Dark Reaper Shrine

Not much to tell, but lots to see. You've already seen the beginning of this piece of terrain in an earlier post, but my main problem with what you saw there is that it really did look blocky; like three square pieces of foam stacked on top of three round ones. I firmly believe that making things too complicated is what kills otherwise excellent projects, but it just looked a little too simple. What I go for when I'm doing terrain is that the foam should "disappear" and the illusion replaces it. That wasn't happening in that first design, so I sliced up what was effectively the second floor and made it look like a foundation, a long pillar in the middle, and a roof with a dome. Carved out an alcove for the Maugen Ra "statue" and then began the fun part: Covering it with drywall compound and LOTS of skulls.



I based it all with that Canadian Tire black I bought months ago, and then drybrushed with GW Shadow Grey. An almost equal amount of Bleached Bone went on top (some day I'm going to write a long article about how amazing Bleached Bone is) and then a dusting of white over top. Some Lich Purple went on the gems and the spire (which, as any Eldar player worth his salt will tell you, comes from a Fire Prism tank). I don't normally like the way that drybrushing looks, so I rarely do it. Still, I really like actually doing it. It's a lot of fun. So when I find an opportunity where drybrushing is the perfect thing (as it was for this shrine), I am in there like a dirty shirt drybrushing my heart out. I think it worked nicely here. Nothing, and I mean nothing makes foam look more like stone than drybrushing.

The big score was that Reaper rune you see on the dome up top. It's actually clipped off of Maugen Ra's backpack; not my Maugen, though. My buddy Matt had a Maugen Ra and cannibalized it, and let me have the rune. I've held onto that for the better part of a year, knowing that somehow, somewhere, I'd have a use for it. Looks like the waiting paid off (he also gave me the Fire Prism thing I'm using for the spire).



In addition to making a pretty darn good looking shrine, I would also like some credit for not trying to work a "don't fear the reaper" joke into this post. It crossed my mind, believe me... but I like to think I'm better than that.