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Greetings everyone. I am back in the hobby, and just completed my first model, so I thought I'd post it up for some comments, criticism, and critique.

As some background, I started to get into the hobby, but for a few reasons ended up selling off everything I had that wasn't already opened or cut off sprues (Including a Trygon *cry*). I only ever got 8 gaunts and 8 'stealers painted. That was about a year ago.

Now however, I've found myself with the time again (though not the disposable income, since I just moved and am job-hunting atm). Over the last few weeks I sat down and put together/painted/based my "first" model! I chose a Sniperfex for this.

As you'll see in the pictures, I went with an elevated base for him. This wasn't my initial intention, but after gluing on the Barbed Strangler, I went to test fit the Venom Cannon and realized the only way his left arm would reach over to the VC was if I had the VC tilted at a downward angle. Because of this, the cannon actually ends lower than his base, and that obviously wouldn't work.

I didn't have much in the way of supplies available, and I'd never done anything more than sprinkle some sand/flocking on a base, so I got as creative as I could with it. I cut up a bunch of sprues I had around, and arranged them to form sort of a pedestal. I was hoping by leaving some gaps, and there not being any real boxiness to it, it'd give it the look of a ruined building. My initial thought was to have it be something the 'fex just knocked over and was standing on top of now.

So, I primed up the base, and just used a few coats of thinned (I use a water/flow-aid/slow-dri mixture) black to give the "building" a weathered look. After doing this, I added some ballast to the base, and gave it a wash of black. Then I decided to go with some vegitation. After the first sprinkle, some ended up on the "building", and I decided I liked it, so I laid down some glue and tried to give it a sense of lichens growing over an old ruin.

Anyway, didn't mean to get that long-winded about it. I realize this isn't an ideal base now as far as playing goes (I just learned the other day about 5th ed. coming out, and I guess this'll make it harder for me to get 50% for cover saves for the fex).

So, hope the pics are decent, hard to get all the details with an older 5mp camera, but I did my best. Again, thoughts, comments, criticism are welcome!

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0837.jpg
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0838.jpg
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0839.jpg
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0840.jpg
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0841.jpg
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0842.jpg
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0843.jpg
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr215/inkedsphynx/Tyranids/100_0845.jpg

After having looked at the pics, there's only 1 really good shot of the base, most of the pics make it look really dark, when in fact it's pretty light, and the green flocking has a nice color contrast with the dirty/smoky black/gray-ish of the "building".

Oh, I'd also like to put up a poll and see where you'd rank this on a 1-10 of paint jobs, so I can get an idea where it stands. Also, what would be considered tabletop quality? I've never actually seen anyone else's painted models in person to judge for myself (nor have I ever played a game *blush*)

I find your poll highly patronising.

Tis awesome.

Looks amazing. I'm going for the leviathan color scheme on my nids as well, but your carnifex puts my entire army to shame. Perhaps I'll get some inspiration from your fex. Very good job there.

Thank you I really loved the Leviathan scheme from the moment I saw it. I figure being the primary 'dex theme, it's probably pretty common, but the colors just look striking to me.

I think with mine I've gone a little more purple though, whereas in the 'dex they look more pinkish to me. But, it's hard to tell, as I'm extremely colorblind (0 of 27 on my last colorblindness test), so it's hard for me to paint some aspects, especially the white/off-white skin tones.

Looks great.

I would bring the "cell" on the inside of the gun up another highlight or two it looks kind of flat.

I really like the coloring on the outer shell/ plating but I think the rest could use something more.
I do however think it looks really REALLY good

csm1337 wrote:I really like the coloring on the outer shell/ plating but I think the rest could use something more.
I do however think it looks really REALLY good

By more do you mean you don't like the "skin" parts being white in general, or do you mean it needs more shading/contrast.

I've found it very difficult to shade the "skin" without it coming out looking dirty, which I want to avoid (caused by the bleached bone low-lights). I had thought about trying a half white/half bleached bone diluted wash after the final highlight to blend things better and add more contrast.

I will say there's better contrast than the pics show, but I really like the purity of the white in contrast to the darkness of the chitin/shell.

Any and all painting tips would be welcome. I've read a bunch of tutorials, but have very little experience, since this is effectively the first model I've ever painted. I even tried some wet-blending on the lower spike of the venom cannon, but it didn't work too well *chuckle*. I really need to meet some people here in the Boise area, not only so I can get some games in/learn to play, but also so I can see their models and compare them to mine (I'm shooting for table-top quality at least, don't hold any illusion that I'll ever be a GD winner), and pick up some tips/tricks from any advanced painters I meet.

Nice and easy to see now
very clean crisp painting, excellent work on the carapace, 9/10
the white seem a little plain and bright.

7, if the amount of detail shown on the carapace and spikes was applied to the rest of the model, it'd be a solid 9.

Nice work on the barbed strangler and the base, can't even tell those are cut sprues.

Eyes look kind of plain, maybe some highlights.

just 2 quick things i can now see:

pupil is missing from the barbed strangler (not being picky, only just saw it)

the eyes could do with a wash (mix golden yellow and fiery orange) 30 parts orange 70 parts yellow.
water it down then use that and it would add some depth to the eyes.

i like the sprue base
never tried it, but ive got over 200 sprues sat about lol

Is it safe to go ahead and do some touch up work on it even though I've already applied the dullcote to it? If so then I'll go back and try out the wash on the eyes, and pick up a few other details I've noticed could use a bit of embellishment (like the eye on the strangler).

