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Dave you can see it in action over here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/564134.page the_Blackadder is using it to paint up some cockroach colored tyranids, he considers himself a noob with the airbrush much like someone else I know did a year or so ago . He is having some good success with it so I figured why not try it out. Besides as I ordered it the total cam up less, seems they were having a sale at the time . Anyway the cockroach color on the nids is very nice, soooooo nice that I may pilfer it for something of my own, not starting a nid army, but I have all these genestealers from space hulk and two sets of battle for maccragge, so might see some advancement on them.

To that end to move things along I decided it was time to bust out an old helpful tool I haven't seen anyone use In awhile.

The priming stick .
No special wood needed, just something large enough and flat that bases can fit on, in this case it's a bed slat from the bunk bed/table I just disassembled. Wrap that rascal with either masking tape or the blue painters tape with the sticky side out and cover 3/4 of the length. Wrap it tight so there's no slack in the tape. Stick figures on the tape, in this case I was able to fit two figs Side by side with space in between them. On one side I have 12 or so spore mines, 6 hive nodes, 2swarming nodes, and most of the genestealers from space hulk. The other side has more of those genestealers as well as 6 basic genestealers from bfm and other bits. Took it outside to prime it, able to roll the stick over to get all sides of the models with good coverage in less than three minutes. Now the stick is hanging via vise grip to air out on my painting desk. Once dry I can remove them in short order, re wrap the stick and prime 50+ more models quickly, or grab another bed slat
Here's the pre primed board.


Edit: leaving for work, but here is a test subject



I need to do the tongue in a different color than black.

oh.... I primed some of my marines way back in almost a similar way...but I used double sided tape for one and in another I used cable binders to bind the minis to a stick... each method had its merits...

you´re definitely a horder sir... so many nids and you plan not to field them

oh and I would always use a new board to stick the minis on... if you play your card right you could make yourself a drying rack sort of for a real batch painting frenzy...

I like the gradient look..There's something to be said about creative freedom with non-human minis. I enjoyed doing the irradiated skin on my Super Mutants.

Been lurking, afraid I know nothing about airbrushes. I like the nids, got couple million of these to paint myself.

Been super busy this week, I work thru Thursday so not much time to do stuff especially with getting things lined up for trips and whatnot. The airbrush arrived today, no instructions and the half piece of bubble wrap protected the one side o the fake leather case it came in from dents, but the other side is a beat to heck, plus the glue they used to make the box didn't hold so the outside faux leather all came off . No time to try it out till maybe Tuesday. About to head out the door for work now. Hand painted some spore mines(I love them), and some terrain elements for the nids.

The black areas are highlighted with grey/black, and I'm thinking about making some of the tentacles on the spores an orangish color, some are more of spiky tentacle surrounded by the regular smooth tentacles.

New airbrush in action . Well at least basecoating is going quicker


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Edit: so I was hearing the call of the broodlord. First he said "look over there!"

Then he said "ooooo ooooo now look over there!"

Then he said "Nom Nom Nom!"

I'm not liking the vein color on his head, what do you guys think. I'm trying to stay bug like, maybe just going black with it. Also claws will get a highlight and then washed black.

for veins I think I would go fully squishy ugly... so more some opportunity for a new spotcolour? maybe purple or pink? also a green could look good to the beige/ brown look too...

funny thing is I always planned to have my nids look that way... but then I got rid of them... my own SM chapter is a bit similar to that scheme here... the idea was to have them both in similar schemes to have them as arch enemies...

vik, my nids will have my scythes of the emperor as their enemies, lots of yellow and black armor bits to show their friendship.


It's Los getting me thinking about terrain again .

Nice work on the niddies Theo. Thumbsup:

jupp....coolness at a price...

and your scythes ....

"lots of yellow and black armor bits to show their fiendship"

corrected that for you

Makes me laugh every time I check in on your thread its a different army or manufacture nice looking Nids by the way like the colour choice more an earthy tone creepy

Nids look nice and crunchy

Maybe a pale green wash over the veins?

Was that ldd popping in there

Genestealers ahead!

 monkeytroll wrote:
Nids look nice and crunchy

Maybe a pale green wash over the veins?

Was that ldd popping in there

Yes it was I thought I should get back in the game so to speak

Greenwash might look good maybe highlight the veins a little bit first with a lighter brown, that way it might pull them out a little more with the wash.

seeing you here must mean your kitchen is finally back on track then, eh?

