“Skulltaker, Also Known As U'zuhl, Is An Infamous Bloodletter And Herald Of Khorne…”

"...And has been anointed as the Blood God's own Sacred Executioner."

This 28mm scale "Finecast" sculpt of “Khorne’s immortal champion”, Skulltaker, is produced by “Games Workshop” for their “Age Of Sigmar” range and comes in five "finely detailed resin" components, which proved reasonably straightforward to assemble despite the figure not being supplied with assembly instructions. “The greatest of all Bloodletters”, I plan to use U'Zhul as the leader of my Blades of Khorne warhost and tap into his “Heads Must Roll” Command Ability; which during the start of the combat phase allows a friendly Bloodletters unit to re-roll “wound rolls of 1 for attacks made by that unit.”

“Ever seeking worthy skulls for his master”, the model was primed in “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna before having all of his armour, shoulder-pads, Hellblade, helmet and cloak-trim ‘picked out’ using a combination of Gold and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. These areas were subsequently dry-brushed using (more) “Vallejo” Gold, whilst the Herald of Khorne’s skull-infested cloak was treated to a a couple of layers of Iraqi Sand, a downpour of Strong Tone Quickshade by “The Army Painter”, a hearty dry-brush of (more) “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand, a lighter dry-brush of White and a liberal sponging of “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson. Even after all that, the odd skull, still received a second ‘dry-brush’ of either “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand, White or both to help tie the formidably-detailed bone-adorned garment together.

"Skulltaker often goes to war at the head of the Cohort of Blood..."

“The Blooded Wanderer” is also sculpted holding a fiery skull and spine in one of his clawed hands, so in order to finish off this area as quickly as possible, I once again returned to my semi-successful recipe of “Vallejo” Heavy Orange, “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, (additional) “Vallejo” Heavy Orange and a final fleeting touch of Heavy Ochre. However, this time round I also applied a light dusting of “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand to the ‘ensemble’ to help tie the grisly flaming trophy together.

With much of the miniature’s more fiddly detail now completed, I set about base-coating all the Bloodletter’s flesh with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. Ordinarily, I subsequently dry-brush such daemonic flesh with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Red, but as so much of it was tightly surrounded by other colours, I decided to leave it well enough alone, and simply ‘highlight’ only the most easily accessible areas.

Imperial Death Trooper WIPs - These elite soldiers of the Tarkin Initiative have been primed and dry-brushed

Finally, I pigmented the “Slayer Of Kings” cloak and horns with “Citadel” Abaddon Black, his sharp teeth with "Vallejo" White and his forked tongue with Heavy Ochre. Both the fangs and tongue were later washed with "Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, before I painted the Bloodletter’s horn-ensconced skulls in precisely the same way as I had previously done on his other gruesome bleach-coloured trophies.

Having now finished my initial 500-point strong Blades of Khorne warhost, I thought I'd momentarily turn my attention to something far more straightforward to paint, and have assembled the six-figure contents of the Imperial Death Troopers unit expansion by "Fantasy Flight Games". These "inhuman revenants" have been assembled, primed and dry-brushed, so just need some washes and additional tiny details to be 'picked out' before they are ready for the tabletop.