Mad Nids, Cult and ZITs blog (Update: Foetid Bloat Drone WIP1 and new addition )

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**Mad..**

angelofveneance - thanks for compliment, I really love the way the chitin is turning out, pretty much what was in my head

knightley - no, haven't pinned any joints. The primed one is metal and has been together for years, the new one is finecast, and I'll guess we will see how long he lasts before fix it ups are needed.

SBG - After looking around on the net I found a bunch of people were using Krylon Clear coat 1303, got some from my local art supply shop I have used it on the termagant squad and it works well.

Speaking of which... here is an update on that brood - glossed and with gravel base done, just need to paint up the bases, add some foliage and done!

I also pulled out an old brood of termagants that I painted up 10+ years ago, I think I have gotten better, at least the scheme is a lot better anyhow

here is a couple of comparison shots

Cheers

**Mad..**

Termagant brood all finished:

Have done washes on the Chaos dude. Used sepia on skulls, cloak and other bits and pieces, and I used blue on the armour and gold bits. I'm still happy with the red cloak, the next part is what is going to make or break it I feel.

So will work on tidying up and highlighting after the wash and then I think he is almost done, showed him to my brother before the washes and he thought it looked awesome, so I have a happy client

Meanwhile, this guy is the next on the Hive fleet Ngaro paint list, why it has painted hoofs and vents I have no idea... I'll fix that when I base coat him in next few days.

Thanks for checking in!

**Knightley**

Wow, seeing the comparisons between the termagaunt broods certainly is interesting! such vibrant paint used on the older models, how do you feel about the difference? nice to see how far you've come? Proud that you were able to get the paint in between the lines?

Now question about the purple, It might be the photo however the purple looks quite flat, I think I can see some shadows in the recesses but the highlighting seems lacking? If that's what your brother is looking for please ignore my comments.

**Mad..**

Hah, yes it is awesome seeing the comparison from old to new paint jobs on the termagants, helps keep me motivated to keep going and improving on the painting side of the hobby.

In regards to the chaos lord, that purple power armour is dead flat with a bit of wash on it at the moment, funnily enough I have just been looking at your Kharn and Abbadon to get an idea of how I might highlight it... my brother has no idea what he wants so I have artistic licence on the armour

I know what I want to do on the gold, cloak on the rest, but the power armour is slowing me down for sure.

**Mad..**

Pretty much finished with the Chaos Sorcerer, highlights have all been done, although some are a bit thicker than I would have liked. However, this is the first time I have ever painted something that isn't a Tyranid, so I am actually pretty happy with how this has come out.

My brother loves it, so success I guess

It needs to be matte varnished and some gravel on the black bits of base, but apart from that I'm about done I think. C&C welcome.

**Knightley**

Highlighting on the armour brings the whole thing together!

You did miss a good opportunity to put a pupil on the staff's eye, but apart from that you should be stoked with how it came out. Back to the nids now?

**Mad..**

The highlighting made it all come together very well. I am very happy with how it came out for a first time effort, I'll pop a pupil onto that eye before I varnish it up and give it to my brother.

Yip, back to the nids!

So the carnifex a couple of posts above is what I have been chipping away at. First I got rid of the random bone white paint on the hoofs and vents, then I pulled him off that base which was a bit of a mission but I managed.

I have almost finished all the basic colourings and fex is almost ready for his washes, forgive the hands in the following images, do you think I could get the silly creature to balance for photo time?

All the greens will be washed (dark with light, and light with dark), I'll also be washing the blue spikey bits and exposed skull, and finishing his chitin with blue wash at the joints.

I'll throw up another update when progress has been made.

Thanks for checking in.

**Knightley**

Yeah that carapace is the bee's knee's

**SBG**

I keep coming back to the Zoanthropes. The paintjobs on those are fantastic! The Carnifex carapace is pretty kickin' rad too

**Mad..**

Knightley - I reckon it is pretty sweet!

SBG - Zoanthropes came out nice, I especially like the brains.

I've been on a mini holiday with my family so was nice to relax... now back to the painting.

Here is some update photos with the washes (greens, carapace joints, claws etc) done... onto highlighting now.

Thanks for stopping by.

**Knightley**

That tail is pretty cool, I like the might brighter look to it compared to the rest of the model. What plans do you have to highlight it?

**Mad..**

At the moment I'm thinking I will hit the ends of the spikey bits with a bit of imperial blue and then edge highlight said spikes with some ultramarine blue to try and make it all pop.

Never know how it is going to look until I try I guess.

I did the first bit of highlighting on the model last night, will do some more tonight and then post some more update photos... better start working on his base as well I guess

**Mad..**

Evening all,

Overdue for an update I reckon.

