"What colors should I paint these?" Topic

I have some choices here. I have both the inside of the hive and the outside. I want to define the tunnels visually, make them a different color from the material of the hive structure, and maybe make the outside a third color. Thoughts?

I would go with a more vibrant and also slightly glossy shade for the "living" interior surface, a darker and duller shade for the structure, and a sun-bleached version of the structure color for the outside.

I'm not sure where the pictures went!

Those would be helpful.

I'm not sure where the pictures went!

Email me, I'd love to know what you actually posted as photo links. Seems our system didn't like 'em!

The bug ate them. Now we know how it survives.

Waiting not so patiently.

Let's try again.

It looks like there are actually four things to paint here – interior, structure, and exterior of hive/tunnels, plus the earth (unless this is all hive).

I'm imagining the hive structure to be deposited material, in the manner of termite & wasp hives, so a dullish dark tan with lighter (weathered) exterior. I'm further imagining a living inner layer that is self-repairing and climate-regulating (like the zerg creep in Starcraft), so a pinkish shade of the tan with hints of a semi-gloss in sections (where it is air-conditioning or healing defects). Don't know if this helps, but it's what I'm imagining for our new insect overlords.

I am not quite sure what type of hive you are shooting for.

If it is a dug out tunnel as in Starship Troopers:

I would go for common dirt colors:

Like Raw Sienna for dug out parts and Burnt and Raw Umber for the un-dug background.

Like this:

If it is a living membrane like the Alien movies:

The soil still the umbers, but the tunnel a dark steel blue with very heavy black wash.

The "hive" goes all the way down, so no native soil. I'll match the outside of the hive to the craters I've got and I'll make the interior tunnels a shade or two lighter and shiny and the undug parts a deeper and redder color;

Does that sound good?

I think I'll sand paint the exterior to give it more texture. The texture will also help differentiate it from the inside as well

I spent today working on the terrain. I have been sealing the surface with 3:1 water:Elmer's glue. Next I'll do a coat of white primer. Should I use Kilz latex or something else? Should I use latex for the rest of the painting?

I have used spray paint in the past but that tends to tech the foam because of the solvents.

Thoughts?

I've continued to work on my hive terrain. I was disappointed with the terrain on three points. I didn't like the colors, I didn't like the shape with too much of the foam bubble effect and too many long straight lines and finally, the lack of continuity between different types of foam bothered me.

I went after the basic shapes with a hot wire knife and a long straight-bladed dive knife. I think I got more interesting and more realistic shapes.

Finally, I am giving everything a good heavy coat of thick white primer. This is enough to unify all the foam types and to fill in a lot of the bubbles cut foam exposes.

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Using the color pallet that Dyehard provided I think I'll paint the outside yellow ochre or raw sienna, the inside burnt sienna and the tunnels burnt umber (the not so dark version)-What do folks think?

It dawned on me that I am using a patterned fabric to hide the space under the table. Maybe I should match the outside of the hive to the fabric?