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I've recently returned (at a most interesting time, it seems) to Warhammer 40,000... and I haven't painted in at least 4 years. I bought several different models from a variety of factions before settling on my old love, Tyranids. I don't care how bad and noncompetitive they are (I'll never play that scene, anyway) but I wanted to try a different color palette that was out of my comfort zone. Usually I cling to the cartoonish super-bold, vivid-contrast GW paint schemes but after decades, that stuff is kind of old. And boring.

So I stumbled upon ThirdEyeNuke and I'm unfamiliar with how they go about painting their own infamous "black and white" 'nids (no guide at all is super lame), so I just sort of tried it myself. It's not even close to the sort of work they produce, but it's a work in progress. Painting like this has been the most fun and interesting experience I've had in awhile. It was super gratifying. I've always felt so constrained when it came to painting so this made me feel particularly free. Since these are test models, they've seen better days... I've tried out so many different things on them that they've started to lose all sorts of detail but I've learned a whole lot about how to go about this next time.

Sub-assemblies are a must!

If you're curious:

1) I undercoated the model with Whatever GW Black Is Called This Generation spray. Chaos Black, still? Any black primer would do, though.

2) Used my airbrush to base the models with Russ Grey.

3) Used the airbrush to add shadows on like 2/3 of the bottom of the model (not that you can even see the bottoms, really) and the top of the model. I tried to spray at an angle so that it was more toward the rear of the model. I used Skavenblight Dinge.

4) Used the airbrush to add more shadows on like 1/3 of the bottom of the model and the top of the model. I used Abaddon Black. I tried to keep these shadows just at the edge of the wings for the most part. Please note: I am an airbrushing novice and what I want to do and what actually happens are usually two very different things. Hahah. Anyway, for some reason, at this point, I thought that it would be a good idea to airbrush the carapace, Fleshborer shell and crest. On a bigger model, this might be feasible. But on these tiny ass Gargoyles, it was not really a great idea. The model had so much black overspray on it. I wanted to cry a little bit.

5) Used the airbrush to add highlights. Just a hint of Fenrisian Blue.

6) Used the airbrush to add a little more highlights. Less than a smidge of Pallid Wychflesh and only on the tip of the little wing claw thingers and the back of the head.

7) Used a brush and painted the carapace, Fleshborer shell and crest black again. Lots of overspray everywhere. Really, I still have a lot to learn about airbrushing.

At that point, I hated everything I'd done up to that moment. They were so damn boring to look at. Nothing at all like ThirdEyeNuke's stuff. They had really nice color transition on the wings and stuff, but they were too clean and sort of pastel looking. Also, trying to airbrush all of these different parts really sucks when the model is already assembled. There's like zero ways of having no overspray... and I have a bad habit of constantly cleaning up and try to restore everything to look just so as soon as it gets a speck of anything on it.

8) So, I went on a wild ride. I loaded the airbrush back up with some Pallid Wychflesh and just blasted the head and then slathered the jaws/mouth/neck area with Reikland Fleshshade. Once it dried, I did it again.

Suddenly, I loved them. I'll work on them after work tomorrow and try to make some sort of progress/exploration.

Anyway, this is what I've gotten done so far. Thoughts? Opinions? I'd love to hear.

I love Nid schemes that give the impression of beasties flying through a hive city, wreaking havoc.
Superb stuff man!

Thanks! Much appreciated. The wings were looking SUPER boring, so I decided to try to add some sort of dirty/gritty effect to them. I sloppily traced around the "fingers" in the wings with a mixture of Agrax Earthshade and Reikland Fleshshade... definitely could've been neater about it, but I was sort of in a hurry for reasons I can't remember now. I'll be neater next time. Heheh. After that was done, I took a stiff brush that basically is good for nothing anymore and dipped it into Athonian Camoshade and Agrax Earthshade and flicked it onto the tops of the wings to create a natural spotty effect. I like it. I'd like it a lot more if I had been neater about it, though. Oh, well. Live and learn.

Any thoughts?

I'm a huge fan, those look great

Good Lord they look terrifying!

