After a month of working on this project and a plethora of other projects I was finally able to finish the tyranid ripper pads. Unlike with the first two projects (the digestion pools and carnivorous plants) I started to incorporate elements of human habitation to give the terrain a story theme. So in this project I used a section of the crashed ship pieces that came in the BfM 4th edition starter set and I made a small section of an imperial generator room. I plan on continuing this theme with the remaining pieces that I am going to work on for the tyranid terrain. So with out any more delay, lets looks at the pics!
In the last article I wrote about the ripper pads, I had constructed the bases in which the pads would sit on. Once the clay had dried I created feeder tendrils like I did in the previous articles and positioned them so that it looks like they are coming from the base of the pads and working their way into the surrounding landscape.
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Ripper pad on the wreckage of an imperial ship |
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Ripper pad growing on the ruins of an research substation |
Once the tendrils were placed and the clay hardened, I applied several layers of watered down wood glue to seal and protect the clay. Next I added in pieces of shale and sand to keep it consistent with the other pieces I created earlier in this series.
Once the glue dried I then primed the entire pieces black and then I painted the root base, the tendrils, and the pads themselves in a dark brown and then worked in a lighter shade of browns on the raised area. Once that dried I applied a brown wash and then once again highlighted the higher sections with a light brown.
After the brown layers I highlighted the extreme edges with a rust colored orange and then I painted white lines from the base of the ripper pads and worked them up to the edges. I also dry-brushed the top surface of the ripper pads with a light creme color.
Once that was done I painted the earth and surrounding rocks to match with what I did in the earlier articles. After that I added in the plastic vegetation and once that was done I added the tyranid rippers to the pads to make it look like they hatched and are ready to go forth and consume.
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Front of pad 1 |
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Back of pad 1 |
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Chaos model for scale |
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Side shot of pad on crashed Aquila |
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Close up shot of the rippers |
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Ripper pad on substation ruins |
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Substation generator (back right view) |
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Substation ruins (back left view). |
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Ripper pad on substation scale shot |
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All three pieces side-by-side |
As I finished up this project I was finally able to track down a bottle of water effects and complete the digestion pool as well. It is not as murky as I had hoped so I may pour on another layer with brown inked mixed in to achieve the look.
I hope you like the ripper pads and for the next part in this series I want to work on large scale pieces that create large sections of LoS blocking terrain. I will also be starting work on a new table for the Da Boyz GT. Not sure of the exact theme yet because I am torn if I should make a modular set of terrain, like my past few projects or if I want to create an entire board like I did for the train depot. With a themed board I feel I can better convey a story but the major drawback is transporting the terrain boards and then finding storage after the event. With modular sections, I can easily fit them into a plastic bin and transport them easier and storage is not a problem.
Once I settle on the final project I will share it with you readers and show the progress as I work on the board in preparation for the GT.
Those look great! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteNice Work Mate! I has quite a vibrant feel to it :)
ReplyDeleteLooks pretty sweet.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you thinking in terms of Da Boyz?