I've started a new terrain project, taking this as a starting point...

... with the intent of daemonically possessing it.

In a big bad way. I want to corrupt, desecrate, and thoroughly defile this thing, transforming it into a vast, grotesque, unholy altar. A monument to malice. Gapingly un-Gellared. An open Warp-pit seething with c'thullian menace. A Fortress of Irredemption.

I've done some terrain along these lines before...



The Fortress will get more of the same. More greenstuff. Spikes. Tentacles. Yet more greenstuff. Crucified marines. Greenstuff. Gaping maws. Maybe a bit more greenstuff? That sort of thing.

After some hesitation (this thing is so big it's hard to decide where to start!) I went to work on one of the missile silos, with the idea of making it into a sacrificial pit/summoning portal. Had a false start, put in some greenstuff, didn't like it, ripped it out again (no pics of that) ...

...then took some bitz from the WHFB Corpse Cart kit...


... and went back in with the greenstuff...


... and kept greenstuffing until things got out of control. Went a little further. And ended up with this:


Here's a closer look:


Say hi, boiling-in-raw-Warpstuff guy!


And now I'm off and running. This was a good place to start, I think. Helps focus the project. Gives away a bit of the ending (hint: not a happy one!), but points the way forward.

Thanks for looking. This project will take awhile -- probably several months. But I'm doing it for a friend, so I'm motivated to see it through to completion!

Very nice start tinfoil - your GS skills are impressive to say the least. I'll be subscribing

That's an excellent start! I'll be following along with this one

Looks like fun so far

Looking awesome already.

Well, I can't say I'm pleased at what you're doing to that DA fortress, but I am certainly impressed by your skills, ill have to keep an eye on this!

Thanks for the encouragement, folks. Sorry I haven't been responding more regularly.

I've been picking away at this project over the past few weeks.

First, on the Hot Tub of Harrowing, I tried creating a spillover effect...


...to generate a familiar image:


I'm liking the look, though I'm not done yet with that section. Needs yet more tendrilling greenstuff....

Meanwhile I turned to the other wing of the Fortress. Waiting for some inspiration to hit, I noodled in a few daemonic fibers...


Then went to work on the artillery turret. First I carved out some openings on either side:


Then added a few details:


and on the other side:


Then worked in some... (wait for it) ... Greenstuff!


and:


I picture those poor souls still "alive" in some sense, still sentient, moaning hoarse imprecations to the ruinous powers.

Thanks as always for looking. I'm happy to hear ideas for this project.

Nice start! Keep working on it.

M.

Man, I really love your greenstuff work! This thing looks great so far! Keep up the good work!

Love the Chaos star in the hot tub. If that's anything to go by, this will be amazing.

Are you planning on painting it too?

Great to see more of your stuff. Really like the idea of the tentacle star.

Woah! This is one awesome blog...

This is gonna be awesome. I'm hoping to do something similar down the line but more Khorne orientated rather than Undivided. Loving your work though can't wait to see more.

Wow. Glad to jump in this thread early! Love your terrain, Tinfoil.

Really nice work, keep it coming!

Inspired stuff as always!

Looks really good so far tin.

so far this is looking incredible.

the green stuff chaos star is mind blowingly good.

subscribed as I wanna see how this turns out!

Looking good. Keep us posted.

Very interesting ideas reminds me of Doom 3 and Dead Space. Looking forward to seeing more

Great stuff cant wait for end result

Yes. Exalted. I can't wait to see more.

Beautifully disgusting.

Fantastic greenstuff work! Will be watching this one with interest....

 gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:
Beautifully disgusting.

I'd say it's more disgustingly beautiful.

Thanks very much for the kind words, folks!

After a hiatus, I've gone back to work on this project.

Now I've turned to the tower of the thing, and set in on the statuary. Which (you'll be amazed and excited to hear) is being possessed by creepy crawling greenstuff! (Didn't see that coming, didja? :twisted: )



I figure, if the tower''s statues represent heroes of the Imperium girdling the fortress with the armor and iconography of faith, well, any daemonic power worth its weight in Warp is going to start by gnawing and worming its way in...


and laying claim to the stone itself, either by tooth:


or by tentacle:


... to demonstrate to the doomed worshipers of the Corpse God how hollow their "gods" and heroes are, how hopeless they are.

