Monday 6 May 2019

“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.

20 comments:

  1. Great work on Skulltaker Simon, bet your glad to finally have it finished.
    Nice start on the Death Troopers, the green details on the face really make them pop

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    1. Thanks Dave. I am indeed extremely pleased to have finished Skulltaker, as he was a very intimidating mini due to being absolutely packed full of detail. I still have a Slaughter Priest and third Judgement of Khorne to finish so I can take my Blades of Khorne to 750 points, and then a final push to 1000 points to come. Phew!!

      The Death Troopers are already finished, and yes I've gone for some tiny green markings on their face, along with some other silver and white bits just to help break them up.

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  2. Liking the Skull-Taker and the Death Troopers.

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    1. Cheers Phil. I should start posting up some of the finished Death Troopers this week...

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  3. Well skulltaker is finally done. He has been a Labour of love and a fitting leader for your army, nice job. I like those deathtroopers as well. I think Rogue One introduced a lot of great stuff to Star wars and these were one of the best.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I'm a big fan of the Imperials in "Rogue One", and hope to add a Combat Assault Tank to the mix, once I've finally painted up some proper Stormtroopers.

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  4. I always loved that skull-cape. Great job!

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  5. Now that is a serious fashion accessory! What a cape! Great job Simon.

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    1. Thanks Michael. I loved painting the cape too, so many skulls for the Blood God!!

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  6. Beautiful work on Skulltaker, I too like the cape, though it must weigh a ton!!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. It must weigh a ton or two indeed!! :-)

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  7. Sorry, I would have commented sooner but I was still picking my jaw up off the floor after seeing that cape!!?? 😀

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    1. LOL, Ivor. I see remember seeing the resin cape when I first opened the blister and looking at all the detail in amazement. There’s actually a number of brass hooks dotted throughout the skulls which presumably attach the heads to the cloak itself. There was no way I was going to pick all those out, so decided to make my hooks bone too :-)

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  8. Another labour of love on the skull-taker, I'm guessing.
    The amount of detail you've managed to pick out is excellent and it's a very imposing and fitting leader for the bloodletters - great stuff!

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    1. Cheers Joe. Skulltaker was probably more a labour of necessity though, as I really wanted a top Bloodletter to lead my daemonic force, and the fluff strongly suggested it should be him - for now at least.

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  9. Splendid looking warhost and a most fitting leader, fantastic work Simon!
    Now 'time to gather some skulls' 😁!

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    1. Thanks very much indeed Wouter. Now, if only I can get the Khorne Slaughter priest finished...

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