'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.

'nids part 353 - #DreadTober High Rule Dude and Screamer Killers

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's the first of #DreadTober and I've been #PaintingWarhammer

OK, so my High Rule Dude is my primary pledge, it's way bigger than Dread sized but as usual I got a bit of a head start on this one as I'd rather be doing the cool stuff this month - all the highlights than the boring basecoats and washes. The base was done ages ago and I got all of the prepping for the sub-build/repairs.

I then did my usual Red Oxide prime, but followed it with an Army Painter Skeleton Bone zenithal, where everything was going to be bone.

Threw on some res in all the fleshy bits and then Bahama Blue craft acrylic on all the chitin panels.

All the weapons too, then followed a sepia wash followed by an AP Strong Tone wash, mainly on the blue and red areas, but with some in the darkest recesses to cover any imperfections with how the wash pooled.

However, I've also thrown in not one but two stretch goals of two Screamer Killers. One of which would be sufficient to meet my DreadTober quota but I'm reaching for the stars here.

Here's the standard SK at the basecoat stage, before any washes. I did them at the same time as the High Rule Dude, but again I was struck with how tedious and time consuming even this aspect of the challenge was.

I genuinely couldn't risk doing all this in one month as I know persevering through it all might just be too much. So getting the washes done too and having them ready for whatever next stage there is, is my best chance of delivering finished pledges.

Of course it could still go horribly wrong as I discovered with my Psychophage that as simple and 'cool' as all the highlights and striations on my Tyranid scheme is, it is equally tedious, time consuming and potentially mojo killing!

So I could well run out of steam part way through the month, and finish nothing. It's a risk I'm willing to take and I've not even taken into account my TV watching habits

However, having all three options means I can switch between tasks and potentially flip my pledge and go with the Screamer Killers if the High Rule Dude proves too much [all 6 weapons seem like the tipping point].

Who knows? We'll see where I am at the end of the week, hopefully one set of highlights is done at least...