Dark Skies Over The Harrowmark - part 16, Megadroth Remains

Orruk Brute for scale (it's a BIG skeleton!)

I've wanted one of these big beauties since they were first previewed, but somehow only just got round to actually pulling the trigger.

I added a few branches from old Citadel Woods, so it looks like the forest is overgrowing the skeleton a little. I think that, once mixed in with the Wyldwood trees in my collection, they will help sell the idea.

Like those trees the Megadroth Remains will serve double-duty in both The Harrowmark (because a big skeleton is never out of place in the Realm of Death) and The Prowling Forest, in the Scarlands (because a big skeleton is also never out of place in the Realm of Beasts!).

Update: I was asked for the bone painting recipe on Facebook, so I will add it here too.

• Spray undercoated black, zenithal primed grey.
• Painted the bones with Wraithbone then Skeleton Horde Contrast.
• Dry-brushed with Ushabti Bone all over then White Scar on the sharper edges.
• Painted a little Plaguebearer Flesh Contrast onto the lowest parts, but with a "ragged" edge so there wasn't a "tideline".
• Horns and spines then got a coat of Snakebite Leather Contrast.

Dark Skies Over The Harrowmark - part 15, the Wyldwoods

Three more Awakened Wyldwood Trees finished!

They were mostly painted with Contrast but a rough recipe is:

• Halfords Matt Grey spray primer all over.
• Brush-on Wraithbone Base onto all the leaves, mushrooms, skulls and bones.
• Painted all the leafy areas with a cocktail of Nazdreg Yellow, Snakebite Leather, Matt Medium and a little water.
• Painted all the bark (trunks, branches and fallen bits) with Goregrunter Brown Contrast.
• Painted all the skulls and bones with Skeletal Horde Contrast.
• Painted the metal brackets on the wooden joist with Leadbelcher Base.
• Washed the rocks and wooden joist with Nuln Oil Shade.
• Painted all the earthy areas with Steel Legion Drab Base.
• Dry-brushed everything with Ushabti Bone, especially the skulls, bones, rocks and earth texture.

Then it was just supergluing the grass flock and leaf litter in random-ish patches and a quick spray of Munitorum Varnish all over, with a second coat (once the first was completely dry) on the parts that will get handled most during play.

They are for the Harrowmark in Shyish, really but they will see "action" on the tabletop first as part of the Prowling Forest in Ghur, in the Warcry campaign that we recently started.

Dark Skies Over The Harrowmark - part 14, a graveyard corner

(The board is far too cluttered for gaming, but this is just to see how all the trees look together.)

I have had this little corner wall and tree, in a very slowly progressing WIP state, on my desk since January 2021! But because Viktor and I are back exploring forests again, so I was motivated to actually get on and finish it.

I have also started building two more Awakened Wyldwood trees and I have another one still on the sprue that I hope to start soon. They are a bit faffy to build, so I won't be rushing them. I will just add a branch or two each session between working on other projects and leaving the glue to dry at least overnight, if not longer.

Animosity IV - The Bleeding Wilds, part 9 - Stormdancing

The Cleavermaw raced downwind at an uncharacteristic speed. The crew had to work hard to keep everything tied down as the high winds pulled at every knot, every sheet of canvas and every plank in the hull.

Kaptain Mogrum stood on the quarterdeck, with one hand on the rigging and one on his hat. A deckhand stood just behind him, clinging on to the gunwales and holding the Kaptain’s Wurrgog Harpoon for him. The helm was fighting hard and it took two orruks at the wheel to keep the sky-ship on its course. The Kaptain squinted through the eye-holes of his mask into the bright sunlight, trying to keep sight of the Kharadron skyvessel that was about four miles ahead and below them.

The orruk sky-pirate crew grinned at each other in glee whenever they found a spare moment - they were all exhilarated by the pace of their flight and they also had to hold on tight to their hats. They all kept half an eye on the chase: The Kharadron ship was now about three miles ahead of them and running its endrins at full speed, but their vessel was heavier than the Cleavermaw and did not have the benefit of sails. The wind pushed them along too, but their endrins did most of the work. If they had both been running against the wind the Kharadron ship would have the advantage, but they were not - they must have a destination they were in a hurry to reach that lay on the same heading as the winds blew, otherwise they could easily escape.

Mogrum subconsciously noted a change in the air pressure and ordered the ship to descend. The orruks jumped into action as they all enjoyed the lurch in the pit of their stomachs caused by this manoeuvre.

The Cleavermaw plummeted and the sails went slack for a minute that seemed to go on forever. Clouds rushed past. The sails filled again with a crack of canvas and the ship picked up even more speed as the air was moving even faster at the lower altitude. But the ship was being buffeted hard, the air was turbulent and the hull complained with loud creaks and groans. The orruks’ grins were wiped off their toothy mouths - they were replaced by serious, even worried looks.

But they were still gaining on the Kharadron ship. Two miles. One mile.

The orruk pirates could make out the individual crew on the Arkanaut’s deck now. There were only a few of them, and they seemed to be watching the Cleavermaw closely too.

The ochre-coloured sands below them were punctuated by umber rock-spines that stood hundreds of feet high. Their shadows stretched across the desert dunes between them in the amber evening light. The Kharadron vessel was heading for the mountains in the distance, just visible through the hazy dust-filled air.

