Tyranid Warriors (First Stage)

I have begun painting my Tyranid Warriors. These miniatures are awesome. I decided to go with scything talons and deathspitters. I also decided to throw adrenal glands and toxin sacs onto these guys as well. Overall, they should be fairly good ranged fighters and fairly good close combat fighters. Take a look at theses pictures of the first stage of painting on these Tyranid Warriors.





I used the same steps as I did with my Tyranid Termagants. Take a look at that entry to see what I did exactly. Basically, I used Iyanden Darksun to cover the entire model's skin. I tried to avoid painting over the claws and carapace - but it is inevitable that you will get paint onto areas where you don't want them to be. That is why the order in which you apply paint is really important. Start on areas that are large. Also, the Iyanden Darksun paint is thin on areas of the skin in these pictures. I have since touched them up to make sure that the Iyanden Darksun covers the model well.






In these pictures I simply applied the Ogryn Flesh over the Iyanden Darksun after it had dried. Next step is highlighting the skin.

Tyranid Termagants Finished

Just wanted to post my latest painting work. I finished my last 10 Termagants for my 1500 point Tyranid army I am working on. Check them out below. I think they turned out great. If you want to know how I painted them check out my earlier entry that explains the entire process.

Ork Warboss

Im still painting Tyranid Termagants, so I figured I'd post one of my older models up. This is the Black Reach Ork Warboss. Someone had paid me to paint this model. I was happy to get a chance to paint this model considering how cool it was.




The Ork's skin was painted with Orkhide Shade foundation paint (which is a very dark green foundation paint great for Orks). After that dried I carefully applied Goblin Green onto the raised areas of the skin making sure the deep areas of the skin remained dark. Finally, I line highlighted a mix of Goblin Green and White along all of the highest parts of the skin.

All the areas that are silver were painted the same and is very easy to accomplish. Simply use Chainmail (a mid-range silver color) and when dried wash the area with black wash. The result is a fairly worn looking silver. However, the Claw was painted differently. I painted it silver and washed it with black, but then, once that dried, I washed a coat of Devlan Mud on. This gave the claw a very worn out look which I thought was perfect for the Ork's main weapon.

The pants were painted using Scorched Brown. I then dry brushed that with Snakebite Leather and finally dry brushed the pants with Bubonic Brown (which is an almost yellow color). Once everything was dry I washed the pants with Devlan Mud and the result was a very dark leather look.

All the areas painted black were simple. I just used two or three shades of gray. Starting with black, then moving to a 30/70 mixture of Codex Gray and Black, Then a mixture of 50/50 Codex Gray and Black and finally pure Codex Gray.

The checkered board pattern is always a pain. One mistake and you may have to re-do the entire area, so take your time. I never did this pattern prior to doing it with this model, so I made sure to practice on scrap a few times. I basically began by painting the entire area Dbeneb Stone (which is a very light gray foundation paint). Then I painted over that with a slightly watered down (more so than usual) white. Using a fine tipped brush, I began to paint black squares onto the model. I used a watered down black paint - close to the consistency of milk perhaps.



After this model I went on to paint the rest of the Black Reach set for commission to the same person. Take a look at those models below.







For each group I used the same techniques and colors as the Warboss above. I think the entire set turned out great and I'm pretty sure the person I sold them too was fairly happy as well.

Tyranid Termagant - Finished

The first set of my Termagants are finished. They turned out really cool and I'm pretty happy I went with Hive fleet Kraken (Yellow Skin - Red Carapace.) Check out the finished models below.



The carapace was fairly easy to finish, however, it was time consuming. I started by painting Scab Red onto the carapace, claws, and weapon's carapace. Then, I washed that area with Devlon Mud. After that dried the carapace was a very very dark red. Then I used a technique called feathering where you simply apply streaks of color over an area. I began by feathering Red Gore onto the model's carapace. Then I feathered Blood Red and finally I feathered Dwarf Flesh. (I only applied a few streaks of watered down Dwarf Flesh - I didn't want that color to stand out too much.) Last thing I did was simply wash over all the red parts with Baal Red. This basically turned the Dwarf Flesh into a nice redish color.



In the image above you can see how the feathering looks. When done right the result can be really cool.



First ten are finished... now its time to do the next ten!

Tyranid Termagants

Got a chance to start working on my Termagants for my new Tyranid Army. Decided to run 10 Termagants with Devourers. It may be expensive but they really look cool with the devourer gun, so I just had to put some in the army... Check out some of the pictures below of the early stages of painting.


Putting these miniatures together was very simple. I was not a big fan of the two sides to the head. For some of the models there was a noticeable crease down the middle of the miniature's head. I had to smooth the area out with some green stuff and lots of sanding. They turned out. Below are some pictures of just a few of my Termagants just after I sprayed them with black primer.




I've only painted the skin on my 10 Termagants so far. I've never done a color like this for an entire army, so it was a new experience for me. I started by painting Lyanden Darksun (which basically a light brown foundation paint) over the model's skin area, including the weapon. After that, I washed over that with Ogryn Flesh. After the wash dried, I applied a mix of Bubonic Brown (very light brown paint) and Bleached bone (which is an off white color) to the majority of the model's skin - making sure that I left the deeper areas dark. Finally I applied Bleached Bone to the raised parts of the skin. The result is satisfying. The models skin looks great, and once the carapace is finished I think the skin will stand out even further. Check out the pictures below.




