You know I was lamenting how shite my termagaunt looked in close ups a couple of pages ago?
Well only turns out that's 4 years old and the hormogaunt I was actually supposed to post is from last year
(thank strawberry float I sign and date them on the bottom lol). That has far better depth and texture than the other which is overly "blanched" by highlights.
I'll take a pic of that as I'm using it as reference for a new termagaunt with Devoururer, I'm doing wet blending/shading on a wet pallete for this one. Held side by side with the examples in the Tyranid Codex circa 2001 I'd like to believe it's on par, after which point it's time to move onto my own scheme (got some stuff in mind with mushrooms on caripaces and giant day geckos, plus with my Old One Eye a purple sea anemone theme growing out of its carapace blended with Resident Evil 4 / corticeps parasite type wiggly stuff). Or at least, I'll do that after I've finished about 20 other models in the authentic Hive Fleet Kraken scheme (red and beige).
I think my basing and black leopard spots on the smaller minis as well (they only bother doing these on the large models originally) help them stand apart, at least that's what I say so that I feel it's worth doing. But my strawberry float does it take ages blending colours, I think I go chaos black > bestial brown & bubonic brown 70:30 > bestial brown & bubonic brown 30:70 > 50:50 watered down bubonic brown > 50:50 bubonic brown & bleached bone > 50:50 watered down bleach bone wet shading > bleached bone highlights. THen there's the caripaces, teeth and tongues and finally the base which I seem to do 10 years after finishing the mini (in one such case... It took me 20 years).
Also started using the contrast paints rather than flesh wash (a pot I still use from the 90s) because, they're good for getting darker areas in recesses but what I don't like is they highlight the tiniest pits from normal brush work as well, creating a sort of leathery/papery appearance. That's beneficial for a fleshy surface like tyranids and subsequent dry brushing, to make them appear more dynamic, but doesn't make for as smooth an appearance as normal wet shading I.e. Doing it properly. I might not use it on smooth surfaces. I also bought a giant pot that will probably last 50 years. We'll see if there's a noticeable difference after all of my highlights and shading enhancements with my usual mix of washes (Babad black, dark brown stuff etc etc) to overall depth and three dimensionality.