Shardwrack Spines

Posted on 07/01/2018 by sho3box

ShardwrackSpinesFull

A very short post today.

Five Citadel “Shardwrack Spines” painted to look a little like space cacti.  I like the visual that these have, it’s nice for photo backdrops in addition to game terrain.  The paintjob was super rapid: spray cans, drybrushing and washes, with a little bit of blobbing on “Nurgles Rot” onto the bulbous areas.

The Ratskin shown will be posted in more detail with his buddies in a future post.

EDIT:  I have been asked for a description of how I painted these, so I am adding it here.

After assembling the pieces fully, the bases were sprayed with GW Mournfang Brown spray, while the models were held by the tips of the spines.  Little or no paint got further down the length of the spines than halfway.

Then the top two thirds or so were sprayed with GW Death Guard Green spray.

After that approximately a third of the top ends of the spines was sprayed with Army Painter Greenskin spray.

Once dry, almost the entirety of each spine was rapidly drybrushed with Citadel Eldar Flesh followed by GW Tyrant Skull (IIRC).

A few washes of Army Painter Green were added towards the top of the spines.  GW Niblet Green was drybrushed here and there, focusing on the vaguely shell like shapes that appear on the sides of most of the spines.  A little bit of an acid yellow colour with a bit of green in it was drybrushed on to those areas too.

The areas of bulbous growth were painted with watered down GW Blood for the Blood God, which dries with an appropriate, glossy, sticky-looking finish.  When that was dry a couple of coats of GW Nurgles Rot were added to the larger spherical growths.

The tips of the spines were painted with GW Agrax Earthshade a couple of times, focusing on less length of the spine each time.  The same thing was done with  GW Nuln Oil closer to the tip, until finally some thinned down Army Painter Black was used at the very tip.

A few brown tufts were added to the base to ground it further.

I hope that someone out there finds that useful.

Additionally Thomas at High Times on the Eastern Fringe put up a great tutorial on painting these before I painted mine.  Definitely worth a look if you have Shardwrack Spine painting in mind.

 

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30 Responses

  1. axiom, on 07/01/2018 at 14:36 said:

    They look great – they’re muted enough with the brown to look naturalistic, but the jade green and pus yellow turn them into something otherworldly.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 07/01/2018 at 14:41 said:

      Thanks Axiom 🙂

      I want to use them in space western settings, so I kept the palette green and brown, to make them metaphorical cacti I suppose.

      It’s was rapid and pleasant painting them, so I may continue the scheme into some of the other Citadel Deathworld kits I think.

      Like

      Reply
  2. airbornegrove26, on 07/01/2018 at 14:52 said:

    Nice. I think I’m gonna do the old foam ball with toothpicks for my cacti. 🌵

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Curis, on 07/01/2018 at 16:57 said:

    Love these! Makes me want a set. I love how you’ve got the colour transitioning through a very rich green. There’s a lovely contrast of neutral sandy tones at the base of the spine and really saturated colour at the top.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Thomas, on 07/01/2018 at 17:19 said:

    Nice ones! Quite different take on the Shardwrack Spines from my take on the plants. I like them a lot.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 08/01/2018 at 19:12 said:

      I took an in depth look at how you approached the spines before I tackled them myself Thomas, I should have mentioned that before now. I have added a link to the main post.

      I have a Deathworld Jungle terrain set already, so I wanted to make these models passable in a more Northern European fairy tale sort of forest, in addition to making them passable as a sort of space cactus. Thats why I went with more familiar colours than I normally would.

      I was sorely tempted to copy your colour scheme wholesale, but I wanted to be able to use this stuff to bulk out a couple of terrain sets that I have, so I was a little more restrained than usual.

      I think that they still manage to look alien and unfamiliar on closer inspection anyway.

      Thanks for the feedback and for the tutorial too!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Thomas, on 08/01/2018 at 19:30 said:

        Cheers mate! I’m glad you found the tutorial useful.

        I think your colour scheme is excellent, especially for the fairy tale vibe that you wanted. I’ve come to like this set so I’m glad to see other people doing it justice.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply
  5. Mikko, on 08/01/2018 at 06:46 said:

    Those are very nice Paul! What are they, originally?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. mrsaturdays, on 08/01/2018 at 09:24 said:

    These look great, I must look over these terrain releases again, there’s some gold in tham thar boxes.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 08/01/2018 at 19:14 said:

      Thanks Mr S!

      The particularly nice thing about the Shardwrack spines is that I was able to work on them while painting other miniatures and end up with a set of Spines almost without realising it.

      I am hopeful that the other Deathworld pieces will be as rewarding.

      Like

      Reply
  7. Warburton, on 08/01/2018 at 10:54 said:

    Cool!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. Alex, on 08/01/2018 at 11:35 said:

    Bang on mate – nice job 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. MajGuscard, on 08/01/2018 at 14:59 said:

    Those will go really well with both your jungle and the new AoS stuff. Nice execution of flexibility. …oh, and it has to look great, but you already do that… 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 08/01/2018 at 19:44 said:

      Thank Major!

      There is always the risk of ending up with dull generic items when trying to fit toy soldier pieces into too many roles simultaneously, but I think that I managed it nicely here, if I do say so myself.

      As you say, I think that I will manage to squeeze these into all sorts of games and settings.

      Like

      Reply
  10. Azazel, on 10/01/2018 at 11:44 said:

    Both you and Thomas have done a great job on these. Between the two of you, you’ve sold me on a kit I hadn’t given a second look (or thought) to!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 10/01/2018 at 14:09 said:

      Thanks Azazel.

      Something that I think that you might enjoy about these is that you can take them from the packet to fully finished on the gaming table *really* rapidly if you feel inclined.

      There are plenty of other things that require attention too after all.

      Like

      Reply
  11. Mark A. Morin, on 23/01/2018 at 04:23 said:

    Never seen these before, but I like them and appreciate the how-to detail. Nicely done and thanks.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. Shardwrack Spines: January Terrain 2019 | Azazel's Bitz Box., on 11/01/2019 at 10:20 said:

    […] that they were a bit shit. Over time, I saw a few that looked decent through to good, such as the ones on Sho3box’ blog. Even then, though – I still had no interest in the […]

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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