Tyranid Warrior ***FINISHED***

[Foxbat]

My painting style and love of acrylics are both entirely down to years of painting Games Workshop figures for various armies in just about every game they've produced. I've tried to do a couple of stand alone figures before but I always get bogged down trying to make them look like the ones in White Dwarf or on GW's own website.

 

This time I have a time limit and you're all watching, so I have to make a decent stab at finishing it - there's three in the box but they're quite big so I'm only attempting one for this GB.

 

Speaking of which, this is the box. Not much of a clue there as to what they are - Tyranids are a race of aliens, who basically harvest every life form they come across to recycle their genetic material to make new Tyranids - something like a cross between the creature from Alien and a swarm of locusts. Nice  

 

In game terms these boys are heavy infantry. In model terms they're still the old multi-part plastic kits having not been replaced by the newer resin models with far fewer parts. This is the sprue:

 

Given unlimited time and a lot more talent, this is what I'd be looking to turn out. It's still a target, let's see how close I can get.

 

 

Andy

Xenomorph for hire

Edited August 31, 2020 by Foxbat

[JOCKNEY]

Blimey, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard have let themselves go a bit, certainly as a minimum I would sack the Avon lady !

 

Good luck Andy

 

Cheers Pat

[Hockeyboy76]

Will enjoy seeing how you get on with this. 

[Foxbat]

The box arrived today so I've had a delve. For all their faults [1], GW are on occasion very clever. There are three sprues in the box, with a central body for 3 figures. Each body can have a choice of three pairs of legs. Each of those nine can have one of three front pieces (27) and backs (81). There are three 2 part heads to go on the top (6 possible heads, so we're up to 486 possible combinations). Each of those 486 can be armed one of 10 different ways, and most of those ways have optional parts. Then there are a few accessories. I've lost count now, but by my reckoning the content of those three sprues could comfortably furnish you with over 50,000 microscopically different but unique figures - before paint  

 

So here's what's in the box. instead of the single image above stolen from a website.

 

Andy

[1] Their moulds can be a bit hit and miss so parts don't always fit well. Detail is often soft which makes copying the paint schemes in the literature harder than it should be, and they do have a nasty habit of changing rules and background regularly so hundreds of pounds worth of figures assembled and painted over hundreds of hours are redundant overnight. My entire Kislev army (fantasy 16th century Poles allied to their take on Landsknechts) went that way  Their prices are a bit eye watering too, but if you want to play the games you have no choice.

[JeroenS]

Wow... good luck with figuring out what goes where 🙂 

[Valkyrie]

I always think figure is tough but the ones you see all shaded and highlighted are real art pieces. Good luck, il like seeing the painting 

[Foxbat]

10:25. Cats are fed, I've removed the wasp the kitten was about to eat, had my first cuppa so it must be time to start.

 

First decision made, I'm going with leg set A.

 

 

Legs and tail assembled. It's quite a dynamic pose so they won't stand up on their own. I just hope they're far enough back on the base that the whole thing will stand up unaided when I'm done.

 

 

Body halves and two piece head selected, glued and primed. For a company that take such pains to protect their Intellectual Property, they don't half take liberties with other people's. This is as about sa closeas you can get to an Alien without HR Giger's people getting in touch.

 

 

Stoped for lunch and a catch up. Sausages are duck and chilli picked up from the farm shop next to Sizergh CAstle, where I also got the ketchup.

 

 

Andy 

[JeroenS]

Wow... now I'm wondering what dinner will be 

[Beggsy]

That looks tasty!  Nice modelling, too.

[Foxbat]

Second session starting. This is going to have to be the Scottish Option as I have other things on this weekend, but I also have a cunning plan for a second build inbetween while I'm waiting for paint to dry and the like.

 

 

I've painted all the 'black' bits using Akan acrylic 'Old Tyres Grey' as they need highlighted with white and glazed with purple and from experience the purple ink I have doesn't give enough contrast over a proper black base. I've also given the white bits a wash of Bone White which is a really pale beige - you can see it next to a bottle of Buff in the photo. Hasn't made much difference to the white but will give some depth and contrast to the pink bits when I come to add them

 

 

They always look horribly messy at this stage and even I'm wondering how I'm going to pull it all together and make it look good instead of like an explosion in an ink factory. Choosing figures with a white base maybe wasn't the wisest choice, but we'll see  

 

That's 2:05 of my 24:00 allowed. Got to nip out and shop now. More when it happens.

 

Andy

[Foxbat]

Today's little shopping trip involved something I thought I'd never do again; I bought some genuine Games Workshop paints!! I lost faith in them years ago as the quality went out of the window - not enough pigment to give proper coverage, and the bottles were more about design than practicality so the paint regularly dried in the bottle within months, sometimes weeks of first opening.

 

They have a crazy system now where they have base colours (proper paint), layering colours (a bit thinner so you can do shading without watering down your main colours) and shades (inks in anybody else's range). Bought all the colours on the suggested colour scheme list on the back of the box and went at it. This is whre it stands tonight. I wasn't sure at first, but the results look a lot better under artificial lifgt, so I'll keep going and see where I end up. I estimate I took another hour or so playing round tonight but I forgot to include my watch in the pictures  How about we call it 70 minutes and that puts my running total at 3:15?

 

Anyway, pictures. Yer man in his spiffy new paint with the various sub assemblies balanced together. The pictures are from slightly odd angles as I didn't dare move him

 

 

 

I've alo put the first colour on his arms and laid them out where they'll be when I finish construction. More of that tomorrow.

