Showcase: Nighthaunt Spirit Hosts

I have painted three more models for my growing Nighthaunt collection: a set of ghastly Spirit Hosts in my pastel purple paint scheme. Find out more in this post.

You might have noticed I haven’t painted Nighthaunt models in a while. I wasn’t completely happy with my paint scheme and wasn’t sure in which direction I wanted to go. But all the Soulblight Gravelords hype made me go back and try to improve my paint scheme by painting a set of Spirit Hosts, which I got from issue 28 of our Mortal Realms subscription. The Mortal Realms series is fantastic for picking up Nighthaunt models for cheap, and on the Hachette online store, many issues are still in stock. Unfortunately, issue 28 is sold out, but you might be lucky to find a copy on ebay UK (affiliate link). Hopefully, Mortal Realms will soon be rolled out in more regions.

Spirit Hosts were actually released back in the Warhammer Fantasy days when Soulblight Gravelords were simply known as Vampire Counts. The Hosts were groundbreaking models for their three-dimensionality and laid the design groundwork for the Nighthaunt range, along with the old Cairn Wraith and Tomb Banshee models.

The purple hue is still the same as explained in my Nighthaunt tutorial, a zenithal airbrush of Corax White over a purple basecoat, drybrushed and highlighted with white. However, I made a few subtle changes with the spot colours, such as a warmer, less yellowish bone colour for the skulls and skeletons, and reddish brown vines instead of muted green ones. I also added some brown static grass to the bases as I felt they would compliment the brown vines nicely.

Overall these models were super enjoyable to paint, and they only took me about a week and a half to finish them. Might be a new record for me! Granted, I spent a weekend repainting the skeletons as they turned out too greyish in the first try, but then I settled for a quick and easy recipe: Wyldwood thinned with a lot of Contrast Medium over Wraithbone, layering Wraithbone mixed with a little bit of Formula P3 Beast Hide over any areas where the wash had dried unevenly, and a highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh.

How do you like my rendition of these classic Warhammer Fantasy models? Let me know in the comments below and leave a reaction or question if you like.