Rend! Maim! KILL!

Hey!

So the swarm grows. Hot on the heels of the rippers I did earlier in the week I've managed to finish up a brood of Genestealers. Before I talk about the painting of them I'll let you take a look at some group shots...

These guys were weird to paint. I had quite a few changes of emotion toward how they were going. At first it seemed that everything I did just wasn't going right; the spots didn't look right on the carapace, the red was too dark, the back plates of the carapace looked weird etc etc. However as the whole thing came to together everything just kind of clicked. I think that's how you know a paint scheme is working when it just doesn't look right until all the components come together at the end.

One of the toughest parts was deciding what to do with the entire carapace. Due to the nature of the plates on Genestealers I couldn't do the same pattern I've used on my other units so far so I settled on a combination of the skin and plate design. I painted stripes on the spine and spots on the carapace but then darkened it with a wash of Agrax Earthshade / Carroburg Crimson. I think the final effect really works, especially the really bright spinal column down their backs.

The spot colour of green returns with these guys which adds that little bit of 'alien' to my natural colour scheme.

So the swarm stands at 28 models now (more if you count individual rippers but that would be ridiculous...). 28 models in less than a month for me is very speedy, especially since I was away for two weeks of them! Here's the whole lot...

I'm also still really enjoying the models. They're so different from anything I've painted before and my favourite type of painting is fast with solid results at the end which, I hope you'll agree, I think I'm actually managing :) Here's some more 'arty' shots of the swarm in my ruins display board...

So I've been painting grunts quite a lot at the minute. I think it's about time I got some of my Synapse Creatures up and painted, don't you ?! ;)

Cheers for looking!

Phil

Devour! Harvest! FEED!

My apologies for the longer than usual break between posts. I've been away with work for the last couple of weeks and have been chomping at the bit to get on with my Tyranid swarm the whole time. Another case of real life getting in the way I'm afraid. I have however managed to add an integral part to the old devourer and that is a swarm of Rippers!

Here they are...

As you can see the colour scheme is exactly the same as the scheme I started with the hormagaunts. I want to keep the entire swarm looking very uniform and add points of interest with the bigger monsters. I have to admit, I'm still in the process of gearing myself up to tackle some of the bigger ones....intimidating much?!

I managed to get 24 of the little beasties off of eBay for a measly £7. I realise you get them free on most of the Tyranid sprues but I figure I'll use those as decoration for the bases on the bigger beasts. 

I split them up so that there are 3 rippers on each base. I chose 3 for a few reasons; Firstly I wanted as many bases as I could scramble together. In gaming terms 8 of these thing s are super cheap and could really bog a unit down for a decent length of time. Secondly the bases have 3 wounds. 3 wounds = 3 rippers in my book ;). And lastly the extra space I gained allowed me to build slightly more scenic bases...

I wanted the bases on these guys to look quite swamp like. It's actually really tough to see in the pics but the lowest regions of the base are coated in a gloss varnish that pools in the recesses which makes the rocks look like they are rising out of a swamp! I've also added little bits of tank pieces, marine helmets, shoulder pads etc to break up the brown a little.

Here are some pics of the swarm as it stands...

I've got some Genestealers arriving today (again from eBay, again stupidly cheap) so I should have those done by the end of the week with any luck. I plan on doing them a little lighter in tone, I'm not sure yet...

So what do you think of the rippers? I know they aren't an incredibly interesting little unit but in the fluff surrounding tyranids the little blighters are essential!

Cheers for looking!

Phil

"Come on you apes! You want to live forever?!"

Right, time for another project me thinks!

I haven't got a great track record of actually getting projects finished I have to say but I'm going to take this one slow. I'm going to be building, over the next few months a Tyranid Horde. I've wanted to start playing 40k again for some time now and I figure that I have to start out with an army right? I wanted something that I could paint relatively quickly and easily but that would also have an impact on the table. It's all well and good painting something easy but you've got to have fun with it too! Tyranids just seemed to fit the bill in every regard. I suppose the only difference is that I chose a horde army.....lot's of models......they'll look cool though, right?!

The first thing I had to decide on was a paint scheme. My first inkling was to go for a corrupted look. Almost as if the hive world had been infected by a Nurgle plague. This would have given me the opportunity to right some interesting fluff too. However I did away with this idea once I saw these guys...

I loved the way this guy used inks to get a very 'raw' look to the exposed areas and the mouths. As well as his use of nature inspired camo schemes for the carapace. As luck had it he also posted up a tutorial. I didn't have the same colours so I used his tutorial as a basis and this is what I came up with...

I wanted a darker, contrasting carapace than the Necro Tales Nids. I used the age old 3 highlight feather which actually turned out OK. It;s a little less convincing up close but as a unit it looks wicked.

I added some subtle variation to the tan skin tone using Carroburg Crimson, severely watered down. Multiple layers allowed me to blend this in with the main skin tone pretty effectively.

I decided to use a really bright spot colour for them as well. bright green will allow me to do some quite cool OSL effects down the line and also adds a little more of an 'alien' feel to a paint scheme that is quite grounded in nature for the most part.

I used Agrax Earthshade to add dots on the skin to make it a little more interesting. It also helped mask any areas where the red shading didn't properly blend. I love little tricks that hide the fact that I can't  actually paint that neatly!

Allin all these guys probably took about 8 hours or so. Which for me is super fast for 12 models. If I could keep up that pace for the entire army I would be happy!

So how did I do. Is this paint scheme a keeper? I suppose I'll have to do some of the bigger models in the same vein to get a proper representation but if I'm honest, I'm really happy with how the y turned out. Some Genestealers next I think....

Cheers!

Phil