The Shadow in the Warp Arrives...

At long last, I have pictures of my Hive Tyrant! Yeah, after a year of working on this guy, he's finally been photographed.

And there you have it. Effing FINALLY.

I did a quick inventory of the piles of Nid stuff I have, and realized that it's not as much as it used to be. I ended up counting 11 or 12 Warriors, 9 FW Sky Slashers, one Limited Edition metal Lictor, one metal Lictor missing a leg, an OOP metal Tyrant Guard (saw a great Broodlord conversion which I was going to steal, based on the body), 27 Hormagaunts, 20 or so Genestealers, 3-4 Termagaunts, a Carnifex, a ton of Rippers, and piles of the weapon bitz that everyone has (venom cannons, deathspitters, spinefists, blah blah blah).
It was a nice reminder that I'm not as heavily invested in Tyranids as I thought I was. Thank goodness. I'll be able to download the new codex Friday or Saturday, and then decide if the Hormagaunts will find a new home or not. There is word that Deathleaper can be an HQ, which would be HUGE for me, as I have wanted to run a Lictor+Genestealer force from the get go. I also have enough Warriors to carry a core bulk of points (plus a set of FW Shrike wings, and a set of wings from WHFB Vargheists for more Shrikes). Actually doing the inventory helped me distress about how much crap I'm sitting on.

I made the decision last night to purge all of the codexes I do not plan to use. I'm also halting my encyclopedic collection of codexes. So, when new books come out in the future, I won't be picking them up purely to have them (and thereby enter into rules debates regarding armies I don't even play). It's time to spend my time and money on other things!

Next post will be the five Genestealers that I'm nearly finished with. I puttered around with their bases some last night, so they're nearly done.

Picture time!

As I promised, here are some pics I took over the course of a couple projects, but that never panned out into anything resembling the tutorials I wanted them to.

First up is a series of WIP shots of my Hive Tyrant's base.

This one is the base with the materials glued down. It's gravel and washdown material from the end of my driveway, resin tree stumps and a doric column chunk from Secret Weapon, and some Greenstuff mushrooms.

Then the same base primed white (very exciting). It took quite a few spritzes from the can at various angles to get all the rocks covered and gaps primed.

After that it was a few coats of Reaper MSP Stained Ivory on the dirt and exposed wood. When that was dry, it got a thinned wash of Gryphonne Sepia on the ground and Thraka Green on the wood. I wanted the wood to look soggy and decayed, and it was the one thing i feel I didn't pull off well. I was generally unhappy with the end result of the stumps, which you'll see in a future post.

I wanted some shadows and a moist soil look around the stumps, so I went with Devlan Mud wash around them. I then added a few more areas of Devlan, Ogryn Flesh, Leviathan Purple, and even a few dots of Thraka Green. I mostly concentrated on the areas where grass and reeds would be, figuring they'd retain and grow in the moist areas.

This final shot shows where I started basecoating the stone grey, and added some purple and brown washes to the stump bark.

And that's where I stopped taking pictures because I was short on time.

I grabbed these two shots of my WIP Devastator Sergeant in order to start a tutorial on how to shade red. Here's the sergeant with a basecoat of red on his helmet:

 

And then again after washing the red with Thraka Green, which is the proper color for shading red. I abandoned this tutorial because I was painting my ass off for the Standish Standoff.

 



Then I have this shot of my drop pod being assembled, using slide clamps to hold the fins in place while glue cures. I was going to do a whole article on these and other clamps, but I assemble models far too slowly for that.

 And finally, a shot of one of my Genestealers after I had put a Sepia wash on the basecoated talons. The green skin is complete in this shot.

So, that is make-up picture day. I'll have some more shots of the finished Tyrant and Genestealers next time.

Little Things and Talky-Talky

I took a much-needed break from worrying about the hobby for the past week. It's necessary after a long build up to a big event. I've gotten over my general malaise about the Standoff, which is good.

Instead of drafting up lists or planning the next, big unit addition, I'm building and painting some stuff that I think I'll enjoy because they're fun models or projects.

I've made some very minor forward progress on my Genestealers. These guys are nice and simple to paint. I'm using the same general green recipe from the Tyrant, but applying it much quicker and with less minute attention to detail. They lack any brown chitin, so they paint up faster. in fact, the only brown you'll see on them is their little head plates. I think they'll turnout quite nicely for basic troops models once the ivory on the claws and talons and the purple of the ribbed flesh is done.

I also built and magnetized my first drop pod using the From the Warp tutorial. It took several days to get everything glued properly and assembled. Unfortunately, I somehow leaked glue into the pivot disc for the interior gun mount, so while it is magnetized, it no longer rotates. Bah. I've been using Testor's Liquid Cement instead of the usual plastic glue, and it has a capillary flow that is sometimes maddening. Lesson learned. The magnets I used for the doors help them stay shut, except for one. I'm not sure what happened, but one door just flops over without the magnets working. I triple-checked the polarity, so that can't be it.
Overall, it's a really neat kit that is a bitch and a half to put together. I have two doors that keep making contact with those little binding struts near the top of fins, though that does help them stay shut. My concern is that it'll chip off paint with repeated use. I also wish they'd included five of each chapter symbol for the doors, instead of four, but I understand that the sprues were crowded already. I'm pretty sure I already have a couple spares from past bitz trades anyways, and they're plentiful enough on eBay and Bartertown that it's not a huge issue. I was actually a little surprised at how hefty a model the drop pod is. I'd seen them on the table a hundred times, but never actually lifted and held one.

Forgeworld sent out an email about the revised Imperial Armour 2, and while it would have been a good idea for an XMas present from the wife, I went ahead an bought it for myself. There's just so much great stuff in there. I'm hoping the updated rules for the Deathstorm Drop Pod have been fixed to allow them to fire on landing.

Of course, all of this rambling is pretty pointless without some pictures. I need to sit down and take some properly-lit shots of the Tyrant and the Genestealers (maybe just one). It's been a while since I took any shots of anything! I'd tried to do a step-by-step on the process I used to make the Tyrant's base, but got so caught up in trial-and-error that I stopped taking shots a third of the way through.

Post-Standoff Post

The third annual Standish Standoff has come and gone, and I have some mixed feelings about it. This is going to be a long post, so be prepared.

