Making some Warhammer/AoS scenery: High Elf waystones/Lumineth spires

As Warhammer scenery goes High Elf waystones are a staple, and I think they fit on any AoS tabletop as well. I've always wanted a few in my collection but all my previous attempts turned out badly. With the Lumineth closely mirroring the High Elves (thank you GW) I thought it about high time to make a couple. And here they are.

Get off my lawn! 

As I'm the proud owner of the brand new Building Tabletop Terrain from XPS foam book by Gerard Boom I decided to make my waystones out of XPS foam. These are not the first waystones I've attempted to build. I've binned quite a few previous attempts. Over the past years I've given foamboard a go and even tried and failed with cardboard. Unfortunately I kept running into trouble getting the shapes right. This time I used a pdf from the 5th edition Tears of Isha campaign. I tried using math to determine the angles at which to cut so I could get a proper template. Here's *cough* my work *cough* on an enveloppe. 

When starting with Warhammer no one told me there would be math involved (there wasn't in the end  (but I had to show off (my wife's calculations (as I am not the math teacher in this marriage)))).

In the end a template wasn't needed. I have tools to cut at at angles with my hot wire cutter. The biggest challenge turned out to be determining the order and placement of the polystyrene blocks (and not burning my fingers). I cut four parts for each waystone: a square base, a bottom part, the center and the small pyramid on top (mental note: I should make a few upside down floating black pyramids soon). I went slightly overboard sandpapering the top of the waystone on the left above (it got a bit too rounded for my taste) but I decided to press on.   

I was quite lucky to have a few MDF bases cut for other (abandoned) projects at hand.

After cutting and assembling the shapes I used an HB pencil to draw the blocks on the base of the waystones (I should've used a softer pencil but I had none on hand). I also used the pencil to draw in the embossed sides. I then cut these (slightly) with a scalpel and spent some time pushing the middle parts down (you can see my thumbs a bit too well on the waystone on the left above. A few bits of the stones did not come out quite as nicely as I wanted to. With a bit of care and a hobby knife I ripped these parts out. The leftovers went on the base as debris and the rest is the damage you see above. Hey these waystones have been here for a long time and Giants Gargants don't pay attention to where they walk. The flowery decoration and the mirrors where in my bits box. I recall they are cheap bits for scrapbooking. I glued both coarse sand (from the beach) and fine sand (crushed shell for birdcages) to the base and the damaged parts of the pillars with a bit of PVA.

And with that I'm the proud owner of two ancient waystones.

Next up was painting. After a black basecoat I started with a light grey layer (Vallejo Pale Blue Grey) and build that up to white (spraying at an angle). I used washes (Anthonian Camoshade, Agrax Earthshade and a bit of Seraphin Sepia) in moderation to add a bit of weathering and detail. I painted the decorations with Scale75 Dwarf Gold and shaded that with some Agrax. The mirror is pure Stormhost Silver, the jewel was glued on unpainted (why not I thought, it seems to work as is). When it all dried I hated the end result. It all looked rather odd, sloppy and out of place. Not quite willing to give up and bin the entire affair I decided to see the project through. I applied flock and moss to the bases, going a bit wild to make it look really overgrown. This saved the project. The flock added the necessary color and (for lack of a better word) grounded the scenery, making the waystones come to life. I celebrated this victory of (simulated) nature over industry by adding a Wood Elf Waywatcher to the pictures for scale. I went from hate to happy. Churning a few of these out can be done in very little time and I expect them to really spruce up a tabletop. Long story short: I should make a few fallen waystones as well and then get to work on a remake of the Island of Blood/Spire of Dawn campaign. So many plans, so little time...