Back in February 2019 I completed the Nightvault Arcane Hazards for Warhammer Underworlds. I picked up this second set of Underworlds terrain shortly after release around September-October 2019 and got started on it pretty quickly. And then, of course, the usual happened and they got put away into a plastic tub, partially painted.
With this year’s Season of Scenery challenge over at Dave Stone’s Wargames Terrain Workshop blog, I decided to finally try to complete this set. As it happened, I got four of the six pieces done in time – as seen above!
The final two didn’t get completed until a few days into September – the draconic skeleton just a little while before posting. The fire effects were finicky to paint, and I’m not especially a fan of things like sculpted flames or smoke at the best of times. I also had to assemble and paint the giant drake skull in bits and pieces, and then use spue goo to combine the two halves of the skull before re-base coating the most of it and then shading & highlighting.
The other annoying part of the large draconic skeleton was the fact that I’ve lost the shoulderblade piece. If I ever find it, I’ll attach and paint it – but bloody annoying! All of the pieces have some form of Contrast used on them, though none used in the “official” way of slapping it onto a basic undercoat.
Since I still haven’t finished an Underworlds Warband, I’ve subbed in some WHFB/AoS models to show scale. Obviously these can also be used in all manner of Fantasy games as well as smaller bits of scatter… just featuring odd hexagonal stone elements.. As it happens, just as I was working on the final elements of these last two pieces, I got a blog notification that The Responsible One had just completed his set of these and has done a great job on them – go check his set out! So it seems that great minds think alike – and so do we!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Wonderful work on all six mate, contrast paints are proving useful, but not how they were intended ! LOL I only ever sculpt flames, never smoke, as it just looks too solid for a gas, would much rather use lambs wool teased out for smoke.
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Thanks Dave! I love Contrasts as they’re a new(ish) versatile tool with a lot of uses.
Yeah, it really depends on what it is – on a campfire, etc then it’s fine, but I feel like GW uverdoes it with burning braziers and weapons, and censers, and on and on…
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That acid-pool is especially great!
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Cheers mate – it was a mix of different things dropped in there and luckily it turned out well! 🙂
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These have come up really well. Like all of the piecers.
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Thanks Guru! I’m happy to finally have them done and also wioth how they came out! 😀
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Nothing against you, but I thought that fire effect thing was an alien tree at first! That sculpted smoke just doesn’t look right, ah well. The pieces look great and I can’t believe how green you got that puddle, freakin amazing!
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Yeah, it’s pretty sketchy as far as sculpts go. Still, I have to admit that I didn’t/don’t care enough about it to do anything beyond paint it and call it done! 😀
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All very nice! 🙂 I don’t like sculpted flames or smoke, but you’ve got them to come out really well!
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I agree – not really a fan, so “good enough” is deinitely good enough for me!
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Lovely – that acid pool is particularly sexy!
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Thanks Alex – it came out surprsingly well.
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Oooo! These are nice… Hard to pick a favourite, but I think it’s the acid pool for me. You’ve managed to create depth in the pool and the bubbles look great – superb mate.🙂
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Thank you! The sculpt was painted with a pale lemon yellow and then the green was a mix of one of the bright green contrasts, Tessaract Glow, paint medium, gloss varnish and water effects – then mixed up. Literally a “add some of this, some of that, mix it, add some more stuff and we’ll see how it turns out!”
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The hexagon look is interesting isn’t it? I think it was the newest Dragon Age game (Inquisition?) that had dwarves that lived in caves made up of those kinds of rocks. I thought that was a cool and original idea so its cool to see something like that here. Getting back to the terrain, these came out great and I think they’re pretty versatile for Warhammer or fantasy games too. Excellent work as always, mate!
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I’d guess these (and the ones in DA) are based on columnar jointed rocks – which do look pretty bloody amazing. (yeah, I did have to google the name) 😉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columnar_jointing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_with_columnar_jointed_volcanics
I’ve seen a doco on Giant’s Causeway awhile ago (not the one linked – can’t remember what it was) – it’d make a pretty amazng table setup!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%27s_Causeway
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That is a good find, mate! I actually didn’t know those rocks were real so my mind is blown. I’d definitely stop by Giants Causeway if I get the opportunity!
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I love the acid pool
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Cheers IRO! 😀
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Yeah, those flames and smoke balls don’t look like great sculpts…
Awesome work with the acid pool, the goop looks like it’s glowing!
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Someone’s early work in taking that next step in 3D sculpting, perhaps? Thanlks on the Acid – it was literally just throwing more and more stuff into the mix and hoping it would turn out well!
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I totally agree with Deturnation in regards to the acid pool!
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Much appreciated, Pat! 🙂
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