'nids part 372 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer for DreadTober, failed to meet the deadline so rolled it over into #NidVember, blew that too so now it's some December pun that I'm not smart enough to create.

But the Norn Emissary is TO DONE!

I am very happy with the final result. Considering how down I was on my abilities way back when I started it the finished article looks as good as anything I've done. I may never trouble a Golden Demon but my tabletop standard has presence.

The model is pretty cool too. I took it to show the guys and as we've finally got round to playing Adeptus Titanicus I was struck how this is roughly the same height as a Warlord Titan.

With the correct bases I think there are a lot of figures you could proxy into Titanicus as Tyranid Titan constructs. The Neuro Tyrant wouldn't look out of scale either I think. You could probably find something the Neurolids could be too. 

I didn't take any red pics with the Norn Assimilator harpoon claws, but the white background pics have some below.

The question is, will I ever use him in a game of 40k? My plan is to get the Tyranid combat patrol painted, as their rules are free. I'm not sure if we'll get to a point where we add extra units as some of the games have felt one-sided and I can't imagine this guy is anything but over-powered. Still it would be nice. Regardless he will fit in next year's Armies On Parade, with the rest of the Combat Patrol.

Did you know that this is the first Great Big Wooden Stamps of Approval of the season?! Now you do.

And here we have the white background pics.

And the first of the Norn Assimilator images.

Obviously I didn't include the carapace extension. It's probably not that hard magnetise but I hadn't originally planned on making it swappable so this is the compromise.

I think I could probably use those harpoon claws on the Emissary anyway, they do look cool.

And it's somewhat like the Trygon/Mawloc - nobody really cares about the specifics. You just state the unit type and the nids get away with a lot.

And here's the DreadTober participation badge, that I now feel is earned. Although the two Genestealer Cult Sentinels still need finishing off. There so very nearly done, I just need a final push.

But actually I was doing something else too.

I had this little special project painting a Genestealer for a friend.

The Norn Emissary gave me plenty of opportunity to add paint, not only to this, bt some of the combat Patrol models as I've shared.

It helped break up the enormity of the Norn project.

I had the spare resin base to make it something of a mini diorama.

I just thought it would be cool for them to have one of my Tyranids for their own collection.

Hopefully they like it, maybe we'll find out soon.

So 2 things completed for the Season of Wood.

And a Great Big Wooden MINOR GOAL Stamp of Approval.

'nids part 320 - Genestealer cult - Aberrants - TO DONE! [White Pics]

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer on my Genestealer Cult Aberrants. Here we have the pics on white backgrounds.

I'm not entirely sure if it helps convey the models better but it's the format of the blog now.

The red pics a re usually my favourite but were a little underwhelming. 

Its quite hard to spend so much time on something and be really pleased to finish and then not be able to capture the coolness and satisfaction in those pics.

All those little little details took so long to do, so many changes of paint, last minute decisions that I can't ignore.

It was quite draining in fact.

But I should just be satisified with what I;ve achieved.

The Turqs cam out really well. Subtle differences between the new 4 and the one on the far right. He does not have a red maw and the highlights are more fake muscle texture on the newer ones, as opposed to edge highlights. 

The dark skintoned ones came out OK too. There were variations in how I approached the browns. Some had a sepia tint, while I used purple on other.

And the paler skintones were also mixed up a bit. The fact is we all have different complexions and the whole purpose of this project was to play around. It heavily impacts the uniformity of your army, but that's the price of experimentation.

Luckily though they work in their three groups of five, so I can have some consistency even if there are variations within it.

 

 

Not the best Free Radical Collective symbol but it was very difficult for me to freehand on the ripped banner.

Challenging too, but mainly because I had to do it twice, and the one with the pole running through the symbol didn't help! Considering all those robes are sculpted I don't think I did a bad job on this one.

 

The sign came together at the end on the Hypermorph.

 

Another kitbash, one of these two was supposed to be a another Hypermorph but you only get one improvised weapon and I've painted them both in the same unit!

 

I simplified the power glow, because I was never convinced about the 'lightning' on the original four.

 

Blessed verdigris worked out well too and matches my Sanctum Imperialis.

 

Dark Angel Tactical Squad shoulder pad on the base. Adding the red arrow was yet another detail I hadn't considered.

 

The auspex and scything talon were the stumbling block on this one. All these extra details taking so much time and effort.

 

I wasn't much a fan of the face on this one, luckily I haven't taken a close-up. It's very much an 'elephant man' head and I don;t think I did the features very well.

 

Moar verdigris.

 

The verdigris is always a challenge as I just don't know where it's going to go. But that's the thing, it's natural weathering and I've seen plenty of real-life examples that look weird and unnatural when they're not.

 

I did think about possibly putting Free Radical Collective symbols on their clothes but I hadn't done that on the original 4. Part of me theorised they aren't intelligent enough to go around marking their clothes and no one is going to get near to them and do it.

 

It's only the more advanced hybrids that will take the time to do that, although sticking a banner on the back of one seems a slight contradiction but that's only the same as giving them a big hammer to wield. Anyway, I went without. I can always add on the symbols down the lien if I feel I wimped out... I don't!