Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Dark Altar

Brimstone Dark Altar

This is the Shadows of Brimstone Dark Altar, which was originally available at GenCon 2018 and subsequently available on the FlyingFrog web store.  He's a cool terrain piece, and seemed pretty straightforward, so I bumped him up the line and got him straight into the paint booth.

This isn't intended as a detailed how-to, but I'll try to walk through the process with pictures.

Typical start - Stynlrez black primer.  I have him attached to a large pill bottle lid with some blue-tac.  Right here there's no highlighting added, it's just the reflection of the harsh booth light.

Chains basecoated (wet blended) with Scale75 Necro Gold and ArmyPainter Dark Stone.  I've really loved the S75 golds I've used, and the Necro pairs perfectly with the Dark Stone.

Wider shot showing the overall progress. The blue-gray was a 3-color build up of AP Necromancer Cloak, Uniform Gray, and Gorgun Hide.  This is the same color stack I used for my Kingdom Death bad guys.

Reverse shot. I was going for a lot of stark contrast from light areas to dark.

The vines were basecoated with AP Brown Stone and Oak Brown.  Then, I gave the entire "octopus head" a coat of Reaper Black Wash (thinned a bit), and here I'm showing the base, which I washed with AP Strong Tone. 

At this point, I got the Sotar2020 out and very lightly re-applied highlights in Gorgun Hide.  I didn't take a picture, but I also hit the lips of the steps with AP Skeleton Bone (also with the Sotar).  I also started shooting a few inks to push the recesses - Liquitex Carbon Black and Burnt Umber.

Applying pre-shading to the rocks in the back. I wanted these to be glowing Darkstone and lit from beneath. 

I really fussed with the rocks, working back and forth with hand-brushing, airbrush, airbrushed inks (AP Purple), and paints.  Very trial and error.

Almost done. Here you can see the weathering I've applied with inks. The chains have been re-highlighted with S75 Dwarven Gold.  The glowing rocks are about done.

Rocks, done. Not as 'glowy' as I intended, but I wanted the octo-face to be the brightest spot on the model.

Ultimately, the trick with the rocks was to really provide a strong outline with some hand-brushed edge highlights and some careful application of AP Strong Tone.

Finished model, side. Before applying the eye glow, I spent some time applying highlights by hand to his warts, veins, and wrinkles.

First time using blood FX.  Perhaps overkill but wanted to indicate recent use.

Finished Model. 

 If I were using this as a contest piece, I would have omitted the eye glow or done something different.  Comparing this picture with the ones above, the un-glowed verions are perhaps more "pleasing" but wanted to convey how evil this place was.  That chewing-on-tinfoil mental gnashing your brain is doing is somewhat intentional.

Like any project, I learned a few things, screwed a few things up, and would do a few things differently.  I was really happy with how the Liquitex Burnt Umber and AP Purple ink combined to make a really pleasing golden brown.  I liked the amount of contrast, shading, and weathering I did (though I really could have gone crazy with some water drips and runs).  The eye glow - despite the color - was really easy to do and is a technique I'll apply to gems, engines, and other glowy things down the road.