'nids part 371 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary toxic/plasma glow

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammerit's with #DreadTober2024 behind us #Nidvember passing without hardly a blog post I thought I'd just give an update on my 'pledge'. Actually it's almost done!

All the green glow effects for bio-plasma and toxic bits have been finished.

I've cleaned up its tentacles and you can also see the Norn Assimilator claws have been painted too. The Assimilator head is also done but I'm only sharing the claws because they had the green bits on too. 

You might be able to make out the subtle shading on the underside of the arms and in some of the shaded areas. This adds a little bit more volume that my usual OTT highlights strips out. 

There are just tweaks to the base and I can start the varnishing, if I can bring myself to complete these last few tasks. I've also progressed the GSC Sentinels and a couple of other things which I'll hopefully get round to sharing when I have the time.

'nids part 370 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary talons, claws and brain glow

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer it's the end #DreadTober2024 and it's bittersweet as I didn't quite meet my pledge. But, last year I started early and was working for almost 2 months to get everything done [in time]. This time I started early [as usual] but didn't work continuously through September. So maybe this is all just delayed [gratification].

As you can see I've added in the orange glow to all the brain bits, the fleshy tendrils and all the black highlights on the talons, claws and hooves.

Unlike the orange brain Zoanthrope I put the highlights in the brain creases rather than on top of the folds. Slightly harder to do perhaps but perhaps the better solution.

The back piece is a little less successful, because it's just harder to get to. Hopefully because it's also harder to actually see it doesn't really matter.

The tentacles have come out OK, messy but not wholly unpleasant. I still think there are some more highlights to do that will help. And also the nodules at the end - the plan is they will be green like the vent glows but I have seen some amazing orange ones and I'm just taking time to make the right decision. Again, I don't want to rush this. Also a close up of one of the talons.

This isn't all I've done, I've painted the tentacles on the Neurotyrant and Neurolids, just didn't get them to a point where I could do their brain glows at the same time. I've also done some highlights on the GSC sentinels but haven't taken pictures. What do I have left to do? 

• Fix tentacles
• Green glows
• Some minor claws on the tentacles need highlights
• Some tonal shading on the bone
• Bone chips on base
• Metallics on base
• Fleshy bits on base
• Odds and sods I can't think of
• Matt varnish
• Gloss varnish
• Blood FX

'nids part 369 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary Tourquoise highlight & fleshy bits

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer it's #DreadTober2024 and it's  turquoise highlights. Overall I am much happier with my results than I was in previous posts.

I still feel I'm not at the standard I wish I was but the results look pretty good and I think it's finally coming together for me. I also added in the pink brain tentacles, I didn't want to go red on these and actually have so far painted the Neurotyrant and Neurolids the same.

Close up of my paint strokes. I am going to add some minor third stage highlights in places. Although I'm happier I am less confident I will get it done in time. It just goes to show how important those head starts have been. I wasn't kidding, I know my pace. In some respects I'm surprised I got this far, even though it's much smaller than last year's pledge.

We'll just have to see how I get along.

I added the final set of highlights to the turquoise and started on the red fleshy bits.

This has had 4 sets of highlights! I know, ridiculous. But I looked back on my Screamer Killers and I did a Heavy Red base, shade, Heavy Red highlight, Mephiston Red, Bloody Red and Bloody Red/White highlights. So I had to repeat.

The base in particular is starting to come alive with this.

The face too is more expressive, although the brain matter has been left red as it will all be glowy. I'm thinking orange and yellow like my last Zoanthrope update. There is going to be green glow on the vents and some of the toxic areas so the psychic ability needs to be something else and I'd rather not confuse with the blue 'plasma' from the Screamer Killers.

Hard talon black highlights next and then the glow.

I just think I'm running out of time. I think I have a couple of weeks effort left and the Sentinels haven't been touched since my last update. I'm not going to rush it though and be disappointed with the finished result. I'll do my best.

'nids part 368 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary Bone highlight & tourquoise

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer it's #DreadTober2024 and it's bone and turquoise. Perhaps it was obvious in my last post and I'm sad to say it there are certain aspects of this paintjob I am not enjoying. Mainly the realisation that my skills are somewhat lacking and I may not make improvements in the future.

Throw in how tedious this process can actually be and it feels like the results are not delivering on the effort expended to achieve them.

That said, the second set of bone highlights has both reaffirmed some of those feelings and reminded me to not judge a model until it's finished.

Because, although close inspection shows brush strokes I am less than happy about I do think it's an overall improvement. Furthermore, from a distance [tabletop standard] it looks pretty good.

