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Looks good dude, One suggestion for the light box, you've got a paper line along the models base, I had the same thing in my photos when I started however I put a larger bit on top with the open edge facing the rear of the box, this stopped the line showing up in the pics, so hope this helps.

Yeah I know that piece of paper was waaaaay too small this is what it looked like full size:



I now have a pad of cartridge paper which is plenty big enough to cover the whole light box with on piece of paper, so that little problem should be solved.

Couple of new arrivals, first up I got some tyranid dice. Really nice, bone coloured with the classic genestealer purple, thinking I might use them as themed wound counters, or of course for those rolls that really matter



And I got these to use as objective markers for my army, they are done by secret weapon and are 25mm objective markers, three open eggs and three closed. If I don't use them for objective markers I can always use them as random little bits of scenery.

Rippers are coming along:



Just need to wash the carapace joins, and highlight the teeth and claws. (and base them) Then onto the genestealer squad.

Rippers are looking good - I've always liked the little guys. Yours have an awesome bumblebee look!

SBG - Yeah I agree they do have a great bumblebee look going on, kind of a mini version of what I'm hoping the whole army looks like when I've finished painting it up

Here's an update with a very shoddy photo, sorry to say.

They just need their varnish coats and then based and done... I'll be honest, I struggled motivationally painting these guys, and I'm not sure why. But at least once they are done I can move on to bigger and better things, and at least I'll have two troops choices painted up for when I get back into the gaming side of things in the New Year.



My brother (the one I painted the Chaos Lord for) gave me a couple of random Leman Russ tanks that he got given. So I decided that as a bit of practice I would paint one up for him in his colours as a Christmas present.

Base coats done so far:




Like I say, they are his army colours.... pre heresy Emperors Children, and I'm using it as a chance to practice some techniques (like weathering) and on something I have never painted before (vehicle)

Oh yeah, I also built my Exocrine, he has a few join gaps that I'll fill in with some plastic putty before priming.



Thanks for checking in.

Hi all,

My update for this week.

Exocrine join lines have been plastic puttied and it has been primed with black spray, so the big shooter goes onto the to paint list

Picked up a box of the new Venomthrope kit.... I'll be making the Neurothrope, and one venomthrope out of this kit.... what I do with the third, I'm not sure yet.... probably a second venomthrope as I already have two zoanthropes.



Rippers are coming along, they are varnished and I am just working on painting up the bases... will post photos once they are all complete.

Made a good start on my "pure strain" genestealer brood. This is the one that will be different in some ways to the main Hive Fleet Ngaro so will be darker and a bit more camo/darker overall, but still related. At this stage my plan is to do my normal carapace technique but with dark blue instead of yellow, and then the claws and teeth etc will be yellow. Also the skin will be a bit bluer. I have also ordered some "alien invasion" by secret weapon bases for them to further differentiate them from the main hive. Here is a progress photo of the genestealers so far, if you look closely you can see my carapace technique has been used on the little bits they have. Will get onto the claws and other bits this week.



The Leman Russ tank I'm doing up for my brother... was coming along awesome! I did a base layer of heavy violet, another 50/50 layer of heavy violet/hexed lichen and then did another layer of hexed lichen... hit the other parts with gold... it was looking awesome and I figured is was time to do the washes, sepia wash went fine on the guns, grey metal bits and looks good. The blue wash on the gold and purple however looks like this




Now, what I would really like is advice from experienced painters out there.
Did I use too much wash? Should I have only hit the areas I wanted to shade? Should I have done it after the initial base and before the next layers? Is the wash too thick? Is it a combination of all I have mentioned? Or something I haven't thought of?

Now I will be able to save it and make it look awesome again... I'd just like to understand what I did wrong? (if anything)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Ok so I spent my lunch break reading up on washing tanks (don't get video at work) and general consensus seems to be that I should have only washed where I wanted shading as opposed to hitting the whole surface on a large model like a tank.

Ah well, will put this into the "gaining experience" bucket... onto fixing it up now and getting that nice purple colour my brother likes so much back.

If anyone has anything to add, feel free, I'm a happy learner

Hi everyone,

Weekly progress update time.

Genestealer brood, I have done the green tendon bits in the skin. However the squad has stalled as I ordered two new paints and the different bases for these guys and the order has been held up, so hopefully I will get it all this week and can get some more work done on this brood!

Ripper swarms, just need their bases dry brushed and they are ready to go. Will pop them into the light box this week and get their photo shoot done... if I can keep them still long enough, they are always hungry!

Leman Russ, this week most of my hobby time has gone into this and progress is being made... I reckon I did ok in saving it! I have also had a crack at a glowing plasma type effect on the coils and under the main gun.





I'm going to tidy up a few bits of over spill, give it some highlighting and then I'll call it done... well in time to give it to my brother for Christmas

Thanks for checking in, as always advice is appreciated!

