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Hello dakkapeeps. This is my blog. A place where a hobbying noob (that is me) will attempt to figure out how to turn my plastic cocaine into a form of nerd quasi-art. I hope along the way we can all learn some tips and tricks as well as further our community through little plastic army men.

Some history. I was eleven when I first discovered warhammer. It took me six months to save up enough money to buy the Space Marine/Dark Eldar starter from 3rd edition. I built my figures and got all my friends to start playing to. Within a year between us we had IG, Nids, Marines, and Orks all over 1,000 points. The lists were not optimized, my Dark Eldar only had one vehicle because I couldn't afford more, but we had fun trying to follow the rules. The one thing we could not do was paint. Sure the Ork kid's dad was an artist, and his models all looked stellar, but the rest of us worked for efficiency. My dark eldar were all painted differently based on the squad and never had more than four colors including the base. Nothing was primed, and even less had more than one coat. Forget golden daemon, these were vomit daemon quality. By the time we were fourteen though most of us had moved on. This was during the boom when PS2 was getting big, not to mention the fact that gun line DE did not bring me many (make that any) glorious victories. For five years I didn't play. My dark eldar were locked away to be found another day.

That day came in college when one day in 2009 I saw some guys pushing soldiers around on a pool table. I asked if it was warhammer, and it was. They talked me into finding my old stuff. I played with them twice that year, enjoying the new friend group, but still getting faced stomped. In the fall they had a semester long league. In the first month I tried my old tactics and lost two out of my three games. The next month I was able to win two games. I was figuring out tactics. Then the new dark eldar codex came out and I won my next three games by such a margin that I was able to place second in our league. I had discovered with that new codex is that my favorite part of wargaming is taking book and figuring out all the strategies contained in it. I wanted to be the best general I could be. I started playing in tournaments in the area, nine over the next year, as well as expanding my armies. I bought tau from a friend with too many armies. I bought excessive amounts of AOBR orks so I had an army to lend people for team tournaments. I started playing dark elves in fantasy. I traded the tau for space marines and then invested time buying the kits I needed to complete the force. Wanting to expand more I bought the Skorne book from privateer press and ordered the exact units that I wanted. Then I bought a full size tyranid army from someone leaving the hobby. With every army I honed my skills to be a better general. With every army I ignored the hobby aspect.

Which brings us here today. I have four 40k armies, one fantasy, and one warmahordes. None of them are even close to being fully painted. I want that to change though. Not only will my soft scores for tournaments go up, but I owe it to my opponents to bring a good looking force to the table, it is a respect thing. Not only that though, I also want to do it for me. Not only will it be a great break from triple majoring in school while working nearly full time, but it will be a chance for me to consciously work at developing a skill that I do not have. As of this morning the semester is done, and while I am still working I don't have classes again until February. That means it I will have time to paint, pin, strip, and convert along with a host of other things I am not yet familiar with. What I will be doing here is introducing you to my armies and displaying my progress and development on each project, and even getting feedback and advice from those of you who wish to help. The first of those projects is Tyranids. Not only do I think they are a fully competitive army despite what the internet says, but they are the most fun I have ever had with an army. They also give me a chance to learn the skill of blending. Ignore the rest of the model as I have not done much on the non-carapace bits.




Not bad for my first try but it needs some work. What I think I need is more colors mixed between the red gore and the blazing orange. I will try blood red once I can get out and buy more paint. I also am going to run a red wash over the whole carapace as I think it will even the shades and really accentuate were each plate starts and stops. As for the rest of the model, I will be purple or blue washing the hormagaunt purple (as well as cleaning up the edges) and adding either pink or enchanted blue on the more vulnerable bits. The teeth will be white but eyes and hooves will be yellow. I am looking for suggestions/inspiration for the gun because I have mixed feeling about it.

Thanks for wading through that first post and supporting me, I look forward to progressing and showing you my growth!

Coming Up: An Introduction To Hive Fleet Titan

Coming Up: Getting Distracted By Orks and Skorne...Losing My Pinning And Green Stuff Virginity

Looks good! It is very smooth. As for thhe gun, I would suggest painting the armor plates the same as the carapace, and mayby ad some blood or gore red to the slits on the magazine and barrel.

Hope this helps!

Imperial Renegade wrote:Looks good! It is very smooth. As for thhe gun, I would suggest painting the armor plates the same as the carapace, and mayby ad some blood or gore red to the slits on the magazine and barrel.

Hope this helps!

I will try to do that. That will most likely look much better than if I tried shading in blue or something like that. The only other thing I might do is to blend it out to yellow there.

So that Tyranid introduction...didn't happen. I did play a game with them last week (come from behind victory against Orks) as well as buying a second unit of Gargoyles NIB and all the paint I need for various projects. Tonight I will build the gargoyles and might even throw some paint on them. What did I do instead of Tyranids...lets make it a game. I will show you a picture and you have to guess what three non-Tyranid things I am doing.