The first thing I did when I arrived was get my army set up on my old display board. I was up the night before working on my Devastator Sergeant, and never did finish the new display box/board. If you remember, I brought a half-company of Ultramarines. Three Tac Squads in Rhinos, one Assault Squad, a Devastator Squad, Cato Sicarius and his Command Squad in a Land Raider Crusader, and an Aegis Defense Line with an Icarus Lascannon. After that, I dropped off my two entries into the painting competition: my 5-man Sternguard squad in the Squad category and my Hive Tyrant in the 60mm category.

My first game was against Daemons, an almost entirely scratch built force run by a guy I've played a couple times before. We were tied 1-1 in lifetime games. We played a kill point mission with objectives as secondary and destruction of all HQs as tertiary. It was a solid, fun game that I took primary on, we split secondary and tertiary. Technically a win for me, so now I'm up 2 games to 1. I discovered that I liked the 96" range of the Icarus, but it wasn't overly useful against the one flying monster in the Daemon list.

Second game was against a Nid list with monsters and Gaunts. Flyrant with double twinned devourers, HQ Tervigon, Troop Tervigon, 20 Devilgaunts, 20 Hormagaunts, Raveners (repurposed Warriors counts-as Raveners), Ymgarl Genestealers, the Doom in a Pod, and a Trygon Prime. Primary objective was objectives (3 on the board, each counting as a Relic from the BRB missions), secondary was kill points, and tertiary was...something I forget. There were simply too many monsters to kill off. The highlight of the game for me was using Sicarius to challenge the incoming Trygon, and lopping off its head with a Coup De Gras attack. I lost the primary, took the secondary, and I can't remember who got tertiary. The ADL was a hindrance for me in this game, blocking in my units and generally being a pain in the ass. I should have jammed it up in a far corner and forgotten about it. There's no rule that the Icarus has to be behind the line, or anywhere NEAR the line, so I could have dumped the ADL and just used the Icarus in my zone.

My final game was against the new Eldar Serpent list. Farseer on a bike accompanied by a bunch of Warlocks on bikes with all the buff powers (+Armor, +Cover, Guide, Fortune, blah blah), three minimum sized Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents with scatter lasers, minimum Fire Dragons in a Serpent with scatter lasers, a Fire prism, and the obligatory Wraithknight with sun cannon and scatter lasers. It was the first time I had played against the new Eldar. Before this game, I'd told the folks who complained loudest about Serpent Spam that it wasn't that bad.
It is that bad.
My opponent was a nice guy, but the army is absolutely zero fun to play against. Every weapon on every unit that isn't buttoned up inside a transport is twin linked or made twin linked with Guide. If it doesn't put out 12 shots of some type a turn, it's an AP3 or better blast weapon. All at long range. After the first turn and Night Fight expired, I felt like I might as well just ask which units should be removed from the board each turn. It would have saved time. My fluffy army that took a comp hit to perfectly represent a Codex formation put up no resistance whatsoever to an army that managed a perfect comp score while still building the most soul-sucking list possible.

I find that this happens to me in every large event/tourney I go to. I have two good games, and then the day is given a black eye when I face a list like this in the final round. I've had it happen with Grey Knights, Necrons, and now Eldar.

At the end of the day was the awards ceremony (duh, lol). I somehow managed second place with my Sternguard, and was very surprised. There were squads I felt were better than mine.
My Hive Tyrant also took second, and again I was surprised.

I made the drive home feeling...dissatisfied? I can't tell if it's because that last game sent me home feeling abused and taken advantage of, or if it was an inadvertent deflation of ego from the Hive Tyrant not taking top spot in its category. One minor thing I noticed is that some of the efforts I put in for others' sakes go unnoticed. Last month at Shocktober, I wrote a way-too-long story into for my army and attached it to my army list. I think it contributed to my Dorka's Choice award, but my actual opponents, bar one, showed no interest in it. Yes, it was long, and I can understand not wanting to sit down with it before a game. So for the Standoff, I took a different approach. I grabbed some quotes from the Codex Astartes that described each unit in the army and its role, and a Marneus Calgar quote that made the transition to the army itself. I stapled that sheet to the FRONT of each copy my army list that I gave to my opponents. Only one had any interest in it. One flipped it without a passing glance, and one tore it off entirely. Only the first player kept the copy of the list I gave out. The others left it on the table when they left.
Is that the wrong place for an army into? The wrong time? I'm not sure. When I get things like that, I either read them during deployment/setup, or if they're long I read them after the game. If my opponents give me a list to keep, I keep it.

I think my malaise comes from the general question of "Why do I bother with this?" I have always been a proponent of the "social contract" of wargaming. The game involves two people, each of whom is playing a game. For fun. when I build armies for events, I want them to be fun and interesting to play against. A half-company might be boring to some, so I attempt to use fiction or quotes to help explain WHY the army even exists on the table. I'm putting forth great effort in painting, building a list, and including fiction or fluff for both myself and my opponent. When I play the game and get what I interpret as "that's cute, shut up and roll dice," it hurts my tender feelings. The whole lead-in to the event feels like wasted effort if I face a list designed purely to kick teeth, or the effort I expend is dismissed due to indifference. You cannot pick your opponents in a 40-man randomly paired event, but I guess I was hoping for a larger percentage of the field to contain like-minded individuals.

Where do I go from here? Do I continue to expend heart and energy on efforts that may or may not be noticed or appreciated by my opponents, or do I just stop and roll the damned dice? Do I shed the willingness to play within the universe of the game, and just play the hardest list I can? Do I break my brushes and pen in frustration and throw them in the ocean?

40K is a creative outlet for me. I like the quiet times of painting and writing and imagining, but you can only throw so much out into the void before futility sets in. I do all of this stuff because it calms me down and fills a creative need, but I also do it because I want other people to share my vision and stories. I don't want to be lauded for my efforts, but I would like them at least noticed by my opponents, their intended audience.

Three Days and a Wake Up

Taking a little break from the Sergeant Series today to update on my progress towards the third annual Standish Standoff.
I've been plugging along on bolter Marines in order to fill out my Devastator Squad. I'm happy to say that I finished the third and final Marine last night after my hockey game. I then primed the squad's sergeant, and barring disaster, he'll be done for Saturday as well.
if I have time, I'd also like to go back and pretty up my Cato Sicarius stand-in (built from the Marine Commander box aaaaages ago). His power sword no longer matches my current technique, and his gold parts are dull and flat.

