Wyrdstone Markers

I'm in the process of building a small Mordheim board.  Of course, my little metal warriors need something to chase . . . and kill each other over.  Enter, the Macguffin of Mordheim:  Wyrdstones.

I threw together a quick set of five, simple Wyrdstone markers, for the cost of a cup of coffee - and in only an hour and a half's time.  Here's a quick pictorial of the process:

I used one inch, round wooden disks, from the craft store.  Obviously, you could just as easily use regular mini bases.  Then, I glued on some marble chips, the sort you'd find in the bottom of a plant pot.  You could use any small rocks, but the marble has nice, flat surfaces that seems to work well for replicating gems.  Plus, they were just sitting around in the garage with the gardening stuff.

I used free child labor to paint the base and stones flat black, using cheap craft acrylics.  

Kids love to paint, and letting them do the base coat will keep them happy without you crying over spilled paint.

Basecoated black.  Nice work, kid. We'll work on painting eyes next week.

Then I drybrushed the stones with an Olive craft paint.  I did all the dry brushing "upward" from the base, instead of the typical downward brushstroke.  I think that better suggests a "glowing" from inside the stone, as opposed to lighting from above.

Then dry brushed with a very old bottle of Dark Angel Green - vintage 1990-ish.  

Dry brushed with good old Snot Green.

Dry brushed with not-so-old Scorpion Green.

Lightly dry brushed with some very old craft paint called "sunflower"

A light dry brushing, this time with Delta Ceramcoat Antique White.  Delta Ceramcoat is my favorite paint, especially for terrain or vehicles.  It's pretty cheap (about $1 for two ounces), covers better than any other craft paint I've used, and goes on smoothly with very little thinning needed.  The only colors I've had difficulty with are the dark blues - they tend to be translucent.  

One, last round of dry brushing, with just plain old white.  Not bad, but something's missing . . .

Here's where things get more interesting.  I then dry brushed with an old pot of Golden Yellow.  So, I guess I lied in the prior caption about white being the last dry brushing . . .

This is a rather simple effect, but the Golden Yellow really makes the edges pop.  I almost stopped here but  . . . 

I finished with a white edge highlight, trying to catch the flat edges to give the stones a more translucent look.

All done.  Not bad for about a buck, eh?

Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know if you've ever done similar game markers, I'd love to see them.