You will notice, by the way, that I've (literally) twisted and warped the tower walls. I have plans for up top.
.
Lots more to do on this. Next I'll probably work on the stone scroll work wrapping around the statues' swords.

Thanks for looking.

Brilliant work on those statues really gribbly.

Absolutely superb, this is really going to be great.

Really nice work, looking forward to seeing this finished .

Tinny, you tease! You know we want to see more than just those four (insanely awesome) pics

Been picking away at this. Still working on the faces of the main tower.


Wasn't sure exactly how Harrowed/possessed to make this part of the project, given that the monumental figures are statuary. It doesn't make sense for the statues to be becoming daemons, does it?

But then I'm a literal guy, and I did want the conversion to depict, in graphic terms, the corruption of the thing. So I did choose a few places to poke in some greenstuff. Namely bottoms of the statues, as if eldritch energies were sort of leaking from each statue...


Which does seem to make the pile of skulls (ho hum) a bit more interesting:


And then, given that the scroll ribbons wrapped around the statues' swords would doubtless be inscribed with devout pieties, I figured they too would receive daemonic attention. So I en-trendriled them as well, somewhat lightly, to suggest tongues of wickedness licking at the statuary homilies....


... and



Here are each of the four sides:

and

and

and


A few more touches and I imagine I'll be ready to form them into the tower.

Thanks for looking.

Looks awesome! Although I think you've missed a trick with four statues, as you could have dedicated one to each God!

Oh this place needs purging of demon spawn!

Dude, really nice work!!

Nice ideas. Looking forward to further results.

I love what you are doing with this.Keep it up.

Yes, yes, I too love this. Sculpting is top notch

Absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to see this when it is finished!

A lovely piece of sculpting work, I like how you've carefully considered the design, rather than just slapping on loads of green stuff, nice work .

There is something Lovecraftian about this piece it reminds me of a lot of some of the more evocative descriptions in Dan Abnetts stuff.

Those hood-maws are horrifyingly excellent. They give me chills just looking at them.

This looks great! I not only envy your green stuff skills intensely, but am inspired by your imagination and the amount of thought you put into the placement of every tendril and tentacle, every corpse and corrupted scroll. I'm excited for the future of this.

Thanks for the kind words, folks. (Particularly yours, Llamahead. "Lovecraftian"? You honor me!)

I like your suggestion, Eldarcaveman, but I don't think a 4-god/4-sided tower would have worked in this case. I'm making this project for a friend who runs a Black Legion army, so I'm kind of going for a more Chaos Undivided kind of vibe.

Well, for better or worse, I've been Harrowing. I've started in on the panels projecting from the mini-tower bastions. In GW's version, these are filled with more statuary: monumental swords with scrolls, skulls with scrolls, smaller statues with swords and scrolls, that sort of thing.

Wanting to create some suggestion of the daemonic rot seething inside the fortress, I've been cutting out the recessed panel walls...


... and making them into apertures opening outward and inviting glimpses into the Warpery, witchery, and wyrdery writhing within.


I've been experimenting with different techniques...


... trying out some old tricks and some new ones...


... and just in general letting my imagination go.


I do think I may be getting carried away here. I still have eight or so of these to go, so maybe I should make some of the others a bit more contained?

Yeah, that would probably be best.

Looks great!

Though I agree, the "contained" parts of the walls should outnumber the more heavily corrupted.

The shapeless, formless monstrosity inside the doorways is absolutely awesome. People doing nurgle/fleshdemon conversions fail in droves at evoking what you succeed with. Great job!!!
I'm not sure it would work on all the doorways, so perhaps do something else in some of them. Looking forward to see WIP and in finished glory!

Truly inspiring stuff can’t wait to see more, and it painted too

I'm enjoying the look of the tower! Though I would've done something to the hands of one of the statues to give them a little more variation.

I look forward to checking in on this thread again!

Thanks folks.

@ gunslingerpro: The hands of the statues, you say? Hmmm. Not a bad idea.

In the meantime, I've done a few more panels. Because the person who will be using this terrain is a Black Legion player, I'm working on some schemes with Eyes.

Including one big kinda-looks-like-a-Horus eye...


And another panel crawling with multiple eyes...


These are still WIP. But I do like the general effect.

