It has been a long journey (80 issues) but my trek through the Mortal Realms magazine has finally come to an end – the last two models are now complete, done, and dusted. I can now present the Mortis Engine and Celestant Prime!

Coming in at the end of the 80-issue run of the magazine, these are the two ‘big’ models of the series (just as the Mechanicus building and Repulsor were for Conquest magazine). However, they proved extremely easy to paint, especially as I broke down and ignored my ‘no-sub-assemblies’ rule.

I try to avoid sub-assemblies because they can result in a weaker model and it just introduces another stage during painting. However, when you have different undercoats or seriously fiddly areas to get to, as with these models, I am slowly turning into a convert!

The Mortis Engine, primarily because of the sub-assemblies, was stupidly easy to paint. The spirits carrying the engine and those swirling around the top were separated from the rest of the model and just required the normal Hexwraith base/Ulthuan Grey drybrush approach for all Nighthaunts, adding a few old metal weapons after.

The engine itself was broken down into a few pieces, as it has a kind of ‘cage’ that would be impossible to paint through but, again, these were all done with relatively few colours and so were fast to get through.

As for the Celestant, well, he is a pretty model but basically uses the same colours and process as the Sacrosanct chamber Stormcasts. The swirly-magicky bits below him are a complication, but a small one, and these days easily solved with a blend of Contrast paints and a follow-up drybrush.

As with Conquest magazine, I did fall a month or three behind painting up the models coming in each issue, but never more than that and it was easy to catch up. There is never too much to do and, at the end of it (and with the addition of the odd extra set here and there) I was left with two substantial armies that are ready to face just about anything our narrative campaigns can throw at them.

Hachette have recently started a new round of magazines, Warhammer 40,000: Imperium, but I decided to bow out this time round. The Necron army that comes with it is nice enough but I have no desire to do them at this point, and while I can certainly use more Marines, I have enough to be getting on with and they have diluted them somewhat with a few small units of other Imperial forces – which is just not attractive to me at this time (for the same reason I did not go for the ‘premium’ subscription in Mortal Realms – simply no use for those extra models).

So, with Mortal Realms now done, it is time to bring the focus back onto our narrative campaigns!