"Back to Bases" - The Black Grail Bases

Puddles and ponds of melted flesh are left in its wake, 

endless mouths left screaming in their agony, 

for the Black Grail destroys the body 

but leaves the mind intact to suffer.

- Trench Crusade

Welcome back, dear readers, to The Art of Caesura!

Last week we looked at the first Trench Crusade miniatures that I've showcased on the blog: the horrible Black Grail Thralls. Those minis also laid the groundwork for how I paint all of the skin on my Black Grail guys. 

Well, this week's post is equally foundational; today we're looking at how I'm making all of my Black Grail bases. 

Before we get into the painting, I'll just say that I got these STLs off a Kickstarter by the designer SRS-studios and I 3D printed them myself. Judging by the blues and purples on the Kickstarter image, I think they were designed to be Tzeentch bases, but I actually think, with the appropriate colour-scheme, they work perfectly for these Black Grail guys!

So, after spraying them black, I gave them a heavy drybrush of Bugman's Glow.

The Bugman's Glow was followed by a further drybrush of Cadian Fleshtone. 

The final layer of drybrush was Ushabti Bone. 

To create a horrible ichor for my Black Grail to shamble over, I dropped a mix of Gloss Varnish and Abaddon Black into the crevices. 

I then decided that I wasn't happy with the texture of the drybrushing, so I coated the whole thing with Agrax Earthshade which helped to smooth things out (I should have done this before the previous step).

I painted all the "eyes" with Wraithbone and then coated them with Contrast Iyanden Yellow. 

I then coat these eyes with Seraphim Sepia to give a little more contrast. 

I then painted all of the tentacles with Druchii Violet to differentiate them from the rest of the base. 

And to further separate the tentacles, I coated them with Gloss Varnish. 

Because I had used Agrax Earthshade after my ichor step, this had dulled down the gloss varnish, so I quickly redid that step. 

And then, lo and behold, the bases are complete. I painted all of the bases for the whole warband at the same time, so I got them all done quite efficiently. That's another nice thing about Trench Crusade: the whole army is less than 20 models so you don't get bogged down painting unit after unit of the same thing, like in Warhammer 40k. 

Thanks for joining me, I'll see you next Friday right here on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: Widow's Bay (2026) - Katie Dippold 

Next Week:

Woof, woof...