Spring Clean Challenge Giger’s Genestealers

The detour has inspired me to also do an eldar kill team in the same fashion.

Rather than block up this project with pictures of Guardians, I’m going to start a second project that will run aisde to this one.

I found an eldar guardian, the other day, just lying around in box of random junk, and I thought I wonder what would happen if I painted it in the same way as the Geneatealers; so I had a go.

I began with the exact same method, of giving the model a heavy white dry brush.

This time, I only wanted the armour and the gun to have a bone feel, so I only applied the woodstain to those areas, and left the face to be done in more conventional paints

Then using what I learnt from the geneatealers, I applied a black wash and then another coat of woodstain. Because of the first coats varnish, this slowed down the drying time allowing me to drag the stain and wash around to create interesting effects.

The next day, I returned and painted the face and lightly drybrushed white over the armour to lighten the effect.

I finished by painting the crystals red to add a splash of colour

Thank you for the comments to the previous post. Just taking stock and thinking about it logically has given me some incites into what I was doing.

First thing is do I aim for an Giger art style or go for a more Blanche look. Many be I should go for both. If I aim for a Giger look I will need to build up the colour gradually. His painting style starts with a deep block that fades as it goes along in a similar vain to watercolour. Which neatly leads me to point two.

The issues I was having painting the models after the first coat is bleeding obvious when I thought about it. Woodstain, contains varnish. No wonder I had issues with the paint. So I need to stop with my old thinking and use different techniques

These posts are lagging behind now because this project started to damage my mental health. It’s a weird admission to make, but in a world that is so toxic to our souls the failures I was having with this project were the straw that broke the camels back.

I was so keen to start this project, but it didn’t go the way I wanted to. The models just didn’t work the way I thought they would, and now my escapism was starting to cause me more anxiety.  I knew I had to step away.  Admitting defeat is a hard thing to do, but I had to retreat and regroup.

So I stood away from the project and after a short break, I desided to return… Ironically it was my daughter asking to play space hulk that was the catalyst…

My first step was to update this blog again. The complementary comments helped me to get back to painting again and going through the stages again helped me focus on what was happening with the models.

Thank you for all the lovely suggestions of how to improve the models. I’m running slightly ahead of the posts, but I will have a go at what people have suggested

So I added to the models. First I went over with a black wash and then dry brushed over with white on the armour plates to give them a more bone look.

I’m not 100% convinced but it has a insect look, which impressed me.

I am not an ameture photographer. I sell prints of my work on postcards and fridge magnets… But bloody hell it’s hard to take a picture of these things.

The gloss stain just reflects the light everywhere and makes them look a lot worse than they do in reality.

So I repeated the heavy white undercoat again, but rather than just throwing the model into the can, I applied the wood stain with a brush. As you can imagine, this allowed for a more even and controlled feel.

One coat is a bit light but going over again straight after does give a darker feel

The one thing that I have noticed is that the stain removes the undercoat in places.

This didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped. I gave the model a heavy drybrush, that way I hoped when I dipped the model the wood stain would darken I the recesses

I then dipped the model in the wood stain. It did not go well.

I’m not sure if it was the stain or the amount that went on at one go, but it didn’t work.

Feeling pumped and ready to try this idea I get the first Geneatealers ready, dig out the white spray paint, go outside to paint them and nothing………

I can’t remember when the last time I undercoated anything White… Probably my infinity models for N2, so we are looking at least 8 years…. So the paint had dried up in the can.

So it’s old school undercoating by hand it is

So I visited my parents and found the box of Genestealers. I only need to have 10, so I have spares

So I texted Ian.

This technique was very, very simple. Spray white and then paint with wood stain, and then apply more where it needs to be darker

He recommended that if he was to do it again he would paint black, the claws and plates. Genestealers don’t have much armour but it is worth remembering

So, how to paint them. I’m not a fan of H. R. Giger but I love the horrible, sickly feel of his work. The limited pallet of whites and browns have a great atmosphere

Then I remembered that a friend had painted a ‘nid army about 15 years ago using B&Q wood stain.  The brown gloss would give me the look I want… And if it doesn’t work, it would be a fun trial.

I have always loved Space Hulk, and I’ve been playing it since first edition

This means I have lots of Genestealers. Some built living in a box somewhere, so it’s time to find them.

A week back a friend suggested starting Kill Team, as he fancied doing a small imperial guard force.

I’ve only ever played Imperial forces in 40k, but this time I fancied doing something different.  I wanted to do something more natural and less armoured, more alien….