Customer briefing

Fire in the Shadow: Grey Knights Condemned

Sometimes the most original projects come from ideas that, on paper, seem impossible to mix. That’s how a client got in touch with us: he wanted his small force of Grey Knights to be tinged with the grim and fiery style of the Legion of the Damned. He knew us from previous work and thought we could help him shape that bold vision.
The assignment included assembling and painting a very specific selection of miniatures: Crowe, Voldus, five Purifiers and ten Exterminators. Everything was to breathe darkness, fire and doom. He asked us to integrate thematic bits, flames, and that touch of hellish attrition that defines the Legion.
One of the most interesting details was the approach to the color scheme: he asked us for blackened metals, scorched surfaces, and spotlights simulating internal flames. We wanted the fire to appear to emerge from within each figure of Grey Knights Doomed.
And to top it off, a challenge: to do a Crowe conversion based on Doom Guy. It wasn’t just a matter of adding recognizable details, but of maintaining visual coherence with the rest of the army. A unique request, the kind that forces us to think outside the box.

General picture of the project Ornate

Iron and Doom: The Army Without Redemption

We divided the project into several stages, each documented with photos that we sent to the client almost daily. We like to work this way when there are so many custom elements, because it allows us to keep control of the whole and adjust every detail with direct client approval.
The first phase was assembly: all the miniatures went through our tools, and each received specific conversions with themed bits and 3D prints. Not only did we want them to fit together, but we wanted them to look like they were part of the same cursed army, straight out of Immaterium itself.
Then we moved on to painting. We created a sample to set the general tone: burnt metal, internal flame effects, reddish gradients… Once we had the OK, we replicated that work on the Exterminators, the Purifiers and Voldus himself.
The most elaborate part was the Castellan Crowe. His conversion – inspired by Doom Guy – required more testing, more references and a different approach. We wanted it to be recognizable, but without breaking the balance of the whole.
The client was able to see this whole process almost in real time, and that made every step well measured. In the end, the project felt as much ours as it did theirs.