Lol yes that's all done and painted, mind you I only got one of the doors back up the other day

The down stairs toilet after 7 years of decorating is finally finished, started on the garden now

I'm at work right now, so I'll make sure and follow up with comments later tonight/ in the morning when I'm not on my phone.

Thanks everyone for the support and the encouragement. The nids started because the minion making idea had a flaw...ME . I didn't think it through and ruined my mold/forms. Butt(haha) fear not as I got new ones today and one of the lady's in the material supply department wants to see them when they are done. She might be my first commission customer for her grandson if these turn out okay.

While cleaning tonight I had a cunning plan on how to make the minions with the new molds. It is a cunning plan, butt(hehe) I might be overlooking something. We will hopefully see tomorrow.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Edit: so I stopped at Walmart for supplies, trying the next Theophony bat crazy idea. Left the new molds in the car and was too lazy to go get them, besides I figure I'll test it out on the remaining parts that I had so he we are.


Half minion head on. Pot of paint was my attempt with fast set drywall plaster. Unfortunately I made it too dry and it didn't fill the mold and had air pockets . But figured I'd paint one up fast to see how it looked.

The partial tray just to his right is test run "b", cheapest craft/Elmer's glue out there , $0.44 for 4 fluid oz. just so you know all the filled trays totaled up to about 3 fluid oz.

The three rows over to the far right is one more row of run "b" and then two rows of run "c" which is the same as "b" except I sprayed the trays first with some cooking spray. This is just in case the glue actually sticks to the plastic , its not listed as a plastic glue, but it would be just my luck that the cheap stuff glues better than epoxy.

Also notice too late that there are different sized tube trays . Should have known, here are different sized sample tubes, so the messed up sample minion is one of th larger tubes and what's on the table are smaller ones. Well I think there's variety in the minions from the movie, so maybe all will work out in the end.

Tired now , hopefully the glue is cured in the morning.

These are looking great, and really beetle-y. Have you seen The Blackadder's roach themed nids?

Nids and Minions now thats something i never expected to see on the same table

Although I am starting to think you are clinically insane your mind seems to have no limits to creativity, good luck with the glue setting but still being removable BIG fingers crossed here for you.

You know I keep thinking a Minion Chess board when looking at the this for some reason, how cool would that be evil purples one end and yellows the other

no short selling your stuff theo here!!! or there will be gibbs´slapps aplenty! i like your out of the box thinking!... i must say... these trays really make me envious... my wife recently told me that my eager plans for using these olive shaped wooden beads wasn´t so perfect...at all... i think you are way closer to the real mccoy that you say...at least in my humble opinion...

i am rather eager to see how the elmers glue experiment works out... plaster...i can see working... but with the glue... that could open up some new ranges of casting stuff rather quick... be sure to have it cure really neatly... as the peaks/domes of said trays probably will take a lot of time to dry out... if ever...maybe if you have a neat crust cured on the flat side, then drill a small hole as a vent in the dome...that could help cure the glue through and through...

Almost awake, getting the kids ready, figured I'd try and comment while they eat breakfast. In no particular order.
@inmygravenimage, yes, first postat top of this page is a link to his page, plus I've been frequently (we as frequently as i have been, ive been bad lately, hopefully I'm out of my dulldrums now and will be back annoying people soon enough) posting in his comments on all his works, just amazing.
@LDD, minion chess board will be a ABSOLUTE , now to get these things going. Plus I knew you were slow(7years on a bathroom is a bit much ), but your just now figuring out I'm crazy .
@shaso, genestealers behind , the like sneaking up on people and sticking their tongue in their ears
@monkeytroll, I might try some rotting flesh green on the veins with a green wash, thanks
@cam, lurking is hat we genestealers do best , but winter is over and now I am almost out of my spring allergy induced coma, so hopefully more fun is on the way.
@dsteingass, yes aliens give us so many possibilities with the color choices, plus don't tell anyone I was tired of painting marines
And lastly, but most importantly....
@Vik, your thread is such a source of inspiration and encouragement, thank you. While your bead guys may not make convincing minions to your wife, I think you still have a possible army concept from them....the olive drab guard. If you paint them up like olives (green or black) you could create your own unique theme. Have them wield toothpicks, cocktail umbrellas, and the little plastic swords that come in novelty drinks. You can make a few clear ice cubes for a couple of bases and have a couple in a martini glass as a flying unit while putting 10 of them in a jar on its side to count as a rhino or chimera. Sure everyone who sees them will think that you've had one too many drinks, but it could be amazing .

Okay onto the progress........

