I decided to make some wound markers for my Astral Claws as a quick Saturday morning project. Basically, the number of skulls/helmets represent how many wounds a character has remaining. The skulls are taken from a number of kits (if you own any GW kits then chances are you have some skulls lying around somewhere) and the damaged helmets were taken from Chaos trophy racks. I could have used regular marine helmets but these had battle damage already sculpted on and so saved me a bit of time.
The helmets were painted to match my Astral Claws models whereas the skulls were an opportunity to try out my new method of painting bone. Previously I had used Zandri Dust and Ushabti Bone for skulls, however, recently I have moved to using a basecoat of Baneblade Brown washed with Agrax Earthshade and then highlighted Baneblade Brown, Rakarth Flesh, Pallid Wych Flesh and finally White Scar. This produces a much paler, more realistic bone colour than the creamy/yellow look achieved with Ushabti bone. The ground texture was then painted to match the rest of my army.
I plan on creating a few more themed gaming aides in the future including some objective markers converted from the Space Marine casualty models. Watch this space.
-Andy.
