"Black Grail Bodyguard" - Corpse Guard - Part 1

Only the strongest human devotees 

can survive the compounding blessings 

of the Black Grail. 

The ones that do are inducted 

into the ranks of the Corpse Guard, 

bodyguards to the nobility of the Order of the Fly.

- Trench Crusade

Happy Friday, welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

We are knee deep in the infected trenches with my Cult of the Black Grail war-band for Trench Crusade. My buddy and I had our painting night last night, and I can't wait to show you what we've been working on. He also revealed that four guys from his local area (about 2 hours away) are getting into Trench Crusade in a big way - including printing an army of Trench Ghosts in transparent resin for some fun ghostly effects. 

The movement is growing!

And I'll tell you what else is growing - my Black Grail warband!

Today is a huge post. I was going to split it in two, one post for each of these Corpse Guard, but I thought there would be too much repetition for you, dear reader, so Merry Christmas, you get a bumper edition of The Art of Caesura today!

So, these are my favourite Cult of the Black Grail models of the whole set! I love the mix of putrid flesh and corroded metal. And that tick-thing is just horrible!

I started these guys the same way as my Thralls: covering the skin with a 1:1 mix of Athonian Camoshade and Lahmian Medium. 

I plopped Nuln Oil into the deeper crevices, before blotching on a heavily thinned mix of Crimson oil paint and mineral spirits and then violet, also thinned with mineral spirits. 

The thinned oils give a "lovely" effect where the colours blend into each other - perfect for these indurated organic surfaces. 

Good God! These models are so cool!

And those few steps were pretty much it for the skin! I then moved on to the clothing, starting with Ironclad Grey (from the John Blanche set) for the skirt.

I used AK's Burnt Red for the loin cloths. 

I accentuated the folds of the skirt with Nuln Oil, before beginning to highlight it up by mixing Wraithbone into Ironclad Grey.

To highlight the loincloths, I wanted to avoid getting too saturated with the red by adding yellow for the highlights, so instead I added Kimera's The White. 

I painted all of the leather pouches and belts with a coat of Contrast Wyldwood.

And then painted the skulls with (appropriately) Skeleton Horde. 

I painted the tchotchkes (noose, twine and what I now believe are grenades (but at the time, thought were clay pots with nefarious ingredients on his belt) with Snakebite Leather. 

Okay, take a breather for a moment, we've already covered a lot! Grab a cup of tea. Great, now are you still with me? 

Let's move on to the part of this post that I'm most proud of, and the recipe that I have taken out of this process and will use again and again: corroded / patina brass / bronze / copper. 

I painted all of the metal areas with Army Painter's The Darkness (another paint from the John Blanche set) 

I then completely coated those areas with AK's Decay Deposits which is a cousing of the famous "Streaking Grime" and provides a really realistic matte patina. 

I further enhanced the deepest cracks with Nihilakh Oxide, but I actually don't think this was necessary, and I now skip this step. 

And now, the pièce de résistance, the step that really sells it as corroded metal...

I give a medium dry-brushing of Tinny Tin (an successor to Tin Bitz for those long in the tooth or white in the beard enough to remember it). 

I think this combination looks incredibly realistic at that scale, and as you can see it's dead easy - three simple steps!

This is another step that I have now dropped. On the guy above I drybrushed the gun with Screaming Bell to differentiate it from the armour, but I don't think it added too much. 

With the corroded armour done, I move on to the other metal (chainmail); using Heavy Metal (also from the John Blanche set). 

I still wasn't totally happy with the skirt, so I tried to smooth things out with a coat of Contrast Black Templar. This was a little too heavy-handed, so I eased it up for the other guy by cutting it 50:50 with Contrast Medium. 

Finally, it was on to the effects! I have been enjoying mixing Blood for the Blood God (or Nurgle's Rot), Nuln Oil and Gloss Varnish, and poking them onto the guts and into the deepest crevices of these Black Grail minis. 

I think this technique gives great tonal variation between the ultra-matte verdigris and then the wet, oozing sores. 

I forgot to photograph it, but for the god of Lyme's Disease on that guy's shoulder, all I did was paint a thinned layer of Drakenhoff Nightshade on the legs and then a few coats of Nuln Oil on the distal segment of the legs. I actually didn't even touch it's body - that's the original zenithal undercoat!

After slapping them on their bases, these guys are ready for action!

Thanks for making it all the way to the end of this massive post! Things are ramping up in terms of coverage of my first Trench Crusade warband, it just get's larger and crazier from here on out...

Watching: Traitors (Ireland - Season 2)

Reading: Nothing Has Happened to You - Rory Say

Next Week:

Undead fortitude...