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Gathering Storm wrote:

Gitsplitta wrote:OK so here is the completed mini-diorama/objective marker. The "Thunder Baron" aka chaos Mantis Warrior atop his fresh kill, made by Disjointed Entity. This does not benefit from all the great advice from MajorTom and grey_death... just my first whack at some of the techniques. I really liked the figure DE made for me, so I wanted to see it based appropriately and in a way that it would see the gaming table regularly.

Okay, so I've been away for a week far from mobile signal range as well internet access and (as expected) the Thread has gained 5 more pages... But, I feel I have to point out that that was the Chaos Mantis I modelled and painted for you, which was sent along with a shipment of assorted Tyranids (as an added bonus). It's nice to see him in all his glory on a much better base than the one I sent with him.

Yours, Gathering Storm.

Why do the pipes connect to his knees?

You're telling me you don't have pipes going from your chest/arms to your knees?

Well, if Gitsplitta gives me permission to, I would be happy to post a couple of WiP shots (or he could just take them from my gallery).

i really like the blood all over the guy!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
plus the large tubes are awesome, green stuff i take it?

@Mr Nobody: It seemed like a good idea at the time. That, and I felt something was missing with just pipes connected to the head and backpack.

@dajobe: Glad you like him. And the pipes are made from some spare wiring I found.

I'm sorry, but I think the Smurf's Bolt shells are backwards.

Well, got my butt handed to me by wyomingfox (his nids ate my nids). But it was FUN! And nid on nid action is always gratifying.

Did finish my marine for DE, Brother Atsushi. Really happy with how it turned out. New green. Another experiment... trying to make the sheet cork look like a paved road (in this case a blown up paved road).

Hope you like it!

Gits, I know you don't take commissions, but I wish I could send you my Commander Dante, and see what you do with it (as the center piece for my army)... It saddens me when I see your work lol

Keep it up!

Perhaps Alf, but what I do is really pretty simple. I'm not a real artist like grey_death or a bunch of the other folks... just a guy painting as best he can. Nothing I do that you can't do with very little practice.

Airbrush gradients.. easy, the brush does the work for you. Eyes... black gem technique, easy. Line the recesses with Thrakka Green wash, easy. Edge highlights with light green, easy. Paint the gold by painting chainmail w/ mithril highlights, 2 layers of sepia wash, another layer of highlights and more sepia wash, easy. Shoulder badge... small ball of GS mushed into pad until it forms a disk & when dry use micropens to make the design, fiddly... but easy.

You can do all of that Alf, you just need to make up your mind to take it slow and focus on one task at a time until you work your way through an entire model. At my level, the hard part isn't the painting, it's having the discipline necessary to do all the stupid simple, fiddly little crap that's necessary for a figure to turn out nicely.

The trick is to keep experimenting and trying something new nearly every time you paint a figure. It's during the experimentation that you really pick things up quickly.

Off my soap box now...

Wow great job, I am in love with that green and the cork turned out great!

Given what models you have with as minimal purchases as possible:

I would probably buildup:

*2 naked carnies
*Tyranid Prime w/ dual BS and DS (attached above)
*Tyranid Prime w/ BS and LW and DS (attached above)
*Tervigon w/ Catalyst, TS, AG, CS
*10 Termaguants
*13 naked Stealers
*14 naked Stealers
*Trygon w/ Adrenals
*5 Ravenors w RC
*2 HG
*2 HG
*2 Zoes

You have most of this. All you would need is some guants, a HG, and a few more stealers.

Gitsplitta wrote:Perhaps Alf, but what I do is really pretty simple. I'm not a real artist like grey_death or a bunch of the other folks... just a guy painting as best he can. Nothing I do that you can't do with very little practice.

Airbrush gradients.. easy, the brush does the work for you. Eyes... black gem technique, easy. Line the recesses with Thrakka Green wash, easy. Edge highlights with light green, easy. Paint the gold by painting chainmail w/ mithril highlights, 2 layers of sepia wash, another layer of highlights and more sepia wash, easy. Shoulder badge... small ball of GS mushed into pad until it forms a disk & when dry use micropens to make the design, fiddly... but easy.

You can do all of that Alf, you just need to make up your mind to take it slow and focus on one task at a time until you work your way through an entire model. At my level, the hard part isn't the painting, it's having the discipline necessary to do all the stupid simple, fiddly little crap that's necessary for a figure to turn out nicely.

The trick is to keep experimenting and trying something new nearly every time you paint a figure. It's during the experimentation that you really pick things up quickly.

Off my soap box now...

The problem is, I can't seem to do many of the techniques with a brush that you, eggroll, majortom, and a few others threads I lurk can do with an airbrush, and I just don't have the money in the cards atm for an airbrush.... even though the biggest 3 threads I lurk use brush work for their armies.

@Ralin: Thanks Ralin! For a simple little project he turned out very nicely.

wyomingfox wrote:Given what models you have with as minimal purchases as possible:

I would probably buildup:

*2 naked carnies
*Tyranid Prime w/ dual BS and DS (attached above)
*Tyranid Prime w/ BS and LW and DS (attached above)
*Tervigon w/ Catalyst, TS, AG, CS
*10 Termaguants
*13 naked Stealers
*14 naked Stealers
*Trygon w/ Adrenals
*5 Ravenors w RC
*2 HG
*2 HG
*2 Zoes

You have most of this. All you would need is some guants, a HG, and a few more stealers.

