The Tree of Woe - part 2

Most of the Harrowmark is covered by virtually-impenetrable forest: Seemingly endless leagues of dark, tangled, gnarled and unnatural woods. It is a corrupted land: the dead trees are warped by death-magic, skull-formed rock formations tower over the forest canopy like islands in an arboresque sea. The symbols and motifs of death are everywhere.

Deep in the abyssal woodland there are even darker places. Some ancient trees seem to form a locus of evil energy that seeps up, out of the hundreds of graves below, into the heartwood of the tree. Twisted and corrupted by Death magic these Trees of Woe attract all manner of dark creatures, who venerate and worship them as altars to their dark gods.

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As soon as I saw the Feculent Gnarlmaw kit announced I wanted to make a Death Tree from it. It took me a few months to get round to it - is was the news of the Battletome Beast of Chaos (and a suggestion by Viktor) that got me to actually start work on it.

I de-Nurgled the Feculent Gnarlmaw by leaving all the more iconic parts off and greenstuffing over the rest. I added half a Citadel Woods tree and some Sylvaneth left-overs over the "mouth" and filled the gaps with greenstuff.

The paint job was simple enough: Chaos Black spray undercoat, Mechanicus Standard Grey zenithal basecoat. Then I brushed Mournfang Brown on to the bark, and Ushabti Bone onto the the skulls.  I dry-brushed all of it with Ushabti Bone and then painted Leadbelcher onto the metal bands and hoops. I washed the whole thing with Agrax Earthshade and/or Athonian Camoshade, then when that was completely dry, dry-brushed the bark and skulls. The earth was painted Iron Legion Drab and dry-brushed with Ushabti Bone.

The last couple of steps were super-gluing "dead grass" flock and fallen leaves on and giving it a few blasts of Minitorum Varnish.

This John Blanche painting was my main influence: it was used as the box-art for the plastic Skeleton Horde box in the late 1980s.



~ 🕱 ~

A few of the Cleavermaws followed Kaptain Mogrum, the Weirdnob Shaman, through misty woodland. A vast number of noisy black crows filled the tree tops and cawed angrily at the orruk pirates as they passed beneath.

Deadwood and Double Barrel looked around nervously as they struggled to keep up with the two shamans. The unfortunately-named Orruk Great Shaman Lost Uzzog, who was the ship's navigator, checked and rechecked his large brass compass, occasionally correcting the direction they were headed, sometimes by a worrying degree. Deadwood and Double Barrel looked at each other and silently despaired every time he picked out a new path to take.

After what seemed like hours of walking, and stumbling over tangled roots, Mogrum signalled the small group to stop. 

Ahead of them there was a tree that was even more contorted and corrupted than the rest of the dead forest. A squat, bloated trunk and sinuous limbs and the every space between  its crooked branches and every knothole had a skull jammed into it. The air around it felt heavy and fetid, the soil was thickly sown with bones.

Suddenly it got very dark and very quiet...

"Um... Boss?" said Deadwood in a shaky voice.