Modeling Necromancy Spell Counters

I try to avoid putting cards or dice on the board to represent spells or persistent effects, preferring instead to model a counter of some kind that won't break the immersion of the game aesthetic. Here's a look at how I made some spell counters for the Necromancy spell lore in Warhammer: The Old World.

 

 

Deathly Cabal

This spell grants a 6+ ward save to the caster and his unit, and they cause fear (or upgrade to terror if they already cause fear). The Mystic Shield counter that I made for Age of Sigmar back in 2016 already fits the bill– A group of spirits holding shields represents the ward save and fear effects pretty well. It will be nice to put this model to use again.

 

 

Curse of Years

This spell has been a staple of necromancy at least since I began playing Warhammer in 5th Edition. back in the day, the models in a unit under its effect would wither and die on a roll of 6. Furthermore, the spell would remain in play and that number would decrease every turn that it remained in effect. I had modeled this wraith from a corpse cart driver; it would be placed near the unit the spell was cast on, and I had another wraith with a numbered scroll to track the target number.

In The Old World, the Curse of Years is still around, but now it simply lowered the target unit's Movement, Weapon Skill, and Toughness characteristics by one. So, this guy can come back into service to mark the hexed unit.

 

 

Spirit Leech and Spectral Steed

Spirit Leech drops the target's Leadership by two. (Very useful for making Banshees' Wailing Dirge more effective!) I used a screaming face cut from the Morghast's ethereal bits, and attached it to the hair from Lady Olynder's spectral attendants– The result is a terrifying visage to harass the targeted unit. I had enough parts to make two counters, and I think I'll paint the second one to match my Tomb Kings aesthetic.

 

 

Spectral Steed grants a character the ability to fly up to ten inches and become ethereal. I made a winged steed with the tiny horses from the Warmaster scale black coach and one of the bats from a Cursed City bat swarm.

 

 

To hold the horse aloft, I sculpted some ethereal bits over a metal support rod cut from a length of thick floral wire. Both of the counters were mounted on coins.

 

 

I painted the steed and leech to match the other ethereal elements of my army– They were primed white, and then washed with a mix of GW Nihilakh Oxide and Army Painter Necrotic Flesh, thinned with a lot of GW Lahmian Medium. I applied multiple layers to deepen the tone toward the bottom, and added some GW Coelia Greenshade to darken it. Once the washes had dried, I drybrushed some highlights with white and a bit of the Nihilakh mix, and then straight white at the brightest points.

 

 

Spiritual Vortex

This spell puts a five-inch template on the battlefield that saps the enemy's Leadership within eight inches of it. I have been using the Malevolent Maelstrom endless spell from Age of Sigmar, placed on a large blast template, but I wanted to model the template itself as well.

 

 

I cut a five-inch disc out of black styrene card and added the hole in the center. I sanded both surfaces to allow the sand to stick better, and to help prevent the template from sliding around once place on the battlefield.

 

 

To create some swirls of spectral energy, I placed some lines of construction adhesive on the surface and smoothed the edges with a paint brush handle and water.

 

 

Once the construction adhesive was fully dry (I waited a full 24 hours), I super glued some ballast to the rest of the surface. Unfortunately, the ballast was overpowering the raised swirls; I think the construction adhesive might have shrunk a little as it dried, or maybe the ridges weren't as high as they needed to be.

 

 

To fix it, I applied another layer of the adhesive, and again smoothed out the edges with a brush handle, and used a clay shaper to press the edges of the adhesive into the ballast.

 

 

Once this second coat dried, it had the desired result:

 

 

All that remained was to paint the template with the same technique I used on the other spell counters. I kept the static grass pretty thin and didn't add any tufts to keep the template as flat as possible, since models may need to stand on it.

 

 

The Maelstrom endless spell sits on the template, and can be removed if models need to move across the spell.

 

 

I participated in a tournament over the weekend, and got to put some of my new counters to use!

 

 

Aside from The Dwellers Below and Unquiet Spirits, which don't require counters, that's the entire spell lore finished. The Vampire Counts have a few other spells and abilities that increase the characteristics of a unit, and I plan to make some counters to represent them as well, using more bats, scrolls, and magnetized skulls...

'Til next time!