If you guessed drilling holes in Ork boyz gunz while ebaying for Dark Elf Dragons only to be interrupted by a strange desire to build Skorne you guessed right!

I had heard that building the Cyclopes for Skorne was a challenge. Very true, it took over an hour to get them together correctly. There was quite a few big gaps in the Titan Gladiator as well.



That can only mean one thing. Green stuff. I remember at a FLGS I overheard someone saying that working with green stuff requires a wet surface, so I get several handfulls of water on my desk and begin working it together. After a while I cut a slice off and spread it over the gaps first with my file's end and then with a hobby knife. I work some of the skin and rope pattern into it. Overall not nearly the challenge I expected it to be.



Here is my entire 25 point warhost. I think it is pretty badass. My general has Freddy Krueger fingers, all my dragoons are riding sabertooth tigers, and my brick is an armor wearing bipedal six limbed elephant. I look forward to getting these guys painted up. I should note that my kit was missing a tusk and a shoulderpad from the gladiator. I have contacted Privateer Press but have not yet heard back.



At my last tournament I dropped a Zoanthrope, and being an OOP metal model the head snapped off. Time to work on pinning.



To celebrate this guy getting his head back on I think I will paint him in the next 24 hours. My two questions following this are, A) how do you cut your pins? I am using an industrial sheers but I still feel like I am forcing it too much, and B) am I leaving enough pin sticking out or is it too little (or too much?).

Between figuring our green stuff and getting pinning, sometime in the coming months I feel like I am going to break apart my OOP Hydra models (that were built with a 2 part epoxy) and build them right.

As for that ebaying that I did in the first picture, I did not get a Dark Elf Dragon, I did though get two NIB battlewagons and a bunch of parts for making tervigons. I have been planning on using Tau devilfish (I have 1,700 points of Tau I am slowly getting rid of) but I don't think I know a way I could do that project justice without looking bad, so I forked out the money. As for the tervigons, I have been using modified Carnifex and Tyrants as my tervigons, but it is time for me to do that project the right way. I will be fusing Carnifex torsos with Arachnarok spider bodies to make very large, but very scary looking, tervigons. I will be the biggest conversion I have ever done but I am pretty jazzed for it, especially now that I can do green stuff.

While we are talking about Orks, it seems I would show off some painted models. I did these two last spring. They are AOBR Nobz that have had some massive arm revisions so they can hold some special weapons. I regard them as my best painted models.




Coming Up:Gargoyles, Kymerae, and a 10k game of 40k..oh my![u]

Some good work there mate. My only suggestion for the Orks is try out some washes and some basic highlighting. It's dead easy and adds a level of depth to the figure. Have a look in the tutorial section, thats were I improved ten-fold. Keep up the good work!

Bash

Subscribed! from a fellow hobby noob haha!

Bash the Bosh wrote:Some good work there mate. My only suggestion for the Orks is try out some washes and some basic highlighting. It's dead easy and adds a level of depth to the figure. Have a look in the tutorial section, thats were I improved ten-fold. Keep up the good work!

The skin is washed green and everything else is washed black. How many layers of wash would you suggest?


Last night I stayed up until 3AM finishing my new gargoyles. I worked to get them all posed uniquely so that the full squad is not repetitive.



I finished up my Khymera moels for my Dark Eldar beast unit. I can't even remember what fantasy model this is, but the only work I did is green stuff by the ears to fill the antler holes.



The big thing I did with my day though was a 5K per side battle between Dark Eldar and Tyranids. It feels good to put that many models down! That match up can be found at http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/419873.page.


Coming Up: Actually Using All Those Fancy Paints

Very nice job on your GS. In regardes to the orks, may I suggest washing the skin with Devlin mud, or Ogren flesh? Her is A pic of what the turn out would be.

Also, really like the gargoyles...Cant wait to see them painted.

As for the Ork skin, After washing it, you might want to lightly dry brush a light green onto the skin as well.

Next Ork I paint I will try the Orgryn flesh as I don't have any Devlin mud. I was considering a light wash of it just to make them look dirtier. Currently I used Thrakka Green, so I guess it makes sense why that was washed (no pun intended) out.

Looking foward to seeing the results!

I finished buying all the bits for two Arachnarok Spider/Carnifex converted Tervigons. After shipping it all came out to $99 which is below my goal of $120. In fact that is the same cost as two GW new Carnifex models which is what other people are using for Tervigons. I think it is a sweet deal since I am getting something that is more original and looks better for the same price. I look forward to getting all the bits and piecing the thing together...good thing I can use green stuff now!