 

Andy

[Foxbat]

Late start but back on the chain ga... back at the bench

 

 

Not much to show in this update, I found a tiny pointed brush and used it to inflict shiny new GW crimson inkabout the place. Some overpainting to be tidied later (I'm looking at the calendar and hoping there's enough later left). 

 

 

Off to visit family for an hour or two. More later.

 

Andy 

[Foxbat]

Well, end of day 2 and I've addded another two hours to the build time. Let's call that 5 hours so far, so I effectively have all tomorrow to finish if I don't get up before 5am (YOU HEAR THAT CATS - 5AM!!!)

 

Everything has been base coated now, the splits and joints in the skin have been painted in, as has the intercostal areas of the thorax. I tried using my new paints to achieve the same effect as on the box for the purple bits and whilst it was very pretty it wasn't right. When in doubt, go with what you know; a quick splash of violet ink (yay Vallejo) and a dry brush with white got me within shouting distance of what I was looking for. 

 

I then went round and tidied up some of the overpaint on the pale skin areas and added some extra shading to the red bits where I had the colouring I wanted. Last job is to detail the weapons and then stick it all together. Sounds easy said like that but I reckon I'm only halfway through painting at this stage.

 

Here's a couple of blurry shots as a thank you for reading this far. When I get to the next stage I need to a) shoot from level or below so you can see the detail, b) sort out the depth of field so everything is in focus and c) find somewhere else to shoot so the background isn't the green bomb site that is my workbench.

 

First pic shows the tail and back of the legs, the front of the thorax and the top of the head with the arms in the order they'll attach to the body.

 

 

A couple of pictures without flash would be good too. That purple on the head (front centre) is much more nuanced in daylight through smudged glasses.

 

This pick shows the front of the legs so you can just see a hoof, the carapace down the back of the body, and the face which is so blurry you can't see the beautifully painted tongue and the several dozen fangs. Ah well

 

 

Off to bed now with a cuppa and Alien v Predator - got to keep in the groove here.

 

Andy

 

[Foxbat]

I haven't seen much music in this Blitz Build. I've been listening to this young lady a lot this weekend. Very odd, but I like it.

 

 

Hey it worked!! My first BM/Youtube crossover.

 

Andy

[JeroenS]

This guy looks a right mess 🙂 

 

There's a lot going on there in terms of painting! Will it need much work after you've put it together? 

[JOCKNEY]

On 29/08/2020 at 12:17, Foxbat said:

 

 

 

Andy 

 

As Mrs Jockney has got me on a diet, do you mind if I just drool quietly for a while looking at the above picture !

 

Cheers Pat

[Foxbat]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

This guy looks a right mess 🙂 

 

There's a lot going on there in terms of painting! Will it need much work after you've put it together? 

Glueing everything together should be the very last step unless the glue lifts any paint and i need touch up

 

Andy

[Foxbat]

After a few touch ups the body parts were about done so I turned to the weapons. I layered on some lighter reds but wasn't entirely happy with the result so added some of the crimson ink I'd used earlier. 

 

Better, but still not quite right. I found a fat old brush and ladelled the ink on - much better  Then in a fit of madness I glued the thorax to the tail, just to see. Looked OK and had a bit of wiggle room, so I added the head to see if I could get a nice pose. Satisfied, I left it all to dry and went shopping. for the record, NEMC is closed on bank holiday Monday's 😢 

 

Came home again and did a bitof dry brushing on the weaponry using one of the pale shades from the body. I wanted to do a test fitting of the gun to see how the two arms came together and to find a nice pose, but the only way to keep them in place was by glueing them and then wiggling them a bit before they'd fully set. So I did. Alas, all this took place sans camera.

 

Since there were only the close in weapon arms left to fit, I just went for it. Which got me to here:

 

 

 

I painted the base and gave it an ink wash ut it didn't give the grades of colour I would have liked. Never mind, the next one will be better.

 

Lamb Sri Lankan with sweet rice for tea. Gallery shots after I've eaten.

 

Andy

[JeroenS]

This is 28 mm high??? 

[Natter]

On 8/30/2020 at 9:01 PM, Foxbat said:

if I don't get up before 5am (YOU HEAR THAT CATS - 5AM!!!)

Nice to hear that I share wake up times with someone else for the same reason.  At 0407hrs I almost wished I had your Tyranid to release at the errant feline.

[Foxbat]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

This is 28 mm high??? 

Its 28mm scale which I think is 1/56. This particular figure is around 60mm high.

 

Andy

[JeroenS]

11 minutes ago, Foxbat said:

Its 28mm scale which I think is 1/56. This particular figure is around 60mm high.

 

Andy

Ah, ok... Still not very big but a step up indeed 🙂 

 

I didn't know figures had their own scale indication. But I see the point. It's not like the models are made off 1:1 examples 🤔

[Foxbat]

50 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

Ah, ok... Still not very big but a step up indeed 🙂 

 

I didn't know figures had their own scale indication. But I see the point. It's not like the models are made off 1:1 examples 🤔

Wargames figures use a scale based on the height of a man, but there is some confusion over whether that means to the top of the head or just to the eye line so different ranges that say they are the same scale are different sizes and don't work well together. 

 

Model railways also often use a mm scale, but that means something different again. 

 

Andy