Imperium Basilica

It has been a while since I last featured some of the terrain from the guys over at What's New Today. However, last week Dan showed off his latest piece of scenery. The below images and commentary have been taken from What's New Today with my own thoughts in purple italics...

I wanted to go for something different, something unusual and, I must admit, this colour scheme was a bit of a gamble. The orangey tone of the building was achieved using several layers of colour over a Chaos Black undercoat. The basecoat was several solid layers of Vermin Brown, followed by a drybrush of Vermin Brown and Vomit Brown in a 1:1 mix.

I then did two more drybrushes, a further one of Vermin Brown and Vomit Brown 1:3 and then finally Vomit Brown on its own. I deliberately wanted more highlights on the top areas of the building (ramparts, window sills, door frames) to simulate sunlight, so I drybrushed from the top to the bottom of the building rather than across it. Once everything was dry, I then hit the whole model with a very heavy wash of Ogryn Flesh - my fingers also got a liberal dose of the same colour, as did one of my sleeves... and my desk...

All the skulls were picked out using Charadon Granite, which was then highlighted with Skull White mixed in. A light wash of Devlan Mud over all the Skulls, followed by a thin layer of Kommando Khaki gave them a little more definition and really made them stand out from the colours surrounding them. The use of grey would also help tie this building in with the rest of the Games Workshop terrain. This stage of the model was particularly challenging as there are many skulls on the model (I lost count around the 300 mark), but I feel the finished effect is worth the effort.

Once the skulls were done, I painted the metal girders that hold up the building. I found a solid coat of Boltgun Metal worked well, followed by a heavy coat of Devlan Mud to shade it. In some areas the Devlan Mud didn't quite shade the metalwork enough, so I then went into the recesses with a Fine Detail Brush and a pot of Badab Black.

To finish off the model I painted all the tiny details, including the lights, security systems around the doors and, of course, the base. To tie in the building with our Realm of Battle Gameboard, I used Charadon Granite as the basecoat, followed by a light drybrush of Fortress Grey. Green was used for the lights and details as it's a nice complementary colour to orange. Can see more pictures of the finished building as well as the whole range of terrain kits on the Games Workshop website.