The Plan

Here you can see the original drawing I did and the image from the Blades of Khorne book that Inspired it. The first piece I wanted to was a Blood Altar of Khorne. 

Building the Alter Base

I've wanted to build a lava table for a while and running Warhammer Achievements has given me the option to do it. One of the centre piece items I wanted to build was a big alter that is dedicated to Khorne. I set out by cutting out some blue foam to make the main base and the steps. I angled the cuts and then went round the top with a craft knife to just rough up the edges and make it not too regular. I then drew out the base on hardboard and cut this to shape to match. 

Next I had to get a bit more technical. I drew out the Khorne symbol in 2D Design and then cut it out on the laser cutter. I did two parts so that I could have a recess that I planned to fill with some sort of blood effect. I cut these from Hardboard as well and then glued them together with PVA glue. I then attached this to the  blue foam with silicon glue as this glues better than using PVA. 

The next step was to run some filler around the edges and then add sand onto the base. 

I decorated the Khorne symbol using sticky half beads that you use to decorate cards. I bought them from Hobbycraft. I did find that they needed some superglue to hold to the hardboard though. I also used a hole punch to cut out all the small circles that I could use as rivets. I cut out squares of card and glued them on as steps. 

The altar model in the middle is from the Reaper Bones line, which was a nice find and it works well in the middle, 

I didn't know quite what to put round the edges, but I ended up using cocktail sticks and some dowel which i sanded into points. I then used hot glue to hold them in place, I felt like these finished off the alter quite nicely. 

Painting the Altar

I started off by painting the blue foam blue again! This was just to give it a good coat of something so I could spray paint the whole thing. I hadn't been happy with some of the previous Khorne stuff that I had painted, so I went with a tried and tested method. I spray painted the whole thing dark grey then light grey, then I sprayed a load of brown on the sandy bits followed by light brown. Once this dried I dry brushed the whole thing with white to detail it up. The Khorne symbol was based with Balthasar gold and then washed with purple. I used a sharpie pen to pick out the corners and lines as the terrain is so big this doesn't really matter about the quality of the highlights too much.

The spikes were painted black and then gloss coated. I did consider that they should have some skulls stuck on them, and I might go back and do this later. 

The blood was interesting to do. I used Mephiston red and then stippled on some purples and oranges and whites. I made sure that the bubbles were gloss coated too. Then I had to do the resin. I mixed some blood for the blood god into the resin which totally didn't work - I should have used Caroburg Crimson instead. However the pour went well and i waited a few hours and then swirled in the blood for the blood god which worked much better. 

Building the Realm Gate

The realm gate required quite a bit of chopping and cutting. I removed all of the swirly bits, and then had to chop up the gap in between the two halves to make space for some polypropylene sheet. Once this was glued in place ai assembled the realm gate as normal and then glued a few of the swirly bits back onto the bottom. I then had to assemble the Bull Demon (restic - yuck!) before slicing it up on the bandsaw. I then used super glue to glue it onto the polypro sheet. 

Painting the Realm Gate

Again  this was done with spray paints. I used the greys and browns first to do all the stone and the minotaur. I then blasted it with Mephiston Red to pick out the top parts of the demon.

This also oversprayed the stone with some red glow which looked effective. Once all this was done I swirled on some purple ink and then glossed the realm gate before quickly painting the Demon. Because its a terrain piece I didn't spend a whole heap of time. It was just quick base coats, a wash and a n extreme highlight on the reds and golds. 

Overall Finished Piece

In the end I am happy with how this has come out - its a nice playable piece of scenery that you can run figures over the top of. Combine this with some rules for sacrificing and becoming crazy fighters I think this should work well. 

Next up for this table will be the Fortress...