"From the Depths" - Hallowe'en Hellmouth

Few creatures invoke as much fear

 as the blighted nightmare that is the hellmouth.

 Erupting from beneath to unleash terror and consume flesh,

 this horrific beast uses its spiked tentacles

 to drag its hapless victims into its waiting maw.

- Privateer Press

Hallowe'en has come a bit early here on The Art of Caesura!

Oh dear sports fans, we've had to postpone our regularly scheduled Blood Bowl content due to a pitch invasion by a terrifying tentacled horror...

A quick interjection to our blood bowl content for a Hallowe'en special: it's a horror from the depths, the Hellmouth!!

This is my first Privateer Press mini. I'm not usually a humongous fan of the Warma-Hoards aesthetic, but I saw this when I was in Toronto a few months ago and really loved it! I had a sneaky suspicion that it would work well for something else I'm working on at the moment...shhhh!

For those of you familiar with this model, you'll know that it's actually a subterranean horror (not a sea monster) but I have designs on another purpose for it, so I simply sculpted waves out of Milliput over the clumps of earth that it was bursting from. Didn't even have to cut the rocks away!

When it came to painting this monster, I kept it's tentacle "tongue" separate to better get at the details of the maw. I spent a long time deciding on the colour-scheme and settled on a nice maroon-red, inspired by octopus skin and to differentiate it from the other Kraken I've done on The Art of Caesura.

I painted the fleshy maw Bugman's Glow then Cadian Fleshtone then Druchii Violet. After the Druchii Violet I worked it up again with Cadian Fleshtone (plus Lahmian Medium) then mixed in more and more Light Flesh and finally Pale Flesh (from Scale 75). I wanted the mouth to be nice and bright to contrast the dark skin. 

On to the skin / carapace then, I started with a 50:50 mix of Mephiston Red + Abaddon Black then Druchii Violet. Once the wash was completely dry, I then drybrushed with Evil Sunz Scarlet, mixing in more and more Yriel Yellow as I dry brushed closer to the edges. 

The small wrasping teeth in the maw, and small barbs at the tip of the tentacle were painted Abaddon Black with an Incubi Darkness highlight to mimic an octopus' black beak and to nicely contrast the pale skin. The tusks and fangs around the edge of the maw (as well as the bony carapace on top of the tentacle) were Ushabti Bone then Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted again with Ushabti. 

I finished it with a nice thick lick of gloss varnish. Yum. 

For a look at how I made the base, check me makin' waves over here.

Now lets have a peek at the finished model:

Aaaand I think that's it! A nice be-tentacled beastie for Hallowe'en...and maybe actually for another super secret project...Be sure to keep an eye out the next time you're swimming in the ocean...See you next week on The Art of Caesura!


Watching: Maniac 
Reading: Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
Gaming: Total War: Warhammer II


Next Week:

The pitch beneath their feet...