Thank you all for the kind comments, positive feedback helps me paint and to keep my standards up
@Theerteen - no special technique on the gem, though that is possibly the most effective one I've painted. You can find the method easily on the internet, but basically...
- paint the gem black
- paint a dark shade (in this case Scab Red) in a crescent on the lower right hand side of the gem, always leaving some black showing. For a dark gem like this leave lots of black, for a bright gem leave much less.
- paint consecutively brighter shades (in this case Blood Red and then Blood Red with a little orange added) on top of the base colour, leaving some of the base colour showing. Continue until ending with just a small amount of the brightest shade. I usually just use 3 shades of colour, but you could use more, or blend them or whatever.
- finally, add a highlight white "gleam" on the black part of the gem.
The key to how the gem looks seems to be all in the position and shape of this "gleam", I really just hit lucky with how good this one looks! And obviously you can change where on the gem the colour and gleam are, as long as they are opposite ( I think the gleam is on the side of the gem which light is striking, but I haven't studied the theory closely). Hope that helps!
@Robtion - yes, there will be a Coven Throne, the model was the inspiration for making the whole army female in fact. I expect it will be based very much on the basic kit, so don't expect anything too unusual. I really need to work out how I will paint my ethereals before I start on it...
Most of the units from the book should end up being represented, at the moment I'm not sure of Crypt Horrors or the Mortis Engine, or what exactly I will use for Terrorgheists.