Tyranid reinforcements and 85k views!!

4 posts in a month! what is this sorcery! Just a quick one today though.

Following on from the kill team post, the original idea was a phalanx of Zoanthropes, 4 at 200 points would be a pain, but during play testing they sucked, so the DE rolled in from the bench.

I have another couple of units waiting in the wings for paint, namely 2 tyranocytes and a toxicrene that I'm undecided on if I'll turn into a tyranid knight . . .

Also, I'm so excited for Ad mech, and resisting the urge to order a metric shit ton of new models, though I'll be the hipster douche sitting at the bar at tournaments "I did Ad mech before they were cool". . .

Then there's those damn assassin models . . .sah sexy.

Thankyou all for the support and for continually stopping by, I'm sure about 70,000 views are from bots but even so I'm amazed so many of you are following my work. Its a great feeling knowing people care enough about what you do as a hobby to stop by and look, and comment.

Heres to another 85,000. . .

The "great" devourer . . . and some more WIPS

Welcome back. 

As everyone who frequents this blog knows, I play Tyranids, Have for many many years, and I have been steadily working myself up to a fever pitch for the latest codex release. . . . what a let down!

After a day of reading the codex these are my initial impressions (the caveat that I have not actually played a game with the new rules should be applied though). All of these have been covered by other bloggers alot more extensively than I will, I'm just having a bitch.

The Bad:

Things that didn't need changing were changed for no apparent reason (Tervigon buffing nearby termagants, bonesword AP, scything talons), points costs were arbitrarily increased with no benefits incurred (hive guard +5pts/ea with -1 BS, tyranid prime +45pts!), and characters and units disappeared from the roster (Doom, Parasite, Pods, Ymgral stealers), exorbitant cost of most upgrades for monstrous creatures, instictive behavior (Wtf is it with random tables? Why eat/shoot each other?), Loss of access to biomancy.

The Good:

General decrease in points of previously overcosted units (Hive tyrant, Carnifex, Tyranofex, Lictors, Warriors Shrikes etc), Venomthropes giving shrouding, General increase in the effectiveness of the tyranids codex psychic powers.

Now I'm sure the codex is still playable, and Ill try my damnedest to do well with it, but it will be a hard slog, lucky I'm Australian and have a love for the underdog.

Enough whinging. Before the codex came out I had started working on an objective marker for games of the Relic. There isn't a prescribed size (that I can find) so I took an old model by my mate "The Hoff" did for our old FLGS themed game and gave it a lick of paint. 

The guts need a coat of "blood" once I figure out what colour to do it

As you can see the varnish went spotty on it :( 

Its supposed to represent an inteligence gathering or synaptic node beast, something not real combative, but having an important role. It is a frankensteins monster of pieces with bitz from the Warriors, Carnifex, Hormogaunt, and Genestealers sprues.

Next on the work bench I have a full brood of Carnifexes and a full brood of Hormogaunts on the go too for the army, and 8 cataphracti terminators for the Sons as well.

Finally I couldnt help but notice a combination of powers, wargear and warlord traits could give a Hivetyrant a 30 inch synapse bubble (Synaptic lynch pin = 18 Norn crown +6 Dominion psychic power +6 =30).  

I have several Tyrants lying around (who doesn't?) so I figured I'd try and be the first to model a Norn crown. The fluff description basically details it as a parasite that mounts the tyrants head and feeds on his brain. This wasn't enough for me, and I decided to make an actual crown of horns as well.

The horns were cultivated from all manner of places on the tyranid sprues, the tendrils of the parasite are greenstuff rolled out, laid in the correct place and then a extra thin liquid cement run under them to glue them to the head, the testicle like parasite is 2x genestealer toxin sacs from the upgrade head.

Thanks for looking.

Spawn more overlords - Gearing up for 6th ed Tyranids

So the rumour mill is rife with predictions of the impending drop of a new Nid codex, so I have gone on a bit of a painting binge to hopefully make use of the new codex straight off the bat.

My selection criteria for the new models was simple, what do I have that I haven't used. This is based on the philosophy that GW makes all the currently shit units good in the next codex.

Firstly Biovores. Not the worst unit currently, but the strength of 4 for a barrage doesn't really scare many things, I'd like to see a return to the bio-acid mines with rending, or something similar to make them useful for sniping, and scary.

Secondly, Hormogaunts. I loved these guys in 4th, and consequently I had 60 of them in my bitz box. They can be used currently, but only at their most expensive super-gaunt mode to give them poisoned and furious charge.

I'm hoping the cost of bio-morphs comes down, or their is a buff unit like the tervigon for hormogaunts too (or an upgrade that allows tervigons to buff hormogaunts).

Next are the most useless models in the tyranid lineup currently. With the ability to affect reserve roles, but only if its been on the table for a turn, and you have to roll for them to come on in turn two . . .seriously underwhelming. 