DO NOT WANT... to go through that door.

 tinfoil wrote:

... and making them into apertures opening outward and inviting glimpses into the Warpery, witchery, and wyrdery writhing within.

Your green stuff skills are top notch

This is some of the most original and impressive work I've seen on dakka, don't hold back at all I say who know what you will create.

Yes this is overflowing with pure win. Best Chaos GSing I've seen. Ever.

They look fantastic tinfoil, I love the addition of the eyes.

Looking fab tinfoil!!

Although I prefer the Imperial rather than the chaos look I do agree with an earlier comment, the Fortress of Redemption would look better if all 4 hooded figures were sculpted slightly differently for example, holding different weapons. I've made my own Fortress before using the Tower part of the kit as per the box. I didn't have the sculpting skill (or the want to try!) to change it. I would love someone to offer alternative sculpts or Chapter specific versions. Can you imagine a different SM champion on the face of each wall? I'd buy them!!!

Regards, Phil.

Bast’yl ur-Arkan had stood in resolute and righteous service to the Emperor for nearly two millennia. Unbreachable fortress walls clad in adamentium four meters thick had armored His loyal servants. A ring of heavy bolters, a battery of silo’ed missiles, and a fearsome pair of lance cannons, “God-Spears,” had delivered retribution to His enemies.

The fortress was battle-tested and, what was incalculably more formidable, it was anchored in the stoutest foundations of faith. In architecture the structure traced the lines of venerable Mechanicae templates. In sacrament, in daily devotions, in fervent prayer she had been unfailingly attended. For centuries the tech priests had daily, dutifully incanted their ritual blessings and anointed her armaments with prescribed oils.

Such were the sacraments sanctifying the fortress, sustaining a regimen that stretched back to the very investiture of the fundament, as solemn records testified. Arch-Cardinal Hiyl Thrasis himsel, attended by an envoy of priests and ecclesiarchs several hundred strong, had presided over the ceremony of consecration.

That had been a fine day, high and holy. Beneath a choir of hovering cherubim throngs of citizens and soldiery had gathered, haggard after long months of siege, grateful for the deliverance that had finally come from on high.

The Warmaster himself had graced the occasion to see the foundation of the Fortress laid and to hear the Arch Cardinal thereby vouchsafe the blessings of the Ministorum upon the battered Crusade.

Who, then, could have wavered, who could possibly have held any doubt upon hearing the Arch Cardinal declare in full throat “We stand here on hallowed ground….”?


Progress on the Fortress has been sporadic but measurable.

I welded the four tower panels together...

The warping (pun intended!) at the top of tower came out much as I had hoped, thankfully:


Then I went to work on the fissures on the corners. Here's a step-by-step look at one corner:

(And from behind, just to give a sense of the method

then

then

... and now it looks something like this:

and this


Other corners are not as far along, but getting there:

and


So, little by little things twist and turn their way toward their ultimate fate.

Thanks for looking. Feedback is warmly invited.

II.

“We stand here on hallowed ground….”

Far out in the audience an old man, a pilgrim whom later no-one would recall ever having seen before, giggles and starts to babble. “Hallow,” he barks. “Hallow hollow.” Shakes his head, jerks it violently from one side to the other. “Hallow hollow,” he repeats. “Hallow hollow.”

Others in the crowd begin to edge away from him uneasily. The old man takes no notice. Keeps repeating in a tone that deteriorates to hiccupping inanity, “hallowhollowhallowhollow.”

A few minutes more and a deacon approaches, elbowing his way through the parting crowd and hefting his halberd meaningfully.

The old man looks up as the deacon draws near. Falls silent for a a beat or two, his gaze unfocussed, his eyes dead. Then speaks again.

“We stand on hallowed ground,” he says slowly and distinctly as the deacon raises his halberd. “We’ll stand on harrowed ground.” The blow falls, loping off the man’s head in a stroke so clean the mouth is still working, “hallow hollow,” as it falls to the ground.

Top notch sculpting mate
Keen to see how this progresses.

This is un real(pun intended) this is one of the best things i have ever seen on DAKKA Keep up the great work.

Hoping to see this painted soon - looking great so far!

Considering how awesome this looks in parts with just greenstuff and grey plastic, the mind boggles at what it’s going to look like when it’s assembled and painted.

Yes I do have to agree with the others. Brilliant work there my good man, brilliant.

Awesome progress...!

