Hive Fleet Hecate from Day One

BAHAHAHAHA

I'm not sure the tail's long enough to pull that off, unfortunately. Maybe if you can get it to coil near his left leg, but I would have it going as far back as it can go while still looking natural, so it looks like it's counter balancing him.

Looking good, looks like he's about to charge!

Oh, it is in the final model. It's only that the blu tack is pushing it forward a bit in its temporary hold. It'll be glued fully in. I primed the head this morning, so gonna paint that later today!

Right- now the painting begins: basecoated the head last night, so that's well ready to paint, and will be updating as I go. The rest will wait 'til the morrow. The advantage of this is that I get to try out the head first before doing/ruining the rest of the model and then realising I don't like it... So here we go.

So there we go- all basecoated. Now to look and see how the colour scheme goes. It's based on my original colour scheme (from when I was twelve...) with only the starter kit to work with and so just did DAGreen carapace and BMYellow fleshbits... no highlights or inking or nothing. Then I stepped away from this and plagiarised the 3rd edition codex cover (the black/red carapace/bones, acid green fleshy bits, red stripe on face which was pink)... but now want to pay tribute to back-in-th'day, and so am updating the old style with grown-up sensibilities and practice for the sake of originality... Now I'm using Vallejo colours, and starting off with a Medium Fleshtone basecoat.

Before Skin Washing it.

And then picking out the raised areas with the MFT again. I find using broad, wet strokes on the wide areas, and then dotting the veins with a stipple/drybrush effect at the end of a load works well. The greenstuff'd areas are also coming together under paint...

Next the highlights!

Right... so my camera died... but the batteries would let me take one photo every five minutes or so... So here's some sporadic shots as the head nears completion. First of all the trickiest bit- the blackening of the carapace. It's so tricky it may make you wish you'd started with the black... but trust me, the effect of having the upper layer of the 'nid (the 'pace) as the actual upper layer of paint is a subtle 3D well worth it. So be VERY careful. It is possible to fix mistakes with a brush on hand with the white/beige combo, but best to avoid as much as possible. Paint the tongue, carapace and a little of the eye socket black.

Then progressively pseudo-feather/layer on black/bright green... then bright green solo... then bright green/golden olive... then golden olive... then a mix of golden olive/the skin tone you used before. Lightens the colour and helps bring the model together better than lightening with just a white or a yellow. So lots of steps, only one photo... I'll buy more batteries.

Similar shenanigans here, except this time for the tip of the 'blade', and the tongue. Using Citadel Temple Guard blue darkened with black, then solo. Eventually lighten with white for a final highlight.

Finally, add a TINY wash of the darker blue mix to the veins, then a TINY highlight with solo blue. Also, use the smallest brush you own to dot the eyes... so to speak... with the same layers- blue/black, blue, blue/white.

And voila! I'm happy with the colours, and I'll paint the jaws and the rest of the body once the primer's well and truly dry tomorrow. Then going to start on the Tyrant Guard brood I bought to protect this beast!

Hope you're enjoying it so far, comment away!