Newbie seeking a steer on WIP tyranid

[Airwalker]

Hey all,

I used to paint as a teenager, but that was when the only tutorial available was the Citadel Miniatures Painting Guide, and I was never convinced that their step by step examples quoting the use of drybrushing ever bore any relevance to the images shown. I found my own way with a kind of wet blending technique, but I never got smooth results as I’d never heard of the need to thin the paint first...

Anyway, some 20 years later I find myself fascinated once again with Warhammer 40K.

I did a couple of Space Marines after watching who knows how many hours of YouTube material and reading lots, then decided I wanted to do something totally different. And yes, totally influenced by fond memories of SpaceHulk. Aim was never to do a really high standard involving hundreds of hours, but rather a quickish job that I could transfer to an army and hopefully look better than the standard base/wash/edge highlight or dry brush approach. And above all just a chance to get a few more hours of practice in.

So far I’ve put time into skin and carapace. Claws just base coated and first shade. Looking for a steer on ways to improve from here, and your thoughts on colour choice. I’m not sure what to do with the ribbed parts under the arm and leg Flesh. Keep purple, or change totally? How to get more contrast? Currently thinking of using yellow as the third spot colour for eyes and some patterning on the carapace it’s standing on.



View attachment 64372

 

[KruleBear]

Very nice. Welcome back to the hobby!....It looks like you figured out how to thin your paints! Lol :bashful:

 

[Coyotebreaks]

looks good, great colour scheme and tidy painting welcome back to the hobby .

 

[droidworkshop]

That's looking really good, I particularly like the white micro detailing on the blue carapace

 

[Canny]

I agree with all of the above. very nice work. I would be totally happy with that for what you're aiming for. if you did want to step it up a darker recess shade for the skin a hull red type colour would work well. yellow eyes sound good too. welcome aboard.

 

[Meph]

Welcome back on the wagon. and looks like a great start/continuation! I too had a ten-year hiatus between my late teens and late twenties. Haven't regretted it one bit! the coming back into the hobby... it has become my analogue therapy for a digital work life.

 

[Airwalker]

Thanks everyone, all very kind comments and couldn't agree more Meph - a great antidote to my digital day job.

I did some work on the claws over the weekend and will try and get some pics up soon.

Just a quick question on how the forum works - if I use cmon to upload my images as a source, I notice they all go in the gallery for scoring. Presumably I'm better off not doing this with WIP shots and keep the gallery for finished minis instead? Any recommendations on hosting source I should use otherwise? Or is this an ok way to use the site?

 

[Airwalker]

Just got a delivery from Warcolours with their NMM2 set... I sense I may get distracted now and go and try my first attempts at some nmm gold on something else

 

[Airwalker]

here's the claw work - built up with glazes including a very translucent red for the final touch. Which obviously doesn't show in the rubbish camera phone pic

 

[Mdlbuildr]

Wow, that really looks amazing! I'm not sure if you are done working on the hands and arms, but they need a bit more contrast to pop as much as the claws and carapace. that being said, I really love the look your going for.

 

[Airwalker]

Originally my aim wasn't to go overboard with the skin - trying to find a balance between a quick painting method if I translate to an army, vs. a desire to go to town on it and get more practice in on glazing techniques. This started with a simple off-white base, followed by a wash (or two... can't actually remember) of Daemonette Hide thinned 1:2 with Lahmian Medium. Then an Army painter purple ink wash in the deeper recesses, and a few glazes of mixes of Slaanesh Grey and Daemonette Hide that dialed in more Slaanesh Grey as I went to build out to highlights. That sounds more time consuming writing it down than it actually was.

Anyway, looks like the latter option won, and since the last shot I've been enhancing the contrast by using some thinned Genestealer Purple glazes in the recesses, then working back up the highlights to Slaanesh Grey. I'll try and get some more pics once done (2 arms down so far). Definitely much happier though. The purple tones are much stronger than before, but it's still a softer texture than the hard carapace and retains some of the sickly greyed out look I wanted.

Thanks for your input - it motivated me to take it further and I'm much happier so far.

 

[Sicks]

I'll echo mdlbuildr about the skin contrast, its the weakest point of the mini but don't have to overcomplicate it, I'd try a super thin glaze of rhinox hide in the shadows, it usually shades reds and purpkes nicely although I've never tried it on something as light as demonette hide, the class and the blue parts are looking nice though

 

[Coyotebreaks]

agree just a touch more contrast in the skin. that aside its great job. love that you have done with the carapace.

 

[Airwalker]

Quick update shot of the work on the upper left arm. I did try some very thin Rhinox Hide in the deepest shadows, but it is very subtle. Needs a bit more work on the highlights and some of the blends need smoothing more, but I'm definitely happier with the contrast now

View attachment 64785

 

[Airwalker]

No idea why the shot rotated 90 degrees during upload though...

You can just see my new Warcolors NMM set 2 in the background, and the evidence of some experimenting with it on my thumb

 

[Chaotic Creations]

Very nice work, this tyrants is looking fantastic. I actually thought it looked quite spectacular in the first shot with subtle contrast, but now having pushed the shadows all the features really stand out. You seem to have a really good grip on what your doing and your brush control is fantastic. I will add this little suggestion (feel free to totally disregard what I say as It will probably change the whole look of the mini), but you could possibly try to add a bit of that deep blue (which you used on the carapace to blend out of the black) to the wash colour your using and add this to the deep recesses. I would keep this very thin and just build it up slowly so you can control how it’s looking. This will provide a little tonal variation to the flesh and also create a nice cohesion across the whole mini. Just a thought of something you could try
anyways mate keep up the great work, look forward to seeing how this progresses.

 

[KruleBear]

The blue looks great and even though the purple doesn't have the same pop, an army painted to this level will be awesome.

 

[Airwalker]

Thanks again everyone - it's all great feedback and exactly what I was hoping for i.e. ideas of what I can do to improve. I love the idea of adding some darker blue tints into the deepest recesses for all the reasons suggested, and will try that at some stage this week. It's all experimental at this stage so happy to keep developing and testing new things.

Out of interest, I'm assuming it's just down to my terrible photography rather than anything else (phone camera, bad light etc.), but I'm always amazed how different minis look under the camera lens than vs. the naked eye. I often don't realise things needs more work until I see the same part in a camera shot. Is that normal? I was thinking of making a first time visit to Warhammer Fest just to check out the GD entries in the flesh. I was just curious whether I should expect to see very different things in person compared to the galleries I love looking at from professional photos.

 

[Sicks]

It's pretty normal, for one even holding a mini really close to your face isn't as big as a picture (which really points out every tiny mistake wheras in person things tend to look better) also in your pics it looks like you have a yellowish light wheras most people use a daylight bulb to paint and take pictures with, it makes it much easier to see, phone cameras are usually good enough for taking pictures if you get a decent setup (daylight bulb instead of the warm white household bulb for example, even a plain backdrop to eliminate background noise to help the camera focus etc.)

 

[frzntoz]

I think it looks great. Classic colours well done, especially if this is the level you're hoping to keep for a table top army.

I always see things in photos of minis I'm working on that highlights problem areas. I actually primarily take pictures of my works in progress for this reason, while sharing them is an added bonus. I also try to take the figure I'm working on in to different rooms and lighting situations to see how it looks as there is often a difference between the light on my desk and elsewhere.