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Hi all,

Yet another WIP thread, because I have no self control. :banghead: I bought the new version of Lost Patrol from Games Workshop last week because my daughter and I enjoyed the demo game we played in the shop. It's a tactical tile-laying game where a bunch of (dead) Space Marine scouts have to (fail to) get to da chopper and escape (nope) from the horrible monsters. It feels a bit unbalanced but the play is still really interesting.

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And it comes with five scouts, which are OK models, and twelve genestealers which are awesome. I had to assemble the figures the same night so we could play the game in the morning, and one thing lead to another and they got primed, and then because I had the airbrush out they got some skin tones on:

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I sprayed white primer highlights concentrating on the head and hands, then Tamiya Flat Flesh on the extremeties and mix of Flat Flesh, Flat Red and Hull Red on the hard parts of the arms, legs and ribcage blending towards the hands and head. The underside got an extra layer of Hull Red. I washed all the skin with the new glossy Agrax Earthshade wash, which has no matting agent to go white and flows really well :)

I then added a couple of highlights to the skin with the brush (Wild Rider Red and a mix of that and a buff - I forget which) and sprayed a thin glaze of Tamiya Clear Red to tie it all together and add depth/glossiness. Again I faded this towards the hands.

The faces had highlights of Kislev Flesh and Pallid Wych Flesh, then a glaze of Baal Red to tie it together and a bit of Leviathan Purple around the veins which got a bit out of control. I picked out the teeth, eyes, tongues etc. with a (very) fine brush and neatened up the eye sockets with black. I might add slit pupils and catch lights to the eyes, I haven't decided yet.

I've been very rigorous about batch painting, applying every stage to each model before going on. Normally I get excited about one or two and work them up, and when those are finished I lose interest for the rest. So far this is working (and is only really an afternoon and evening's work) but there are an awful lot of claws to fill in now :( I had to stop last night because my hand was cramping up, hence there are only two with the carapace and claws blocked in.

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The big question, which is partly why I've put this up, is what colour to paint the carapace. I think it needs to be dark, almost off-black, but I'm not sure about dark blue with teal highlights, or dark purple with purple and pink highlights? Or maybe something brownish and dry looking? At the moment I'm leaning towards purple despite the potential for clashing colours :P

Cheers,

Will

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A dark purple would look better than a dark blue for the carapace I think, but a desaturated brown/black would be a nice contrast to that fabulous skin tone. You could maybe try some crackle paint for a really cracked, dry look, or would that be too much?

Andy

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Game miniature painting. Its like crack to a model builder. I have boxes of Battletech, B5, FoW and Starfleet miniatures. Its a slippery slope.

I personally would go with blacks and grays. Or go all out with yellows and oranges. Either go completely muted or bat crap crazy loud. Or for table top easy identification, make everyone different.

Edited by Thud4444
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Thanks for all the suggestions! I haven't acted yet, I was almost set on brown but I went through all the copies of Warhammer Visions I could find and found one purple/red Haruspex, and one set of brown-black/red Tyranids. I thought the latter looked really naff, and the purple one was vibrant and interesting, so I think that's going to be the option.

In the meantime I've blocked in the black on all the models:

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(which took pigging ages) and also painted up all the claws, and the blade things on the two Genestealers so equipped:

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Which was somehow less painful!

I know they aren't ultra-neat but I'm trying to strike a balance between speed and anal-retentiveness. I'm hoping that I can get plenty of contrast and vibrant colours, and that will distract from the messy bits :P

Once I've done the carapace (dry brushing and glazes?) I'll varnish that with flat varnish, ditto the head, hands and feet with a blend on the arms so that the upper arms and all the belly area stays glossy and rich looking. At least that's the plan. I might pick out the claws with Klear afterwards depending on how they look when varnished.

Cheers,

Will

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Thanks! I wasn't sure if it'd work but I'm really happy with the result. Wish I'd painted my Haruspex that scheme now :(

I think the Genestealers are done now, bar varnishing and basing. I added slit pupils to the eyes, but no catchlights, drybrushed all the carapaces with various purples and hot pinks and then glazed with black to add depth. I tried masking the carapace with a blu-tak collar and that went really well - would definitely use that technique again.

I also painted the tentacle-faced one's tentacles with a glowy green effect, and finished the details to the other one-off models like the stabby tongue one, and the one with the weird chin-scrotum :)

Will get some pictures tomorrow!

Cheers,

Will

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It's definitely something you need to practice at, it's hard to get the brush control and I still have problems with shakes. I think you just have to accept that your early efforts might not match up to what you want and try and get slowly better. Good light, brushes and magnification are really important too.

