Bugs - Final Details

I am... DONE.  Long patient road, but man was it worth it.  This last week has been bonkers in terms of the amount of work put in on these pesky bugs, but I think it has paid off.  I have really enjoyed this whole project and I gotta say, I think it is some of my best work.  The proof is in the pudding, but you can see some of it for yourself.

See More by clicking the link.

Bigger Bugs

Just figured I was approaching the climax of another tray of bugs and wanted to keep a decent record of it.  Here is the scoop on the big bugs so far.

I did the flesh of the bugs the same way as the rest of the swarm, to keep the consistency.  The armor plating on the big bugs is what will set them apart, and yes, while it isn't done yet, they are technically tabletop ready.

Plenty more pics after the jump.

Even More Bugs

Wanted to show an update of the bugs. Yes, still work in progress, but the Termagants are nearly finished.  Up until I did the last few details on the models, they really felt lifeless, but doing up the armor plating and coloring the weapons a bit made the details pop right out.  The individual model doesn't look all that menacing, but in the context of the swarm, really pops out.  If you want more pics, click the jump...

Bugs - The Infestation Continues (Work in Progress Shots)

I realize it's been another long stretch since I have updated, but doing hordes of bugs systematically is time consuming.

It was requested by a friend to show some pics in progress, and as I needed a break, and wanted to take some time out from tedious painting to show I actually have been making some progress.

Paint steps thus far after the jump along with many more close up shots.

Acquisition Tyranids

Been a while since I have provided any real content to this blog eh...

Notice anything in that pic?
So much yellow... so many bugs.

That's right folks, Tyranids.  I have been up to my elbows in painting the 'Nid horde you see in the following pics.  These came to me by a buddy looking to off-load them.  I got them for quite a great price, and I gotta say, other than the time consuming nature of painting such a swarm, it's been nothing but a lot of fun.

Taking a break from the usual Terrain Posts

While I am completing a set of terrain or two, I thought I would provide a little filler.  The vast majority of my battles are against a buddy of mine who plays Tau.  He started playing about a year before the new codex dropped and having played back to back to back games against the yellow shooty wall, I got sick of seeing the same old jump suits in the same old color scheme across the board.  I decided to fix that by gifting a crisis suit to my friend on the stipulation that I get to kitbash it and paint it however I please.  He graciously accepted and about a week later LASER-FEET WAS BORN.

Yeah, silly name, I know, but I wanted to show a Tau model could practically pop with energy and the glowy effect was almost electric.

Welcome to the Jungle

Going through some of the posts on this blog made me wanna re-do some of my previously done pieces.  I happened to have a spare vine of greenery garland, and a half dozen pieces I wanted to rework that all happened to be floral and highly vegetative.  I decided to combine both of these sets into one much more fleshed out set.  I gotta say, having played on it today was very pleasant.  The greens were offset by the pops of colors for the other floral things going on within each piece, and because the bases are sandy and the flowers have lots of oranges and yellows, very earthy tones, it fits really well as an oasis to the desert mat.

Ork Set - Ork Buildings and Ruins

 Digging back in the pics archive for this set, I had almost completely forgotten the first themed terrain pieces I ever created.  Looking back at this set actually kinda makes me cringe, lol.  I see all the holes in the work, and even though this is an Ork set, it looks half finished and the pieces that are done feel left wanting.  That being said, at the time, these set pieces were well received by friends playing, but I knew I could do better.  Posting this set makes me want to go to each of my buddies houses, collect the various pieces of this set and either torch them or attempt a fix on them.  I may end up doing just that.  Pics after the jump.  

Alien Plant-life

The VERY first time I went to Hobby Lobby, I fell in love at least a dozen times.  This was for me, the start of terrain building.  Having just walked in and finding literally isles full of plastic plants, I knew that I would be making some alien plant-life for my games.  I will admit I've been to a hobby location nearly every weekend since.  Mostly for inspiration, but also for raw materials.  Foam-board, Glue, Spray-paint, you name it, I get it there.

Speaking of Crystals... More Crystals anyone? Now in BLUE!

I have a buddy that plays Dark Eldar.  Haven't played him in a while, so I thought...it worked in Field of Dreams, why not here... so I built it, and... well I figured I had to show it off at least before getting to play a game with it.

Now that the set is done, I can see I really need more line of sight blocking material, so a set of hills will be in the works shortly for this set.  But here it is.  The idea behind this was to show the corruptible power that the Dark Eldar inflicts on the very earth they reside in.  I started with a rigid, much more natural looking set of crystals and go through the corruption process to really see the warping effects on the more complex pieces.  Made from blue foam mounted on CD bases.  I went with the dark crystal with a blue glow highlight to match my friends paint scheme.

Expansion plans for this set are pretty exciting too.  This set goes perfectly on the Ashen/Stone mat as you can see, and as this set is mostly small/medium pieces, a few centerpiece structures would be good.  I imagine a web-way portal, a very spiky landing platform, and some tall spiky towers to go with the current pieces seamlessly.  

Bio-Spores - Infecting a planetary body near you!

My last post teased about showcasing my all-time favorite project thus far.  I saw a similar idea posted and immediately knew I had to do something similar.  I built this because a buddy of mine just got engaged, and I wanted to give him a hand made gift.  So I made twice as many as I would otherwise, with the intention of splitting the set with him.

Goals for this project:

• Spend less than $10 Total
• Use as many scrap/trash materials as necessary
• Show movement and growth of the plant life
• Have both Line of Sight blocking pieces and area terrain pieces