The 'Crusader Host' 2.0 (and a tyranid)

[hd3]

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So I've decided to re-designate my project to make a single marine from every founding legion circa 40k as 'The Crusader Host', each with a custom base intended to reflect the legion. These posts will consist of archives until we get to the 

 

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Taking a break from the STC-Ryza terrain because I am waiting for a special paint I need for the next step to arrive. Instead we will be focusing on my next pieces of terrain, a termagaunt and hormagaunt! Now, dear reader you may be tempted to say "HD3! Those are models! Not terrain! You've decieved us! I shall track you down on the island where you live and cut you down for such duplicity!" But bear with me, I swear this is part of the terrain project and the punchline will be well worth it. First though! I'm doing an experimental terrain even for me on the bases. I got this from the great zorg, who has made what I consider to be the best of all tyranid paint schemes, hive fleet zereus.  For those who don't know, hive fleet zereus colloquaially know as "zerg" was the first known tendril of tyranids to arrive in our galaxy some time before the age of strife. These Tyranids had a predominantly brown colour scheme and tended to secrete a bio-mechanical mucus called "creep" which helped process and digest bio-mass and made Tyranid units more effective reflex wise while in contact with it. I've attached a an image of creep with an extant tyranid "zerg" here. To create this on my base however, I decided to try something more out there. 

 

First, using a hot glue gun I layered heated glue over the bases then sculpted it a bit with some scissors to look like more textured. Then hitting with a black rattlecan from tamiya, I did a base coat of mechanicus grey and a heavy wash of druchi violet. The real bases are only sculpted but I have included my finished prototype.  I'm generally pretty happy with how close this is to replicating the original creep and also how easy and cheap it was. The next step will be beginning on my tyranids proper, which i've decided to do with a dull brown and orange colour, in lieu of the more common purple on the non-carapace sinews. Once I figure out how to paint that in properly, that is.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 2 by hd3

[hd3]

And here is the prototype with a dry rush of dawnstone. Which one looks closer to the creep on the screenshot?

[hd3]

Status update on my Tyranids: I primed with Tamiya matt black first for the nids and the creep, then zenith highlighted with matt white. I wanted to use wraithbone because it would have been perfect but my can finally ran out and I'm not buying another 4000 yen can of paint for two models. So my current plan is to jury rig it by doing zenith matt white and then washing it with agrax. I think the shadows came out better on the hormigaunt (stabby) over the termigaunt (shooty) which is a fraction too bright because i was too heavy handed with the white spray.

Edited November 8, 2024 by hd3

[hd3]

Finally started painting my zerg!....Tyranids, I mean. Well, talk about a distinction without a difference. Anyway, I considered a few different approaches to this, grotsmasha suggested snakebite leather and wildwood contrast for the browns but I didn't have either of those for just two models. I was also looking at the army painter speed paint range. I think a Tamiya matt black and zenith matt white spray priming coupled with satchel brown speed paint would definitely be my approach if I wanted to paint a real Tyranid army, given model count. In the end, I went with a base coat of rhinox hide since I had that paint. On the carapace segments, I'm layering on doombull brown but only from the mid point on each segment, leaving the rhinox hide untouched from mid to front. Next it will probably be skrag brown or mournfang brown from the mid point of the doombull to the edge of the carapace segments. Then I'm going to do a thin wash of either agrax or Cryptek gloss. Probably agrax. 

 

I'm not as sure what to do with the softer flesh and joints sections underneath. I was thinking doombull brown all over, then thinned jokaero orange all over with maybe straight out jokaero towards the major joint spots. I also still have some transparent orange from Vallejo which I might try layering over the doombull to see if that works better.

 

[hd3]

I finished the carapace segments on my Tyranids/zerg. I ended up using xv88 which I washed with agrax since my mournfang brown has had a weird reaction in the bottle of drying out while not actually drying out. For the softer muscle sections, I decided to go with doombull brown since that's closest to zerg flesh and contrast well with warmer softer tones against the darker browns of the carapace. 

 

I tried using the transparent orange from Vallejo but it just comes out looking a weird yellow. So I went with jokaero orange and I'm slowly adding casandora yellow for shading around the joints. I want to try glazing the orange on slowly more heavily towards the joints like zorg did but I think that level of transition might be beyond me.

I'm suddenly grateful chaos marines have nice clearly segregated sections of their armour.

 

Next step will be to finish the orange around the joints on both termagaunt and hormagaunt (I have to conciously stop myself calling these zergling and hydralisks) . Then after that, the horns and tusks and exposed muscle fibers which I'm planning to do with a bright red and druchi violet wash. I wish I could think of a way to get a bit more definition on the recesses and details on the doombull brown muscle bits, but agrax would dye it too close to the carapace. Maybe nuln oil?

[Rusted Boltgun]

Instead of the washes, have you got a contest or speed paint you could thin to add a different tone? Cygor brown or Wildwood, for example?

 

I don't know how different the effect would be, you have to test on an inconspicuous area first! That carapace has come out so well, it looks really natural to me.

[hd3]

1 hour ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

Instead of the washes, have you got a contest or speed paint you could thin to add a different tone? Cygor brown or Wildwood, for example?

 

I don't know how different the effect would be, you have to test on an inconspicuous area first! That carapace has come out so well, it looks really natural to me.

 

Alas no, that's why I went with these browns. I suppose I could use gorthor brown to highlight the edges and recesses of the joints?

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think I'd be inclined to go with Agrax Earthshade, but either apply it thinned or in a more targeted manner as a recess shade, otherwise you might find it necessary to drybrush the area to bring the colour back up.

  

2 hours ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

That carapace has come out so well, it looks really natural to me.

Agreed!