I'd spent many hours this past weekend building a new, fancy army display tray. It's a 24x18 flip-top box made of pine and MDF (Eucaboard). I learned to use my table saw and cut grooves for the MDF in the lid section and used pocket screws to join it all. It looks sweet, and I'm very proud of it, but I don't think there's any possible way I can have it ready for Saturday. It needs to have some dents and gaps filled with putty, resanded, stained, and then the display section built. I want it to look like an ancient Macraggian temple, with a large (6-7" diameter) Ultramarine mosaic floor in the center, sand and fallen doric columns all around. I might skip the fallen columns, as that sort of stuff tends to block placement of the actual models cleanly on the board. I also have plans to put strong rare-earth magnets underneath in certain areas so I can paint up small pieces of terrain like ruined temple corners and place them in ways that highlight the army. I left room in the bottom of the box to put a foam tray to hold all those pieces as I create them.
Looks like I'll be bringing the old display board one last time.

I am very VERY happy to report that my entries for the Bronze Spawn painting competition are complete. I'm throwing my Sternguard unit in the Unit category for giggles, but my piece de resistance is my Hive Tyrant, and he goes in the 60mm category. I spent a lot of time on his base, and I feel it really turned out nicely. It's no longer just some painted sand and static grass. It looks like a real landscape that is slowly being sucked of life by the Tyranid invasion. I'm not sharing pics until after the event, though. No one sees the completed model until it's entered (except my wife).

It will be nice to breathe a big exhalation of relief once the event is over, win, lose, or draw. I'm starting to feel some painting burnout from the frantic race to get Marine infantry done in time. After the Standoff, I'm going to switch gears and work on three projects: a drop pod (fully magnetized using Ron's tutorial at From the Warp), the five Genestealers I have literally hanging from my paint rack (I hung them all by their claws over the top of the rack, making hissing and roaring noises while I did so), and a Company Champion model with some mid-level reposing work done to him. Maybe a standard bearer after that. I'm trying to avoid doing any "painting for a list" type of stuff for a while. I'm even considering painting something that isn't 40K at all as a break. A Savage Orc Big Boss perhaps? Or a Vampire Counts Wight King?

I'll have an event recap up as soon as I can after the Standoff is over. Til then, radio silence (or another article in the Sergeant Series).

The List, The Paint Desk

I figured it would probably be a good idea to share the army list that inspired my last entry. It's 1500 points, and designed for a composition-friendly event I'm attending down in MA this coming Saturday. It's hosted by the DorkaMorka gaming club. I've attended two or three of their past events, but had not been down there for more recent tournaments, wither due to family stuff or the bitter taste of being worked over by comp-bender lists the last time out.

Anyhow, here's the list:

Chaplain Cassius
6 Sternguard, Sergeant w/combimelta
5 Terminators, 2 chainfists, 1 assault cannon
10-man Tactical Squad in Rhino (non-veteran sergeant with chainsword, pistol, and meltabombs, missile/flamer)
10-man Tactical Squad in Rhino (non-veteran sergeant with chainsword, pistol, and meltabombs, plasmagun/multimelta)
7 Scouts, 6 snipers, camo cloaks, missile launcher
10 Assault Marines, veteran sergeant with pistol and powerfist, 2 flamers
Land Raider Crusader with extra stormbolter

Pretty tame list. It's got lots and lots and lots of bolter shots (seriously, I added a stormbolter to an LRC). It should be a challenge to play against Tau, Eldar, TauDar, etc. I'd originally wanted to use a full 10-man Dev squad in place of the Terminators, but won't have the required bolter Marines painted in time.

Speaking of which, that is what is currently on my painting desk. I just finished my sixth Sternguard member (fifth if you don't count the one with combimelta I painted ages ago). I'm planning to take some shots using the proper lighting tonight. I am now working on bolter Marines to get to the point where I can run a true half-company of 3 Tacticals, 1 Assault, and 1 Devastator squad. I'd always been three bolters short of that goal.
I'm also still working on the base for my Hive Tyrant. I bought a bunch of Secret Weapon kits to spruce up the base (tree stumps, broken Doric columns, grass, turf, etc). I'm waiting for some small mushrooms I made out of Green Stuff to cure, and then it's on to applying sand. I filled an empty GW static grass tub with some of the wash down material from my driveway. Sand, pebbles, and rocks. I think I need to sift it a little though, as the larger rocks are a little large for my tastes. I'm still struggling with exactly how I'm going to glue the Tyrant to the base, as he's got that stupid little sculpted rock section under his tail. I can't glue him down and then sand, as I won't be able to prime the base with him on there. I think I'm going to have to trace around the connection point, apply sand/gravel, then fix up the edges of the hole before spray priming. Any major gaps can be lightly covered with grass or turf. It's the best option I can think of. With Marines, I just put a little section of plasticard where their feet go and sand around those. But doing so with the Tyrant would mean the little rock he's attached to would "hover" over the sand. I should have removed it when I started. Lesson learned.

I also primed and put a first coat of base color on five Genestealers. I'm pretty excited about getting on with these guys. They've been sitting on top of my paint rack for a couple months now.

Tyranid Test Bases

Here are the two test bases I did up relatively quickly. The first is Liquitex Resin Sand mixed with an equal amount of craft paint. I then dry brushed it up through different shade of a brownish-grey, and added a bit of GW static grass:

The second is just craft sand painted in the same colors, again with static grass (but under different light):

 

For fairness' sake, here they are side by side under the same light:

I like them both, in their own ways.

The resin sand version comes out lighter due to having less small texture. It also provides a more three-dimensional look, depending on how much of the material you use, and how you pile it up. Little clumps of resin sand in one area make those little peaks and valleys you can see in the pictures. The valleys are where I intend to put static grass and small plants. It seems to be a pretty durable finish as well. I believe I can glue small plants right to the painted base in those low areas and make them look convincing.
However, the resin sand method is imprecise. I had no idea what the base texture would look like when I applied it. The binder in the material evaporates and shrinks as it dries overnight. I'm not sure how this would translate to a 40mm or 60mm base. I can try it out on a 40mm spare, but I don't have any 60mm junk bases to play with.
I'm also not sure how I could sink rocks and other items on these bases. The resin sand medium is sloppy and goopy. If I placed a cork rock in the middle, would I be able to make it look convincing?

