AoS28: Stormcast Eternal

“By day fantastic birds flew through the petrified forest, and jeweled crocodiles glittered like heraldic salamanders on the banks of the crystalline river. By night the illuminated man raced among the trees, his arms like golden cartwheels, his head like a spectral crown…”

The Crystal World (1966), J.G. Ballard

In some forgotten grottos and neglected glades of the Mortal Realms, a singular transformation is coming over all organic matter. Living or dead, all blossoming into vitreous spurs of crystal. An inexhaustible tide, physically and psychologically. White static on periphery of conscious thought, beckoning all to return to face absolution. A new horror to add to the many that plague the Mortal Realms. But perhaps the capacity for it has been present all along, since the World’s molten core was placed within the firmament, some antediluvian certainty finally coalescing into being?

Having successfully painted Freyvid Hafnar, the Kharadron scientist investigating the crystal blight, I turned my attention to painting the first afflicted individual that I built, a Stormcast Eternal.

The goal for the model’s color scheme was to create a bleaker and grimmer version of the commonly represented Hammers of Sigmar.

When depicted by Games Workshop in illustrations and miniatures, the Stormcast Eternals from the different Stormhosts are shown as mighty heroes glowing in polished battle armor. My primary goal when painting the crystallizing Stormcast Eternal was to take the gleaming and unblemished hero look and turn it on its head. This Stormcast Eternal needed to appear broken and defeated, necessitating a worn and weathered paint scheme. I decided to base his color scheme on Games Workshop’s most commonly portrayed Stormhost, the Hammers of Sigmar. Their abundance of gold and blue promised plenty of room for weathering. All of the metallics on the model were painted with Scale 75 metallic paints. For the gold, the initial coat was done using the darkest gold available (Necro gold) followed by series of washes. The first was with Vallejo dry rust, followed by GW Agrax Earthshade, and finally GW Nuln oil. After the washes, I highlight the raised areas with a range of brighter and brighter golds. These highlights were painted with a stippling technique to get a beaten look. The final highlight was with silver, tracing the edges of some of the more obvious dents.

The size of the Stormcast’s hammer was reduced and his shield was dented.

Special effort was taken to make the gold armor looked dulled and stressed from the wearer’s final battle within the crystal forest.

An Age of Sigmar Skirmish force is slowly building! 

Currently I am planning to continue exploring the crystal affliction theme by creating an Age of Sigmar Skirmish force. Next I need to paint the orruk model that I converted previously. After that I think I will convert a few crystallizing Kharadron Overlord models to go along with Freyvid Hafnar. If you have any suggestions of crystallizing warriors that I could look to add to the warband feel free to voice them! 

-Adam Wier