Showcase: How I made Hive Secundus for Games Workshop

I was recently asked to create a Hive Secundus diorama for Games Workshop’s Warhammer Community, in today’s post I’m going to lift the curtain and share how I went about building my own Hive Secundus. Lots and lots of photos in this post, so strap in, grab your favourite drink and let’s start.

When I was briefed on the project by Games Workshop, one of the things they asked for was 300 words to accompany the photo. That’s not a lot of words for a project that took a month to finish. I always planned on giving www.taleofpainters.com the exclusive deep dive post.

The very first thing, I had to do was come up with an idea, on the spot, in a meeting with the people from Games Workshop. I quickly started to explain an idea that was forming in my imagination of a tall, narrow photo that starts with the Spyre Orrus guys at the top, then Van Saar Teks and as you go down the photo you work your way past Brood Scum and Tyramites to finally reach the Hive guarded by Malstrain Genestealers. They loved the idea, but I realised I’d just described a huge amount of work, so I was given permission to invite Dunk to the project and paint the Spyres and Van Saar.

Building an entire ruined Hive was never going to be an option so I needed a creative solution. I assembled two boxes of Zone Mortalis ruins and without even painting them photographed them with smoke and coloured lights, then I took that image and repeated it in photoshop to create two backgrounds, a red and a blue. The project was so early in its infancy I wasn’t sure what colour I’d need, I was thinking blue but if it didn’t work I had red to fall back on. I got these big prints done at www.brailsfordprinters.com and they printed and sent to me within 2 days. They can print them matte which is perfect for photography, no reflections!

With the terrain assembled I could start to do a dry fit with pieces and work out the composition, I quickly realised I would need more floors to fit all the models on. A quick trip to a craft store to purchase foam core and plasticard. you’re probably wondering if Games Workshop funds the build. They supply all the models (anything they have in stock) anything else I choose to add is out of my pocket. With the two background prints and the foam core and plasticard and some spray cans I’ve nearly spent £100 so far.

With my craft supplies secured I started to build the foam core floors, there would be a ground floor with a hole in it, a first floor and then a roof at the top. I wanted a roof to close it off and make it feel claustrophobic. I cut the foam core into jagged patterns using a scalpel so it looked like the floor had collapsed. I then used textured plasticard to create tiles and glued them to the floor using PVA glue. Remember the hole in the ground floor? Well, that’s for a furnace. When designing these pieces you have to think about light sources. If you have a believable reason for a coloured dramatic light, like a furnace, it helps sell the picture and gives it credibility. I modelled the furnace piece using CAD and 3D printed it.

Not only did I need more floors, I needed more walls too. I wanted a Genestealer nest at the bottom of the photo surrounding the warm furnace vent so it meant I was going to have to sculpt my own walls. This was actually one of the funnest parts of the build. My 7 year old daughter even helped sculpt a couple of Tyranid shapes onto one of the walls. The Tyranid shapes were relatively simple, just rough shapes made from Milliput and then poked and prodded with sculpting tools to create repeating patterns. I then draped them with Greenstuff tentacles and vines. They didn’t warrant a lot of time or care they’re background pieces and are totally fit for purpose. When working to a deadline you have to prioritise what you want to spend a lot of time on. 

To get the height I wanted with the walls, I realised I would run out interconnecting pieces that join the ruined columns and there wasn’t enough walkways. So I took some measurements and modelled up some pieces in CAD and 3d printed them. I added plasticard tiles for decoration. You can see these pieces in the picture above, they’re printed in brown and red (what I had spare). With the floors, ceiling and nest walls created, it was time for another dry fit. It was at this point I knew my vision would work and was really coming together.

With the deadline approaching it was time to paint. I decided on a fast rattle can paint job for the columns. They were undercoated black, then sprayed grey from the top, dark red from the bottom and then washed in Garaghak’s Sewer contrast paint which was heavily thinned with water. The plasticard floors were undercoated black and dry brushed with Leadbelcher and washed with Garaghak’s Sewer contrast paint. The Genestealer nest was undercoated black and dry brushed with a series of blue-greys like Russ Grey and Fenrisian Grey.

For the photography set, it was quite a large, elaborate studio-like set up using flash photography with a total of 6 flashes being used. The back ground, foreground, sides etc were all lit and one flash was placed under the furnace with a smoke machine. This is why having a detailed vision/plan from the beginning works. I had planned to do this from the beginning hence cutting the hole in the floor. Dunk had brought some additional terrain he’d painted and we added smoke stacks and plasma coils to the piece.

Once I had the lights and models set up, I took a test shot for review. We opened it up on the computer and Dunk and I started to make notes on improvements. I’ve included the notes, all these things had to be addressed before we could take the proper photos. With all that fixed, I was now ready to take the 6 photos needed for the final compiled image… you’re probably thinking “what, why 6?” Well, it’s two lots of three photos. The first set of three would be exposed for the background creating a dark and moody piece, but all the models would be dark. The next set of three would be exposed for the models, meaning the models will be light and perfect but the background would be too light. Now you’re asking “but why a set of 3 for each exposure?” Well these three shots are for depth of field. If I just take a photo the models would be in focus but the background and foreground would be blurry. I had to have focus exposures for foreground, models, and background and I had to do that for both the moody exposure and the well light model exposure. That’s a total of 6 shots. All in all the shoot for this one photo probably took 5 hours with a couple of hours editing in photoshop.

And here it is, in all its glory. The culmination of a month’s work. I’m really proud of this piece, so much so I went back to www.brailsford.com and ordered 2 large prints of it for Dunk and I. It was great working with Dunk and this project wouldn’t have been completed on time if he didn’t paint the Van Saars and Orrus Spyres, so a big thank you to him. I hope you enjoyed this insight into creating my vision for an Incursion into Hive Secundus.

You can see close ups of my Malstrain Genestealers here and Broodscum here including their respective painting guides.

One final thing, there has been an “Easter Egg” hidden in plain sight during this project all along, did you spot it?