Sepulchral scenics – decrepit crypt terrain

The undead completed their new musty home without major incidents (only two groups of adventurers had to be driven off). In part I of this tutorial the basic layout of the Crypt was created, featuring natural stone walls and stone slabs. Part II focused on vegetation, such as vines, moss, mushrooms and roots.

In this part we will add skeletons for the alcoves, urns, candles and sacrificial offerings. 

Some thoughts on Crypt Dressings

Being a place where the dead rest, a crypt is not only a sombre place, but also a place of commemoration. The civilisation that built this place may have long perished, but the signs of paying tribute to the dead entombed here will outlast their creators for hundreds if not thousand of years.

The long time since anyone, may it be priests, kin or tomb raiders, entered this place needs to be reflected in the appearance of all objects contained in the crypt. Vessels or offerings  made of metal need to show signs of rust or verdigris, surfaces need to be dusty and any organic materials should show signs of decay.

Candles were used in combination with the light shafts to enable kin and priests to pay their tribute. They burned down and were replaced with fresh ones, leading to a build-up of wax. In small, narrow bowls libations were presented, still showing remnants of wine long reduced to a brown desiccated layer. The candles, too, may have been lit to remember of the one’s gone, to keep vigil or lead the way to the afterlife.

Grave goods like swords and daggers were given to the revered ancestors, their bones carefully placed on richly coloured fabrics. Well-off families commissioned statues of their ancestors, portraying them as ageless heroes. Hundreds of years later the swords are rusty, the fabric eaten by moths and decaying through the permeation of water. Statues are tumbled over, broken or covered in dust and verdigris.

Burial rites may have changed in the course of time. It is thus not surprising that burial of bodies in the alcoves and urn burials are both present. Urns are placed in an alcove to set them apart from other vessels, which contained incense and embalming materials.

This, again, dictates some design choices:

• Anything made of metal needs to be heavily rusted or covered in verdigris.
• Skeletons should be placed together with grave goods to “tell a story” and should be heavily weathered.
• Candles, urns and offerings should be placed in a logical way. One alcove might have been used for libations, the other to display a statue etc.

Naturally, guidelines are not something that should suppress creativity, but they can provide a cross-check when deciding where to place all the details. On that note – let’s place some stuff!

What you need to honour the dead

For the candles

• Some cylindrical shape as a basis for the candles. I used some plastic sprue cuttings.
• Golden Acrylic Matte Gel to sculpt the wax.
• One strand of copper wire, cut in small pieces to depict the wicks.
• Acrylic paints. Candles come in all kinds of different colours nowadays, but in a Fantasy setting it might be good to use natural tones. I went for off-whites, especially RMS Yellowed Bone by Reaper.
• Fast setting glue to attach the candles.
• Brown and grey pigment to depict dust.

For the urns, bronze vessels and libation bowls

• Depending on how much money you would like to spend, you can get ceramic vessels in 28mm or 15mm scale from Baueda. The jars, amphorae and vases come in handy to depict urns, but might need a lid made of green stuff. Alternatively (I used both) you can also get some cheap spherical beads, add a lid and paint those up as vases or urns.
• Green stuff for lids and libation bowls.
• Golden Acrylic Matte Medium to cover the beads and improve adherence.
• Brown and beige acrylic paint (can be cheap stuff) and GW Agrax Earthshade. Bronze and silver paint. Vallejo Smoke. For verdigris effects a jade tone. If you want to add free hand adornments to the urns you can go for a lighter shade of the base colour or introduce some other colour, in my case dark red.
• Brown pigments to depict grime and dust, red pigment to depict the remains of a libation offering.

For the skeletons and their grave goods

• Any number of Warlord Skeletons. I went for four full skeletons and one skull.
• Some of their weapons to depict grave goods. I went for a sword and a dagger.
• Green stuff to sculpt the cloth the skeletons rest on.
• Acrylic paint. RMS Yellowed Bone, white, reds, metallics and greens.
• Different pigments (browns and reds) to depict grime, dust and rust.

