Friday, August 27, 2010

Hive Tyrant Painting Disaster Bonanza!

FINALLY finished. In addition to the painting troubles, I ran into additional construction and spray-sealant roadbumps... nay, potholes of unbelievable tire-busting size, on my way to the finish line. Following this short rant of the problems, I'll make up for it with lots of pics followed by the description bit. I thank all of you for your patience- this model has been extremely trying to say the least. Actually, here, I'll give a picture just to keep you with me a bit longer... then I'll rant, then I'll continue. How's that?



1-The flexible nature of the greenstuff (and even this stuff is pushing it- you'll see it below) goes against the rigid dry-form of the paint- while doing certain areas, I'd accidentally "rest" the tentacles on the table and put a little weight on them, this reformed the shape of the tentacles and "cracked" the curved stress-points... more paint-over and highlighting to cover the damaged paint job. FML.

2- Oh GW Sealant... damn you to the lowest pits of hell... In order to fix the paint-chipping by fingertips, I attempted to put sealant on the model "during" painting- and by during, I mean when the damn thing was almost done. To be fair, I've done this with my Zoan, and it came out beautifully. BUT... it was still in-progress, at the 35%, 65%-percent way marks. After spraying, my victory-grin turned into a fury-rictus as I saw that the goddamn spray had TURNED MY EFFIN' MODEL CHALKY WHITE!! YOU &@!@#*!ING PIECE OF S#!T SPRAY!! I OUGHT TO BREAK EVERY BONE IN YOUR WORTHLESS BODY AND LEAVE YOU CRAWLING HOME ON YOUR GODDAMN CHIN LIKE THE SPINELESS WORM YOU ARE!!!

*ahem*...After stomping around, a cigarette, and half a litre of crap Japanese sake in about 20 minutes... I calmed down and thought about how to fix it. I have a feeling I had a problem like this with my Zoan, but the added paint covered the mistakes. This one... I used successive washes of Baal Red, Badab Black, and oldskool Red Glaze to "repair" the paint job. I tried my very best to repair this, and here are the results.

Presenting... Izanagi's Hive Tyrant w/ funky custom implanty-things that I have no idea what they represent!!

Front Shot- This is the result after several washes of color to darken the chalked up POS that was the Tyrant. One thing I noticed is that there is a LOT of feathering... I think if it was a standard Tyrant, it might have been ok, but he's veering off into a totally different scheme with so much red- I didn't take into account the 6 extra back-housings and 6 extra tentacle heads.


Left Side- The scythes and gun-arms are magnetized- another reason I felt it necessary to seal the parts was also to present the damage from clamping and unclamping the arms- paint chipping sucks. I'll let you know if it worked out or not.


Back-Carapace- I thought this was fairly successful in its execution- at least, after I washed it and re-highlighted it. Remember how I said there were problems with the cracking paint? It's not only the paint- before primering, I noticed that one of the tentacles' greenstuff was also cracking, probably due to improper formation onto the copper wire. Yup, it's the one on the top-right: see how the bottom of the tentacle is mangled and crappy? That's my attempt to reinforce the cracks that formed (and the horrible FAIL that followed) Perhaps for my V2, I'll find some better material to make it out of.


Venom-Cannon Detail- For this part, I wanted to model after the original Tyranid Warrior- part of me tells me the vine hanging from weapon-to-freehand might have been better as just "grey"... but who am I to listen to the voices talking in my head? I tried it, I like it- I tried to freehand the plastic detail into venom veins that ran all throughout the pipe.


Base Detail 1 - Skeleton and bio-receptacle. Again, the theme for my army is that this Fleet has eaten away nearly every living thing on a world in an urban enviroment- nothing really remains. If you think Fallout (any fans??) they at least have grass on the ground. I used one from the Vampire Counts Skeleton collection- the open mouths and damaged skulls are perfect... oh yea, and the rest of the bodies too. I think I'm going to start adding cracked concrete and roads, etc. for my follow-up minis.


Base Detail 2 - Destroyed banner and rubble. Also another component from the VC Skeleton set. I didn't really know what I wanted to put for the flag- not a red one, certainly, and I thought white or cream would be a bit too "pristine". I decided on a mustard yellow with Devlan Mud wash and slight Bleached Bone highlight. I freehanded an 'X' (I imagine army banners to start w/ the legion name- like the 57th Hellfishes, etc.) with washed down Chaos Black and Codex Grey, all while the Devlan Mud was drying. For the banner pole, I originally imagined it to be shining silver but faded and rusted all to hell now. I used Boltgun Metal w/ a heavy Devlan Mud wash, then stippled some Scorched Brown and Snakebite Leather to simulate severe rust. Result was so-so. I'd rather stick w/ drybrushing, where I have more control. More practice is needed w/ Stippling Brush, I guess.


Armless Tentacle Detail 1 - These pictures are not as good- I just wanted to show the tentacles without the other bits getting in the way.


Armless Tentacle Detail 2 - I'm overall pleased with the result, but definitely have some pointers for my next Large monstrosity- the Swarm Lord. Sword... TENTACLES?!?!?!


Side Close-Up with Head Detail- if you notice, I cut off the small "beard" spike on his chin- No, really. Check the GW website Hive Tyrant. Sorry, that part of it just wasn't doing it for me.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this presentation. I think he'll make a great centerpiece, but by trying to make him less-fragile, I actually did the opposite. I have no idea how he's going to be transported- I think I'm going to have to make a custom case or some thing for him, otherwise, he'll just be a home-field model.


One last pic- ...Ok... while everything didn't really go according to plan, I got to the finish line, and I think he'll make a fine centerpiece for my army! FORWARD!! THE HIVE MIND COMMANDS IT!

Thanks for staying tuned! Next up- Lictor!


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2 comments:

  1. I like it though if you brought him to one of our tournaments I might recommend bringing another base....that way you could assault with the "empty" base and not have to worry about some ham handed opponent snapping off a tendril during the pile in moves..

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  2. Yea, it's pretty resilient, truth be told. But transporting him in foam- the foam won't budge, but the copper won't keep his pewter plastic bulk together... copper starts bending... paint starts crackling... I start crying like a little girl...

    ...it's not pretty.

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