Project Skullvane Manse

Turning 30 was never going to be an easy thing. I had to accept that I was no longer in my 20's. I couldn't come up to workmates and tell them "I'm still on the right side of 30" when it came to age jokes. And I certainly had to cop more "you're an old fart" jokes from younger mates.

Luckily my missus helped me overcome such a dire mindset by showering me with presents. Not just a great "Dirty 30" party with the family but also a High Elf army (that's currently being assembled) and something I've wanted since I first laid eyes on it (no, not Jennifer Hawkins) - Skullvane Manse.

Usually, I'm pretty anal about gaps, filing mould lines down, etc, but I just couldn't wait to get painting this wonderful kit. I went with the Astromancer telescope over the barricaded walls for the top part. I did however, decided to change the layout of the catwalk by not adding the stairs (see below).

 Instead, I added the extra wooden parts as a platform for the 2 doors. I just thought I would go with something different.

I still used a fair bit of Liquid Green Stuff over the major gaps. These were really prominent in the rocky areas near the bottom of the model. There were also some gaps near the side of the tower (just below the tiles) but I set my focus mostly on the stone.

The technique I found best was to just paste the gaps with Liquid Green Stuff. Let it settle overnight as it does take some time to dry. Once it's dry, file it down with a fine hobby file. It was pretty easy to do on the stone parts. Once you get to filing down other parts, like stones to make up buildings, the process will definitely be a lot trickier.

Once I was happy with the gaps, it was time for the most exciting part - painting!

 

I started off with drybrushing all the stone parts with Codex Grey. I followed it up with a second layer of drybrushing with Fortress Grey.

 

Up next were all the wooden parts which was painted with Bestial Brown. I wasn't worried about the paint getting into the recesses as I would be giving these areas a liberal wash of Devlan Mud.

With the astromancer telescope, I used Brazen Brass. Now, when I ran out of this colour, I quickly ducked down to Games Workshop and was told that Brazen Brass had been out of production for almost 6 years. Yikes! Was this tub of paint really that old?

Anyway, I looked for the closest matching colour and found it in Dwarf Bronze.

After basecoating the telescope, I went with a wash of Asurmen Blue.

Took awhile to dry, but with the following step, I watered down some Dwarf Bronze mixed with a bit of Tin Bitz and gave it a highlight. I gave a second highlight in certain areas, especially near the top of the dome and telescope.

With the dirt on the stone, it was a matter of just stipling on a bit of Scorched Brown and Graveyard Earth.

With the roof tiles, I used Scaly Green and made sure I covered the entire area.

This was then following by a wash of Devlan Mud. When the wash dried, I went over some areas with Devlan Mud again so some would be darker than others.

Coming up with the latter stages, I worked on the finer details, such as the skulls, the doors and sigils.


And with that, I give you a finished version of Skullvane Manse.