Space Hulk Blood Splatter Technique

This is just a little video I show showing how I have been doing the blood and gore on the Space Hulk table.

Space Hulk WIP Blood

Space hulk is about horror, so as I started adding layers of weathering, I paused to add some blood. I think the carnage looks pretty cool. In my imagination, the guys boarding the hulk would be entering a crime scene of sorts.  I am so grateful all of the doors are done. Those were tedious.

Space Hulk WIP 3

The space hulk is getting close to completion, but even in this state there is a lot of work to do. Many of the panels are not glued on yet, which will take quite a while due to the vast quantity of them. The doors need to be completed, and all of the grey exterior panels need to be filled and painted. Fortunately that is the easy stuff. Rather than make this easy on myself, I ordered another batch of this stuff before I had completed the first batch. I'd really like to paint a miniature at this point, but I must keep plugging away.

Won GW painting comp for gene stealer

I won a painting competition for best gene stealer at the GW shop today! We had about two dozen models in the competition, which was a very good turn out. The rules for what to paint were a little confusing, though at least this time I did not show up a day late. Two of us made the mistake of thinking that since it was a Space Hulk painting competition that we had to paint space hulk miniatures--this kind of logical thinking has cost us both before. I think I might just pull all the stops on the next painting competition and convert as much as I like. I won a box of gene stealers which were promptly traded away for the winners assault marines. I am very happy that the store is getting more competition, even though the terminator that took ~12 hours to paint lost and the 25 minute gene stealer won. I tried to encourage the older painters to join me in our own painting competition, but I think we would need to arrange it through the store. There was a very nicely painted dead Terminator, Librarian, and the overall winner Typhus.

I guess I need to consider painting the rest of my bugs! I'll post a step by step for the gene stealer so everyone can see how it was done.

Now I should finish the lightning claw Blood Angel for Jawaballs! I changes bases last minute and have had trouble getting my space litter to look right on the new base. (I know bases don't matter for this one, but I enjoy painting them)

Space Hulk Terminator

So I tried a white primer followed by a wash of black as my base coat on this miniature. I think there really is something to using grey primer. I read on another blog about it and had to give it a try, and the results surprised me. It was far easier to paint light and dark colors, so I did not have to make the devils bargain that comes with either black or white primer. I think I may use two washed on the next miniature in order to ensure all of the recesses are evenly covered.

I also discovered how how it is to pain gems. I could not even see the purple I was painting, when it was over a black or red under coat.

I have some touch up work to do on this mini, and then I will post a step by step for my gene stealer color scheme. It takes about 15 minutes to paint a gene stealer this way, and I am really happy with the way they turn out.

Gene Stealers On the Painting Table

I love the new gene stealer holding the decapitated head of some adeptus mechanicus. It is one of the most fun miniatures I have painted in a long time. I like it so much I have been comparing it to the old gene stealers and wondering what happened to all of the little boney knobs and things that were part of the old model. I may consider some green stuff boney additions to my new stealers, as a way to add the little bit of detail that missed the model. It makes me think about the original models. The original models are very old now, but they have a timeless look that keeps them from being relegated to the back shelf. Compare that model, decades old to the space marine in the new set. I am not sure the marine is as timeless.

Space Hulk Tyrannids

I am really having a blast painting these gene stealers. The base is wet in this photo. I'll post another one when it dries. This miniature is one of the coolest poses ever. I find myself posing it behind the blood angel I just painted.

Is it weird to want to wait to play the game until the minis are painted?

Genestealer Paint Job Test

I started a tyrannid army years ago, after purchasing space crusade, and ended up with a bunch of traditionally painted tyrannic warriors and genestealers. Spin forward a dozen years and I am back to painting bugs. Space Hulk is just so amazing that I decided to do a bunch of test stealers. I found one of my old purple stealers as a reference, and then proceeded to just paint and wash the bugs as I saw fit. I started with striking scorpion green and then painted the soft flesh of one of them with purple, another one maroon, and left the third one green. A few washes of ogryn skin later and I have three interesting test models. I am partial to the one on the far right. I plan to start one of the real stealers today so I can enter it into the painting competition this Sunday. I am concerned that the simplest method looks the best to me.