Hive Fleet Kukulan is the name given to a danger that has reemerged from a lone Behemoth bio-ship that was displaced by the battle with Tempestus Fleet in the Tyrannic War. Expelled from the Warp near the forgotten Exodite World of Kukulan, the ship immediately went about satisfying its driving urge - to feed and reproduce. The giant reptilian fauna of the planet gave the Tyranids plenty of bioforms with which to experiment and develop deadlier war beasts, wave after wave of increasingly deadly monsters crashing against the defences of the Eldar. Eventually, the planet was lost when a lone larval Tyranid burrowed past the World Spirit's defences and absorbed its great power. The ferocity of the planet's fauna continues to keep the swarm from completely devouring the world, and instead it has reached a kind of equilibrium whereby it continues to evolve deadlier predators, which in turn leave the planet as new ships calve and leave orbit for new feeding grounds. However, they do not leave in a random direction; seemingly purposefully, they all leave in the direction of Macragge; perhaps seeking revenge, or else maybe a form of homing instinct draws these creatures to the system they regard as their territory.
As I start this blog, I'm presently working on a crocodilian Trygon. It's been built in several parts and undercoated, with pics below:
When finished, it's going to be crawling out of a pipe, which I've made from plumbing supplies. A tunnel marker uses a similar pipe, with a Trygon tail poking out. A tide of Rippers spews from the tunnel and also underneath the Trygon itself.
I've deliberately used parts from the Trygon, T. Prime, and Mawloc variants; I'm not decided what I'll use it as and I like the composition. (Also I needed some of the other parts for the Swarmlord above.)
I've replaced the long talons with three-digited feet. This makes it look a lot more crocodilian, and ties it in with a Ravener unit I'm planning (that will use Genestealer arms for legs on plastic Warriors; again, a crocodilian look).
Two legs lack claws; reason being, they're attached to the pipe itself, to be painted separately before the pieces are put together. I won't be putting the pieces together until they're painted and varnished, reason being it'll scratch in many places. You can see where they'll glue together, as I used masking fluid to keep the spray paint from touching the contact points.
Also, special guest appearance by a bunch of tunneling spinerippers :3
Wow. as a tyranid player and a lover of conversions i have to say that you rip. Love the work that you have been doing. I like the semi dinosaur take that you have and the painting is first rate. AWSOME
Update: I've currently got several hobby projects on the go. The Trygon project remains unfinished, having been leapfrogged by my Hoplite idea:
Plan is to make a spear and shield (and shield variant) that can be cast so that I can both build nine or so Tyranids Prime. Nine! Hell, Marines can have a unit of Captains in Apocalype - why shouldn't I throw a couple of Fexstars and Tyrantstars at them with cheesy wound allocation shenanigans?
When I get my own models built, I'll use the moulds to produce castings for anybody else who wants a non-copyright-violating variant biomorphological weapon that woulds make a great stand-in for a bonesword you can pay GW for when they produce one.
edit: better quality photo of painting :3
Automatically Appended Next Post: DON'T SUE ME!!!!!111one
Update: I just found an OOP component on eBay that I've been trying to get for the best part of a year. Brace for epic Parasite of Mortrex conversion over the coming weeks!
Update: my Parasite conversion is nearing painted completion, hopefully ready for show by next week. Meantime, I've got three of the Hoplite conversions finished and undercoated:
These bad boys will be Tyrant Guard with Boneswords, accompanying Swarmlord and to have a Lashprime added before long.
Great progress on the hoplite guards. They definitely followed your initial design to perfection.
My only complaint is that you didn't post any WIP pics on them but being pretty big on conversions myself, I can understand that you wouldn't want to break your workflow by stopping to take pictures.
Yeah, blogging my projects is something I'm new to and I'm yet to get into the habit of stage-by-stage photography. Especially as pull-back-and-reveal is more my personal style, though I can see the value in stage-by-stage feedback.
Just threw the first layer of varnish on Parasite. And picked up a load of new toys; next big project will be Tervigons with magnetised eggs to act as run-out-of-babbies counters.
