A Mortis Engine manifests just in time for the new year

Wow the last weeks went quite the opposite way as planned. I was about to put the final signatures on paper and move when the new house fell through, so I've been a bit busy searching for a replacement home to house the family (both my wife and son seem to be opposed to living in a scale model building made out of balsa wood, foamboard and plasticard). Luckily I finished this guy just before the excrement slapped against the fan (a large industrial one that still looks like a computer fan of course). As it was on my bingo card I've decided to put him in the last post of the year.

As usual I haven't actually read the rules to this unit, so here's hoping it does something useful on the tabletop.

To paint this Mortis Engine I used an old article in White Dwarf so the entire job started by figuring out what new colors more or less the colors when this article was printed. This also ticks of the Try to replicate the paint job of someone that inspires you box on the Miniature Painting Bingo chart. Speaking of that chart, Rob Hawkins has made a new and improved one I'll be using next year to get some extra motivation (assuming I'm not living in a box by then (damn you flat screen tv's you can't house a family of three in those boxes!).

I have a lot of White Dwarves and I'm still wondering why I don't have a subscription now. I have an even large archive of pdf'ed White Dwarves (from number one). For those keeping score: the first letter complaining White Dwarf was no longer as good as it used to be was in number three :)

I diverged from the White Dwarf version of the blind Corpsemaster on top. Well I actually tried to follow along going from Dark Angles (Caliban) Green up to Rotting Flesh (Nurgling Green) but as usual with edge highlights it looked like the town drunk had painted a way to contrasting color on top of a dark one. So I washed it all down with a few layers of Nuln Oil. I think it works.

Getting better at edge highlighting is on my skills wishlist for next year. This White Dwarf article did rather nicely illustrate how a combination of edge highlighting, home made washes and drybrushing leads to nice results.

One of the things I can never resist is going wild in big spell books some models have. This engine has a beautiful black magic tome that begs to be made extra mysterious by splashing some color and semi-illustrations in it.

Always paint cockpit controls and books, it gives you something to point out to your opponent while playing, the 'wow' that usually follows gives the ego a nice small stroke.

Another thing I went to town on was the hidden casket that features the locked-up corpse of a powerful Necromancer. Here is a bit of a problem with a CAD-designed kit like this. Let me illustrate it with pictures.

The casket leaning against my wet pallet while being detailed.

Here is the altar with the yellowed candles, I even took the time to paint the roses and skulls at the bottom and edge highlight the stonework.

The casket looking cool inside the Mortis Engine.

After this step I decided to do the skulls and roses on the rest of the Mortis Engine as well. Looking cool (I even remembered not to bother too much with the bits that will be hidden under the Corpsemaster's robes.

Casket????

And with the last step I glued to gate to the casket in place, ensuring htat my hard work detailing the inner sanctum will only really be visible if I accidentally drop this model and the bits break off. A well, knowing a reasonably painted bit is hiding might just improve the good will of the dice gods. All in all I'll quite proudly bolster my undead forces with this Mortis Engine. Next up, finding a place to stow my hobby overflow (and live), there is time, so it will work out in the end. Lets end with a quote from the venerable Bob Ross to kick off the new hobby year: “All you need to paint is a few tools, a little instruction, and a vision in your mind.” Happy new year everyone and carry on painting!