The Roost of Turkadactyl

I am almost finished the Sylvaneth Forest Spirit Warhost set.  I’ve started work on the last model, the Spirit of Durthu.  I went with the build shown in the stock photo from Games Workshop.  Out of the three poses for the Treelords this one is the most difficult to work with.  The positioning of the model makes it difficult to get to some areas.  That means it will be all the more satisfying when it is complete.

I have all of the base colours on the model now.  The highlights are next to come.  I completed the drybrushing on Durthu and then looked over at the Treelord Ancient and was suddenly dissatisfied with the drybrush quality on the latter.  The bark looked richer on Durthu and naturally I had to fix my “problem” with the Ancient.  Since the Ancient is done (except the flock on the base) I had to be meticulous with a small drybrush to avoid the pink and green.  With that problem remedied I returned to Durthu.

I was on the fence as to what colour I wanted to paint the bark- grey or brown.  In the end as you can see I went with grey.  I only plan on painting one Durthu model.  I ended up choosing the grey because I want to paint Drycha brown (when I get around to purchasing that model).  The honeycomb, in my opinion, will look better with brown compared to the grey.  I am trying to go with balance with this collection, with half of the force in grey bark and the other half brown.

Games Workshop painted the runes, damaged face and sword of Durthu with a fiery theme.  I stuck with my “spirit essence” (is spirit essence a thing?) with the white base and Gulliman Blue glaze.  I don’t think the fiery look would suit my version.  The blue, pink and green complement each other.  My only concern with this model is the sword.  It is a little flimsy and I have a feeling it is going to snap eventually.  That happened to the sword on my Grey Knight Dreadknight.  It is easy to forget about it while painting and I’ve had it bend a few times against the table while rotating the model.  I’m trying to avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy of the sword snapping.

I have a few days off so I hope to finish the model over the next seven days.  It’s been a busy couple of weeks.  My wife and I have been enjoying some Spartan races with the season ending this weekend.  We also traveled to Vancouver to watch Sigur Ros and they put on a fantastic show.  I tried out a zombie simulation event also and was fortunate to be one of the last survivors.  I couldn’t make it to a sweet hiding spot close to the end of the night.  Eventually there were too many zombies and I was overwhelmed.  It was actually more beneficial to run solo then in a group of people.  Hockey season is also starting so I’ve been directing my attention to hockey pools.  September is turning out to be my fun month.

I finally ordered tufts for the Sylvaneth and my order is in the mail.  That means I will be able to bring my Sylvaneth projects to a close during the month of Dreadtober.  Last year Greg at Feed Your Nerd started a community project encouraging hobbyists to paint a Dreadnought (or equivalent) during the month of October.  Greg received a lot of support and there were loads of fantastic contributions.  Greg has passed the torch onto Joe at Broken Paintbrush and I recommend joining in the fun.  Sadly, I will not be joining the festivities this year (unless Joe will let Mr. Durthu be a honourary Dreadnought).  My purchasing Sylvaneth models this summer has pushed my project agenda back.  I have some 40K terrain, two Drop Pods and a Caestus Assault Ram that need to be painted for Badab War YEG in November.  If everything goes well I may be able to get the Spartan Assault Ram assembled as well.  Check out Dreadtober though.

Thanks for reading.