The craft sand version is darker because I essentially soak the sand in the darkest color, and then dry brush those tiny grains up to light grey. However, plenty of the dark color still shows through. I can dry brush more of the lighter colors to reduce or eliminate that, but I've found that it tends to look smeared and shitty when you do so.
There is much more control with the craft sand, as I'm painting on white glue, and then covering it with the sand before painting. I can glue rocks and other items right to the base before glue and sand and it looks nice enough. I'm positive that I cannot glue small plants to the sand. I'd have to attach them to the base before applying glue and sand, which would require precision to avoid sanding the leaves of the plants. No one likes sandy leaves. The alternative is drilling holes in the base after sanding, poking the plants through to the underside, and then gluing them in place.

Affixing the models to either base is about the same. Add a small piece of plasticard to the base where the feet go, apply basing, then scrape away the paint and sand from the piece of card. Glue as needed.

What do you folks think? Resin sand or craft sand?
Does the grey color stand out enough from my green/brown Tyranid scheme, or should I consider another color set?
Obviously, these are quick mockups that I threw together. A finished base will have static grass and various scattered small plants to break up the grey. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to make the plants, but my first though is to grab some cheap silk plants from the craft store, and then cut my leaves and stems from those, using the appropriate scale. Then I'd bind it all together with floral wire (I already have a reel of it from past projects) and glue to the base using that coiled wire. I think I could also break out the airbrush to quickly spray the leading edges of the leaves another color like a light green, teal, or crimson.


In slightly related news, there was a list of interesting rumors online regarding a new hive fleet "Karkinos." That's my fleet name, dammit! The rumors talked about how Karkinos focused on poison and gas. However, the rumor set was debunked this AM as fake, but it did get me thinking.
What if I wanted my entire Hive Fleet to be poisonous? Every Nid kit is packed full of toxin sac bits, and you can buy them by the hundreds from bit sellers for a song. Adding a toxin sac to every melee claw/talon/blade arm would be some work, but it would also give me a chance to break up the monotony of green with more little purple sections as I would paint the sac-looking pieces of those bitz to match the ribbed flesh I already use.
On the table, I'd simply require every model to pay for toxin sac biomorphs, even if it makes little game sense. Toxin on a Carnifex with crushing claws? Go for it!

Speaking of painting, I have gotten all of the base blue colors down on my fourth Sternguard model. I just need to line highlight his armor and I'll be ready to move forward to the details. I'll try to get a WIP shot up early next week. The new book is out tomorrow morning as well. Huzzah!

 



At Long Last!

The painting of my Hive Tyrant is complete! Well, except for his base, that is.

Here are some assembled shots under terrible light:

Overall, I think he looks nice. He's not as stunning as I wanted him to be, as I skimped on reposing, resculpting, and conversion. As others have said, I should have started small with troops bugs instead of a showcase model. That would have allowed me to get my paint schemes down before applying them to a centerpiece model. I'd wanted to hack apart his limbs and repose them into a more fluid and dynamic pose, but was simply too logjammed to do so. It was a "if you don't start now, you'll never start at all" situation.

Despite that disappointment, I'm pretty impressed with what I've done, as he's my first fully painted non-Marine model since 2007. I had this crazy idea to start a WHFB Orc and Goblin army a few years ago, and finished the skin tones on ONE Orc before abandoning the idea, hence the "fully painted" qualifier.

The only obstacle left for this guy is a base. Last night I mixed together equal parts craft paint and Liquitex Resin Sand medium and slathered it on a spare 25mm base to see what it would do. This morning, it was dry but very glossy. I didn't get a chance for a picture, but it basically looks like shiny mud. I'm sure Dullcote would bring the shine down, but I'm not sure the effect would carry to a 60mm base, or even a 40mm base. Originally, I'd wanted a loamy, fertile earth base with tufts of grass (easily done with static grass) and some random stumps and plants. I don't want to use resin bases because I don't want to sink the money into them for a Nid force that may end up containing a lot of small models. Plus, I've not found anything so far that I felt really hit the nail on the head for a convincing jungle earth look.

Some Google searching shows some poorly done jungle bases where gamers have simply glued tufts of tall grass, aquarium plants, and vines all over the base with the model planted squarely in the middle. I'm thinking that less is far more in this situation. I'm not sure I can get plants and grass to look right on these muddy bases, but will have to give it a try. If that fails, I will probably have to go back to the basic sand bases I use for my Marines, but with a different color and more liberal use of rocks, grass, and plants.

I put half a second coat on my Sternguard Marine last night as well. The rumors regarding bikes as troops in the new Marine codex are contradictory. Some say you only get one unit, some say you get as many as you like. I'll wait the two weeks to see, and then decide how to proceed. Regardless, I'd like to finish this 5-man Sternguard squad as soon as I can.
The rumors are that Kor'sarro Khan and the White Scars chapter tactics will be spectacular for running a Marine Bike force. On one hand, I'm thrilled that Marine bikers will be getting a small shot in the arm, but I'm also dismayed that it's a chapter tactic. When I first saw the chapter tactic rumors, I swore I'd only every use the Ultramarines tactic while fielding my Ultras, regardless of build. The idea that I can run better bikes by simply selecting a different tactic makes that vow very hard to stick to. I've railed against people cherry-picking chapter tactics in the past, though my beef is/was more with Blood Angel and Space Wolf armies being run under the new Marine book rules. But, the opposite happened when those two books were released (Marines run as BA/SW), so I guess it wouldn't be totally hypocritical of me to use the White Scars tactics when wearing blue paint.
It's a decision I'll make in a couple weeks.

So Close!

I have been silent on the blog for these last several days because I was away on vacation. I did find time in the first couple days of my vacation to get some painting done, and again in the last couple nights. I am pleased to say that the Hive Tyrant is nearing completion!

The carapace is complete, as are the talons and hooves. As of this writing, I'm in the second stage of painting the purple ribbed flesh (the Leviathan Purple wash part), though the pictures below were taken before that.

