Friday 31 August 2018

Warhammer underwolds Shadespire - The Sepulchral guard


I'm back on Shadespire just as Nightvault is announced ! That's a good timing, especially since I still have one band left to paint for it ! (more about that later)
Now this month, I had a painting challenge for which I had decided I'd paint a band themed on a season, my pick obviously went straight to undead and autumn, because that's a theme I love and my favourite season and both are an obvious match. 
That meant I wanted faded colours but obviously I couldn't help getting some vibrant reds in (I really must try to get rid of that habit before it becomes a cheap gimmick though).

I made a few mistakes with those, the first being to build them fully before painting, making it tricky to paint some areas of course, the second being undercoating with 41°C outside, no exactly the best conditions to get a nice undercoat with sprays... baaaad JB.

The Sepulchral Warden
Now the main reason I had to get some reds in there was because I couldn't get past the influence of Spawn, my favourite undead superhero and his iconic red cape ! I tried to replicate that effect in the warden's cape as best as I could, blending colours more than I usually do to achieve a smooth effect (I then stained with weathering like always).



I also wanted those skeletons to match with my other undeads :


It's only a bit late in the process I realised they were going to look a bit like my friend Mr Saturday's excellent sepulchral guard :

Go check Mr Saturday's mumblings
I haven't painted many undead or skeletons before I must say, maybe just a dozen for a DnD campaign years ago because the GM was nice (and gave me free lead for it). I have to say it was fun working on those. I tried to achieve a convincing bone colour with washes mixing sepia, brown, black to avoid something too white. The red elements were kept clean and tidy like they're magical and the rest was weathered to show age and decay.

The prince of dust and the champion
 I think the sculpting on these is absolutely stellar, I mean we're talking about skeletons here and each of them is packed with character. They're all unique. splendid work really.

A petitioner and the Harvester
You don't get that many skeletons that each have their own personality but these do, they're just the missing link between Harryhausen and the tales from the crypt. The petitioner on the right below is one of my favourite and I had fun working on his shield.

Two petitioners
All in all that's 4 bands done for this wonderful game. I haven't played enough of it to be perfectly honest with you but I've enjoyed it every time despite not being the competitive kind. I suspect the sepulchral guard might not be the best band for me and my poor tactic skills and rather blunt way of playing wargames but I don't mind losing much so you know...

Severin Steelheart is surrounded by the undead
The future on Leadplague is going to be full of very exciting stuff and I'm almost shivering from thinking about it so let's keep these good vibes and channel that into painted models and played games !

38 comments:

  1. Nice work. They have come up very nicely indeed.

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    1. Thanks ! I felt an urge to rush in the end but I love the models for sure !

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  2. Ils sont très classe mais dommage qu'ils ne soient pas sur des socles hexa comme le reste de tes figs ;)

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    1. arf, j'y ai pensé en plus mais comme je suis une grosse feignasse j'ai laissé tombé vu que certaines parties des figs sont intégrées sur le socle... ^^
      C'est çà de faire le malin avec des socles hex... ^^

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  3. Don't beat yourself up about the reds, it looks particularly nice on the leader.

    Classic, corporeal undead schemes tend to favour specific palettes. Red, cream, black, purple and white. If you stray from those it's risky.

    You did a great job on those.

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    1. Cheers, I know the colour choice makes sense for many reasons but I'm just going to be careful to not be a one trick poney, reading about "those reds" is nice but also a warning. ^^
      I am happy with those though. Thanks !

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  4. They look great! And I especially love the corroded armor!

    But always prince with an airbrush 😜

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    1. I don't have an airbrush and couldn't have one easily where I live but it's obviously one tool I'd love to have to prime and varnish indeed.

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  5. "the missing link between Harryhausen and the tales from the crypt", I think you nailed it. I also got these chaps, but they are shamefully in their box yet. You made quite a nice job on them, the colours match perfectly and they all stand out as individual characters, really coo, job!

