Antarius' CtA WiP Thread (Deathwatch and Tyranids)

[Antarius]

Okay, so, things are moving along steadily. With a bit of luck I'll finish my vow later today and get started on a new one (what exactly remains to be seen, but I've got more Tyranids and Deathwatch to go, as well as a seemingly endless supply of other models...)

Anyway, here are the models as they look now: 

The Mawloc still isn't part of the vow, but I'm going to and fro on that one when I get bored with the other models. This is taking a little bit of time away from my CtA stuff, but I think it's a productive approach as it was in that dreaded half-painted stage where things often get left behind (if you're me, that is), so I'm taking this opportunity to get it out of the way too.
Now that I've written that out it sounds like this is all a big chore, but it really isn't. I'm looking forward to getting this vow done and dusted, but I am still enjoying myself :)

 

[Antarius]

Okay, calling these done for now! Eventually, the whole army might get a final round of touch-ups and extra stuff on the bases (we haven't decided yet), but these are fine for tabletop, which is what I'm aiming for.
So, here they are: a Mawloc, 3 Carnifexes, 8 Ripper Swarms, 22 Neurogaunts, 3 Hive Guard and 3 Tyrant Guard:

[Antarius]

I ended up painting a Neurotyrant to tabletop ready(ish) standard as I might need it tonight or tomorrow, instead of working on the vow... I won't get anything else done until sunday evening at the earliest (and, realistically speaking, probably not before monday). Still, here are some wip-shots as well as an overview of the parts of the army that are more or less tabletop ready:

I've got an old friend (actually, he's the guy I started playing Warhammer 40.000 2nd ed. with some 30 or so years ago) coming over this weekend to try 10th edition and we're going to be playing a couple of 700ish points games, so maybe the Tyranids will get their debut this weekend. The Deathwatch certainly will.

 

[Antarius]

In the grim darkness of the far future, battle is soon to be joined (as it always is, I suppose):

[ZeroWolf]

On 6/25/2025 at 2:17 PM, Antarius said:

Okay, calling these done for now! Eventually, the whole army might get a final round of touch-ups and extra stuff on the bases (we haven't decided yet), but these are fine for tabletop, which is what I'm aiming for.
So, here they are: a Mawloc, 3 Carnifexes, 8 Ripper Swarms, 22 Neurogaunts, 3 Hive Guard and 3 Tyrant Guard:

Impressive! Wish I had the skills to go that fast! I can barely manage a few hours of painting 

[Antarius]

Things have been moving along slowly after the initial big push(es) and completed vows. A bit too slowly for my liking, actually, but what are you gonna do?

In my defence, I've had to do different stuff in the dreaded "real" world, but also, I've been doing semi-relevant stuff in preparation for my next vow (yes, yes, I know I ought to finish this one first, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared...). I've been assembling the Typhon terrain, chopping up some improperly assembled Venomthropes that are going to be turned into Zoanthropes (more about that later on) and doing some sawing, chopping and bending on a Neurolictor to make its pose look different from my other Neurolictor. The Lictor kit is absolutely amazing, as you can create extremely different poses straight out of the box, but the Neurolictor can only be assembled one way, so I figured I'd better do some reconfiguration and I think it turned out ok.

Other than that, I've been painting a bit here and there, blocking in colours and painting the black ridges/striations, as well as trying out some sponging on the Genestealers. My idea is that they're more like the traditional black/blue stealers, but with spots of yellow - so basically the reverse of the rest of the army, to make them look more stealthy and in keeping with the "official™" look.

I hope to do a big push today and see if I can get this vow out of the way before thursday, as we're going to a festival and it'd be nice to come home to a completed vow 

[Antarius]

Things are still moving along, albeit slowly. But that's just the nature of the beast, when working like this. Lots of prepworks and small steps here and there until, eventually, everything's suddenly done. But I'd like that "suddenly" to come sooner than it will, as I am getting slightly bored with the process at this point. Next session, I'm thinking I might deviate from my established process and finish up the Lictors or the Barbgaunts off, just to get the morale boost of getting something done.

