Wednesday 8 January 2014

'nids part 118 - Scratchbuilt Tyranid Capillary Towers pt11.

There's not a lot that can be said about the painting of these that hasn't already been said before so I hope I'm excused that these pictures show a much further update than you would usually expect. I've primed and base coated everything, washed with Army Painter Soft and Strong Tones. Also of note is despite these two towers both being three tier is the subtle difference in height thanks to the different shaped foamboard cores which I'll release as a template soon.


The bases were painted with my now ubiquitous Red Planet Basing technique, only the upscaled version for larger structures, i.e. with the Docrafts Artiste Pumpkin craft acrylic mixed with the £1 Vermilion craft acrylic. It goes a long way. I also painted the Bonewhite chips on one of these bases but instantly got bored so didn't do the remaining five - I'll get to them when I do the Bonewhite highlights. I have to say though, particularly on these bigger bases those Bonewhite chips really do make a massive difference to an otherwise mediocre base.


Also all the fleshy musculature has been highlighted. Simple drybrushing of Vermilion over the shaded Vermilion then some white mixed in, drybrush, and then one final extra drop of white for extreme highlights. Considering the orangey nature of Vermilion I'm surprised how pink this comes out, I'd have thought more salmon coloured but no it's quite pleasant and does not suffer from the chalky nature adding white usually does.  


Lastly, the two bigger towers, it's also nice to see the Bonewhite spikes. It's funny how the Forgeworld models actually had these pointing upwards. They should look quite neat once the highlights go on, perhaps not as sharp and dangerous looking as I'd hoped but they still look menacing from a distance.


And a close up of all the textures. Once all the Chitin plates are turquoised up I'll do the Bonewhite and then the flesh sacks and finally the tendril vines. Lots still to do.


Lastly varnishes and then the fun of the fair with Tamiya Clear Red X-27 and try and work out some 'reclamation pool' style sludge in the three male towers crater...
Tyranid Capillary Towers | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. part 9. |
part 10. |


4 comments:

  1. Those turned out looking fantastic! Can't wait to see 'em with the landing pad in place!

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    1. Thanks Mordian, they look even better now they're finished painting and X-27 has gone on. When it all comes together I think it'll be quite special.

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  2. Nice one Dave they look great, how are you going to do the landing pad, is going to be stretched skin?

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    1. It's going to be like an expanded version of the roof of the Bastion, raw skin, with a central sphicter but with stretched muscular fibres running from each tower.

      It's not as thin as I'd like and I'm struggling to prevent the clay warping the pad as it dries out but if it all goes wrong I'll scrap it and replace it with a sheet of clear styrene and sculpt the fibres on top of that, so it'll be more like a membrane. Otty thought that's what I was doing and I suddenly went 'oh yeah!' Hindsight is always 20:20

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