New army - Beastmen!

So I've been itching to start a new army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I'm currently working on my Tyranids and someone else's High Elves. The nids are being painted in the colour scheme shown in my previous post, which is obviously quite bold. The elves are "Shadow Elves" so they are black, white and grey - not exactly a joy to paint. Beastmen give me lots of muted tones and textures that I can play with.

I was going to attempt a theme but I find that most buyers just want a nicely painted army that will work well on the tabletop rather than an exotic mix of "counts as" models. Luckily for me, I have acquired a rather battered box of Beastmen odds and ends which I will attempt to restore. I'm going to paint up a Beastlord, get him on a nice base and post the results. The very first model in an army should be a striking one, as it keeps you motivated to produce more like it. My brush has fallen apart on me sadly, so my first task is to hunt down a replacement...

Restoration

One of the things I do as part of my hobby is restore old/broken models. My current project is this Bloodthirster. He's from 5th edition and as such is all metal. I don't recognise the standard on his back but I know he didn't come with it originally. It's whip is missing, and it's parts look to have been used on different conversions before being collected together again.

I've used a pin to keep the axe in place (it had been sawed off!) and I've used a tail I had in my bit box to twist into a new whip. I've superglued everything else together, then used putty to add strength to the join (crafted into muscles). The base is one I've had lying around. I formed the surface with clay (you can't see in the photo but I've modelled cracks in the ground where he's landed). He is balanced on his base at the moment but I'll pin him in place soon. You can see bits of him are painted. You can either strip it off by soaking the model in paint stripper overnight, or you can simply paint over it with a thinned coat of Chaos Black. I'll be doing the latter, then applying some TLC to this monster. I'll post my progress.

Tyranid prototype

So this is my first ever attempt at a Tyranid. I wanted to use a limited set of colours, but I also wanted to move away from the Games Workshop colour scheme. The rule of thumb with these guys is to use a light skin tone and a dark carapace. In the GW army this equates to a bleached skin tone and a black carapace with purple shades. I was excited to paint these guys because they're so alien, and I thought it was an opportunity to use colours you wouldn't normally be able to pull off. My concept was for an aquatic force (with names like Hive Fleet Leviathan and Hive Fleet Kraken it's the next logical step!) and so my 'fex was born! He is a Tyrannofex, and he is not yet finished. The hawk-eyed amongst you will notice his arms are missing. The rupture cannon is awaiting attention as we speak.

The colour scheme breaks down into 3 types; skin, shell and gooey bits. The skin is basecoated with Hawk Turquoise (all Citadel paints, though I haven't bought the new range yet). I then mix it with white until I get the bright blue shade (I don't use ratios, I may even explain why later) and thin it down a little. I then take a detail brush and paint over the basecoat. With Tyranids, the shadows are mostly sharp (in the holes on their flanks, in their ribs etc) so they are very easy to avoid. I use the detail brush to move clear boundaries between the dark and light tones. It's very easy to paint, but the overall effect is striking. I go back to my blue mix and add more white until I get a very pale blue, then drybrush the raised areas (shoulders, knobs where the ribs meet etc). The skin then gets a coat of gloss varnish. The gloss gives the skin that glistening quality.

The carapace is basecoated black (I prime the models with White spray). I then mix Hawk Turquoise with an equal part of Dark Angels Green. This gives you a nice deep-sea green. I then brush the edges of each plate. I start halfway up the plate, then draw the brush down toward the edge. This gives me that feathering effect. From there I shade the plates 2 more times, adding white to the mix each time, and getting closer to the edge each time. Its the easiest way to blend and looks effective when done. I wash the plates with Thraka Green to pull all the shading together, then varnish it the same as the skin.

Gooey bits are basecoated with a Liche Purple/Skull White mix, highlighted by adding more white to that mix, then heavily washed with Leviathan purple, and, you guessed it, varnished.

The only other bits are the eyes (flat yellow for that psychotic predator look) and the teeth/spikes (Graveyard Earth, bleached bone highlights). The reason why the Rupture cannon isn't ready is that I'm experimenting with how to paint the bio-weapons. More on that in an upcoming post. I hope that was helpful, I'll be uploading pictures of this guy's little cousins shortly.

Dan.

The difficult opening post...

Hello Internet! This first post is more of a statement of intent than anything else. My hobby is Warhammer Fantasy and 40k. I can play, but my true passion is for the modelling and painting aspects of the hobby. I build army lists that I think will be competitive and interesting, paint them to a reasonably high standard, then sell them! I am starting this blog to keep a record of my projects and ideas.

It has taken me over ten years to feel comfortable enough in my knowledge of the game and my skills as a hobbyist to set up something like this and I am still under no illusions; there are better players out there, there are better painters out there, but I am offering a complete approach to the hobby which can respond to individual suggestions and requests, as well as providing tutorials and guides to help you customise and paint an army that will be the envy of your fellow gamers!

Finally, let me give a brief outline of my hobbying status at the moment. I'm currently painting up an un-converted Tyranid force with a coral reef theme. I'm restoring a Bloodthirster from 5th edition Warhammer Fantasy. I'm building up to starting a Beastmen army. I will be recording my progress on all 3 fronts, providing guides, tips, pictures and responses to questions.

OK, so now we know where we stand, let's get on with the show!