‘nid Test Cases

I said a few days ago that I was going to post pictures of my first few attempts to paint the beginnings of my ‘nid army and I honestly meant to do that on Friday. The delay was due to my inability to grasp basic camera mechanics. After a few solid hours of hammering at the focus button, I finally managed to get a few decent shots of the first three hormagaunts I painted.

A quick note about this and other posts, I will always try to list the new name for paints and then the old name in parentheses after. For example; White Scar (Skull White). I do this because, if you’re like me, you probably own a couple of old paints that have the names from before the conversion and I want ya’ll to follow along as best as possible.

I’m not going to go into depth into the techniques I used here and now (that will be for a later post), but I will go over the ideas that I had for the painting and then the implementation. For me, I need to actually physically try something before I can decide if I like it or not. Which means my first hormagaunt is…not so good. he bore the brunt of my experimentation and while he’s acceptable, I would be embarrassed to have him stand next to the rest of my army.

Speaking of which…

 

I made a few mistakes. Number one; never, ever dry brush a darker color onto a lighter color. That should have been obvious to me before I did that, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Instead of looking like mottled armor, which is what I was going for, it looks like a white ‘nid rolled in some spoiled mayo. Not good.

Number two, I love washes. Washes are how painters can achieve some truly awesome effects without a huge amount of effort. Except this was my first time using Druchi Violet (Leviathan Purple) and using White Scar (Skull White). So I did what I do when I use Agrax Earthshade (Devlan Mud) on my Cadians: I painted the nid entirely in the wash and he turned purple.

Once again, not what I was going for. He looked bad. And he looked even worse when I went back and repainted him. He has way too much paint and he’s lost a lot of detail. I am honestly considering stripping the paint and starting again from scratch, at which point, you’ll get another tutorial about how to strip plastic miniatures.

In terms of style, I didn’t like the black carapace armor and claws. He looked too dark. The whole point is I want brightly colored Tyranids. I’m going for vivid, popping colors and this just wasn’t doing it for me.

Enter Test Number 2.

 

Learned my lesson the second time and reversed the base colors: a layer of Ushabti Bone (Bleached Bone) and then a layer or two of dry brushed White Scar (Skull White). Much better effect and I got exactly what I was looking for.

I was also smarter with the wash, using it much more sparingly, though I am going to go back and touch it up here and there. I left the models in their rough draft state so you have a better idea of what I did without everything being buried under touch-ups and highlights.

 

I also changed the color scheme with the claws and armor, removing the bottom layer of black and starting with Xereus Purple  (Liche Pruple) instead. I ended up not liking this look for the claws and returned to the earlier look. Still not enough color though and not enough pop. Leading to ‘nid test subject number 3….

 

The black claws are back and now there’s a trim of Sotek Green (Hawk Turquoise) on the carapace armor. At this point, I think I’ve locked in the colors I want to use for the entirety of my nid army. By working it out through these three, I can now move forward. I will probably tweak things here and there (like with the genestealers who lack a lot of the carapace armor), but, for the most part, I like how things look.

Now it’s about practicing two important techniques that I will really need to nail down for ‘nids especially: feathering and dry brushing.

 

Hope this helps other beginners in deciding how they want to paint their armies. Next week, I’m going to document the painting of a hormagaunt from beginning to end and talk about how I’m going to decide what goes into my army.

-D-