Terrain is everything – Sanctum Imperialis

by | Mar 29, 2019

With every intention to finish of my Dark Shroud I was then tempted to put some effort into my Sanctum Imperialis while my magnetising efforts cured. I'd finished building it in September 2018 and that was a distraction from my Hierophant. I'd also dropped this part like a hot potato when I came to paint the Warplock Bornze on all the buttresses and doors. But with time to fill I finished all the bronze off and in some areas mixed a replacement with some craft acrylics - bronze+metallic black+brown.


I then shadow washed it with a mix of Burnt Umber+Black art acrylics. You can also see I stippled on som vermilion in places - a mistake, as a drybrush would have acheived better results. I also washed the bronze in places and it looks so awesome and yet I'll cover that all up with extra highlights. I don't know why I can't leave well enough alone?


The side walls will be drybrushed with vermilion next.


The taller structure and at this stage this is about as grimdark as I've possibly ever got. I need to remember this for a future project as I know I can't stop here and need to do my usual highlights. But this is just so much more realistic than I normally do and my Honored Imperium statue is what I'm heading for. This means I'll be verdigri'ing all the bronze, the doors will be less so and all the red needs highlighting.


I'll be possibly be picking out the scrolls as parchment and the lenses in the lanterns.


The doors will be the same brassy bronze I usually do, while all the vertical support will be well green! This is because the doors are polished while the structure is just weathered.


And this little corner piece. I don'tknow whether to create some broken stained glass panels for the windows, it might be nice as I've nothing much else to attempt them on.


And here we are with the highlights and they're much yellower than anticipated. I might glaze this with Bloodletter to see if it brings back the redness.


I might have goe a little overboard on it, I'm pining for the lost grimdark as I've gone down my over-staurated reds & yellows.


How does it compare? I'm not even sure if the Verdigris is the right thing to do now.


I desperately want to do something much greener and I love how the statue turned out but as much as I miss the red Sanctum of 3 highlights ago I also love this grungey version


The dark bronze is just rich and most of is is going to be covered up, which will at least help where I've caught the metal with my drybrushing.


The other question is do I keep those gothic finials as solid bronze, or paint each facet as encased red glass? I'm thinking glass because it'll look cool.


Perhaps the solution is I need more buildings so I can explore these variations...