#PitOnParade Skaven 'prodder' progress

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Skaven prodder for #PitOnParade. Dr Dave is creating a #ArmiesOnParade board for charity. It's some 40k weird fighting pit and I had this Skaven Rat Ogre handler from the Islands of Blood set just knocking around. I was at base-colour stage previously and suddenly I'm here.

Well, it was surprisingly easy to be honest. Some shade wash and my burnt umber art acrylic on the tabard/kilt. The base was a Skavenblight Dinge drybrush, followed by Vallejo Stonewall Grey.

The fur was just shaded and then highlighted with white. Nothing fancy, just make sure it's watered so I can add it in semi-transparent areas and build up to pure white. I also added a little Vallejo Oxide Rust model wash to the base for a little variety in the colours.

Vallejo Pale Flesh for the fleshy bits [obviously], Bloodletter glaze for added pinkness with some strong [or soft, not sure] tone wash added to make it a little darker in the shadows.

Mixed in with my efforts for #DreadTober, this was a nice little distraction from all the striations.

'nids part 293 - Tyrannofex #Dreadtober week3 pt 2

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranid Tyrannofex for #DreadTober week 3. I'm a little behind on my posting schedule, apologies. I've obviously progressed significantly since these pics. In fact I am almost complete. Unfortunately I ran out of varnish, had some on order, it was supposed to arrive on Thursday but is still out for delivery :(

But I had made an effort to add some highlights to the red on the Rupture Cannon.

Which allowed me to create a fleshy texture on the feeder tubes that make it look potentially semi-transparent.

However, it made the pure vermilion highlights on the rest of the model a little incongruous. I've since added a little more highlights to them, not up to the white I used in places on the guns but just enough to match.

The fact is there is different fleshy red materials and different levels of specularity to them, that's OK. The problem is your mind tellign you they are the same material and therefore they should be highlighted to the same process. 

But I made one concession to additional highlights, I don't need it distract any further from the big gun at the front. The Acid Spray needs to be varnished, Tamiya Clear Red X-27 the inner barrels before I can then add the acid green highlights [a process I failed to record the last time I did it].

And I spent an evening doing the green glow FX.

I had thought about the red glow but went with green in the end.

Still might need some additional lime painted in for the glow to be more effective but I was quite pleased how well it went otherwise.

Here it is opposite the 'Great Maw'. As you can see that extra lime green will help the top of those vents match up better. Some subtle difference between the two and different colourations. But, not everything has to match, it would be amazing if they did but these aren't one continuous sitting in a painting commission, it's a decade of painting and they're different creatures anyway so can have different tones.

The glow FX worked out really, well, although the lower 5 spotted element isn't as good as the 3 bulbs at the top.

I also added some red around the Stinger Salvo, so it looked like they were being expelled from raw flesh inside.

And some minor green glows on the inside help break up the red.

So from incredibly worried I wouldn't finish to almost done. Then I didn't get the varnish and effectively missed the deadline. I'll have another update this week hopefully, or TO DONE! pics maybe next week. Pleased with the results though.

A decade of confession

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity It's my #blogaversary and somehow I've been at this for a decade. What can I say? I'll  start with the bad, because there has to be some negatives in all of this. Thankfully it's just the one - it is so much harder to blog now than it ever was. With the weight of all these years I know what feels right for me to type but 'new' Blogger is frustrating to use now. And I have to keep getting out my son's old laptop to do it, which is an inconvenience and another reason to put off typing something up.

On the plus side, although I think blogs are far less popular than they used to be, I think I'm seeing a move by the community to embrace the opportunities they provide. Other platforms, like twitter, have become massively popular but I think hobbyists are seeing the benefit of being able to curate their own space, without all the hassles that a fully open platform brings.

Of course I'm not in this for popularity. Numbers are always nice and although I once would have loved to achieve that elusive 40k views in a month, I'm just happy to get a post out, regardless of who sees it. Here's my graph, which is purely for the other bloggers to see how things have fluctuated over the years. 

So, despite the challenges of blogging that I face, I still really enjoy the process. Getting to write things down, having a body of work 10 years in the making - the figures, the conversions, scratchbuilds, all of it and recording as much of the process as possible... I never thought I could achieve such a thing. 3.5 million words when last I ran a word count tool, probably nearer to 4 million now!

