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Did a quick test of a Genestealer to see how it would look in the scheme. Please excuse the mold lines I missed; this was something of a rush job.

fits nicely imo.

 catbarf wrote:
The board is tentatively complete!

Stunner of an army and display This shot is particularly cool as it shows the built up water - the waves are still crazy good looking to me.

Genestealer looks solid! Dig that dark spine it shares with all its siblings.

I had a question for you re: using large amounts of AP wash. I heavily washed a pretty big model a week or so ago, using AP Strong to tint Contrast green on roots and tentacles and whatnot, and discovered last night that parts of the wash had dried white. Some research showed this is because during heavy washing the medium separates from the shade, and tries white. In retrospect I've had this happen before while heavily washing (with AP), but assumed that was the Reaper Bones I was painting's fault. Anyway, have you experienced this? Do you know how to fix it? Simply wash the white parts with Strong again?

 Boss Salvage wrote:
I had a question for you re: using large amounts of AP wash. I heavily washed a pretty big model a week or so ago, using AP Strong to tint Contrast green on roots and tentacles and whatnot, and discovered last night that parts of the wash had dried white. Some research showed this is because during heavy washing the medium separates from the shade, and tries white. In retrospect I've had this happen before while heavily washing (with AP), but assumed that was the Reaper Bones I was painting's fault. Anyway, have you experienced this? Do you know how to fix it? Simply wash the white parts with Strong again?

Hmm, I haven't had that issue at all, and I lay it on pretty heavily on the black/grey parts. I know that the wash is more likely to break if you mix it with just water, so if you're diluting it that could be the culprit. Other than that, how much are you shaking the bottles before use? I find they tend to separate over time and need some vigorous mixing to re-integrate.

When this same issue happens with varnish, a successive application of gloss varnish cleans it up, and then it can be re-matted. You could try doing the same- it'd have to be a lacquer or enamel, though, so that the carrier is 'hot' enough to reactivate the paint.

 catbarf wrote:
Hmm, I haven't had that issue at all, and I lay it on pretty heavily on the black/grey parts. I know that the wash is more likely to break if you mix it with just water, so if you're diluting it that could be the culprit. Other than that, how much are you shaking the bottles before use? I find they tend to separate over time and need some vigorous mixing to re-integrate.

Frankly it may be that I'm washing for such an extended time that the bottle settles between coats, so when I run out I'm droppering in badly mixed stuff as the process goes on. I recently washed a ton of bone colored crab dudes (purely a coincidence ) and didn't have an issue, but I also wasn't doing multiple coats like on my current green stuff.

I'll give rewashing a shot and hope that's enough. I'm worried the ink will just make the white pop or something

Still wonderful work, love the army shots.

I can’t help but think that the genestealer needs some color on his head though

I put together a quick video on how the coconut crab scheme is applied to Genestealers. Nothing earth-shattering here but it explains the logic and shows the process.





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'Hey. Did you hear something?'
'It's just your imagination.'

The final board looks amazing. Of course, your painting technique and the scheme look great. But I love the unique atmosphere of a postcard from paradise. A great idea and so well executed. Bravo.

Thank you! Today I took home best painted, best scenic board, and best overall at my local store, so I'm quite pleased with that.

Here are the final shots of the setup:

Small update while I work on my Hive Tyrant and more Termagants.

Here's an alternative dot-based scheme derived from the coloration of the peacock mantis shrimp, a fantastically technicolor oceanic predator.

I wanted to demonstrate that the basics of my Tyranid technique- heavy use of washes, and carapace patterning- can be used for more than just drab colors or monochrome schemes.



I'll be putting together a video tutorial next week, but for now it's back to the coconut crabs.

And here's a video tutorial.

I tried an experiment on the wings here- I painted them like my normal procedure for the pink, fleshy bits of the models, but I first scrawled in some veins with VMC Brown Rose before applying any of the washes. I think it worked pretty well!

Big girl is a proper beast! Your scheme worked out great on her, that resin sculpt has nice details for catching all that wash. Happy to see you went with the most Alien Queen of the tyrant options

catbarf,

Very beautiful work and congratulations on taking home best painted, best scenic board, and best overall at your local store.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the kind words.

I've done one more 'sample' scheme, intended to demonstrate a much faster/easier means of using dot-based patterning. It started as being inspired by hermit crabs and oysters, but ended up being quite Behemoth-esque.