I am thinking of altering my scheme ever so slightly. Instead of doing the whole model as a gloss coat I am thinking I will use Matte varnish on the yellow carapace bits and leave the skin and tubes etc glossy and shiny to give it that slimy aliens look that I'm after, will add a bit more visual impact to the model as it will differentiate the skin to carapace better. I'm going to hit my test models carapace with some matte varnish shortly to see how it works out, but that is the plan at this point.

Have finally sussed out those little tendon things in the skin... I was struggling with getting them to look good, which has been solved by a dark green wash going over the white and goblin green paint which helps to make them pop and get the shading between the ribbed bits back. I am still putting a bit too much paint onto them, but I am improving which is the main thing I guess

I've started reading articles on how to photograph minis better, and am learning a bunch of stuff about lighting and white balance and stuff, so will work on getting better photos onto here as we go.

Carnifex is coming along really nicely. Pretty much everything is done on the creature now, just some minor things to do like a bit of work on eyes, then onto varnish time.

Bit of a focus on the exposed skull, done the same colour as claws and teeth etc, as it it bone after all.

I have also begun working on the base. I have taken one of the tyranid terrain pieces that come with some kits and am painting it up similar to the fleet, I'll then do my red planet theme on the rest with a rock here and there... here is a photo complete with the fex foot hold from when I popped him off the base which will be fixed up as I go.

Here is a bit of a close up for Knightley of the tail mace

Thanks for stopping by.

**Mad..**

Hey all,

Weather has been windy as heck so haven't been able to get outside to spray the gloss coat onto the carnifex... figured I wouldn't waste the time I had did some work on the base:

And then did some base coating on a trygon that I'm going to paint up next. I know it isn't a popular bug this edition, but I built it when it first released, and I still love the model. Can always use as a counts as Mawloc until I get an actual mawloc model

Hopefully have completed fex pics in next few days along with an update on the trygon.

**Mad..**

Evening all,

Firstly a question about home made light boxes for photos. I have been looking at how people make them, I have a box... I'm just wondering what is best for diffusion on top and sides, I've seen fabric used, baking paper, normal paper etc... so is one better than another, or does it not really matter as long as it diffuses the light well enough?

I am keen to get one up and running because as you can see in this blogs photos thus far, I have some work to do on the quality of the photos, and I know how to make them better. I'm setting white balance, using macro mode, got a decent camera etc.... Biggest issue is lighting!

Trygon is coming along nicely, almost all the bases laid and ready for washing:

And the Carnifex sporting the newer version of my "recipe" in that the carapace is no longer gloss with rest of model, the carapace is matt, the skin et al is still gloss. Adds a bit more visually to the model, and makes the gloss bits look more slimey like they do in aliens, which was the intention... also means the whole model doesn't look like glass.

I am slowly but surely going over my completed models and matt varnishing their carapace, once I get my lighting issues sorted and get better photos of them all I will post some up

**Knightley**

Suitable goopy and shiny, I like it!

For Lightboxes, I used to have 4 lights that are on stands and put baking paper over 100w white light bulbs then arranged them as I felt needed.
Now however I still have 4 lights on stands but have changed the bulbs for 2 60w Real light (for the top) and 2 100w Real light bulbs (for the front) all found at Bunnings has then in blue cardboard containers.

**Mad..**

Hi Knightley,

So you don't use a light box at all? you just use lights with the diffusion on them and arrange to suit? Or is that your lighting config with the mini inside a light box?

You produce great quality photos, so I'll head to the hardware store and find the bulbs as per your recommendation.

Thanks

**SBG**

I like the carnifex, and I'm finding it funny how you and I have opposite gloss schemes. That slimy look on the skin is great!

**StolleMan**

Love the carapace, very insectoid!

**Knightley**

You got it, I just have a white bit of paper taped to the back of my writing desk and have two lights above the model and spread out (almost 45 degrees from centre) and have two lights facing front at about the same angle (means minimal shadows)

The brand for the bulbs are General Electric with the colour type daylight 60w and 100w (just as a heads up they get quite hot, so I turn the lights on only when I'm taking photos, managed to melt some plastic pegs I had on the lights due to the heat)

**Mad..**

SBG - Yip, I noticed we have gone opposite on our usage of gloss varnish, both look good though. I also notice we are both having "get better photo" moments

Stolleman - Thanks for the compliment, I am proud on how my carapace comes out.

Knightley - Hmmm, thanks for the input. I got a couple of lamps for cheap at Briscoes yesterday and got some bulbs for them today. Might fire it up tonight and see how it goes, I have found a box and got a roll of baking paper at home, so maybe I'll try a light box as well as it isn't going to cost me much to make one.

Coming soon... Mad tries to get decent photos of his Tyranids!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay so this is a bit earlier than I though... Kids went to bed really early so I had some time up my sleeve.