Giving them back the wound and attack they lost in the transition from 4th to 5th, and allowing the pheromone rule to work like SM drop pods (half you lictors rounding up come in turn 1) or some other mechanic would see these guys hit the table for me. Also 80 points is way too much, a centurion with 2+ save and a grav cannon costs similar, and will kill alot more. But I love the models and want to use them.

Finally, Shrikes. I used these guys in a doubles tournament on the weekend, and they were seriously impressive. Racking up a massive number of kills and generally scaring anything with more than 2 wounds. I have magnetised the arms so that I can run a different weapon if the boneswords are nerfed, or if i get around to doing lashwhips for them too.

To make shrikes seriously effective the Prime/Alpha warrior needs the option to take wings. make it a 25 point upgrade and I'll take that everyday to give them the ability to tank some wounds and give a boost of WS.

I also have the bitz to make another couple of tyrants, and another 30 Hormogaunts are in the pipeline. Plus I should really get around to painting a few more of my 180 termagants . .  . plus whatever new comes around.

Thanks for looking.

Finished Hive tyrant

Hey everyone, this guy took a little longer than I thought he would, but he's finished!

I'm quite happy with how the devourers came out. The pink to purple gradient I usually have on my guns didn't quite work out because of the amount of "flesh". To add some more colour and interest to the them, I added some glazes of red and purple.

Hobby A.D.D

I seem to find myself easily distracted by hobby projects, as the amount of bouncing between ongoing projects can attest.

New tyrant and base

Now I've been distracted from finishing the heirophant by another tyranid gribbly. This time its an Armoured shell Hive tyrant with 2x twin linked devourers. This guy is a beast, and very hard to shift from the table top, esp if he hits the jackpot and get iron arm and lifeleech for powers, topping up wounds at toughness 7+ is just mean.

Taking the normal tyrant, I removed the front smoke stacks, and replaced them with the spiny carapace piece from the carnifex. Some surgery to the underside was required to get it to fit, but it was minor and should be self explanatory to anyone trying it themselves.

Torso close

The next thing to tackle was the devourers. Now I've never been a fan of the S 6 devourers being the same size as the termagants S 4 ones, it just smacks of lazy sculpting. Also you only get one set per tyrant. Fortunately I've been collecting bugs for a while and have a stock pile of the termagant ones.

So I glued 3 of them together for each arm.

They looked less "testicular" when I was sculpting them

They were attached to one of the previous editions scything talons by a length of brass rod, the bulbous egg sacs/ammo were made from balls of 5 minute putty, and green stuff veins were sculpted onto them as they were blended together to form the sac.

They looked less phallic in my mind I swear.

Next update should have this bad boy either finished, or well on his way.

I also have a couple of commissions in the wings, so expect more A.D.D in the future.

It's alive!!

Hi everyone, sorry for the scarcity of posts recently, but uni has been brutal!

That aside i have managed to pick up a brush in my mid semester break. Many moons ago I was given a Tyranid heirophant at a song. it was a little worse for wear, and a bit bandy legged from being left in a car during an Australian summer, but after a Jesus like resurrection I can show you a PIP.

Not much of a pic, but as a proof of life I think it will suffice.

During my attempt at dis-assembly, the shoulders of both right arms, one for claw, and a couple of spikes snapped off. Most were minor fixes, though I had to get alittle bit creative with the basing to make the claw work (and even then I'm not 100% on it). Rumors of Apoc II has set me painting this guy, and I hope to crush Johns Imperial guard with him at the soonest opportunity.

Monster update!

Hi everybody, and welcome to all the new followers, thanks for persevering.

So, 6 weeks and what do I have to show for it? Well besides the new scars on my ankle from the op, and a FW sized hole in my bank account from a weak will and too much time on the net recuperating, not as much painting as I had originally hoped got done.

However that motivator of the century that keeps kicking me in the pants reared its ugly head and I painted some more Nids for a recent no comp tournament at my local (read 200km away) GW battle bunker. Being no comp, and being Nids, I needed some more units to harden up my otherwise spammy list.

To that end I finished painting these guys:

Firstly, something that can be truly terrifying (especially if you and your opponent dont read the rules about toxin sacs only working in close combat til turn 4) in 6th ed, the notorious Flyrant. Twinlinked devs with brainleech will ruin alot of peoples days, casting iron arm on him and plopping down in front of the enemy is fun too.

This shot gives a much better view of the wings, which i obviously did with the airbrush. I'm quite happy with the effect and gives a very striking combination of colours I think.

Next, the bully of the list, Swarmlord and his two offsiders (tyrant guard), with the right combination of biomancy powers this guy is nigh on unstoppable. Stacking enfeeble on a unit of thunderhammer terminators making them S2(4)/T2 has to be the highlight of my tournament with this guy.

