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My first attempt at using putty in miniatures. I plan to have a lot of scarab swarms, more than I have warriors so I'm using putty casts to bolster my scarabs.

For a first attempt this seems fairly good. I put 3 on base instead of 4 (A scarab base has 3 wounds after all.) and plan on possibly 2 units of 9 bases, so I'm going to need 54 scarabs. That's assuming I don't add a fast attack detachment with even more scarabs.

I might switch the stuff I use to make the actual casts with some a polymer based compound. The molds work well enough if I let them dry for days and then spray them with a clear coat.

A good basing, making it look like one scarab has fully emerged and lifted off while the other two are still rising out of the ground and some decent paint, they'll do...

I always feel more is better when it comes to swarms, similar to rippers, you really need a good few on the base to make them look good.
If you're already making putty scarabs, why not just make more? It'll take a little bit more time but you'll get a proper swarm feel out of them.
The ones you've made look good.

How did you create the mold?

I have worked with bluestuff and super glue with medium success.

But I agree with the other Tyranid Horde, create more and swarm the bases, then make a mold from a swarmed base and add details to that to tell them apart.

Years ago I sculpted my own:

There is a 'real' scarab on each base surrounded be several that I made but putting GS on waxpaper and using a knife for the segment lines. I also used a very small straw for the eye.
Once the GS was set, I pealed them off and glued 2-3 together with 2-3 of these "sets" on its own stand per base

I treated the "real" scarab as a sort of leader/controller of each swarm. I intentionally made them smaller to:
A) make them easier to make/mass produce and
B) give each base a proper swarm

If you have a mold, however, for the actually Scarab (instead of sculpting each like I did), than I would say to go nuts. 4-5 per base looks really good, even if 3 per is really all you'd need

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