Oh Look, Skulls!

So, after ranting about too many skulls on the Arcane Ruins kit, I next decided to do the Temple of Skulls. At least you know what you're getting with this one. Seriously though, it's not a bad piece of terrain. It's a little funny that it's marketed as terrain for Warhammer Fantasy Battles though, because I think it makes a better piece of 40K terrain. There are few places where a movement tray is going to fit, but plenty of places to put individual models. Also, the piece is tall enough to provide some serious blockage to line of sight, which is something that's rare on a 40K table due to true line of sight. I'm looking forward to actually having it on a table during a game.

As for how I painted it, I used a combination of the techniques I used on the hill and craters with the techniques I used on the Arcane Ruins. The base uses the former, while the actual ruins use the latter. The main difficulty is deciding where to make the border between the two. after basecoating in Krylon gray primer. I used a combination of logic and ease of painting to decide where to make that border. I then used a tank brush to paint that border in brown, followed by my 2" brush to paint the larger areas. Finally, I went in with a regular large paintbrush to do the small bits where there needed to be some brown.

After the brown was dry, I did my drybrushing, starting with white on the gray areas, followed by ochre yellow on the brown areas. I switched to a 1" brush for this to give me more control over where the paint was going, and used a tank brush where things got really tight.

After the drybrushing was done I applied static grass to parts of the brown area, particularly all along the bottom edge. I decided to use all scorched grass, with no patches of regular grass, given that the coverage was already broken up enough due to the nature of the piece.

Overall, I'm pleased with the result. I could have spent a bit more time on it and gotten the details a bit neater, but as it was it didn't take me much longer to do than the other pieces. I might still go in and do the small skulls in bleached bone and a wash, but otherwise I'm done once I give it a clear coat.