My last review of the new SBGL releases sees the Manifestations and faction terrain for the army drop. For the first time the vampire legions of Nagash can sally forth alongside their very own spooky house and terrifying spells! Big thanks to Warhammer Official for the review models, which I have assembled and painted to talk about here.
It is now clear that GW are rounding out each and every faction with both Faction Terrain and Manifestations as their 4th ed Battletomes are released. So these are no surprise. This is nice for completeness and balance and no faction is left out. However these elements are often viewed as a ‘tax’ or unwelcome necessity that don’t bring as much joy as the army itself. So how do these models shape up? Are they good builds and fun to paint?
If you asked me what to expect from the SBGL spells and terrain I’d have guessed “Bats, coffin and some spooky houses”. This is basically that, but with a massive hand (of Nagash!) added to that list. It’s not groundbreaking or innovative in terms of design, but fits the army theme perfectly and sits well in the range. One of these kits I really love in terms of design however, which I will expand upon below.
The Cursed Sepulcre is made up of three spooky houses. Two with rooves, one without. It ALSO makes the faction terrain for Nighthaunt, in the guise of a Nexus of Grief. Which is interesting and a bonus if you run both factions! Whilst ostensibly a “multibuild” kit the difference is so negligible between the two you can easily use this for both factions. Huzzah!
The Manifestations (three, as there always are) comprise:
- 1x Hand of Nagash (Big flying skeleton hand- 120mm oval)
- 1x Unholy Reliquary (Floating vampire coffin- 50mm round)
- 1x Sanguine Swarm (Two bat swarms- 40mm round)
Build
The Manifestations come on two sprues and go together very easily. Monopose, no variation. No surprise there. The primary feature on all three is dramatic spooky smoke. I’m not a huge fan of sculpted ‘magic’ personally, so struggled with this a little and it led me to kitbash the big hand. I feel that the basic models here are pretty easy to assemble and get on the table, but as with most of the endless spells they also offer some interesting opportunities for a fun kitbash, as you get a large and unusual model.
The Sanguine Swarm (bats), being honest, are a little lazy. The faction has bats on its bats. There’s a unit of bats and multiple models have bats on them, one has a swarm of bats as a weapon. Sure, vampires love bats, we get it, but a swarm of bats as a spell isn’t super imaginative. Could it have been a GIANT bat? Or just a giant bat head, or bat-winged vampire tree monster? Anyway, the bats come in strings joined at the wings. I was surprised to find that there was only one point of contact from each ‘string’ of bats to the base thing. These are flimsy and may well snap in use. Not super impressed. Was seriously tempted to chop them up and use them for shoulder pad adornments for my Night Lords… Being honest, given that the Manifestation also kinda sucks, I think these may well end up as more Fellbat bases in the army.
The Unholy Reliquary is much better. The model has its own quite nice sculpted base of cracked flagstones with supernatural energy flowing up into the floating coffin. All goes together nicely and looks good. The skeleton has an armoured carapace (breastplate) in the style of the Blood Knights, which I chose to leave off, as I preferred the look of the naked skeleton. Either way it looks cool.
The HAND OF NAGASH is boss. Big floating death hand coming RIGHT at YOU! What’s not to love? Every set of Manifestations has a star and this is clearly the Soulblight one. HANDS down. The Hand is supported by and protruding from a swirling vortex of death energy. Easy build and not many parts, the vortex being only two pieces. This was a little much sculpted magic for me however and I therefore set about my only kitbash of this set. I nearly just had it bursting from the ground, Evil Dead style, but in the end went for a variation on the ‘coming right at you’ build. I closed the fingers up a little, cutting and pulling them together, to make more of a grip. Then I added a stream of corpses and bloody matter cascading from the hand. This supports the whole thing on a brass rod up the middle, meaning I could drop the magic vortex and make it more horrid in one go! Most of the gore lumps and stream is made from various bits stuck together and then bulked out with expanding polyurethane glue. I like doing experimental, unpredictable builds like this, the expanding glue gives a random element that is fun. Came out pretty well. Certainly grim! I like this model and it makes a dramatic addition to the army.
