With the release of a new army for Warhammer, Mark Jones, Studio scenery builder, always makes a specially designed scenery set for them. Steve Cumiskey went and had a chat with Mark to find out how he made a Beastmen Herdstone for the Beasts of Chaos. 72. MODELLING WORKSHOP MODELLING WORKSHOP Building a Beastmen Herdstone he herdstone is at the heart of I Beastmen cultura, forming a focus for gatherings of the tribe. As such, it makes @ areat piece of terrain to add to your collection if you have a Beasimen army. We asked Mark Jones, who built the herdstone for the Beasts of Chaos Armies book, to tell us how he made it (MATERIALS NEEDED + Ashest of 1" thick polystyrene + PVA glue * Textured paint + Ready-mixed Polyfla + Sand * Gravel + Flock + Thick card = Cocktail sticks TOOLS REQUIRED * Long bladed craft knife * Craft knife + Stoo! ruler THE BASIC SHAPE Mark out three rectangles on the sheet of polystyrene, each measuring 8m wide and 20cm high. Cut them out with the long bladed craft knife, making sure to cut away from yourself to avoid accidents, Before you glue the rectangles together, insert three cocktail sticks into the middle rectangle, and then through each rectangle as you glue them on. This will help hold them in place while the glue is drying. When glued together, the three rectangles wil form a single block, 8m square.‘Then carefully cut downwards to meet To make the alcoves, begin ty drawing the horizontal incisions. To produce a the shape of the alcove on the more chiselled look to the edges, don’t _herdstone, then slowly pick away the eut the line exactly vertical. Allow it to go polystyrene with a small craft knife, deeper into the face of the stone. Repeat this over the surface of the herdstone, to give it the appearance of being roughly hi y bea | | | * DETAILING THE HERDSTONE ’ The herdstone itself has a fow additional Using your long bladed cratt knife, begin details, such as Chaos star symbols and to roughly cut out the shape of the alcoves that contain the herd’s war herdstono. To keep the herdstone trophi looking anguler and crude, rather than precisely sculpted, make sure you cutit To cut Chaos symbols and signs into the into a slighty regular shape. surface of the herdstone, start by drawing on the symbol with a pencil, then deepen and widen the design with a small craft knife, so that the detail isn't lost when you apply the textured paint later on, With the herdsione taking shape, you ‘can begin to add the worn ledges that cover its surface. Start making some roughly horizortal cuts 2 t a The alcoves are now complete, ready to accept the trophies of the herd. Carving of the stone complete, i's time to move onto the base. BBASING THE HERDSTONE Cut a base for the model from the thick card. The base should be slightly larger than the width of the herdstone ise. Glue the stone to its base with PVA glue. When the glue is dry, fil any gaps with polyfiia | once the filor has had time to dry, paint | the herdstone and base with exes |) paint to give ta rough, stone-ike Surface Finally, paint the base of the herdstone with PVA glue and sprinkle sand and | {graval to give the base a rougher za j | | TROPHIES Herdstones are normally decorated with bits of weapons, armour and the skeletons of defeated enemies. The best source of these items is your bits box. There's no particular hard ‘and fast rule for how much ofthis stuff you should have on your herdstone, as long as it doesnt look | | too neat. On Mark's herdstone, he | | used a mix of smaller parts glued | tight around the base, mixed with a | {ew taller spears resting against the stono. This adds character and | detail, without distracting too much from the herdstone itself. | For the Studio model, Mark glued the trophies in place before he painted the stone itself, This meant that some of the bits fell off during | the painting process, but did leave | shadows behind on the rock. 74 MODELLING WORKSHOP Finally, streak the edges of the ledges ‘with Skull White to give it the appearence of a rack. PAINTING THE HERDSTONE Undercoat the model with Chaos Black spray, then paint the entire model with Dark Flesh paint. The Dark Flesh layer will give a slightly more natural fea! to the rock as later layers are added. With the first layer dry, begin to lighten the colour of the stone by drybrushing it with Codex Grey. ‘Add some Bleached Bone to the Codex Grey for the next stage. Apply the paint like the last layer but, this time, avoid painting into recesses and shadowed areas. FINISHING THE HERDSTONE With the stone painted, feel free to cover the base of the herdstone with Chaotic runes and fil the alooves with skulls. Paint the base of the model and glue flock to the edges with PVA glue to suit Mix in a litle Skull White for the final your gaming table, highlight and then its time to define the ledges a litle more. Use a mix of Chaos Black and a small amount of Dark Flesh drybrushed inio the recesses of the shelves to add shade. SUMMARY When you've finished building your own herdstone, you could just add it to your ‘gaming table as normal, but as a Beastmen general there's no reason why that should be the end of it. The Beastmen decorate their herdstones with trophies from their defeated ‘enemies, so why not do the same? Simply giue on a new trophy from your defeated enemies to commemorate batties fought during a campaign.