Rough and Dirty Painting Guide: Hormagaunt

After long last, I have finally put together a painting guide for the hormagaunts. If you liked the earlier pictures that I posted of my ‘gaunts, here’s how you can get similar effects.

A few words before we begin. These ‘gaunts represent the first nids I’ve ever painted. They don’t look great. You will never see these in Games Workshop’s codex of awesome painting jobs. I still have a long way to go before I feel my skill is up to what is in my head. But that’s what the blog is about: it’s about learning as we go. I’m going to try and post all of my mistakes and missteps along the way so you can avoid them.

Secondly, I need a better camera area set-up. The light is not great to get all the colors I wanted you to see. All the photos of the feathering did not come out, so I’ll just do my best to describe the process without a pictorial history. You’ll live.

Moving on!

 

This is the hormagaunt, primed and ready to go. I use GW’s primer, because I’m lazy and I’d rather buy primer at the game store than go to the hardware store. You should go to the hardware store. You can find white spray paint primer for under ten bucks.

For my painting set up, I always have a paper towel on hand to wipe off excess paint for dry brushing and wet brushing. The white paper is there because I was using the kitchen table and not my usual desk and I didn’t want to be straight up murdered for getting bleached bone on the good furniture.

I also don’t use GW’s brushes because they don’t have the range of styles I feel are needed for getting the effects you need. I have a friend who has a brush that is just a single bristle that he made himself. He uses it for eyes. You need more than what GW can provide, but you don’t have to break the bank for it. Go to Michael’s and poke around.

 

Here’s Hormie after I applied a layer of Ushabti Bone (Bleached Bone) on everything that wasn’t claw or carapace. At this stage, you can be sloppy. Do it fast and do it dirty. You will very rapidly cover up any and all of your mistakes in the later stages.

 

Next, I painted the carapace on the body and head with Naggaroth Night. Now it’s time to be more careful. It’ll be hard to cover any mistakes with the White Scar (Skull White) if you get dark purple on the body.

 

Next, I painted the claws and hooves black. I’ve tried using purple in the past and I ended up liking the more striking effect of the black claws. Personal preference.

 

Next, I used a very thin layer of White Scar (Skull White). You want a little bit of the Ushabti Bone (Bleached Bone) to show through. If he’s just solid white, it’s going to be visually less interesting. How much white you use is, again, personal preference.

 

Next I applied the wash. I used Druchii Violet (Leviathan Purple) in the various cracks and crevices on the ‘nid. There are a lot of places you can use the wash and the more you highlight, the better it looks. Don’t worry if you spill outside of the areas you meant to put it (like I did on the ribs and just above the elbow), that’s what dry brushing is for.

Now, while I was doing these other steps, I was feathering. Here’s the video I used  when I was teaching myself. One of the most important things to remember about this technique is that COLORS MATTER. If there is too big of a difference between the colors your are trying to blend, it will never look blended. It will pop too much and you’ll lose the effect you were going for. I used a base layer of Naggaroth Night, then Xereus Purple (Liche Purple), then Kantor Blue (Necron Abyss).

 

After adding two layers of wash in the crevices and washing the carapace (to help blend the colors and bring out details that might otherwise be lost in the paint), I began to hit the small details. I used a red (you have your druthers on red, I rarely stick to one for ‘nid eyes.) on the eyes. I trimmed the edged of the armor in Sotek Green (Hawk Turquoise) and dry brushed white over the areas I washed to help neaten it up.

Dry brushing is what it sounds like. Take your brush and wipe off a lot of the paint. Then lightly brush over the areas. This will only paint the most raised areas of the model and ignore the deeper recesses. This is also a good method for vehicle painting when you want to show wear and tear.

I also used Agrax Earthshade (Devlan Mud) to highlight the teeth. This, bar none, is the best wash for the teeth. Don’t try the others. Use Devlan Mud.

I also dry brushed a layer of Kantor Blue (Necron Abyss) onto the claws. I’ve been experimenting with different colors to highlight onto the claws. Dark reds and purples look best.

 

And that’s the finished hormie. For your troop choices, this is the most work you should spend painting and even that might be too much painting. I did all of those steps for twelve models and it took three weeks.

Next week, I’ll be researching basing!

-D-