Monday, October 20, 2014

MonkeyChucka's Amazing Malanthrope!

 
This morning we have a re-post of a couple of posts by Monkey Chucka over at the Chucking Monkeys blog.  This is an extremely impressive conversion and paint job... don't miss it!
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Whilst attending a Warhammer 40k tournament recently, a friend walked up to me and said, "I've got something which I think you'll like".  He held up what looked like a small, perspex box.

"Its a tentacle maker" he explained.  I resisted the urge to snatch it out of his hand but he must have noted my covetous expression.  He told me that he'd bought it from Green Stuff Industries and this was a spare, which he was willing to give me at cost price.  I immediately coughed up the cash and pocketed it.  I have been itching to try it out ever since.


I've been thinking about using a Tyranid Malanthrope in my games.  The model itself is awesome and the rules are better.  Although I'd happily pay for the Forgeworld version, I have a spare Hive Tyrant kit just lying around doing nothing.  It was bought solely to put wings on my Swarmlord and the rest of the kit was wasted.  However, I've seen numerous enterprising people on the internets using the body and tail of a Flyrant to convert their own Malanthrope.  Coupled with my new acquisition, it seemed like an ideal time to make one for myself.


The device is actually 3 separate tentacle makers which make different sizes of cable and/or tentacle out of green stuff.  I had absolutely no idea how to use it.  Lucky for me, Green Stuff Industries made a handy video which tells you exactly what to do.  Click on the Tentacle Tutorial to see it in action.




In terms of cost, its about the same to order one from Forgeworld as it is to convert one, but if you decide to convert then you will have an absolute ton of spare parts to play with when you're done; including those fantastic wings, which look just as good on Daemons and Dragons as they do on Nids.

I am extremely pleased with the results of my tentacle maker and it is ridiculously easy to use (getting the blasted tentacles to stick to the model and not your fingers/craft knife/sweater/light fitting is another matter entirely).  My wife says that the Malanthrope looks like Mr. Burns, so thats what I'm going to call him.  I decided to include a painting tutorial for the model, to really show off how good those tentacles look.







Painting Mr. Burns



A picture tells a 1000 words and all that so...


1) Model is primed black.
2) A thin coat of Khorne Red is applied to the skin parts.
3) Skin is overbrushed with Elysian Green but you can still see red in the recesses.
4) Nurgling Green is drybrushed over the previous coat.



5) 1:1 mix of Ushabti Bone/Nurgling Green is drybrush highlighted on the skin.
6) An equal mix of Biel-Tan Green, Water and Glazing Medium is washed onto the skin.
7) The tentacles and sacs are drybrushed with Cadian Fleshtone and then Ushabti Bone.  (note that this is how I do the wings on my flying creatures except I only highlight with Ushabti Bone so that far more flesh tone is showing)
8) Equal mix of Reikland Fleshshade/Water/Glazing Medium is washed onto the tentacles and sacs.



9) Carapace parts are tidied up with Abaddon Black, then lines of thinned Khorne Red are applied to all edges with a detail brush.
10) Evil Sunz Scarlet is painted, slightly thinner on top of the Khorne Red staying carefully in the lines.
11) An even thinner stripe of Tau Light Ochre is applied over the red (I much preferred it when this colour was called Vomit Brown).
12) A 2:1:1 mix of Glazing Medium/Carroburg Crimson/Water is washed over the carapace, trying to get a sheen, like chitin.



13) Rhinox Hide is painted in stripes over the talons/spikes/pincers.
14)  XV-88 is striped over the Rhinox hide (similar to the way the carapace is done).  Eyeballs painted Khorne Red.
15) Tau Light Ochre is striped over the XV-88.  Eyeballs highlighted with Troll Slayer Orange.
17) A 2:1:1 mix of Glazing Medium/Reikland Fleshshade/Water is washed over the talons/spikes/pincers.  High Gloss varnish applied to tentacles and sacs  (I don't normally do this but I wanted it to look really slimy).

I have no idea what happened to step 16).   It may have been consumed by Rippers. Or perhaps the Chaos Gods reserved it because I was using two many eights.   



The rubble was drybrushed Thunderhawk Blue, The plating Tin Bitz. Brass Scorpion was used to highlight the Tin Bitz.  Then everything drybrushed Codex Grey except the edge of the plating; then Celestra Grey.   The 'water' was painted Caliban Green and heavily varnished.  Finally, Nurgle's Rot was smeared over it.



Hope you like it!   Well, actually I hope you are utterly disgusted by it and I can call it a job well done.

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2 comments:

  1. awesome!
    It looks really cool! (those greenstuff skills man!)

    I think I've seen that on "the hive" :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, some really amazing work here. I'll let MC know you posted.

      Delete

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