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Hi all, I decided I would document the growth of my hive fleet. This project will be seen through to it's initial completion, a 500 point 40k army, and then from there who knows how large it will grow.
This task is very important to me as over the 15+ years (on and off) that I have been into the hobby I have yet to finish a good sized project.
This I have probably proven to some of you out there who might have started to follow the development of my Warhound Titan last year (apologies it will continue).
I have been very keen to actually play a game of 40k but my mate and I refuse to play unless we each have a fully painted army to field.
So as he claimed the Imperium with his Blood Angels I thought I'd have a bash at a tyranid hive fleet *gribble gribble*.
I know most of you out there probably think I'm mad neglecting a project involving a forgeworld titan model, but I thought I'd get more use out of an actual army I can play around with and not just use as an ornament.


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So the 500 point hive fleet will roughly consist of ...
* Tyranid Prime
* 3x Tyranid Warriors
* 15x Termagants
* 20x Hormagaunts
* 20x Hormagaunts

Other than the Termagaunts every model with be close combat based.
I'm not too bothered if this is not a recommended list to field against marines, if they all get shot down time after time then the hive fleet will simply have to adapt and evolve.

First up Hormagaunts!!!
These guys will provide the majority of the fleets bulk so i had best get these guys out the way to prove to myself that i can do this.

Ok now the gaunts are assembled and weighted with a penny on the bottom it's time to base them properly.
I use a cocktail of sand and grit I've collected over the years, i have found a good variety of grain sizes produces the best results.



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Oh by the way the random gaunt colours is due to buying the models from various sources. Some brand new from the store and some from various neglected projects being re-homed via ebay.

The gaunts have been taken into the loft and placed on the spray board of destiny to receive their undercoat.

Generally after I spray a model with a black undercoat I tend to give them a blast from above with white paint too to provide directional lighting.
This doesn't really make too much of a difference (depends on what painting style will follow) but I've gotten into the habit of doing so.
I don't have a painting plan set in stone, I just know I want them to be.... brownishy-beetle-esk?
*yeah you heard me!*
Basically I'm making it all up on the spot.

Ok base coat paint has been mixed and applied with my air brush.
An air brush is a great bit of kit to get your hands on, it's just a bugger to clean every time you use it, this can really put you off using it's only for a small job.
Anyways... after the base coat I dry brushed them all using a makeup brush I stole off the Mrs, think it was graveyard earth I used.

Right, as I explained earlier I had no plan as to how I would be painting these guys from start to finish, so i thought it was time i had better get with a programme and stick to it.
I took a lone gaunt and through some paint at the poor fellow.
I didn't want to create a masterpiece, as attempting to do this with each and every model in the past has always been my downfall and lead to projects no reaching completion.

I then replicated my first attempt with another 4 gaunts, taking notes as I went along due to having a memory like a sieve.


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Now for the fun task of repeating this so as I have 40 finished little foot soldiers.
Surely if I can do that then there is hope for me yet.

Really nice looking paint scheme, looks quite organic and a bit evil too! Maybe add some colour to the bases if you are not going for a urban rubble look.

My little guys are coming on. The majority of the armour is finished, I even got a small group of termagants up to this 80% complete stage.
The termies might be finished off slightly differently so I'll put them to the side for now while I have a think about it and finish the gaunts.

40 Complete Hormagaunts!
This might seem pathetic, but I'm so proud of myself for actually seeing such a large number of model through to completion.

Right well I have painted all the termagants, decided I wanted to subtly colour code my nids.
As all of the scything talons and stabby/pointy bits have been in black/red so far I thought I'd go for a green glowing effect for the shooty ranged weaponry.
I'm quite pleased with how it came out. With this in mind I was thinking that when I get round to producing a Zoanthrope maybe I could use a blue to depict it's psychic abilities.

That's actually one of the better painted tyrind mass armies that I've seen.
I'm curious to see what you will do with the bigger creatures!

