'nids part 386 - Terrain is everything - 3D printed capillary towers - Chitin highlights 2

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the 3D printed capillary towers. Honestly, I've been busy, although it has been somewhat tedious. There's not a huge amount to show because the highlights and dots are all done. I've been doing some other projects inbetween to avoid burnout, but I can't really share those yet. The Cerastus Knights do have hinged hatches though! I continued to keep track of how long it took me to paint the striations. 

• Big tower 1: striations 105 minutes + dots 55 minutes = 160 minutes
• Big tower 2: striations 113 minutes + dots 66 minutes = 179 minutes
• Medium tower 1: striations 64 minutes + dots 32 minutes = 96 minutes
• Medium tower 2: striations 48 minutes + dots 28 minutes = 76 minutes
• Medium tower 3: striations 59 minutes + dots 25 minutes = 84 minutes
• Small tower 1: striations 28 minutes + dots 20 minutes = 48 minutes
• Small tower 2:  striations 36 minutes + dots 22 minutes = 58 minutes

That's a grand total of 701 minutes, or 11 hours and 41 minutes on these 2nd highlights alone!  I then did the 2nd bone highlights with the big ones taking about 34 minutes, the medium 22 and the small 15. Another 179 minutes [3 hours]. 😳

But, there is only the red fleshy bits left to do now [plus matt and gloss varnishes]. You can already see I've put some thinned red between the chitin plates to look like it's raw between them. It also helps define each plate. I've also highlighted the red with both Vallejo Game Extra Opaque Heavy Red and then Mephiston Red. The stretched bit will be highlighted again up to white specular highlights similar to my Tyranid Void Shield Generator fleshy bits. Then the textured bit will have more shading added, which will be enhanced by the Tamiya Clear Red X-27. Nearly done, but you can see just how much effort it has taken.

'nids part 385 - Terrain is everything - 3D printed capillary towers - Chitin highlights 1

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the 3D printed capillary towers. I kept track of how long it took me to paint the striations. 

The big towers were 123 and 132 minutes.

 A medium tower was 105 and a small one 42. 

Roughly 654 just short of 11 hours to do the lines! I also did the first highlight on all the spikes and the bonewhite Wraithbone chips on the base.

Then when I came to do the spots I decided not to bother keeping track and now I'm really annoyed with myself because that took far more time than I expected. It definitely would have been handy to know for the 2nd set of highlights. 

2nd highlights feel quicker as you can see where you going to put a spot or line. But, it actually requires you to be much neater and controlled. That way you don't completely cover the first stage work. Or else what's the point?

I've had 2nd stage sessions that have been much faster, the same or even taken longer, but a rough estimate is always handy. Second stage next and then maybe some very minor 3rd stage highlights, the red fleshy bits and 2nd stage bone. Lots to do on the Chitin, but then it feels like it's downhill from there.

Terrain is everything - Red Planet BASE! 🔴 Board extension - TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on some extra flat pieces of terrain board that we can use to extend, or replace sections of my Red Planet BASE! 🔴 Realm of Battle Board. Essentially, what happened was I turned up to Otty's shed and he handed me these three 1'x2' sections and told me to paint them red! Totally ambushed, but what could I do? He had used some textured wallpaper to give a relief, but I had to add some sand in places to cover up the seams.

Then I got totally fixated on finishing! It wasn't a huge task, so despite being an unexpected new project I [thought I] knew what I was doing. First up, the prime. Rather than go with a spray primer I still had a tin of Red Oxide  paint on primer I'd used on the edges of my RoBB. 

Slopped it on, maybe we can still see those joins but the subsequent highlights might disguise them.

OK, so I thought I knew how to do this - subsequent highlighted Vermillion blobs to create a mottled random pattern. But I think I did the blobs smaller than I did on my RoBB. Or at least it looks that way now I refer back to the finished showcase pics. I hadn't put a wash on top of the primer, which was not as matt as I expected it to be. I hoped the matt varnish would flatten it all out.

But I thought there was far too much contrast between the blobs, so did a light overspray with my Red Oxide Car Primer to give the flattening a head start.

Then I flicked on some bonewhite paint to get my wraithbone chips

It worked really well all things considered.

From this angle it's not too bad

But compared to the RoBB you can see I was much more subtle in how I created the highlighted areas. It'll be fine with terrain on I hope but yeah, not a match I'm happy with, but I'll survive

And here we go after the varnish.

