The Mortis Engine Project

One of my club mates asked me if I was keen on painting up his Mortis Engine a couple of weeks ago. Problem was, he had already fully assembled the darn thing, making it hard to reach certain parts of the model. I asked him what kind of colour scheme he was after, but he wasn't too picky.

So here I was, looking at this beautiful model, with the freedom to paint it whichever way I liked.

Challenge accepted.

I had a few images swirling in my head about how I wanted to paint the Ethereal parts. Owning my own Vampire Counts army, I've always envisioned a ghostly theme, but unfortunately, none of them are painted. Could this be what motivates me to finally put some paint on the hordes of undead? Maybe...

I remember going through one copy of White Dwarf when the VC book just came out and really liked the painting scheme the Mortis Engine got.

I started off with the lower Ethereal parts of the model.

I gave it a layer of watered down Astronomican Grey. I didn't bother adding several thin layers to most of the area, just the parts which was showing too much of the black basecoat.

The next part, I decided to paint up the metal parts of the skeleton riders' armour and the bone areas of the skeletons themselves.

Next, I got some Ice Blue and watered the hell out of it. Adding a bit of the blue wash (can't remember the name of it) added a bit more colour and diluted the ice blue a lot better than pure water. I applied it to the entire area, making sure to cover every part evenly, otherwise some parts would be darker or lighter than others.

It took awhile to dry, but when it was, I drybrushed over the area with some Fortress Grey.

I also decided to paint the flying Wraiths after I had painted the Engine itself.

I went over it with Bleached Bone then gave it a liberal wash of Devlan Mud (may Devlan Mud R.I.P.)

This was followed by another layer of Bleached Bone thinned with water, followed by a drybrush with Skull White.

To make the flames stand out a little, I decided to paint them green. Based it off with Dark Angels green, then added Snot Green and more Scorpion with each progressive layer.

Once I was happy with the Engine parts, it was time to paint the Wraiths.

As for the Necromancer, I painted his cloak with a basecoat of  Scorched Brown, then went over it with Devlan Mud. I followed it up with another layer of Scorched Brown. On the lower parts of the Necromancers cloak, I drybrushed a bit of Dark Angels Green to add the look of mould and grime.

And finally, the finished product. All in all, I was very happy with my first attempt at something not Orcs & Goblins or Empire.