Tyranid Warriors

The Three Tyranid Stooges.

Continuing the army of Tyranids being painted, three Tyranid Warriors are now complete. I could always do more on them, but reached a point where I simply thought they were good enough for tabletop and didn't want to do more.

The paint scheme is exactly as with previous models in the army. One difference is that some of the weapons here have what is perhaps meant to represent venom sacs. These were painted extremely simply with:

• Wraithbone base.
• Hexwraith Flame covering the desired area.
• Biel Tan Green shade to give some extra depth.

That's it. Nice and simple. The Hexwraith really is an excellent green for this, and is basically a precursor the Contrast range of paints.

I did use an artificer brush on the carapace this time around. There are fewer of these models, and with a larger carapace area, so I wanted the edging higlights to be more controlled. The highlights here are what really make the model, and the finer control paid off in the end.

Finally, the feet positions were difficult to get right, and they don't have a large surface area of attachment to the base. This is partially because I might have messed up a little owing to lack of assembly instructions in the box. I've tried to fix what I can, but if they fall off much then pinning will be required.

-- silly painter.

Captain Tycho - Part III

Say hello to my little friend.

And that is Captain Tycho done, in what must be record time for me. The whole remaining isolated and indoors helps of course, and I could always do more, but: done.

The base actually has a little more contrast than the photo shows, and again I'm not going to do anything more to it. If I start to add grass or shrubs, it would be far too easy to add too much and ruin the model. So as much as I think a little something extra would help, I'm leaving it as is.

Highlighting the armour last, after the varnish spray, worked well. It's not useful for photography, but I'm not going to go overboard on lighting conditions to try help that. The face mask in particular looks much better highlighted, with the cheekbones matching and giving more symmetry to the face.

I did paint some bronzes onto the meltagun cannister for a bit of variation. Too much silver otherwise.

As ever, because I'm bad at freehand on smooth surfaces let alone contoured ones, I'm leaving the loincloth without decoration. This is still ok - Blood Angels of all figures would have a plain one as a symbol of purity, and the robes Sanguinius is often depicted as wearing.

Onwards to the next model!

-- silly painter.

Captain Tycho - Part II

Wipe your feet before coming in.

Tycho is now finished to a degree that the Purity Seal varnish can be applied. Given the amount of metallics on the model, it means actually being entirely finished is still at least a day's effort away (depending on motivation), but that's much closer than to the start.

There's again not a whole lot that hasn't been detailed before. And once again, having built up a formula for Blood Angels (and written it down!) makes the process that much faster.

The one area that is new, and not actually seen much in the photo, is the pistol holster. I was playing around again with that, and came up with:

• Rhinox Hide over the entire holster.
• Gorthor Brown for basic highlights.
• Druchii Violet over the whole holster, careful not to let it pool too much.
• Gorthor Brown again to re-highlight. This was done while the shade wasn't quite dry, so it blended into the brown nicely as it was being applied.

Seems to work quite well for this model, but I'm not convinced it would be as effective on something else. This is another case of the sculpt showing itself off, and the paint job doesn't need to add much.

The finecast models may be older designs, but those designs certainly have a lot of character to them.

-- silly painter.

Captain Tycho - Part I

Phantom of the Golden Opera.

The next model in the finecast collection is Captain Erasmus Tycho. I decided to paint him pre-Death Company, for no other reason than I felt like it.

There was no airbrushing on this model. I considered it, but ultimately decided that I would do the armour the same as the Sanguinary Guard, and the highlighting metallics have no matching Air range. I'll save airbrushed golden armour for the Custodes.

Not a whole lot that hasn't been covered before, other than the hair. I wanted grey hair; not the white like with Mephiston, and not normal Blood Angel blonde, but grey as a nod to the ongoing trauma that Tycho suffers from the Weirdboy attack. Very simple in this case:

• Grey Seer over the entire hair.
• Black Templar (Contrast) over the entire hair.
• Grey Seer, thinned, to highlight some raised areas.

That's it. Don't see the need to do anything more, just rather let the sculpt show itself off.

The eye was a massive pain to paint. I did that before any other part of the face fortunately. Once done, I just had to be careful not to accidentally cover it. Again I used something other than white for the, uh, "whites" of the eye. In this case I had Grey Seer at hand, and so used that. It really works better than using something like White Scar. The mask eye was much easier, and though not yet finished, it's basically a red lens.

The loincloth I painted white first, and then remembered I should have started with more of a brown. Oh well. Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade to the rescue, and next I'll just rummage around with whatever I feel like to try bring it back to a cloth appearance.

