I have a very small Tyranid Army that is basically a spin-off of my Tyranid Kill Team. I plan on add a few more units in the future as well as a couple of big ones like the Mawlock, but for now I can field them when I mix my Cult.
Below you can see the whole Army painted:
I present the last miniature -for now- of the Tyranid project, the Hive Tyrant!
I actually finished painting him sometime mid-June but not until today I got him out of storage with all the others to take some pictures.
When doing so I realized that the matt varnish layer I applied right at the end has ruined completely the paint job. This is very frustrating, it's the second time that it happens and it somehow looks like a fine dust layer on top of the whole miniature, especially visible on the dark blue areas. I tried removing it with all sort of products but it also takes away the paint, so the only real solution is to repaint the more damaged areas, which is something I am not willing to do for now.
Aside from that, you can see that I took a bit more of time on him compared to the other bugs. I still followed the same techniques and tried to paint him fast, but did a few extra steps for some additional highlights.
Arms are magnetized so I can choose between rifle or claws.
For the wings, after looking at many different pictures of very nicely painted Hive Tyrants, I decided to go for a pattern that I could simulate with the stippling technique which I am trying to get better at, while at the same time giving it some kind of flesh-y look. On top of it I added a few veins which I think adds a nice touch.
Painted in 2022
And here is the first Elite unit I have for the Tyranids Army, a Ravener. Painted with same technique in roughly 45 minutes.
I always like the Tyranids that can go underground and that I somehow feel they fit nicely with other units that can lurk, like the Lictor or Genestealers.
In fact, I plan to use this figure as a a Lictor until I get one. I also plan eventually to get a Trigon or some other bigger crawler, but that's for the future.
The Hive Tyrant is mostly done as well so as soon as I am ready, I will share an Army picture with the whole Horde!
Painted in 2022
Here is the only Tyranid Warriors unit I plan to ever use in the army, as they are very expensive and not that effective.
Painted with same scheme and in roughly 2 hours.
Painted in 2022
Second unit of my Tyranid Army: 10 Termagaunts
These are painted int the same manner as before and they are just here to occupy some lonely objective and stay there mostly hidden for the whole battle.
I painted them in roughly 3-4 hours including bases, which is quite fast.
Painted in 2022
Last year, I bought a super cheap set of Tyranids at a second-hand shop for 20€. Some of them were in pretty bad shape, but it did not matter too much as I just needed a few to kitbash and the Genestealers for my Genestealer Cult Army.
Later on, I decided to use them for Kill Team so I started to play with them more and enjoyed them quite a bit.
Lately, I have started to play more One Page Rules and I realized that if I would use all the figure I bought back in the day plus a Hive Tyrant I could have easily over 2,000 points so it was settled.
At the same time I needed to paint ultra fast some figures to rest from the effort of painting the ones I have done earlier this year.
As a result, here is the first unit of the army: 10 Hormagaunts. They are basically cannon fodder but if played at the right time they can deliver some damage.
I painted them in about 3 or 4 hours, which is super fast for me. The painting scheme I chose for them is the same I chose for my Genestealer Cult. I used the same necromunda bases.That way, I can mix them easily and have a bigger army by adding a few units of Genestealers or by using some of the Tyranids as allies for my Cult.
For the base I use these colours.
Painted in 2022
I originally started this blog to showcase my collection of Primarchs, although it has grown into a full-blown hobby blog.
The last Primarch I painted for my collection was way back in 2015, when I shared Konrad Curze, primarch of the Night Lords. I am not counting the second Angron I painted in 2020 for a friend.
Well, finally, the wait is over, and today I am happy to share the next one: Perturabo, primarch of the Iron Warriors!
I have had him for quite a few years, but never got the time to paint him as I was busy going over my pile of shame.
I chose to paint him in the same way I have painted other primarchs, NMM for the primarch itself and TMM for base and other marines.
The base of Perturabo is quite imposing as it shows a destroyed Knight. I painted this one with lots of drybrush, washes and stippling to achieve this faded, destroyed look.
Perturabo is the first primarch I have painted using a wet palette to take advantage of easier wet blending, which lets me do better NMM and glazing. Still, in my case, this means a poor attempt at NMM where I think I have managed to achieve what I wanted to do in like one or two places, everything else is just wrong :) Additionally I have tried OSL on the face using an orange fluor paint and also failed at that. Just means that I need to keep on practicing...
