Assault Intercessor Death Company - Part II

Death Company Primaris are all the Rage now.

 Just a small update on Assault Intercessor Death Company progress, now that there has been a little progress. The photo doesn't really show the effort put into the black - my own fault for the lighting and wanting a deeper black to the armour.

The problem with black is that it doesn't highlight well. Greys can be used, but then it's mixing two of the most troublesome colours: white and black. This is why there's often a little blue or purple added, just to help those transitions. I didn't want that, so I'm stuck with trying to be difficult.

Something that is helping is sharper edge highlights with Dawnstone. I've been moving away from such things, but it's really needed in this case to outline and give definition to the model. So if nothing else, I've learned that for black, sharp edge highlights matter.

In the past I've done all the blood drop symbols as red, and that will be the case on the model shown, but there are times when it's too much with the red crosses. For another of the Death Company I will likely try a deep purple instead - this worked well for Karlaen, and helps keep each member of the Death Company unique.

Green eye lenses are really working on this model too. I was concerned that it wouldn't give the right effect, but it contrasts nicely with the red and really draws attention to the face (at least for now - still much to be painted on the model yet). Death Company come with a lot of detail normally - red crosses, ropes, honour rolls, skull icons, and the usual winged blood drop of the Blood Angels. It can be easy to get carried away, so the trick will be adding just enough to make it interesting without unbalancing or overwhelming the model. It's going to be fun.

-- silly painter.

Tyranid Carnifex

 

Carnie the Carnifex.

 

And this is the last of my Tyranid models, hopefully now in a position to sell and then free up storage for something else. Obviously named Carnie, the carnage loving Carnifex.

There's not a whole lot different again from the methods I've been using to paint Tyranids so far, and that's making everything fit together really well as a fully painted army. There are some small additions: Nighthaunt Gloom with Contrast Medium around the sack attached to the left hand, and again as a spot colour on the weapon. Hexwraith Flame is also applied in some areas as hints of venom sacks (not visible in the photo) which ties that into the Tyranid Warriors as well. Otherwise only differences in that it's such a large model.

The model itself I didn't really enjoy too much. It's nice now that it's finished, but the assembly was very problematic. The legs aren't quite flush with the base, and I had to use green-stuff to give additional purchase under the left hoof. It's not noticeable once the texture paint is applied, but I have a concern about how well it's going to hold a fairly heft model. Perhaps I should have pinned it - and I may well do so if it breaks off. Owing to this, I think the torso is angled down more than it should be as well, which in turn affects the positioning of the head.

The arms don't sit quite as I would have liked. The right talon in particular is at a strange angle because the other right arm gets in the way. The weapon arms were a pain to try and partially assemble before painting - and in the end I had to break them apart when gluing to the torso, and then fill in gaps with green-stuff and paint over it again.

The carapace didn't fit together nicely at all, and a lot of gaps were plugged with green-stuff, or misalignment (e.g with the "chimneys") filed back to make them more flush.

Finally: mould lines everywhere! I kept finding them after Volpus Pink coverage, and would either have to carve them back, or try use Wraithbone to make them a little less obvious. That was very frustrating.

I may have to do another post showcasing the entire army (for some small definition of army), but Carnie was definitely a good way to finish the Tyranids. The contrast paints made it much quicker to get the models to an acceptable finish, and a little bit of effort on the carapace makes them really stand out. If nothing else, it was just good to get models done.

-- silly painter.

Genestealer Broodlord

 

Freddy the Hunchback

 

The Spawn of Cryptus painted, for no other reason than it was relatively simple and I felt the sudden motivation to try and get the Tyranid models finished.

In terms of paints used, there's no difference to how the Genestealers, or any other Tyranid in general, was done before. Same paints used, although a little more care in places because this is such a centrepiece model:

• The "skin" was given a Wraithbone glaze after the contrast stage just to give some areas more definition, or because they were too pink previously.
• Additional blending was done on bones to remove any clear line between them and the "skin". Mostly I wanted it to look like the carapace was slowly hardening more as the creature grew. In some places I started to put a slight purple tint, just to show it turning slowly into the hardened carapace seen on the back. The blending on the "horn" for example shows this in progress.
• Much finer lines on carapace edges, and some blending back of the purples if the colours were sticking out too much.

-- silly painter.