About the armour in general, that will actually be highlighted last. The varnish spray dulls metallics, and so I would have to either repaint it, or rely on 'Ardcoat. That latter doesn't quite give the same effect, so the former it is - and though it won't be protected by the varnish, it's also much easier to fix later on.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal - Part IV

No idea if this is really the 4th post of Horus, but I'm changing the heading titles to give numbering for each work in progress and so I need to use something.

You put your left leg in...

This isn't much of an update, mostly just proof of continued work on the model. The left leg is pretty much done now, although the knee pad remains to be done of course.

There's been no change to the colours normally used, this is simply extra work done. I'm not wholly convinced by how the metallics are looking in the photo. They do look different with more natural lighting, but it's not picking up the contrast as nicely as I'd like. I may have to go back in and try fix some of that; a little more shade here, a bit of highlighting there. I'll come back to it once more of the model is done, to make sure I don't unbalance things.

A fine brush, and a wet palette are making all the difference to the speed of painting too. It's much easier to switch back & forward between paints, and it really does speed up everything. Maybe it won't be months before the other leg is done.

-- silly painter.

Nekima - Part V

Pinup for Kurt Wagner.

Nekima is finished, based, and varnished.

The base was quite easy in the end, and like all good bases it was just playing around to see what worked. The grass is Scorched Grass from Games Workshop, which despite the name works quite well to give an impression of fields of normal grass. The trick behind it is that the it's not a uniform green; shades of brown and gold give it some extra depth.

Originally I had painted the base, not knowing quite how much the flock would cover it. That step wouldn't be needed in future if so much is going to be applied.

I won't go into exact details of everything, but the small note that I did figure out is to add some flock to the rocks, because they've probably been there for some time and plant life will find purchase wherever it can in such circumstances. Also, once the PVA glue was dry, some small amount of Agrax Earthshade over the grass on the rocks helps to tie it in a bit more.

One must wonder who her tailor is.

The original plan was to add some tufts of grass, or shrubs, but the flock works so well that I just don't feel the need. I could work on the little stream some more, but motivation is moving on to other models, so I'll just leave it be.

Overall, a fun model, and fun to try something different.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) - Part V

Lord of Death

I was originally intending Mephiston to be a model done in the background between other projects, however I ended up finishing the model straight away. I consider the model now done.

The skulls on top of the psychic hood balance well against the light coloured base. I was worried a little about that, but it ended up ok, and the focus is still on Mephiston's face. Those skulls weren't anything special:

• Wraithbone
• Skeleton Horde (Contrast)
• Wraithbone, thinned down and used to highlight in places.

Contrast paints are useful for smaller details I find.

Stormvermin Fur was used to edge the skulls on the cloak. Small matter perhaps, but it frames the details nicely without going overboard.

The sword, Vitarus, perhaps could have gone with a red flame effect. It's sometimes described that way in books, and various artworks show that, however for this model it would have unbalanced everything. I also felt that the sword is too long to go with a similar detailing as was used for the Grey Knights, again because it would unbalance the model. The hilt however I kept to my "psychic weapon brass" scheme:

• Balthasar Gold.
• Reikland Fleshshade.
• Runelord Brass as a first stage highlight.
• Sycorax Bronze for edge highlights.
• Ironbreaker, just very small amounts on the skull icon to help make it stand out.

The blade itself I ended up playing around a bit with. I'm not entirely happy with the result, but it does match the glowing eyes and balances against the glow of the plasma pistol:

• Leadbelcher over all the blade.
• Nuln Oil over all the blade, keeping a little more in some areas to show the shape of the blade better.
• Leadbelcher higlight as necessary.
• Ironbreaker highlight to bring extra shine to areas.
• Talassar Blue, thinned greatly with Contrast Medium, to glaze some blue glow onto the blade.
• Aethermatic Blue, thinned greatly with Contrast Medium, for additional glazing.

The plasma pistol looks mostly as it was done. Nothing particularly special about it, however I wanted something around the heat vents to show it as having been used. Not the usual kind of burnt discolouring many people use because Mephiston would use something of superior make that would be less prone to overheating, but something still. In the end I just dabbled a bit of Balthasar Gold between the vents. It's quite subtle, and can't really be seen in the photo, but on the actual model it just adds that little something extra.

As for the rest of the model, those are details that I've covered before and are no different this time around.

The final note worth mentioning is what I didn't do. Mostly people will try to add edging around the cloak, embroidered details or some such. I looked back at the finished model and decided again not to do this. The shading gives enough difference that there's no need for additional details to help give form or balance of colour. Trying to add freehand would only ruin the cohesiveness of the model, not to mention that I would likely ruin the freehand itself as well. Better to leave the model as it is.

And so the finecast version of Mephiston is complete, and looking much better than the original metal version I once had. Hopefully all these notes will make painting the Primaris version relatively quick, and it would be nice to have the two models seen side by side.

-- silly painter.