The funny part was, that's literally how I paint my nids, Airbrush a light grey on the body, light blue wash all over, drybrush all of it to hide the weird pooling.
Thanks to this video I will for sure have more confidence to stick with my model and try to fix my mistakes rather than re-priming it to start over. Clearly, trying to come up with solutions to elevate your work even when you are not happy about it during the "making phase" helps you grow as a painter.
I totally feel your pain, washes going from perfect behaviour on a small model to a total mess on a big one. For this model I'd say a contrast in the most recessed areas with contrast medium to clean feather it out and clean the flat surfaces would have been less work overall.
Everything about this video was great. The project, the storyline in the project, and even the advertisement ("smells like an egg salad sandwich" was very evocative). 😂 You've found what feels to me like a perfect video voice. Keep up the good work, I'm always excited to see the next one.
I second that! I can't remember actually liking a youtube advertisement segment - but this one was funny as hell. Of course, the rest of the video was even better!
I don't paint or play WH40k, so for me a lot of the painting process is still magically impressive like watching a magician and you don't know how to tricks work; despite NinJon always teaching me how to paint in these videos. That all said, this final looks amazing. The creepy fleshy tones are scary and i like the contrast with the darker, tougher, "f-you" looking dark green armor.
I gotta admit, I was hoping you were going to go for an updated version of the paint job you did on your winged 'nid - it looked really cool and unique and the beetle reference with the black parts would have looked really nice with that theme. Having said that, it still looks awesome man and even a 'bad' paint job by you, looks pretty fuckin' great!
The wash didn't work like you had anticipated because your surface was not as smooth as you normally work with! One of the downsides to airbrushing is that the atomization of the paint makes a rougher finish due to droplets drying in the air before getting to the model. Run your hand on bare plastic, spray primed, and airbrushed undercoats and you will immediately feel the difference. It would be similar to sanding the model with 2000 grit sandpiper and then wondering why the wash doesn't work the same as a surface that has been sanded with 5000 grit.
I’ve been looking forward to this so much! This model looks phenomenal! Amazing work as always. Don’t know why you were so worried - the end model is a masterpiece bug/tyranid
Really great to see a video that shows things that went wrong and how to recover from them. Kudos to you for putting this online. I wish more content creators would do similar things. Thanks for the video!
man black panel lining is the WORST. I made the mistake of painting all white blood knights, and they looked super flat. I had the idea to panel line every armor panel, and yes, it looks pretty good, but it probably doubled my painting time with fixing the screw ups.
I would have probably tried to use contrast paint in place of the initial wash step, intending to build up layers from there... And likely would have made an even bigger mess.
I haven't really seen many of your videos and don't know if you give your models special titals/names but, If you don't have a name for this thing, I have a couple ideas. Titanic Eviscerator - It's a huge bug with lots of spiky tentacles and limbs. Bioforge - Cool lore idea: This creature is sort of a giant mobile factory, consuming biomass and churning out powerful units. Devouring Scourge - Alternate name for lore above. ^ Embassy of The Hive Mind - Mabye this thing is a VERY powerful Psycher? Hyrotyranivar - Pronounce this how you want. Just a cool sounding name. Edit: I personally think Bioforge and Embassy of The Hive Mind fit the most for this creature.
Ninjon: "this paint job ruined my marriage and killed my dog" Me: * hasn't painted a model half as good looking as it * Fear is the mind killer. Believe in yourself.
I'm listening and learning from you and miniac and ebay miniature rescues... I've been painting for 2 and a half years and my skills ... well are lacking but you all inspire me every single time I pick up a brush I shall continue to slay the grey with you in mind ! Keep it up and that nid monster is amazing!
This model is absolutely gorgeous!!!! You might have had a slight hiccup at first, but man your paint jobs just keep me impressed all day every day. Keep up the amazing work!!!!!!
I pretty much stole this color scheme for my whole custom hive fleet; this video popped across my feed as I was brainstorming a color scheme for my Nids army. I love that pallid pink against the dark green! Reminds me of Japanese cherry blossoms, so I went with a whole Japanese garden theme with the bases (grasses with pink, blue, yellow flowers) and the hive fleet is named after Ryujin, a Japanese mythological serpent. Thanks for the inspo and the great content!
This turned out great!! I think that pushing through the issue with the shade is important to highlight, things will never be perfect but we should never give up when it happens, find a way to make it work. I think the shade unintentionally gave you highlight areas to focus on that way you could fix them and make it diffrent. Great video Jon :)
This turned out fantastic! My only recommendation might be to add a bit of a gloss or satin varnish to the chitinous shell parts. Thats something ive been doing to my tyranids, and it makes them look a lot more insectoid
I feel like that title could try harder to lure in the views: Did I RUIN my AWFUL Massive Tyranid Kit Bash Made Out of ALL the TERRIBLE New Tyranid Kits from the FAILING 10th Edition of Warhammer 40K?!?!?!
That "disastrous" wash.... man, it looked blotchy and inflamed and gross and alien and fleshy and gross.... I loved it. 😅 It all turned out great though. 👍
I just painted my first Carnifex a week ago. Always only painted termagaunts and hormagaunts and symbionts, hoping to become a better painter, until I was bored over and over for years. Last week I decided... 15 years is enough wait... it will not be brilliant, but it will have color... So yeah nice you send this message out there to your audiance.
OMG! I couldn't stop laughing at your Manscaped "commercial"... SOOO HILARIOUS. It's no wonder I keep coming back to your videos - not only to learn new stuff about wargaming crafting and products, but because you are the most entertaining and likeable personality on RU-vid.
Fantastic kitbash! The model is working so good for me that I wish GW add it as an actual unit for Tyranids and I would love to play with it! I’m big fan of Tyranids! A Brainy and Scythy ?mid-sized? Bio-Titan! Let’s name this Beast! My idea is Penchant Queen because the model is made of passion and love, has an insect-like body plan which reminds me of an ant queen, and in my opinion name fits among other alien-sounding tyranid name’s such as Haruspex or Hierophant.
Talent aside... which is simply logic defying... I love your philosophy and pragmatism when it comes to the craft. I always get more from your words than anything else. Thanks Jon!!!!
For what it's worth, the brown wash over the warm white on the underside kinda gave me ideas! I agree it didn't look necessary like irritated flesh, but what it DID look like was old, recently-unearthed bone! Actually, what it made me think of specifically was the skeleton of the Space Jockey in *Alien*, and gave a very similar spooky, almost-familiar, haunted-organic vibe. Might be cool on a Necron model!
HOW was this BAD?? To me, this model tells an awesome story of how a Tyranid fleet encountered an army of Nurgle and won, but was left permanently scarred by his plague. If you don't like it, good sir, then I'll be happy to take it off your hands! Just saying lol
You've earned my sub (honestly hadn't realised I hadn't subbed yet), but you've also persuaded me to finally paint my Be'Lakor instead of slogging through infantry
Maybe it's just me, but Umbrella games link is broken, or they've gone out of business? I thought maybe it's my VPN that blocked it, tried on phone, tired on work computer and no go.
I love the base colours. I'm going to look out for that AK Purple Heart Primer. But is AK Dark Rust similar to Bugman's glow or could you suggest another Citadel alternative?
I feel like the dread of blacklining every scale is why i have not yet brought myself to paint one of the...3 dozen or so huge dragons i've accumulated from wizkids, reaper and D&L.
13:37 I was looking at these products recently, the "fruity scent" I thought was funny :D would you recommend these then? I have some of the GS world liquid pigments, they are nice.
I'm no to knowledgeable about Warhammer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't Gunpla pannel lining markers have helped with your black lining process? I don't know if it would crack the plastic or if it would have been thick enough, but I feel like that would have made the lining a bit easier.
Nice painting video and all, but when I think "ruined kitbash", I think more about stuff like my poor attempt at a Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut where I forgot to add the collar and mislocated the legs, leaving a gigantic gab that I don't know how to fix. Was more hoping for tips on how to fix stuff like that.
All these RU-vidrs always talk about “not using an airbrush for a challenge” I don’t own an airbrush, I want one because painting 20 models by brush suck
An interesting perspective and practice for failing I learned recently was if you make a mistake, don't stop, just keep making as many more mistakes as you can. It's for exactly the reason you talk about - if you mess up, you may as well take every opportunity to learn about what you've gotten yourself into before starting over. The context where I got this from was SmarterEveryDay's video about trying to capture a Prince Rupert's drop in molten glass. The glass blower who took on the challenge shared that bit of knowledge and added that if you just stop after making a mistake, you never actually learn about the future challenges ahead once you get that step right. By continuing past the mistake, you can understand future challenges and how your mistake impacted the outcome of those challenges. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C1KT8PS6Zs4.html
The AK red coloring for flames looks really clean, if you don't mind me asking what is the difference between Liquid Pigment Enamels with mineral spirits and oil washes with mineral spirits?