Made myself a light box.... sellotape, baking paper, a box, and a couple of lamps:

So I slapped in two white pieces of paper (will get one big one later) and this is what I got of the carnifex:

The photo as above before light box and lamps:

Similar angle, with auto white balance used on the camera:

And same angle with the white balance manually set:

Looking at the three shots, I actually think the second one looks the best, as the manually set white balance looks a bit washed out? Bear in mind that I have done nothing post production to the image, have no tripod, and have had to get right up close to the model due to using small pieces of paper.

I'm amazed at the difference just some small changes makes, and obviously have a a lot to learn, and some experimentation to do

What does everyone think

Any advice is appreciated as I am very keen to learn and get better.

**Mad..**

Update on the Trygon,

It is coming along really nicely, just got a bit of highlighting to do here and there, the base to do up and the varnishes.

Here is some progress shots:

I'm going to be playing around with a photo editor on the "light box" carnifex photos to see what difference I can make with post production work on the images.

Hoping I can have it sussed by time I have finished the Trygon.

I figure I should do a troop brood after trygon is complete, any requests?

**Knightley**

I reckon Troop choice, if only to flesh out your army

Also I really really really like that carapace you've got going on, so good!

**Mad..**

I'm thinking that as a rule moving forward I should go with a brood choice, then big bug as a "reward" and to break up painting so many troops. I'd hate to get towards the end of painting the army up and just have the small bugs left to do.

Plus like you say I will actually have painted enough models to actually start playing a few games with.

I think you have mentioned once or twice how much you like the carapace

... I'm really glad that you guys are jumping in here and are commenting on how much your liking the carapace pattern, as I reckon it is pretty eye catching and bug like. Helps stay motivated when painting a horde army too

**Mad..**

Almost there on the Trygon:

Just got to paint up that basing and he is ready to go

Has been fun painting it up, once I have finished the basing I'll pop it into the light box for a proper photo session and we will see how that goes

Next up I'm going to peel out the six ripper bases, as I reckon they will be nice and quick to finish up, and will then move onto a eight strong brood of genestealers.... why genestealers? Because I have loved genestealers since I first encountered them in Milton Bradleys Space Crusade board game and Space Hulk of course. They are the reason I looked at Tyranids when I started playing/collecting 40k... I wanted to have genestealers.

Cheers

**Knightley**

Ooooh genestealers..... are they going to have anything that sets them apart from the fleet? (going by the fluff that they try to get away from the hive fleet when it gets close)

**Mad..**

I have two eight model broods of genestealers to paint up. One brood is modelled with scything talons and one is modelled with all rending claws like a "purestrain" should look like.

With the fluff side (Ignoring Ymargls for now), genestealer broods are used within hive fleet armies as vanguard assault and shock troops, and you also have the infiltrating cult ones that try to stay away from the hive fleet.

I also have a broodlord who is already painted up in the hive fleet scheme, so my plan is that the brood with the scything talons will be led by the broodlord and they will be standard Ngaro paint scheme and are part of the hive fleet production line.

The other brood with rending claws will be the infiltrators that try to get away so I will paint them up in a scheme that is similar to the rest of the army so you know they are related to the fleet, but different enough to stand out. I'll also do different bases for them, and who knows maybe one day I'll find a patriarch model to go with them

What this special brood looks like.... well that's something I am working on. I could just reverse the scheme somewhat and go with blue stippling and yellow claws and teeth, so they are more stealthy than their hive fleet counterparts.

Happy to hear suggestions

**Mad..**

I have basically finished the Trygon... will get it into the lightbox and get some nice solo photos in the next day or two.

I say basically as I will be adding bits of tau (and perhaps fire warrior) to a bunch of the bases once I get them from my brother.

Meanwhile here is a couple of group shots of what I have completed so far I reckon the scheme works well when there is a group of them:

What I am really happy about is as I was pulling all these models out I had a look at the paintjobs, and I am glad to report that I am getting better as I go along! I didn't think I had improved all that much, but when I look at some of the first models and what I was doing compared to the carnifex and trygon which are the most recent completions and I can see a noticeable difference. This keeps me motivated to keep going and feeling good overall on the army paint up.

At this point I have painted up nine units out of the thirty I have to get through... so basically a third of the way there.

**Knightley**

Looking impressive, I'm imagining copy pasting the picture multiple times to make a swarm and see what it all would look like (in my head its pretty awesome)

**Mad..**

Heh, cheers Knightley... I'm hoping that I won't have to copy paste images and that I'll have my whole army painted up in the not too distant future. Still several months away from completion I'd suggest.

Have been working away at the rippers, not much to see yet, so will post some progress pics in a few days. Also started building my Exocrine, looking at the kit thus far it looks like it will pretty easy to magnetise, so I might do that so I can make it a exocrine or a haruspex.

Trygon is all completed, here are the photos from his photo shoot in the new light box... still sussing out my lighting and what to alter in editing, but hey, looks better than previous "completed" photos I think you'll agree.

Thanks for checking in.