As for the detail on the model outside the carapace/spikes, I'm not really sure what to do. I've got a set of gaunts that are WIP, maybe I'll experiment with their skin a bit, see if I can pick up some more tips to add some more detail, not really sure what I can do given the color scheme choice of white.

And thanks to all who have commented on the base, I think I'm going to reproduce that theme for the remainder of the bases in the army, then when I build a terrain board I'll drop a bunch of ruined buildings on it in the same fashion. Hopefully that'll add a nice amount of cohesiveness to the army as a whole.

Again, any suggestions from you awesome painters out there (I've seen a TON of really great work on this board) on how I can improve the skin areas of my models would be appreciated.

sphynx, not sure about after dullcote, never used it.

i hate taking pics allays notice something ive missed on a model.

i think the claws look pefect.

if your testing on another model try watering down some tenticle pink and use as a wash for the white skin, then highlight it again with skull, should match the model then, and add some serious depth concidering the large ammount of white skin.

10 - Lying won't get you in my pants.. or paints

might have to steal your skull and boltgun
went to use mine yesterday as ive got over 120 orks to paint, and they were dry -_-

I give you a 7+

The purple plates are great.

The problem is that the white body has no definition. It's just white putty. If you were to apply a thinned wash to the body, that would be a huge help.

Well, after some searching, it looks like I can re-paint over the dullcote.

As for the skin, one suggestion I read was to lay down multiple layers starting with gray and working up to white. I might give that a shot, though it'll likely have a drastically different color look than what's on there now, and I'm not sure I could do it on this model now that it's assembled/based/etc. I might give it a shot though, or I'll just have one 'fex that sits at home as a display model

I guess I should have practiced with gaunts more before tackling the 'fex, but I figured the larger surface area would give me better margins for error, and an easier learning experience for brush control (and I used the spare 2 carapce pieces for the back as practice).

I'll work on it some tonight and see what I decide to do. If I do any major changes I'll re-post pics and we can compare before/after.

Wow, it's amazing for a first model, like others have said, carapace far surpasses the skin, it's because white and black need alot more work done to them (in my mind atleast) to look good and not just like you forgot to paint over the basecoat.

looks great,

but boring out the spore chimney or whatever the nids call them look better then painting them black.

Wash-away, can you explain what you mean by boring them out? I mean, I know what it is to bore something out, but how exactly do you mean? Any pics somewhere I could see of what it looks like (I think it's a little late to do something that drastic to this model anyway however, but I'd love to see any ideas I could use for the next 'fex.)

i wouldnt bother, its not essential, and its not noticed.
might have to start painting up my nids again, took a break and started on ork, now wish i never stopped.

I give it a 7, the base is a little primitive, is it a pile of sprue ends?

The model is very traditional and superior. Excellent execution.

Yes, as I explained in the first post, the base is a bunch of cut up sprues designed to look like building rubble. May not be anything extravagant, but it solved the issue I had, and I think it turned out looking pretty nice.

love the plate shading. lookin good dude

inkedsphynx wrote:Yes, ...base is a bunch of cut up sprues ... solved the issue I had, and I think it turned out looking pretty nice.

Indeed it does!

i love the base, gives it a nice look.
kinda reminds me of old ruins.

Yea, that's really what I was going for towards the end. At first I wanted it to look like a freshly knocked over building, but once I got some moss on the "ruins" by accident, I realize it'd look much better as aged ruins. And after seeing the finished product, I'm happy enough with it that I think it'll make a striking base theme for the entire army. Of course, when I get some of the larger FW models, I'll likely embellish it a lot more, but for the rest of the models, especially the non 'fex/tyrants, it'll be simple, yet hopefully turn out nicely as well.

Oh, also, nobody ever really answered, what on a scale of ten would be considered "tabletop" quality? Like I've said, I've never seen anyone else's models in person, and most of the stuff I see online looks really really nice.

i would say tabletop quality is 4-5.

this goes past tabletop quality by miles

I know this advice will do you little good now, but perhaps on your next 'fex or what have you, I find a good way to shade your whites is to use ice blue undercoats. So you'd do the all the white parts in ice blue, then a single very sparing coat of white over everything, then everywhere that's not shaded gets a second coat of white. I must admit I've never tried it, not having any pure white models at the moment, but I've seen it to good effect on another's models. Worth a test run on a Hormagaunt or something, at least

I agree about the pink parts of the arms (the barrel of the gun, and the big fleshy sack) could use another highlight, I would almost suggest an extremely fine use of white here and there. Depends on the overall effect you're going for.

Overall, very nice Carnifex. I like the sprue rubble, a staple technique for terrain-builders as well

who the hell gave this a 1 & 2? seriously were you guys just screwing around or what?
I gave it a 7. you did a pretty good job painting that puppy. like said before, the armor plates look awesome, very nice job blending on those. and i like the uber white for the skin. thats somthing you can say about the animal kingdom for inspiration. when insects and bugs have vibrant colors they are REALLY vibrant. if this were a SM or somthing yea id say dull the white.... but its a nid and bright colors look GREAT on nids.