'nids part 357 - #DreadTober High Rule Dude and Screamer Killers chitin highlights 2

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's the 16th of #DreadTober and I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Tyranid High Rule Dude and the second set of chitin highlights are complete.

Much brighter but still I think I covered up far more of the previous Teal highlight than I would have liked.

Here's some close-ups to see the quality of the line work.

Some good ones but also some scruffy ones.

I also decided to fill the dots with brush work, rather than pins, tooth picks or paper-clip dots. It's less uniform and in some places goes wrong too but it was just easier to do in one sitting.

Those vents are disappointing. I will be doing green glow from them like the Hierophant and on the sides. Hopefully the additional colour will break things up and be more interesting to look at than the dodgy striations. 

The guns

which look like weird little star fields now.

Talons

The look OK, ther'll be lots to do with the black highlights when I get round to them.

Not just the massive talons themselves, but the hand claws.

The elbow and the three little spikes underneath the forearm. This may break me next week.

Both Screamer Killers are now highlighted.

It's bizarre who the legs offend me again. I get why they're stocky, but the Norn Emissary is bigger and his legs and chitin plates are more tapered.

But it's not just the shape, its the numbers. The Emissary has five plates on the thigh and the three on the shin.

This has six plates on the thigh and four on the shin.

I'm convinced if they'd stuck to that the proportions would have made more sense.

But again, this thing needs more armour so they through on more plates. Lore-wise, bio-morph wise it makes sense. I just think visually it falls down.

Although I do love the back, these vents will need a green glow too.

And the other SK, I just think it looks like it's wearing tartan pants.

I put some tertiary highlights on the High Rule Dude, but haven't done so here, which I might have to rectify now I've spotted it.

There are just a few places where both of them would benefit from just a little extra definition,

Reds next and there's a fair bit to do on all these models for that.

So, that's the vast bulk of the model done just reds, blacks, greens, blue [for the SC plasma] and teeth and eyes.

Back to the spreadsheet to track my progress, unfortunately I keep adding to it, to help identify different elements, as I tick things off 124 elements now. However, I've only 25% left to do, so at least progress is outperforming the setbacks. Although I'm not sure having 50% of my time left is actually sufficient to do that 25%! So many details left...

'nids part 356 - #DreadTober High Rule Dude and Screamer Killers chitin highlights

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's the 13th of #DreadTober and I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Tyranid High Rule Dude and the first set of chitin highlights are complete.

I think I'd feared this more than the bone, but actually it wasn't too bad.

Once again I'm using a spreadsheet to keep track of things, on all of my DreadTober pledges, so it helps to tick each element off one at a time. This is the body, obviously, but also forms part of the 'dots' task.

Left and right legs [plus dots].

The guns, which I'm going to try and match to the Bio-titan weapons.

It's a bit more 'Duplo' than the Hierophant, but then this sculpt is - sacrificing some of the finer detail for a better overall chunky feel. The dots and finesse of the striations match up.

Scything talons, funnily enough I did the three forearm plates on both and actually thought these were done.

Then I realised there was the 'sheath' bit of the talon itself. Don't know how I overlooked it initially, and they were probably more effort than the three bigger plates!

And back to the Screamer Killers and I got so carried away I totally painted the second set of highlights on one of them before I took the pictures of the first stage. I won't go into it until all stage 2 highlights are together but it makes an interesting comparison as I think I cover almost 80% of the 1st stage. Once again I'm going to blame my clumsiness and laziness.

I'm returning to my issue of this beast having much too chunky legs and the armour plates almost give the impression it's wearing tartan pants.

It's coming together from the saide.

And I do like the top/back carapace armour.

Not a lot of dots, but they make a significant difference to help break up the space inbetween the striations and the inconsistencies with the wash on the plates.

Once again the close up and this time pay attention to the teal. I'll repeat this after the 2nd highlights so we can see how much is covered.

Right, 2nd highlights still to do. I've estimated there are 118 elements on all three models, so far I've done 66, with only 52 left. Great progress and although I will have gotten through the bulk of the model very soon the remaining small bits may end up taking just as long. All the red and black highlights, green glow FX, any fleshy pink bits and perhaps even blue plasma [urgh] on the Screamer Killers...

We'll just have to see.

'nids part 355 - #DreadTober High Rule Dude and Screamer Killers 2nd bone highlights

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's the 9th of #DreadTober and I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Tyranid High Rule Dude

Second set of bone highlights, much more fun than the first.

Lots of detail added to the ribcage to give it more texture.

It has removed some of the volumetric shading though, so when I have glued it together I will add some sepia washes in places to make it less uniformly lit.

The legs too, although they look better after all the highlights they just need more definition to their shape.

But it'll be easier to do it as one piece.

The guns next. This was a lot less onerous a task, as I suspected. 

However, I am beginning to notice that my brush control/line consistency is not quite the standard I've achieved in the past.

Now I'm not going to blame the tools, I've decent brushes, I just don't think I'm using them properly - overloading them with paint as I don't want to do the same stroke more than once.

It's not just laziness, it's that I can't. I don't quite have hand tremors nowadays but holding things steady for long periods of time just isn't sustainable. 

Not a great attribute when you paint miniatures for a hobby, but this realisation is having an impact on not just the painting but my outlook on how I paint and how it comes out.

The fact my experience is no longer creating improvements and my physical condition is perhaps reversing things means I have to be more accepting of the outcome.

The Screamer Killers were both brought up to scratch.

Reminds me of Krusty the Clown.

Luckily the dark brown, to sepia, to bone makes these a little more interesting.

But I still think some additional shading down the line will help define the model more. 

Once again I split the painting to legs, tail and torso. 

Then did the four arms separately, which I still found little joy in doing.

Saying that, I do have an urge to get another Screamer Killer.

So that I can convert it into an Old One Eye, I have the magnetised claws already...

We'll just have to see if I can be bothered.

Here's a close up of the highlights - so you can see just how rough and imprecise my strokes are.

I mean I love seeing brushstrokes on models. So in that sense I like the blobbiness. But I can also see where the paint has bled where I don't want it to be and those read as mistakes to me.

The rib cage looks pretty great though.

But it's undeniable here that I cannot hold a consistent straight line, and I know that was my intention.

But we make do with what we have and here's a little sneak peek of the next update - chitin striations next.