Thirdly, a Trygon Prime. Bane of artillery, transports and devastator units the world over. Luckily enough when he isn't mishapping His 12 S5 shots make him worth taking despite his landraider sized price tag.
This is the FW version, which I bought for a themed apoc game about 4 years ago, hes been languishing in a box ever since, a prime and a lick of paint and he has a new lease on life in my Godzilla Mk II list.

This has been painted for ages, but its the last model to be photographed individually from my original Nid list from 8 months ago. Happy now Matt?

Thanks for looking and I'll have a Sons shaped update for you all as soon as I edit the pics to be slightly less terrible.

Finished Harpy

Well me again. Managed to finish this big guy before I moved and lost my workspace, unfortunately the pics were rushed and I couldn't find anything to use for a proper background because he's just so damn big, and awkward t photograph.

Also I think the photos are overedited and slightly washed out. But I'm happy hes finished and think it looks great on the table.

More after the jump

WIP Harpy

Is it a bird, is it a plane, no its a flying monstrous creature!

As Rictus guessed in the last entry, the mystery model is a harpy.

Warrior Prime

Been bitten by the bug again (pun intended) and have cranked out a new HQ for my swarm. This guy is set up with scy tals and 2x boneswords to murder characters in challenges.

Hive Guard painting tut

Hi everyone, here's the second half of my hive guard build series. Painting, for many years I used GW black undercoat for EVERYTHING! however recently, since I started using an airbrush mostly, I have been using Tamiya grey surface primer. It still comes from a rattle can, however the colour is much easier to lay lighter coloured paints over, which is especially handy for my nid scheme.

Hive Guard

Hi everybody; long time between posts.
Unfortunately I haven't made much progress on my SoH, uni and life have been getting in the way of my much more important hobby activities.
I did however get to play in QM 3 over last weekend, and as usual it was a well run event, and I had a great time catching up with mates and playing some games of 40k.
I was lucky enough to win players choice again with my nids

And best painted went to my good friend John, and his amazingly painted Carcarodons space marines. He has a blog HERE which I recommend you go check out, he's a very prolific and quality painter.

Finished Nids

So I did it!

I finished the tyranid army on time, at 1am the night before the tournament I had finished gluing the grass tufts to the bases.

Pic taken during the "beauty pageant" at QM II 27/05/12

I am also pleased to report that I won best painted :)

Less pleased by the prize of a OOP box of shining spears, but the KR dice box was nice, and will be handy for future tournament outings.

Now just have to paint 170 more spawn-gants *sigh*


The army performed fairly well in game, having a draw against razor spam BA's, a minor loss to CSM (9 obliterators, 2x lash), major loss to CSM (2x defiler, dread, 2 princes, obliterators), a major win against a fairly fluffy SW list (4 Twolves, Twolf lord, rune priest, wolf priest, longfangs, redeemer, 30x grey hunters), and a minor win against a fellow nid (9 hive guard, 2 tervigons, t-fex, prime)

One thing I found was the lack of mobility hampered me in dealing with tanks, especially on terrain heavy tables, the base sizes of the multiple monstrous creatures really hampered my ability to move, and spawning gants compounded this.

Overall I fairly happy with them, and think with a few minor changes (maybe drop one tervigon, prime and a small squad of combat warriors, or hormaogaunts, or trygon) it could become a really challenging list to play against.

Also dawn of war setup with 3 tervigons on the halfway line at the start of the game is nasty!

Mawlocs!

Another couple of days have passed, 4 days til my deadline! To prove I'm not slacking heres a couple of pics of my latest work.

The 2 mawlocs will be used in the list to hit back field units like longfangs and whirlwinds, pop cans to get the juicy meat out and otherwise just cause a nuisance, like daemonic whack a moles, and take the heat off my spawners as they waddle up the field.

Not the greatest of angles, I'll try and get some more later.

Thanks for looking.

Doomy, doom doom doom!

So. Don't let the amount of updates recently deceive you, this is going to be down to the wire. I have 6 days to paint 7 monstrous creatures (ok, one of them is a pod, but its still pretty big).

Either way, another model down, I'm actually pretty happy with how this guy came out, the conversion isn't new, but I added some more spines to mine, and a tail. I'm excited to use this guy on my opponents too (except grey knights).

I really like the helmet design, I just have to source some aquarium plants to finish the base.

Tyrannofex

I'm on a roll now it seems :)

Side and scale shot

More nids!

So its been a busy couple of days, and even with the distractions of having a life I managed to finish the 23 gants I need for the starting squads. I've taken to calling them table-gants, and the others are spawn -gants. The spawners can wait til after I finish the rest of them before I throw some paint at them.

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. . .

So its been along time since blog posts, life has a strange habit of kicking me in the arse every 2 years, and last month my number came up again.

During my first night off, and several beverages I managed to compound dislocate my left ankle, this left me in hospital for over a week, and laid up in bed for 2 more after that.

Not pretty huh?

Since then however, I have been reminded by my mates that I made another stupid army painting based bet, and with 16 days to go, I have to paint 1750ish points of tyranids!