Assembling and Painting a Forgeworld Barbed Hierodule

I finally broke down and bought a Forgeworld Barbed Hierodule. After getting some tips on how to work with resin figures, I'm ready to dive in.

Step-by-Step

Day 1: Clean and prep the pieces carefully. You'll need some soapy water and a toothbrush to clean off the release agent and a hobby knife and some clippers to take off the tabs and mould lines. You can get more tips on the Working with Resin article. Here are all the pieces cleaned and ready to go.

Day 5: You may have to pin some of the more significant load bearing pieces. I chose to pin the legs. Be careful because resin drills pretty easily and I was a little worried that I'd actually drill too far. Cut some pins and super glue. My pins ended up being a little less than 3/8" long.

Depending on how well you're pieces fit after pinning, you might have to fill in the gaps with some green stuff. I superglued one end of the pin, put a donut of green stuff around it, some superglue on top of that, then pushed the two pieces of the leg together. I then used a scribe and some water to shape the green stuff to look like the leg joint. I also used the short amount of working time to test fit the feet into the mounting holes. I won't glue the feet in until the figure is painted, but I wanted to make sure they'd fit.

I decided not to fully assemble the model until I had a chance to prime and basecoat the carapace pieces. Based on my experience with the Carnifexes and the dry fitting, I think getting at the carapaces when fully assembled will be tough. To protect the parts that will be glued, I added s thin coat of white glue, which I can prime over when dried, but will pop off with a little pressure from a knife.

Day 8 (Morning): Primed all of the pieces with Rustoleum High Heat (Almond) and then applied the first coat of Mechrite Red. This is a rough first coat. I'll go over the model tomorrow with some Scab Red to do the lining where the carapace meets the body and to hit some of the dark pits.

Day 8 (Afternoon) :It may not look like I've done much, but I've been using thinned Scab Red to line the carapace where it meets the body as well as getting into all the pits and cracks I missed the first time. I've also applied some more Mechrite Red where the original coat was a little thin or to blend in the Scab Red.

Day 9 (Morning): I waffled a little on whether I wanted to complete assembly before or after I applied the Raw Umber wash and finally decided on assembly first. That way, if I had to fill any gaps, then I could prime over it. As it turns out, the pieces fit together very nicely as with a little bit of green stuff and superglue. I'll give the joins the afternoon to cure and then I'll wash the entire figure later today.

Day 9 (Afternoon): Here's the washed figure on a drying plate. This is by far the largest figure I've ever washed like this and I think it turned out OK. Once it drys, I'll have to go back with a smaller brush and get at all the little pits that didn't fill with wash. You can click on the small image for a larger picture to see the full effect of the wash. I must say, nothing like holding a $120 model, suspending over the table by the tip of his tail, while I apply wash.

Day 10: A little bit of drybrushing with Citadel Bleached Bone and Reaper Polished Bone on the skin of the Hierodule and then several layers of Badab Black wash on the claws, talons, and hooves. The reason I use the wash, instead of simply painting it black is for the translucency. The wash darkens the area nicely, but still allows the basecoat to show through, which results in some nice highlight effects. I'm just starting the Leviathan Purple washes for the fleshy bits.

Day 11: I painted the face details using some thinned Baal Red wash to tint the insides of the mouth and gums, and then painted the teeth in various shades of bone. The sphincters at the end of the bio-cannons were painted with VMC Brown Rose first and then given a light wash of Baal Red. The orifice and edges got a further wash of Leviathan Purple and finally, I used a little bit of Brown Rose mixed with Reaper Polished Bone for the highlights. The carapace pieces, still a work in progress, were highlighted with Citadel Blood Red and then some Citadel Blazing Orange.

Day 12: Almost done. I'm saving the highlights on the vents for the very last. I highlighted the carapace and finished the Leviathan Purple wash as well as the Thrakka Green on the hoses. I'll probably do a little bit of touch up on him tomorrow, then seal to protect the paint, and then finish off some more clean up. Here's a picture of the back to show the highlighting on the carapace.

Day 13: Worked on the base a little bit. It needed to be washed, drybrushed, and then grassed. There are also a pair of rippers that need to be painted. I also touched up some of the Badab Black wash on the main talons to deepen the color and I'm highlighting the tips in red.

Day 14: Completed painting the rocks with a little bit of VMC Basalt Grey, VMC Neutral Grey, and some Paynes Grey wash.

Day 15: Finished. I glued the model into the base with a little greenstuff and superglue. Here is the finished product.

Post Mortem

I should have measured the pins better, though when I measured and test fitted them, they went together fine. Overall though, I was pretty pleased with the fit of the pieces and the ease with which it assembled. In hindsight, I'm really glad I didn't attach the arms until the carapace was basecoated. Getting at some of the leg and arm plates would have been a pain. Lastly, in retrospect, I should have considered how I was going to glue the model into the base. The model is front heavy and I tried Liquid Nails first, which doesn't work, so I went back to the greenstuff and superglue which works fine. Had I been a little more deliberate, I might have added something like a bush, which could have concealed another supporting post into the chest for added stability.

Overall, this was a really nice change of pace for me. It's the largest model I've worked with to-date and my first experience with Forgeworld resin. All in all, it's been a great learning experience. If you read through the log, you'll also notice that I didn't use much in terms of paint. I used a red series for the carapace and highlighting, a pink series for the end of the bio-cannons, and a couple of other colors for they eyes and teeth. Everything else was a wash/stain over a colored primer. So it's nice to see the technique works on larger models too.

Notes

Last updated	4/25/09
Author	Michael Kan
Pre-requisites	None
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