Bravo dude and 3 cheers for yah !!! They should of contacted you for the next Starship Troopers movie that came out in 1997. This model of yours would most definitely be a star. XD
Sweet video, and a wonderful journey! Have you tried pin washes for things like those carapace lines? I've started doing this after watching tank modelers use it in similar situations. It's fast, and yields great results. Loved this video.
This problem you had with the washes can, depending on paint brand and colour etc, be averted by spraying some matt varnish over the primed model before you start applying the washes. I've had success anyway.
I think it came out amazing! About the wash at the start, maybe use an oil wash instead (smoother blends and it flows into the cracks perfectly - I just saw a video about it and it worked great). Great job nonetheless!
This may be a crazy question Jon, but you preach oil washes to make painting easier, and yet you didn't take advantage of using a black oil wash as an easy way to do the black lining, why not?
If I had a nickel for every time this year I've seen a pro channel reinvent my custom hive fleet colors from a decade ago I'd have two nickels. It's not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. :D (but hey, I get a reference for how to improve it! stonks)
Man it’s a bummer there isn’t an easy “counts as” for that monster. It’s one heck of a center piece and looks like an official kit. The pose reminds me of Shelob the spider climbing behind Frodo but like 50 times worse.
God-Emperor that looks amazing. Ironically I actually spilled a shedload of paint on my desk while watching this so the whole "things go wrong" message timed well
sorry to be a huge nerd about this but i see everyone get this wrong - tyranids have THREE main textures to their bodies. The crusty upper carapace, the smoother and finer LOWER carapace (bone colored on leviathan) and then the soft gooey flesh is between joints and at weapons and tendrils. they’re like beetles and beetles are almost all hard carapace. some of it isn’t as chunky as the back battle armor stuff but it’s very select areas that are soft and gooey.
I just have no interest in painting organics. I used to be, but I find that I really love painting mechanics more. The mechanics speak to me, while the organics scowl at me.
I was so tempted to not click on this video because of the click-baity title, just assume the answer was "Yes, he ruined it," and move on... ...but I know Ninjon videos better than that.
I painted Marvel Zombicide’s Galactus this week, it turned out to be an experience I’d both recommend but not to underestimate the enormity of the project. At around 26 inches tall and roughly 20 inches wide, it’s like no other mini. Good stuff.
I don't think the wash was a disaster by itself. I like to put a wash in to more easily see the recess and high points. Then come back with (dry brush or layering or high lighting) up. I would say where you said had a problem was that a paint scheme's process, not the colors, did not scale well with the bigger model. The bigger model needs more steps or graduations of the color shades and more details than a tiny model. Especially in an army. I try to up the detail and graduations of color with unique bosses and large models vs. the little guys which I'll regularly skip steps and details. That said changing the paint scheme between things like bugs is fine, makes sense too since it is a different bug, and I would do that just for the fun of painting something different after painting 50 little bugs the same way.
I think if you'd used contrast instead of wash, it would have worked out better, initially. once you get the hang of using that stuff, you can just tint most areas and direct most of the pigment to the recesses. It does take some practice to get it down properly though, and it's different depending on the size of the mini, too. EDIT: Magos purple is perfect for tinting the ends of the limbs on these guys, I'm doing the same thing.
Not a disaster (I love the fleshy bits rendition especially where you went hard on the magenta) but I think the saturated yellow against the very muted green/grey was a mistake. It clashes with the shapes of the carapace instead of being "an accent". Our eyes drift on the edges instead of appreciating the curves of the armor plates. The kitbash design is really cool I wasn't sure when it was unpainted but it absolutely works with color.
I steered away from Washes and only use it at certain materials and spots, cause I ruined several paintjobs with Washes, even on stuff like 55 or 75mm sizes
As a question from someone still very early in the learning to paint process, for the black lining mentioned at 8:57, would a thin Gundam marker work for those lines and keeping the thickness consistent? I'm sure I'm missing something to it, but was curious for learning's sake to still ask.
