Month: May 2025

Painting Killteam Vespid Stingwings

I have been a bit of a sucker for the Killteam big boxes. There is something irresistible about opening a big box full of loads of minis and scenery. I had more or less decided I would stop collecting them though when they were selling out quicker than I could click on a link a couple of years ago.

So when I saw the preview for Hivestorm I thought I wouldn’t get a chance to get a copy. But as it was GW seemed to have made enough to go round this time and I was gifted a Hivestorm boxset last December.

I particularly wanted Hivestorm because the scenery looked excellent and the Stingwings are just awesome. I studied entomology as part of my degree way back in the mid ’90s and have a soft spot for any insect like miniatures. Another incentive to getting the box is that the new Killteam has rules for solo play.

The inspiration for the paint job was easy, vespid is from the family name (Vespidae) for social wasps so I tried to emulate the colouration of Vespula crabro, the European hornet.

After assembling the model and removing mold lines. I started off with black primer then dry brushed with first grey and then a lighter drybrush with white to act as a guide as it shows up the details. Not quite a zenithal highlight but almost.

Preparation

The base was then prepared with grout. I mostly use grout, Polyfilla (if I have an old tube in the tool box) or sometimes bits of green stuff or Milliput left overs.

Vespid stingwing miniature primed with black paint and highlighted with grey and white

The base colours

For the abdomen and the limbs I mixed a yellowy brown using Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic Tree Ancient, Army Painter D&D Goblin Skin and Army Painter Warpaints Daemonic Yellow in a rough 1:1:3 ratio.

Then for the darker areas, mainly on the shoulders, I mixed a darker brown with APWF Tree Ancient, Army Painter D&D Goblin Skin in a 1:1 ratio.

For the reddish bits on the shoulders, I mixed Duncan Rhodes Two Thin Coats – Berserker Red and APWF Tree Ancient in a 1:1 ratio.

For the mandibles, antennae, claws and wing veins I mixed APWF Tree Ancient and Black in a 1:1 ratio.

For the weapon and ‘tech bits’ I wanted to use a sort of complimentary colour to the main colour so used a dark blue using APW Deep Blue.

For the wing membranes I went for an off white with APW Brainmatter beige, which is one of my favourite paints, I go through loads of it. I haven’t tried the new Warpaints Fanatic version and hope it isn’t very different.

Front of Vespid Stingwing with base colours painted
Back of Vespid Stingwing with base colours painted

Adding washes

With all the colours added I then used APF Strong skin tone and Flesh Wash in a 2:1 ratio over the torso (or should that be thorax?), arms, legs, mandibles, abdomen, antenna, claws and wing veins. The wing membranes were washed with APW Light tone. The tech bits were washed with APW Blue tone. This stage is to add some deep shadows and pick out detail that would have been obscured by the base paints.

Back of Vespid stingwing miniature primed wash over base colours

First Layer

For the first layer I used lighter versions of the base colours, trying to cover all the surfaces except where the deepest shadows would be. I also started to add some hornet type markings to the model.

For the abdomen and limbs I added more Angelic yellow increasing it in the base colour to 4 parts.

On the shoulders, for the brown areas on the shoulders I increased the Goblin Skin parts to 2 and for the reddish area I increased the Berserker red to 2 parts.

For the tech bits I added mixed the Deep Blue 1:1 with DR2TC – Gravestone Blue.

For the mandibles, antenna, claws and wing veins I used just the APWF Tree Ancient and for the wing membranes just the Brainmatter Beige.

Back of Vespid stingwing miniature with first layer of paints

Second Layer

With the second layer I tried to paint a smaller area over the previous layer with lighter paint mixes so adding more angelic yellow and goblin skin for the limbs and abdomen, and the brown areas of the shoulders, respectively and also using goblin skin to lighten the berserker red on the shoulders.

I also added some Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic Deep Grey to the base and the gun ‘spike’. I then washed the spike with thinned white paint before adding a couple of layers of APWP Data System Glow which I aslo added as an edge highlight around the ‘spike’, and added white dot at the tip of the ‘spike’.

The eye ‘lens’ I painted white and then painted over with Green Stuff World Flour – Fluorescent Red

Highlights and Finishing touches

For the highlights it is just a matter of increasing the lightness of the previous mixes and applying in thin areas where the highlights would be, mostly edges.

On the base I added some Krautcover Scenics “a tale of Grimdark” which is quite possibly the most popular basing mix ever. I couldn’t find it on their website but you might be able to get it from various online shops, it does have a habit of going out of stock though.

I also painted the rebar poking out of the concrete with a little rust effect and dry brushed white over the grey.

For the wing membranes I used a little Greenstuff World Colorshift metal – Royal Burgandy but it doesn’t really show up in the photos. I used gloss, matt and satin varnish to finish the model.

