I painted another 3 steam arachnids and that now means I’ve got 6 fully painted up. I have another 3 I will paint soon, although I think 6 should suffice for most games. Still, maybe I just go crazy one time and throw spiders out for the sheer joy of it. As I was painting these I noticed 2 of them were missing their funnels. I have no idea when or where they fell off, so I think I’ve got to deal with them never being there. Funnily enough, none of the ones I am yet to paint are missing theirs. I’ve put all 6 completed spiders together for their class photo.

One thing I mentioned in my last post about Howard was how I was pleased with my metallics. So I figured I would do a side by side with the arachnids to show the different steps and how the look improves with each step. The first step is a plain base-coat with the metallic paint. I use heavily thinned down paints and it takes 2-4 coats to get good coverage. The rightmost spider has just had the base-coat applied. The next step is a wash with Blue-Brown, which you can see on the middle spider. This step gives some depth to the plain metallic and starts to dull the shine a little. The last step is a black was to bring out whatever panelling, rivets and other details are present. The spider on the left has had this step complete and is now ready for detailing.

In addition to the above I also do some highlighting with either the base, or a lighter colour, on the sharp edges and any raised details. I didn’t take a work in progress picture of this step, but if you look at Howard I have done this to the legs and shield with the base colour I used. If you also look at the final shot above you can see that the varnish I use (Testor’s Dullcote) also serves to lower the shine and give a more warn, natural look.