Yeah you look to have saved the purple now, quite the cost in time to learn that mistake right

 Knightley wrote:
quite the cost in time to learn that mistake right

Very much so... basically had to redo all the purple work on the armour that I had already done.

Have learned my lesson, now I can get on with finishing it up... I'm glad I gave myself plenty of time to get it done or else I'd be under a lot of time pressure for Christmas Day delivery.

Looking forward to seeing the Genestealers finished - I've a squad to build and might draw some inspiration from you there!

Ask and you shall receive SBG, update time!

The two paints I ordered arrived with the bases for the Genestealers, so I decided to lay of the Leman Russ for a while and do some work on the brood, here it is with all the base coating done:



This week I will do washes and highlights on the greens and yellows (so they aren't so vibrant), a spray of gloss coat and that will be the models done, then I'll get these bases painted up for them:



They are secret weapon alien invasion bases. I reckon they will suit the brood perfectly, as it is a bunch of steel flight deck base with alien stuff growing onto them, will highlight the "space hulk" or sneakiness of the brood

I did some minor work on the Leman Russ, but not really noticeable, I'll finish the highlighting this week and share in next update.

Thanks for stopping by!

Genestealers are coming along nicely. All I need to do with them is do the varnishing and pop them onto the unique bases.



Have done base coats on the bases, while I work on these I am popping the stealers off their current sprue bit and getting the ready to be super glued onto these.



I have finished the rippers and the Leman Russ.

I put them into the lightbox last night to get their photos done up and ended up with a bit of a mess. Not sure if it was the settings on the camera, or I need more diffusion on the bulbs... what is happening is I am getting way to much light coming in from one side in particular and it seems to be washing out the images... here is a couple of examples:




Any advice would be appreciated as I'd like to be able to do nice photos of finished works

Thanks.

Almost looks like one of the lights is facing back towards the camera (the right hand side)
What has worked for me is having two light foreward facing and two top down but far enough apart.

If the right stays bright attach some baking paper over the front and try again?

Hmmm, maybe I bumped the light and made it point back towards the camera a bit.

I'll set it back up in the next day or two and give it another crack. If I'm still getting the "glare" then I'll put some more baking paper on it to get more diffusion.

Or maybe my bulbs are just too bright.

Hi everyone.

Trust everyone is having a nice holiday season... unfortunately I drew the short straw and am working through... ah well.

Hive Fleet Santa dropped this in my lap on Christmas day, very much looking forward to getting it built and painted up! (be a while though)



Genestealers are nearing completion, I have finished their bases, popped them off their old boring black bases and super glued them all to the new ones. Just need their varnish work done and I'll get them into the lightbox!



Here is a close up of one of the bases, basic, but effective



What's next on the Hive Fleet Ngaro list? Well, I sat down and had a look at what I have painted up and something is missing.... an HQ. So if I want to get some small games in soon I'll need one of those. I have a metal hive tyrant who is magnetised. So I am going to paint it up, I have also grabbed the bone sabres out of the plastic Tyrant set I've got as I figure I'll make it so this beasty can be a Swarmlord or a tyrant seeing as though he is magnetised. Also gives me a chance to try out some "power weapon" lightning techniques on those bone sabres... I'll be using Knightleys guide but with different colour. So a bit of a shout out to Knightley



And lastly, I altered my lightbox set up every so slightly to try get rid of the glare problems I was having as mentioned above... I am happy to say the new photos looks a lot better. So I will sit down and edit the set and then upload it to dakka and add it to first page showcases. Here is an unedited one... you can see the difference from above.



Take care, have an awesome New Years Eve and I'll see you next year

Aaaaw yeah, getting some swarmy up in here, Those bases look pretty amazing man, well done on them!

Have a great new years and I look forward to seeing a productive year from you

Thanks Knightley. I'm pretty pleased with how those bases turned out and they make the whole brood look very cool.

Heh, I'm looking forward to 2015 hobby wise, I've gotten back into the hobby mid this year and have learned a lot about the painting side of things, so I'm going to be interested to see what sort of progress I make. I'm aiming to have the whole army completed by this time 2015, I'd say that is definitely achievable and takes into account going to Europe for 5-6weeks, daddy duties, sport commitments etc.

Happy New Year to everyone out there, hope 2015 is a good one.

So have got a bit of work done on the Swarmlord/Hive Tyrant here is how it looks currently:




And here are the images for the Leman Russ I painted up for my brother for Christmas, he was pretty stoked when he got it, so I guess it was a success!

I enjoyed painting it up, learned a lot doing it (like how NOT to wash a vehicle) and am looking forward to doing another one some day.







Now that I have got my lightbox and photos working better I'll start putting through the Hive Fleet Ngaro stuff I have completed through it, starting with the Genestealers I recently completed

Thanks all.

Happy New Year Mate!