I also finish recovering from the 10K Nid/DE game I played last night. I played from 9PM to 7AM and had a blast. The Swarmlord and Vect were already in combat on the bottom of turn one! It was definitely an "Aww Snap!" moment when they faced off. I was glad to be able to put that many of my own models on the table, and I hope to have a rematch once both armies are painted.

Speaking of painting armies...



The first picture is after two coats of Red Gore and one of Blood Red. Second Picture includes a rough layer of thick blazing orange and then a watered down layer. The final picture has some specked Golden Yellow. Body is Hormagaunt Purple with two washes of Leviathan Purple. I used Ogryn Flesh on the feet and Babab Black in the mouth. The base was painted with really old LOTR paint kit unmarked brown.

The top picture is what I aimed for when I came up with the scheme over a month ago, and the bottom was tonight's effort. I must say that it is exactly what I am going for. The only change made was the blue to yellow shift, which I think really helps highlight the model.




Also on my desk is that repaired Zoanthrope. He has his first two shades currently. I worked on this while I waited for the termagant to dry.



A few questions...

1. What are people's tactics for doing eyes? I eneded up using a pin, but even that is not precise enough,
2. My blazing orange layer is always chunky. Watering it down helped, but it is no where near as smooth as the blood red. Just use more water to fix this problem?
3. Is the second layer of baal red needed? Or does it darken the orange too much?

Ok the nid looks good,

as for the eyes, if you have a very fine brush, you can find them at the craft store... It will be finer then the pin, but will allow you to use it to do the other detail on models. I brought my gaunt to the store, and found a brush that was small enought to get the eyes painted. Try watering down the orange if it is really thick. if neccessary, it might take severel layers of thin orange. and no I dont think that the red take away from the orange at all. Nice job!

Keep it up

You would think after playing a 10 hour game a few days ago I would be burnt out, but I am really craving a battle. Next week when people get back to campus I am excited to be able to play, and with some painted models to boot! Being that I have never thrown down painted models (besides some DE vehicles), I am really pumped. My goal with Nids is to have them all done by mid February. Currently I am first first on the wait list for the Dark Star GT. At 60 players this will be about twice the size of my previous events and I want to be able to field a good looking army. Even if the unrealistic happens and I don't get in, it will still be nice to have something painted for local RTT.

I did another hour on the Zoanthrope and finished him up.




I heavily watered down the orange and that helped a lot, so I only needed one layer. I put the yellow on between the two layers or Baal Red, and that evened that tone out. Before I keep going I need to figure out how apparent I want it to be, as it is just part of the Zoanthrope blend, but it is more of a specked highlight on the termagant. I think I am going to go with the blended look.

I tried washing the teeth purple, which looked atrocious, so I went with classic Babab Black. He might get another wash here as he looks a little too smiley. As for the brain, my original plan was pink, but not only did my FLGS not have pink, I also think that would get washed out by the rest of my color scheme and the desert bases (especially considering its proximity to the red skull cap), so instead I went with Snot Green and a light coat of yellow which I washed twice in purple with the rest of the body. I really like the look it got.

My big worry I have to figure out now is how to get things done faster. This Zoanthrope and the one Termagant took me a combined time of five hours. That time will go down once I start batch painting, but will still be a considerable sum.

Well, the longer you paint, the faster you get. I really like the look of the blended yellow rather then the speceled. I like the desert bases, they suit the model. As for the time factor, try base coating a large some of models at once. Lets just say 4 or 5 gaunts with the purple, then the yellow, then the orange, ect.... That is what I have been doing for my models, and it helps me paint them faster. It may get very boreing (Trust me ...I know) But it might save time.

Keep up the good work

I look foward to seeing more of your work!

Imperial Renegade wrote:Well, the longer you paint, the faster you get. I really like the look of the blended yellow rather then the speceled. I like the desert bases, they suit the model. As for the time factor, try base coating a large some of models at once. Lets just say 4 or 5 gaunts with the purple, then the yellow, then the orange, ect.... That is what I have been doing for my models, and it helps me paint them faster. It may get very boreing (Trust me ...I know) But it might save time.

Keep up the good work

I look foward to seeing more of your work!

I am going to test paint a gargoyle and a hive guard and then start batch paining , so I hope that I can pick it up as you have suggested. Thanks for the feedback and encouragement.

I have officially painted more models in the last two weeks than I have in the last year! Not saying much when it is only four models, but a start for sure.

I reworked the original termagant to match the other, except with blended yellow. I don't think he looks as sharp, but it is more than enough for the table, plus he will only see the table when I spawn so no big deal.



I also did my first Genestealer model. I think I might have to make some changes here. maybe something like a drybrush on the big talons, just to dull them up, maybe a light purple, but otherwise he just seems a little on the bland side. I am definitely open to suggestions on how to improve this guy.




Happy New Years!

Maby add a slight wash to the yellow? It seems to stant out a bit. Other that that, looks good! Happy New Year!

