Speed painting Nids before the codex drops - WIP & pic hvy

[theHman]

I don't know about you, but I am really excited about the new Nid Codex.

In preparation, I've decided to get my butt in gear and paint my Nid army before the new Codex drops in (mid?) January.

Since I've had them for over a year and they still aren't painted, I thought that maybe some social pressure would help to keep me motivated to complete the army.

When successful, this will be the first army in my collection to be fully painted (I've got over 2000pts of Eldar and over 2500pts of Dark Elves primed/base coated but unfinished).

What follows is my army in various stages of assembled, primed and based coated, but before I show you everything, here are some pics of my paint scheme for my Hive Fleet - which I've affectionately named "Hive Fleet Medusa."

Sadly, the pics don't do the paint job justice, but as you can see, the 'skin' is a nice purple with the Chitinous armor in blue.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/spinegaunt.jpg

Here's what's painted:
15 Termagaunts and a whopping 12 stealers (2 of which need stripping and repainting) ...

Yeah, not much done, but that's gonna change over the next two months!

Here's what will get painted in the next 60 days - I'm working with a Codex deadline drop of January 16th - which actually gives me 63 days (as of this post) to get 'er all done.

'Barry' the Broodlord.

10 Stealers.

3 Zoe's - LOVE these giant brain bug minis!
Here's one next to a gaunt for size comparison:

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/brain3.jpg

3 Carnies - meet Spike, Ike and Rhinox.

30ish Gaunts.

30ish Hormagaunts - I rarely use Hormies b/c I have the worst luck in CC with them.

They literally kill nothing and end up dying in droves. I'd rather buy 1.5 times more gaunts and shoot the hell outa my opponent. So these guys are probably going to get painted last.

4 shooty Warriors.

3 Ravenors.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/ravenors.jpg

As you can see, I used warriors as the basis of the minis and tried modeling them up to look like they are bursting from the ground - hopefully, once painted, this will look really awesome. If not, well, that'll suck and I don't know what I'll do at that point. Ebay maybe?

Larry the Lictor - Also based on a warrior. I've always loved the coolness that is the Lictor.
Here's hoping to Marbo-esque DS rules!

10 Ripper bases - great for giving my stealers and warriors cover saves. As well as tying up most enemy units forever. One of the bases has them jumping straight into a minefield and I've used green stuff for an exploded ripper (that's what you get for jumping on mines ...)

As you can see from reading the post, the vast majority of my army needs to be based and then primed before painting can even begin. =(

Fortunately for me, I've used the awesome and vaste power of the Hive Mind to mind control my girlfriend to help me with basing everything. ;)

Hopefully we can get them all done in an evening so I can prime them the next day and really start cranking.

Wish me luck!

Comments and ideas welcomed.

Harun
Minis to paint: Aprox 90ish
Days left: 63

[theHman]

Here's another pic of the brain bugs just 'cuz I love the mini so much.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/brain1.jpg

[VinceBlack]

That "Brain Bug" that you are using for your Zoe's what is that exactly? Where did you find thoes because they are pretty sweet.

[theHman]

I think they're from Reaper minis.
But not sure.
Stumbled across 'em at my LGS one day while browsing the non-gw mini's rack.

And I can't find them on the Reaper site -- but their site sucks for navigation.
I'd start there, or maybe try a google image search.

I'm gaming tomorrow and I'll check and see if they have any more. If so, I'll write down the code for you.

[Lord Anubis]

I really like your idea of using warriors as "erupting" Ravenors. I like it a lot.

And imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... :)

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

wow, i love those brain-bugs, they'd be perfect for my enslavers - if you can find out for sure where you got them from, please do tell me.

[Gotthammer]

It's a Reaper mini:

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/monster/sku-down/14076


Those Ravenors look like they should turn out good - I'm liking the colours you're using.

[SandWyrm]

The minis look nice, but I'd wait for the codex myself.

I did a lot of work on my foot guard last year prior to the IG codex coming out. Only to find that I had to totally revamp my army afterwards. Wasting a lot of the effort I had put in. It hurts looking at all those lovely models that I've had to leave on the shelf since March.

[pgarfunkle]

Good luck with them, my Nids are store away somewhere in the attic and with the combination of that, the fact that I've just started to paint my Catachans and Steel Legion troops and the probable Blood Angel Codex in the new year means that my Nids won't likely be getting any love for a while.

[theHman]

So I came down with a cold bug and have been laid up for the last 4 days!
I did manage to base and prime everything except the 60+ gaunts - working on those right now.

@Lord Anubis: Steal away my friend! That's what this is all about.

@GothHammer: Thanks and nice find! My LGS was out so I had no idea and after spending 15 minutes of fruitless searching on Reapers site, I gave up.

@SandWyrm: That really sucks. Sorry to hear that. The good news is I'm not too worried about the minis not being WYSIWIG as it will never be a tournament army and we don't play 100% full WYSIWIG. As long as the warrior with twin devourers is a warrior mini, we're cool with that.

@pgarfunkle: Thanks! You can enjoy the glory of the Nids vicariously through this thread! =) I hope I get you excited again though!

Harun
Minis to paint: 90ish
Days left: 57 ...

[archimbald]

brain bugs look immense!!!! esp for non gw minis

[theHman]

Quick update:

I've managed to basecoat everything last week before turkey day hit.
In 3 days, I was able to prime and basecoat nearly 100 minis! Gotta love that spray gun! :)

Plus, my girlfriend did the first stages of painting on the 30+ hormagaunts and I finished up Barry the Broodlord.

