Ruins 2: Eldritch Boogaloo

Posted on by mick Tagged , , , , , , ,

I have discovered my ideal terrain, and in the words of the immortal Bob Ross, it’s happy little trees. If one can really call Barbed Venomgorse either happy or a tree in the true sense of the word. My last set was a gift from “Upya Butt,” a local friend, and this one was a Christmas gift from a 40k friend whose Orks have given my elves lots of headaches over the last couple of years. (That Boomdakka Snazzwagon, it’s no joke.) So far as the ruins go, I’m happy with how these look on the tabletop, and I feel like I’ve improved a lot since doing the last set of these.

Pictured: One eye, two eye, red eye, blue eye.

One of the first changes I made with this build was I drew inspiration from Our Lord and Saviour Duncan and his tutorial on Barbed Venomgorse bark, and I felt like it was a night-and-day difference with the more greenish-brown color I went with on my original set. I also went out of my way to highlight the vines a lot more, because I felt on like on the first one I did they didn’t stand out very much. The result was that the bark and the vines looked more detailed and more dynamic, and popped better, and felt just a little more like part of a thriving Deathworld Forest.

Pictured: Two varieties of the elusive Space Dandelion.

Something else I changed with this batch is I made a point of highlighting the “fungi” growths on the bark, which I never really did with the original and I always kind of felt like was a missed opportunity. Someday I might go back and actually fix that on the first one, but I’m trying not to go too crazy with re-doing or re-painting models every time I find flaws. I like being able to compare after and see how I’ve improved. I also changed the “leaf” colors and I think that the orange pops very nicely, has kind of an almost autumnal look to it, and I think it fits in a lot better with the color schemes across my Banshees and my Ulthwe elves.

Pictured: Eldar for scale purposes, with the ruins of their former empire.

In both the running Crusade games I’m in – one as a solo campaign with a Tyranid player, and one as a small campaign with a couple friends – we’ve needed wilderness terrain for quite some time, and since my Eldar show up in both campaigns the Eldar ruins are very welcome as well. Ideally – in a perfect world where I can get steady work once this whole COVID thing blows over – I’d love someday to be able to put together something like a 3 x 4 ft. table just loaded with the stuff.

Pictured: Something that I borrowed (stole) from Table Standard – the idea of doing a “Hobby Bingo” card for the year, as posted in White Dwarf. The first part of this year is gonna be pretty slow going, but I think with the Wraithlord rescue and these ruins I’m off to a decent start!
Razor-sharp walls of crystalline growth, esoteric remnants of ancient civilisations long since overgrown and sentient flora that ensnare and consume the unwary are but a few of the dangers that can be found within a deathworld forest.

5 thoughts on “Ruins 2: Eldritch Boogaloo”

  2. Reply
    Dave Stone says:

    Excellent work Mick, once you get over vegetation is green a whole universe of opportunities opens up. It’s something I did with the alien vegetation I designed

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  3. Pingback: Barbed Venomgorse, of course! – Twitchy Bristles Painting

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