Edited November 17, 2024 by Firedrake Cordova

[Tallarn Commander]

Would a light Reikland Fleshshade work? Or would that be too close to the Agrax?

[hd3]

46 minutes ago, Tallarn Commander said:

Would a light Reikland Fleshshade work? Or would that be too close to the Agrax?

 

Reikland has a warmer redder tone over agrax right? I think I have some too

[hd3]

On 11/18/2024 at 3:20 AM, Tallarn Commander said:

Would a light Reikland Fleshshade work? Or would that be too close to the Agrax?

 

I used reikland to tan the flesh but the orange was still too bright so I broke and used nuln oil to dull it down a bit.

I've started on the bone and talons with Zandri dust and for the exposed sinews I've used evil sunz and druchhi violet wash. The browns still don't look quite right. Maybe some highlights or a dry brush of gorthor brown? A sort of borderline greyish brown.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

6 hours ago, hd3 said:

The browns still don't look quite right. Maybe some highlights or a dry brush of gorthor brown?

Mix a bit of Zandri Dust into the base coat to lighten it and drybrush that on? (alternatively, you could use a light grey, instead Zandri Dust)

[Tallarn Commander]

Looking good!  Yes, Gorthor Brown might help. Or use a slightly lighter brown such as Baneblade Brown.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I quite like the brown you've currently got, so I don't think it needs anything more, strictly speaking.  That said, nothing wrong with continuing to search for a permutation you are truly happy with.

[hd3]

I did a very light dry brush of gorthor over the muscles to try and even the time out while still making it contrast with the carapace. Then I just applied my horn formula, Zandri with agrax, then ushabti then flayed one flesh towards the tip. I did have to use agrax again to even it out though.

The eyes were so stressful, my hand was shaking in terror trying to do the pupils on the eyes! I wanted a bright colour in the same section of the colour wheel so I went with averlabd sunset and Abaddon black for the pupil which I tried to do as a straight line down to look more inhuman.

 

Finally I did the rubble and girder debris in the base. I'm really happy with the hormagaunt base as the creep looks like it's starting to grow over the debris. I might do a tiny drybrush of dawnstone on the rockcrete debris to make it contrast more with the mucus creep.

Edited November 20, 2024 by hd3

[hd3]

6 hours ago, hd3 said:

I did a very light dry brush of gorthor over the muscles to try and even the time out while still making it contrast with the carapace. Then I just applied my horn formula, Zandri with agrax, then ushabti then flayed one flesh towards the tip. I did have to use agrax again to even it out though.

The eyes were so stressful, my hand was shaking in terror trying to do the pupils on the eyes! I wanted a bright colour in the same section of the colour wheel so I went with averlabd sunset and Abaddon black for the pupil which I tried to do as a straight line down to look more inhuman.

 

Finally I did the rubble and girder debris in the base. I'm really happy with the hormagaunt base as the creep looks like it's starting to grow over the debris. I might do a tiny drybrush of dawnstone on the rockcrete debris to make it contrast more with the mucus creep.

 

Looking at it now, I wish I had chosen a different colour for the base debris to stand out more against the creep.

[Tallarn Commander]

It wouldn't take too long to repaint. :)

[hd3]

6 hours ago, Tallarn Commander said:

It wouldn't take too long to repaint. :)

I'm at a bit of a loss what to choose though. Browns are out because I need it to contrast with the model and the debris really looks like rockcrete

[hd3]

Finally finished the fleshborer on the termagant and did the tongue. I decided to make the little orb into another eye because it seemed appropriately gross. I think I might give it a wash of carroburg crimson to make it more bloodshot. 

 

Also, while I love most of tamiya's paints so far, the xs pink has really bad coverage but it's just for the tongue so it barely seems worth it. Think I might need to add a spot more pink to the base of the tongue too 

 

Now you may be asking, "Sure, but what does any of this have to do with terrain?" I thank you for your patience and the next post will be the answer.

Edited November 21, 2024 by hd3

[hd3]

So I'm opening a side entry here since I didn't really have anywhere else to put it. I decided to paint this extra infernus marine I had as a salamander to match the flamer and to continue on another secret side project im very slowly working on. But the reason I'm putting this in the terrain log is the base as this is going to be my attempt to make a lava flow base since the base came with nice pre sculpted lava terrain anyway.  I haven't settled on a tutorial to copy yet if anyone has a suggestion.

 

I'm also using this as my first attempt to try doing muzzle burn on a flamer. For that I haven't really chosen either but I was thinking of maybe lead belcher, stippling agrax thinned down lahmian medium in the middle, then stippling druchii violet on the right hand side and finally some incubi darkness on the very tip of the muzzle. This is just guesswork though.

 

Also now that I'm looking at it, I might go over the edges again with just pure moot green this time instead of moot green/warpstone glow. And maybe a reikland wash on the chest aquilla.

Edited May 2 by hd3

[Firedrake Cordova]

GW did a tutorial on heat burn you can probably adapt, if it's of help:

 

[hd3]

11 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

GW did a tutorial on heat burn you can probably adapt, if it's of help:

 

Tempting but I don't have any if those paints while I do have sepia, druchiii etc.

[hd3]

I had a crack at the lava base. For a free hand experiment I did in 30 seconds I'm pretty happy with it. I used mephiston red which I watered down extra thin for base, then jokaero orange, Tamiya x-6 orange and finally a little averkland sunset for highlights. Then a drybrush of dawnstone on the charred rocks.

 

I just thought maybe a wash of carroburg crimson to give it more depth? 

Edited May 3 by hd3

[hd3]

Finished the flamer today. I stippled dry brushed seraphim sepia along the middle, then the same technique with druchii violet making sure it overlaps with the edge of the sepia, and finally druchii violet mixed with talassar blue for the very tip.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks like it came out nicely.