The Tyranid Haruspex is a monstrous creature of epic proportions. It is a feeder beast seen in the later stages of the invasion and it’s primary role is to ingest bio matter. It’s gaping maw has the ability to stretch and open wider. It’s tusk like mandibles can crush victims, it’s barbed feeder tendrils can also tear and rend a helpless soul to pieces before they are swallowed, this means no one is safe from it’s insatiable hunger. Read on to hear my thoughts on painting this exciting kit.
If you’ve been following the WIP posts I’ve been sharing then you’ll know I’ve been painting this model in stages. I would paint a limb to completion before moving on to the next limb. This is a completely different way to batch painting and allows me to really concentrate on an area and ensure it’s painted to the best of my ability.
The downside to this approach is it is time consuming. I choose not to use my airbrush because I wanted nice, deep and rich reds which were built up from a black basecoat. This is really time consuming but I personally feel the result is worth it. I tend to find airbrush basecoats are a bit flat. If I have to shade and highlight an airbrush basecoat I might as well paint it by hand. I’m not being a snob towards the airbrush, I use mine all the time, it just wasn’t the right tool for the job for this model. I’m not interested in saving time either because I’m not in a rush. In fact I feel the opposite. The kits are quite expensive (worth every penny though) so I like the fact it took me a couple of months to build and paint inbetween my other projects. If I’d have blitzed it and rushed it in a single weekend I wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much.
So where next… well, I would love to buy and add a Hive Crone to my collection but (there’s always a but) I have too many projects to work on. At this point in time I think I’m going to attempt to paint all 40 Gretchen (Grots to you newer hobbyists) in the2nd Edition boxset. I feel this may take around 5 weeks or so. Once done I will feel amazing and will want to reward myself by painting the Imperial Knight… the alternative is carry on with the 2nd Edition boxset and paint the last 20 Orks to complete the set… decisions, decisions!
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I really like the color scheme that you have used! It reminds me of Fleet Behemoth, but much better in my opinion. Any chance of you doing a tutorial on the painting scheme?
StevePhy
Already exists. http://taleofpainters.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/tutorial-garfys-tyranid-scheme-with-new.html
This reminded me of your post about your second Tyranid biotitan where you wanted to blend using an airbrush. I liked your former model a lot more than the second.
This model looks great too, however I would have approached the larger black areas a bit differently. Maybe two-brush blending? I don't know…
As for the order of minis, I'd ask you this: which kit made you the most excited when you bought it?
If it were me I'd paint the Gretchin, Knight, OrKs, then on to another large model. Keep rewarding the tedious multiple models with another large detailed kit.