DreadTober 2025: Tervigon Complete

 

Hi folks,

Well, DreadTober is done and dusted for another year. It is a challenge that creeps up on me, followed by 4 weeks of bedlam. I find it really cathartic to keep the challenge going, I really do love it and feel so inspired checking out everyone's work. I had a couple of plans for it this year that didn't come to fruition, life just clamped down. Hopefully I can give it a little more of my time and energy in 2026.

I managed to finish my project a little early, though the last night was crazy. The colour shift paint I use has to be painted over a gloss black finish to have the best effect. Just after cracking the paint out my suburb was hit with this insane pulse of humidity, which started messing about with everything I was trying to do. The varnish was frosting, the pigment was pooling and drying weird and glue just would not set. I cranked the air-conditioning in my little room to try and stabilise the conditions, which seemed to help. I still ended up holding the model together for ages waiting for the glue to hold. Here are some photos of the finished beasty:

 

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, especially the Termagant conversion. The photos don't really do the colour shift justice; moving the model around the board is a joy.

My son also managed to finish a project off for the challenge. We had a great time searching for basing materials in our FLGS, and settled on some swampy green clumps. I can't tell you how proud I am after watching him paint this thing over the course of the month. He has a couple more Tau kits to work on; hopefully he keeps this momentum going.

Certainly worth of a big fat stamp, while I stew over what to do next...

See you across the table,

Marc

DreadTober 2025: Tervigon Birthing Sac

 

Hi folks,

Term 4 of school started this week, so my hobby time has been compressed to a tiny singularity on Friday night. Still, I managed to paint my main goal for this week, the Tervigon's birthing sac. It was a bit of a process, which I will record here for posterity.

1) Base colour

For the basecoat I made a 1:1 mixture of Xerius Purple and Sotek Green. It took a couple of coats as coverage wasn't great over the black.

2) Blue wash

To add a bit of interest I added a Sotek wash in all of the recesses. I like the contrast between cold and warm tones when I do his, instead of using a darker purple wash. I also added some more Xerius Purple to the raised surfaces to help blend it all together.

3) First Highlights

I built up the highlights gradually with progressively lighter mixes of Model Colour Purple and Xereus Purple. Model Colour Purple is my "go to" for Tyranids these days; excellent for vintage genestealers.

4) Final Highlights

I dry-brushed neat Model Colour Purple to the raised surfaces, particularly focusing on the sacs where the Termagant heads can be seen poking through. Later on I even added a small amount of Jokaero Orange and Ushabti Bone to the mix to really bring those edges out.

5) Base coating the germ sacs

Early on I noticed that some of the sacs look smaller and rounder than the others. I thought maybe they could be the earliest stages of Termagant growth, just sacks of toxin and stem cells, which I could conceivably pick out in another colour. I undercoated these in a mixture of Xerius Purple and Warpstone Green.

6) Green Highlights

I highlighted the germ sacs with increasingly light mixes of Moot Green and Yriel Yellow. It is a similar look to how I do the eyes of each of my Tyranids. 

7) Blood!

The final step was to add some Tamiya Clear Red to the entrance of the birthing sac. Clear Red is my secret weapon for doing blood, though it is a bit of a pain to clean up, and pretty unforgiving if you mess up. Less is usually more when it comes to blood, so I only added a bit to the edges and the internal surfaces, which you can't see well in this shot. There is one thing that I have not painted; the armour on the top of the Devourer, as this will be colour shift. I'll bet tackling that part of the project next week!

See you across the table,

Marc

DreadTober 2025: Tervigon Progress

 

Hi folks,

I have been steadily plugging away at my DreadTober project, as I try to achieve some consistency with my hobby time (even if it is just a little bit every day). So far, I have focused on the small parts of the sub-assembly, including the head, claws and legs.

One thing I have noticed, which others have long mentioned, Seraphim Sepia is a hot mess to work with. Back when I devised this paint scheme with my mate Joel, Seraphim Sepia was beautiful to work with. A couple of generous coats on the model would be looking great. Now, it pools weird and has a gloss finish. I also get the sense that it is reactivating in weird ways. I have had to adapt my approach, painting very very thin layers and drying quickly with a hairdryer between layers. It is time consuming as heck; I am glad I don't have many Nids left to paint for that collection.

Anyway, I managed to finish off a rough conversion for the termagant as well, so that it is carrying a collection-relevant Devourer instead of a Fleshborer. I am thinking about doing some blood effects around the newborn Nid, I'll see how brave I am feeling. 

Even though I "only" have the body to go, it feels like I have only scratched the surface on this model. We'll see what the next week brings...

See you across the table,

Marc

DreadTober 2025: Tervigon Build

 

Hi folks,

DreadTober is underway for another year and I have been busy building a big Tyranid. I was originally going to construct this kit as a Tyrannofex with a rapture cannon, but liked the idea of supporting my Termagants a bit more. For many editions they would drop in by mycetic spore and hose away with their Devourers, but they have been nerfed quite a bit in recent Editions. A Tervigon fits the support role nicely, in a way my other HQ options don't really touch upon.

Construction has gone quite smoothly and I have managed to hit it with some black primer to get the painting started.

I still have a tiny amount of converting to do; I am swapping the Fleshborer on the infant Termagant for a Devourer to match my existing brood.

In terms of paint scheme, I am aiming for the evolved version of my old Numereji Hive Fleet. I have been rebasing my old Tyranid models and adding some additional splashes of colour (bone, purple and green). I have also been adding a colour shifting iridescent layer to their main carapace armour, which is labour intensive but very much fitting the "rainbow serpent" theme.

  

The Tervigon has quite a large carapace so there will be plenty of surface area to showcase the metallic colour shift layer. The purple and right green on the birthing sac should also make this model stand out from the rest of the swarm. 

Not too bad for 5 days progress and worthy of a badge!