For a lot of the year I have so far been blogging about my Mithril Evil Army, which is fine, but I had finished painting them in about May and have really only been catching up with photographs. Since then I have been doing a lot of other things, mainly re/basing Rogue Trader era miniatures. Outside of the hobby my life has been taken over by a lot of various busy things, and so I have been relaxing mainly by re/basing rather than painting. However yesterday I had some free time and got to painting.
Zoats! I love 'em.
When I first saw the 40k versions back in 1987 I thought they really did have that alien feel. Unlike the humanoid looking aliens (except for the Slann), the Zoats (and the Tyranids) really felt alien. The green sickly, unearthly looking green painting in the advert (see below) worked well, and that was how mine were painted for ages (give or take the odd experimental scheme). Anyway, as mentioned, I have been re/basing a lot of Rogue Trader stuff and so it was only a matter of time before I got to the Tyranids. I had collected a fair sized army based on the 1992 Tyranid Army list, which was the first army list since the basic one in the 40k rule book. So with the Zoats, paint stripped and re-based, and sitting on the desk I thought, 'I want to paint these'. And so I did.
Now the original colour scheme was great, but I want these to be part of a wider Tyranid Hive Fleet. So I opted for the Hive Fleet Behemoth. This was apparently the first Hive Fleet to be encountered, which I thought suited Rogue Trader era miniatures, and it was similar to the 1992 paint scheme. Also I just really liked the alien looking red and blue. Painting wise (as always) I wanted to keep it simple, concentrating on the two main colours.
Using all Citadel paints, after a Mechanicus Standard Grey undercoat, the red was Khorne Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, with light highlights of Troll Slayer Orange. The blue was Kantor Blue, Thunderhawk Blue, with Calgar Blue highlights, and a final edge highlight with White Scar. I added a little Moot Green highlights on a little of the equipment/weapons. I used Technical 'Ardcoat to varnish them as I wanted that shiny, icky, alien look.
All in all, I am very pleased with how they came out, and I will be seeing if I have enough time to paint the rest of the Zoats, and maybe the rest of the Hive Fleet army. I am also pleased with how the muddy, barbed wire strewn bases, which are going to be standard for my Rogue Trader era miniatures, look.
Enjoy :)
In the 1992 army list Zoats aren't organised into squads but are purchased individually. However I have kept with the old rule book (and Book of the Astronomicon 1988) convention of squads of four.
(one of the squads here is the one which I have painted).
(from the Stuff of Legends website).