Lovely piece of sculpting work, cant wait to see what it looks like painted.

Spectacular. Makes me think, it's time to introduce a terrain category to the Golden Demon competition (I know, they have a diorama category, but that's not the same...)

Some pretty amazing work so far...

I stumbled across this thread, and I must say that this is some amazing sculpting work! I am subscribed and awaiting updates!

Top notch, Tinfoil! Glad to see some progress here!

III.
“We will stand her here, on this hallowed ground.”

The man was growing more shrill each time he repeated the phrase, savant Eleq observed from the far end of the table. Briefly he considered interjecting. Technically speaking the ground could not be officially sanctioned as “hallowed” until the Ministorum had ruled on the petition for canonization.

But Eielon Joquille, Reliquarian Annointed, was in high froth and determined to press his point home. “Hallowed ground,” he repeated, enunciating each consonant with grim relish. “Here stood Filal, bound in chains, unflinching even as the foul beasts of the arch-enemy tore at him. Here, from this promontory, rose his last pious prayers to the Emperor Enthroned. And here, brethren, is where the great work must be built.”

The political ramifications were growing clear. Eielon would be speaking for the Arch Cardinal, as everyone around the table well knew. And Hiyl Thrasis was not a man to leave anything to chance. Probably he had already engineered Filal’s canonization. Plainly he had set his sights on this location for the Chapel Fortress.

Fleetingly Eleq wondered what Filal’s last words really had been. The savant had been party to hundreds of interrogations over the years, and heard more than a few last words delivered in extremis. None of them pious or full of anything like grace.

He glanced around the table. The Warmaster’s delegate, Lord Marshal Olomus Graere, was nodding emphatically. “The ground is suitable,” the soldier said, rising stiffly. “Defensible. Strategically sited. And of course symbolic. The Astra Militarum bow to the Cardinal’s wishes on this matter.” Upon which Olomus did just that: bowed in the reliquarian’s direction. A literal man, Eleq reflected.

Would the Liege Council weigh in?

The Governor was not putting in a personal appearance, of course. His Excellency Greigor Tsorson XXXVII, scion of a lineage said to trace back to Terra itself (or so the House scribes claimed), remained cloistered on a vessel somewhere in orbit above them, awaiting word of comprehensive planetary compliance.

Nor would the consiglierae of House Tsorson be in any great hurry to land. The boy was too young, and in any event far too valuable to display before reconstruction had been set securely in train.

In his Excellency’s stead the Liege Council had dispatched one of the child’s senior tutors, the chamberlain Affar Ellott, a wizened husk of a man interred in a casket of amniotic fluid cradled in a thick nest of data cables and logicae enginery.

Scarcely a dozen words had issued from that apparatus since the council had convened. None issued now. Evidently House Tsorson was willing to let the Ecclesiarchy have its way on this one.

A waiting silence had fallen over the table. Was it time to speak? Would his master rise in objection, the savant wondered, now that it was clear they would be opposing not merely the fervor of the reliquarian but, behind that, the looming will of a man as powerful as Arch Cardinal Hiyl Thrasis?

Against such imposing certainty what did they have to offer? Disquieting auguries? Ancient mosaics unearthed in caves wormed deep beneath the place? A strange taste in his mouth, like ash, and a ringing headache that had set in the moment Eleq had laid eyes on those disquieting images?

Beside him he felt his master give an imperceptible shake of his head.

That was it, then.

Later, as the pair made their way down the cliff path, he permitted himself to try one last time. “Is there nothing to be done?”

“No.” His master sighed. “No, I think not.”

“And the caves?” Eleq ventured.

“Seal them,” Inquisitor Ramulir said softly. “Fill and bury them and see that they are shut as tightly as lore can bind.”



I continue to pick and peck away at this project. Still working on the upper part of the tower, for the most part. The weather being mild and not too sunny today, I took the piece outside to get some pictures.



and


and


and


As you can see, I'm giving myself more rein near the top of the tower. By the time I'm done, the thing might end up looking like a volcanic eruption of daemonic energy.

Next step will be putting the ceiling/upper platform on the tower, then meshing in more warp-age. In the meantime, here's a look down into the tower...

... before I seal it off.

Thanks for looking, and for the kind words and suggestions.