Tools needed

• Brushes of various sizes to apply paint and wood glue. Old bristle brush for dry brushing.
• Sculpting tools.
• X-acto knife.

How to make sepulchral scenics

The candles

Cut as many pieces of round sprue as you need candles. Glue them down on a piece of cardboard or plastic.

Now cover the sprue pieces with Golden Acrylics Gel matt. It has a nice thick consistency and you can shape it to an uneven surface. The idea is to make the candles look like they burned down a bit. Next, insert the copper wire (the wick), while the gel is still wet. After the first coat is dry, you may need to apply a few more. Really depends how thick a candle you want.

Paint the candles with a basecoat of RMS Yellowed Bone and add subtle highlights with an off-white. RMS Pure Black works well for the wick. Remove the candles from the painting aid and glue them in place

Time to add the wax build-up. Apply the matte gel around candles or even on the floor or walls. The matte gel does not dry translucent, but has a certain cloudiness to it. Perfect to depict wax. If necessary, add some more RMS Yellowed Bone to pronounce the texture.

Finally, dust the candles with grey and brown pigment and fixate with some AK Pigment Fixer.

Urns, statue, bronze vessels and libation bowls

If you got some, clean and basecoat the Baueda vases. Put them aside and glue some beads on a piece of cardboard or plastic card. Dilute the matte gel slightly, so that it is runny enough to cover the beads without much effort. If you feel like it, sculpt some lids and add them to the vases and beads. Last, but not least, take a tiny ball of green stuff and indent it with a ball point tool. Voila, instant bowl!

Basecoat the beads, bowls and Baueda vases with brown acrylic paint. Follow up, with an even coat of bronze paint. Add some silver for the highlights and darken the areas closer to the ground with Vallejo Smoke. When all is dry, make a wash using green, blue and white. We want a nice Jade tone. I suggest a mix of 10 to 1 water/ paint. Apply over the entire vessel and let dry. Repeat if you would like the verdigris effect to be stronger.

Highlight the Baueda vases and add some ornaments if you like. I went for a very simple geometric pattern. Now, paint the lids just like the bronze vessels, adding the verdigris effect. Next, add some red pigment to the bowls to depict the remains of libelation offerings. Finally, sprinkle with different pigments to add grime and dust and fixate the pigments with AK Pigment Fixer.

Repeat the steps above for the bronze statue. I used and old 15mm miniature. The face is very rough, but suits a statue perfectly.

Skeletons and grave goods

Assemble the Warlord Skeletons. The trick is, to break their bones (pun intended) to make them lie down.

Basecoat the skeletons with a bone colour. I like to use Army Painter Spray Primer Skeleton Bone, followed by Agrax Earthshade and highlights with RMS Yellowed Bone and RMS Pure White. The sheath of the dagger is painted with a dark red, while iron fittings and the sword is painted with Vallejo Gunmetal Grey. Highlight the metals again with Vallejo Silver.

With the help of red pigments add some rust to the sword and dagger and fixate with AK Pigment Fixer.

The shrouds

Sculpting shrouds is fairly easy. Place some greenstuff on a no-stick surface and flatten it out. Now cut a rectangle out and use the knife to give the edges a ripped look.

Place a piece of glad wrap in one of the alcoves and transfer the greenstuff. Position and shape the putty and let it cure. Next, take the shrouds and paint them. I used different shades off brown, red, green and yellow. I didn’t want to overdo it with the highlights, as the shrouds are old and in a process of decay.

Glue the skeletons on the shrouds and sprinkle everything with pigments. Now all that is left is to glue the skeletons in the alcoves. Some of the alcoves I left empty or put only some shrouds inside.

I hope you enjoyed reading this series of tutorials and I would be very pleased if they inspire you to try your hand at some crypt terrain yourself.