Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault Arcane Hazards #1 (February Terrain 2019)

Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault Arcane Hazards

Today I have the first three terrain pieces from the Nightvault Arcane Hazards set – yes, I’ve finally painted some Shadespire Models! (sorta!) Actually, this post may have gone up a week or so ago, but I forgot to take the “group” shot above, so it had to wait until after I got back out again to take some more photos.

Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault Arcane Hazards

My starting this set was directly inspired by seeing what Alexis West aka Westrider had done with some of her set. Yep – the same ones that were featured in the Community Round-up for January a few days ago. Seeing them done up by another hobbyist as opposed to the box or GW webpage can often make models feel more achievable to paint, and often get me off my arse to paint and finish them.

Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault Arcane Hazards

As you can see, I went with a scheme that has a little in common with what GW did with their box art, but also fits in directly with the Balewind Vortex that I painted a few weeks ago. I figure a lot of my “undead-ish” terrain will have elements in common with these. I also did some experiementing with a new metallic blue spray that I picked up recently, as well as another (failed) experiment with those Gemstone colours – just look at the rough, gloppy texture of the paint on the flat of the pyramid when the light hits it!

Ah well – better these than a Dreadnought or something like that!

As for the February Paint Challenge that these are a part of – I have been and will be working hard to get the community round up done much more quickly this month, so expect it around the 9th or 10th – basically the weekend after the first full week of the month to allow people to get their stuff finished in the next hours, and then get them posted up on their own blogs.

Oh, and Alex – hold the presses for Fembruary, yeah? I’ve got a little over 4 hours left to finish the model I’m working on! 😉

40k 3rd Edition Starter Set Ruins (February Terrain 2019)

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

How excitement! Yeah, I know. These aren’t the most impressive or exciting pieces, but they’ve been hanging around for years unpainted, so I managed to finally get them done and into the terrain cupboard. These actually aren’t the originals from my own 40k 3rd Ed set – I did actually get those done a few years ago.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

Instead, these came from a batch of second-hand models I got years ago, along with other bits and pieces, including a crashed Aquila Lander missing it’s tail fin. I still need to finish my first one of those first, though (didn’t get it done in Jan of Feb).

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

Being models that I got in a more or less random box is also why some of the pieces were mismatched and (in some cases) missing, so I decided to also build these based on making slightly different corner combinations to the “proper” ones. (And patched the corners with putty!) At this point, years ago, the idea was still to paint them in the same manner as my existing (grey) ones.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

At some point – last year, I think – I sprayed them in a cream/bone colour. The idea now being to paint them to go with a more arid or desert-y table. At that point, they got forgotten about again for several months until this challenge got them out. As it happened, these were the perfect kind of models to paint while Dad was in hospital again. Simple on so many levels, but an achievable task.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

Since then, the Sector Imperialis terrain has been released, with the “showcase” pieces being in a similar colour, so I decided to press on with them, and also use them as test pieces for my own take on that style of scheme to – in turn – help me decide how to paint my Sector Imperialis stuff.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

The paint then was done in a “quick and dirty” manner. Sprayed (gloss) cream from the hardware store. A few details picked out, such as the exposed bricks under the plaster and the grates. The whole lot was then drybrushed with a bone/off-white. Next up was an all-over wash with Vallejo Model Wash (thanks to Dave Kay from Scent of a Gamer for the heads-up on this stuff existing!) followed by a wipe-off while it was still wet, to get that combo wash/stained effect.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

In the end, I have another 5 pieces of smaller-but-modular terrain that are generic enough to again fit into many genres and timelines. I think that they look pretty decent in the shot above with the LotD moving across them. They’ll look even better with other terrain around them in a proper gaming situation!

On an unrelated note, Leonard the Cat appears to have truly gotten a big head due to all of the recent attention!