found him...

'Til next time!