Boys in Blue

I got interested lately in the idea of playing some Kill Team in WH40k, particularly the Space Hulk variant.

So partially to do something different and to bring a classic team to Space Hulk, I went and got some Space Marine Terminators. After some decision about colour schemes (as usual), I settled on the Crimson Fists. In GW terms the colours are Regal Blue and Red Gore for the fists. The highlights use the typical GW approach - lighter shades of the same colour. The skull ornaments are Snakebite Leather - Bleached Bone - Skull White.

The force field glow technique is thanks to this guy. I haven't attempted the full light casting effect on the model (which looks awesome) - I just went for the power effect.

They turned out pretty well considering I only spent a week or two on them. I am pleased with the basing - I make up some styrene tiles to look like decking plates. Two of them have hoses running in the floor and there are some with floor grills. All very atmospheric for a squad of spaceship clearing specialists.

Anyway here they are - take a look:

Brother Nilius

Brother Nilius - Power Sword


Brother Pain

Brother Pain - Autocannon


Brother Pain - Power Fist


Brother Flame


Brother Flame - Heavy Flamer


Brother Flame - Power Fist


Brother Primus


Brother Primus - Power Fist


Brother Secundus

Hivefleet Itsumaden

I decided to go my own way and create a custom hivefleet for the combat patrol.

Keeping with the "monster" theme for Tyranid fleets (they are really just misunderstood, honest) I hunted around for a suitable monster. I decided to go for something a bit different than the usual and went for looking for monsters from Asian mythology.

The result is the Itsumaden. It looks the part and is easy enough to say - could you imagine someone trying: Negoro-no-ushi-oni. :)

The image comes from the Obakemono Project, which is a great resource for Japanese mythological creatures.

I haven't bothered with any background fluff for these guys yet, though that might be getting a bit carried away...

Scrubs up ok

The combat patrol has been essentially completed now.

This last stage was all the fine stuff - the striations in the skin (what are those things?), weapons, teeth, eyes, toxin sacs and so on.

The skin bits were done with Enchanted Blue to give a strong contrast to the red skin. The toxin sacs were done GW style - approximately. Snot Green, Scorpion Green, White.

The barbed strangler (leader's gun below) was painted to resemble the plant it is supposed to be. The result looks pretty "treey", but not quite what I was after there - perhaps more alien next time. I spent a bit of time with the ammo sac (or scrotum as some have suggested :). This was Bleached Bone base, Elf Flesh broadly dry-brushed, with a careful highlight of White. The skin colour was then washed with a red wash. Looks suitably gross.

Basing still needs to be done, but may take some time to materialise... When finished the whole patrol will be photographed.

I finally got the exposure settings right - it only took till the end of the project! :) The colours below are pretty accurate.

The patrol has their first run at the May BIG club day. They got walloped by Space Marines and Necrons. Wasn't until I got home that I realised that my costing spreadsheet was broken and I had diddled myself out of a heap of points. What a wally. :)

Next game they will be tougher...

Safety Armour Anyone?

Well in line with a previous post about the subtlety of Tyranids, the patrol has been given its yellow safety armour. No Tyranid will ever get lost on the battlefield ever again. :)

This was quite a process. The armour areas were first undercoated with a couple of washes of GW Bleached Bone. The armour base colour of GW Golden Yellow was then also painted on in thick-ish washes. At least two were required, as well as some touch ups.

The key effect is the red effect. A thin wash of GW Scab Red was carefully washed over the armour section at a time and then carefully wiped off (with a Mark I finger) going with the "grain". Some touch ups were required at the plate edges that had to be feathered into the next plate. Some wash was also required in a few places to repair overly enthusiastic wiping.

The area was carefully dry brushed with Golden Yellow to soften the effect and a really scruffy horsehair brush was used to but back some red streaks.

Included since the last stage is a black wash "knock-back" of the skin colour. Despite appearances it was a little lurid. The wash eased it back in intensity and as as result they look a lot less painted.