Removing stingers from Arachnarok Spiders and re[placing with a socket containing a magnet. The screwdriver handle is perfectly sized for pushing the socket into shape in the soft Milliput™. Then a magnet (south pole facing down on the model's Y-axis) is pushed into the clay, and then when set covered with a bit of superglue then a blob of more putty.
Also, finished painting Parasite of Mortrex; waiting for varnish to dry, then need to glue some clear plastic onto it (like a blister pack) to represent broken glass; reckon this is a job for PVA. Then she'll get photo'd and uploaded.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
This is what's going to be dropping out of their cloacae (a bird or reptile's combined anus & vagina), after I sculpt an amniotic sac around it and fit a magnet:
Automatically Appended Next Post: It is done.
My conversion of the Parasite of Mortrex, with massive Metroid fanservice.
Body of a Space Hulk Broodlord, head of an OOP Lord of Change, wings of Morathi's Dark Pegasus, Ripper from the Forge World pack. Scratch-build canister made from a Defiler and the tubes in which Gale Force 9 green stuff is sold.
Finished with Humbrol enamel varnishes in gloss, satin and matt. Also, my first evar attempt at NMM on the base!
Hmm. I used PVA to glue bits of clear plastic as 'glass fragments' to the base, and the result's not satisfactory. The glue is very visible, and doesn't stick well. The broken glass in the canister halves is fine, but the shards on the floor look nasty and fall off. Can anyone recommend an alternative?
When my Tervigons run out of larvae to birth mid-game, I'll be replacing their ovipositors (egg layers) with stingers as a visual reminder that they're no longer laying.
With a magnetised socket ready made, I coated a ball of green stuff with vaseline and pushed it into the socket. When this dried, I cleaned the vaseline off and dropped a magnet in, jumping to where it aligned with the socket's magnet. A drop of superglue secured the magnet, a blob of milliput was pressed in, and a Genestealer talon pinned into the milliput. Job done, five stingers that can be grabbed and fitted to any of the five Tervigon abdomen.
As long as you make sure all of the first batch of magnets are correctly aligned, this technique can be rolled out to any sort of magnetised accessory.
Again, the resemblence to the video game boss is astounding, especially the old fateweaver head and wings.
Two questions:
How did you make the metroid jar? The tops look like miliput sculpts, but the glass. are those two mini supermarket gachapon plastic containers?
Also, is the model completed? Some kind of dynamic lashing tail would really add something to an already incredible model.
I am deeply envious of your painting skills as well.
Wow, awesome Ridley! Will there be a Kraid in the army too, or is that too over-the-top? It's kind of tempting me to make a Samus marine (they've already got the shoulders!).
Joshh wrote:Will there be a Kraid in the army too, or is that too over-the-top?
I'd really, really like to find a way to shoehorn him into the army. I struggle to think of an appropriate unit to use for him, though. It'd have to be a walking mass of Wounds, with a moderately powerful short ranged attack. Old One Eye was a thought, but he's got no guns and I wanted to make a Triceratops for him. Maybe a Hive Tyrant, if I can find a workable build...
Joshh wrote:Will there be a Kraid in the army too, or is that too over-the-top?
I'd really, really like to find a way to shoehorn him into the army. I struggle to think of an appropriate unit to use for him, though. It'd have to be a walking mass of Wounds, with a moderately powerful short ranged attack. Old One Eye was a thought, but he's got no guns and I wanted to make a Triceratops for him. Maybe a Hive Tyrant, if I can find a workable build...
I'm not at all familiar with the Nid codex but a Venomfex might do the trick. Using his belly spikes for the venom cannon ofc. If you want to go the Forgeworld route though the Hierophant rules might be a good fit...
I'm agreeing with Doomykins and saying Trygon. It's not to scale, but you won't blow a few hundred bucks on something that you're going to hack up into tiny pieces.
Chowderhead wrote:I'm agreeing with Doomykins and saying Trygon. It's not to scale, but you won't blow a few hundred bucks on something that you're going to hack up into tiny pieces.
