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That's an intimidating looking force! Awesome work

After a few days of self-reflection (AKA burnout? ), I've got my plan of action laid out

I'm going to tackle the remaining big bugs in 4 separate groups, although I'll be airbrushing most of them together tonight.

Group 1: 3 Zoanthropes, Venomthrope, Prime (by Sat)
Group 2: 2 Carnifexes, 4 Objective Markers (by next Sat)
Group 3: Tyrant, Tervigon, and little bugs for Tervigon base (by the last Fri)
Group 4: 2 Mawlocs (the last weekend)
Basing: The last 2 days

So, the first 3 groups:



For the Mawlocs, I am actually at peace with my plan now. Ed is going to try really hard to get 2 Goliath Wyrms to me in time, but if he can't make it I think I've found a way that I'm happier with the Dread Maws. I.e. no elaborate bases to make them tall, and adding tentacles coming up from the ground along with them to tie them in to the gribblyness better.

Please forgive the horrible mock-up pic below, but just to give you an idea of what it'd look like. The whole base will be covered in shale and so it will look like he's bursting up from the whole base, not just a rectangle in the middle with 4 tentacles going out at various angles to imply a larger body below.


I think that's the best I can do with this model! And would actually look pretty decent and possibly be useful for something else after I get the Goliath Wyrms from Ed. But either way, whatever I use for the Mawlocs will be last, and I'll power through the rest in the interim . Oh, and Theophony, Ed mentioned the Goliath Wyrm is 3" wide at the base... I'm thinking that's the diagonal across the base portion, but still- the Goliath Wyrm is big!

One question:

Should the wing membranes on the Tyrant's wings be green like the body... or should they be dark grey / almost black? The "bones" in the wings will be bone-colored, I believe... although they could be green if the wing membranes were dark grey / almost black. There's a better pic of the Tyrant in the spoilered image above. Thoughts appreciated here!

Yeah, that'll work...but fingers crossed for the goliaths

Is there a secondary color on the Tyrant?

Gits, well, that's the question! Here's a pic of them airbrushed green:



I want to stick to my pallet if possible- bone colored armor plates / back spines, purple on the small tentacles, orange on the horns. But the real questions are...

1. What color should the wing membranes be? Thinking about introducing a new color (black / dark grey) for this, because the arm leading to the wing will be green, the bones white... so the membranes need to be something else. I could risk it and go purple??? Perhaps a darker shade than the tentacles.

2. What color should the large "limb-like" tentacles be? Purple, like in the pre-painted Monsterpocalypse model shown in the front right of the pic above? If so, how should I transition the purple into the green of the bodies? I'm thinking most importantly on the models that are on the right half of the image above... on the Wyrms, Fiend, and Grub C with the added tentacles, I think purple might be a little abrupt going into the body. So should they just stay green, or go with purple?

Thoughts greatly appreciated on the above two quandries, since I'm starting those colors tonight!

For the wings, stay within your palette, but go in a different direction. Consider doing a pale green (half skin green, half bone plate white), or a variation on the orange used for the fangs. You definitaly want them to stand out, but huge blocks of a new, non-neutral color will probably stand out too much.

Why not keep the limb tentacles green? Again, I'd alter the hue a bit, but make color choices based on composition, not on the function of the part. Big Tentacls are a base color part, not a trim color part.

How about doing a brown, similar to the shaded areas of the worms backs. I think that could look good for both the wings and the tentacles. I'd stay away frompurple or pink as that would start looking more Slaaneshi than anything.

I was thinking a very pale purple might fit the wings...but then I'm partial to a bit of purple

For the limb tentacles how about keeping them green as Polonius suggests, maybe with a purple glaze to differentiate them?

Okay, I think green for the "limb" tentacles is a good idea, but perhaps altering the hue a bit, so thanks guys . I'll still do purple for the face tentacles and the like, of course.

That's the much more urgent concern since the wings will come a bit later... still not sure about the wings but it may be that the same trick color as the tentacles will work, since that model has no limb tentacles.

So I'll experiment with the shading on the green of the tentacles, then decide if that same color is suitable for the wings, or if I need to branch out more for the wings (to more of a brown, as Theophony suggests, or more of a purple).

Pale purple.

 RiTides wrote:
So I'll experiment with the shading on the green of the tentacles, then decide if that same color is suitable for the wings, or if I need to branch out more for the wings (to more of a brown, as Theophony suggests, or more of a purple).

Another way to think of it is that wing membranes and limb tentacles are still just skin. Keeping them all based on the same basic color helps tie them together.

Coming along very nicely Steve, great job!

Nice work there, RT. Really impressive painting push, and they look great to boot!

Those grubs look fantastic, got to remember those wash and paint techniques you used when i come to paint my own Nid army.

Awesome stuff, a veritable field of wormy goodness

I really hope Ed can get you a couple of Goliath worms as they'll look great with the rest

Here's my progress on the first wave of big bugs! This wave includes the 3 Zoanthropes, 2 Carnifexes, Venomthrope, Prime, 4 objective markers, and 7 little bugs to put on the base of the Tervigon. (The next and final wave before AdeptiCon will be the Tervigon, Tyrant, and 2 Mawlocs)

Base colors:



Washed:



Drybrushed skin:



Now I just need to drybrush / highlight the colors other than the skin- the bone, orange, and purple. I still haven't figured out how to highlight the purple, as I don't have a "ready made" highlight color that works for it... might try just adding white to the purple mix on the palette.

