This last piece of scenery for this years challenge has been sat in my collection for well over 10 years, I got it as I had a Chaos army in both Fantasy and 40K and thought it would be good for some scenarios. After I'd stuck it together, it then proceeded to sit and collect dust. Why ? you may ask, well there was several elements that didn't make sense to me, first was the very shallow rock detail, this was going to take extra work to get it right, and then we have the large skulls, that on the back have rough stone texture, and the front is super smooth, so it sat abandoned, until now. The stone work took some really careful drybrushing to get the texture to show up , and then I decided to make the front of the skulls a different type of rock, to show it was two halves, and went with black onyx, I could have gone with marble, but felt I had done enough of that this year already.
The bottom picture shows a sorcerer for scale, it is a large piece, and glad to finally have it finished ! I should have gone Roger's route and built my own, but laziness got the better of me. That's all for this post, so until next time, stay safe and have fun !
Cheers Dave
Looks good, Dave! :-) Bigger than it first appears as well!
ReplyDeleteThank you John, it is a large piece, it's 38 cm long and 22 cm wide, so uses a lot of paint ! LOL
DeleteTemple of Skullz is such an awesome terrain piece! Love your take on it. ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you airbournegrove26, once I decided on the different stone, it didn't take too long, it was getting my head to think of it that way that took the time ! LOL
DeleteThe scale photograph at the end had me, thought it was going to be much smaller. Great piece Dave, you must be relieved to tick that one off.
ReplyDeleteThank you Michael, had to have a scale shot to convey it's size, as it's monstrous ! LOL
DeleteI really need to dig that terrain piece out myself and give it a lick of paint now you've done yours. LOL!!! I thought the skulls were meant to be rough at the back and smooth at the front to show the skull faces were worked, and the rears just roughly hewn into shape..? It is a beast of a piece!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Simon, if I've encouraged someone else to finish their version of this piece, I shall consider I've achieved something. as the skulls at the front are larger than the back, that idea didn't work for me, so went with it being a different stone, but if it works for you mate, go for it.
DeleteCame out well in the end. 😀
ReplyDeleteWe all have those items that have sat around for a long time.
Thank you Stewart, indeed I seem to have a room of them ! LOL If I keep chipping away, hopefully I'll get through them all.
DeleteThat's a chunky bit of scenery, Dave, and it looks great! I wonder if the smooth skull faces and rough backs were supposed to represent metal being mounted on stone?
ReplyDeleteThank you matt, it is a big bit of scenery, have no idea what the sculptor was thinking when he made it, and the GW painted version was painted in the same stone colour thoughout, so no clue on what they thought ! LOL
DeleteIt's a monstrous piece of kit, but I think you've made as good a job out of it as possible. The whole thing seems a bit of a mongrel between new and old/decrepid.
ReplyDeleteThank you Joe, It is a common theme with a lot of GW kits that you get new and old in the same kit, maybe one day they will do a kit that's either not both ! LOL
DeleteLovely painting mate, I love the onyx skulls, they look so much better than the grey of the "official" paintjob. It is a lot bigger than I thought it was.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out, and for not mentioning that the reason I built my own was because I was too tight to buy one! 😉
Cheers Roger.
Thank you Roger, try to paint pieces that suit the textures provided, and the super smoothness that the model had needed something different to the standard grey. It is surprising on the size, which I found when I opened the box ! LOL
DeleteNo problem on the shout out mate, well deserved in my opinion, and there was a lot more thought involved in yours compared to the GW piece. I believe the word you're looking for id frugal ! LOL
Haha, as in so "frugal" his bum squeaks when he walks!
DeleteROFL Roger, to be honest mate I think your version, was better thought out, and worked better as an overall piece.
DeleteThat's a nice big piece of terrain! Will be awesome for many a scenario! :D
ReplyDeleteThank you Faust, it is an impressive size, and versatile for many scenarios, will probably use it most when using my Chaos army.
DeleteHow very "Games Workshop" of GW to create a scenic kit and not only include spikes and skulls, but to make the skulls even larger than a flippin Space Marine! So silly. I'd have left it to sit untouched for a decade too in all honesty.
ReplyDeleteLove the finished result though. Onyx fronts is a cool idea and makes those silly skulls more special in the scene the designer tried to present.
Thank you Dai, I did think of naming the post " How to tell a GW kit, if you don't know them " but I thought it was a little overkill ! LOL yes it has over the minimum 10 skulls on it, not including the super large ones, there would have been even more spikes, but I lost one of the pillars over time ! LOL if I ever find it, I'll probably make it into a separate piece of scenery, to give it a bigger footprint.
DeleteMarble would look good, but can also disguise what the piece behind actually is, so the Onyx was a better choice, and the darkness adds to the Chaos feel.
Oh, what a centerpiece. The onyx idea is pure genius, it makes it look ominous, it's super original, I love it!
ReplyDeleteThank you Suber, always try to paint things that match the texture, so a a rock that could be super smooth was needed, and as you say, it added to the ominous look.
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