I was thinking use it as a counts-as Hierophant, not buy the kit and hack it up! D:
Hmm, I already have Heirodules in an Anylosaur and Brachiosaur vein, and planning a Diplodocus Dominatrix with a massive pregnant belly (that'll fit right in Doom's NSFW thread), it'll be tricky making Kraid fit in the aesthetic. Especially since his anatomy is basically the old-fashioned inaccurate T-rex reconstruction, gone massively obese; plan was to make the really big stuff into large herbivore body types. Maybe -
- yes, I can see a place for him! The Imperial Armour Apocalypse Trygon rules are a pretty good fit; he can 'trample' as a Gargantuan, he has a short-ranged attack that feels pretty spiky, he emerges from the ground (which is how he generally makes an entrance), and he's near-immune to small arms fire.
Considering how long bulding from scratch can take at times, I'd say buying a Trigon kit just to have something to chop up into many tiny pieces is actually worth the money. The math is simple, If It takes you longer to build it from scratch than it would take to work and buy (at your hourly wage) then buying the kit actually buys you extra conversion time. I just look at how much time it saved me to buy a Trigon along with a set of balrog wings for a Harpy conversion and I'm not unhappy about the expense one bit at all. Then again, maybe that's just me.
Considering the quality of your conversions so far I'm pretty sure you'll be fine either way. Keep up the great work. Can't wait to see how you'll finish off those 5 Tervigons.
Yeah, I used to work for GW and filled a crate of nid bitz on my staff discount before I left the company so I can definitely appreciate the utility of pre-made bits. These days I'm signed off work with health problems; hobbycraft fills the days, and scratchbuilding gets around the problem of matching welfare to inflation :/
Who knows, maybe one day I'll catch someone's eye and find creative work again
lindsay40k wrote: hobbycraft fills the days, and scratchbuilding gets around the problem of matching welfare to inflation :/
That right there is very much what got me into heavily converting my Monstrous Creatures. Considering the costs of the kit, why build like everyone else, right out of the box and be done with it 2-3 hours when I can keep myself busy with for 20-50 hours instead? Definitely getting much more enjoyment out of it. It's also so much more rewarding to have a unique model at the end of it all as well.
If you don't mind my asking, what did you do for GW back in the day?
Hey lindsay , impressive dino nids, i do like dinosaurs and i do like nids, so it follows i would like dinids. i commented on your wonderful ig nid diorama when i 1st joined dakka, very clever and funny. the hoplites are rather great also, are you gonna paint em up soon? btw the fluff was interesting and different. and nice art too, infact lets just say great blog allround and leave it at that.:-)
With the quality of the work you've been posting I figured you would have been working in the GW art department, not behind the phones. Does the company actually encourage people outside of the design team to do some creative work or is the staff discount just a "perk of the job?
Why thanks, though this job was eight years ago and I left because there was no full-time positions on the horizon. Hobbycraft and creativity was generally encouraged, yes, though if there were active drives to internally recruit for the studio I missed 'em :(
Actually about a month back GW had postings for a couple of openings. The first for a modeling apprenticeship, where the applicant would be taught the GW sculpting style while working on projects, and the second for Main Modeler. It was based out of the UK offices and seemed to have a fairly decent starting wage for an apprenticeship program. It was damn tempting to apply...
Yeah, when my health's back to form I'll be trying for some of those positions as and when they appear. Meantime, I try to gear my hobbycraft towards that goal.
Dino-looking interpretation of the worst special character ever.
Yeah, I'll add 100pts to the already overpriced Carnifex to add an occasional extra attack or two, redundant +1str on a S9 MC, and losing the only three options that make Carnifexes usable (Mycetic Spore drop, attached Prime cover saves & wound allocation, and AG/Frag spines giving I4 when charging into cover).
Oh, and a 5+ Regeneration that'll mean nothing after he gets dropped in one turn by a metagame full of S8+ AP3+ shooting.
Converted for completion and as a fun hobbycraft project.
Gimme back postmortem regeneration and EW, and you might be viable. YOU DIE FASTER THAN YARRICK FES.
lindsay40k wrote:Dino-looking interpretation of the worst special character ever.
Yeah, I'll add 100pts to the already overpriced Carnifex to add an occasional extra attack or two, redundant +1str on a S9 MC, and losing the only three options that make Carnifexes usable (Mycetic Spore drop, attached Prime cover saves & wound allocation, and AG/Frag spines giving I4 when charging into cover).
