Blightstone Keep: Base coating the stonework (1)

I'm pretty happy with the amount of crafting nerdery I've been doing already this year. It's classic for me (and I assume other folks with lead mountains in their closets) to plan and buy and just not DO. I've been pretty decent about assembly and prepping, but actually pulling it together to get some painting done.....it's a hard start and it's a habit that easily gets broken. Things are looking positive this year so far though (Jan 24 hahahah).

The GW paintjob

Anyway, I've been working on this semi destroyed tower I bought about a year ago during boxing week (2011 Dec). Truth be known it's for a gaming project that may never see the light of day, so I will only talk about it as it gets more realized.

I like this piece because it's got hints of what disaster befell it. There is some sort of ritual magic circle (with all the colours of magic on it) and clockwork. Perhaps the user was attempting to combine the winds to create some sort of high magic? Or perhaps something more malevolent....there are hints of chaos in there too. I must saw that there are far too many skulls (grumble grumble GW). I can handle some architectural skulls, even ones in the walls (which I imagine might be carved stone, similar to the many gargoyles of various european cathedrals), but the scores of skulls in the foundation..BAH!. I meant to fill them in with some putty, but forgot before I had made some progress. Oh well......at least they are mostly hidden in shadow and I didn't pick them out in white, so they are hard to see.

Basic grey craft paint over black primer

Another angle

Post highlights after a black wash

another angle

Apparently I forgot to take photos of the tower after the black ink (I think it was 3 separate sessions to base coat, ink, and highlight). I ended up buying some new ink for this...it was plain artist black ink (Downer and Roley? Decent quality) and after inking it I think I was a bit worried it went too dark. It's possible not too clear in these photos, but it does definitely give more depth and grubbiness to the stone work.  I think it's a bit more obvious on the wood work (which I gave a layer of one of the brown GW inks).