Showing posts with label sentry gun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sentry gun. Show all posts

Monday 30 December 2013

To Done! - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line

Don't worry, you haven't gone mad I know I've had a Tyranid Aegis Defence line for quite a while, well this is the completion of the 'spare' and it's on my '2013/14 To Do List'. All that was waiting was some Tendril Vines and the sand base. For some reason stripping string and twine apart and then soaking it in PVA before I individually position them to look like trailing alien vine growth didn't appeal to me, so I'd put this off for long time.


But I'd done the Capillary Towers vines and thought I might as well add to the two hours doing them and continue on with half an hour of pimping the walls. Additionally I added sand to the bases. In the new year I may ask my mate Liam at Blue Warp Studios to take me through the finer points of making a mould and casting these up. Escalation allows for multiple defence lines so this is a perfect opportunity to build more.


Here's my big blue tick for getting it done.

Thursday 11 October 2012

'nids part 60 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line Pt7

One thing I learned through the tediousness of painting these things is do something that tricks your mind into what you are doing. So for instance I would plan to paint plates but then after I'd done two I'd then switch to doing the red planet basing - say adding the Badab Black wash. that way having been bored with the first task I broke it up with the second only to find that when I planned to complete the second task parts of it were already done and therefore it went quicker and became less boring.


Each panel was taking 15 minutes to do the highlights with 12 in all that was 3 hours. But sitting down knowing I could handle 45-60mins at most was both hard and daunting. Its great to have those figures in your head but it can put you right off. The advantage was that I could find 15 mins from somewhere and just do a single panel but setting aside an evening was just awful to contemplate - hence the diversion tactics.


One way to speed things up was by using a cocktail stick for all the dot. Cutting it in half meant I had a point and a large flat circle which actually made some dots way bigger than I normally do but these are larger pieces of Chitin than I normally do.


What amazes me is the reservations I had about achieving the same finish because they were too denim seems to have been premature, once again I refer you to the most important rule of painting. I thinkeven without the next set of highlights most of the Turquoise covers any discrepancies and the mixed tones add depth and variety. Simply he lighter colour makes the darker colour 'appear' darker, it's pretty much an optical illusion.


The kicker for all this is that in doing the red planet basing I also have to do the bone white fragments which meant one of the other diversions from the monotonous Chitin was the backs of the panels. So once again these things start to come together all at once.


I also tried some Mechrite Red on the alien tentacle vines to see if that would make them stand out a bit more.


The backs are pretty much done, no secondary bonewhite highlights I think, just a few highlights on the alien tentacle vines to pick it out from the base a bit more.


Once again the quad gun in context with the defence line.


Next up more highlights, another 15-20 mins per panel - oh joy!


Friday 5 October 2012

'nids part 59 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Quad Gun pt6.

On goes the Turquoise. For some reason this was quite tedious. Having lumped this in with the defence line which was hard work every time I came to paint this I did it in bits. 


The head, the muzzle, two base Chitinous plates, the plates on the side of the gun.


It took quite a while. I also thinned some Mechrite Red and added it in places.


And I did the base with my usual Red Planet Basing formula but additionally painted the Adrenal Glands looking for a symbiote. See what I mean about the problem with red ones blending in. they'll look better on the back of a beasty but hopefully they're just noticeable enough.


And this is the view I want your flyer to have just before it ploughs into the ground thanks to its four shots :)


Next set of highlights to come but before that the same set on the defence line, keep watching!

Wednesday 3 October 2012

'nids part 58 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line Pt6

The Tyranid Aegis Defence Line has been washed. Once again, Gryphone Sepia and Devlan Mud or it's nu-GW paint range or my Warpianter Strong Tone equivalent.


What concerns me is that the sheer scaled of these chitinous plates looks like there won't be the depth to the colours as on your standard Tyranid. these are looking more denim than deep sea ocean effect. And also whatever the washes do they somehow manage to slightly thin the base colour as significantly more undercoat seems to be visible than I would normally expect. You can see the Red Oxide colouring just a tad in the blue areas below.


And the back areas for a bit of contrast and all the alien vine tentacles are slightly more purple, just because.


Makes a nice difference to see them blue one side and then as you pan round you get a whole different perspective - the best of both worlds.


And here's the quad gun in situ, poking out form behind the wall.


Fits right in don't you think?


More coming as soon as I can fit it in, your patience is appreciated.

Saturday 29 September 2012

'nids part 57 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Quad Gun pt5.