For all those who have come along for the ride, whether it be the beginning of the decade or even now at the start of the next, thank you for sharing my hobby. Being there when I need support, putting up with my inability to edit and be brief and for commenting about the little things I paint that you find worthy. Thanks for justifying the time and effort in keeping the blog going, you make it all worthwhile! 😻

'nids part 293 - Tyrannofex #Dreadtober week3

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranid Tyrannofex for #DreadTober week 3. I'm not entirely sure how I'm doing this, maybe it's the deadline but I'm pushing on through with this beast.

All the highlights on the bone and turquoise are all complete. 

I've been in and tidied up all the reds with Khorne Red.

Crisp striations on all the bone. Yes it's quite odd that I've gone all in on fibrous look of the bone compared to my original Tyranids 10 years ago.

That said the smaller creatures remain simply highlighted on the bone, as there's not enough room for all the lines.

Rupture Cannon is also ready.

And moving on I did the Adrenal Glands.

I'd debated with myself about adding some red shading around where the symbiote is attached to the Tfex.

But I should have known that it would look significantly better with that transition, as if the gland was pumping adrenaline into the surrounding area.

I would describe this as a triumph. It totally lifted it to another level. Not necessarily in my skills, just in the overall finish of the model.

I was pretty confident in that I could do it, I'd just questioned whether I should for the piece.

 

I mixed some red wash with Khorne Red to get the deep colour. Ordinarily it's too milky and I needed something between my Tamiya ClearRed X-27 and thinned Vermilion craft acrylic.

It then prompted me to consider the colour of the vent glow. My first Tervigon is without glow. I hadn't introduced it into the palette, apart from its tongue.

The second one was the lime green.

I was considering at this point to do it it red [to white] just for something different. But I know how difficult the red glow can be [my Ravenwing headlamps are sketchy]. I asked a couple of hobby luminaries [Greg and Marcelis] who both agreed to go with green, so that's what I'm doing.

That may prompt me to go back and do the green glow on my first Tervigon eventually, we'll see. For now, here's my progress diary, this was pretty much up-to-date. I think the next Monday session has the Adrenals. I was still panicking at this stage whether I could get it done in time...

#PitOnParade Skaven 'prodder' Big Build - TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Skaven prodder for #PitOnParade. Dr Dave is creating a #ArmiesOnParade board for charity. It's some 40k weird fighting pit and I had this Skaven Rat Ogre handler from the Islands of Blood set just knocking around. I know it's fantasy [and probably should have been converted] but it pretty much works in a 40k setting too with that prodding device. So I based it up.

And got some base colours on. I need to keep it simple. I've still got my #DreadTober commitment so it's tough balancing the two with similar deadlines.

His robes will be painted similar to my Blood Bowl Nurgle trousers - Burnt Umber art acrylic. He'll be an albino with brown leather straps and then weathered prodding stick.

Hopefully I can find time to fit him in, perhaps once the bulk of the Tfex is done, with just the reds, talons and FX to do. Essentially I need it done this week to get in the post... 😲

Until then I get a Great Big Granite Big Build Stamp of Approval. 

'nids part 292 - Tyrannofex #Dreadtober week2 pt2

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranid Tyrannofex for #DreadTober week 2. I was seriously flagging after the first set if of turquoise highlights, so much so I didn't take any pictures of it. I was half way through at the half way stage. And yet that half way point doesn't include all the details, FX and varnishing!

So despite the enormity of what remained I cracked on with the turquoise highlights. I even broke out my Army Painter Insane Detail brush to get some fine striations. Unfortunately it just won't hold its point. I don't know whether it's the brush, or the paint that makes the point eventually get splayed. Water helps bring the point back but this paint does not like watering down. The surface tension complete breaks and it'll bleed everywhere. So it's quite a challenge to achieve the opacity I want in the sizes the brush will allow.

And there are all those difficult bits to get to round the vents. I know sometimes it's like painting with my eyes closed, reaching in and hoping the line isn't too splodged on. It was quite the challenge and perseverance to get to this stage and even though there's less to paint it take's only  little less time to do it. Granted I've got the first highlights as an indication of where to put the second but it requires patience and steady hands not to just obscure all the first coat with the second!

But I did it and got the Rupture Cannon done too.

As well as a Khorne red highlight on all the fleshy bits.

Acid Spray also got highlighted.

Chitin and the first bone highlights.

Which was also applied to the Fleshborer Hives [Devourers with Brainleech].

Bone highlights next, so long as the paint lasts... 😩