The claws, blades, hooves and guns were all recoated with black. I used a craft paint that has a satin finish, which enhanced the claws and blades. They were also highlighted with some light grey to fake up a glossy highlight.

Next is skin detail, head details and the guns.

Note with these photos (and the previous set) the colour reproduction isn't perfect. The colours are in real life a less saturated. I exposed these at -2/3 stop to compensate for the camera. I think I really need and incident light meter to do this well. Anyone? :) Still learning plenty about practical macro photography. Next time I'll include a photo of the "studio".

Skin tone

The Tyranid patrol has now been given its basic skin tone.

This consisted of two broad drybrushes of GW Scab Red. This was intentionally left coarse to expose some black undercoat on the painted areas and give the idea of texture. This stage was followed by a targetted drybrush of GW Red Gore. This was applied to all the visible surfaces as a highlight and to add depth. The final pass was of GW Blood Red which was applied to top surfaces, where an overhead light would normally fall.

The result has been a good level of skin texture and a lot of the fine detail has been picked out. This was pretty much the effect I was after, so I am pleased.

There is a bit of "over brushing" on all the models as a result of the dry brushing process. These will be cleaned up as I go along.

Next comes the armour plating.

Black is the new black

Some photos of the undercoated miniatures.

Not much to say really is there? Black makes a good undercoat for this size of model (amd is difficult to photograph).




Next will be the skin.

Long time between drinks

Its been a while since I posted - other projects and work.

Other projects consists of a 1500 Soviet army for the excellent Flames of War rules. Expect some pictures soon.

One the Tyranid front some colour decisions have been made. The red colour will come from the GW Scab Red; the yellow from the GW Golden Yellow. The greens will need to be custom mixed.

Now to get some of this real work out of the way, so I can get back to painting...

Some assembly required...

The assembly of the combat patrol is coming to end with the last Ravener being assembled.

I've taken the time with the Raveners to pin everything. Possibly a case of overkill, but I have a a number of cases of my Necrons dropping unpinned limbs - particularly my Flayed Ones. Considering that the Ravener models have more bits to catch on things and the model is pretty top heavy, I am taking no chances. Eight pins later and the completed Ravener looks pretty strong. I have also been using a new superglue that has some give in it, reducing the chances of the bond shattering on impact.

The Warriors and the Genestealers got the usual plastic glue treatment. But the rear arms of the Genestealers required supergluing - there simply wasn't enough contact to make the plastic glue join strong enough. The Warrior leading the patrol got Enhanced Senses to target with the gun. I glued on a couple of tiny beads to represent massively enhanced eyeballs. I can see a challenge here making them look like an integrated part of the monster, but still stand out so that people notice them - the whole WYSIWYG thing with GW.

Some "before" shots - one picture of each type in the patrol.

Tyranid Warrior - patrol leader

Genestealer


Ravener

Paint scheme

I've spent a bit of time pondering about a paint scheme for the 'Nids.

I considered schemes inspired by the natural world, specifially beetles. I liked the idea of a metallic sheen on the armour plates that bugs have. I baulked at this on the grounds that with my limited skill, they would end up looking like my Necrons!

I also thought about a camouflage paint scheme, but discarded this also purely on the grounds that camouflage is for defence or for sneaks. Apart from Lictors, I figure 'Nids are as subtle as a sledgehammer - so bold colours it was going to be.

By chance I came across the results of the US GW painting competition for Tyranid Warriors - here. Nick Marchetti's entry leapt out at me (Page 3) so this is what I currently aiming for.

Now to figure out exactly what colours he used...

I've reproduced the competition image here, so I can retain it when it eventually gets removed from the GW website. Original competition page is linked above.

Tyranid beginnings

Inspired by a couple of boxes of Tyranids, I decided to start a blog on my experiences with wargaming.

To start with I'll track the painting effort for the Tyranids - after that who knows!