[Antarius]

(Narrator) "He did not, in fact, manage to get his vow done before heading off to the festival"

Still, I just applied the crackle paint to most of the bases and I have moderately high hopes that I'm gonna get everything finished up monday or tuesday. Most of the pre-oil work is done on the big guys and the littler guys mostly need detailing and touch-ups:

[Antarius]

So, disaster has struck, more or less. For some reason, the yellow Vallejo spray I used just isn't working out very well. It's apparently solvent based, so it's impossible to use thinned down oils (which I luckily don't really use anyway, except very sparingly), but it also seems to remain somewhat sticky and rubs off much more easily than I'd like. Add to that that it seems like it's not really reacting well with the oil paints, even without thinner and we have a bit of a situation.

It seems like this is about the best I can hope for with the three big guys: 

Not that it looks bad, exactly, but it's way more brownish than the rest of the army and I'm afraid I won't be able to do all that much more to rescue it 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Oh, how frustrating.  Maybe it's a specific mutation for the Carnifex genus...  

[Tallarn Commander]

Would adding a layer of matte varnish between the solvent spray and the oil paints help at all? That sometimes works for me when transitioning from acrylics or enamels to oils on a model.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Well I can understand the frustration of it not matching the rest of the army, I really do like the colour and it looks great next to the purple details on the head.

[Antarius]

On 7/17/2025 at 5:43 PM, Tallarn Commander said:

Would adding a layer of matte varnish between the solvent spray and the oil paints help at all? That sometimes works for me when transitioning from acrylics or enamels to oils on a model.

I’ll have to give that a shot next time, thanks for the tip!

 

 I am at a point now, where I might get the vow finished up tomorrow, but it all depends on how much detailing I can manage to do on the oil parts. Things are coming along though, and I think the bases will be dry by tomorrow morning, so I can get to work on the details and finishing.

[space wolf]

Really like the color of your nids. Its an uncommon color, but seems pretty realistic!

[Antarius]

Thanks for all your comments, guys. You've been a great help with keeping me motivated after the last couple of annoying setbacks and my general laziness!

I've concluded that the Vallejo "Sun Yellow" primer spray i simply defective in some way (I've had problems with it before, while priming some Imperial Fists, that I ended up having to strip and/or abandon, but I convinced myself that I'd probably just done something wrong when priming them); it doesn't have great coverage, remains somewhat sticky and rubs off easily - the parts I've simply painted with regular acrylic paint doesn't exhibit the same problems at all.

Add to that that I dropped a big glob of paint in my lap yesterday, proceeded to drop the Screamer Killer on the floor (you can see one of his claws has been glued and I've tried to patch the paint job up, but he's probably gonna have to wear that battle scar proudly) and the problems with the primer/oil paints on the big monsters and we're at a point where, in the interest of preserving my sanity, I'm going to have to call these done for now: 

All told, I think they turned out pretty well and, although mistakes were made (by me, I regret to add) both when it came to painting and colour choice (not entirely happy with the green on the Exocrine/Haruspex, for example) I think they came out alright.

 

Edited July 25 by Antarius

[Firedrake Cordova]

That sounds very annoying  

 

They look great all together, though!

[deathspectersgt7]

Like this. Working on something similar. Genestealer cult . My Marines are from different chapters. But not all Death Watch . And my board will be Boarding Actions.  Will have a Rouge trader and picked up a mini as a High Lord or a planetary governor . 

[Antarius]

So, getting those out of the way really was a load off my back! I had started to get more frustrated and demoralised than I had realised.

Now, I'm gearing up for my next vow and feeling motivated again. I'd originally planned to do my final bunch of Gaunts, Warriors and some monsters/characters as my next vow, to finish the army off, but I think I had probably better do something different than Tyranids, just to avoid getting burnt out on them. So at the moment, I'm considering doing some Nurgle stuff, as I have both Daemons and Death Guard kicking around somewhere.

[space wolf]

Deathguard could be fun...perhaps do a different warband, as not all plaguemarines are actually deathguard