Hive Fleet Inkaras

[INKS]

And so it begins.

 

I have a list I am working towards. I expect that it will change along the way. But it's going to have a lot of Hormagaunts and Termagaunts. I figure for now this is the best place to start. 

 

I am building towards a unit of 30 Termagaunts with Devourers - These will be from Hive Fleet Kraken.

In order to keep focused on this long term project I will be working with 1 box at a time. Until I finish this box, I can not and will not move on or buy more. (Unless I need more paint)

 

Mistake #1 - I bought the paints to paint Hive Fleet Leviathan. Lucky for me they aren't that different. I just won't need the purples I've bought for now. Skin tone is a little different but I still have that covered and for basic troops it should all be fine.

 

Bases - I want a dead world look. Nids eat the planet and so this is how I'll be basing my army. Not sure right now how that will look. 

 

Advice, comments? Shout it out. I'll be updating this as I go along in hope that it keeps me motivated.

 

Why 12 models and not 10? I think you used to take them in 12s? I can't remember but it's odd. I should be grateful I guess for extra models.

 

 

[WarriorFish]

Good to see you start looking forward to seeing how it goes! 12 models is legacy from the sprues - the models are done in fours. It's why Genestealers come in boxes of eight :) For a dead world this would be barren rock type bases, maybe a crackle texture scheme would be best? Nothing says dead quite like looking like a dried up riverbed :P Add in some other dead things like the odd skull and bone plus some rocks and that and you should be able to give your bases a lot of variety without much effort :)

[INKS]

Thanks WarriorFish. I'll look into that base.

 

Problem #2 - mold lines. My eyes even with glasses are still terrible and these buggers are hard to see. I hate seeing mold lines on models. I'll have to find a solution.

[INKS]

still building. what a horrible experience. some of the heads don't seem to line up at all. gaps i can't fill. ugh very frustrating.

[INKS]

Update: I did some building for a few hours today. 

 

 

This is where the arm attaches to the devourer gun. blurry I know, sorry about that. It's sturdy so I don't think it's going to break but I need to find a better solution on how to position these arms.

 

It's also now occurred to me that I might want to leave these arms and guns off when painting the mini. It blocks a significant amount of the chest. It might be easier to paint then assemble the arms later.

[Xenith]

Yay, you got some! 

 

The dead world sounds good - two things to think about, I think dead ash/sand/dried mud would work, agrellan earth would be ace, but the beige might be too similar to the skin tone. The second is that with similar tones, if the idea is that nids semi-camoflage to their environment, it'll look good. I can confirm the agrellan crackle paints look ace, and are super easy to use. 

 

Thanks WarriorFish. I'll look into that base.

 

Problem #2 - mold lines. My eyes even with glasses are still terrible and these buggers are hard to see. I hate seeing mold lines on models. I'll have to find a solution.

 

These older models are riddled with them. Unfortunately you just have to go over them all with a knife.

 

still building. what a horrible experience. some of the heads don't seem to line up at all. gaps i can't fill. ugh very frustrating.

 

 I've heard this complaint before, but never had it myself. Remember that each half has a specific partner, htey aren't mix and match. I also tend to add more glue than usual so a tiny bit squezzes out and seals any gaps. 

[WarriorFish]

The heads don't all align completely no, but I found that a bit of filing to clean lines also helps fill the gaps. They don't need to be perfect though as gaunts are very far from solo models and nobody looks too closely.

 

As for cleaning lines it helps to learn where they are on the models. This way you can go straight to those places and get to work without having to rely on sight so much Unfortunately there's no escape from this with nids, between the age of some kits to the surface area on the model bits (all those arms and claws...) I'm afraid you're stuck. I assembly lined each bit type to speed it up but breaks and that are important too

 

I know devourers are larger than the fleshborers I've done, but you might still be able to fully assemble them depending on your paint scheme/method? For example the bodies on my scheme are basic with a coat and wash so I didn't need a great deal of access. Either way don't worry too much about the little gribblies - they blur into a group quickly as a squad so the odd mistake or slip here or there doesn't matter (also as natural things can happen anyway - identical things are not common in nature, even bio-engineered)

[INKS]

I am going to prime these guys today. I didn't know a better way of fastening them to the cardboard in order to spray them with primer. What do you guys use if anything?

 

[Kristoff]

I use the lid of a paper box that was left over after one thing or another.  I got the idea from my local shop at the time that had procured fast food/cafeteria serving trays for people to spray paint on.  Sometimes things get knocked over from the pressure, but if I'm afraid of the balance, I just lay them down as it allows me to prime from underneath better that way.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Kristoff

[The Pounder]

I usually use a bit of double sided tape on top of a spray can lid on single models, if I’m spraying models in batches I use half of a box and lay them down.

 

Good luck with your Swarm!

[INKS]

I primed them. I'll let you know how it went a little while later. I don't have a great place to do this so the house stinks right now. 

 

How long does primer usually take to dry / smell go away?

 

The plan right now is the paint these guys up, figure out their arms / guns and then move on to do another 5 and go from there.

[INKS]

Painting Update:

I need to start highlighting the red tomorrow. then dry brush the flesh and fix the mistakes.

 

Overall not to happy with the progress I made today but I've also not painted in 20 years. My hands can be pretty shaky and honestly I am starting to rethink the army as a whole. There are a lot of gaunts, and to be honest I don't know how many of can paint of these and assemble.

 

I might have to move to a large army that doesn't have much infantry. Which is tough, because infantry is the core of most armies. Imperial Knights maybe? All Terminators? All monsterous demons? I don't know right now.

 

Also I need to figure out to take a decent picture...

 

[WarriorFish]

Blutack is also good for sticking models down (especially if they're slot base ones) but anything will do if it keeps the models in place while you spray Assembly line is the way to go, as well as doing them in batches. Depending on my mood I was working in sets of four or eight - there's nothing wrong with a methodical four models at a time to get through an army (or fewer). I had several sets going at once usually that way I could swap between them depending on what I wanted to do. Basework here, layering there or a wash; variety is the spice of life.

 

I wouldn't worry about the gaunts that much, people really don't look at them that closely This is where a simple scheme can go far. Aside from the carapace stripes my nids are little more than some basic layer work and washes so you could easily simplify this further if you wanted an easier scheme Have you looked into Contrast paints? They could really speed up your painting and make it easier plus work really well on nid models.

[INKS]

Yes I have a number of contrast paints. the red there is flesh tearers red. I am going to try and paint some more today. I am a hard customer to satisfy. it's common I suppose to look at your own mini and never be too happy with it compared to how you wanted it to look

[WarriorFish]

Yeah, but you can always go back to models to spruce them up later :) I'd say ditch the dry brushing as nids lack the hard edges for it to work best, would simplify the method a bit and speed painting up :tu: