Buddy 1 got buddy 2 a present and asked me to paint them. Behold, the terror of rain forest-themed bug aliens!
This was a bit of a project. Not the first time I’ve done DIY bases, but the first time I’ve done anything really complex or nature-based. I had fun with city streets and sewer bases a while back, and learned much, so I was raring to go at this, and as a bonus I’d recently been on Vancouver Island and walked through the forest there, taking plenty of pictures. So, some glue, mixed herbs, small chunks of wood, and disassembled dollar-store plastic plants gave me texture and features. I’ll admit this looks pretty close to when I end up painting, BUT I think the paint job looks better than this, and I couldn’t have gotten it if I didn’t prime and start colours all over.
Dark brown wash for some colour, then several layers of drybrushing to get some highlights on the texture. Wood is brown, plants are green. But what kind of green? Pretty dark for an oily leaf, lighter for a fern or stalky sort of plant, and a yellow-green for a larger leaf that’s obviously fallen from above. Then, for a special treat, green wash (which didn’t show up well at all), moss flock, and some sterilized and crunched-up leaves from outside for the natural mulch of decaying vegetable matter.
Now for the nids. The armour plates were surprisingly the easiest part of the project. Starting with the green I went for a “dying leaf” effect of edges in brown edged by yellow. I spent a lot of sweat and cursing over the “flesh” part of these suckers. The red-brown was a good choice and tied together well with the tones of the bases. Then I tried pink. Then I tried more pink. Then I washed it. Then I tried yellow. Then I washed that. Look, I’m not going to tell you it was my best work, but I got a colour that looks okay and I’m just ignoring the usual “didn’t mean to get it there” effect washes always give. I was desperate to colour correct into something that worked well. And, in the end, it did. Then I saw how bulbous and organic the gun ammo belts were and far be it from me not to take advantage of a diseased ballsack when one is presented to me. Got some eyes painted, and they… are better than my last attempt, and I think with practice I’ll get to a place where I’m okay with them. Today is not that day. But they look almost okay from arm’s length.
Final details included veins, fleshing up whips and mouths, edge highlighting blades, washing nooks and crannies for detail on armour gaps, putting a couple eyes where they definitely shouldn’t be, the usual. Oh, and I managed a surprisingly good fade to black on the swords with a single layer and some wet blending on the surface. Pretty happy about that.
There we go. Scary looking bugs with armour and big guns, and I’m probably going to regret this the next time I try to run some melee-focused Orks against them.