I painted certain areas with green, as you can see in this picture. I painted these areas with a Dark Angels green (which is a very deep green). Once dry, I applied Scorpion Green over top the Dark Angels Green. finally, I applied a very small amount of Green Wash to each area to add depth.


Still alot of work to be done. The skin still needs to be cleaned up significantly and of course the carapace still needs to be finished. Plus, the mouth, eyes, claws, and hooves must also be completed. I'll be posting more pictures soon, which will include the final versions of these Termagants.

Wulfrik

I decided to paint Wulfrik for another person's Warriors of Chaos Army. Wulfrik is a great model, however, because of the chaos theme, most of the colors on the miniature will be on the darker side.






Above are several pictures of Wulfrik after it has been sprayed with black primer. A quick word on building miniatures. It is always a good idea to examine a miniature and remove any excess pieces of unwanted metal from the miniature. This excess metal comes from the casting process and should not be on the model. Take a close look at the picture above. The skeleton on top of Wulfrik has excess metal around it's fingers. These were not removed before being sprayed so I had to remove these bits of metal and in the process chipped the primer away. Therefore, I had to re-spray the primer back onto the model in certain areas. It is always better to simply remove these excess pieces of metal before doing anything. Also, make sure you wash your metal models before applying any primer. During the casting process a residue will be left onto the model to help remove it from the cast easily. This residue, if not properlly washed off, will make it more difficult for the primer to stick to the model. As a result, the paint will chip off even easier than usual.



I started this miniature by applying Chainmail Silver onto several areas of the miniature. After applying the silver I simply washed the silver in black wash. This gives the areas a worn look, which is ideal for a miniature which has supposedly fought countless battles.

I went out of order with this model, and painted the skulls, which are positioned all over the miniature. The reason I did this was to help me visualize the areas that needed to be painted and the areas that needed to be left dark. A good rule to follow is to paint from the deepest areas of the miniature outward. For example, take a look at the chainmail on Wulfrik and the skulls surrounding it. In this situation you should paint the chainmail before painting the skulls. Consequently, you should paint the skulls before painting the rope that are attached to the skulls.



For the area painted green, I used Knarloc Green (which is green foundation paint). I also painted the small cape hanging off Wulfrik's left side in Mechrite Red (which is a red foundation paint). The green area was washed in a green wash while the red area was washed in a brown wash. This gave both areas a deep base color to build off of. I finished each area off by applying two shades of the color that were higher than the original. For the red, I applied Blood Red and then a mixture of Blood Red and White. For the green, I applied Goblin Green to the raised scales and then highlighted that with Scorpion Green.





The model is getting closer to completion, but still alot of work needs to be done. The skulls and bones have been washed in brown wash and then highlighted with a mix of bleached bone (which is an off white color) and white. The rope attaching all the bone pieces together had been painted with scorched brown and highlighted with snakebite leather (which is a leather color)
In these pictures you can see Wulfrik's armor has been trimmed in a bronze. I first applied scorched brown to all the areas that were going to be bronze, followed by a 50/50 mix of bronze and scorched brown. Then, I applied pure bronze to the armor and washed it with Ogryn Flesh wash (which is a wash in the Citadel line of paints that is basically a dark skin toned color) This gives the bronze a great look. finally I applied 80/20 mix of bronze and Mithril silver and lightly applied that to same areas. The silver color really makes the metal shine.
Wulfrik's skin was more of an experiment then anything and may be difficult to mimic. I started using black and Rotten Flesh (which is a gray/yellow/peach color - hard to explain) This provide a dark gray/yellow base for his skin. The area was then highlighted by adding more Rotten Flesh to the original mixture. I applied this to the highlighted areas of the skin. Finally, I added just a bit of Rotten Flesh to the raised areas of Wulfrik's skin. The result is a skin tone that does not look healthy but looks great for this Chaos Champion.
The skin on Wulfrik's Armor, however, was painted differently. I didn't want the skin to look the same as Wulfrik's skin. Instead, I wanted the skin to have a leather - lifeless look. I started by painting the skin Scorched Brown and then went over that with Broze Flesh (which is basically a dark version of peach) Once dry, I applied the flesh wash over the entire area. Next, I applied a watered down Elf Flesh (which is a very light version of peach) Then, I mixed Elf Flesh with Rotten Flesh and applied that. The result is a lifeless looking skin tone that was perfect for this miniature.

Below are pictures of the final painted model. Took about 4 hours total to paint this miniature. I think the model turned out great, unfortunately, these pictures do not capture it. But check them out anyway!

Box of Plastic

I am starting a Tyranid Army and decided to buy the Tyranid Battle force box set. 46 miniatures are available in the set and will make up the core of my Tyranid army. Here are some pictures of the box of plastic all miniature armies starts as. There is a great amount of work ahead of me.