This is the third time I’ve painted a set of Eldritch Ruins and technically the second time I’ve painted this pair – it was gifted to me by a good IRL friend, one esteemed “Upya Butt” who chipped in for these back when I was starting miniature painting as a recurring hobby thing and posting online. I’ve recently had to part with the other set for space and reasons that I can only refer to as “the struggle”, but I decided if I was going to do that, that I wanted the set of ruins I was keeping to look tip-top. I feel like every time I paint this it turns out better and this build was no exception to that.

Instead of just going with the fire-orange color that I did across the last set of ruins and Barbed Venomgorse that I did, which were originally intended to just blend in nicely with my Eldar and my Banshees specifically, I decided to mix things up a little. Wraithbone is Wraithbone, sure, but I thought I’d add just a little more color to my board. I wanted to homage the yellow that I painted this with the first time, and tried to give it a more marigold kind of look, and I’m happy with how it translated in person and on camera, since it stands apart nicely from even the little yellow fungi that are spotted all over the rest of the build.

For the second piece, again just to mix things up, I wanted to go with a violet or a purple that would stand in even stronger contrast against the marigold yellow on the first piece, as well as the fungi. It’s also not a color I’ve done a whole lot with to date, so I kind of wanted a chance to play around with it and see what landed. It’s a color that I think I’ve probably been sitting on for a while in terms of the palette that I use, and I might start to work more of it in. I have a plan for a build down the road that will use a decent amount of it, and I’m looking forward to doing more experimenting.

Anyway, long story short, these turned out a lot better I think than my first crack at them, and I think they’re a great counterpart high-effort piece to the lower-effort Webway Gates that I finished recently. I love these terrain models and, while I’ll probably be glad not to have to put in the time to repaint the whole pair again, I don’t rule out that this is a kit that I’ll come back to and repaint on whims or as I decide that my board needs a different kind or different balance of flair. Flowers are great like that.