Gauntly Appearance

Last time I wrote I talked about how I had worked on some Termagaunts.  I want to go over now how I decided to paint the skin.  We will only cover this process, but eventually I'll cover the armor chitin, weapon, and base.

1. To start off with, I applied a white base coat done with GW's  spray paint.  It's fairly expensive and there are cheaper options out there, but I've never persued them.  If anyone has some suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.  For now, I'll probably stick with the GW product for consistancy but am always open to suggestions.

2. Next up I took some Vallejo Medium and mixed in Citadel's Ungor Flesh in a 1:1 ratio.  The goal is to get the paint thin so the lower layers shine through better, while still retaining the ability to leave the paints mark on the upper layers of the model.  Previously I had just applied the paint straight out of the bottle, but this never seemed to give me an even coat.  Thinning out the paint seemed to leave a nice layer over everything.  Don't get me wrong, it did puddle in the crevices, but that works to our benefit later on. 

I didn't use GW's thinning medium here because I like how Vallejo's medium comes in a drip bottle instead.  Not having to guesstimate with a brush on how much medium is needed and instead being able to measure the amount of medium dropped instead has made the mixing process very easy.

3. Again getting a good mix, we apply a lyaer of Fire Dragon Bright.  The mix is again a 1:1, and I'm only doing a single layer.  I've seen it recommended that you do more for thicker, stronger colors, but I choose the 1-layer option because I want the coloring on the under layers to show through better.

4. Then you apply a layer of Troll Slayer Orange to the model to give it coloring that really pops.  You'll notice in the picture that you can still see some of the under layers, but the effect is subtle enough that the majority of the effect is lost on my phones camera.  I promise that the real model shows these layers a lot better than this picture.

5. Finally I applied a layer of Reikland Fleshshade shade to the model.  This fills in some of the holes in the model, making the recesses look darker.  I also liked how it seemed the lower layers shined through a lot better with the contrast from the darker wash.

Tonight I painted 3 more Termagaunts, and from beginning to end of painting the skin it probably took about 10 minutes per model, if that.  I've been really pleased with this coloring scheme since it's so different from the metal paneling of the Space Marines, Necrons, and Tau I'm used to.

I'll write another blog soon about how I decided to do the shell.  I like the purple layering, but decided to go with the green instead and have been quite pleased with the results.  Later on we will cover how I approached the gun these guys hold, since I really haven't quite figured that out yet.

-Cj

Gaunts and you!

So I went shopping again on ebay and picked up a Tyranid codex for pretty cheap about 2 weeks ago.  After having painted that Zoanthrope, the painting itch hit so I picked up a Hive Guard and gave painting Tyranids another try.  It was quickly brought to my attention that testing paint schemes on expensive models was not a good idea, as you'll see below.  I'd recommend that anyone wanting to try new paints styles on different armies pick up the cheap $8 - $10 box of troops for their respective group.

I used a brown base under the orange on the Hive Guard instead of the fleshy base I used with the Zoanthrope, thinking that the brown base would shade the upper layers of paint in a positive way.

Bleh.  I mean the red isn't that bad looking, but it was shaded way too much in the brown direction that I just ended up highlighting it in red to see what it looked like. I think a chemical bath in LA's Totally Awesome cleaner is in order.  If you haven't heard about it, you can buy LA's at most any dollar store and it will strip acrylic paint off of models with the best of them.  I had to use it on the Zoanthrope because of a mess up with the clear coat, and the resin was not impacted at all while the removal of paint was almost totally complete.

So now what?  I want to paint beautiful nids, but can't afford to keep messing up on fancy resin models!  Short tirade on pricing: Games-Workshop prices their models according to their value on the field, and not their value in plastic/material/molding costs.  A Riptide, at $85, has just as much plastic in it as some of the $55 models, but since it's the big go-to unit for Tau, it's price is dramatically higher.  I'm sure this is already known by others, but it bugs (pun intended) the heck out of me.

Anyways, back to my original suggestion: look into smaller troop boxes and experiment from there.  This then is the result of those actions:

I'll get into specifics in another blog post on how I got the color shading on the skin, but suffice it to say I really enjoyed the method and I am very pleased with the results.  The picture truly doesn't give it justice, but it'll have to do for now. I have some other armor colors to try, as well the base they stand on needs some big attention, but if I could get the purple color at the right shade on the armor scales I should be set and ready to go.

-Cj

Tyranids and Zoanthropes

So I have a thing about trying out different models and paint schemes.  This time around, I picked up a Tyranid Zoanthrope a few weeks ago and wanted to try a more naturalistic paint scheme.  The plating and claws were fairly simple to do.  After basing the whole model white, I painted a layer of Ushanti Bone over all the plates and hard surfaces I wanted green.  Next, I used snot green for the first layer on the plates, and (not quite)dry brushed it on about the middle of the armor plates/claws.  I say not quite there since the paint was still fairly wet.  The goal is not to end up with gobs of paint sitting on the model, but to have lines and striations in it. Next, I applied a darker shade of green towards the back, going over the edges.  Lastly I brushed black just along the edges of each plate and claw, and then washed the plates and claws with a green wash.  I'll update colors when I get back home.

The skin was fairly easy, a flesh covered layer followed by an orange layer, followed by two washes with Flesh-something wash.  For the brain, I left the white paint there and washed it in blood gore wash, followed by a dry brushing of white over the noodles.

As you can tell from the picture, there are still a few areas to touch up on, but I think it's coming along very nicely, and once those areas are taken care of it'll be ready for varnish. The base is some rocks I bought at a train hobby supply store, and the grass is a grass product you can find at any model shop.  The base exterior is actually the same color as the skin on the Zoanthrope.  The blue on the base is actually the white glue I used to hold everything down, and doesn't look that way in real life.  However, seeing it in this picture has convinced me that washing the base in blue after things have been glued in could make a very good contrast for the model.

Total paint time right now amounts only to about 2 hours, meaning replication on less complex models should be fairly simple.  Since this is a horde army, that's really preferred for painting tons of miniatures.  Also, since I'm not going for complete coverage of colors, you end up with an army that still has uniqueness even though they are all painted the same.

I hadn't planned on starting Tyranids as an army choice, and after looking at finances, don't think it'll be an option for a while.  But it was fun to paint a model that was more organic looking.  I've also picked up a Hive guard this last week and will work on as well.  Haven't figured out yet how to paint that model, since there are gaps in armor coverage that will need to be worked out, but I'll post pictures when I get there.

-Cj