The Haunter of the Dark

[Ferox]

"I see it--coming here--hell-wind--titan blur--black wings--Yog-Sothoth save me--the three-lobed burning eye . . . ."

-- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Haunter of the Dark"

 

So yesterday I picked up the GW "Chaos Spawn" box, which has two torsos and a dizzying assortment of bits for creating hideous abominations from beyond the reaches of human sanity. Obviously that's not the sort of thing I can just walk past and leave on the shelf. Today I took it upon myself to assemble one of the beasties, and as I pondered the range of claws, tentacles, and other scabrous things I was inspired by the quotation above. Thus, the following:

 

 

The torsos on these guys come in sort of a clamshell configuration, with the legs and back as one piece and the front as another. The legs on this one had a hoof raised up over a singularly unconvincing clump of grass, so I cut that off and put it on what'll be a slab of rock when it's painted. I pinned both legs; that blotch of green stuff you can see on the raised leg covers the hole where I went a bit too far (oops).

 

 

The bodies are covered with little craters, into which a bunch of neat attachments can be inserted. Big ones for the arms, obviously, and a mid-sized one for the head, but the rest are pretty much plug-and-play. It's like Lego for demented teratologists. I love it. Unfortunately, the indents for the arms are a bit too big, and after looking at these photos I'll probably go back and green stuff them up a bit.

 

 

The wings just would not stay put on their own, which was GW's way of telling me to pin the things (and I did). The box comes with tails, but I figured this guy was busy enough without one. Which brings up a somewhat delicate point... neither chaos-spawn torso makes any effort to hide their groins, but no plumbing whatsoever is in evidence. I guess that's why the heads all look so angry.

 

 

I don't remember the last time I took photos before painting; these have shown me a few places where I still need to trim mould lines, and convinced me to fill the arm sockets. (That ought to help keep the arms in place, too, as I neglected to pin those.)

 

I have no idea what colours to paint this guy. Dark blue, maybe, fading to grey-pink for the chitinous bits -- and of course a fiery orange "three-lobed burning eye" in the middle.

[Grimwolf]

Ya, this kit from GW is pretty cool... not to mention all of the nice Bits you get :D

 

Interested to see how this comes together.

[Ferox]

Ya, this kit from GW is pretty cool... not to mention all of the nice Bits you get :D

That too -- I have a few zombies (well, still pieces on the sprue) that aren't going to be zombies for long.

 

GW's really doing a bang-up job with multipart plastics lately. Too bad their plastics weren't this awesome when I was playing 40k in high school.

 

Incidentally, the round bases for these models, once you clip out the cylinders inside them, are just about the perfect size for a 1.25" fender washer to keep the figure weighted down. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[Mini Killer]

Can't wait to see were this one goes.

[Ferox]

"Then suddenly a black spire stood out against the cloudy sky on his left, above the tiers of brown roofs lining the tangled southerly alleys."

-- H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark

 

I think I'm starting to like RMS Blue Liner just a little bit too much. That's eerily appropriate in the Lovecraftian context, sort of like crushing on a Colour Out Of Space. In any case, I just basecoated most of the Haunter in the stuff, and damn does it look good.

 

 

Deep and shadowy, but not flat hue-killing black. I'm worried that I haven't left myself enough room to shade it, but in that case I guess I'll just bring up the highlights a bit more. Anyone know of some good articles on painting really dark surfaces?

 

 

Since the wings figure so prominently in Lovecraft's story, I thought I'd paint them in a slightly different shade. Either brown liner, if the FLGS ever gets it in stock, or some sort of chromatic black. The chitinous bits will turn into sort of a pinkish-grey thing to contrast the dark flesh.

[TaleSpinner]

Looking like a good start. I'm really pumped to see where you take this one.

[Mini Killer]

I don’t know of any good article’s on working with a dark color. In my experience, it comes down to restraint in the use of the highlight color to prevent it from shifting to a lighter color. Just remember less is more. I can’t wait to see it completed.

[Ferox]

"Desolation and decay hung like a pall above the place, and in the birdless eaves and black, ivyless walls Blake felt a touch of the dimly sinister beyond his power to define."

-- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Haunter of the Dark"

 

Here it is, mostly basecoated. Needs some darklining, and I have yet to even start blending the flesh/skin into the chitin (although it's doing fine by itself on the right shoulder).

 

 

I decided against painting the wings in a different hue of black, for fear of clashing with the body, so they're done up in Blue Liner as well. The chitinous bits are about a 2:1 mix of cloudy grey and tanned shadow, which is appropriately lobster-like. I think I might go for spotted markings in a dark red building up toward the outside edges of the arm-claws, just to add some interest.

 

 

As far as highlighting the flesh goes, I'm not planning to do much at all. I'll take a reference photo or three (or maybe just run some of these through a few appropriate Gimp filters) and do my best to add tight, careful highlights only where necessary. I want to convey a slimy, gelatinous look, so I'll run the specular highlights a bit further away from the light than I usually would, but I'll still keep them tight and narrow. That's the theory, at least; it's much easier to type it than to do it. Ah well, it's only paint.

 

 

And then there's the eye. I have something in mind for the eye that ought to blow everyone's socks off.

[Mini Killer]

Looking Good.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Socks standing by...

[Ferox]

"This stone, once exposed, exerted upon Blake an almost alarming fascination. He could scarcely tear his eyes from it, and as he looked at its glistening surfaces he almost fancied it was transparent, with half-formed worlds of wonder within."

-- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Haunter of the Dark"

 

So finally I've gone and finished the claws and skin. I added a red emphasis to the claws with RMS Deep Red (or whatever was on my wet palette; I think it was Deep Red), then highlighted with Terran Khaki and Linen White. I shaded them first with Intense Brown (didn't work), then with Blackened Brown, and finally with a mix of Blackened Brown and Breonne Blue.

 

 

Next, I highlighted the skin with a couple layers of Snow Shadow, mixed in some Linen White, and finally added a few dots of pure Linen White. That was of course far too bright for this character, so I went back over it with a wash of Blue Liner.

 

 

The eyes are basecoated with Phoenix Red. They will of course get further attention.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Not to rain on your parade -- this is intended as CONSTRUCTIVE criticism -- but if you're looking for a literal interpretation of Lovecraft's critter, I'd do something with the wings. The Haunter of the Dark was a flier, and had very prominent wings.

 

Your creature above fills me with envy for your skill and vision, and is almost enough to make me want to break my vow about GW's getting any more of my money -- it's that good -- and getting better -- but with those wings, Orville, you're not getting it off the ground.

[Ferox]

Yeah, I hear ya. Officially this guy's "inspired by" rather than any sort of faithful interpretation of the Haunter from the Shining Trapezohedron. At this point I think it's a bit late to tack on larger, more prominent wings -- particularly as I'm going to be using it in a gaming session tomorrow. If I was going to tackle a more literal version of the Haunter -- and you've put the idea in my mind -- I think I'd go for something more like the Hunting Horror illustration from the Call of Cthulhu rulebook (p. 166 of the 6th Edition book).

[Ferox]

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