Jabberwocky Rises: Neurolictor Conversions

[Xenith]

Aethermatic blue is a light turquoise blue over a white prime job. That might work?

 

Thanks! I'll give that a go also. I did try all the blues over the grey seer base, but I need to try them over other undercoats also - I feel these play a much greater role with contrast paints as opposed to normal layer paints. 

[Spacecow]

Oh yes definitely. Normally I’d say go with the Ivory. But judging from your photos where the blue is very bright stark so white might be better to get closer to your original colour.

[Xenith]

Oh yes definitely. Normally I’d say go with the Ivory. But judging from your photos where the blue is very bright stark so white might be better to get closer to your original colour.

 

Yes, even spraying grey seer will cut down painting time considerably - the grey is the colour of my carapace over the corax white which meant I had to paint the carapace greay after the undercoat to darken it down.  Been travelling a little but hopefully can test out a model or two next week!

[Xenith]

So here's my early foray into painting a swarm wth contrast, and I have to say I'm sold.

It's a little darker than my original scheme, but it's pretty close to the temple guard blue with drakenhof wash, so I'm happy. This is a straight undercoat of grey seer, with a mix of 50:50 akhelian:contrast medium, with 50:50 shyish purple:medium to shade the carapace and for the guns.

My initial dabbling with contrast left me unhappy as he models came out way too dark. Thinning it down makes it a hell of a lot better. For reference, I started these guys on sunday night and finished them monday morning. Maybe 4 hours total including playing with a few different contrasts. The last 2 models took maybe 30mins or less each including drying time. Compare this to my last gaunts which were a few hours/model, including demotivation time.

I'll probably go with this scheme going forwards.

[Spacecow]

Looks awesome!

[Xenith]

Might be time to revisit these guys again, with plety of time on my hands. I really want to get the rest of this unit of 12 dev gaunts painted!

[The Pounder]

Go for it! They're looking promising.

[Xenith]

Finally got round to making up the rest of that box of gaunts. GF has expressed a passing interest in doing some painting, and I thought gaunts with contrast paint might be an easy entry to the hobby ;) if not, then we can production line the things to get them done!

[Xenith]

Got another done as a tester:

Slow progress as I've been focussing on Primaris and finishing off my BA company.

[The Pounder]

Haven’t we all?!?

 

I really like the clean finish of contrast paints, will definitely be using them on my bruv’s Necrons.

 

The gaunt looks good!

[Xenith]

Finished a bunch of BA stuff recently so fancied some nids as a palate cleanser. That sounds derogatory towards the nids, I guess I dont want to neglect them!

12 Devourer gants finished up, giving me 22 in total, I really need to add some more to them!

A quick mental tot-up of the unpainted nids I have:

Hive Tyrant

9x Warriors

~50x hormagaunts

20x gargoyles

12x termagants

1x Lictor

6x Raveners

2x Tyrannofex

4x Carnifex

8x Spore Mines

~38 space hulk stealers

2-4 Broodlords

1x Harpy

Then I have some stuff that I painted in like...2000 when nids were released in 3rd ed and I jumped on that Bandwagon:

8 gaunts

8 gants

Ravener

3 Warriors

Biovore

That's a lot to work through!

Edited July 6, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

Started work on the broodlord to complete the Start Collecting! Box I got for Christmas (2018).

Loving this scheme with contrasts. This is a grey seer base with a 50/50 akhelian green/contrast medium wash.

I'm current debating whether to paint the hands the same blue as the rest of the exoskeleton, or to do them the pink/purple of the underlying gooey bits like old school stealers and the Space Hulk Broodlord.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Xenith

[WarriorFish]

Good to see you back to these, I think as you've already done the claws blue the hands should be too. The classic scheme is great, but the colour use doesn't quite match your scheme so I think you should stick to your guns :)

[Xenith]

Good to see you back to these, I think as you've already done the claws blue the hands should be too. The classic scheme is great, but the colour use doesn't quite match your scheme so I think you should stick to your guns

 

Haha, yea, I realised I'd already done the hands and feet in the normal blue   I could go back and repaint, but might be too much effort - and my other stealers all have blue hands. 

[Xenith]

Bit more work blocking out the Broodlor. Not really blocking out with contrasts, but you know what I mean. I went with what @WarriorFish suggested and I'd already half done and painted the hands blue like the exoskeleton.

The papa stealer still needed the big pink head, though, so his is very thinned volpius pink - 1:3 with contrast medium and washed all over tthe head. I'm not a fan of how the neck joins the body, the change there is a little stark from pink to white, but that's just how the model is. I'll have to do some shading around the join to given the impression of the edge of the chitin.

White armour likewise got a super think wash of magos purple 1: 4 contrast medum all over the white shell, with the aim of the wash being too thin to actually tint the white at the top of the plates - I think it worked pretty well.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

I spent last night painting my nails. Well, his nails.

Loving contrasts for this kind of work. Slap it all over, then go back with a dry brush and wick it off the raised edges to get that contrast highlight. This guy is nearly done.

[Azekai]

Interesting technique with the wicking. I have yet to play with contrasts, (my nid scheme is very slapdash and easy already) but I am intrigued!

Looking forward to the finished results.

[Xenith]

Interesting technique with the wicking. I have yet to play with contrasts, (my nid scheme is very slapdash and easy already) but I am intrigued!

 

Looking forward to the finished results.

 

It's the only term I could use to describe it. Kind of like where you apply a highlight on a corner with the edge of the brush, I slapped the contrast on, then ran the edge of the brush over the corner of the claw, removing the contrast from there, making a natural highlight. 

[IronDreddKnight]

Love contrast paints, they really speed things up. That broodlord looks great. Edited August 14, 2020 by IronDreddKnight

[Spacecow]

You’ll have loads then for the next ETL

[The Pounder]

Looking good! 

[Xenith]

Love contrast paints, they really speed things up. That broodlord looks great.

 

Thanks IDK!

 

You’ll have loads then for the next ETL

 

Haha, I have more Grey Space marines though!

 

Looking good! 

 

Thanks!

 

I'm now back from vacation and want to get on with this model, the rest is simply doing the base and weathering it up, then onto some other gribblies. 

[Xenith]

Got the Broodlord finished, now I have another leader-best for the swarm. Shame I only have 8 stelers painted - might have to get them on the list after the harpy...I need more troops!

Thanks for looking! Next on the list is an assault marine combat squad for my Blood Angels.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Xenith

[Majkhel]

Really nice and clean paintjob with the contrasts! With the Broodlord the colour-scheme seems properly matured. I like the the pale pinks especially.

[WarriorFish]

Indeed, the colours really come together here (also why I stole the red "inner" colour for my scheme ). I might need to get some of the black contrast for my talons and that as this looks like an easier and better way of doing it...

 

Maybe you should put a couple of Troop choices in the queue next? I've found it helps a lot for getting an army done as once you've got a decent core ready you can play with characters and the like without feeling bad - a lesson I learned for good with my CSM after I kept doing HQ units