Thank you very much.
Well watch this space as I will havelarger models to show you very soon.
I have most of this project finished already, and as I'm on holiday this week I am keen to get it wrapped up and vaguely documented on here.
So over the next few days I should have three Tyranid Warriors and a Tyranid Prime conversion to show off.
There might even be time for a group hug photo at the end.

glad to see some more nids. i really like the coloring, i feel it has a bit more realistic tone for a grown bioweapon. really interested to see where this goes with some of the bigger creatures

Next up we have 3 Tyranid Warriors that I plucked from an eBay purchase.
They were all armed with ranged weapons, so I apologised, ripped a pair of arms of each of them and replaced them with rending claws from the ravener box.
GW only supply one pair of rending claws with their warrior sprue so unless you buys 3 boxes of them then your going to struggle kitting them up with such a load out.
So anyways I pretty much approach these guys the same way as I did with the Hormagaunts.
As you can see I base coated some shooty warriors too but I'll be brushing them aside for now.

...and here we have the 3 finished warriors, apologies for the photography.
Hopefully I'll get time to take some better photos when the 500 point goal has been reached.

So onto the final stage of my mission...

The TYRANID PRIME!

There are three factor that put the pressure on me at this stage...
* He is my "warlord", the leader of the pack and I need him really fit the bill.
* He is the largest of the models in my army and all eyes will be on him so he just gotta look good.
* And of course GW don't have a model for this guys so I might have to put my modelling skills to the test.

A Tyranid Prime is very much like a warrior but bigger and more of a bad-ass.
I instantly thought of the first Hive Tyrant GW brought out when I was a young teenager.
I was hoping I could bring that model back from the dead. It was a great sculpt but we did need a bigger model to represent the mighty Tyrant.
So I pulled him down from the loft, began tinkering and this is what I came up with...

...I'm not happy with this...

How come you're not happy with that? I quite like it.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
How come you're not happy with that? I quite like it.

Don't think it fits aesthetically with the rest of the hive. Not happy with the scything talons, maybe they are too big and make him look a little camp.
I dont know...
But I have gone back to the drawing board and I am using more of a modern kit bashing approach to him.
Will definately return to this model in the future though.

I really like the Dark natural look to your nids.

Maybe the old big fella is just a bit dated? His face doesnt seem to fit in, but keep at it"

Well this is what i have so far...

*Torso of a ravener
*Legs of an old lictor
*Arse/Tail and Rending Claws from the warrior sprue
*Lash Whip and BoneSword from GW's warrior resin upgrade blister

...Just stuck on a head. The ravener and warrior head are too small and everything else is way too big. But I'm sure I'll come up with something, I have a couple of ideas that might work

looking great! i love the colour scheme!

Here are the aforementioned components cobbled together, still no head but I'm working on it.
To give you a rough idea, I am taking the back of a warrior and plonking it on top of a ravener's head.
...bear with me, this could work!


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Oh all the arms are magnetised too!
woo-hoo!!
Switcharoo!!!
...sorry :(

This all looks awesome so far, would be wicked to get some break downs of your paint scheme, obviously it is a little late for step by step guides as you have painted most of it already, I find stuff like that is what makes a really good blog.

Keep up the good work!

Eldercaveman wrote:
This all looks awesome so far, would be wicked to get some break downs of your paint scheme, obviously it is a little late for step by step guides as you have painted most of it already, I find stuff like that is what makes a really good blog.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for that.
I will aim to knock up a step by step the next time I start something from scratch. It wouldn't take too long to do that for one lonely gaunt.
I shal do my best Eldercaveman, and thanks for dropping by.

im loving the real and organic looking colorscheme!! good job!

Thanks for the praise everyone, it's really encouraging.

The Prime's head is coming on nicely and will upload a pic later tonight or failing that first thing in the morning.

I'm already eyeing up 3 zoanthropes and a carnifex kit, although my army is a bit too small for such things at this stage. Would really like a tervigon first to expand things.
But first things first. I must complete Mr Prime.

 Reeno wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:
This all looks awesome so far, would be wicked to get some break downs of your paint scheme, obviously it is a little late for step by step guides as you have painted most of it already, I find stuff like that is what makes a really good blog.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for that.
I will aim to knock up a step by step the next time I start something from scratch. It wouldn't take too long to do that for one lonely gaunt.
I shal do my best Eldercaveman, and thanks for dropping by.

No worries, also the hormagaunts before you primed them the creamy bone coloured ones any idea what colour they were primed with?

Some really nice paint jobs there.