Looking pretty awesome on the Swarmy, can't wait to see how you go with his bone swords!

Yeah I'm looking at using your Purple power weapon lightning technique on his bone sabres, I'm going to do a bit of practice on some sprue or cardboard first to try get my eye in, and then I'll give it a crack on the sabres.


Being a New Year I have been having a think, and I came to this conclusion:

2014 was me getting back into things after a long hiatus and starting to finally paint up my army. Was slow but steady progress and got a lot done, main achievement was gaining some skills and confidence in actually painting, and photography

2015, my goals are:

- Get all currently owned tyranids modelled and painted.
- Paint up the terrain pieces I have to match Hive Fleet.
- Actually play some games... haven't had a rumble on the table since fourth edition
- Keep learning and getting better... I'm still pretty new, so easy goal this one

These may seem pretty simple but I have a big year coming up including trip to Europe with family etc, so we will see how I go. I'm confident I'll get the army painted up and some games played.

I got the Genestealer squad into the lightbox last night, so I just need to edit and upload the pictures... watch this space

Nice going on your Swarmy Mad. Is it the same model as Hissys one?
Are you going to kitbash it at all?

I believe it is the same model as Hissys one. It's the metal hive tyrant model from around fourth edition. It's a heavy model for sure.

I have it magnetised so am hoping to put that to good use, at this stage I am working on the bone sabres from the plastic hive tyrant/swarmlord kit to get them magnetised and painted up for this model., from there, I'll probably magnetise a bunch of other weapon options so I can use it as a standard tyrant if needed.

Hi readers,

Weekly update! I have made good progress on the Swarmlord/Hive Tyrant. All the washes are done, just need to pick out some details in the carapce, highlight the blue claws and give the whole thing its varnish work.




Here is some photos of the genestealer brood I completed recently.

Group shot, then a pair front and rear and then lastly is close up of one of the bases.






I'm still learning with the photography and editing the images afterwards... I'm finding it more frustrating than the painting learning curve if I'm honest.

Very nice Mad! i really dig em. they are utterly disgusting in the best kinda of way. how did you get that mottled effect thats really neat and i think i might try to recreate that on a few of my bugs. Oh Grendel has spawned...and as rousing from its mellinia long slumber ready to consume biomass...

Thanks Alabamaheretic, I like how they are turning out.

My mottled effect on the chitin plates is pretty simple.

Base coat the chitin with black, then using golden yellow straight from the bottle I dabble/stipple it on using a brush in a random pattern until all the chitin is covered, then I use a blue wash in the chitin joins, and finish it off with some black in the little cuts and grooves details the chitin has and it is varnished with a matt varnish.

The application of the golden yellow did take me a bit of practice, if you look at some of my earlier work, the chitin isn't as good as it is coming out now, I was experimenting with thickness and amount of paint and those other little things that you don't click to until you are actually doing it

So I went to a gaming store yesterday to pick up a black wash... made the mistake of checking the specials section. They had two fine cast hive guard at 50% off. After checking the casts were ok I ended up buying them both.

So I now have 91 models to get painted up during 2015

Ooooh which gaming store having a bargain bin?

Vagabonds in Auckland CBD have a spot on a shelf where they have 50% off some things. Most of the time it is older models in blister packs, codexes and stuff like that, but sometimes something pops up that are something I need

Like two finecast hive guard... goes well with my metal one to at least get a three strong brood.

Hi all,

Update time! Have finished painting up the swarmlords body this week, just needs the arms and basing done now... no photo though, came out really blurry for some reason.

I have however got a photo of where I am up to with the arms (little bit washed out due to sunny day, but you get the idea)



The four bone sabres are obviously for the Swarmlord, and I just need to do the power weapon lightning effect on the blades from here and attach them to the rest of the model. Also in that photo is a Tau fire warrior arm and a ripper which will be going onto the base of swarmy. The crushing claws are for a yet to be painted Tervigon, but I figured while I had paints out for the other arms I might as well not waste any paint, so did them up as well.

So I am loving how the swarmlord and sabres have come out thus far, next up is getting that lightning into the blades, which I'm a little nervous about as it may make or break the model... hence why I thought I'd do it on a fresh session

I also learned something very very useful this week. Paint dry times. All tutorials and advice say make sure one layer is dry before starting on next layer, but never really mention how long this should be. As it turns out, I was being waaaaay to cautious with my dry times. I was basically doing a layer and then leaving it overnight before doing anymore on that layer... as you can imagine that made things very slow, so I asked Knightley for a bit of advice and came up with rule of thumb that if the paint is still shiny, its still wet, if its matt, its dry. Well... I managed to get everything on the photo above done in one session, instead of what would have taken me several days. So I am veeeery happy to have learned this! Thanks Knightley.

Cheers for checking in. Should see a completed Swarmlord next week and a good start made on a bunch of gribblies, 15 gaunts is next on list.