Thursday 21 May 2020

Misumena vatia Tyranids

A bit of a random update on some random painting...

I was gardening the other day, not my natural forte I might add, when I saw a lovely and odd looking spidery thing on a white lily bush. Now my first thought was 'that looks like a tiny Tyranid!', how cute.
As it turns out, it was a something named a Crab Spider, common in Southern England, with the Latin name Misumena vatia. I did take a photograph on it, but I seem to have accidently deleted it when I whilst I was having computer trouble. However, there is a picture of the Spider at the bottom of this blog update, not of course at the top, just in case people are adverse to Spiders. I'm not a great fan of them, I was bitten by a False Widow a couple of years ago, and was very ill. The False Widows pop up in the garden now and again, so I kill them on sight!

All this spidery nonsense got me thinking about Rogue Trder era Tyranids. I had painted mine a long, long time ago in the classic blue/purple Genestealer colours (with green Zoats), but had paint stripped them ready for a repaint which never came. So as an aside I tried out a paint scheme based on the spider on a few test models.

The painting was simple. Black undercoat, based coat of Vallejo Stone Grey, highlight of white, a very very very thin wash of Vallejo Lemon Yellow, and then a final white light highlight. The Genestealer Magus received a very very very thin wash of Citadel Xereus Purple twice. The Zoat and Hunter-Slayer guns/equipment are a thined Vallejo German Field Grey. I gloss varnished the Screamer-Killers/Carnifexes to give a shiny carapace look, matt varnish to the other to avoid that same look.

They were fun to paint, and I am happy with how they look. They are test models, and I don't intend painting the army anytime soon. I have another project I wish to do.

Enjoy :)
 Genestealer Hyrid Magus.
I love this miniature, great detail, and full of menace.
Rear view.
Screamer-Killers/Carnifexes!
I mounted these on 50mm round bases to look a lot better. I find it's always odd to consider that many of the larger old Rogue Trader miniatures were confined to 40mm square bases at the time.
It was these miniatures which sprang to mind when I was looking at the spider.
I was never a great fan of these miniatures, nor the paint scheme they were released in. However with a little re-posing of the body and arms, and a different paint scheme I think they look a lot more terrifying.
The other one.
Rear view.
Probably the best view from which to shoot at it!
 Zoat.
I like the old Zoats, and I have about a dozen 40k ones. I think they look a lot better on the Citadel Oval 60x35mm bases.
 Hunter-Slayer.
 Misumena vatia, the Crab Spider.
The next update will be on the little Dwarf diarama which I am finishing this evening. The after that I am going to tackle a 40k Squat project.

10 comments:

  1. Great what inspiration nature yields sometimes - Those Tyranids look great in such a reduced colour scheme!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, I wanted to try a muted colour scheme, but could never settle on one until now.

      Delete
  2. Yup, white is the gribbliest colour. The critters in Prometheus are a similar hue and ultra nasty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right, white on some aliens and creatures can be quite disturbing. I had forgotten about Prometheus. The pale Alien Hybrid in Aliens Resurrection was quite unsettling as well.

      Delete
  3. I always loved that Magus -seeing yours, I still do.
    I had that Carnifex back in the day, I always had a problem with the arms, no matter how good I thought I had glued them, they eventually kept on falling down!
    Nicely done, I believe your restricted palette is quite an interesting take on these! Fun story to learn where did the inspiration come from!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Magus is a lovely minature, I have been meaning to paint him for a while. The Carnifex can be a little tricky to assemble. Glad you like the colour palette, it was fun to experiment with.

      Delete
  4. I love that magus figure, definitely channeling all the coolness of the original genestealer cult. I too had the screamkiller fig. The art looked good but the actual fig was a bit of a bust. It always seemed to be unable to pose in a correct upright posture and instead was hobbled over. I suspected that the white dwarf painters probably did some cutting and filing to make theirs look better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, the old Genestealer cult miniatures did have a cool look to them.
      Like you I was never too struck on the Carnifex miniature, but I wanted to give it another chance. I was never struck on the original release paint scheme. Mounting the Carnifex on a 50mm round base was the best way forward to avoid toppling, the original 40mm square one were too dinky for it.

      Delete
  5. Who knows when inspiration will strike? Literally in this case. I’ve never seen kids in this scheme, it’s disturbing. In a good way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right, sometime inspiration can come from the most unlikely of sources. Glad you liked the idea.

      Delete