Rise of a Tyrant

Hell if I know this band.. not a fan of metal of any kind...

Lictors and troops were supposed to be on the menu, but instead, the Hive Tyrant is getting finished. I wish I could say that this was an enjoyable painting experience, but the project was plagued by several problems and oversights. That, and I underestimated the scale of the model- I thought it would be like painting a standard 28mm bug, but bigger. Yup... definitely underestimated.

1) I tried to clean him up as best I could, but with so much detail, I found there were several points I didn't file, slice, etc. before primering the product. FML.

2) The guy all glued together, plus those funky tentacles I made of greenstuff, bits and wires, made hitting a few places a real pain. Now I've got a couple spots on the whole of the model marked by an accidental tip of my paintbrush. My only saving grace was that his arms are magnetized. Those things helped the painting a bit, clearing up space instead of having more odd spikes and bits in the way of the nooks and crannies.

3) The tentacles aren't solid- they have some "spring" to them, and the odd angles they're placed at took time to get all the painting squared away on them.

4) The feathering... Ooooh... the feathering. I know you're supposed to take more time on a "leader" model, make them stand out... look good... but this was just ridiculous. The color palette for the red/orange/peach color consists of 6 different layers. With so many places needing the color, it literally takes 1 hour or more for a single layer of feathering. But by jove... I did it.

5) Paint rub-off. I had to hold him on the model at times to get those hard to reach places. Now it's time to go back and get those areas that I painted but rubbed to paint other areas... in Japanese, we call this an "akujunkan", or vicious circle. I fear that as I paint those parts that I painted but rubbed off, I'm going to rub off other areas, and this cycle of evil will continue... until I throw this model against a wall in frustration.

For future reference... I'm probably going to paint large models piece by piece... and inspect any large models piece by piece (which I thought I did this time, but apparently not thoroughly enough...) I'll be posting pics of the finished project- base and all on my next set.

Stay tuned, and here's hoping I can finish strong on this monster...

... and then I remember I have a Trygon/T. Prime to paint down the line... *sigh*...