Oh, and a 5+ Regeneration that'll mean nothing after he gets dropped in one turn by a metagame full of S8+ AP3+ shooting.
This conversion is looking great. Loving how you used the spider legs to keep the back end away from the ground to give room for the spawning gaunts. Magnetising the stinger is also a brilliant marker .
Forgot to mention: the gribbly crawling onto the Gaunt conceals how I've pinned it's head to the momma bug's thorax, to better support the weight being borne by three legs.
Not sure how I'm going to paint her carapace, given that its anatomy doesn't fit my army patterns perfectly, but it'll be an interesting model to paint nonetheless.
I like what you've done with your tervigons, especially how you've done the gaunts being popped out. I might have to do something similar with my own tervigon, which is also using the arachnarok as the base. That is, if you don't mind me stealing the idea...
...but I am curious how you attached the carnifex head to the body of the arachnarok. That's one point of my own conversion I'm not quite content with.
CiaranAnnrach wrote:I like what you've done with your tervigons, especially how you've done the gaunts being popped out. I might have to do something similar with my own tervigon, which is also using the arachnarok as the base. That is, if you don't mind me stealing the idea...
...but I am curious how you attached the carnifex head to the body of the arachnarok. That's one point of my own conversion I'm not quite content with.
Help yourself! I blogged the creation of the magnet fitting for the gaunt pupa and stinger, feel free to work from that.
As for the head: I sawed off the Arachnarok fangs, and then it was pretty simply to glue a Carnifex head on, cut a Carnifex spine bank to fit, and then use Green Stuff to build a load of connective tissue hiding the join and extend the spine bank to fit nicely.
As for the head: I sawed off the Arachnarok fangs, and then it was pretty simply to glue a Carnifex head on, cut a Carnifex spine bank to fit, and then use Green Stuff to build a load of connective tissue hiding the join and extend the spine bank to fit nicely.
That's a really cool way to add the head to the model. While I prefer the conversions where a carnifex torso is added to the body, thus making for a taller beast, your conversion's shapes definitely flows really well together. Hiding a support pin with a gaunt, pure genius.
Maybe I'm hanging out with too many kit-bashers but looking at all the great spider body conversions popping up all over the place, I'm starting to think that when, or if ever, GW releases an "official" tervigon kit it's probably going to be ignored. Are there really any Tyranid players that aren't into making conversions out there?
Yeah, I kind of like how not using a Carnifex body gives it the appearance of a turtle-like retractable head (especially on the six-eyed heads I used for the upgraded ones, to be revealed later). And saves about £150 for the whole project
Now that I think about it, widening the hole left by the Arachnarok fangs with a 2mm drillbit made it possible to make a socket for the pin on a Carnifex's neck (that plugs into the torso). There's your frame of reference for where it all fits together
5?! Nice! That'll be a scary sit on the table. For your sake, I really hope you like assembling gaunts because even with average rolls, such a list could spawn about 50 per turn... Scary!
I'm only running one in my more common list and I've actually run out of gaunts even though I've already built about 44 with fleshborers.
All five will likely only appear in Apocalypse games in a formation I devised that lets Tervigons pool dice and trade them before rolling for unit upgrades on the Gaunts they spawn...
A devilish formation you've thought up there, one that sounds like a good modernisation to the old "endless swarm" rules. I'm still seeing you needing a ton of gaunts per turn though.
I have yet to play an Apoc game even though back in the days of Rogue Trader (yes, a long time ago) it was fairly common to play games that were 4k per side. Kinda miss those days when Eldar really were the top of the pyramid but then again, Nids really weren't fleshed out at all back then.
As for spores, I'm still not quite sure I want to run a list with them but I'll be testing that tomorrow by running 2 spores (proxied) with 20 devilgaunts each in 2.5k game tommorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Spoiler: it turns out awesome. An all reserve planetfall nid list is pure win, a large part of which is spores and devgants.
20 gants, 60 shots. Hit on a 4, wound MEQ on a 4. So 30 hits and then 15 wounds, average.
