re-visiting an old army and Tyranid update

I haven't been able (as usual) to paint as much as I would like, as I am busy two evenings each week playing the trombone, and also this Saturday (weekends are usually the time I get most Warhammer work done) I played a gig with one of my Big Bands together with a big reed-group from the local music school.

But I have actually almost finished something...

The Neurotyrant just needs a final looking over and maybe some clean-up. Also I need to paint some rust on the pipe it stands on on the base. This will be done with a pice of packing material and brown and silver colors and I will do this next sitting.
The two Neuroloids that comes with it are done. I will post pictures when the Neurotyrant is done too.

The Neurogaunts (both the synapsis creature and the 10 bodyguards) are as good as done, they need their final checkup to see if clean-up is needed before I call them finished.

The same status can be said for the 2 Ripper Swarms, they are also just awaiting their final check-up before I call them done.

I have put on the first coat of dark purple on the carapace of the Screamer-Killer, and the next plan here is to add the whilte (bone) color and then paint a second layer of dark purple to make sure the carapace is nice and clean and then the remaining colors will be added.

I made myself a "test" model of a Barbgaunt and a Von Ryan's Leaper and they are comming along nicely. The main colors (body, carapace and claws) are painted on as well as the eyes. But this is just one for each type, and there are 5 Barbgaunts and 3 Von Ryan's Leapers in total. Also I added another box of 5 Barbgaunts to the collection and this box needs to be painted up after I have assembled and primed it.

The 20 Termagaunts are still only primed, and I plan to batchpaint these in units of 5, but I might take more than one batch at the time. The plan is to add a color to one batch, then do the same to a second batch and the second color to the first. That way I will have nice progress and I don't get bored painting the same things all the time and then they will be finished 5 at the time.

The Psychophage is started on, I have painted the inside of the mouth (not the teeth but the purplish gums) and the "gills" but I am still debating what color to paint the "smoke" comming up from the chimney-like towers on its back.
I am currently thinking some sort of sickly green to make it a contrasting color while still looking nasty.

To do something else than Tyranids I started to put together a unit of Chaos Warriors for my AoS Chaos army. This is a quite new box of Slaves to Darkeness and they are armed with large axes and shields. The shield design istotally different from my older Chaos Warriors. They come in a box of 10, and I am making them with full command, then I will chek the rulebook and see how many of them can be in a unit to check if one box = one unit or if I should make larger units. Only thing I found so far is that all models in the unit need the same kind of weapons.

I wanted to make this new box to see how they compare to the older plastic Chaos Warriors that I have quite a lot of. So far I think it is the same issue as we have with "1st generetion" Space Marines compared to the Primaris where the new Chaos Warriors are like the Primaris when it comes to size.
It bothers me a bit, but not more than that. I will just keep them in separate units and say that the people from one part of the Chaos realms are just slightly taller than the rest. 

I intend to re-visit my box of partially painted Chaos Warriors of the old type that I have given shiny armor and painted them with the appropriate color for their chaos gods and use contrast paint over their shiny metal armor instead of the washes I used now. This will give them much brighter colors and I feel especially the Khorne warriors were bleak with the wash I used. They are just sligly pink colored metal but with contrast they will be bright red metallic and that seems more fitting for warriors of Khorne. Then I will see how the other looks, but I think it is best to give them all the same treatment but with different contrast colors so I reacon I will do the same with green and purple.

End of week update

This end of week update comes a little earlier than usual, as I am going to my cabin to do some wotk there these next 3 days. And when I come back, my dogs will be with me again for the comming week.

It has not been many days since the last update, and I haven't been able to sit and paint as much as I have wanted becuse real life has gotten in the way a little. But that is the way it usually is, so that's perfectly normal. 

Still I feel I have been quite productive when I have been sitting down to paint. I have worked on the Neurotyrant and its two small Neuroloids. The Neuroloids only needs wash and drybrushing for the purple an Morghast Bone parts (no drybush on the brains), and then the bases needs a drybrush and the rims needs to be painted.
The Neurotyrant itself has gotten its upper carapace painted and also the brain and the brain stem. I had planned to work on the smaler beasts first, but I really wanted to see how the darkest of the purple carapaces would turn out, and with this one I got the chance to see the darkst beside the lightest as it has what appears to be two Neuroloids clinging to its body still.
The dark purple is called Xereus Purple, it is a little more red and not as dark as the Phonecian Purple I use for weapons, but it quite a lot darker than the Genestealer Purple that will be on the smaller beasts like the Termagants.

I have also painted up most of the Neurogants, all 10 or the reagular ones and the synopsis one with the sort of communications array in its back that the others are protecting fiercely. These are smaler than the Termagants, and they are painted in a lighter purple called Kakophoni Purple. This is also used for the Neuroloids and for the Ripper swarms. The Neurogaunts are missing the Volpus Pink for their softer parts and the Screaming Skull for their teeth and then they need a thin layer of wash an a drybrush. Then I need to make the bases and paint the rims. But before I go over them with the washes I want to make sure all the paint is dry and then look over them one last time to see if there are anywhere paint is missing or a color has ended up where it is not supposed to be. There are some quite small an fiddly areas to paint so I suspect this might be the case. If so I will fix that before I start with the washes.

