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catbarf wrote:
Tyranid Prime is done. I did record the painting process, so I'll be seeing if I can make a usable tutorial out of it over the next couple of weeks.

At this point I've completed enough models to build the Armies on Parade board I have in mind, but I think I might push myself to get my second Carnifex done in the next couple of weeks, as I feel it will really add to the presence of the swarm on the board.

Nicely distinguished from the other warriors - dig the inverted eye in his gun

Still smitten with this scheme, and do need to give those black weapons a shot, very cool effect.

Thanks! I didn't remember until you mentioned the eye that I had, once again, forgotten to paint the Deathspitter eye on my previous Warriors. I seem to be making a habit of that.

Anyways, while I was doing the initial priming and basecoating on the second Carnifex, an eBay order came in- some of the old 3rd Edition Stormtroopers, a set of models that I'd always really liked but never gotten around to actually buying for myself.

I modified the Death Korps color scheme, adding in green as a secondary color (for grenades and the lens) and pushing the highlights just a touch further, and then used the same basing scheme as the Tyranids for contrast. I'm toying with the idea of setting up a Tempestus Drop Force as an antagonist to the Tyranids, theming them as the airborne QRF of an ocean world.

Well, I think I've succeeded in making it a little more colorful than the rather monochrome Death Korps, while still keeping a gritty/realistic tone that I think suits the models. But I'll let you guys be the judge.

Very cool. The bright green targetter eye piece looks good, like it has night vision. To me, Imperial Guard vs Tyranids is definitely one of the best, most flavorful matchups in the setting. I would love to see a Force if these guys against your Crab Nids on a beach battlefield.

Thanks! I've decided to incorporate a small squad (five models) of these Stormtroopers into my Armies on Parade entry, so that should be fun.

I also got the tutorial I promised completed. This should be a little clearer on the process than my previous Imgur guide.

Nice work and thank you for sharing catbarf.

Cheers,

CB

The Stormtroopers are now complete, so at this point I intend to blitz through the Carnifex and then get to building the Armies on Parade board.

I had some annoyance getting through these guys, as I kept clumsily dropping the models and having paint chip. The sculpts are also pretty rough in some areas, so I kind of had to make the best of it, but I think the end result came out okay.

Beautiful work, as always. I love your style. And the nice photography always helps.

Great looking squad, will be fun as part of the bugs' display board. Also fun fact, that plasma pistol sarge is weirdly one of my favorite Imperial minis. At the time his armament - two guns and no ccw?? - and helmeted head were really novel to me for a GW champ figure, who were usually waving oversized knife-swords and screaming. I suppose I've carried that affection through the ages (and should really paint mine up some time )

The Stone-Crusher Carnifex is done! Now I can get to actually building the board, but I might divert slightly to do a basing tutorial first.

I could look at these minis all day. The painting on this blog continues to be outstanding and original.

Thanks Gordy2000, much appreciated.

Today I got started on the display board. I glued a piece of 2x2 insulation foam to a piece of 1/4" MDF, set up my models in a mockup of the final layout, and then drew in the intended terrain features.

Using the drawing as a guide, I glued down cork for rocks, used acetone to melt out some depressions for tide pools, and used a hot wire foam cutter to define the shoreline.



Since I need to wait for all that PVA to dry, I took a look at the plastic palm trees I bought for the project. At $13 for 30 trees, they were certainly affordable, but the appearance unsurprisingly left much to be desired.



However, with a bit of airbrushing and drybrushing, I was able to get them looking considerably more natural.

Another WIP: the display board is nearing completion.

Once the resin is fully cured, it's just a matter of adding water effects to the top (for waves), cleanup, and painting the edges of the display.

That’s a magnificent looking board, and it’s nit even done yet.

That is a surprisingly simple technique for quite a good-looking board!

Thanks! With how easy this has been, I'm thinking I might get some more foam and make a proper beach table.

I've just applied water effects to the top of the resin, so now it's just a slow and patient waiting game for it all to dry. I dare not put it outside in the sun for fear of getting pollen embedded in the water, so it might take as long as a week to clear up sitting indoors.

It's not even October yet, though, so I have plenty of time.

How do you do splashes of water like under nyd feet? Pour resin/water effect and then drag it around with a brush?

So from the project logs list I can see a reply after the one above, but when I open this thread, my post is the last one. Very strange. Can anyone confirm that there is a post between this one and my previous one?

Anyways, I had some free time today so I finished editing and uploading my beach basing tutorial.

Nice job on the re-painted palms.

 Shadenuat wrote:
How do you do splashes of water like under nyd feet? Pour resin/water effect and then drag it around with a brush?

Oh hey, now I can see the posts. That was weird.