Cool, I can work on that... no problem. Great fun last night, thanks for making the trip!

Alfndrate wrote:The problem is, I can't seem to do many of the techniques with a brush that you, eggroll, majortom, and a few others threads I lurk can do with an airbrush, and I just don't have the money in the cards atm for an airbrush.... even though the biggest 3 threads I lurk use brush work for their armies.

That, I understand. An airbrush is a big investment no matter how you look at it. I was able to defer my costs by using a "garage" air compressor (which I already had). Noisy as hell but it worked. Then all I had to do was by the gun and hose (less than $100 I think).

There's noting stopping you from practicing the other techniques though. There are plenty of gems on most models to work on the black gem technique, and using a thin brush to do the lining (both shading and highlighting) can be done on every figure. It's just a matter of getting comfortable with the techniques. Baby steps my friend... baby steps.

Gathering Storm wrote:

Gitsplitta wrote:OK so here is the completed mini-diorama/objective marker. The "Thunder Baron" aka chaos Mantis Warrior atop his fresh kill, made by Disjointed Entity. This does not benefit from all the great advice from MajorTom and grey_death... just my first whack at some of the techniques. I really liked the figure DE made for me, so I wanted to see it based appropriately and in a way that it would see the gaming table regularly.

Okay, so I've been away for a week far from mobile signal range as well internet access and (as expected) the Thread has gained 5 more pages... But, I feel I have to point out that that was the Chaos Mantis I modelled and painted for you, which was sent along with a shipment of assorted Tyranids (as an added bonus). It's nice to see him in all his glory on a much better base than the one I sent with him.

Yours, Gathering Storm.

Oh, I thought that was the one that Gits was making for me!
My bad!

yeah the one I sent you Gits was the blue bugger!

No harm done DE. The one for you is the marine you sent me (which I posted yesterday).

Speaking of which... finally got the finishing touch on the objective marker (the sign). This one actually looks better in person.. something about the 3-dimensionality of it that doesn't translate well into a 2-D picture.

I'm love meetig my Brother Atsushi bars. The raw seafood is really good.

That's a pretty cool objective Gits. I have to admit, the second photograph looks more three dimensional than the first one IMHO.

A little part of me likes to think that the crazy Chaos Mantid had a part to play in demise of that MW. That... or a landmine... I guess that's what he gets for loitering.

Well, I'm glad it all cleared up in the end.

Phew, confusion over! haha.

Here you go GS! They work quite well together.

The objective markers are great, I really like the sign.

It was needed I think...dead or dying marines are aided by a little irony and dark humor.

WHOOT! I finished reading this blog from start to finish. It took me about a week... but I am in a foreign country, recovering from surgery due to an accident while visiting my family over the summer. Have to say it was an awesome journey. I am glad I took the time to do it. While, I think it is a great idea to have the summary pages I would have missed so much (like the birth of the GMS) by not reading the entire thing. I have really enjoyed reading this blog and also seeing the recreation of the Mantis Warriors according to Gitsplitta's interpretation. Keep up the awesome work, I can't wait to see where this project goes.

Thank you micah! I wish you a speedy recovery & glad I was able to provide some entertainment along the way. As you well know by now the blog has been quite a journey for not just myself, but a number of other folks as well. Faces come and go over time, people pitch in ideas, suggestions, in some cases physical models... been a lot of fun and I have been blessed that it has captured so many people's imaginations.

As a result, the army has become more than I could have ever made it on my own, and I'm a far better modeler and painter than I would have been otherwise. I sometimes worry that the blog has lost it's appeal but then someone like yourself chimes in and I get invigorated to keep up my efforts all over again.

I think it might be time for another summary post. I was going to wait until I finished the bikes but I'll go through the blog since the last one and see if there's enough there to merit a post.

Do it for page 200, eh?

Thanks for the well wishes Gitsplitta.
I have to agree with Graven a nice round number FTW

Sounds good, bikes should be done by then.

It's good that you'll be waiting until the 200th page. Try and make sure the post is the first one, that way the summary will be even more prolific.

Ah well... only 33 posts to go!

If you want I could post some WiP pictures of the Chaos Mantis before or after the next update.

P.S. Thanks for the picture of the two objectives together Gits. You need to make sure they are regulars in your future games.

OH yeah... you'd mentioned that earlier and I forgot to say YES... please post the WIP shots. I'm not in a hurry as I'd like to get the bikes done by 200... that will take a bit of work.

Oooh, is this another Gitsplitta races the blog, where everyone tries to post so that he paints faster? lol... Last time was pretty funny, though. iifc Gitsplitta managed it through some questionable interpretation of the wording Anyways, look forward to seeing the bikes finished they are pretty cool and unique. Only Codex approved SM jet bike I know of is Sammael's, so i think it is awesome to see these

I only took a couple of pics as I'm rather harebrained and forgot to take any shots of it unpainted.

So...

This is what it looked like just after being basecoated


And the state the model was in just before I shipped it of to the States


And two more pics can be found in the gallery