"Kaptain?" said Uzzog as he squinted through his brass spyglass, "I think she might be the Tarragon, one of the Ironclads off of that Able Albern Baking Company."

"Ah, is it now?"

Mogrum grinned as he gave the order to prepare the boarding party, the pirates grabbed their weapons, and as the Cleavermaws bore-down on their prey the Kharadron guns spoke…

~ ⦽ ~

After a year of just sitting on a shelf gathering dust I finally finished building the Cleavermaw; an orruk pirate sky-ship after the style of John Blanche's flying ship paintings.

I added a yard-arm and rigging, a ship's wheel and the structure it is attached to, and a number of smaller components; like the thingy on the roof of the Kharadron Frigate and the spinny-whatsit on the bottom.

Dark Skies Over The Harrowmark - part 13 Gallowmire mausoleums

These two mausoleums came from Mortal Realms Magazine (the full kit was split over two issues but it's still really good value!). I cut down the paving stones on one side of both parts so they would sit closer together. I filled the resulting small gaps with texture paint.

They will be serving double-duty for Gallowmire in the Harrowmark, and the Great Oubliette:

Dark Skies Over The Harrowmark - part 12 Gallowmire ruins

I'm working on more Gallowmire scenery for Warcry games in The Harrowmark. The first one is combined Sigmarite Mausoleum walls and gravestones (from Mortal Realms magazine) and an Awakened Wyldwood tree (from the Souldrain Forest set).

The second is a Warcry starter set ruin combined with another tree from the Souldrain Forest set, plus a few bits-box extras.

I'm hoping the rain will ease-off enough to get an undercoat on both of them so I can start painting soon!

(Updated 9th February 2021)

First of these two painted:

Dark Skies Over The Harrowmark - part 11, a Harrowmark Warcry board

I've wanted to make a Warcry sized Harrowmark board for a while. But it was only when I realised it was going to be really hard to play the solo campaign I've been planning without one that I started thinking about it in earnest.

I've decided to blog the entire process as a single post rather than spread it out over several parts, as it will be easier for readers to follow.

I looked around online for a suitable cork notice board (A1 sized, framed, and fairly sturdy) for a while before I realised I could order the right type of thing in Argos and pick it up with the weekly shopping in Sainsbury's!

So just before Christmas 2020, I came home with a 60x80cm notice board:

I didn't have much time to work on it before Christmas so I contented myself with testing how much scenery was needed to make it look full, but not too full.

After Christmas I started work on it. I found a handful of old Warhammer movement trays and cut them up as flagstones. I shaved the edges to make them look like chipped and worn stone.

I cut most of them as rectangles but I also cut a few diagonally, so they looked like they had cracked. I stuck them down with PVA wood glue. I also started making a few more pieces of scatter terrain.

I didn't want to have to cover the entire board in textured paint (I was a little worried about warping), so I ordered three 2mm cork sheets from eBay. They arrived on New Years Eve. I tore them into "random" shapes and glued them down with PVA.

Three sheets was not enough! I ordered 6 more - they arrived a week later, on 8th January. I only used 7 sheets in total, but I'll save the last two for use on more scatter terrain.

I glued some sand into the cracks between the cork sheets, plus a few bones from the Crypt Ghouls kit. 

I initially added a few skulls from the Citadel Skulls box, but I took them off again. The cork and the movement trays were all 2mm thick so the scatter terrain will sit flat on them. The skulls spoiled that. There are plenty of skulls on all the scatter terrain bits though! 

With that the board was ready for undercoat.

I sprayed it Chaos Black on the morning of 9th January. This was quick and easy, but it used a hell of a lot of the spray can - almost half I think. I kind of wish I had brushed on the matt black "blackboard" paint as I have a big can of it. It would have taken a lot longer but cost a lot less... I also nearly dropped it as I moved it back indoors. You can see the wiped-off paint on the frame where I caught it! Yes, my hands were then very painty...

Anyway, what was done was done, so I sprayed the flagstones with Mechanicus Standard Grey in the afternoon.

In the evening of 11th January I dry-brushed the flagstones with Ushabit Bone.

Then I used Steel Legion Drab (a big bottle of scenery paint I bought years ago) to paint the cork sheet and sanded areas.

While that was drying I washed the flagstones with Nuln Oil and pooled a little Athonian Camoshade into the Nuln while it was still wet.

Then it was dry-brushing time (12th January). A very light dry-brush of Ushabti Bone all over, then a more focused and slightly heavier coat of the same on the sand in the cracks.

Nearly there! I painted some Plaguebearer Flesh over the blackest parts of the flagstones to counter the pooling of Nuln Oil I wasn't happy with. Once that was dry I superglued dead grass flock and leaf litter into the cracks, in a few scattered areas, trying to keep them looking random and not too evenly spread out.

I still need to do some touch-ups of the black frame and give it a light coat of spray varnish (when it stops raining!) but I couldn't wait to try some of the Gallowmire scenery on it.

I'm very pleased with it. Pretty quick and easy (20th December 2020 to 12th January 2021 - with about a week waiting for the second delivery of cork sheet in between!) and it will look good with any of my Harrowmark scenery. I'm really looking forward to playing a solo campaign on it (and to playing against real people as soon as it is possible!!). 

The Cleavermaws had a look around too.

The board can also double as the Great Oubliette, with a filter added to the photos: