Before we unleash the chittering hordes of the Great Devourer, I'll just mention that as with my other Miniature of the Month Masterclasses, this isn't a step by step tutorial. Rather than having photos of each and every stage of the process, there are only pictures of the finished miniature; although I try and plan out painting projects in advance of picking up brushes, there can be quite a lot of jumping between the various elements of the miniature to build things up so it's a bit tricky doing a full step by step guide. However, I will go through how everything on the miniature was painted in detail and all of the colours used are highlighted in bold.
To get best use out of this guide, you'll need to have a little bit of painting knowledge already as it makes use of a couple of more advanced techniques, but as a quick note; glazing is using a diluted paint to apply a tint to an existing colour and feathering is using the same brush as you've just applied paint to the miniature with—without reloading paint—to drag the paint out and over the existing colour. This spreads the new paint, thinning it and blending it in with the rest of the area.
As diverse as they are dangerous, the Tyranids are like few threats humanity has encountered before. Only by cataloging and identifying each of the Tyranid species can we have any hope of understanding and thus defeating them.
It should be noted that most of the species of Tyranid encountered by Imperial forces so far are fully mutable so any attempt to categorically list every bioform is likely doomed to failure. Nevertheless, establishing common terminology for each strain of Tyranid at least aids in the formulation and execution of frontline strategies.
Of the Gaunt genus, some 312 subspecies have been positvely identified to date, though Gauntii Virago remains one of the most commonly sighted, fulfilling a role within Tyranid swarms that is not dissimilar to that of conscripts in the Astra Militarum. Often seen armed with the horrific Fleshborer weapon-symbiote, which uses an electro-chemical shock to hurl fang-mawed beetles that can rapidly bore through armour, flesh and bone, even a single Gauntii Virago represents a threat which should not be underestimated...
Extract from Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticae report
Assembly
Like the Rotmire Creed Mirefolk Outcast, Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn, Cadian Shock Trooper, Jade Obelisk Defacer, Adeptus Arbites Vigilant and Seraphon Saurus Warrior the miniature of the month available from Warhammer stores comes on a single sprue and is supplied with a 28mm round base.
Unlike previous miniatures of the month to this point, the Termagant is 'push fit' meaning that it doesn't require glue to hold the components together.
Building the mini is simply case of assembling the parts in the numerical order that they're labelled on the sprue - be sure to check you've lined up the parts properly when you push them together as the plastic can bend or even break if you're not careful.
After assembling the miniature I added some chips of slate and a couple of skulls to the base before covering it with some texture paint. Finally, once the texture paint had fully dried, I primed the whole mini with grey spray paint.
Painting
Although the Hive Fleet that is the most current threat to the Inperium, and by extension, the galaxy at large is the one codified as Leviathan, for this project I wanted to take look back to the first encounters mankind had with the Tyranids in Hive Fleet Behemoth.
To help with this, I revisited some of the older Tyranid codexes in my collection for inspiration with the aim of then bringing the colours seen on these early Behemoth bioforms up to date to take advantage of the modern Citadel paint range.
To help make this Masterclass a bit easier to follow, I've divided the rest of it into four sections so that it's a bit less unwieldy: Exoskeleton and Carapace, the Fleshborer, Details and finally, the Base.
Exoskeleton and Carapace
The bright red of the Termagant's exoskeleton started out with a basecoat of Mephiston Red. I applied this in a few thinned layers to make sure I got smooth and consistent coverage across the whole miniature. Once I was happy with the basecoat, I applied a controlled shade of Carroberg Crimson to all of the red areas, making sure that it didn't pool on any of the flatter areas.
From here, I used a combination of feathering and layering to apply Mephiston Red back onto the exoskeleton, leaving the shade in the recesses and concentrating the layers on the raised areas of the miniature. One thing to note here is that I didn't layer up the spiracles/gills on the Termagant's limbs or the connective tissues at the joints as I wanted them to remain darkened down.
The next step was to feather Evil Sunz Scarlet onto the exoskeleton. This was mainly focusing on the upper portions of each area of the model, but I also picked out the collar bones and visible ribs as well.
With the red most of the way there now, the penultimate step was to apply highlights of Wild Rider Red to all of the most prominent ridges and details of the exoskeleton as well as to the tops of the shoulders and hips, it's finger joints and the curve of the creature's skull.
To make them stand out a little more, I added a final highlight to the spiracles on the head and at the base of the tail with Ratskin Flesh. Once this was done, I thinned some Nuln Oil with a little water and glazed the spiracles/gills on the arms and legs to darken them down a little.
Contrasting the bright red of the exoskeleton are the iridescent blue plates of chitin that make up the Termagant's carapace. I started out by basecoating all of the chitin with Abaddon Black before using Stegadon Scale Green to apply a chunky highlight to all of the edges of the plates as well to paint parallel streaks from around the middle of each plate to the rear edge - except on the legs where the streaks start at the bottom of each plate.
Once I was happy with this was looking, I repeated the process, first with Sotek Green and then Temple Guard Blue, making the streaks and highlights a little finer each time and concentrating the streaks a little further back on the plates each time.
The final step for the carapace was to pick out some of the nicks and scratches as well as the corners of the plates and the dorsal ridges with a fine highlight of Fenrisian Grey.
Fleshborer
I went back and forth on how to paint the Fleshborer a little, but ultimately settled on a pale fleshy tone for the weapon-symbiote so that it was distinct from its' wielder.
