AHPC X - Monolith / Herdstone

Deep in the forbidden forrest, shadowed figures dance and writhe, chant and drum. 

Shadows flicker over an edifice of horror erected to Dark Gods...

The monolith by candlelight!

To close out 2019 and transition the hobby year, my next stop on the AHPC X Challenge Island is Cook's Crevase where "Entries must have a Geology Theme".  And what says Geology more than a giant, creepy stone Monolith!

Side view

This adds to my growing Fantasy terrain collection - the model is the current GW Herdstone model, useful for any large blasphemy or even Pulp era Cthulhu cultists (and its been way too long since I painted anything for that genre).  A relatively expensive plastic kit, it was a real delight to paint and had a myriad of details that I spent waaaay too long on for a Painting Challenge - I'm just not a speed painter at heart, and if detail is there then it needs to be painted!

Rear view - with more skulls and grisly trophies!

I went with a dark granite colour rather than a more typical grey rock appearance, to give it a more sinister appearance.  I also tried some OSL effects from the fire, keeping the bottom half of the monolith a bit darker to make that more effective and also help the lower runestones show up better.  So while the colours looks straight forward, I thought about them in far more detail than I usually would bother!

Details of the fire OSL - fun, but time consuming!

This entry is also my opening salvo for the "Skully McSkullface" side challenge which Barks initiated, and its a skull laden good 'un too:

Fireplace: 11 - yes, I even painted the ones facing the inside
Herdstone: 24, I lost one along the way :-(
Model Base: 9
Total SkullCount: 44!

Points wise this gives me a 55 point boost and completes my second stop on Challenge Island!
https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/12/from-paul-og-monolith-at-cooks-crevase.html

Painting notes:
Black Spray Undercoat
Heavy Drybrush - GW Charadon Granite
Medium Drybrush - 50/50 GW Charadon Granite & AP Uniform Grey
Light Drybrush (top only)- GW Dawnstone
Bones/Skulls/Skeletons - AP Skeleton Bone, AP Dark Wash, Val Bone White highlight
Ropes - AP Leather
Runestones - GW Mephiston Red
Flame and Glow effects- Drybrush GW Mephiston Red (medium), Troll Slater Orange (light), GW Averland Sunset (very light), GW Bad Moon Yellow highlights