That's 5 dead marines, just on averages. 2.5 terminators. Against guardsmen, you deny armor.
Spores can rip up rear armor, and if a landraider tank shocks your spore, you can pen with a roll of 9 on 2d6. Spores make marines cry.
I'm looking at doing a Deathleaper that really illustrates the creature's epic trollery of senior prey. I really like the Strom Trooper Chimera Commander, but I've used him on my Pipe Lictor conversion already. Considering this pair:
But the twenty-five quid pricetag on the set is a major investment to add on top of the DL figure. I might go for it, though, for an awesome display piece...
@ Doomthumbs: Turns out you partially right. For this particular game, facing eldar, the first pod merely served as a paltry diversion because the 3 falcons that offered a rear facing to the 20 devilgaunts decided to just star engine far away. Also, because of them had spirit stones and holofields, my glancing were pretty much ignored. The second pod on the other hand not only captured an objective but also turned a squad of Pathfinders into red mist the turn it popped on.
Conclusion: maxed out DevilPod squads excel at contesting objectives in the late game if you're certain you'll only be facing foot infantry. If you have to dislodge fully upgraded troop transport vehicles (Such as Tau, Eldar or Grey Knights), save yourself some points and go for better vehicle poppers in order to really put pressure on the enemy. Pods are great for adding an element of surprise only if you're certain that the pod's contents will actually succeed at diverting the enemy's attention. In my case, my opponent had enough mobility that he was able to effortlessly evade everything and redirect all his army's attention to the point that actually mattered.
Now back to the OP. The Deathleaper conversion sounds pretty cool considering you're actually trying to model the fluff of the model. Correction: sounds more like epic, actually. As for the cost of the conversion, just bite the bullet. This is why our hobby is considered a luxury. The truth of the matter is that GW is a model making that tacks on rules to its models in order to sell more plastic injection goodness. Considering that if you want to get a kick ass Tervigon conversion you practically have to spend the big coin on a Carnifex kit and then follow that up with either a bunch of hours of GS work or 14$ on an arachnorok torso via ebay, good conversions are not cheap. Deathleaper is a great model, both fluff and capabilities wise, so what's an extra 30-40 bucks if you're buying a means to shorten your modeling time while increasing your "idea expression" time.
The way I look at it, assume that you are paid your hourly wage for any hobby task. If you scratch-build whatever you need for a conversion in less time than it would take you to work for it and buy the premade bitz, then just build it from scratch. Otherwise, just bite the bullet and buy the bitz in order to maximise your modeling time. For example, while I could easily sculpt my own Tervigon from scratch, there is no way in hell I could sculpt one in less than 4 hours, or roughly what it takes for me to afford to buy that model kit
It all comes down to time. Is modeling time more important to me than actual output? If I choose to value models produced per hour more than time spent converting for fun per hour then it's clear that spending money on building models from scratch is not something I care about. In your case, I'd venture you're a conversion artist who would prefer spending some money on getting the models you need to express the jist of your work rather than build the whole dio from scratch. Whatever method you end up choosing, I'm sure it'll look great regardless
So, I got Old One Eye finished up. As promised, here's my stage-by-stage painting blog:
First of all, it needs to be said that I rely on overcast daylight for my photography. I photographed each stage in the best light to hand before moving onto the next; there's some yellow shift from artificial light, and blue shift from clear skies daylight.
The unpainted Old One Eye can be found on page 2. The legs, base and head armour were all sculpted by me and can be repeated if anyone wants to give me money or minis, PM me if you're interested.
Chaos Black undercoat, Mechrite Red basecoat on chitinous areas.
Blood Red drybrush.
Undilute Leviathan Purple wash.
Blood Red drybrush.
1:1 Hormagaunt Purple/Skull White basecoat on skin areas.
Undilute Leviathan Purple wash.
Reapply 1:1 Purple/White mix to raised areas; highlight up by increasing the amount of white in the mix for each coat.
Bestial Brown basecoat on bone areas, followed by a 1:1 Bestial Brown/Bleached Bone mix the covers everything except for the recesses between individual plates and any 'cracks' at the end of plates.
1:3 Bestial Brown/Bleached Bone mix painted on top. The edges of armour and hooves and the points of claws, horns and barnacles will be pure Bleached Bone; tapering lines of the previous coat are left protruding from the recesses between plates, cracks at the ends of plates, the bases of hooves, the edges of barnacles and the bases of the claws.
1: 6 Bestial Brown/Bleached Bone mix painted on top. Whereas the previous coat defined the long 'triangles' of the preceding coat emerging from the bone's growth line, this coat consists of long triangles that start after the growth line and widen (but don't generally meet) at the edge. In the case of the claws and horn, the triangles merge at the points; this would apply to long talons, too.
Thin lines of pure Bleached Bone are applied within the previous coat's areas, using several coats of thin paint. The final effect creates the impression of living bone or keratin, where fresh growth has a darker tone than older layers.
A mix of Mechrite Red, Hormagaunt Purple and Skull White was painted very thinly on any areas where skin and carapace smoothly meet.
Dirt: Graveyard Earth basecoat, drybrushed with Bleached Bone mixes. Rocks: Adeptus Battlegrey basecoat, drybrushed with Bleached Bone mixes. A little dilute Badab Black applied around rocks here and there to give better definition.
Humbrol gloss varnish applied over the entire model. I don't have much truck with acrylic-based varnishes - if you can't clean your brush without white spirit, it's probably not good stuff.
Humbrol stain varnish applied over skin areas. Humbrol matt varnish applied over bone areas and ground. Static grass and PVA to decorate base.
Alt view.
I don't usually keep sunlit photos as I'm not keen on the yellow tint they usually acquire, but I like how the shadows accompany the 'jungle'.
Currently painting up them Hoplite-looking Tyrant Guard for the Swarmlord. I decided that the Prime accompanying my Swarmlord should have a design that suggests a herald carrying a war banner. I didn't want it to actually have such an unfunctional symbiote, so I decided that one of my bonepikes with a Gargoyle variant perched on top with Lashwhip arms would fit the aesthetic I want plus be reasonably WYSIWYG.
But it's not in my nature to stop there. A few more scribbles later - including a Skyslasher Falconer I'll return to - and I find myself exploring Cataphract designs for 'free radical' Primes that skip from unit to unit and have some sort of 'Caesar in his red cape' aesthetic; a quadrupedal Warrior with Lashwhips, with a symbiotic rider carrying a pike and shield, and some rank and file equivalents with a one-armed Devourer replacing the shield. (Let's face it, with an Exodite World fluff, I needed some 'raptor rider' equivalents.)
Moltar wrote:I'm pretty sure that top right sketch is one tyranid wheel-barrowing another. Have you been hanging out with Doomthumbs?
Cannot be unseen
Automatically Appended Next Post: Great, now I'm having to consider if I should go with the centaur or beast/rider symbiotic design... the former would be easier to make non-rude lookin', plus will recall Zoats - which for a Behemoth collection is a plus.
Really love your Nids lindsay, my favourite are the Pipe Lictor and the Parasite of SR388. Some really clever conversions and amazing paint jobs to go with them.
Great work on the painting demo Lindsay. Really pleased to finally learn that you, in fact, did not model all the extra detail that seems to be there due to your painting style. It's not the first time I see someone painting ridges and valleys onto carapace but your technique definitely is the best out there. For a non-painter like me, this was gold.
Remember my Hoplite-looking Tyrant Guard design? Built, painted and photographed:
The TG figures are discontinued 3Ed Tyrant Guard with GS cheek guards, plasticard crests, and scratch-built bonepikes and shields.
I made moulds of the weapons and can cast duplicates any time, if you're interested drop me a PM. No requests to duplicate models I do not own copyright for please.
Looking great. The spears are definitely a great idea. Any way we could see a close-up shot of the models. It's hard to make out all the detail, which is a shame.
I've got a load of 2ed metal Warrior bits that I'm going to build up like this. I'm going to cut the front hooves off and reattach them backwards, to make them work as forelimbs. There'll be a Gargoyle perched on the pike, to suggest a banner. Not sure how to represent Rending Claws, though... maybe put a set on the Gargoyle.