Here's what he looks like, you can't really see it in the pics, but his eyes came out looking awesome!

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/barry2.jpg

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/barry1.jpg

I'm thinking of repainting the spikes on his head a bone white like his claws and talons. I think that'll help tie all the color in and look better. But not until everything else is done. What do you guys think? Paint the head spikes claw/talon white or leave as is?

Tonight I'm working on Ike the carnie. Hopefully I can get him done in the next day or two so I can then work on his brother Spike.

I'll try and get a side by side pic of one of the brain bugs and an actual GW Zoenthrope for scale purposes.

Days Left: 47
Minis to Paint: Still 90ish... :eek:

[Kieranator K82]

I like the classic colouring for Genestealers and Broodlords from Space Hulk. It's done quite effectively and I'd like to see more of these creepy-crawleys.

[snikrot]

i love the way you painted the carapace and the erupting raveners is a great idea

[theHman]

Thanks Kieranator and Snkirot!
Sadly, I've been swamped with client work and deadlines so progress has slowed down to a snails pace. =(

But I've almost finished one of my carnies and will have pics of him up probably monday as I'm traveling this weekend.

Also took pics of a brain bug next to a GW zoe for size comparison. I didn't believe it, but the Zoe is actually taller by about a half inch or so (if I remember correctly). I'll try and get those pics up before leaving later today.

[WABS McGEE]

feel for you buddy, im also trying to get my nids painted before the new year. i have collected for about a year, but loathe painting.going for a simple colour scheme of black chitin, dark blue flesh and sand claws and teeth.hope you meet your target mate, my army is over 500 models so not sure if i can do it,but will give it a good go

[theHman]

Man how time flies when you're super busy with work.

Sadly, I haven't gotten much done in the way of painting. The good news is that my work load is going to drop next week. Hoping I'll have a full two days of painting! Crossing my fingers.

I have managed to finish painting one of my carnies - Ike. And I think he looks awesome!
I'm very, very, very happy with the outcome and have to say that barring the lack of super detail, he's my best paint job yet!

If only I wasn't painting these bugs to just tabletop quality. Maybe I'll come back and add some extra detail like blood splatters, etc ... after I'm done with everything else.

@WABS: 500 minis!!!! Good lord, the only way I can see getting yourself out of that is to use an airgun and spend a day getting everything basecoated and then break it all down into small easily manageable chunks - like a squad at a time. Or pay someone to paint it all for you.

I've used my airgun to basecoat two armies now (Nids and Eldar) and I'll never ever go back to manual basecoats. The airgun gives you such a smooth coat to paint on, it's just awesome! It's definitely the perfect tool for tanks and vehicles.

Pics of carni below. But first, as promised, here's a side by side comparison of my brain bugs vs GW's Zoe.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/minesbiggerthanyours.jpg


--- Hand over the gene seed! ---
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/Ikescomingforyou.jpg

I'm really happy with how the eyes came out.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/eyeofthetiger.jpg

[theHman]

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/carni-upclose.jpg

I think you see the "slime" effect better with the flash on.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/carni-upcloseandslimy.jpg

Close up of the talons.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/carni-talon.jpg

[theHman]

Okay, so the last month and a bit has been what feels like utter and total chaos on nearly every front in my life.
Mostly bad unfortunately.
Especially because I really haven't picked up a brush and painted any minis. =(

However, once I found out that Nids were getting spore pods that acted like Marine drop pods - well, I got really, REALLY excited.

Then I found out that you could put a unit of 20 gaunts or a monstrous creature and that's when I made the decision to have at least a dozen pods in my collection for the times when I just want to land my entire army on my opponents face and kiss him!

Pucker up you ugly bipeds, mama Medusa is comin' to kiss you right on the lips!

So here's what I've got done so far in what teeny tiny spare time I have had.
Keep in mind, this is still a WIP.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/pod1.jpg

As you can see, I went with a biological plant life look to the pod.
I tried to model it as best as I could to look as if it was freshly crashed into the earth and hasn't opened up yet.

Part of the reason for this is because (A) the marine drop pod is very tall and does a very good job of obscuring LOS. So I wanted my pods to do the same - after all, fairs fair right?

And (B) because the Nid pod is actually a monstrous creature and not a vehicle, it actually does block LOS.

Here's a couple of pics to give you an idea of the size of the pod. As you can see, it's pretty big - measuring just under 6" wide, by 6" deep by 5" tall.

So yeah, they definitely block LOS!

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/pod2.jpg

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/theHman99/pod3.jpg


As I said above, this is still just a WIP, I still need to actually prime and paint the pod and I want to have a bunch of squid like tentacles coming out of the ground at the base of the pod to symbolize the short range attacks it has.

So right now I'm busy doing some greenstuff work for the tentacles - hopefully I'll have pics of those for you guys tomorrow.

Also, I'm looking for a cheap way to cast this.

If you've got experience with casting in any material that would work for this (I've looked into Resin and Hydrocal) please pm me or respond below. I need all the advice and help I can get as I'm totally out of my element when it comes to casting.

If you have experience with "slush casting" then please, please, please talk to me!
I have tons of questions for you.

With my goal being to have a a dozen of these in my collection, I'd much rather invest the money to cast them then make a dozen of these by hand.

Thanks for looking.