Showcase: Warcry: Heart of Ghur Gnarlwood terrain (incl. painting guides)

Finishing off my trio of Warcry Heart of Ghur posts, I share the completed Gnarlwood terrain set. Not only that, this post also includes my paint recipe painting guide and as an extra bonus I have photographed all 4 of my completed Warcry boxed games, that’s Warcry Starter Set, Catacombs, Red Harvest and the latest Heart of Ghur.

This wildly imaginative scenery is probably the most important part of the boxed game. It instantly transports you to the fantasy environment and this terrain is so evocative and full of character it’s such a far cry from the obviously ruined buildings or the first Warcry set.

I think because the terrain is so creative it’s my favourite so far. There are 6 large sprues packed with amazing details but, and there is a but, when compared to the previous editions of the game I’ve painted it seems pretty sparse despite being a similar number of sprues. Warcry 1 is just crazy value, whilst the war bands are smaller sizes you do get a lot of ruins and the Raptoryx and Furies Chaos Beasts thralls.

Catacombs is great because you get two game modes, the catacombs and the above world ruins with a reversible board. Red Harvest is amazing because you get decent sized platforms and a good height to the board.

Heart of Ghur looks the best, but is sparse. All that plastic is used up in trunks and branches. The trunks are an intricate jigsaw puzzle, a real engineering flex, which gives you an incredibly complex 3d shape with no mould lines or detail degradation from overhangs in the mould. They’re also huge, the biggest plastic trees Games Workshop has made. In the game, the branches are not scalable so all that plastic used is purely for aesthetic and not usable in a game sense and I think this is what makes that set feel a little lacklustre in value compared to previous editions.

Despite the feeling of less terrain, I can easily say it took me the longest to paint. All the different textures, materials and details really needed some care and attention to bring it to life unlike the ruins and wooden platforms of previous sets that just needed a quick spray and drybrush. Some pieces from the Heart of Ghur set had me wrestling with which colour undercoat I should use. For the trees, I used black and for the bamboo and bone I used white. Some of the scenery though has these elements entwined so had me having to block in areas with white or black. Really added to the challenge and fun of painting the set. Definitely, a rewarding set to paint and look back on.

Finally, here is my recipe card for painting the terrain. Hope it’s useful, I’ve made recipe cards for the Horns of Hashut and Rotmire Creed too which might be of interest.

One final thing, I’m holding a Summer Sale on all my Get a Grip products over on eBay. Check it out here.