Overall I’m quite pleased with the paintjob. There are a few areas I think I can work on though. I’ve started to think that I could possibly go further with my highlights on my miniatures and am trying to work this in on any new ones I paint. I tend to look at each mini painted as a learning experience.

Photos – well they are a work in progress. The quality of some of them in this post are not where I would like them to be. I know I need better lighting but it is a dilemma as I don’t want to pay out for expensive equipment as the photography is a small part of my hobby and I’d rather spend money on new minis. I will try to get by with some lights that I plan to buy that are multi purpose. I’m very sceptical about a lot of the pricing of accessories in this hobby and some of the lighting I see advertised I think are way over priced.

Have you painted any Vespid Stingwings? Which colour scheme did you go for? Let me know in the comments.

Converting a Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter Ship for Table Top Gaming

Its been a while since my last post. Brain weasels have been misbehaving. Today though, I have a day off work so have been able to finish a project I started a couple of months ago.

I’m not sure where I first saw the idea. It seemed to pop up all over the internet a while back, converting a kid’s toy for table top gaming, like Stargrave, 5 Parsecs from Home or any number of Role playing or wargames.

I’m always impressed by people who can see the potential of things like this for conversion or scratch building wargames stuff from odds and ends. One of the YouTube Channels I watch, Greig Johnson Making has some great examples. Greig just seems to have an eye for seeing the potential of all sorts of junk and stuff to be used in making amazing models and costumes.

First step was finding a Buzz Lightyear Zurg ship cheap enough and managed to find one on Ebay.

Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy

Preparation

First steps were to glue the canopy shut as I wouldn’t be needing it to open and adding some stuff from my bits box to make the ship look a little different. I also made a mould of some parts from a Kill Team Into the Dark sprue that looked like they could be generic ship parts.

I didn’t think the ship looked like it would have room for more than a couple of crew so I scratch built a compartment from mounting board. It doesn’t have to look totally accurate scale wise just give the impression of having space for a Stargrave crew. The ship will really be set dressing so again it just needs to give the impression of being the crew’s ship. I also added some strips cut from an old tea strainer to top of the jet intakes. The effect didn’t quite work out but I decided to leave them on anyway after the hassle of cutting them and stabbing my fingers multiple times with bits of wire.

After priming the ship with my airbrush and some Vallejo Mecha black primer I painted the whole thing with metallic craft paint. I didn’t want to use up any of my model paints for this so chose the cheaper alternative, which is fine as not a lot of the metallic paint will be seen.

With the metallic paint dry I painted the whole thing with chipping medium and masked off the jet exhausts and intakes with poster tack, before airbrushing the whole ship with Army Painter Angel Green paint.

Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green

The next stage was adding some detailing with Two Thin Coats Beserker Red, Warpaints fanatic Weapon Bronze and Army Painter Gun Metal. Then I did a series of dry brushing highlights and washes to get the shadows and darken the panel lines.

I also tried adding some water slide decals with ‘print your own decals’ paper that is supposed to work with a normal printer. The result wasn’t great. The problem is any light colour tends not to have a lot of ink printed on to the paper and so becomes more or less transparent. More experimentation will be needed to perfect the process.

Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green

The finishing touches

It was time then for the fun part, the grunging! I wet the areas where I wanted chips to the paintwork and using the wrong end of a brush chipped off paint. I then used some Green Stuff World Earth Liquid Pigment – Light Earth, which I added with a sponge on the bottom of the ship. I also painted over the ship’s name transfer with some Army Painter Warpaints Drake Tooth. I gave the whole ship an all over wash using Green Stuff World Dipping Ink – Zombie Dip, which is my favourite for adding a bit of dirt. And so the ‘Quintessence of Dust’ is ready for the table.

Final Thoughts

Overall I am pleased with the results although they are not exactly what I wanted. I think if I do something similar again I will add two coats of the chipping medium as some areas didn’t chip very well. I also might see if there are any generic space ship type waterslide decals to buy and add them later. Another thing I might do is add the missiles that I’ve currently left off. I’d cut them so that they fit flush with fuselage and make them look part of it. That is, if I can find them, I pinged them off somewhere in my lounge and haven’t seen them for a while. Some things don’t change much with age as this was the fate of many of similar darts and the like when I was a kid.

Have you done a similar conversion for your gaming? Or do you have any tips on cool effects you can use to use on similar models? Let me know in the comments.

[Update – I just posted a link to this post on Bluesky and was just looking through posts from people I follow and saw that Mr Peach had posted a video about doing the same conversion about an hour ago! Synchronicity or weird nerdy gamer psychic resonance? Who knows? Any way, to see how to do a similar project properly have look here!]