Here is what the Tyrant looked like as of abut 8pm last night:

 

The first shot is of his thigh plating. The spikes on the plates of current Nid models add a ton to the model's overall look, but are sometimes challenging to properly blend into the surrounding plate. Because of the size of this model, I found I was constantly rubbing the paint off of the tips of the spikes when I was handling it. Thankfully, it never wore past the primer coat, or I'd have had an odd flat ring around each spike tip.

 

The second is his back armor. The streaking is a little more stark than it was on his talons, but I think it works. I'm really interested to see how the streaking and blending I did reacts to Dullcote. A spray of Dullcote tends to flatten down all of the layers on my marines, and I lose a bit of the transition
from one color to another. My fear is that the Dullcote will wipe out some of the more subtle layers.

The final shot is his hoof and toe talons. I like the brighter ivory colors for talons when lined up against the green and brown of his flesh and armor. I also wanted to show off the deep rings I apply using a Gryphonne Sepia wash in order to create that line between claw and flesh.

I want to get some more work in on the purple tonight, but I have about six pounds of beans to process through the canner tonight. Seriously, I'm drowning in dragon tongue beans from my garden! Hopefully, I can get some coats in while the canner is heating up.

I also sat down last night and gave the model a very thorough looking-over for errors and mistakes, and I wrote each thing down on a slip of paper. That way I don't think I'm all done, seal the model, only to realize I'd left a dot of brown on the green or forgotten to clean up a transition line.

No movement on the Marine front. I'm still staring at the same base coated Sternguard model. I do need to ramp up my Marine work soon, as the new book is due out. You can read all the rumors and confirmations over on other blogs. I'm excited about the new book. It sounds like a lot of fun, but one big hit I'll take personally is that I can no longer run an all-bike force. While that sucks from a modeling and painting perspective, it's not all bad. I may try to move some of my collection of bikes and switch over to a drop pod force. I have a diverse enough collection that a wholesale change like this is easy enough for me to pull off, but I really feel for those poor White Scars players who either have to change play styles, or sit and wait for a codex supplement to play their army.

Picture Friday: I'm a Zebra?

I sat down last evening, determined to make visible progress on the Hive Tyrant. In the last couple weeks, I was content to slap a single coat of thinned paint on the carapace per night and call it good. Not so last evening. I wanted visible results!

So, i plonked down and spent an hour and a half putting two coats of a 2:1 mix of Faded Khaki and Stained Ivory as my first "streak layer." I have to interject here and say "thank goodness I blogged this process before," because I'd forgotten at what point I'd started streak colors on the claws! I was able to go back in blog posts and find where I'd talked about it. I keep a paint recipe book, but I'd forgotten to annotate where I switched from full carapace work to streaking.

Here's the results:

 

 

One of the things I struggled with was how much of each plate to apply streaking to. GW does only a little on the very edges. I've seen others who streak the whole thing. I decided to go for about a 70% coverage, working downward. The plates on his talons are actually a little higher percentage, but I felt less might be better on these large plates in order to still allow you to see the base color.

I think it's a good start, though there are some too-thick strokes in certain spots. Thankfully, the technique is forgiving in the early stages. Those overlarge strokes will be broken up by the next layers of color, which get progressively thinner and shorter.

I'm hoping to have plenty of time at night for the next three days to keep pushing forward on this guy. I think once I get past the carapace, things will absolutely fly by, as all I'll have left are the claws/hooves, purple flesh, and then cleanup. I have some spots of brown on the green I need to fix. Then comes basing, which I'm dreading. I know what I want it to look like, but can't see in my mind how I'm going to pull it off.

I think I spotted a cork bottle of wine in the grocery bag yesterday, so hopefully my fifth Genestealer will have something to stand on soon. I can't decide how to paint them, though. There are two main schools of Genestealer painting, it seems. One paints the core of the body in the army's carapace armor color, and the other paints it int he flesh color, with almost no armor plating color at all. You either end up with a monochrome Genestealer like GW's current website examples, or two-tone Genestealers like GW uses for the Space Hulk painted examples or the third edition box.

I like the two-tone look because it's more interesting from a visual standpoint. But, I dislike it for two reasons: it lacks continuity with the rest of the army and it takes longer to paint.

Every other Nid model in the range has clear delineations between flesh and chitin. Genestealers do not. The only plating on them is on some of the heads. To me, painting non-plated parts of a Genestealer the same color as the plated parts of other models is a little jarring.

Of course, the monochrome version is a little boring, as they all just blend into one mass. It is MUCH quicker and simpler to paint, though. In the end, I think it's all about what you can pull of with either technique. My leaning is towards monochrome, as there's no armor on them (because the scuttle around in crawlspaces and air ducts), and I think I might be able to make them pop with the small spots of purple and ivory on flesh and talons.

On the Marine front, still no painting progress. That poor Sternguard trooper is just sitting and waiting. I will have to finish him and his last compatriot before I move on to anything else. This new book might push me toward drop pods, instead of bikes, but we'll see.

Thank the Emperor!

I haven't heard better news in a while:
http://natfka.blogspot.com/2013/08/space-marine-large-walker-debunked-and.html

No super walker for Marines. HUZZAH! I hated the idea from the beginning, and I am so very happy it was proven wrong.

Of course, we're also now seeing talk of a new Marine armor type, the Centurion. Basically, it's a Marine in power armor with a gun harness. I'm not sure how I feel about that. The sketches seen on some of the rumor sites are rough, and they have guns on the harness right next to the Marine's head. It reminds me a lot of Battle Beasts, which were one of my FAVORITE toys when I was a kid. (Trivia point: I sold all my Battle Beasts on eBay in 2007 for a couple hundred bucks that went to rent and some used 40K models).

 

 

These Centurions are supposed to be Heavy Support, which makes them almost direct competition for Devastators. That makes me sad, as I have a soft spot for the classic Battle Company formation (Tacs, Assault, Devs). 

There's also talk of a old-yet-new anti-air tank, the Hunter. It's an old Epic tank that's never seen 40K scale rules, as far as I know. It sounds interesting, being a Predator-level vehicle with Whirlwind style guns. I'm sure it'll have Skyfire, but will it have Interceptor?