But the bone is done now and I will add some additional tonal variations and shading down the line but next up is the turquoise on the chitin - lets see how onerous a task this will be...

Very onerous is the answer, but not actually more than I could stomach. But overall it looks great and it looks much more impressive than close scrutiny reveals but I'm OK with that.

All of the turquoise took about 3 sessions, it was much too labour intensive for me to cope in one sitting. Now I did do some bits on my sentinels and even Leviathan Tyranids, which may seem odd to break up painting a Tyranid by painting more Tyranids but I assure you it made sense at the time. Unfortunately the sentinel progress was not worth taking pictures of so there's no update for them this week.

However, the challenge here was made harder by the choice of paint. For this side I was using a cheap craft acrylic I've used before, but it's dries quite quickly, meaning it becomes quite gloopy. Unfortunately thinning it down with water makes it flow too much. I end up with big globs of opaque thick paint on my brush while the watered paint soaks in the bristles and travels up to the ferule. Getting fine feather stokes is almost impossible.

So for the other side I switched to Miniature Paints aquamarine, which is almost identical [I know the colours look wildly different, but that's different exposures on the camera]. You can see a subtle difference when the aquamarine is next to the turquoise but when it's painted on like this the difference is indistinguishable. But the main difference is in the application. It's slightly thinner, more consistent and thins better. The second half was a much more rewarding experience, which was a relief.

I've already started the next set of highlights and I've done the base, legs, torso, head, and arms. All that's left is the carapace - the crests have two sides each and then back mound has left and right sides which are everso fiddly to get into. I hoped to have got it done, but fell short, maybe over the weekend?Second highlights are a little easier because you can see where you are going to paint. But, you have to be more careful with the brush stroke to get the lines thinner and not obliterate all the painting done here. I don't always manage it but it's looking OK. At least at this stage I am much happier. This will be as good as my Screamer Killers and High Rule Dude from DreadTober 2023, so whatever disappointment I did feel hopefully I've come to terms with it. 

'nids part 367 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary Bone & GSC Sentinel yellow

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's #DreadTober2024 and it's bone and yellow. I managed to get a really focused painting session in on the Emissary. I usually do the bone first, which is challenging but I'll probably find the turquoise much worse when I get to it.

It was about an hour and a half to two hours to get it done and all the Assimilator bits to. For me that's a lot at the moment. Even when I've been my most productive I don't often sit and paint without a break for that long. If I do it's definitely broken up with many different things to paint. I would not be just doing endless bone. So in that respect I was quite proud of myself.

However, once again my brush control continues to disappoint. I've said many times I love to see brush strokes, I like to see someone has painted something. Obviously 'Eavy Metal and Golden Demon entries deserve the respect for their quality and execution. But I appreciate much more something that you can see has been executed to look painterly. As I know I can achieve that too, it helps, but that requires a level of brush control - so that when you're marking a mark, that mark is there because you decided to make it that way, rather than that's the only way you were capable of making it.

And that's why I feel a bit disheartened with many of the strokes on the tail in particular. This the best control I could muster and it is not the standard I aspire to but also thought I'd be capable of after decades of painting. My progress hasn't even stalled it has regressed! So, this is somewhat disappointing but I am trying to reframe that feeling that only way you are capable of making brush mark is a bad thing. Accepting what I can and can't do is an achievement in itself and 'finished not perfect' has been my mantra for quite a while. Not perfect could mean 'even less perfect' for me now. But I get ahead of myself, it's far from finished and there is still paint to come that will draw attention from some minor wobbly lines. I've experienced a lot of emotions and self-reflection in this one process. It may not be the function of #DreadTober but there has been growth for me, even if it has been hard to face it.

Meanwhile, I got to slap on some yellow. Rather than go with my Gamboge Art Acrylic, I started with Instar IV-16 yellow [armoured Sentinel]. It's what I did with the original Sentinels and I wanted to attempt consistency. 

However, they did have a tint layer of Gamboge on top, but I tested Citadel Iyanden Yellow contrast and it achieve the same effect. It's used on the one on the left.

Again, there is more to do to tone things down and add more weathering and rust so they will look very different when finished.

I love these old sculpts. Sure the new Sentinels are pretty cool but there's something so basic about them, like the original Willy's Jeep. Whereas now they're 'overengineered' if grudgingly more functional.

Anyway, here's one next to an original and yes there's a bit more orange on it but that should tone down a bit as we go on. If not... screw consistency! 🤣

I've done a bit more on all of these since these pictures, maybe get them up early next week. But I actually did some Leviathan bits and pieces too, as well as a few Genestealers to potentially add to my Ceraatus bases. Progress is progress!