Yeah, the glue still hasn't set yet , I hit it with a toothpick and its all still as thin as ever. It might be because its the cheap stuff, or might be because there's so much of it, but either way we are on hold until that sets up.

In the mean time I will be bringing some of my paints upstairs today as I rented Hobbit2, desolation of smaug. I haven't seen it yet, so I'll play it in the family room and paint while listening to it. I might give the plaster another go as well while I watch.

Lastly for now I wanted to plug this kickstarter again
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeremyglen/creature-caster-first-wave
Only 4days left, less than $100 for a FW greater demon sized monster , and the quality will be awesome as Jeremy used to be the owner/sculpted for ultraforgeminiatures.com. I owned a couple of the demons from there in the past but sold them a few years ago. Very nice stuff, I'm in with an early bird silver and getting the pincer demon. I'd like to get more, but the funds are being drawn elsewhere right now. Anyway he has everything unlocked now for this kickstarter and is not doing more so he can ship in November. Check him out, money is in Canadian dollars, and shipping is separate from total, but he will be shipping from multiple warehouses around the lobe and pretty sure he will get around the VAT charges by shipping out of England.

Apologise, the perils of phone dakka ing. Stay safe, kids.

theo!!!!....ye ol´genius!... that is a lovley idea!...besides, I have been ogling over scratchbuilt armies for quite some time now, gingerbread men armies or the bloodletters army made from pipe cleaners as actual letters... or I even saw some of these easter decoration chickens...

and that olive army I can totally see before my eyes... with a big martini bottle as a battle tank...the floating martini´s is especially a genius idea in itself... also... this would be an army where painting is only second place as most is just careful planned building...

and to top it all I could make my own rules on how to make these work and build instead of just rebuilding something I've seen...(only downside is my kids get no minions...) but be sure...there will be BOLS (Battle Olives looking spiffy...)

don't forget the "shaken not stirred" rule

Drop pods made from the martini shakers

Wounded olives laying down with their pimentos laying out as objectives

I haven't drunk alchohol in years but I'm sure we can find more.

You sir are a nutjob after my own taste!

Told that idea my wife, and she liked it too

For a bit of style, here you get olives filled with almonds or peppers. So I figured the could wear berets in red to go with the er...olive green body...

Thats it I really do give up on you two using household leftovers is one thing but food itself its madness I tell you madness, although you could use bar snacks like peanuts or cashews as Doctrines .......... all my god I am joining in now

Nice Nids duder! :-) coming along really well! I quite like the colour scheme for them, I do like the natural looking bugs style.

 lone dirty dog wrote:
Thats it I really do give up on you two using household leftovers is one thing but food itself its madness I tell you madness, although you could use bar snacks like peanuts or cashews as Doctrines .......... all my god I am joining in now

all knew you´d eventually anyways...

 Viktor von Domm wrote:

 lone dirty dog wrote:
Thats it I really do give up on you two using household leftovers is one thing but food itself its madness I tell you madness, although you could use bar snacks like peanuts or cashews as Doctrines .......... all my god I am joining in now

all knew you´d eventually anyways...

You want to see what I have done with a box of rice krispies and crunchy nut cornflakes, necromunda scavies anyone

 lone dirty dog wrote:

 Viktor von Domm wrote:

 lone dirty dog wrote:
Thats it I really do give up on you two using household leftovers is one thing but food itself its madness I tell you madness, although you could use bar snacks like peanuts or cashews as Doctrines .......... all my god I am joining in now

all knew you´d eventually anyways...

You want to see what I have done with a box of rice krispies and crunchy nut cornflakes, necromunda scavies anyone

was it you that made the khorne berserker with actual corn flake heads , it was a while back and I can't remember who did them.

We're not using real olives, Vik got some wooden beads that look olive shaped in an attempt to make minions. He wasn't completely satisfied with them so I've given him an alternate idea.

Vik, do t forget to make both black olives and green olives, of course you'll have to give the black olives larger pimentos . Also you could use all sorts of bar items depending on how you build these guys. We already mentioned glasses and the martini shaker, but you could use ashtrays or bowls of nuts for vehicles. If you ever did a display board for them it should be a traveling mini bar and the backdrop have a functioning dart board. The darts can have olive pilots either riding them like the guy in Dr. Strangelove rides the bomb down in the end, or have them pierced through the tip. Also if you use the peanut tray idea you need to make a Mr. Peanut dead on the ground with one of these olive guys standing over him wearing the monocle , he could be your badass general.