Painting the Horde

 

I am approaching painting burnout and it’s because of those guys up there. It’s 24 models. I’ve heard of people painting more in one sitting, but I don’t see how they do it. It’s a daunting task and it seems like an endless one. When I finished dry brushing the last termagant, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief that I wouldn’t have to do that again for a while.

But now it’s painting the carapace armor and next it will be painting the hooves and claws and painting has gone from something I enjoy to feeling like the assembly line that it is. It is one of the downsides of painting a horde army (not that Tyranids can compare with a true horde army like infantry Guard or Orks): you’re going to be painting a lot of the same type of model and it’s going to seem endless.

I’ve been working through it by switching up what I’m doing. I’ll go from dry brushing to carapace to hooves and then back again, just so I’m not doing the same thing nonstop.

I also purchased my hive tyrant model and I’m using that as a reward for finishing the termagants. I’ll get to put that together and paint something unique and different.

I’m also considering painting up a small squad of marines I have lying around. It’ll be a new challenge, a new color scheme and I can try out some new ideas.

While you should never shy away from work (because any hobby worth its weight should, at times, make you sweat and dig down deep and not just be an exercise in mindlessness), a hobby is meant to be enjoyable. If you’re dreading sitting down at the painting table, you’re doing something wrong. Change it up, do something new and then come back to your hordes of troops.

What do you do when you start feeling burned out on the more repetitious aspects of the hobby?

-D-

Few Steps Forward

Time for a general update on what I’ve been doing with the hobby.

So far, the only models that I would consider completely done are the genestealers and the gargoyles. Both broods are completely painted.

I’ve also based the genestealers, as well as did some touch up work to bring them more into line with each other and change their claw color.

For the bases, I used Citadel’s Texture paint, Astrogranite. Citadel has a line of paints that are labeled Texture which contain granules of…something. Probably sand. It’s a quick and dirty way of getting a textured paint on your models or their bases.

After a layer of the astrogranite (which tended to go everywhere), I washed it with Nuln Oil and boom, my genestealers are standing on asphalt.

 

 

It’s not exactly the most elaborate basing, but, to tell the truth, I’m not completely enamored with the idea of flocking the nearly hundred models I’m going to end up with. Especially since, with a little work, I can have them standing where I want them to be standing: on a grimy, gritty street on some Hive World, ready to attack the local populace.

Also, here’s a quick shot of the tervigon I painted a while back:

 

I was using her to hold up the makeshift light-box.

I’ve also built, primed, base coated and washed 24 termagants, which are half what I’ll end up needing.

Once those little guys are painted and based, I just need a hive tyrant (flying variant) and then I’ll have an army worthy of the table.

I’m so close.

In other news, I read another couple of pages in the rule book.

See you in a couple of days.

-D-

Writer in a Stealth Suit

Dude to the events last week, I haven’t had much inclination to do much blogging. I’ve gotten a fair amount done with the hobby though.

I’ve completed eight genestealers and I regret to say that I have completely changed the paint scheme from my hormagaunts. After poking around the internet, I found a Tyranid painting guide that demonstrated a different method and I decided to give it try. In the middle of the process, I went in a whole new direction.

Rather than the fairly clean white body, I went with a grungier, more mottled look for the skin. While I do like the striking and bold colors of the Hive Leviathan ‘nids, I’ve become attached to this dirtier, grosser looking ‘nid. I’ve even started coming up with fluff to explain their appearance, which is one of the best ways I can think to really maintain interest in an army. Once you start to learn your army’s backstory, it becomes that much easier to pour more work and effort into it. I already have an idea of how I’ll make the corresponding Ymgarl Genestealer squad I’m working on.

For those that want to create a similar color scheme for their Tyranids, I’ll have another painting tutorial up soon.

I also finished building a squad of gargoyles, but I’m intimidated by the wings. I need to get a lot better at blending and highlighting, but there’s only one way to do that and that’s putting paint to plastic.

I plan to try and post every day this week and try and set up a regular update schedule.

Stay tuned for reviews, painting tutorials, more awkward pictures of up close genestealers and my first forays into the local community.

-D-

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-

‘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-

Painting Tests

If there’s anything I learned while painting my Imperial Guard army, it’s that you will end up hating the first few that you paint. The colors won’t be right. You’ll miss details in the models that you notice on the third or fourth go around. You’ll learn a new painting technique that all of a sudden opens up your options (hellooooo Devlan Mud Wash).

So for my Tyranid army, I bought a squad of hormagaunts. I know I most likely won’t end up using them. Everything I’ve read on the Internet and heard on the 11th Company says that either genestealers or termagants are the way to go (more about that later).

But for me, right now, the hobby is the most important part of Warhammer 40K. I want an army that looks awesome on the table, because, at the very least, if you’re being beat into submission by a superior opponent, you can at least look good while being beat.

For $30.00, I was able to get a squad of twelve models, which means twelve attempts to get the color scheme I like and twelve models to practice techniques. The first model is a travesty. A monstrous, revolting thing that I don’t want to show you, but I will show you because this is a blog about learning and if I can’t show you my embarrassing mistakes, then I shouldn’t be doing this blog.

The second model is that much better. I have a better idea of the colors I want and I understand what I’m doing better.

I’m now working on the third model, using the lessons I learned on the first and second ones, also using better brushes (more on materials in a later post).

It’s important to understand, in anything really, that you will suck the first time and the second time and the third time. It is the rare person who picks up a brush and instantly knows what to do. It took me forty guard models, talking with my friends, youtube painting tutorials, scanning forums and painting guides and another forty guard models before I managed to come up with a style and technique that looks good from four feet away. From four feet away, my Cadian troopers look totally bad-ass. But please, don’t pick them up for a closer look.

Once I finish my third hormagaunt, I’ll post the pictures here so you can see a side-by-side comparison and I’ll explain how I got the look that I got. I’m trying to make as many mistakes as possible and then showing them off so you can hopefully step around them and make completely different mistakes.

-D-

P.S. If anyone can tell me why they spelled termaGANT and hormaGAUNT differently, I’d love to hear the reason.