I have also almost finished the two Ripper Swarms that came in the box, they are missing some details around their heads where I think I will need to use some more Morghast Bone and then I need to paint the teeth. Then they are ready for wash and drybrush too. I have made their bases already, but they need to be drybrushed and the rims needs to be painted.

I have gone over the big beasts an used Liquid Greenstuff in the visible cracks where the big bodyparts has been glued together, and all models that have eyes have gotten them painted with Imperial Fist Yellow. I figured I might as wel paint them first for once, as I usually need to clean up around the eyes if I paint them later in the process. So hopefully I can be careful enough when I paint the skin and capapace on the heads so that I don't need to repaint them. One reason for wanting to paint eyes fist is that I have white primer and yellow will pop more over "pure" white than if I paint it over Morghast Bone.

The next thing I need to do now is to figure out what colors to use on the symbiotic weapon hat is on the Barbgaunts. The "flesh"-part of the weapons will be painted Phonecian Purple but the weapons also have carapace armorplates and originally I thought I would paint that like the beasts that are stuck to the back of some of the other nids (like the Neurogaunts) but it seems like the Barbgaunts also has this same symbiotic beasts on their necks and it obviously is two different kind of creatures.

Just a small Tyranid update

I had to go to my local Warhammer store yesterday to pick up the Minka Lesk figure I had ordered a few weeks back. I got two so I plan to make one as a sergeant and one as a lieutennant or captain. The figure comes with at least two weapon options (maybe more as I haven't studied the sprues, just looked at the box art) so it will be quite asy to make two different looking models that doesn't appear to be the same person. Both will serve with the Walpurgian 3rd in the 27th Infantry regiment.

While I was there I also got some more paints for my Tyranid army. I think I have mentioned in here earlier that I wand the big 'nids to have a slightly darker carapace and the small to have lighter, and I belive I have worked out how to do it now. One solution could be to just use a heavier wash on the big ones, butthat would also give them a different look so instead I decided to get 3 shades of purple. I don't remember the names right now as I'm not in the same building as my paintstation at the moment, but I will present them when I show off WIP pictures.

The idea now is that the Neurogaunts (the small verson of the Termagaunts) will have the lightest carapace, and I think I will also see if I can use this color of some of the carapace on the "arms" of the bigger Tyranids as that armor is probably softer than the thick one on the back. I also think I will use it on the two small Neuroloids that come with the Neurotyrant and on the Ripper swarms.

The most common sizes will be painted Genestealer Purple, that is the main creatures of the army, the Termagaunts, but probably also on the body carapace of the Barbgaunts, the Von Ryan's Leapers (they have nore carapace but are about the same size) and the Tyranid Prime.
For the Tyranid Prime I might use Genestealer purple for the carapace and then the lighter purple on the skin between the bones in the wings but I will have to see what the lighter color looks like when I get it on the Neurogaunts before I make the final decition.

The Neurotyrant, Screamer-Killer, and Psychophage will ge the darkest purple, and I will also use that on other big beasts that will be released and aquired later. 

I will need to add another color, maybe a contrasting one for some parts on some of the creatures. The small Neurogaunts and the bigger Barbgqunts have symbiotic creatures attached to them, and I will have to see what colors I should paint them. For the Barbgaunst I think I will use the same dark purple that I use for the weapons on the Termagaunts as their sympioctic creature is a weapon. For the Neurogaunts I really don't have any idea yet, but maybe I will find inspiration looking on pictures of other painted minis or something comes to me as I sit and paint the other colors on them. 

End of the week status, and Tyranid update

A week with the dogs and then another week without them has passed, and now I have collected the dogs again to have them with me for the comming week.

This week I have not been able to sit and work on my Valkyrie, but I haven't gotten hold of the missing piece either so I am in no hurry. I am quite sure I have one more Valkyrie so I can take the piece from that and finish the one I have started so I will do that in the not too distant future.

What I have been up to though, is building and priming all the Tyranids in the Leviathan boxed set. 

So when the dogs go to back to their second home I will start painting them up. I know most of my colorscheme now, but some of them will need another color added as they have either much bigger and probably tougher carapace than the small ones so it might need a slightly different color. Maybe I can do that with a heavier wash or by using a purple contrast paint isntead of my regular wash. I will see what I can do.Also one of the Tyranids has wings so I need to find a color to put between the "bones" on the "leather" of the wings. 

I am now looking forward to the release of more Tyranids from the new range ro make the splinter fleet grow. New creatufres as shown off, but also more of the ones I already have. One of the tings I'm looking forwar to the most is stangely enough the small ones like th one I used for my test model, as thy will come with many weapon options.

I have started to work on a backstory for the army and the story is that this is a splinter fleet from Hive Fleet Kraken. The Splinter Fleet is designate Sotha Tertius as it was the third splinter fleet discovered near the planet Sotha. They never fought there, but they were seen travelling to an unknown detination. Usually the forces of the Imperium would try to stop them, but they were too heavily involved trying to fight the two other splinter fleets in the area as they fought hard. This week I will keep on working on the back story and see if I can fill it out more.