Termagant Fun! (Part 3)

 Inspired by the recent distraction caused by the old school Hunter Screamer I recently painted, I felt compelled to paint up a few more Termagants. Since the last time I dabbled on these guys it only netted me a single fully painted model. 

Well now I have a painted squad of five. Which is only half-way towards the minimum unit size. So... progress? 

It allowed me to experiment a bit with the basecoats. I painted two of them using different Contrast Paints for the purple areas. Leviathan Purple was a bit too dark my tastes. The other one, Luxion Purple worked a bit better. The other two were done using the method I described in Part 2. But when they were all done, I like the Luxion Purple one the best. I guess it's the wariness of the hue. Probably why the Indian Red I used on some of my other nid models appeals to me also.  I am thinking that the other five models will probably be painted this way. 

Luxion Purple basecoat. 

Fast forward to the highlights stage: I used Kakophoni Purple as my final highlight on the Purple areas and White Scar as a final highlight on the blue area. I skipped the White Scar step on the Hunter Screamer and I am trying to decide if I need to revisit that model or not...

Finished model.

All-in-all I am pleased with how they turned out. In the pic below you can see them joining up with the lone gaunt (he's on the far left) from Part Two to form their half squad. Oh, their guns are slightly different colors from each other as I played around with different colors to wash over their bone colored base in an attempt at getting the best look for those fleshborers. 

The brood grows .

That's all for now, hopefully I will get the squad painted up to the minimum squad size soon. 

Classic Hunter Screamer Lives!

 

Primed to scream and shout.. 

With the announcement of Warhammer 40,000  10th edition, we were shown some of the new models. One of the most impressive models that stood out from the rest was the new Hunter Screamer which was inspired by the original Rogue Trader era model. This got me thinking about that original model (nostalgicly) and lamenting that I never built or painted mine (which I won as a door prize for an event at a comic shop in Bristol VA* way back 1994). 

Original paint scheme from White Dwarf 145. **

As I mentioned back when I built my Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnought, I have a bunch of resin bits that a friend,  who was experimenting with resign casting,  gave to me a few decades ago.  It turns out that I had enough scraps to build one of these guys. Which is great as I hesitate to build that old metal kit until I have figured out a paint scheme for him. This knock-off will be a good experiment for that as I won't be too frustrated or fussed if I screw it up.

Basecoats.

 For the most part I stuck with the color scheme that I used on my Genestealers, but if you look at this old model (and some of the nid models that followed it) there are some area of the models that look sinewy and have the appearance of exposed muscle.  It seemed to me that a third color needed to be explored to distinguish this different aspect of the model. So I stuck with the  Indian Red base and added Screamer Pink with a layer of Pink Horror. I toned that down with a glaze of Carroburg Crimson.

Mid coats.

That gave those areas a nice "meaty" kind of look huh? At this point I was considering putting some 'ard Coat over it for a more gristle-like vibe. 

With such a bigger model it made sense to me add some additional colors for sake of depth. One the purple areas I added a highlight of

And on the blue areas I used Calgary Blue.

The claws were saved for last. Even the original 'Eavy Metal painters, who were the first people to ever paint these models, wanted to paint them in a red color. That look made one think of lobsters of crabs, although fine, just wasn't coming to work with my colors. So I decided to go with a subtle purple highlight on a mostly black area. I used Xereus Purple for this (which, to my amusement, is a close match to that old Worm Purple paint) with a glaze of Druchii Violet, an edge highlight of  Genestealer Purple

followed by another glaze of Druchii Violet. The claws looked great while the wash was wet and I decided to keep that look so I capped it off with a a layer of 'Ard Coat. Remember I thought that might look good earlier and I was glad I trusted my intuition on this one. 

The 'Ard Coat on the meaty bitz really worked out I think.  It gives a complimentary differentiation without clashing or blending in with the other colors. 

I used Scorpion Green, Yreil Yellow and Tesseract Glow on the plasma glows on his torso and in it's mouth. I wanted them to stand out without being overwhelming and I think it worked. 

I added a few stray grass tufts to the base and it was done. 

Grass added.

Done and really for the fun! 

I took it outside for some natural lighting shots but it was noon and the shadows were far too intense on my front steps. 

Nothing to devour here...

So I took into the woods and didn't get much better results, but it was fun to try it. 

*or TN. I forget which side of the street that original location was on. 

"I will devour this place!!!"

** Image Copyright Games Workshop, used here for review purposes, no challenge intended. 

Nurgling Ripper Rider (Objective Marker)

Giddy up!

Just like the title says, it's a nurgling riding a tyranid ripper. One of the more amusing things to come from the wilderness of 3D printing. Luckily the ever resourceful Warfrog got one of these for me. And after the initial laughter subsided it occurred to me that it would make for a rather unique objective marker. So I attached it a 40mm base, applied the grit, and took it out for a priming of Corax White. 

The ghost of mischief past.

And here comes the fun! 

Now in glorious technicolor. 

Most of the basecoats were done using Contrast Paints. They were worked very well on this figure bringing out much of the details. Plaguebearer Flesh was used on that cheeky nurgling. Blood Angels Red was used onbthe mushroom caps. Skeleton Horde was used on boney areas and teeth. Both have a their tongues poking out of their mouth and for that I used Volupus Pink.  For non-contrast paints I used Citadel Colour Macrage Blue and Xereus Purple for the Ripper's body. 

Mostly done.

I used Russ Grey and Coat D'arms Lupus Grey for the blue areas of the Ripper. I think this turned out OK for the most part. I'm more satisfied with the purple areas. That was done by applying a layer of Slaanesh Grey then a Druchii Violet wash.  Then another conservative application of Slaanesh Grey but just on it's little pseudo-pod legs. 

View from behind.

I decided to just leave the nurgling alone. The Plaguebearer Contrast paint worked brilliantly. I did put a little thinned Agrax Earthshade in some if the recesses around his most prominent folds and the line of his back,  but that was it.

Grasd tufts added.

Once the tufts were added I called him done. For those keeping count, this is the second Objective Marker that I have completed.  I just need to crank out at least four more for a set of six. But I have ideas, and I have gathered models, to go far beyond that; it's just a matter of time right?

Have you ever needed to secure an objective so bad?