Leviathan Raveners

Ah, Raveners, the relentless burrowers of Tyranid hivefleets. When I was looking for ways of expanding my Hivefleet Leviathan, they were among the first on the list - not because they have great rules or new models, but because of their lovely classic feel.

These guys really do look like Hydralisks from Starcraft - except with four more claws and thorax-mounted weapons! I was tempted to model these guys with hand-held devourers or spinefists, but instead went the thorax route and armed them (no pun intended) with rending claws. I really like the look of Tyranid Warriors, and these guys look like Warriors on steroids - love them!

There are some problems with the kit too, though. It's an old one, and it shows - there were quite many mould lines present, there are no real cosmetic extras included (except an extra tail), and positioning these guys can be a little bit tricky. None of the problems is too serious though, and the kit can be easily bashed with the newer Warrior kit.

Anyway, happy Hivemind Day, and thanks for reading!

WZR: Cable Marionette

I've been quite busy with 40K lately, so only little time was left for Warzone Resurrection. One model I just had to paint though, is the Cable Marionette. This cyberpunkish "cable golem" is just such a great sci-fi concept I couldn't stay away from it. That said, please excuse the rather rubish pictures - still working on my studio. I'll try to make better ones when I'll have all three fully painted.

 Warzone Resurrection models have been mostly hit or miss for me so far, with this one being a clear hit for its high level of detail, realism and atmosphere. I also like how easily can these models be used for other systems - while they fit the world of Mutant Chronicles well, you can imagine them in almost any horror sci-fi setting.

It's really easy to paint these models, as the details really do all the work for yourself. I can imagine just using a single metallic color and a shade would still give a neat result. Regarding the base, I wanted to try something thematic - with cables being an obvious choice. First I wanted to paint them in metallic color, however later I have decided for a mix of colors. I'm still undecided on the base and might go back to painting it in a single color to make the base less distracting. As always, any tips are appreciated!

The Pyre Hellbrute

It took forever and a year, but I have finally finished my Dark Vengeance Hellbrute - another addition to my starting The Pyre warband. Behold!

I absolutely love the design of this thing. From the horns to the sprouting tentacles, the Hellbrute is the epitome of Chaos as a malevolent, ever-changing force. While it's perhaps not suitable to some of the more conservative Chaos legions, it works pretty well for most warbands, and for a snap-fit model included in a starter set box, the level of detail is pretty much incredible.

Regarding the paintjob, I've based the thing white and used Troll Slayer Orange for the armour plates and Warplock Bronze for the armour edges. I decided to go with red color on the daemonic flesh and used Mephiston Red with Bloodletter highlights - I'm very happy on how the glaze made the organic parts stand out, especially in the chest area. The wet look of the tentacles has been done using Gloss varnish.

It's no big secret that the back side of this miniature is not as well-detailed as the front, especially when it comes to the huge blobs of flesh around the spine - which is, in my opinion, a very cool part of the model and at least works well as a distraction from the less detailed parts.

I haven't modified the miniature much, though one thing I really wanted to do was to add a Heavy flamer to its arm - after all, what screams The Pyre more than a Dreadnought armed with two fire-based weapons? I went with a rather simple conversion - after cutting away the chains under the left arm, I've glued on an imperial guard vehicle heavy flamer and covered it with tubes made of green stuff to give it a fused look. The result looks pretty good and works great for barbecue.

Basing has been done in the same style as the rest of my The Pyre warband - as scorched earth, though at first it seemed a little boring, so I've added a dead marine under the creature's feet (and to taunt a friend, I've chosen a Dark Angel for the victim). I really like these weird mutated feet by the way - they help to enforce the overall "living metal" feel of the miniature. I know I'm in the minority here, but I really wish these would have been kept in the Hellbrute box as an option... oh well.

One final thought - I really wish this miniature had Monstrous Creature rules instead of Walker. Afterall, it's apparently much more organic than a Dreadnought suit, and a change to MC could make an insteresting spin on the classic Dreadnought rules. However, for some odd reasons, in 40K Aliens-style walker suits and Eldar giant mecha get MC rules, while this does not. That's just classic Games Workshop game design.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Alaitoc War Walker 2

It's been some time since I finished my first War Walker, and given how good these are in the game, it was inevitable to get second one sooner or later. So, here it is!

 

War walkers are fun (if a bit challenging) to assemble and paint. For me, this one was a good practice at painting the Alaitoc scheme, and I've learnt an important lesson as well (more on that soon). Again, I've built this one with Scatter Laser and Eldar Missile Launcher weapons as this proved to be a pretty effective combination, even though it lost the Laser Lock combo. Flyers and light vehicles beware!

 

 I had some trouble getting back the right marble pattern after such a long pause from Eldar models but luckily enough, my artistic girlfriend helped me - thanks for that! In the end I'm most satisfied with the paintjob. The canopy, however, ended up looking really bad. During the modelling process I accidently got some plastic glue onto the inner side of the canopy... Which had an immediate effect on the material transparency. The canopy is therefore much darker than on my first War Walker, which sucks... The lesson: keep plastic glue the hell away from transparent bits!
 

Still, the two models don't look so bad together. It's still hard to justify the difference in my head though. Hopefully I'll eventually find a spare canopy... Or paint a power field effect of sorts over these. Given how rare these bits are, I think I'll take a long break first.

One new thing I did for this model was painting the patterns around upper engine exhausts (or perhaps coolers?) with yellow color. It's a really nice bit of eye-candy contrasting with the dark-blue marble around it, so I've used the opportunity and repainted the part on the first model as well.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading, and, in case you have a comment or suggestion for the canopy problem - I'm one big ear!

Leviathan Zoanthrope

zoanthropy zo·an·thro·py (zō-ān'thrə-pē)
"A delusion that one is an animal."

Lately I've fallen in love with the Great Devourer - and one unit I particularly enjoy is the Zoanthrope. The model I own is the old finecast one; when the new ones came out, I didn't really like the changes made to them (I'm talking about both the size creep and overall spikey-ness), so I bought the finecast model when it was still available. Now I regret I haven't bought three of them, as the amount of detail on these models is incredible.

I had some trouble with the modelling part at first, though. The tail part was bent which caused the whole model to lean on one side. Luckily enough, just two hot baths were enough to make the model straight again.

 

I absolutely love the design of this beast. A giant brain floating above the animalistic hordes of gaunts works as a great representation of the Hivemind and it's psychic power. The whole thing looks like an embryo, or perhaps a sperm, which gives it a creepy, Giger-inspired look - and that's what works best for the Alien-inspired Tyranids.

The details on the head part of the miniature are truly mind-blowing, and I've tried to accent them as much as possible. In my colorscheme, I use red mostly for biomorphs and orange for less specific wet-looking details, so the brain was obviously going to be orange. The tubes connecting the mouth with the brain are usually painted white, so I've tried to do something different and gave them a red paintjob. It's such a shame the new plastic Zoanthropes are missing lovely details like this! I've given the brain and the tubes a gloss varnish layer (as I do with all biomorphs), which has increased the creepiness factor of the miniature to over 110%.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'm terribly sorry it took me so long to make a new post. Life was wild lately - I got a new job, new home and I lost my camera, so these pictures were made with a cell phone - hopefully they look good enough. See you soon!