From the Archives: Sepulchral Guard

I’m still working on my next model, so it’s back to Shadespire. Here’s one of my favorite Underworlds warbands: Sepulchral Guard

As most will probably agree, these are gorgeous models! Maybe some of the best that GW has ever produced. Really dynamic and intricate, they really make me want an army of skellingtons. The regular AoS/old WHFB models are not quite at the same level though, so that’s good for the waller. But anyway, I liked these models so much that I bought and painted them right after Steelheart’s Champions, even though Garrek’s Reavers would’ve completed the core set.

Painting these guys was fun, I got to practice some new techniques and learned a couple of lessons as well. For the bone and the rusty metal I followed a splendid tutorial by RobPaintsModels. The bone uses a different palette from GW’s standard bone, and I really like it, but for some reason I have never gone back to it. I didn’t have sponge when doing the rust, so I stippled with a brush instead. Sadly I kind of messed it up by painting a coat of Agrax Earthshade on top (because everything needs a wash, right?), which got rid of the different shades of rust..

My wash-woes weren’t over with that though! I painted the blue cloth, gave it some nice highlights so that it looked pretty good to me. Then I thought that I’d wash it with Drakenhof Nightshade to enhance the folds. It absolutely destroyed Warden’s big cloak. I should’ve thinned down the wash as Nightshade seems to be a lot stronger than most other washes. But the biggest mistake was that I think I fiddled with the wash too long, so that it started to dry and I started lifting paint. The result was a terrible mess, which I should’ve painted again from scratch. Well, I didn’t do that, just layered the midtone and highlighted again. It wasn’t as good as before the wash, but I’ve kept telling myself that it looks worn and tattered, which goes with the “risen-from-the-grave” look.. I also washed the rest of the guys, which worked a bit better as they do not have large flat areas, but I think I didn’t shake the wash enough as some of them dried glossy. Some of these days I should give them a coat of matt varnish..

I also got a small taste of freehanding by painting a few millimeters of straight lines onto the shields. I chose the blue color for this warband so that I could have a “Finnish” theme for the shields with blue and white. I’m really happy with the different patterns on the shields, but once again I messed up a bit with the additional “scratches” I painted on. Shouldn’t have used metallic paints, and should’ve been a lot thinner. I wasn’t too keen on repainting things though (a habit which I fortunately seem to have recently lost), so I called it good enough.

All in all though, I still like the paintjob, despite the many “mistakes”. Teclis Blue is one of my favorite colors from GW and the bone and the rust were so easy and fast to paint. And not only are they a good-looking bunch, I’ve enjoyed playing with them as well!

Shadespire Collection So Far

One part of Azazel’s April challenge focuses on armies, and showcasing them “like 16 year-old girls post selfies”. My current collection doesn’t really have any proper armies, but I do have a collection of Shadespire warbands and terrain. They’ll do!

Just the one group photo this time. I have previously shown two of the warbands on this blog, my first proper post was to showcase the Skaven, and just last post was about the Stormcast Eternals. In the future I will be posting showcases for the remaining warbands – the Deathrattle, Khorne and Orruk teams – as well as the scenery pieces.

As you can see from the photo above, I’ve tried to come up or find a different color scheme for each of the groups, and if possible, go with something other than the box art. With that, I am just a couple colors short of a color wheel! If I can come up with a yellow and a green scheme, I’ll be set. Green should be easy, but yellow might be more tricky. Maybe I’ll count gold, and paint one of the Stormcast bands in the default Hammers of Sigmar scheme..

I’d like to eventually get all of the Shadespire warbands, and Nightvault as well, but I’ll have to see if I can keep up with GW’s release schedule. I’ve obviously fallen behind pretty badly (9 Underworlds teams to go, and soon two more), but as long as I can get the Nightvault box before it’s discontinued to make room for season 3, I should be good.