Kill Team - Vespid Stingwings
It took me a while to get to the Vespids as I wasn’t sure what my colour scheme was going to be. The armour and weapons would obviously match the rest of my Tau forces but I wasn’t sure about the chitin and flesh. I had some of the old resin Vespids from back in the day and I had pretty much slapped a coat of Basilicanum Grey on them and called it a day. I briefly toyed with the idea of replicating the old scheme but doing a better job, however the more I thought about it the more I felt that grey chitin would be quite monochromatic and dull.
I eventually decided on a blue-grey scheme for the chitin, it would pay homage to my old scheme and contrast nicely with the orange-brown weapons.
Vespid Strain Leader
Now that I knew what I was doing, I could make a start on the assembly. Vespids don’t have a huge amount of options, you can take one each of the four Specialists or they can all be Warriors. I assembled the team as per the instructions, taking each of the Specialists and assembling the rest as Warriors. The models themselves were a little fiddly but they came together in the end.
Vespid Longsting
Like I did with the Tempestus Aquilons, before priming the models I gave any metallic details on the bases a coat of Typhus Corrosion. It was mostly rebar but there were a couple of larger vents that also needed painting. After which I primed all the models with Colour Forge Matt Black.
Vespid Swarmguard
The first step was to basecoat all the chitin with Fenrisian Grey. To speed up the process I decided to use an airbrush, as I had a pot of Citadel Air Fenrisian Grey from when I painted some Space Wolves. Unfortunately, Citadel Air paints are straight trash and given their awful pot design, time has not been kind to this paint. Into the bin it went and I resorted to using a pot of regular Fenrisian Grey. With that done I then gave each model a zenithal highlight with Vallejo Wolf Grey. To further bring out the texture of the models I then gave each of them a drybrush with Army Painter Matt White.
Vespid Shadestrain
With all the ground work done I could then break out the contrast paints to take advantage of them. And to do this I gave the chitin a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey, to really hammer home the blue-grey scheme I’ve been building towards. I was initially unsure what I wanted to do for the wings and flesh as I wanted to keep with the blue theme. I first tried Drakenhof Nightshade but it was just too dark. I got out my other blue contrast paints like Talassar Blue, Army Painter Speedpaints Highlord Blue and Royal Robes. I tested them on the bases (as I’m going to basecoat over these later) to see which one I liked the most. In the end Highlord Blue I felt looked the best, it’s a bit punchy but it does fit the scheme well. I painted this over the wing membranes and any fleshy parts like the underside of the thorax.
Vespid Skyblast
Moving onto the weapons and armour, I started by giving them and the topside of the Oversight Drone a couple coats of Two Thin Coats Manticore Ochre. For the working parts of the weapons like the handle and what I assume is the ammo canister, and the underside of the drone for that matter, I painted them with Two Thin Coats Death Reaper. For a bit more variety I painted the grips of the Neutron blasters and the odd panel on the armour with Two Thin Coats Dry Rust Brown. As it’s an accent colour on my Tau forces I painted a few panels and the rim of the Oversight Drone with Vallejo Night Blue. I then painted the small split-dome things on the weapons, I believe in the lore they’re gyrostabilisers, with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. For the Tau Sept symbols on armour of the Shadestrain I started by basecoated them with Army Painter Matt White and then carefully painted the symbol with Army Painter Matt Black. Lastly, I ran a line of Army Painter Dark Tone between the panels to break them up a little and make them a little more visually interesting.
For the final details, I painted the crystals in the Neutron Blasters and eyes with Army Painter Matt White. I then gave the crystals a coat of Warp Lightning and the eyes a dot of Blood Angels Reds. The lenses on the helmet of the Strain Leader and Shadestrain I picked out with a few dots Evils Sunz Scarlet.
Oversight Drone
With the models done I could move onto the bases and just like the Tempestus Aquilons I wasn’t going to let Games Workshop dictate my basing scheme. My Tau forces are all based in a desert scheme so my Vespid would be no different. First things first I needed to add some more texture. I could have done this before priming but I’m doing it now. I used both Armageddon Dust and Dunes to blend the tactical rocks in with the bases. I then filled out any remaining space on the bases with Agrellan Earth crackle paint. Once that was fully dry I painted the whole base and bits of ruined buildings with Vallejo Khaki. I then washed the bases with Seraphim Sepia followed by a drybrush of Tyrant Skull to bring out all that texture. Next I picked out metallic bits with Garaghak’s Sewer, I didn’t go overboard with this as it’s a very strong colour. It was mostly just the rebar and one of the pipes. To tone down the rich brown somewhat, I used the Greenstuff World Liquid Pigments rust colours to add a load of, well, rust to the pipe that the Swarmguard is leaping off. To finish things off I stuck down some Army Painter Scorched Tufts and painted the rims with a couple thin coats of XV-88. And with that, the Hivestorm box was finally done!
Quite the glow up if you ask me!