Iron Snakes: Ancient Nestor Base Complete

Hi folks,

I have been working on a base for my Iron Snakes Contemptor dreadnought today, a job which has been on my mind for far too long now. A few weeks ago I posted two potential arrangements on Google+ and the internet spoke loud and clear. The less OT ruins were preferred by most people (65%), which I was quite happy with, though I do lament the fact that it doesn't have a helmet plume.

The next challenge was choosing how to paint the ruins. In particular, the foot planted squarely on top has some nice light/dark contrast that I don't want to draw attention from. It was suggested that I just do a very plain dirt base, but after playing around with that idea it was clear that it would not fit with the rest of my Iron Snakes/Dark Angels bases. After a bit more digging around I remembered this picture from my LOTR CCG collection:

I liked the pale colour with the tinges of green in places to suggest growth, the fallen leaves collecting in the recesses and the way the ferns break up the interface with the ground. So... how to do that...

Step 1: Black spray undercoat.

Step 2: 1:1 glaze of bleached bone and skull white, with a small amount of scorched brown to make it warmer.

Step 3: After drying, I repeated the glaze and blended in the edges with Administratum Grey. I also added a few dabs of 3:1 Administratum Grey/Warpstone Glow to the lower surfaces of the face.

 

Step 4:Ok, so this wasn't really one step, it was more like 7 steps. The places where I was going to put flock on the ruins I painted with a 1:1 mix of Scorched Brown/Administratum Grey and blended it in to the surrounding base colours. I then put a dab of PVA in the crevasses and recesses and dropped some winter grass flock on top, which I also put around the base close to the ruins. The rest of the base was covered in a 2:1 mix of winter/spring glass. In some places I added some lighter coloured static grass. Finally, I added two laser cut ferns to add some texture. 

In case you were wondering, these are my secret weapons; laser cut miniature plants from Noch. Best $20 I have spent on terrain ever.

Well, I hope you like it as much as I do. It was great fun tinkering away with it for the past couple of hours. Next update, I should have the torso completed on the dreadnought itself.

See you across the table,

M4cr0