The Cursed Sepulcre/Nexus of Grief is one sprue twice that makes three Spooky houses. There is pretty clever design here. Each house is the same parts from each sprue mirrored. So each has a base made of the same part twice, the long sides are the same etc. The assembly here is VERY neat and it being just one sprue repeated is clever. They manage to make three unique buildings out of one sprue and it’s slick sprue design. This pleases me. The plastic is dense and the things feel solid. They have a stone/flagstone base level, which puts them at different heights also. The difference between Sepulcre and Nexus is which side of each wall/gate you use. Those with shear stone and creeping vines are for Soulblight Gravelords and those with stone blocks and roses (a motif of the faction) are for Nighthaunt. This is a neat distinction, but really I don’t think it comprises a ‘multi-build’ kit. Build it however you like and use it as both?! I varied which sides of walls I used for variation and to make it more interesting for myself. You also have some minor options, where you put the dead tress (or leave them off) and what corbels to use on the roof ridge ends. This isn’t a lot, but with the wall options is enough to make you feel you’re making choices in the build.
I am a sucker for a nice terrain kit and this IS a nice terrain kit. Really enjoyed building it and goes together so nicely. The little details like skulls, candles, and vines all really sell the theme and the models. The tombs/mausoleums are roughly equable to the Garden of Morr ones of old and as I have an unbuilt set of that to hand (waiting for a graveyard terrain project I can never find time for…) I thought to do a little compare and contrast. It’s a world of difference in the 15 years that separate these kits. The Garden of Morr parts are thin and flimsy, joints don’t line up well. The Sepulcre tombs have bases with real depth which create a nice change in height across them. Such a big evolution of kits. Having said that the Garden spooky houses do have roughly the same base footprint as the new ones. So if you have those you could get away with using them as your faction terrain. Just saying.
Paint
Fast, big and loose: That’s how I like to paint terrain! Big brush and a can do attitude! This ideology must and can apply to magic spells as well. Seems to me that the Manifestations are magic, so you can paint them in whatever wacky scheme you please! Washes and a big brush are probably your friends here, as all the sculpted ‘magic smoke’ won’t lend itself to dry brushing. For the terrain you can employ a whole range of techniques to paint them, as there’s plenty of textures and surfaces here to help you out.
As I am a special oil painting snowflake I’m not going to talk about specific paints here, only general colours.
@badusernametag
For the Manifestations I did all the smoke/magic in my signature spooky green (Helio Deep Green mixed with white), blended into black, then pure black at the tips. All the bones are a cool, blue white and the bats I did in Orange, to make them interesting/standout. I’ve basically used colours from my army here, but why not go a little nuts with spells? Bright MAGIC colours? Slosh some contrast paints around and they’d really pop. I think my fave here is the Unholy Reliquary, which I’ve basically done in different tones of the same green shade, with just a little grey/brown stone on the base. It looks ethereal and magical as a result and I’m happy with the effect.
To paint the Sepulcre I first (lightly) glued each house to a piece of wood, so i’d have something to hold onto whilst I painted it. This is pretty easy to prise off after it’s all dry. Then I basically attack them with various techniques that are easy to apply and accentuate the textures of the terrain features.
I used the colours from my army so they would fit in nicely. Which is easy as It’s basically rusty metal, stone, mud, bones and ‘special stuff’ (roses, candles etc). Colour schemes and techniques as follows:
Rusty Metal
- Ochre/Sienna washes all over- wait to dry
- Sponge Paynes Grey (really dark blue, almost black) all over
- Highlight pointy tips (spikes etc)
- Wash again
- Sponge again
The resultant layers make for a nice effect and the patterns of orange/red oil wash make a really nice rusty metal effect. This is good here as the roof panels are almost flat. So the running rust adds texture.
Stone and Mud
This is the same as basing my army. Using two shades of grey and Paynes grey to shade.
- Base in dark grey
- Rough highlight the centre of each stone
- Light paynes grey wash- let it dry
- Sponge light grey, high points
- Sponge brown (Umber) all over, random
- Paynes grey shading in recesses, at bottoms of walls etc
- Wash all the muddy bits in brown (umber)
The Special stuff I just painted in the desaturated orange from my army, so that the roses and candles stand out against all the stone.
Overall I went for the fast, technique heavy painting here. Lots of washes, sponging and layers to create texture. Fast, dirty and fun.
Conclusion
Soulblight Gravelords get their mandatory spells and terrain. Nothing staggering in terms of concepts, BUT some really nice kits and if you like terrain then the Sepulcre/Nexus kit is definitely a winner. Also who DOESN’T want a BIG hand bursting into their games??
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