The main body of the Fleshborer was basecoated with Rakarth Flesh. Once that was in place I picked out all the tubes and exposed musculature with Screamer Pink and the eye with Averland Sunset.
With this all in place, I shaded everything with Guilliman Flesh Contrast mixed 50:50 with Contrast Medium. Once this had fully dried, I went back and shaded the musculature, tubes and the muzzle of the weapon with Berserker Bloodshade. To help add a little more definition to the muzzle I added a glaze of thinned Carroberg Crimson to the two recesses.
With all of this done, I went to work bringing the details up, starting with the eye which was layered with Averland Sunset then Yriel Yellow. I then added a highlight of Flash Gitz Yellow and carefully painted in the slit pupil with some thinned Abaddon Black.
Next up was the tubing and musculature which were layered with Screamer Pink before being highlighted with Pink Horror and then with Cadian Fleshtone. I then thinned down some Berserker Bloodshade with water and used it to glaze the pink areas.
With the details done, I got to work on finishing the 'body' of the Fleshborer, beginning by feathering some highlights of Rakarth Flesh across the whole weapon-symbiote. I refined these initial highlights with Pallid Wych Flesh, focusing a little more on the harder edges this time around.
I finished up by adding a very light glaze to the edges of the eye socket using thinned Carroberg Crimson and then painted the dorsal chitin to match the Termagant to help tie them together as they'll have been spawned by the same Hive ship.
Details
The hooves were painted slightly differently to the teeth and claws but they all started out with a basecoat of Abaddon Black.
The hooves were then layered with streaks of Skavenblight Dinge followed by Stormvermin Fur. I then added a few fine highlights of Administratum Grey to finish them off.
The teeth and claws were first highlighted with Skavenblight Dinge then with a finer highlight of Stormvermin Fur. Finally the very tips of the claws and teeth were picked out with a dot of Administratum Grey.
The Termagant's eyes were basecoated Averland Sunset and then shaded with a controlled application of Carroberg Crimson. Once this had dried they were layered back up with Averland Sunset. I then added a fine highlight of Yriel Yellow and a wee dot of Flash Gitz Yellow to finish them up.
Lastly the tongue was painted in the same way as the fleshy tubes and muscles of the Fleshborer.
The Base
Earth
The earthen area started out with a basecoat of Dryad Bark to get a nice flat earthen colour. I applied this using a couple of layers both of which were thinned with a little water so they would flow in around the texture on the base more evenly.
Once the basecoat was completely dry, I then lightly drybrushed the earth first with Baneblade Brown and then with Karak Stone.
Rocky debris
The shattered debris on the base was basecoated with Dawnstone before being shaded with Agrax Earthshade. Once this was dry, I took some thinned Dawnstone and over the course of a few layers built up a grey tone I was happy with, being careful to leave some of the shaded grey showing though in places so the stone has a weather worn appearance.
Once this was done, the next step was to start to add some highlights to the edges of the stone with Administrum Grey, I also stippled a little onto some of the flat areas of the stone to add a bit more variation to the tone. I then added a finer, final highlight of Grey Seer, paying particular attention to the corners of the stone.
To finish the stone up, I thinned a down a little Athonian Camoshade and Mortarion Grime with some water and glazed some random patches of the stone with them to add some natural tonal variation to the surfaces.
Skulls
The skulls started out with a basecoat of Morghast Bone. Despite having pretty good coverage, this base paint will take at least two thin layers to get a smooth basecoat, but in some cases three or four will give you a better result. Once this was in place, Agrax Earthshade was painted directly into the eye sockets and nasal cavities and once that had dried, the whole skull was shaded with Seraphim Sepia. I then thinned some Morghast Bone with water and layered it onto the skull before adding highlights using Ushabti Bone followed by Screaming Skull.
To help tie things together, I applied a glaze of thinned Dryad Bark to the areas of the skulls and debris nearest the ground to help to bed it into the base.
To finish the base off, I painted the rim with Abaddon Black, added some grass tufts and with that, the Termagant was complete!
Battle Ready Guide
If you're looking to get your Termagant battle ready and on the table as quickly as possible, then you can follow these quick steps:
- Paint the exoskeleton Mephiston Red
- Paint the claws, teeth and hooves Mechanicus Standard Grey
- Paint the chitin plates on the back of the Termagant and Fleshborer with Sotek Green
- Paint the Fleshborer Rakarth Flesh
- Paint the tongue and any tubing and muscles on the Fleshborer with Screamer Pink
- Carefully pick out the eyes with Averland Sunset.
- Apply a texture paint like Stirland Mud, Astrogranite Debris or Agrellan Badlands to the base.
- Shade the everything but the chitin plates with Agrax Earthshade, then shade the chitin and the teeth, claws and hooves with Nuln Oil.
- Paint the base rim with either Abaddon Black or Steel Legion Drab
If you're assembling a full brood of these bioforms, then you can map the above colours across the whole unit fairly easily, perfect for if you want to get them painted up to a good basic standard quite quickly and then you can always go back and add extra details and highlights to the miniatures at a later date if you want to.
You could also use either guide to help paint bigger Tyranid bioforms in the colours of Hive Fleet Behemoth as well.
Whether you take inspiration from the Masterclass or the Battle Ready guide, I hope you find them useful and if you give either of them a try, whether its painting your own Tyranids, or adapting the scheme to other miniatures, I'd love to hear how you get on. Until next time though, thanks for reading and happy hobbying.
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