Calden Keep: Wolf of Calden and Accursed Destrier

The Wolf of Calden commanded the final defence of Calden Keep against the peasant uprising. Slaughtered by the enraged citizens, he's risen from the dead to seek vengeance against those who hacked him down.

This holds the record for ordering from Etsy, as it took me around 0.1 nanoseconds to add the Wolf and his horse to my shopping basket. He was part of my Christmas order and is easily the most awesome sculpt of all the Calden Keep minis I bought. So, here we go!

As the Wolf is separate from the Accursed Destrier (that's how it's spelled in the official lore), I painted them separately, starting with the Destrier. I glued it to a 60mm base, stuck four pennies to the underside to add some heft and then sprayed both models with grey primer.

I considered black for the horse, but then decided on a much paler colour. Pallid Wych Flesh seemed the way to go, so I began applying it in thin coats and it only took three to cover the gray primer and give the Destrier an undead look.

Next I blocked in its mane and tail using Black highlighted with Charcoal and Neutral Gey, and then I did the saddle strap with Chocolate and Mahogany Browns and some Seraphim Sepia. The metalwork is Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade.

With the basic skin done, it was time for shading and I was utterly stuck on which way to go. Grey? Purple? Green? Black? I went with one of Citadel's newer shades, Beserker Bloodshade, which is a darker red than Carroburg Crimson. After thinning it with Lamian Medium, I used a medium makeup brush to swirl it all over the model and put it to one side to dry.

The Wolf's paint scheme is the usual red/metal/brown, kicking off with Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade all over his armour. I lightly drybrushed it with Leadbelcher to bring out the details on the plates, and then hit his cloak with Dark Red, more Nuln Oil and Red.

Like the Ranged Deliverers, the Wolf has wrappings under his armour. Instead of doing them in the same Off-White I used Chocolate and Mahogany browns as I wanted to keep the rider darker than the horse. 

The fur on his saddle and under his armour got a coat of Charcoal and highlights with Neutral and Ghost Greys, and the saddle was painted the same way as the other leather.

The final touch was to dab some Pallid Wych Flesh and more Berserker Bloodshade onto his face, paint his eye sockets Black and his pupils White and then paint his stirrups with more browns.

I was given a harsh reminder of how brittle these 3D prints are when I managed to break off not only the top of the Wolf's weapon but also the haft. Superglue and patience came to the rescue, but it was a pain to repair. Once given a coat of matte varnish, he was put to one side.

Back to the Destrier. It looks a tad pink and would fit into a Slannesh army, but this isn't a Slaanesh army. I cracked open the Pallid Wych Flesh and layered it on, and then did the same with some Off-White. This lightened the colour to the point where I thought I could get away with a translucent skin over meat look, and that's good enough for me.

Its mouth was washed with pure Beserker Bloodshade and the fearsome teeth were given a once-over with Off-White. I think they need more definition so I might run some Nuln Oil between them at some point. Its eye sockets were filled with Black and the pupils given a dot of more Off-White.

Finally, the hooves and claws were painted Black and highlighted with Charcoal and some Neutral Grey mixed in.

The base was done last. I put blobs of Crayola putty to add some raised areas and glued on a few stones from the drive. The whole base was covered with Stirland Battlemire before being painted with matte varnish to seal it, and was then drybrushed with some Bugman's Glow. I daubed on matte Mod Podge and sprinkled flock over it, and then washed the stones with Athonian Camoshade. After another coat of varnish it was done, and all I had to do was glue the Wolf in place. 

It really is a horrifying and stunning model and once again shows how small 3D print companies can come up with better concepts and models than a global company like Games Workshop. As I've said before, this is what Chaos should look like.

Snow days

After a ridiculously mild winter, Vermont decided to dump a ton of snow on us right on the cusp of spring. These branches touching the top of our hot tub are usually 15-20 feet above it.

Yesterday morning I stuck my 12" steel ruler into the snow on our deck table to see how deep it was. As you can see, it was about 7½ inches. And please don't make "seven inches in the morning" jokes, I got enough of those on Facebook...

Anyway, here's the same table this morning. The ruler is buried, as are the two empty Sprite cans I was using as ashtrays.

Somewhere under this is $300 of firewood. Guess we'll be sticking to the underfloor radiant heat for now.

Here's a creepy one taken at 5am.

Anyway, we're warm and have plenty of food, but the cigarette situation is about five hours from going critical. Not good. Stay tuned for more as I'll be starting the Night Goblins soon!