"Hair and Blades" - Tenebrael Shard

A Tenebrael Shard is a killer of superlative skill.

Fast beyond belief, supernaturally agile and

ominously silent, the Shard closes upon his prey

as fast as thought and ends their lives with

callous efficiency.

~ Games Workshop

It's Friday! It's The Art of Caesura!

After last week's noble, bald, dark-skinned, grounded-postured Warpriest; this week we have...someone completely different! It's the Tenebrael Shard!

Something I've really loved about the Silver Tower models is the immense diversity! We've had walking books and fish, a huge blue Minotaur, skaven, new spider-goblins and bird-beastmen. And that's just amongst the villains! As we've seen over the past few weeks, the heroes are fairly diverse too (although it would have been cool to see a new orc or Lizardman (Seraphon) among the core heroes (though you can add them on yourself with extra hero cards). Looking back, I can't think of a boxed game that introduced so many totally new characters to a Warhammer game!

Let's talk about the Shard's skin first. I chose to paint him right after the Warpriest to really put the Scale 75 through their paces - going from darkest to lightest! I undercoated his skin (and the flayed-skin ribbons hanging from his belt) with "Basic Flesh". I mixed in increasingly more "Light Skin" and then "Pale Skin" before finishing his face, top of his shoulders, and feet with diluted pure "Pale Skin" which is a nice off-white. 

I keep saying it, but I'm planning a review of the Scale 75 Flesh Paints once I've completed the Silver Tower models. I love how they blend and give real natural depth to muscles (like his serratus anterior (the "superman muscles" below his raised right arm (you can see them best in the top and second-to-last picture).

For the ribbons of flayed skin then, from "Basic Flesh" I gave one heavy coat of Agrax Earthshade and then another of Nuln Oil. I wanted them to look creepy, preserved and unheimlich. I edge highlighted them with diluted "Basic Flesh" and painted the stitched Ushabti Bone. 

To differentiate the black of his hair from the black pants, for the hair I highlighted with a neutral black (Abaddon black + White Scar). And the "outer layer" of the pants are highlighted with Incubi Darkness. I wasn't totally sure about the pants. I've seen some people paint the holes as cut-aways to skin, but I though that looked a bit "strippery" so instead I kind of made it two layers: an outer thicker layer (heavily highlighted with Incubi Darkness) and an inner layer that I left pure black and differentiated further by adding gloss varnish. PVC, I guess. 

I considered painting the debossed area (in the middle) black as well, and you know, it might have been interesting to keep this guy monochromatic blacks and whites. I then considered purple, but settled on a dark black-red. It's so dark, and while prominent, covers such a small area that I don't think the addition of another colour detracts too much. Let me know what you think!

You guys will laugh, but I only bought Leadbelcher a few weeks ago! Back in the day, I always used Boltgun Metal for my silvery metals. When the "new" paint line came out, I somehow thought that Runefang Steel was the equivalent (it's not, it's much brighter). So for the past couple years I have been using Runefang Steel, shading down with multiple coats of Nuln Oil and then adding Stormhost Silver if needed. 

Anyway, now I'm all Leadbelchered up, so you might notice a darkening of my metallics starting with this guy. I didn't want bright metals to detract from his blacks and wanted his skin to be the stand-out focus. 

Okay dudes and dudettes, that's it for another week on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: March White Dwarf

Gaming: Warhammer Quest (PC)

Next Week:

What's that I hear?...Lamentations?