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    1. Oh I'm eager to see your take on those guys ! I'd suggest not building them straight away when you do (some tears were shed here).
      Thanks man !

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  6. The red looks ace JB! Spawns' cape is a great source for inspiration too as he's always got that thing swinging around him.

    Re the airbrush, why can't you use it where you live?

    Oh, I forgot to add....good!

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    1. Cheers, the airbrush is a problem because my painting table is in my bedroom and I don't have space for an extraction booth and it's also very noisy, since I mostly paint in the evenings while the kids are sleeping, the airbrush is kinda out.

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  7. Loving the contrasts of the bone and red on these. Great looking team mate.

    Got this set for my son to paint up. These sculpts are probably my fav skeleton sculpts out there.

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    1. I think we mostly all agree on those skeletons really !

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  8. Looking good, I just painted mine last week. I thought about red, but opted to try orange instead. They look a bit halloween-y, but hey, they are skeletons so it makes sense I guess.

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  9. This is just making me want to try ShadeSpire more!

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  10. Excellent work JB, your red is different from Mr. Saturday's. Makes me want to paint up some skeletons. We needed some for the scenario yesterday and didn't have any.

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    1. Thanks, it's different in the end, I was relieved when I went back to those and checked !
      As a amtter of fact, I only had 3 skeletons so far ! You'd think after all the years we'd have enough of them right ?

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  11. It's nice when habit and theme collide to make such a result. I am reminded, in a very pleasant way of Gary Chalks cover of The Caverns of the Dead

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    1. Thanks for ruining my explanations about Spawn and my previous undead band ! It's not just a habit !
      I didn't know that illustration from Gary Chalk but it does evoke the same feeling, variations on a theme.

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  12. Nice work there!!

    The red cloaks gives them a cooler look!

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  13. Your work here is simply excellent. Wonderful skills on display sir.

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    1. To be fair, I did try to push the level a bit for about the first third and then I realised I had to getthose done for the end of the month so rushed planty of parts. The leathers are a bit shit if I'm honest and the bone didn't end up as fine as it was going to be (rough highlights to be in time basically).
      I did have fun on the part sI took time with. ^^

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  14. Love these skellies, care to share your bone recipe as I am about to paint mine soon.

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    1. Thanks !
      The recipe is pretty simple,
      I started from a zenithal spray of white over black to get preshading
      - basecoat of thinned stone grey (PA)
      - controlled wash of 25/25/50 sepia/agrax/medium
      - agrax wash in some deep recesses (between bones, fingers, eyes...
      - highlights with very thinnned stone grey (almost glazes
      - Highlights with very thinned ivory (PA)
      I wanted to refine and add extra steps of highlighting but had to cut through it to gain time.

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    2. Thank you for that, may I ask what are (PA) paints I have hears of most brands but not PA?

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    3. Oh sure ! PA paints are Prince august, I really like the range and some pots are amongst my favourites as in many others'. Stone grey is a tad greenish which makes it complement reds perfectly. I strongly recommand their deep sea blue, their ivory and their cadmimum red amongst others. They're usually very opaque and well pigmented but can be thinned a lot before "breaking" which is brilliant to do thin glazes.

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    4. Ahhh ok I have hear of prince August, they did/do the molds for miniatures you can cast from, at least they did many moons ago. Cheers

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    5. Turns out that they are just Vallejo paints sold in Europe under a different name and I have those colours. Excellent. Thank you.

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  15. The staining and weathering on the leader's cloak is a treat. Makes it look nicely rotten and aged. I bought these minis just for the cards, but seeing your painted wants me want to bust mine out and get them done!

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    1. I bought those beacuse they are nice skeleton models but I don't think their playstyle suits me much.
      I'm glad you like the cloak since I spent extra time (for once) on it to get it how I wanted it.

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  16. Splendide, et la référence à Spawn est chouette ;)
    Le premier squelette de dungeon saga que j'ai peint avait aussi cette grande cape rouge pour Spawn.

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