Tyranid Terrain: Ripper Pads Finished!

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.

Ripper pad on the wreckage of an imperial ship

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.

Front of pad 1

Back of pad 1

Chaos model for scale

Side shot of pad on crashed Aquila

Close up shot of the rippers

Ripper pad on substation ruins

Substation generator (back right view)

Substation ruins (back left view).

Ripper pad on substation scale shot

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.