Awesome, looking forward to seeing what you do with the inside of the tower.
Also, I like the fluff snippets, really brings the piece into even more life.
It's certainly Chaotic, and I expect it'll dominate any battlefield you sit it on!

Lookin good! You should change the name to: Fortress of Damnation.

This is looking incredible. I'll be keeping an eye out for more.

WOW! Please keep it up, this looks fantastic!!!

Congratulations on being a Green Stuff wizard!

While the organic mutations are great it'd be cool if you were to consider traditional chaos iconography as well. Currently I feel there is a certain lack of spikes which I feel could look good running up the corners along the metal edging.
Though if that is not the look you're going for I'm sure whatever you have planned is still going to be incredible

So how come did the Chaos infested the Dark Angels thing?

And where's a barb and chaos symbol?

Fantastic work! I'm excited to see how it turns out. And how you'll paint it!

I can't wait to see what you're going to do with the top bit.

Lack of updates notwithstanding, this project has continued to fester and spread, slowly and silently, like a cancer. It’s time to look in on things, don’t you think?

I’ve been putting most of my work into the central tower of the fortress. First I fastened the four sides together….

Understand, daemonic possession is a messy business. Every soul inside the fortress has been clawed open from the inside. This savage, serial desecration has channeled vast, hideous, seething energies into the structure. Now the tower itself is starting to split open from within. Accordingly I had splayed open the tops of the towers a little. So I had to build a kind of scaffolding inside to hold up the roof. After warping the roof a bit…

… I set it in place…

… and set in with greenstuff.

And more greenstuff…

and more….


I realized at some point I was overdoing things. But I couldn’t stop myself. What can I say? The Ruinous Powers are ultimately responsible. I am merely a vessel.

So here’s an overview of the top:


And a few scenic “landscape” shots here.


and here.



So, yeah. I think I did kind of take things over the top.

Though believe it or not, I think the roof is still “playable” in a game sense.

In any event, I think I’d better stop now, and move on to other parts of the project.

Thanks for looking.

Has anyone seen my jaws??

If your painting skills are anywhere near your green stuff skills....THIS IS GOING TO BE EPIC!!!

Definitely worth the wait - but more please!!

I don't think you overdid it, the top looks excellent.

*Looks at my Green Stuff work* *looks at your project*

GS Wizard....your skills must be used for the good of mankind
Keep up all the great work ...you single handedly inspired me to work on my GS skills...if i could only be half as good.

Looking Gribbly

... Just wow... Amazing GS work

this is good stuff, if you wanted to be totally insane you should do a whole table and paint it with phosphorous paints and uv lights for lighting so you can play in the middle of a warp storm.

Brilliant! I love how the infected tower looks like it is ripping itself apart.

Love the green stuff work done on this piece, really looks like somethings bursting out
from within .

You must be blessed by the powers of chaos. this looks amazing!

Oh my gosh. I have been inspired to get my Bastion and Tzeentch it up!!!

Awesome! This will be a masterpiece )))

I would put demons crawling out of the doors, or around the tower, or something. And a lot more spikes.

What this guy^ said.

So, this project is still a thing, believe it or not. Or maybe a better way to put it would be, this project is a thing again! After some gentle prodding from my client and good friend, I dug the pieces of this monstrosity out from the back of my modeling shelf, dusted them off, and brought them over to his house to see what I had so far and what it might take to finish off the damn (damned) thing.

I didn’t know what I’d find. It had been two years since I’d worked on this, and moreover back then when I had been, I’d been working on it piece by piece… which means of course the thing had remained in pieces. My first step was to put things together, in part to get a sense of what the whole would look like – and more fundamentally, to re-motivate me.



You know what? It looks closer than I thought. All of the major elements are here, and most of them are done or nearly so.
And I have to confess, I liked the way it had been taking form.



Here and there I may have gone a bit over the top…


But hey, chaos, amirite?


You know the objective secured/tainted special rule in the Curse of the Wulfens daemon formation? Yeah…



So I’m going resume this project and try to finish the modeling over the next month or so.

And then turn it over to Mason to paint (tee hee). Stay tuned….

Good to see you pick this back up. So much awesome potential.

Can't wait to see it finished.

Georgious!

Great to see you're once again plugging away at this. It really is a fantastic project.

EDC

Holy warp, great to see this restarting, looking forward to the finishing steps !

I've always loved this project. Looking forward to see it completed!