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15mm Hive Mind: Vicious Biting Flies


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Personal logo Sgt Slag Supporting Member of TMP writes:

Thanks for the shout-out, Bill. The reason I suggested the nail polish is the colors I saw available in nail polish: very bug-like colors, I have not seen in hobby paint bottles yet. Your craft green-gold paint is perfect for fly eyes.

I used some nail polish colors on some black plastic beetles. They turned out decent enough, and the nail polish has not yet peeled off, after 5+ years (I handle the bugs by their bases, rather than grabbing them by the bug bodies).

The dry-brushing really brings out the details molded into the fly figures. Nicely done. Cheers!


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13 November 2024page first published

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Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian writes:

Having finished the acid-shooting bugs, my next task were the vicious biting giant alien flies.

I had previously worked on some flies for a fantasy army, and this project was quite similar.

Personal logo Sgt Slag Supporting Member of TMP suggested using "a pearlescent green nail polish" for the eyes. I liked the idea, but didn't want to mess with nail polish. Fortunately, I discovered that Dollar Tree had Ceramcoat Metallic Lime Green paint.

Flies with lime green metallic paint

I glued the flies to the 50mm-square bases I made in the previous article, and applied the lime-green metallic paint to the eyes, not bothering with any primer. Two coats achieved good coverage, then I tidied up with black. I also decided this time to drybrush the fly body with dark gray to bring out the details.

Vicious biting flies

And here are the finished flies.

Vicious biting flies

In 15mm scale, they are humongous.

Vicious biting flies

I didn't apply a sealer coat, as it didn't seem needed.

Vicious biting flies

It perhaps would have been more in the spirit of Alien Squad Leader to have multiple flies per base, but I didn't have any smaller flies that I liked.

Vicious biting flies

Similarly, since these are flying creatures, I considered trying to create a flight stand for them, but realized these models are not in a flying pose.

More to Come!