Antarius Winter-Spring projects (presently Black Templars and Tyranids)

[Antarius]

I think you're right on the base colour. My "default" look is darkish browns for bases, but I also think that might be too close to the carapace, colour-wise.



Anyway, here's some cute little critters and an experiment on the base - the crackle paste reacts a bit strangely when you mix in colours - it looks super coloured at first, but dries very desaturated and almost colourless. But it does seem to adhere much better to the base now, so I think priming the base and mixing in a little paint with the crackle paste is the way to go.

I also kinda think it's a good look, colour-wise. Like they've started sucking all the nutrients out of the soil + I think the (lack of) colour contrasts well with the minis (as mentioned, a darker, more brown ground colour might look too much like their carapaces, which would be neat for camo, but less neat for looking good on the tabletop).

[Firedrake Cordova]

I'm wondering if a light (near-white) or strong yellow would work for the eyes?

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I like your basing colours from your experiment - I think the colours on the right are just right - enough brown/tan to make the models look like they belong on them, desaturated and with enough gray to make them stand out.  And I do like the grayish streaks and blotches you see on the top right of the basing experiment - looks very natural to me.

Edited March 14 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Antarius]

Okay. So now we've got 30 Termagants + assorted thingamajigs done.
Well, apart from needing finishing touches on the bases, eyes and perhaps a bit of highlights on their back ridges. But that'll come later.

 

And another experiment with the bases. I don't really feel like adding more paint to the crackle paste as I think I'm already adding at least the 10% they say is the maximum amount. But I've experimented with some drybrushing and staining with brown, red and green. The red might be a tad too much, but overall, I think it works okay:

[Firedrake Cordova]

As you say, the red looks a bit much, but if you applied a glaze over the whole base (e.g. Seraphim Sepia),, then it'll give some more subtle variation.

[Grotsmasha]

Another technique you can try, requires a little more patience, but is worth the effort, is very carefully, using a long flat brush, lay the black paint on top of the crackle while it's still wet. You really can't brush it on, you need to carefully lay/splodge it on top. but the effect is black crackle paint (or whatever colour you choose on top).

Duncan had a video A LONG TIME BACK, where he did this after painting lava effect on the base, which revealed itself as the blck crackeled.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Was it this one?

 

 

[Grotsmasha]

5 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Was it this one?

 

 

Nailed it

[Antarius]

Ok, lots of stuff going on!

First off, I think I'm pretty much where I want to be with the bases (we might buy some withered tufts and stick on some of them and we'll certainly chuck a few skulls in here and there, eventually).
For comparison, here's the earlier version of the big base (for the Screamer Killer), as well as the current version (with a few guests). It looks slightly less stark and a bit browner in real life, but I hope the idea comes through ok:

[Antarius]

Then we have 40 done(ish - there'll be a final round of touch ups and finishing touches eventually) Termagants and 10 Hormagaunts in the background:

 

And a shot of everything that's painted as of now, as well as everything that's in the immediate paint queue (there are still tons of old Gaunts, Gargoyles, Warriors and a couple of Hive Tyrants, as well as a bunch of Genestealers and some Carnifexes yet to come...):

There's also a single, very brave, very doomed Barbarian who snuck in there...

[Firedrake Cordova]

That looks like quite a lot of progress  

[Antarius]

2 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

That looks like quite a lot of progress  

Thanks! And yeah, progress indeed!

We're actually thinking of doing all the finishing touches on the batch we've got now, instead of pressing on (although I've actually already started work on the six Leapers...). At the end of the day, we figured that it might be better to be able to say "ok these are done" and then start on something else, rather than having them still be an "open case" to some degree. Plus, when we're dealing with that amount of minis, it's not like there's any real "assembly line" benefit to doing finishing touches on, say, 120 gaunts rather than 60.
So, the next couple of days are probably going to be about fixing mistakes, adding highlights to skin and carapaces and painting eyes 
OTOH, it should be immensely satisfying once it's done, so that's good 

[Antarius]

I digressed for a bit and started on my templars (partly because my gf wasn't around and I didn't want to do our co-op project without her, partly "just because").

 

I'm sort of doing a "Blanchey thing", where I'm trying to just use vermillion, yellow ochre, (off)white and black (well, Payne's grey, actually) for everything. And then as much brownish wash as I care to pour on top, of course. I've cheated a bit and used metal colours, but I'm actually considering whether to cut back on those and just use the greys and yellows I can mix up, but that might require more artistic courage than I currently have 

[W.A.Rorie]

very nice

[Firedrake Cordova]

The skulls/bones and candles look great