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@ Arakasi: Ah - I see. Well, it ended up working out well anyway - I much prefer the carapace now with the darker shade in the recesses. I'll have to try washing the sinew next... I wonder if painting GS over the magnet would work similar to using plasticard? Probably not as smooth though so would probably lead to more chipping... Have to remember the varnish!

Ok - more group stealer pics, they now all have black washed carapace giving more definition between the plates.

I have also washed the blue sinew on the middle/front stealer to darken it - what do you think?









All comments, criticisms welcome and appreciated


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And some close-ups of the stealer with the blue sinew so you can actually see it:

Well, *I* think it looks a lot better

@ Arakasi: Thanks!

I think I'll have to finish off the sinew on the other four and see how they all look together...

Mean time - I've started on the next five stealers, I have some modelling work to do on the Tyrant, but most importantly, I need to finalise my army for a tourney late April so I can focus my painting and modelling towards this cause...

(Now - how long until my T-Fex arrives...)

After getting away from my painting for a bit and thinking about different Nid builds I could field in an upcoming 1,500pnt tourney, my eyes quickly settled on my inspiration for fielding Nids in the first place, my partially painted Trygon. I couldn't believe that the unit that inspired me to start Nids in the first place was sitting on my shelf, so I decided it was time to finish him off.

I've now applied more coats to the carapce, and have only the following steps to go in finishing his carapace:
1) apply a yellow/white highlight to the edges;
2) wash with devlen mud to smooth out the colours
3) re-highlight edges as necessary
4) clean up splatter in black recesses

You can see the current stage pics below:







After re-starting the painting on this Trygon, I couldn't help myself but put together a second. After all, why have one Trygon when you can have two at twice the price!

My main aim for the second Trygon was to make it different enough from the first without getting into conversions (Tervies have currently sapped my conversion juices)... and so I present my second Trygon (next to the first for comparison):





You'll notice the arms and head are angled quite differently (and used slightly different bits in places) so as to have them relatively similar, but still unique in their own way...

Anways - I now have lots of painting to do.

Let me know what you think of my beasties - all comments/suggestions/criticisms etc welcome as always!

Your work on the Trygon scales is looking really good - you have come a long way with your highlights/blending - well done!

@ Arakasi: Thanks - it's certainly coming along... only problem is it's now making me want to field it on the table

Subscribes... I really like the colour scheme of your nids, its just reall warm and well well pulled off. very nice

@ bigfish: Thanks! I tried for something a little more unique, which will hopefully look great en masse

More work, this time on modelling my new Flyrant. My main concern with my Flyrant was how to model the tl devourers on it whilst it has wings... After unsuccessfully trying to find ways of mounting the devourers on the wings themselves, I have settled for a simpler and I feel far more elegant solution to the problem. I've drilled two holes in the top carapace of the flyrant, and mounted two devourers on pins. This way, I can choose to mount devourers on my Tyrant, or not

Here's what I have - first without devourers:





And now with devourers:





Let me know what you think. Of course, the bone sword and lashwhip are magnetized for option goodness

Love it!

This is a cool blog. I like how you are doing your Tyranids. The work on the Prime and how did the boneswords for him is very cool.

Your Hive Tyrant looks good. Placing the devourers as you have on the carapace like that looks good and works well.

@ Norn King & Leech: Thanks guys, it really helps with the inspiration to hear people like my work

Unfortunately, my luck has taken a turn for the worse recently with me breaking my left hand It's my non-preferred hand however, so when I find an easier way to stabilise mini's, I should be back into it. It will however make painting towards the next tourney more difficult, not to mention slowing me down in playing the tourney (thank goodness I was going for a big bug strategy and not a swarm! )

Anyways, I'll have further updates once I've worked out how to paint well with a broken hand - any suggestions would be welcome

until then...

I love the cockroach color scheme on these. It suits them very well and makes them seem more gribbly.

@ killykavekommando: Thanks I had never though of the resemblence to cockroaches but now that you say it I can't believe I didn't see it before.

Ok guys, been away for a bit but have managed to get some games in with my new Nids.

2 battles vs Tau with a reserve based Nid list - who do you think will win: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/446025.page

Also, more progress on painting to come, despite being somewhat hampered by a broken hand

Hi All,

Back from a long absence from Dakka, so I thought I would start of with something new and small to get me back into things...

... and so, I have started making more hormagaunts, but am trying to make them a bit more characterful (cinematic?) then the previous ones I have done.

Here is the four I've started on so far...







Please tell me what you think, and any suggestions you have either for these hormagaunts, or ones I do in the future (I'm hoping to do a brood of around 20, so the more suggestions the merrier

Hey dude, I really enjoyed reading through your blog. You've chosen a cool colour scheme and I see you improving all the time.

The new gaunts look great, really interested to see where you take them.

@ Casey's Law: Thanks - my painting is definitely evolving, need to work more on my converting though (only one way to learn )

Ok, So I've got another couple of gaunts that I've started working on. I'll probably aim for about 16 before I undercoat/paint them though - but until then...

This hormagaunt is leaping into the air, ready to land on his prey:


I've slightly re-positioned the rear leg to be up closer to the tail, and used a jetbike stand to give him a bit of height (currently bluetacked onto the base until I find out how the base will look...)


Next I have a hormagaunt leaping over an old tank trap:


There has been a bit more reposition work on the legs here, converting the traditional 'rear leg' to become the 'forward leg' that the gaunt is using to spring forwards off the tank trap:


Let me know what you think, and again - any ideas for future gaunts are welcome as I still have 10 to go

I recently played a game against the new Tau, and have started writing the battrep for it which can be found here - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/521904.page

Ok - full battle is now up - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/521904.page#5531459