Perfect

If I was a Guardsman defending a hive against them, I'd probably shoot myself in the head with my Lasgun the moment I saw them...

Cool, the shading at the "fingers" is definately an improvement.

Thank you all for your feedback so far.

So today, I decided that the Fleshborers were looking a little bland. I liked the effect on the heads of the Gargoyles so much that I wanted to re-create it on the Fleshborers, as well. I loaded up the airbrush with Pallid Wychflesh and blasted the Fleshborers with it. The over-spray hit a lot of other areas, too, like the head, neck, bottom of the wings, arms, etc., so it really mottled the effects I had done thus far. This made me sad, but there wasn't really a lot I could do about it. Lesson for next time: Paint the models in sub-assemblies. Life would be so much easier. Anyway!

Here's how they look now:

Great "different" theme going. I really like it. Seems a more "Natural" color to me. Anyway, keep sharing man!

@ ynneadwraith: Don't forget that lasgun will need a 5+ to wound...you might want to go straight to the Krak grenade if you weren't to cheap to upgrade...you wouldn't want to linger...

While I'm waiting for some other stuff to arrive in the mail, I decided to take a shot at the bases. I only did this one so far to see if I'd like it or not. I think I'm mostly satisfied with it, however, I would like to add some grey weathering pigment to it, as well. So, until that arrives... this is what I've got so far.

Didn't get a whole lot done today; I'm so sore from work. ;_;

I sort of touched up the carapace, crest and Fleshborer shell.

I'm waiting to get some things to do some realistic gore effects. I'll update again once I've had a chance to work with those mediums.

Looking great I must say I can't see much of the overspray that you're talking about so it can't be that noticeable

edwardmyst wrote:
Great "different" theme going. I really like it. Seems a more "Natural" color to me. Anyway, keep sharing man!

@ ynneadwraith: Don't forget that lasgun will need a 5+ to wound...you might want to go straight to the Krak grenade if you weren't to cheap to upgrade...you wouldn't want to linger...

Yeah I think it's the naturalness of it that makes it creepy...

Perhaps I should go stand in front of that heavy weapons team's Lascannon, although they'd only have a 50% chance to hit me!

Not easy to take the easy way out in the 40k universe...

I think they look superb. Have a bit of the death's head moth thing going on (hello Clarisse...).



Note the back of your skulls on the gargoyles look like skulls...which is super duper awesome.

... and I think I'm going to call this a wrap. Going to take professional pictures of them tomorrow and re-post them in all of their glory.

Any feedback, opinions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated..! Don't be kind just to spare my feelings or anything.

A few people asked me if they're for sale or not. I don't have a price in mind, but since these are essentially test models for me, if someone was interested in taking them, I'd just like to get back the approximate MSRP for a squad of Tyranid Gargoyles ($29.00 USD) plus shipping, which would probably be ~$10.00 or so for a small box.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Thanks for your support, Dakka.

Pseudo-professional pictures!

Well done. Wonderful and unique.

PS: Test batch or no, please don't sell those off for MSRP. You deserve more than that.

 Elbows wrote:
Well done. Wonderful and unique.

PS: Test batch or no, please don't sell those off for MSRP. You deserve more than that.

Thanks, man!

I appreciate you thinking they're worth more than the MSRP. I did finally make an eBay listing for them for $39.99+S/H. I really dislike using eBay, though. I hate losing money to them and then losing more money to PayPal.

I did get a whole lot of really positive reception from Dakka, Imgur, TheTyranidHive and Facebook, which is really motivating and does wonders for self-esteem.

The next models I do should be 200% better.

Yep, while I use eBay a lot, it is painful to lose the 13-15% combined (PayPal/eBay - they're the same company essentially).

Finally had some time to work on this beauty. The holidays have really put the crunch on my time to paint.

I was working on some of the TL-Devourers from ForgeWorld, but I absolutely hate resin and they looked really terrible when I got done with them. I think I'll just try to find some Tyrannofex Fleshborer Hive bits on eBay or something and use those instead.

Anyway! Thoughts? Opinions?

Utterly terrifying again, especially that first pic

Do you have a name for your Hive Fleet? Might have to pick up an airbrush and have a go myself, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all