There is a lot of green, but anything else I try doesn't make it look better, so I think I'm going to go with it. Also, I tend to have only one "standard" that I paint to... I'll try to do well with the highlighting on the bone / orange / purple to make these pop, but they're not going to be that far above my grubs in standard.

I could look at this two ways... I'm going to try to see it as my grubs are just done well . The skin is basically "done", but the bone, purple, and orange will be getting highlighted today

Just an opinion here... I think that if you could make the deeper shades of the pink bits even darker, it would benefit the models as a whole.

They look great though RiTides... very well done.

Yeah, that's what I'm struggling through right this second, Gits. (It's a snow day which means it's a painting day)

I am just going through and highlighting the other colors and the purple is the one where I really have nowhere to go... may try a leviathan purple wash on the purple.

Also just tested out my sealing process- so, I don't think I'm going to spray on Dullcote after all. It seems to, well, dull my green shades... instead, I'll paint on a gloss varnish onto the whole model, then paint on a matt varnish (I have the Vallejo one) onto the non-skin areas (which are few in comparison).

Will get up a pic of the model I tested this on later, but I think it will work

They did turn out rather green, didn't they? Not that that's an issue really, they look grand Also, I really like those three medium-sized sculpts with the boney crests, and would be lying if I said I wasn't scheming up uses of my own

- Salvage

Thanks, Salvage

I just tried deepening the recesses of the purple with Leviathan purple... but didn't realize that I have to use wayyyyy less of it than the other washes... but not until I'd used it on quite a few models, of course

I'm undoing the damage and then using it much more judiciously from now on.

And the first wave of big bugs is complete! Pics below







I did try to deepen the recesses on the purple a bit- it might not look like much in the pics but it does help it quite a bit in-person from feeling too flat compared to the other colors. Let me know what you guys think

Also, 2 questions! I am ahead of schedule, just waiting on the two big bugs (Mawlocs) to arrive in the mail, which I will do alongside the Tyrant and Tervigon. So, I think I will be moving onto either sealing or basing this week. Questions regarding those:

1. Sealing: Do I even have to seal these models, since they're all plastic / resin? I tried dullcote on my test model, and it makes the green look really flat. Afterwards I tried various paint on sealants- I tried GW gloss, Vallejo Satin, and Vallejo Matte. The gloss is just too much, I think... so I was considering satin.

Has anyone used a satin spray sealant, and do you have one to recommend? How would I get the heads and such not to be glossy afterwards? I tried painting on the Vallejo Matte to those parts after applying a glossier finish to the test model, but it seems to dull things quite a bit still. I would just be careful to only paint the Matte on the bone, but I think it makes the purple on the heads look worse, and it's likely to get on those areas. Thoughts / tips / help here greatly appreciated!!

2. Objective Markers: In the last pic above, my 4 objective markers for AdeptiCon are visible on the 40mm bases. Two of my teammates are Imperial Guard and Space Marines. How could I add something to these to represent them? I'm thinking of how Gitsplitta added things to his Necron formations... but I don't want it to look like the nids on the base are eating the IG / Marine symbols. Any ideas?

Big gribblies look great, glad to hear you're ahead of schedule

I'd recommend sealing anything used for gaming rather than display, as I've always felt handling even plastics can show up some wear and tear...although you may be able to get away with not sealing till after adepticon - have to decide if you can accept the slight risk of having a chipped model at the con.

Personally I've not had any issues with GW's purity seal as a satiin finish - but I know several people who have. Matte varnish is always going to dull down the final piece, how about applying the matte to the bone using a drybrush technique? May not dull it down quite so much, but I'm just putting the idea out there, haven't tried it myself.

Objective markers is a tough one, can't immediately think of something that isn't going to look like the nids are eating the imps....

Not sure any of that was actually useful.....

I have no ideas that are suitable to speak of out loud.

Nicely done RiTides, a nice squirmy-wormy horde!

Very creepy dude!

Thought this might inspire you whilst you're at it!

They look fantastic RiTides. Congratulations!

Satin varnish should do the trick. The only satin I've used is the Vallejo satin that is in their airbrush line. Works fine. Though in my recent attempts at making gems, the GW varnish is a lot more like satin than gloss.

Do you mean this picture?


Assuming you're referring to the four pod-like things on the black bases, I have an idea. You should go with the whole Alien/Promethius thing and model a guardsman and marine leaning over one of the pods on the bases without the giant pod on it. Like they're looking into it trying to figure out what it is, right before the face-grabber thing leaps out to get them!

You could use a teleport homer on the bases to show getting there would be a great benefit to getting off a bug planet.

monkeytroll- It was useful, thanks

whalemusic / shasolenzabiMade- Thanks guys

Malika- That was very inspiring... awesome!

Gits / Theophony- Regarding the objective markers, yes that is the pic I was referring to. The problem with something more elaborate like an actual figure is that that will be out of my hands- one of my teammates would need to bring a painted model, as I'm not sure what their schemes are exactly still and wouldn't be able to match them.

That's why I was trying to come up with something generic that would signify "Imperium" that I could paint up and put on the base, that would indicate our alliance but not clash with their scheme.

I actually think I just came up with it- I have 5 of these gun tractors from Anvil Industries' kickstarter... I'm wondering about putting two of them on the bases with the smaller eggs. Here's a pic of them without guns, and I could put a sensor array of some kind there instead:



I'd like to go for a "Wall-E" feel, a sensory robot rather than an armed one. Hoping a few bits I have from the Bastion will work for the sensors. These would only go on 2 of the bases, since we have 2 nid players and 2 imperial ones.

You could put storage boxes and ammo on them as well.

Oooh, those are cool.