 

The thing I'm most excited about are the new kits. There's word of new boxes for Vanguard, Sternguard, and Tactical Marines. All of them are supposed to have more ornate armor with studded sections, seals, parchments, etc. I'm hoping for some "advancing" poses for Tactical Marines. Maybe some non-screaming helmetless heads for HQs. There's also supposed to be plastic clam packs for Chaplains and Librarians. I'm less excited about these, as the plastic clam pack models are great, but tend to be mono-pose models with little customizability. We'll see!

 

In painting news, I worked more on my Hive Tyrant last night. I'd gotten his carapace all the way up to Faded Khaki, but when I compared it to the talons I've already finished, it didn't match! I realized that I'd gone overboard with the light color, and forgotten to leave some dark areas at the top of each plate. I had to go back in with shade colors and flow improver and darken the top of each plate. I'm realizing how detrimental it is to paint separate pieces of a model months and months apart.

 

No new Marine progress, unfortunately. I've still got that Sternguard model hanging out on the desk waiting for his midtone coat.

 

I'm also waiting for the wife to buy another bottle of wine that has a cork and not a screw top. I have four Genestealers mounted to corks, and I need that fifth cork! She keeps buying screw-top wine without any consideration to my hobby needs, lol!

Picture Friday: July 19th Edition

In an effort to keep true to my promise of pictures at least every Friday, I sat down last night and worked on my Hive Tyrant.
I added the shading wash to his armor, and then the first blending coat. It's not much to look at right now:

You can see how uneven my base coats are when I start on these armor parts. This is due to white primer, large flat areas, and green paint from the flesh. By the time I'm done, you never even see those splotches any more. Any that you do see are semi-intentional, as they give the carapace a somewhat natural mottled look in small areas.

I'd forgotten how long a process painting the brown is. I think I use a total of 8 or 9 different color transitions from dark to light, including the streaking colors. I could probably get away with fewer, but oh well. If it's not broken, don't fix it.
Since I'm halfway through the third color in the process, only six more to go after this! Muahahah!

I've also got a quick shot of the next Sternguard model in the line:

It's just a basic grenade throwing pose. I wanted to have at least one guy who wasn't just standing there aiming a bolter. Plus, I have a ton of those damned grenade arms. I could probably start chopping the hands off and replacing with pistols and such. I'd have to save the removed hands, because I'm silly like that.

Looks to be a busy weekend in non-hobby life, so I'll see you when I see you!

If It's Brown...

...it means I'm making progress! Or it means you were raised in a water-conserving household.
The green on my Tyrant is done, and I've moved on to the brown carapace. Here's the washed-out photo to prove it:

 

This is just the basecoat color, which will be shaded and brought up to match the arms. If you forget what those looked like:

 



It may not look like the greens match, but that's because I'm terrible about setting up my lights. The first shot was taken right under my OttLight, and that gives it a blue tint. The second was a little out and to the right of the light.  

 

I think the best, most motivational time in the process of painting a model is when you finish the "main" color. For these Tyranids, it's the green. The process of painting the green body is long and tedious. For my Ultramarines, it's the blue. As soon as I get beyond those two colors and start hitting details, the process becomes far more interesting. I think it might be because when you're going from primer to body color, there's not much to look at. You have some nicely shaded and highlighted blue or green, but little else. Once you start hitting detail colors, the model really starts to take shape as an actual [I]figure[/I] instead of just a [I]model[/I].

 

I foresee my work ramping up on the Tyrant as a result of this extra little bump of motivation, at least until I hit the base building stage. Still stumped on that one, and really need to do some experiments with it. I've just been too tired or busy lately.

 

I'm going to try to have a photo of some kind of work in progress every Friday from now on. The blog has a lot of text-only posts, and those are pointless, especially when I'm talking about painting!

Sternguard! Jumping Bug!

I found the time this weekend to take some semi-good photos of the Sternguard model I just finished, and the current status of my Hive Tyrant.
Here's the Sternguard:

 

 

Simple and clean, as is my current trend with Marines. This is the last Sternguard model to use a Mk8 armor torso. As much as I like the look, it's just too much of a pain in the ass to get the painted heads in there without damaging the paint. 

This guy also has a Forge World etched brass Aquila added to his shin. I bought a whole sheet of those, having seen them used to great effect on other peoples' models online. They are a major bitch to work with, however. The smallest two sizes are so tiny that it's nearly impossible to bend them neatly, and I ruined two of the smallest sizes working on this model. That's ok, as the sheet comes with tons of them. I'd originally planned to put an Aquila across his brow, or on the backs of his hands, but failed in the bending of the pieces and settled for the shin.
The tiniest two sizes also have minute detail on the feathers that is obliterated when you prime them. I know some folks use etched brass pieces without painting them, but it just looks odd to me when you have unpainted parts on a painted model.
I've already begun working on the fourth squad member. I've got him base coated in Ultramarine Shadow and a base picked out.

Then, there's the Hive Tyrant:

 

 

There's not a ton to see here. I've got three and a half color coats on him, with another quick coat of Olive Green needed before I continue up the spectrum. The flesh will match the rest of the model...eventually.

The 40mm base is there just to have something to hold on to while I paint, though I'm finding myself holding on to the top carapace as well due to the top heaviness of the model. When I'm don painting, I'll pop the model off the 40mm and put it on its proper 60mm.

 

I have 4 of 5 Genestealers mounted on wires and corks, and still have to build my cork holder. I also have to do some experiments on basing the Tyranids using grey-brown paint and resin sand, then adding static grass and small plants. Maybe a mulch-as-rock piece on the larger bases.

 

It's nice to be moving forward!



Advice Taken

In response to my last post, I've taken the advice of some of the FLGS folks (Thor, who commented on the post, is one of those).

I've boxed up all of the sprues I have for Nids, and put them away temporarily. I cleared my desk of all Nid projects except the Tyrant, five Genestealers I already built, and one Hormagaunt. Now, I'm working on a way to batch paint five Troop models at once.

In the past, I've pondered how to properly mount the thin-legged/thin-ankled Nid gribblies. Genestealers have a single, small foot print that I can drill into very carefully and insert a thin pin for mounting. But, with a thin pin I'm concerned that it will spin in whatever holder I'm using. I don't have enough old Dremel chucks to hold five models securely! I'm thinking that I'll use wine corks instead. I've used them in the past for Marine parts, but found that the natural corks tend to not hold pins securely for very long. The soft natural fibers tend to expand as the pin shifts, slowly allowing it to spin.
I've got one synthetic cork I'm going to try out, and see how that goes. But, I'm also going to try mounting the pin at an angle, instead of straight down. Here's a quick MS Paint illustration:

I figure this should be enough to keep the pin from spinning around in the cork. I should be able to simply remove and reuse the pins from the models without removing them from the corks for each succession of five models.