Well it's definitely matt, which has helped to remove the shine from the paint on primer at least.

It hasn't quite smoothed out the contrast that I'd hoped but it'll do.

We'll just have to wait and see when it actually gets used.

So I get a Great Big Chrome 'BIG BUILD' BASE Stamp of Approval.

As well as the Great Big Chrome Stamp of Approval according to my spreadsheet I've judged the three pieces together as 20 points, plus a 5 point terrain bonus. Therefore, this brings me up to 245 points for the season so far.

 

'nids part 384 - Terrain is everything - 3D printed capillary towers - shade and BASE - TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the 3D printed capillary towers. First up sepia washes, and you can see it has not gone well. My Vallejo dipping wash is behaving just like Seraphim Sepia. It's starting to do this more often now. But I was sure it wouldn't be a problem as the AP Strong Tone wash [Agrax colour] would cover the dried out powdery bits. Except I ran out of Strong Tone.

So my solution was to mix Dark Tone [black] with my sepia to give it the higher quality glossy finish. 

For the most part that worked. I was able to cover up most of the patchy bits.

But I definitely need to start making a list of paints I need as I keep forgetting. The I order something, throw in a few paints and then when it arrives I suddenly realise there were a couple more I needed. 

Oh, and I did the Red Planet BASE! 🔴 too.

Which secures me a Great Big Chrome 'BASE' Stamps of Approval.

'nids part 383 - Terrain is everything - 3D printed capillary towers - prime and basecolours

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer. I got these 3D printed capillary towers on the 6th September 2025, just 8 days after I published my TO LIST, at the time I talked about terrain and said:

I have some other 40k terrain to do which I would mention but as we don't play it seems misguided to allocate time and resource to it with so many other things [that equally we don't play with but y'know...?] to do.

And I think this was the terrain I wasn't planning to do, but here we are. As I look back at that list I realise how I have managed to ignore the vast majority of it and just do whatever the hell I want. But that is OK. It's only a guide afterall, but maybe I need to get back on track after these...

 I started with one of the medium sized towers. Primed it with Red Oxide and then used a yellow 'filler/primer' to try to smooth some of the print lines. But how drop dead gorgeous does that look? I think I need to invest in a yellow primer for when I do my Mechanicum.

Anyway, the print lines are still visible, apparently multiple coats of the filler/primer are more effective. But, I suspect this will be less noticeable when I do the actual aquamarine and turquoise striations as they will run in a different direction, causing a baffle effect 🤞

This is the first one. I know we just did Old Stuff Day but I can't help being reminded of Warhammer 39,999's own pre-dipping basecoats.

Anyway, they've all had Vallejo Game Extra Opaque Heavy Red on the fleshy bits. Bone colour on the bone bits and Bahama Blue craft acrylic on the chitin plates. Rest assured, this will be the 383rd time we have basecoated a project, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it

So  much so I got the rest [mostly] basecoated.

However, it was at this stage I started to lose my mojo. Having just got it back with pushing the Osgiliath Terrain over the line I couldn't face the Red Planet BASE! 🔴 Which is why I painted the Goblin Town goblin I shared yesterday. But that wasn't the only avoidance miniature. I had a few other things too that I used to distract me from getting these done.

Terrain is everything - TT Combat Gothic Ruins MDF kit - ruin base TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I made this base for my TT Combat Gothic ruins way back when, but I never actually shared it. 

The ruins themselves come in two parts, a ground floor piece and this upper floor and I wanted an option so I could have them as two separate pieces.

This was built, primed and based for years before I finally painted the small bits of debris the other week

And for this I get a Great Big Big Build BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval, because it was built in 2021/22 Season.

I primed the bases with my truly awful Simoniz Red Oxide Primer. Loads of shaking and it still won't mix properly. I managed it in the end though, using a toilet roll tube to mask off the model itself and just spray the base. Then I went on with my standard Red Planet Base process. 

Here's my Great Big Big Build Base BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval, although I didn;t take any pictures at the time.

This sat for so long with these half dozen bits of debris just waiting to be finished.

And it's not like I hadn't done Blessed Verdigris countless times, I just hadn't remembered ti do these bits too.

Not that I'm ever likely to use it but you never know.

I mean it's the bread and butter of Red Planet BASE! 🔴

Nothing fancy, so no excuse why it took so long.

But it's done!

Anyway as I finished it this season - a Bloody Great Big Bloody Stamp of Bloody Approval!