WIP shot of Cataphract/Centaur/Zoat - looking Tyranid Prime.
This one is going to be the Swarmlord's Herald; joining the Swordguard deathstar to catch Krak missiles and nerf IC's with Lash Whips. I plan to add a Gargoyle perched atop his bonepike to give the appearance of an army banner, and slightly reposition the right forelimb as it appears a bit wonky. Also going to raise the elevation of the left hindlimb to make it rear up straight.
Tyranids Prime will have the old school Warrior head and carry a shield; regular Warriors will have the current plastic Warrior head and a wrist-mounted Devourer.
Nice looking prime! Looking at your latest pic, I noticed the bottom of the pike almost looks like claws on the front hoof. Maybe you could try modelling large toenail like claws on your front hoofs to make the rending claws? I'm not sure how well it would work, but at the moment I can picture it better then on the gargoyle...
Love the previous work to - just gotten through it
Your painting technique on the carapace is great. I'm currently in the process of trying to master smooth transitions of colour on my carapace, but I keep on finding that I run out of room very quickly for the final colours... will have to keep working on it.
slice'n'dice wrote:I'm currently in the process of trying to master smooth transitions of colour on my carapace, but I keep on finding that I run out of room very quickly for the final colours... will have to keep working on it.
Try this:
- paint on base colour
- paint on final colours in the place where you'll want them to be
- use that as a guide for where the other gradient steps should be and what colour they should be
News for Nottinghamshire types: I'll be on the Mansfield Artists stall in Nottinghamshire Pride this Saturday, with Alien Hoplite weapons and Alien Monster guns (that are definitely NOT Boneswords or Rupture Cannon, GW legal bods) and castings of 20mm / 40mm / 60mm infested ground bases, and actual built T-fex conversions and alien (not Mycetic) spore conversions built, based and undercoated. Also loads of non-gaming related paintings and jewellery on sale!
('T-fex' is not copyright GW, so screw you legal bods.)
lindsay40k wrote:WIP shot of Cataphract/Centaur/Zoat - looking Tyranid Prime.
This one is going to be the Swarmlord's Herald; joining the Swordguard deathstar to catch Krak missiles and nerf IC's with Lash Whips. I plan to add a Gargoyle perched atop his bonepike to give the appearance of an army banner, and slightly reposition the right forelimb as it appears a bit wonky. Also going to raise the elevation of the left hindlimb to make it rear up straight.
Tyranids Prime will have the old school Warrior head and carry a shield; regular Warriors will have the current plastic Warrior head and a wrist-mounted Devourer.
Lindsay, your talent with painting and originality with your conversions never cease to amaze. The thread is quite fascinating, keep it up! I particularly look for to seeing the old school stuff with a lick of paint on it!
Well thanks for the influx of positive comments folks.
I'm halfway through painting my Prime (who's been tinkered with a bit since the undercoated shots) - and lookie here, Mini of the Month for August is for single HQ figures
Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:Are you a lawyer, or something? Because how on earth did you manage to get your hands on the funds for all those Archanoraks?!?
Anyways, LOVING the painting here, everything looks perfect!
DarkStarSabre wrote:Lindsay....For the Zoat-Prime...I might, might just forgive the butchery of that poor 3rd ed. Zoey.
I will remark that in UK copyright law it is permissible to clone intellectual property as much as you like for the purpose of non-profit personal private study - so long as none of the clones end up in the possession of others - and leave you to draw your own conclusions
I'm starting to succumb to hobby fatigue with my Tyranids, so to keep myself frosty I'm getting cracking on the Ork Genesteela Kult I've been promising myself for a decade. Click the teaser pic below to go to the P&M blog!
This thread's been hibernating a while, now. But I'll be returning to the project pretty soon, probably gonna get them Tervigons painted up. In the meantime, whilst Old One Eye is (1) rubbish, (2) already represented in my army, and (3) unique and thus cannot be taken twice even amongst an allied list in Apocalypse, I really wanna get a retrofex and give it big ol' claws and an appearance of a beard, to field the ZANGIEFEX:
- very nice work....
