Marvin, Morgan, and Jack

Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Marvin, the first unofficial member of Hive Fleet Ifrit to be squeezed out by the hive ship birthing pods.

As noted above, Marvin is an unofficial member because I did not yet have any painting skills and so he was rejected from active duty by the fleet (read: me) for being of inadequate genetic composition. His body ended up too dark from the wash, and I really screwed up the carapace because I didn't have a good handle on the appropriate technique yet. All in all, he looked muddy and splotchy. His paint scheme was as follows:

1. Prime with Mournfang Brown spraycan
2. Skin/body basecoat in Zandri Dust
3. Carapace/claw basecoat in XV-88
4. Full-model wash in Agrax Earthshade
5. Skin/body highlights in Karak Stone
6. Carapace/claw edges in Tau Light Ochre, followed by Averland Sunset

Even disappointed as I was, though, I figured the scheme was fine, I just needed better technique. So, with the same scheme I constructed and painted another - Morgan, Marvin's twin sister in color and rejection:

Morgan was a slight improvement over Marvin in some respects (namely carapace edging technique and paint consistency maintenance), but otherwise suffered the same flaws. Additionally, I realized much later that I had completely forgotten to paint her thigh plates as carapace entirely. Still, by then I had started giving up on the particular scheme in question and decided to get creative palette-wise, giving birth to this godawful monstrosity - Jack:

Actually, Jack's skin/body coloring I quite liked. Still a smidge darker than I was going for, but much closer to the mark. I had started with a base of Karak Stone instead of Zandri Dust, washed it with Agrax Earthshade, then reapplied a thin layer of Karak Stone again to cover up the areas discolored by the wash that I didn't want to be. I then applied some very thin and haphazard highlights with Screaming Skull.

Jack's carapace, on the other hand, was worse than the previous two. The yellow smeared into the black to make a grody greenish color that I just hated. Also, starting with black meant that my options for further shading of carapace recesses was limited, and so I gave up halfway through and didn't even finish painting him. He now lies on a shelf with his other poorly-bred siblings. My next effort, however, would yield actual fruit. Stay tuned for the first official member of Hive Fleet Ifrit!