In the Before Times I picked up a bunch of weird Age of Sigmar scenery that I thought would work really well for an Inquisitor campaign I was running at Asgard Wargames. Papa Nurgle had other ideas for that adventure, and the plastics were consigned to the bits box for a rainy day.
Having some free time on my hands over the pandemic (and with another Inquisitor campaign planned) gave me the impetus needed to put the finishing touches on them.
pour one out
The two sets that drew my eye were the Arcane Hazards scenery kit for Warhammer Underworlds and the follow-up Forbidden Power endless spells for Age of Sigmar, now sadly very out of production.
I was drawn by the ancient undead empire aesthetic that they’d gone for with the new Ossiarch Bonereapers range, and I’m a sucker for giant floating crystals radiating malign power.
I nipped over to ebay to grab some more of the floating/broken crystals, as I knew they’d be more useful as terrain if I had a few of them. Luckily many people were buying and splitting the Forbidden Powers box, which had some of what I needed.
No conversions needed, they just needed a splash of paint!
Cerveza Cristaaaaal
Painting this set was time consuming but satisfying. It was long before I had my airbrush, so everything was done the old-fashioned way – wet blending layers.
I based the colour scheme off previous crystal sets I’d done so they would visually tie together if they were present together on the board. The plan was to use them as Yu’Vath creations – perhaps as some strange power generator or warp artefact – so they needed to have a colour scheme that matched other Yu’Vath doo-hickeys I had.
They’re perfect at 28mm or 54mm scale, so they work really well as floating hazards for Inquisitor, or larger centrepieces for any of my 40k RPG games, or even Necromunda!
Starting with a black undercoat, the crystals were painted by layering colours in order, going from darkest to lightest.
Xereus Purple > Screamer Pink > Pink Horror > 50/50 Pink Horror and White Scar mix for the edges > Pure White Scar dotting the corners
The blue energy was painted in much the same way, but using drybrushing and stippling rather than layering to create a different texture.
Kantor Blue > Lothern Blue > (bit of Naggaroth Nightshade wash dabbed in) > Lothern Blue > Blue Horror > 50/50 Blue Horror and White Scar mix. Electricity was painted on in Blue horror and finished with White Scar for added vim and vigour.
Grey sections were Mechanicus Grey washed with Athonian Camoshade, and highlighted with Celestra Grey. The chains were Brass Scorpion, washed with Nuln Oil, then hit again with Nihilakh Oxide.
Simple but effective!
I’m very happy with how they came out in the end. I had some emotional hangups about returning to them as they seemed like a cursed artifact – whenever they appeared they killed the campaign! I was able to push through and see them to completion though, and I’m glad I did.
The second Inquisitor campaign also never saw completion, largely due to illness at the last minute (Nurgle! Again!), and too much time passed to rope people back in. Perhaps a grand finale at Warhammer World is what’s needed…
Watch this space!