My current plan is to try and find ways to paint things a bit quicker, I'm usually so slow. But the Genestealers seem to be fulfilling that goal pretty well, depending on how long it takes me to base them...

Here's the new carapace, it's all shiny from the wash so it's not entirely clear what they'll look like matted down - I assume a bit darker and more detailed.

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I also discovered that tentacle face has got rather yellow - my fault for painting under artificial light - but I can probably tame with with a couple of green glazes.

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Cheers,

Will

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Morning Chaps :bye:

Those look really excellent Will and the carapace on the back looks really good.

Man that game takes me back to the days of Space Hulk, my introduction to GW stuff, i think we played that game to death, along with Bloodbowl before we started collecting and building

up armies.

Very nice indeed sir, well done.

:ninja: Mad Steve :ninja:

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Thanks folks! Steve, Space Hulk (at least the 3rd edition of it) was what brought me back to painting figures after stopping in my early 20s. Plus it's still a great game.

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I based the Genestealers last night, at least the grit and brown bits, and then added the junglie stuff today. They're a mixture of sand and grit over PVA, set with CA. This was painted Rhinox Hide including the base edges, and drybrushed with a couple of mid to light browns. I also picked out some stones in a couple of shades of grey to add interest.

The green stuff is a mix of three or four different kinds of Woodland Scenics foam and some Noch Laub (chopped paper leaves) applied over patches of PVA, misted with alcohol and set with Klear. I then painted up a small part of a sheet of Japanese laser cut paper leaves I've been sitting on for aaaaages and fixed those in place with CA. They're a bit of a pain to curve to shape (I need to do more work on that) but they look nice and aren't too big for the diddy 25mm bases.

Just some tidying up, varnish, and special effects to do now. I can feel a cold coming on, but I managed to brush off the last one so maybe I'll get lucky...

Cheers,

Will

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I ended up having to sand the bases slightly where the flock had stuck to the paint under the influence of alcohol (on the model not in me!) The edges have been repainted, I got the colour wrong above, it's actually Dryad Bark. I then varnished the various bits which needed dulling-down, especially the carapace and head. I tried to keep the arms, legs and chest somewhat glossy but I didn't bother to mask.

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I'll add some blood and drool to a few of them and maybe some gloss green on the upper surfaces of the leaves, and then they'll be done! Not sure if I should gloss coat the tongues and eyes or not?

Since the airbrush was handy I painted the skin mix onto what the game describes as "Infestation Markers", I think they're maybe Genestealer nests or something?

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They don't come with bases but I scrounged some from elsewhere so that I have an excuse for more jungle stuff. I also dug out my half-built Tyrannocyte (giant living drop pod thing) and cleaned up lots of seams, but I have to do other things before I'm allowed to paint it.

Cheers,

Will

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That was a productive if not exactly neat evening. An airbrush glaze and then they're ready for some scenic base stuff.

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"This can only mean one thing! They mean to win Wimbledon!"

Will

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Thanks! I quite like the grit stage, although the green is more exciting.

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Too cold in the office tonight and I don't think I can do the messy stuff in the living room, so back to something else. Or watch Numberwang I guess?

Cheers,

Will

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Two more for the Numberwang bonus :D

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I picked out the blancmanges on top with Tamiya X-22 and other clear colours, and used more of the laser-cut plants. I discovered the jungle leaves had paper-wrapped wire for the stems which is really handy.

I also finished the genestealers, with a bit of gore and "battle damage" on some of them, and added a bit of gloss to the eyes and tongues.

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I need to wait for some decent light to photograph them for RFI. Which is also hampered by Lightroom hanging constantly on Windows 10 - I've tried several different versions to no avail, maybe there's something up with my OS install?

I also cleaned up and primed some floating gasbags (spore mines and a mucolid spore) which ought to be fun to paint:

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The Mucolid is a bit different from the instructions - it's supposed to have more tentacles (see here) - but I wanted enough to build the floating Tyrannocyte as well.

I think my version looks better - floatier, for want of a better word - and the spots for the other tentacles could be some kind of sensory membranes? The Tyrannocyte (giant floating tentacle onion thing) is nearly ready for primer as well.

Cheers,

Will

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"Come on in, the jungle's lovely!"

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(click for bigger/more)

Had just enough time to take these today after finding the missing battery charger, I still need to take some "studio" (so pretentious!) pics at the next daylight opportunity.

Cheers,

Will

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