It also took me all of 28 minutes, not including drying times, so there's that.

Tutorial is done:




Now I'm going to actually finish the last Termagants to hit 1000pts, then I'll be working on my scheme methodology video.

Second brood of Termagants done:

Terrific! The Termagants look great. I really like the dot-based patterning, and it seems to work both close up and at a distance. The scenic board is amazing as well, particularly the water effects. Finally (lots of things to praise in this thread), I really appreciate your tutorials.

Thanks Pomander, I appreciate it!

One last photo for now- with the Termagants completed I've hit 1000pts:



I'll be taking a short break from painting Tyranids to work on my next tutorial as well as build and paint up a table's worth of terrain. Then I still have remaining:
-6 FW Ripper Swarms
-Tyrannofex
-4 Warriors
-3 Hive/Tyrant Guard
-8 Genestealers

Which will bring me to about 1650pts, give or take, but who knows what CA19 will do.

Congrats on the AoP success, Catbarf. Fantastic display and a really well deserved win!

That Hive-Tyrant though.
Hot damn that is a stunning looking centerpiece. Easily the best version of the hive tyrant and you've done it justice in spades. An absolutely monstrous and beastly model.


The force as a whole is just beautiful to look at. It's up their with Nard's Nids for extremely eye catching and unique tyranids. And i've noticed a few people on instagram who have started nid forces inspired by your coconut crab nids. So it's a scheme that's certainly catching on!

Congratulations on hitting 1k! A stunner of a swarm

Wow, that's an incredibly well-painted army. I love the carapace on the carnifex.

Quick update- I've finished my video on devising a patterned scheme for Tyranids. It wound up being a lot longer than I originally anticipated:




I also built and painted a bunch of jungle terrain over the weekend, so once I get that properly matte varnished I'll get a pic or several.


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And here's the terrain I built over the weekend:




Basically it's a set of large terrain tiles (one 12x8", two 9x6", four 6x6", four 6x4") and 40 individual dense terrain pieces on 60mm bases. The bases go on the tiles, and then can be removed to allow units to actually occupy the terrain.

My local group treats dense forests/jungle as LOS-blocking, so the tiles can be used for determining LOS, while the bases themselves are just for decoration.

I love coming to this blog. I can always count on seeing something beautifully painted, of course, but plenty of blogs have that. I just find this one of the most inspiring blogs. Maybe because the descriptions and tutorials make me feel like I can learn some things and get better. But also because the armies, terrain, the bases, and everything just come together in such a well-thought-out and well-executed way. And the photography is brilliant. You are an inspiration!

I really love how striking and crisp your color scheme is, and how simply and effective that water/beach basing is. Great work!

Thanks guys. I went and typed out my full terrain-building process for a Reddit post, so I might as well share it here too.

Palm trees
Tall leafy plants
Vines
Small plants
More small plants
Grass

All the materials were airbrushed- everything but the palm tree foliage got a black-green spray from below, and a pastel green or lime green spray from above (the palm trees got the lime all over, then the pastel from above). These were applied lightly so as not to completely cover, but still allow the base green plastic to provide coloration.

Next anything that came on a base or mat was removed from it. For the small plants and grass I glued them one on top of another to increase their height, so they'd be taller than a human-sized figure. The bases got the double-height plants, while the tiles got the single-height ones, so there's a sense of progression in height.

The bases (60mm MDF) and tiles (MDF cut on a scroll saw) were sanded and sprayed brown, then drybrushed tan. I glued the palm tree trunks to the bases before spraying, so they got the same brown base. The palms were heavily drybrushed khaki, then washed with VMC Smoke for texture, then I reattached the foliage. I used a bit of PVA to attach flock to the bases and tiles.

At this point it was just a process of drilling holes in the bases with a pin vise, and gluing plants in with PVA. Once those were all done, I added more of the grass pieces to fill in any gaps.
Overall it was pretty straightforward, just tedious.

Insane work! Keep it up!

The jungle looks exceedingly great - I played Catachans back in 3E and would have loved to have all this foliage, instead of just pretending all that green felt had trees on it

The jungle terrain looks great! Vibrant colours. Again, thanks for sharing your tips with us!

Love all of that terrain. Giving me inspiration to try something like that myself, especially with those palm trees.