Showcase: Soulblight Gravelords Grave Guard with Great Wight Blades

It’s Soulblight week part two on Tale of Painters and today I’ll share a glimpse at my spin on the venerable Grave Guard kit. I’ve painted five skeletal warriors hailing from Neferata’s Legion of Blood, with a few subtle conversions and eye-catching Great Wight Blades burning from balefire.

Like the immortal God of Death I wanted to breathe some new life into this old kit, so I made few subtle changes. I did away with the oversized shoulder guards for a slimmer silhouette; a stylistic choice that I think compliments their choice of weapons, allowing the Grave Guard more elbow-room to swing their Great Blades.

To make the unit champion stand out, I chose less ornate helmets from the old Skeleton Warriors set for the regular Grave Guard. I also changed his stance by using an axe arm with a one-handed grip and swapping the blade for a Great Wight Blade. His left arm is based on the hornblower arm from the Skeleton Warriors kit with the horn and leather straps carefully removed and a dagger from the Grave Guard kit.

Last but not least, I gave the musician the big horn from the Skeleton Warriors kit, as I deemed the larger instrument more fit for a unit of elite warriors.

Painting-wise, I wanted them to tie into the colours of my Nighthaunt collection, so the white robes are based on the same recipe I use for the spectral bodies of my Nighthaunt. I also use the same recipes for metal, brass, and leather across both armies.

These five models took me about a month to finish, but to my excuse, there was also a bit of experimentation needed to get the paint scheme right, especially with the blades. I tossed around a few ideas, in the end, I was inspired by Garfy’s molten blade tutorial:

I just changed the colours to match the turquoise balefire of my Nighthaunt army, I started with Toxic Mist from The Army Painter, then glazes and layers of Formula P3 Arcane Blue, Army Painter Hydra Turquoise, and finally Incubi Darkness for the dark spots. Would you like to see a tutorial for my version of this effect? Let me know in the comments and keep an eye on our Patreon page, as I upload most of my tutorials there as soon as I edited them (usually a few days or weeks before I find a spot to post them here).

There we are, the first half of the unit completed. I plan to paint five more Grave Guard, but I haven’t made up my mind yet what to do with the standard-bearer. I want to give him a brazier with turquoise flames, but I need to source the appropriate bitz first, so I’ll paint a couple of other things before I’ll get back to the second half of the unit.

Have a scary Soulblight week, leave a reaction below, and if you got any questions, let me know in the comments.