Skaven Monolith

Since painting all my Skaven and playing some games, I have been going back and looking at old White Dwarfs and manuals. Looking over the Warhammer skirmish I saw this awesome guide on building a monolith. Then Mike over at Kitbash Chaos released a video of him crafting different Chaos monoliths and I was like now I have to make one. 

Since my Skaven have been wandering the Chaos wastes, what better time than to make a monolith to match. The stone of the monolith was made using some foam cut with a hot wire cutter. In the top corner, a Skaven sigil was added to break up the flat plane. To add more texture to the foam, I mixed sand with glue and covered the foam. This add more rigidity to the foam which is good since I tend to drop all my miniatures. On the plastic card base, the surface was covered in a mixture of coffee and tea leaves. 

After adding all the textures, I searched my bits bin to find some bits to add to the monolith. The bits specifically needed to reference the three games my army has played. 

Next step was to paint the model. Unlike my Skaven models, the colors are muted and more realistic. This is to contrast against the models. First the monolith was spray painted black as a base coat. This way if I missed any spots, it would be a shadow. Next the rock was dry brushed with three different saturations of gray with a final highlight with white. The ground was then painted with a few layers of different browns. The last step was to paint all the details. 

As I was building this model, I thought about how the details would build the armies lore. When the Skaven found this giant rock in the wastes, they hoped it would be a giant piece of warp stone. They sent the most agile rat to the top with a chisel and he carved into the rock. To the surprise of the rats, it glowed the greenish glow of the warp stone. The skaven took this as a sign to venture further in search for more! As they wandered the wastes, they started to collect relics. First they added the broken blades of enemies they swarmed. Then added the orc skulls of those they had slain. 

The Skaven dragged an alter they stole from another monolith to their rock. The glowing green eyes told them it was more warp stone. Atop the alter, they added the skulls of orcs, demon and dwarves. They also added the looted shield from an orc as a warning to others. 

On the back of the Monolith, the Skaven hung a tattered banner they carried into battle. The blood red banner marked with the sigil of the The Scourge of the 13 Plagues. I honestly spent the longest amount of time painting the banner. Multiple layers of red to build up the highlights. The sigil on the banner was puposly painted loosely to make it look a rat did it. The Skaven do not care to spend time crafting a banner when they can make some other weird warp stone machine. 

At the base, a small cavity was cut into the stone. Its left open to add future trophies. A large strange glowing skull sits in the dirt. A strange relic the Skaven won during their last battle with the Orcs and Dwarves. But the story of this skull is for the next Cool Dudes Chilling: Warhammer Fantasy session