In the above image, you can see my custom-painted INFECTED MIRU NUVA (1) unpainted, (2) with a base-coat of Aircraft Interior Black from Testors Model Master Acryl line, (3) “rusted”, and (4) sealed with Testors DullCote.

After getting hounded by MoD readers informing me that there was an INFECTED MIRU NUVA listed on BIONICLE.com, I realized it would make an excellent April Fools Day joke…provided it wasn’t fixed before the day arrived. Not reporting it to Leah was tough, but not nearly as tough as figuring out how to pull it off. I’d already searched for a water-based paint that was reasonably color-matched to the official INFECTED HAU, but I never had any luck. About two weeks ago I remembered a paint line that I’d never checked. Citadel Colours. I’d used their Black Ink to get the translucent black effect on my INFECTED KAUKAU , but by that time I’d already given up on finding a good match for the INFECTED HAU rust spots, so I forgot to check their selection of brown shades. It turns out that their Vermin Brown is a dead-on perfect match. Just check the image above to see how close it actually is. Unfortunately, the base coat is still only a rough match, as I haven’t found any water-based paints that have that odd speckling effect that the official INFECTED HAU has.

The actual design was done by using a diluted dry-brushing technique. After getting a solid base coat to work on, I would dip the brush in some water, then in the Vermin Brown, wipe most of it off on a paper towel, and then start painting the rust spots. Most of them took a couple coats to get opaque enough to look believable.

Now that I’ve found a match for the rust spots, I’m leaning more towards making some actual INFECTED KANOHI (as compared to my KANOHI KINO), though after painting the MIRU NUVA I’ve realized that the complicated designs of the KANOHI NUVA really aren’t suited to this style of painting, so I’d probably just stick to the original KANOHI if I did any more. Of course, before I get into that, I’d really prefer to find a better color for the base coat.