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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...!