I hope you like him as much as I had fun painting him!
Next I will do some batch speed painting to take it easy...
Painted in 2022
This miniature is the last one (for now) for my Black Templars Kill Team.
He is a Librarian, so he can be field as a Commander of type Librarian in Kill Team.
As some of you may know, the Black Templars chapter do not have Librarians, but I really wanted to paint one, and also, I remembered that little fact when I had him already prepared and primed! So, I went through the lore of the Templars and found out that they do not have good relationships with most of other chapters, save for the successors of the Imperial Fists. Among those, probably the Crimson Fists are the ones with best relationship.
Therefore, I sat down and decided that my Crusader Kill Team got the task to help / retrieve a Librarian from the Crimson Fists Chapter that had uncover critical intel, and help him get safe back to his Chapter. That way, I can easily have him in my games as an ally.
The paint scheme is very different as you can see, since the Crimson Fists adhere to the Codex, and therefore the Librarians are clad in blue. I also did not want to add excessive weathering like the Black Templars have, so I decided to add some scratches on the armour, a little bit more than a few scratches on the leather cloth and some dust on the feet. He clearly stands out next to his Crusader colleagues, which is exactly what I wanted to have.
I tried using a decal for the shoulder pad but it was bending at weird angles so in the end, I was forced to freehand it. I am satisfied with the end result, there is a close-up below.
Painted in 2021
| The whole gang |
Today I bring a small kitbash I did based on Lieutenant Calsius. As you can see from the pic below, the miniature is an Ultramarine. I needed to remove all of those seals and add a few other bits to make it closer to the crusader style of the Black Templars.
In Kill Team, I can use him as a Commander, either a Captain or a Lieutenant. In the Black Templars lore, he is a Veteran, part of the Sword Brethren. And that is why I painted the rims of the shoulder pads red.
The painting method is the same as what I did for the rest of the Kill Team, so there is nothing to mention.
Painted in 2021
A while ago I showed here the very first miniatures of my Primaris-only Kill Team from the Black Templars Chapter.
After having painted the whole box of Blood Bowl I continue plowing through my pile of shame and next in line is the Kill Team.
Today I am sharing the Reavers. After the amount of time I spent on the Blood Bowl team, I was very happy to paint these guys fast and without worrying too much about details since I was looking for a grimdark Blanchitsu style with is not "beautiful and clean" but rather dirty and weathered.
Here is a quick overview of the painting recipe.
I am quite satisfied with how they turned out and the next one is already on the painting table!
Painted in 2021
Back when I started to play Kill Team I decided I wanted to have a Space Marine Kill Team as spare one. In case someone wants to play and does not own a team. It is an easy to play and learn if you keep it to the basic so it's an overall good choice.
I wanted them to be Primaris only, mostly because I had never painted one, but I was not sure which Chapter to choose from.
I started to browse Instagram for inspiration and I almost decided on Salamanders until I found the amazing work of k03rnl. That is when I decided to build a Black Templars team.
Just look at his posts to understand what I mean :)
As for the painting, I chose to follow the Grimdark Blanchitsu style. I have tried my best to replicate the style used by k03rnl. Rather than super crisp details and edge highlights, the focus is on the grim atmosphere and the right choice of colours. See some examples of what I mean here, here and here.
It is very interesting to paint with this set of techniques and I had a blast painting these three marines, it is also pretty fast to be honest, something I was not expecting at all.
I did some minor conversions here and there to add a little bit more of character to them. I used the tentacle tool from GreenStuffWorld which is great for conversions. As for the bases, I wanted to try my best at creating a ruined base without too many details and just some old newspapers or posters lying around. I followed the technique described in this article, which made me go into a shop to buy cigarette rolling paper for the first time in my life :)
I am happy with how the bases turned out although in some cases I applied either too much ink or too little, and the paper absorbed it. I need to get the gist of it yet. In any case, I will be using it again to add some additional atmosphere to my Walking Dead bases, some time in the far future.
I have another five marines to paint, as soon as my schedule allows for it for a total of 8-man squad.
Painted in 2021