Long time no update. I am officially the last entrant of the Dark Star GT, which will be my first tournament of that scale. I have been spending way too much time doing theoryhammer and mathhammer getting my list ready. I was trying new things and trying to counter the current meta. What I realized was that my lists really didn't look like something I would write. I started playing Nids because I wanted a challenge and because I liked the idea of an all out infestation that featured sweet looking monsters. Even if I am getting force weaponed and meltaed off the table I want a horde that just keeps on coming. Thus I came up with my list, Hive Fleet Titan: Splinter Fleet Honey Badger...cause Tyranids don't care. Rather than trying to play to the internet and what is supposed to be good I instead am going to play a supposedly 'non-competitive' codex (Tyranids) in a 'non-competitive' manner (full reserve) with a 'non-competitive' list (Monstrous Creatures and No Hive Guard/Zoanthropes). My game plan was to play like a honey badger. Trygon dies right after deep striking? punch them in the face. Genestealers get flamed? Go for the jugular. Tervigon poops out after one spawning? Tyranids don't care, they take what they want.

I brought that list to a primer tournament for the GT (Battle Reports Here). Out of 22 players my 'non-competitive' list got me 2nd best general (8th overall due to 0/30 for painting). I was able to tie Purifier spam Grey Knights and I got full point massacres against Razorback and flamer spam Blood Angels and shooty Vanilla Marines. Since then I have also beat mech gun-line Necrons.

Now that I have my list I need to get it ready. For the tournament I used gargoyle wings (stolen from a Dark Eldar Scourge) on my Tyrant. He looked cute, not scary. I ordered him Demon Prince wings (though I also have a Black Dragon on order if they don't work out). I also bought MC devourers since I have been using gant devourers so far. Magnets too! They will be a lesson for the next two weeks.

My big project I have been working on...meet my Tervigon.





The thorax is from an Arachnarok spider via Orcs and Goblins of the fantasy line, the torso is an upside-down Carnifex torso, and the head is from the Carnifex kit. Both sets of legs are from Trygons and the raised attack talons are from a Carnifex. I believe the random spines are from the Carnifex too (though maybe from a Trygon). I obviously got a ton of greenstuff practice. He (she?) has a clone that is yet to be green stuffed. I spend a long time trying to get the Mawloc head to work but in the end it was just too big. I am going to start painting this bad boy right now so wish me the best of luck!

Dude.......im sorry I have not been cheacking on your blog! I wish I posesed your conversion skills! I cant wait to see this tervi painted! Good luck!

Imperial Renegade wrote:Dude.......im sorry I have not been cheacking on your blog! I wish I posesed your conversion skills! I cant wait to see this tervi painted! Good luck!

Thank you for the kind words. I look forward to finishing the paint job. While painting is something I am learning to enjoy, gluing and creating via conversion is something I really enjoy. Now that I have green stuff down I want to make a Daemon army in which every single model has conversions on it. That must wait though because I have hundreds of unpainted models. One day though

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I painted more last week than I have in the rest of my hobby career combined...and I still didn't finish before the GT.

I will post the battle reports this coming week. It was a great experience overall, and I tied for 13th in battle points out of 60. Not too shabby for Tyranids. On the hobby side I scored 12/40, putting me at second worst painting and dragging me down to 45th overall. Here is what my army looked like this weekend.



As you can see I bought a chapterhouse mycetic spore. I tried several attempts to make my own but was unsuccessful in making something nice looking. The cast was perfect with no bubbles. My complain though is that the tabs I needed to cut off were very large and due to the dense resin used this was difficult. I could have been doing it wrong though. great kit, maybe a tad big though.

It quickly became clear I would not finish painting it all so I tried to get three colors on everything. Example A would be batch painting 28 genestealers. I marked the squads bases with different squads each a different color. I will do this for all of my armies from now on. It seriously made life so much easier.



I ordered magnets four weeks ago, but they never came in the mail. I ended up borrowing (considering that they are glued on my models I guess it is not really borrowed) magnets from a friend the day before the tournament. I am pretty happy with the magnetizing of the carnifex and Tyrant. I think the wings look pretty natural where they are placed (not to mention actually capable of listing his bulk). Not sure if you can see in the picture but I modified the devourers so that both sets are on two arms to keep with the Tyranid six limb fluff.







Next weekend is two separate RTT's that I plan to play in. Not sure if Nids will be on the table as I am getting the Ork bug again. If I can get a monstrous creature done by then then bugs will hit the table for sure.

Sorry I have not checked your blog lately. I like the nids, they are coming along nicely! The mysetic spore is really nice. Your Hive tyrants Wings look very Natural! I also like the devourers! Im looking foward to seeing this army painted! Kinda cool your Girlfriend is making sure your modeling, but also making sure you keep up with your studying! You should get her into modeling!