Warcry: Red Harvest - a self motivational project blog

This past week I did have a little blip in motivation when looking to start on the Tarantulos Brood minis. I was struggling to come up with a scheme that I wanted to do on them, and also a little daunted by all the fiddly web/straps on their arms and legs.

I decided to crack on and put a base coat on all the bases (to match the Darkoath), as that could still be progress but without too much thinking. I knew I wanted to do a dark colour for their cloaks etc, but not black. I knew I also wanted a spot colour to ‘pop’, and quite like the existing GW scheme with yellow as the spot colour. Having primed them with a zenithal spray I also wanted to use some contrast or thin coats on the clothing to take advantage of the zenithal prime. So I went ahead and mixed some blue contrast with black in different ratios, testing it on the spray stick I had used to undercoat them.

Once I had a colour I liked, and had tested it on one of the fighters, I used an old mixing pot to make enough for the whole band (with spare for the inevitable touch ups I would require 😊)

At this point I also decided that I wanted to go for a skin tone that looked a little ‘otherworldly’, so I mixed up some contrast white and contrast magos purple (comes out quite pink) and applied this to the test model too.

Following this, I decided to roll out more of the scheme onto the test model, as overall the scheme was seeming a little drab at this point – I was hopeful that the spot colour would boost them visually and give me a bit more confidence in the colour palette. With yellow being a pretty thin colour I used a pale beige colour to go over the parts intended to be yellow as the blacks of the zenithal prime don’t work for me when using bright colours.

I have some friends from our local gaming club that I keep in touch with via messenger, and lately I have been sending them pics of my work in progress – they are pretty supportive, and will give feedback and encouragement which can be very useful when having a ‘blip’. It definitely helped in this instance; as did realising that I had received a Golden Button for October (but missed it initially 😊 ) and being contacted by Sundancer who let me know that the project had been visited by the ‘Unofficial Hobby Hangout’ too. It certainly put a smile on my face.

The web straps on the test model (and bandages in some places) weren’t showing up overly well against the pale skin. To rectify this, I went ahead and used contrast black to ‘blackline’ all of the web strap areas on the models, and later on went over these with white; where possible using the edge of the brush to apply it (to help aid my accuracy). I used contrast black rather than normal black paint as I find it flows easier, allowing me to guide it to where needed. The reduced coverage on the high points didn’t matter in this case, as I was going to be going over that – it was just getting that black at the edges that was important.

From this stage I chose to work on just the seven Broodkin models, as they had very similar design and features on each of them. So, setting aside the spider swarms and the elite models, the yellow was rolled out across the Broodkin on their sashes, faces and ‘head limbs’.

Then it was on to making the bandages a little tidier, and trying to make them stand out a touch more. Further work on the weapons, picking out facial details (where I could), adding gloss varnish to the ‘head limb claws’ and painting in the dark red gems on all of their belt badge things. I am actually pretty happy with the way the gems have come out on these chaps, and with how the yellow spot colour works in the overall scheme.

Next up will be the elite fighters, and I will be finishing off the spiders in between.

See you next time 😊