All the washes have been done now. I had to get a Seraphim Sepia just in case I ran out of Gryphonne Sepia. I also needed the new Agrax Earth Shade - Devlan Mud but the Manchester GW was out of stock. Luckily on my way back to work within a five minute walking distance are two independent games stores.


The nearest one Fanboy3 had a stock of Army Painters Dark Tone and Strong Tone inks which Ron at From the Warp reliably proved are the exact same results as the old GW washes. So £2.25 for 33% more paint than a standard pot, I was sold.


I struggled to make choices about which colour was to go where but I think I got it in the end. I'm still a bit dubious about the lightness of the blue, can't imagine it looking like my usual finish. Somehow I think it needs to be darker but perhaps it'll look different after the turquoise...


And the Vermilion base just so I can get that started too, great way to distract from the endless Turquoise striations I'm going to be doing.


Tuesday 25 September 2012

'nids part 56 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line Pt5

I was creative with my undercoats here, a quick blast of white on the insides then red oxide from the front and top down on the sand base. this way the Ultramarine blue went on a darker background - don't want it too bright and the base was perfect for my Vermilion craft acrylic


Inside of the defence line is my latte craft paint, it's extremely matte and I'm not entirely convinced of it's durability but it gives good coverage and there'll be plenty more paint going on top of it so it shouldn't be a problem.


Washes and tentacle vines to be painted next...

Friday 21 September 2012

'nids part 55 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Quad Gun pt4.

Base colours in place, Ultramarine and my cheap bone white equivalent 'Latte' I believe it's called.


This is nearly exactly what I wanted to achieve but now the colours are in place I can't work out if it's actually a bit stupid looking. It doesn't seem to be out of balance but then I look at the gun and think perhaps it's a bit big and the heads a bit 'stuck on' and what's the point of the tail?


I dunno, I don't suppose it matters much really, it's just something to represent a Tyranid Quad Gun. It doesn't have to be physiologically correct and if there'spart of me that thinks it does what I set out for it to do then I should just accept it and move on.


Next up, liver, reds and washes...


Monday 17 September 2012

'nids part 54 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line Pt4

Now this is what we're talking about...


Having suggested many different ways to add detail, but in so doing increase time to model I ended up with just some string tentacles on the backs, just to make them a little more organic and alien. You can also see that the grey-board bases have warped just a little bit after being based with sand. Not enough to be a problem but I thought I'd draw attention to it.


Sand also got added to the fronts, I'm hoping to transition between the chitin and the ground without too much stupid contrast, if you follow.


As a group they're really starting to come together and I think the alien tentacle vines break up the slightly shoddy sculpting on the back.


I hope the paint job works because right now they look decent enough as is, ha, ha!


And the quad gun in place, still visible over the defence line.


But still capable of gaining a cover save ;) Next up base coats.


Thursday 13 September 2012

'nids part 53 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Quad Gun pt3.

Talking of quad guns, here's where we are at. Tyranid armour plates have been sculpted in place. Unfortunately I didn't prep this to be what i had in my head, perhaps a sketch might have been in order. The aspect I'm unhappy about, but will have to accept, is that I didn't bulk out the base enough.


I wanted a more bulbous squashed tomato profile, instead its a bit mushroom like. I also hadn't thought ahead regarding the fleshy top encased in the plates, it needed some texture so I was forced to take a drill bit to it to achieve something. It's the best of a bad job to be sure and I believe it'll get some praise but it's not 100% what I hoped for. You can tell how much I wanted to bulk it out by the empty space in front on the base.

I also added the Trygon Prime tail as a node antenna, with some reasonably sculpted fleshy folds. I also added a slight spinal ride running up the back to the toxin sacs, which I hope don't look too 'stuck on'. The second shot shoes the spinal ridge better.


If you actually look closely on the Tyranid Codex you will notice quite a few little green creepy crawlies pottering around on the crazy Tyranid bio-structures. By all accounts they're the adrenal sac bio-morphs. Almost all of the Tyranid weapons and upgrades revolve around symbiotic organisms that attach to the greater Tyranid creature. But we don't often see many of the little beggars mooching about on actual models as we see in the cover. I've always thought that was a bit sad as plenty of folk will have spare Adrenal Sacs. I've put them on a couple of figures but never been openly creative with their painting, so they don't stand out.

The problem is I never truly decided how to paint them, the Trygon's is just painted bonewhite, the Tervigon is more yellow in place and the one on my Tyranid Prime is practically camouflaged.


I want them to be red, to show the Rage building chemicals inside but will they show  up on Ferron Proxima? Only time will tell but for the mean time I put three of them on the base and they look kind of cool, if a bit bumbling ;)