Progress on the Display Board

Over the last week or two I've been putting in work on the display board project. Having "sculpted" the temple floor from foam board, I next turned to desecrating the place. After all, the army that will be on display here is the Harrowed, right? Since the army is meant to be a corrupted IG regiment, I wanted the setting to tell some of that story.

Accordingly, I sculpted in tendrils infesting the Aquila.



Working greenstuff into the foam was tricky, as I couldn't press too hard into the foam without crushing it out of shape. Eventually I got the hang of a workable technique.

In the center of the Aquila I modeled an eye of chaos -- conjuring (I hoped) a malignant cthonic intelligence gaining daemonic sway over the temple's spiritual energies.



To help the bases of my figures blend in with the terrain, I sprinkled and glued on some patches of rubble.



Also, to help frame the scene, I put a pillar at each corner, each one twisting unnaturally toward the center. (The pillars were cast in resin, then immersed in hot water and bent carefully.)



To prepare for painting, I coated the temple floor heavily and thoroughly with three coats of watered down PVA (so that the foam would not dissolve when I spray painted it). This helped toughen up the "skin" of the display board. To further strengthen it, I sprayed on a coat of matte finish before I painted it.

Then I primed the board and painted on a coat of grey (with some sand sprinkled in for some texture), then washed and drybrushed the floor parts. A bit of touch up with a brush here and there on the stone work, and I ended up with:



To help set off the Aquila, I painted that in shades of grays mixed with a few drops of Gore Red, and lightly traced a marble effect with tiny brushstrokes of light gray.

Then I painted the daemonic tendrils in shades of blue working up to icy white.



(As you can see here, I also ended up magnetizing the four corner pillars, since they kept coming off, even after I hot-glued and pinned them.)

The tendril painting still needs work, but it's beginning to evoke the effect I hoped for:


Meanwhile, I decided (after priming the pillars -- doh!) that I wanted to sculpt some tendrils into the pillars as well:



Some other views from other angles:


and



So, that's where I am so far. Getting close....