Shiny goodness.

Rolling into my first week of the challenge I ordered the Malanthrope at dragonmeet as FW didn't have one to hand at the event (free postage so no complaint). I've made a start on some Devilgaunts so read on to see what.

When planning the challenge I wanted to learn some new skills and one idea was to emphasise the bug nature of hive fleet Mantis. After seeing this video on miniwargaming time ago I've been tempted to emulate the effect and this challenge is the perfect time to implement it. 

So last weekend the search began, based on a vague memory of the miniwargaming video I dropped into Wayland games to get some advice. Equipped with some ideas and having found some Winsor and Newton iridescent medium the first test began.

While this produced on ok result it wasn't quite as good as I wanted so the search went on.

Then I found Spellscape's beautiful nids on Dakka

Spellscape's Hive Guard 

From here I went back through his blog till I found this brilliant post on how he achieves his effect using Metallic powders.

So back to google and I found White Ape Pigments. getting home wednesday evening and these were in an envelope on my doorstep.

Needless to say it wasn't long before I had to have a play. For these powders I didn't have much success with applying them dry so after a dig round I found my liquitex gloss medium. 
After some playing this is what I came up with.

shiny bugs.

I'm very happy with how the effect has come out. Next I plan on experimenting with a greener results and ways to integrate painting the effect into my normal Tyranid process. This should be made easier by mixing up a batch of each powder thanks to some small pots I picked up this morning.

With a successful post using my new phone I'll leave you today with a close look at the shiny effect and as always comments welcome.