Due to the wobbly nature of corks, I also need a place to hold them. I've got scrap wood in the garage, and the wife just bought me a new table saw for Father's Day. I figure I can rip a 2x4 down to about a foot long, and use a 1" boring bit to punch some holes in it. Set the corks in the holes, and it should be good to go. Much better than the hanging rig I made from a paint stirrer and some eyelets.

Some progress was made on the Tyrant this weekend. I got his shading wash applied, so I can move on to layer painting now. I'll have to get out my Paint Book, as I can't remember the succession of blends I used for the rest of his body. The Paint Book is just a big, blank book I got ages ago on sale at Borders. I've only used three pages of the 100+ it has, but it has helped immensely in my painting work. I jot down the recipes I use for certain things, like Scout Camo Cloaks or Tyranid skin. I also use it for standard measurements like Rhino top hatches, side doors, etc.

The Genestealers need to have the slotta tabs removed from their feet in order to have pins put in, and also some small gaps filled where their heads meet their necks. Stealers are a weird model. Tons of posability in arms, absolutely none in body, legs, and head.

The Hormagaunt also needs to have the slotta tab removed, as I simply can't think of a way to base an already-painted model. I'm extremely paranoid about getting basing paint or material on the already-painted Nid. I'm thinking that I can cut the slotta off, and then put a pin in between the Gaunt's legs. That way I can complete the base, and then just use the pin to attach him to it. Less ankle and leg breakage down the road as well. If I paint the pin black and hide it a little with some foliage or grass, it should be ok. It would also allow me to recenter the model on the base. Hormas are notoriously front heavy models that tip like crazy. I'll probably also cast up some of my base weights to keep them from falling over.

I think the small batch plan will help me stay motivated with Nids. The Tyrant really has gummed up the works, being such a major project. I'll still be picking away at him, but also attempting to churn out Troops models at the same time.

How do you Nid players store your models, though? Marines are easy, as they have very limited pose ranges and everything fits nicely in standard square tray slots. Genestealers and Hormagaunts, or any other spiky, taloned Nid is going to be a bitch to store. If the storage slot is too small, claws and talons snag on foam and ruin paint or break edges. Too large of a space, and they bounce around and get damaged. What are you folks doing for your Nid models? How about big baddies like Tervigons and Mawlocs?

Cooling on Tyranids

I haven't done much in the last week that relates to 40K. I did prime my Hive Tyrant's main body assembly and give him a basecoat of green, but I stalled after that. I need to apply the shading wash before I can move on, and I just have no real motivation to do so.

I've simply cooled on Tyranids, and I'm mad at myself. I got all gung-ho about building the army, and painting the models to a high standard. The key thing I forgot is that painting to a high standard is not compatible with producing an "army."

I bought my Hive Tyrant kit and was very excited. I took my time assembling and painting (still not done, obviously), but I also sat down with the Nid codex and started building army lists. Every time I did so, I crumpled up the paper and thought "Why bother? The damned Tyrant won't be done for months anyways." I'd get a small jolt of motivation to finish from that act, but it would peter out soon enough.

To make matters worse, I started shopping. As a way to finance my Tyranid project, I started liquidating Space Marine models and all my peripheral books and items. I had all this money sitting in my Paypal and FLGS store credit accounts, and nothing to do with it. So I started buying models. Now I'm sitting on a small mountain of Hormagaunts, Warriors, and Genestealers. All bought at a good price, all sitting around doing nothing. I simply traded my overlarge pile of Marine kits and sprues for Tyranid kits and sprues. Dammit!

The Genestealers won't resell for hardly anything, as they're the least popular Troops model out there. The Hormagaunts might recover some of my money, as folks seem enamored with them lately as an alternative to the ultra-competitive build of Tervigons and Gaunts. Warriors are also en vogue, though the allure is limited. I'm going to take a loss on this stuff if I try to sell it. I just have to decide if I want to sell it. The whole point of the Marine sell off was to reduce my collection, and keeping this stuff around goes counter to that.

Oddly, I've been slightly more interested in my Marines the last few weeks. The narrowing of my focus into fast-mover units seems to have helped. I'm looking forward to buying and painting a Storm Raven to support my Marines, but haven't done so yet. I'm thinking of taking a shot at a small unit of 5 Vanguard Vets, because I'm enjoying painting white. I event thought about building a Shrike model (or using the super limited lightning claw Cato Sicarius model I have, or painting up a squad of Doom Eagles Assault Marines (We are the Doom Eagles, and we are dead already!).

So, I'm not really sure what I'll be doing with Tyranids. The temptation is there to just get rid of it all, knowing that I won't have a fieldable army for at least a year or more. By then, they'll have a new codex, but so will Marines. it all seems so very pointless and hopeless.

I probably should have just painted my Space Hulk set as a way to sate my Tyranid interests, and not gotten in over my head. Oops.

Stunned!

Remember the story event/tourney at my FLGS that I was originally not going to, then going to, then not, and then finally, actually attending? It was this past Saturday. I did indeed go, and brought a stripped down version of my old Bikes and Bombs list:

Captain on bike with artificer armor, power sword, storm shield
5-man bike squad with two meltaguns, combimelta, meltabombs
6-man bike squad with two plasmaguns, plasma pistol
6-man bike squad with two flamers, combiflamer
Squadron of two Landspeeder Typhoons
Squadron of three multimelta attack bikes
10-man Assault Squad with two plasma pistols, sergeant with dual plasma pistols
Two Whirlwinds

I didn't get a chance to write the short story that supported the list, like I normally do for large events. In short, it was designed as a rapid strike force (bikes, duh) supported by artillery assets. The Whirlwinds pound the enemy while the bikes close in for the kill. The artillery stops right before the bikes hit enemy lines, but if things go awry, they keep firing and the Marines weather the storm while in amongst the bad guys.

