Putting together the warrior bugs really is a matter of taste and the approach I describe below is merely the one I found worked best for myself. There is no right or wrong way as such, just whatever works for you. I start by removing all of the parts from the frames (which like the MI cap troopers I have washed first to remove any residue). These are then cleaned up to remove any flash or sprue. I then decide how I want the bug to look; leaning forward, leaning back, outstretched or rearing up, that kind of thing. I then position the legs to get the pose I want into the top half of the thorax without any glue whatsoever and applying glue to the lower half seal the thorax shut trapping all four legs in position, but allowing them to still move freely. Once the glue has set I then begin with a back leg and applying a little plastic glue to the socket move the leg into the position I want it to stay in. Once this has set I move onto the next leg and work my way around the model repeating the process one leg at a time until it is completed and in the pose I want.

This process works best with a good quality liquid plastic glue like ‘plastic weld’ as you have a few moment to reposition the leg before it starts to set. Additionally the thin liquid flows easily into the socket joints leaving no unsightly blobs of residue glue anywhere on the model. This approach would probably not work as well with a cryanolite glue unless you use one with a curing delay of around 90 seconds.

Once the lower thorax and legs have been completed, I move onto the head and mandibles. The choices here are really simple; mandibles open or closed. The default if you assemble the kit following the guide pegs on the head is to have the mandibles slightly open, however this can be easily modified by cutting off either of the guide pegs and repositioning the upper or lower mandible.  You can see some examples in the photographs where I have for example pitched the head forward by raising up the back legs in comparison to the front and have opened up the top mandible more to create a more aggressive stance and exaggerate the raised scything arms. Small changes to the positioning like these can greatly improve the look and dynamics of the model. I am a firm believer with conversions in the saying “less is more”, extreme poses and conversion I generally find look unnatural and in my opinion spoil rather than enhance a models appearance. Extreme conversions or poses are best saved for those centrepiece models or special characters.

Painting the Arachnid Warriors

The first step for me was to try to lift some of the detail back out of the model as just leaving it black only hides all of the models fine texturing and detail. This was achieved by lightly dry brushing the entire model with first graveyard earth, then an even lighter dry brush of bleached bone. Don’t worry if after the bleached bone the model seems too pale and no longer black this will be corrected at the end with an ink wash. The main purpose was to highlight some of the detail and define the edges.

For the striping, I began with a mix of graveyard earth and desert yellow, to which I added golden yellow and finally sunburst yellow for each successive lighter shade. The red markings were then painted in scar red initially before having blood red added to the mix for the highlight. The trick with the Arachnids is not to try to be too precise with the markings and keep them natural, they are supposed to be organic.

The last task before painting the eyes and varnishing is to give all of the black areas of the carapace, legs and thorax a watered down ink wash of green and brown ink with a spot of black ink added. This mixed wash helps tone down the highlights from the dry brushing, but doesn’t obscure them and in addition gives the Arachnid a nice green/brown tinge to their carapace and a more natural look. Job done, five down, fifteen more to go!

So that’s it for now with the bugs as I will be spending the next month or so concentrating on the Mobile Infantry side of the conflict and filling out my initial forces of power suits and Marauders. But the Arachnids will be back for sure as I have plenty of plans to add to them yet with a few more nasties such as the monstrous ‘Tanker’ and swift airborne ‘Hoppers’.

Tanker. Want to know more?