Ascanius's WIP thread

[Ascanius]

Who needs a fancy title?

 

I have a Predator in progress for a 40K Space Marines army, but I've stalled on it for the usual ADHD lack of interest reasons.

 

As a change of pace, then, I have bought a box of Hormagaunts. Here's the first one, with flesh completed:

 

(click to enlarge)

 

Basecoat Caliban Green, heavy drybrush Kabalite Green, drybrush Sybarite Green, light drybrush Skarsnik Green, joints and recesses washed with Drakenhof Nightshade, then all-over washed with Biel-Tan Green.

 

The carapace and claws have just been (re-)basecoated with Abaddon Black and Rakarth Flesh.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Tyranid.

[Pearson73]

Nice colour.

[Ascanius]

Thanks very much for the comments!

 

 

The claws and teeth are Rakarth Flesh > drybrush Ushabti Bone > all-over shade Seraphim Sepia > light drybrush Screaming Skull.

 

The carapace is Abaddon Black > heavy drybrush Skavenblight Dinge > drybrush Stormvermin Fur > highlight Dawnstone on the dorsal ridge only.

 

I originally wanted to use a bright contrast colour on the carapace, something like this:

 

http://i.imgur.com/V2Bf1rS.png

 

However, none of the paints I have are appropriate - I don't want to repeat the green, I don't want to use red (green and red may be complementary colours, but I'm not painting Christmas ornaments), all my blues are too dark (and I don't think blue would look good), and I don't own any yellows . . . so this will do!

[dchmp]

i like the black, green and ivory-ish look.

[Burias-Drak'shal]

Nice colour scheme

[Ascanius]

Thanks, all!

 

The final product (minus basing, obviously):

 

 

I'm working on the other three that I built from the sprue - I've just washed the flesh with Biel-Tan Green.

[Ascanius]

 

The connections between the hoof and slotta tab snapped, or partially snapped, during my early drybrushing stages on these models, and when I glued them back together the weight of the model caused them to sag forward a bit. In one case, the tips of the claws ended up lower than the front of the base.

 

I've cut a few bits off the sprue to force the angle of connection upward and improve the poses. Though they're not undercoated, I'll cover them with a thin layer of PVA before painting them as rocks when I figure out how to base these models.

[Draakur]

Dig the scheme bro :tu: Keep it up!

[Ascanius]

Thanks!

 

The next three have had the flesh and bone painted - just the carapace, eyes, and one tongue to go, plus any touch-up required.

[Ascanius]

The three other Hormagaunts from the first batch of four are more or less done:

 

 

 

The model at the right-hand end is my first one. Here's the three new ones by themselves:

 

 

The main difference is that I was a fair bit heavier on the drybrushing of the carapace with these three.

[Pearson73]

Nice work, they'll look great when you've got a big swarm together.

[Ascanius]

Thanks!

[Ascanius]

I've named my tyranids Hive Fleet Bakunawa after the Filipino sea dragon that causes eclipses - kind of appropriate, given the Shadow in the Warp - because my wife is half-Filipino.

[Ascanius]

I thought I would document the process of painting each step of the model, not that I believe anyone necessarily needs a tutorial! As always, click through to enlarge.

 

Undercoated with Chaos Black Spray, flesh basecoated with Caliban Green:

 

 

Flesh heavily drybrushed with Kabalite Green:

 

 

Flesh drybrushed with Sybarite Green:

 

 

Flesh drybrushed with Skarsnik Green:

 

 

Joints washed with Drakenhof Nightshade:

 

 

Flesh washed with Biel-Tan Green:

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I've named my tyranids Hive Fleet Bakunawa after the Filipino sea dragon that causes eclipses - kind of appropriate, given the Shadow in the Warp - because my wife is half-Filipino.

Good to see some cultural diversity in the names.

[Ascanius]

Cheers. Yeah, most of the names of official Hive Fleets are Greek, Middle Eastern, or Scandinavian. I figured I'd do something different.

[Ascanius]

The rest of the process, minus glueing on the arms.

 

Teeth and claws basecoated with Rakarth Flesh:

 

 

Claws and teeth layered with Ushabti Bone:

 

 

Teeth and claws washed with Seraphim Sepia:

 

 

Teeth highlighted and claws drybrushed with Screaming Skull:

 

 

Carapace basecoated with Abaddon Black:

 

 

Carapace heavily drybrushed with Skavenblight Dinge:

 

 

Carapace drybrushed with Stormvermin Fur:

 

 

Carapace dorsal ridge highlighted with Dawnstone:

 

[frankendoodle65]

Nice progress so far, I look forward to seeing the colour scheme translated to bigger monsters - are you planning on painting the carapace plates with the striations commonly seen on 'nids? Adds a nice level of detail on the bigger models for just a little extra effort. Bright red/orange eyes could help make them pop too.

[Ascanius]

Thanks!

 

I have quite enjoyed painting these Hormagaunts, so I think I will tackle Warriors at some point in the near future. I do think I'll try for the striations at least on the larger plates of the larger models.

 

The eyes on the Hormagaunts are painted with Evil Sunz Scarlet, and I think on the larger models I'll do a highlight of Wild Rider Red. I kind of prefer a deeper red that doesn't stand out as much, because of my aversion to red and green together, which is why I'm not going right for Wild Rider Red on these smaller models.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Ascanius

[Ascanius]

The second batch of four, eyes painted with Wild Rider Red:

 

 

I especially enjoy the fun, dramatic pose second from the right.

 

I've also changed my mind about the tongues, going for black rather than green. I may go back and do an Eshin Grey highlight on them.

 

I then went back and tried washing one model's carapace with Nuln Oil Gloss. I'm not sure it works; certainly, the drybrushing's hard to see in this photo.

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Ascanius

[Ascanius]

Following advice from elsewhere, I bought some Lahmian Medium and tried making a 1:1 mix with Nuln Oil Gloss. Here are some comparison photos; in each, the left-hand model is untouched, the centre model has been washed with the diluted Nuln Oil Gloss, and the right-hand model is the one washed with undiluted Nuln Oil Gloss from my previous post.

 

 

 

I like the idea of a glossy carapace, but I'm not sure if the right way to go about it is by diluting the Nuln Oil Gloss, perhaps with less Lahmian Medium than I did here, or if it would be better to start with bolder grey highlights on the carapace and then wash it down with the undiluted shade.

[Ascanius]

Someone on Discord suggested taking the model that I'd washed with the Lahmian Medium-Nuln Oil Gloss mix and going over the non-highlighted areas with undiluted shade.

 

 

 

My lighting isn't great right now, but I do think it looks a bit better - all-over glossy, but the highlights are still visible.

 

Still, in the next batch I'll try a bold highlight underneath, then using undiluted shade once.

[Ascanius]

Now for something completely different:

 

 

Returned to working on the Space Marines Predator that the Hormagaunts were originally a diversion from, when I lost interest.

 

I've left the top panel off because I originally intended to also make it possible to use this vehicle as a Rhino, but I'm not sure I'll bother now.

[Bryan Blaire]

Why not just use a glossy varnish on the carapace to make it shiny? Plus, you should probably shade the carapace before highlighting it, that way you aren't losing all your drybrushing work.