Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part II

 

That Carnifex is....hammered.

Continuing to paint up various works in progress as I'm inspired as resulted in some paint applied to the Captain Karlaen kitbashing effort. The red I airbrushed at the same time, and in the same manner, as the recent Praetor - mostly to avoid wasting too much paint, but also to confirm the result with a second model. Not much to say about the result which hasn't already been covered. Then I was watching a random YouTube video, by The Feral Painter if I remember rightly, and was inspired to paint the head of the vanquished Carnifex.

Painting the base would allow me to attach the model completely and keep it on the painting handle, but I'll mention now that I could have waited longer to get the cape finished first. It will be more difficult to access that now, but I figured difficult doesn't mean impossible, and with the top icon having snapped off twice already then I was eager to get the model assembled and more easily handled.

Back to the base, the initial black primer was done before adding Armageddon Dust around the edge, and then a quick dusting with Wraithbone primer gave what I thought was a solid foundational colour for just about everything. I then used a simple base coat of Wraithbone out of the pot to give more even coverage over the Carnifex head. One thing I have noticed: the pot version is a very subtly different colour, a little more saturated compared to the spray primer.

In the most basic overview for the fleshy areas:

• Wraithbone over everything.
• Baneblade Brown painted into shaded areas, mixed with the previous colour to blend as necessary.
• Druchii Violet thinned with flow improver (or Lahmian Medium, or just water) and glazed over everything. Try to avoid it pooling too much, and use a second pass in the deeper recessed areas.
• Volupus Pink thinned with Contrast Medium and glazed over the lips, some of the prominent fleshy sections, and any apparent wounds.
• Wraithbone layered to highlight areas again as necessary. I used much more on the rib-cage in the hopes of giving a more rigid look compared to the varied browns, pinks, and violets on the head.

The carapace in turn is:

• Naggaroth Night / Black (1:1 ratio) over the carapace. I did leave some places with only one coat to give variation, but for the most part two coats.
• Naggaroth Night thinned and layered to build up basic highlights. None of the typical carapace lines are done yet, this instead informs where they might go later.
• Naggaroth Night / Dechala Lilac (1:1 ratio) to start edge highlights and building up some of those carapace lines.
• Dechala Lilac to build up extreme highlight points, and make some of the carapace lines more prominent. A little water goes a long way to build this up in layers and blend it together.

The usual disclaimer applies to all of this: there's a lot of going between the stages to fix, blend, rework, and adjust while painting. It's not a one step, then another, then another, then done approach: everything was on the wet palette and I pick and mixed as I wanted.

The blood and entrails I used Flesh Tearer's Red for, but I'm not sure it's quite suitable. I might adjust the colour with a little more purple later. Carroburg Crimson in the eye to outline that, however it still looks partially alive. I might use a blue to darken it later.

I'm not done with the base yet. There are details such as the teeth to fill in yet, and the ferrocrete (or whatever it is) could use some more attention. So far I'm happy with how this model is turning out, and I do have a spare Tyranid model somewhere that I could practice this scheme on - just that I'm not in any particular hurry to start on that model. Yet. Cheers to The Feral Painter for the ideas here.

-- 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.