As I said, the event was not a traditional tournament. The players were divided into two teams: Imperials and Chaos/Destruction. Some armies started out Neutral, but were sorted into either side as needed to fill gaps. I do not believe this was done arbitrarily, either. For example, we had Tau supporting Chaos, but also had Necron players on both sides. My guess is that the Crons were split evenly between sides so that everyone had a little bit of everything.

The missions were simple in their design, but there were table-based "call outs." These were terrain-based objectives that when held, provided a small bonus to the entire team. For example, capturing the Medicae Facility on Table Z granted a single unit in your teams' armies a 6+ Feel No Pain roll. If you grabbed that facility, you immediately shouted out that your team had it. If you lost it, you'd shout that as well (and listen to the cries of "Noooooo!" from your team). I wasn't lucky enough to play on any of those boards, but it was still great fun hoping and waiting for them to be taken by my teammates.

My first game was a simple capture of table quarters mission. I faced a Tau army, and it was the first time I'd seen new Tau. It was a pretty standard Tau list. Lots of Fire Warriors, an Ethereal, suits, suit HQ guy, Hammerhead with Ion and the named tank commander guy, Skyray, and a pair of Forgeworld Sensor Towers. Those let a single unit within 6" become twin-linked for a turn. So, two units per turn because of two towers.
I took the table corner with better cover and LOS-blockers, and lined up for a cavalry charge. The Whirlwinds were parked firmly out of LOS, and I used a mission special rule to swap the melta bikers out as a scoring unit, and swapped in the Assault Marines. I combat squadded those and left 5 basic guys out of LOS in my deployment corner to claim it.
I hauled ass forward, knowing that the key against Tau was to hit their lines and weather as much fire as possible. I lost my attack bikes early, and several bikers as well, but I managed to get in close. However, I used the Whirlwinds to murder the Ethereal first turn by barrage sniping him. With his death, a lot of the bite was taken out of the grunts.
I was very wary of the Supporting Fire rule, but eventually charged in anyways with my Captain. His 2+ armor save from the artificer armor and 3++ from the storm shield made him tough to kill. He ran two entire Fire Warrior squads off the board by himself.
I ended up winning 3-1, and leaned that Supporting Fire sounds scary, but is largely a puppy if the Tau do not have the ability to boost their shooting reliably on Overwatch. Markerlights fired in overwatch help, but aren't reliable. It's probably scarier with lots of Crisis Suits nearby, who pack harder-hitting weaponry. Pulse rifles just didn't bother bikes much, especially not when most of the wounds were soaked onto a 3-wound HQ with a 2+/3++.

Second game was objectives, but with a twist. In order to grab objectives, you had to defuse them with a d6 roll. The Imperium was the attacking force in this one due to our performance in round one. The defenders got to place all three objectives, but they had to be in the no man's land between deployment zones in a Dawn of War setup. Ours were spaced evenly in the middle, but close to the defending zone. I was facing Orks: Forgeworld Biker Boss guy, generic Warboss on Bike, max size Nob Bikerz with all powerklaws and invulnerable saves and a Painboy, max size Ork Bikers, and a Dakkajet.
This one was a 1-1 tie. I made a few tactical errors as a result of bloodlust and desperation. Twin-linked dakkaguns are stupid good (S5, Assault 3 is like every bike in your army having a heavy bolter). Dakkajet is ok, but not all that threatening to power armored armies.

The final game was pure kill points with some small mechanics that could boost or degrade your KP total. I faced a MSU Venom Dark Eldar force. All Warriors and Trueborn in Venoms backed up by Ravagers, led by the Duke. I was a little frosty when I started this game, as I was concentrating really hard on how I'd approach it. I probably came off as a little stand-offish. In the end, I just resolved to go all-out into the enemy in a cavalry charge. It worked, and I rolled through 13-5.

At the end of the day, I took home Best Imperial Overall (and had the points or best overall of the whole field, after tiebreakers). I was stunned. I've never won overall in anything before. Neat!

I didn't enter anything into the painting competition, as I hadn't painted anything specifically for it, and I just don't like my Marines anymore from a painting stand point.

On Sunday night, I glued the Hive Tyrant's body section to a 40mm base. I used a small amount of glue under the tail mounting point in order to make it so I could remove the 40mm base after he was all done, and then mount him on his proper 60mm base. I just needed something to hold him by while painting, and paperclip mounts just weren't going to cut it. I have a couple small gaps to fill tonight, and then it's primer time!
I also picked away at a Sternguard model, finishing the blue parts. I also selected the parts for another and bagged them for when I finish the current one.

Yeah, Purple!

I settled on purple as the color for the ribbed flesh on my Tyranids. Here's what the first pass looked like:

It's Reaper master series Indigo Sky, washed with Leviathan Purple, back to Indigo Sky, then Pale Indigo. it looks nice and rich, but didn't pop as much as I wanted it to. I needed more contrast, so I mixed the Indigo Sky with Ghost White at a 1:1 ratio. The result:

The shot is washed out by the light. For some reason, the large claws always get washed out, and the small ones don't. This is also after cleaning up the green, as I'd gotten brown and purple on small areas and had to fix things up. The talons are all now ready for Dullcote, but the head is waiting for the teeth to be painted. I'm going with a simple ivory there.

I also did some sculpting on the Tyrant's body. I was waffling on filling his back vents, and just decided to go for it:

Pretty simple process. Just push a wad of GS in the vent, and poke repeatedly at it with a skewer or round toothpick. Be sure to drag the edges of the GS upward against the plastic of the vents, or it won't look natural.

I also ripped of the hooves I'd sculpted onto the feet. They just didn't look right. I'm still not sure I like the new ones. I'll get a shot after they're done.

Purple, or Green?

At long last, the Tyrant's claws are largely finished. I spent the last couple sessions painting the blades, and last night I went back in with pure white and did some highlights, including adding some final streaks of pure white to the armor parts. This is what the talons look like now:

The last thing I need to do on these before moving to the main body is to decide what to do with the ribbed flesh areas on the arms and "hands." My original plan was to make those areas purple, along with tongues and tentacles. In addition, I was thinking of adding some purple spotting to the blades. But now I'm not so sure. I'm second guessing myself and thinking that maybe I'll make the ribbed areas a vibrant green using ink, and skipping the spotting on the blades. My thought now is that maybe purple would be one color too many in the palette.

Any suggestions?

I have to do something with those areas, as they blend in too much with the rest of the arms to leave plain.