Enter the Gargoyles

My most recent hobby project was to paint up a brood of gargoyles. I was a little intimidated by the prospect of painting their wings. I didn’t really know how I was going to go about getting that see-through look.

I looked at a few painting tutorials for wings and I became even more intimidated. There was a lot of blending and watering down and mixing and using paints that aren’t from Citadel and I got scared.  I’ve said it before, but I want to keep the paints as simple as humanly possible. I effects and color schemes to be easy to reproduce and replicate months later. I can make another squad of genestealers easily without having to worry that I have the right ratios of White Scar White to Ushabti Bone.

While I realize this will limit me as a painter, I’m happy with my efforts so far and I think that’s generally what’s important when you’re painting your army: are you happy with how it looks?

After a solid month of dawdling with my gargoyles, I sat down, figured out what paints I would need to get the effects I needed and began to experiment and test and paint and actually got some paint on those models.

Here are the results.

I think they came out great. They fit in well with my genestealers and my tervigon and the army is coming together thematically. When I put them all side-by-side, it’s an impressive sight and I can really appreciate why people are so dead-set on having fully painted armies on the table when they game.

For the carapace and body, I used the exact same techniques and colors I did for my genestealers, though my technique has improved considerably. The wings are three colors: a base coat of Screaming Skull, followed by Kislev Flesh near where the skin of the wing meets the bone in a feather/flame pattern and then a wash of Druchii Violet. After I washed the skin in Druchii Violet, I used a paper towel to wipe away almost all of the wash where the wing would be the thinnest giving it a kind of see-through feel.

All in all, I’m very happy with how they turned out and I can’t wait to get my army on the table, if only so I can show them off before they’re quickly taken off the table again.

-D-

The Army

As part of this project, I decided I want to start fresh with a whole new army. I did not want to play Guard. In any game I play, I always pick the most boring character. Case in point: My first character in World of Warcraft was a Human warrior. You cannot get more vanilla than that.

So I’m going to build an army that is not vanilla. It will not be human or Astartes or Inquisition or anything Imperial. That means Xenos or pure demon. Demons and dark eldar strike me as way too goth and way too emo, respectively. Necrons are cool looking, but I have no interest in painting them. Eldar are elves and elves don’t interest me even when they’re elves. And I don’t want to play Tau. From what I’ve heard of their play style, I’d be terrible at them.

That leaves Tyranids.

Tyranids intimidate me. The painting, specifically. While I can do a decent job of painting guard, they’re easy. Armor and clothing aren’t too difficult. But the Tyranids have a whole different organic feel to them. I’m going to have to learn a whole set of new techniques (feathering, getting better at dry brushing). But they’re also much more freeing to paint. I see no reason that they need to all look exactly the same. They’re animals, not manufactured in a factory like a Cadian guardsmen uniform. And there’s so much potential to add splashes of color and personality. I think it can be a really bright and vivid army.

So! Before I get started in earnest, I need to figure out what units to take. I need to avoid wasting money on units that I can’t actually use in the army. I’ve already goofed. In a moment of weakness, I bought a pyrovore. From what I’ve heard, this was a cataclysmic waste of 30 dollars. But I’m going to paint it anyway. Practice.

Once I start choosing units and building my list, I’ll talk about what I picked and why and then we’ll commence to building.

-D-