If you check out the video I posted above, I apply the Water Effects around the 6:00 mark. It's a very thick product, so if I have an idea of where I want the model's foot to go, I can easily shape the Water Effects into a crater, then tease it out higher to form a splash.

Once it's dry, I drybrush the splash white, then put a small blob of Water Effects in the middle of the crater, and attach the model (pinned via the other foot). The blob of Water Effects works as a glue for the foot, and helps bridge any awkward gaps between the already-rigid crater and the foot.

In other news, this should be my last WIP before the display board is completely done. I just need to paint the water effects (the white parts are not fully cured yet), paint the rims, attach a name plaque I got laser-cut on Etsy, and do some minor touch-up.

I lied. I've decided to flip the board composition around, so that the Stormtroopers are on the beach, and the Tyranids coming out of the 'jungle'. I think this will produce a more natural flow to the board, rather than having the trees in the way.

With that in mind, the placard I had laser-etched- 'Terror From The Deep'- no longer seemed fitting. I did have the idea, instead, to draw from cheesy monster movies and make an ironic tiki-themed welcome sign as the placard.

Well, after designing a sign (using some freeware tiki fonts), printing it out, and gluing it to plasticard, I made the mistake of covering it all in a thick layer of Pledge- which, while it did a great job of sealing up the paper, also started to leach the ink out of the print.

So, I decided to roll with it. A spatter of blood, some random chipping, and the addition of a backer board and legs made from popsicle sticks, and now I have a billboard to insert just ahead of the treeline.

Just lovely stuff CB!

Beautiful. Gorgeous. Well done. What else can I say?

I've had an enormous amount of positive feedback to the coconut crab scheme. One of the recurring questions has been how to adapt the technique to paint cool colors, where the brown wash isn't suitable.

So, I did an experiment, painting a Termagant in a 'blue coconut crab' scheme. I basically used the same technique, but with blue patterning rather than orange/brown, and a black all-over wash instead of brown.




I've recorded the process and will be putting together a video tutorial while I wait for the board to finish curing.

Since I've still got almost two weeks before Armies on Parade, I'm also working on another brood of Termagants and an old FW Hive Tyrant (which the base in the basing tutorial was for!), so if I can get them knocked out quickly I'll be able to add them to the display.

Waiting for final display shots before gushing, but I love where it's at, and appreciate that you flipped the swarm's orientation to have a last stand at the waterfront for the troopers.

'Cold' termagant is adorable too. Inverted eyeballs included (which I'm pretty sure the crabs have too, but they stand out more here).

Chrome just gave me a random notification about your new coconut crab scheme on that there Reddit that they have now.

catbarf wrote:

Given that this is almost exactly how I hope my agitprop posters will work out, would you mind awfully going into a little more detail?

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Given that this is almost exactly how I hope my agitprop posters will work out, would you mind awfully going into a little more detail?

Oh sure. There's not really much to it.

So first I worked up the design on my PC, and printed it onto ordinary printer paper.

Then I cut the sign out carefully with scissors, and scored and snapped a piece of plasticard to the same size.

I glued the sign to the plasticard with a thin smear of PVA, and let it sit an hour or so, until it was firm.

I used a toothbrush to apply the spatter of blood, first flicking it on, then dabbing a bit with the bristles.

At this point, it looked like this:



So then, I brushed on a thick layer of gloss varnish- well, the Pledge floor gloss that I use as gloss varnish.

I figured this would provide a real saturation coat, to seal up the paper. Well, it did that, but it seems that a saturation coat of a water-based varnish is sufficient to leach the ink, so that's what caused the bleeding effect.

That's really all there is to it. Standard inkjet printer ink + tons of gloss varnish = a sealed, faded, ink-bleeding mess.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Got the blue coconut crab tutorial together quicker than anticipated. I'm not switching my army color scheme or anything, but figured it might help people looking to build their own scheme.

The board is tentatively complete!

Top stuff stuff.

I can just see the guys arguing on wether the Nids can swim or not.

While I wait for Armies on Parade, I decided to work on a sample for another Tyranid scheme.




Basically what I'm doing is iterating through a couple of unusual Tyranid painting concepts that I came up with through the 30+ schemes I tried before settling on the orange coconut crab scheme. As with the coconut crab scheme, they're all easy to paint, but do some unusual things with the models to make them interesting.

Once I've put together a set of samples and tutorials for each, I intend to produce a video guide tying them all together by explaining the underlying theory behind color selection, patterns, and keeping the models individually quick to paint.

That's the long-term goal- in the meantime, after Armies on Parade I'll be getting back into the coconut crab Tyranids. Next on deck are another brood of Termagants, and an old Forge World Hive Tyrant, which together will get me to 1000pts.

Here's a tutorial on the scheme: