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Hey all, working on an endless swarm list for the January TSHFT. The inspiration for this is partially a revue of formations that suggested that swarms just were not competitive, or even very possible in todays competitive tournament scene. This blog will have both the process of my lovingly converting models into my army, but also some of the games links that I play as I do my best to speed up play and learn from this army. Thanks for taking a look.
One of the other pushes to try this army was I recently played a tournament with a super psychic seer council based eldar army. While it was nearly impossible to knock the army out of the game, it was not all that fun for either myself, or my opponent in all three games. This army should be much more fun for both my opponent and I. Even if I do win, my opponent will likely have the joy of killing some 100 models, and remove tons of things every turn.
A current army pic:
With TSHFT rapidly approaching, I am running out of time to complete my projects and get test games in. So, this is an alternate list that I have come up with using models that I have, while still keeping as many of the cool looking guys in there as I can.
Post TSHFT Championships:
It's time for list alteration! Trying to do battle reports for the tournament was hard, and turned out a bit of a distraction, I think I'll take pictures of armies during lunch, and do a brief over view in writing, but no more photography mid tournament. In the prep games, though I'll still go all out whenever I can.
Big lessons learned aside from photography.
Drop grav with ignores cover eats a flyrant right from the beginning every time, and some times two. The solution, is....No Flyrants! I pulled out my Flyrant be gone bug spray and sent them back to the shelf. I didn't like running them anyway, and with nearly 500 points freed up, I can ad another fex, the dimachaeron, use deathleaper. I'm excited to fiddle with the list and get ready for the next big tourney: Wet coast GT!
Now on to the fun start up of the army itself. I will break down the projects into a number of independent projects within spoilers here in the main post. Make it all a little easier for someone to follow the portion they particularly are interested in.
The swarm (gaunts and gants aplenty.)
Spoiler:
Sooo many models, no pics yet. Okay, a first set of pics. I started out working on around forty or so all at once, but I have started to pair down, the five that are leading away from the dozen or so behind are approaching detail work and basing point, while the guys in the background are new ones just being put on bases. I'm slowly moving to a five model at a time pace to table top.
Is it just me, or have GW small sprues gotten much worse with the flash? Perhaps it's just because these are old casts or something, but it is almost as much work to clean them up as it is to paint and mount them on custom bases.
Some more work on the swarm, I've got the bases made for a dozen or so guys and got them mounted up. The new ones that I just removed from sprue and primed I'm going to put on the mountain desert bases that I have already set up. Once I paint the gaunts I will nip them from the plastic rod bases and pin them to the new ones.
With this first entire squad of hormagaunts painted completely I cut each one off of it's base, then single or double pinned it to a set of ruins bases that I got in a trade.
I attempted to make the gaunts all at different height intervals to emphasize the feeling of motion and depth in the unit. The bases will be similar but different enough from the other two squads to make finding the entire unit easier as I make my games faster. Only thing left is to ad the scything talons and do detail touch ups.
Once all the hormagaunts in the primus squad were completed and based, I touched them up and then varnished them. Dab varnishing with 50/50 gloss one coat, then 50/50 matte three coats.
Got into the termagants. I have one squad that has varnished devil gaunts, so I completed these five gants to varnish stage as well. That will be an easy way to tell them apart from other units.
All the gribblies got elmers glue on their bases and mahogany dust, which is what I use as desert sand.
Spores for days:
Spoiler:
No pics yet
Swarm transportation:
Spoiler:
Transportation consists of a trio of projects, the bunker, escape hatch, and trygon crater.
The bunker I made for a project around the same time I was working on the tyranid warriors. The crater and the escape hatch I'm embarking on now.
The hatch is a fex base that I added a little stone over hang and built up some berms on either side. I plan on having a genestealer emerging, and a lot of heavy foliage concealing the whole affair.
The crater was my first attempt at sprue construction. I used elmers glue and a full sprue from a tyrannocyte to build up the walls of the crater.
This allowed me to make the concave face as well as the more standard one. I then covered everything with a couple doses of "golden paints" fiber paste, and coarse pumice. I'm going to have a couple of old 2nd edition termagants and genestealers popping out and if I can get to it, assaulting a dire avenger.
Here are some pictures of the bunker. In my dream world where I have all the time I could want, I'm going to cut off the doors, and put a dead guardian at a computer terminal inside, with rippers around him. One door would be on its hinges, the second one crushed and clawed laying close to the primary weapon slits.
I'd also like to cover up all the dead IG bodies out front with green stuff and some well placed guardian eldar bodies.
Got a genestealer cut off at the waist that I placed inside the hatch. I also had to trim off the lower arms and reposed them to fit it into the doorway.
Once I had based my teak dust all over the hatch. I added the brush that helped for concealing the escape hatch. Laid a couple pieces through the stealers hands to make it seem he was parting them to exit.
For the trygon crater I also added a pair of genestealers. Painting up the dire avenger next to be attacked by the genestealer out on the base. Also working on an old school metal hormagaunt and a pair of old school termagants if I can fit all the detail on the base.
Warrior and prime
Spoiler:
The warrior prime and the warriors themselves were a winter project last year. I never finished them completely, however I gave all of them their long necks to match the army, and I did some heavy converting with the prime.
The prime itself was made from an old ravenor metal body, attached the legs and tail from a hive tyrant. 2nd edition lash whip from a hive guard, and I believe it's a forgeworld bone sword.
I plan on doing a little more clean up and detail painting before I get to the varnish stage.
I had a chance to get back to the warriors now as well. I cleaned up all four normal warriors I have, and this one with the custom made scything talon is the one I'm going with. I completed the painting and have varnished it now.
The prime I finished painting as well. It's always a little mind boggling to come back to a project that had about an hour left to it before it was ready for varnish. Why didn't I just finish it? Oh, probably was in a rush like I am with this army.
The pair of malanthropes:
Spoiler:
The first malanthrope I completed quite a while ago for a drop in army that was based out of the bunker and soooo many tyrannocytes. I extended the first neck just a little bit and turned the stand into a stump of a tree. The second one I'm getting a little more into with a longer neck, and a much more intricate tree to be based off of.
The hive crone
Spoiler:
In my eldar army I have a nightwing/crimson hunter that had shot down a harpy on its base, and this is the revenge. The crone will have an exploded crimson hunter (my design based off the dark eldar razorwing.). The explosion itself was a resin cast I made from a styrafoam cup (Easy to make good crinkles and shape to the cup, and then extend the edges a little.) I then rounded it out and carved a little with just a knife. Now I'm adding the green stuff and support that will eventually be the connection points for the crone. The plane has been chopped into sections, the starboard wing is attached here, as well as an extended explosion with a hull plate.
I've started priming the next sections as they will be firmed up once the crone itself is ready so that I can attach everything together in as solid a manner as I can.
So a pic here of the painting progress for the hive crone. I've got the parts to the eldar crimson hunter (version from my army using the razorwing model.) Painted up part way through my Altansar color scheme. Also getting multiple brown tones into the base. Wings are slowly getting painted, and as things get closer to completion I will start attaching them to the explosion. Which will also be largely painted here soon.
The crone itself I have cut up the tail to start creating more attachment points. What was a wavy, but parallel to the body tail now has a solid C shape curve in it. Presenting the scythe part to embed in part of a wing, or fuselage as an attachment point. The wings will also be in more of a mid flap to create additional connections, and maybe a blast of something coming from the drool cannon as a final point of contact.
Attaching the head was my next action here. I used a 1/8 inch gauge wire to extend the head out in the long neck fashion that is part of my army. I then put a solid 1/4 inch build of green stuff around that to solidify the heads position. From there I quartered the neck to create the detail, with the largest of the seams on top where armor plates would hide them. Once about a week had gone by from that point I came back and made the three large armor plates that cover both the seam, and the top of the neck.
Dimachaeron
Spoiler:
I've been thinking through and slowly working on this dimachaeron for a long time. This massive model was in a trade I made some five years ago, to be useful as some unique apocalypse tyranid, however it turned out to be near the size of the new dimachaeron. I immediately had a plan for it, chopping off a lot of the things the previous owner had done, I am going to eventually have him perching on a crashed wave serpent, with a couple of wraithguard fighting him. The spirit seer attendant on them will be partly in the chest cavity of the Dima being eaten up, although reaching for help with his staff.
Firsts things first, I removed the big hands that were attached to the arms, and replaced them with a quartet of scything talons from a trygon model. I then started the green stuff to smooth out the attachment point, and create joining fingers similar to the forgeworld model.
Then I started the process of creating a stabbing tail and unique pincers as well as armor plating.
Next will be the installation of a modified haruspex back armor to fit onto this models back. Modified haruspex back. Yes it's a Chinese re-cast, I like to use those for my endless conversions, and gw plastic or old metal models for the basis of the project. Because the Chinese resin is harder, and thus a bit more fragile then the forgeworld stuff, I had to reinforce with some cross bracing inside of the carapace. GW sprue works wonders for cross bracing. Off the framework inside I created a couple of posts that I then drilled, pinned and green stuffed onto the back of the Dima. Next step will be to do detail green stuff and fill in the spaces, and make it look whole.
Continuing the green stuff adventure that is the dimachaeron. I added some external tendons to the thumb, and may go farther with this. A single tendon is not likely to be enough to control such a massive and complicated thumb claw like that, but we will see.
I also wanted to start the work on the cowl, make it look closer to the forgeworld model. I used one of the side armor panels from a tyrannoncyte, then drilled holes along the plates where I wanted to seperate them. This maintains the smooth sweeping edges of the original piece, but gives me the flexibility I need to curve it around the neck of my model.
I started by counter boring a couple of holes into the neck of the dimachaeron, not so much for pinning, but just for the green stuff to sink down into and ad to its ability to adhere. The longest of the three pieces I green stuffed on, doing my best to line it up with the neck, and a midpoint for the armored shell that I had grafted onto his back.
Next up on the list is to attack the maw attack from the center of the dimachaerons chest. Here it is before any surgery is performed. I'm going to drill into the body with pilot drills first, and then slowly work my way up to a 1/4 inch drill bit. From there I can use the drill bit and hog out the holes. Or I can pull out my dremel tool and expand it that way.
The dremel tool it turned out was the way to go. I hogged out a little with the drill bit, but ran into the posts from the back armor. I wanted to make sure the hole was deep enough to really fit that spiritseer in as far as I wanted him to go.
Speaking of which. I nipped the seers robe at its widest points, and lopped off his give them the horns hand so that he would fit into the maw. I have some cut down and trimmed up haruspex mouth parts that will be wrapped around him eventually.
As I'm now working on the spirit seer, in order to get the positioning of his staff hand correct, I'm going to need the wraithguard and the serpent in their to hold the other end. This is going to make for some re-positioning of the seers staff, and the wraith guards hands.
While other things were drying I went back to the cowl of the dimachaeron, attaching the last two plates and using green stuff to re-unite them. As well as ad the more fleshy parts within that would connect to the neck.
The wraithguard who is trying to help the spirit seer is requiring some good work. I filed off the second hand on the gun very carefully, then cut and re-positioned the army, similar to what I did with the trygon scything talons. Then I used a wraithguard hand that was holding a power sword for the other kit to be the one holding onto the seers staff. Legs and torso didn't need much change, I can rely on the ball joint that is already there.
I've also started working on the base for the dimachaeron. I found this monstrous creature resin base that I got in a bundle. The quality of the resin casting is pretty so/so. Thus making it perfect for a base that will be hanging all over the corners. The wave serpent is a part of a long story trade that went wrong. After attempting a trade and sending my miniatures off, I never received anything in return. After threatening legal action and contacting the local police where the other party was located I was sent my miniatures back...well the same kind of minis, most of them not new on sprue or in good condition. This is one of those replacement wave serpents that turned out to be a beat up partially painted falcon with what looked like acid damage on the front wings. Perfect for basing. This picture is after I have cleaned the falcon up a touch, and started painting in my altansar army colors.
I once again used a bunch of cut up sprue to put a cant to the serpent on the ground. I just piled up the sprue and liberally doused it with white glue. Once the hull is placed, I'll heap ground over the front portion and around it to simulate the crashed nature of the skimmer.
I had removed what will be the buried starboard side engine previously and set it up to be on the hive crones base. You'll see it under that spoiler. Out of habit I painted the interior of the cabin. My initial plan was to have the hatch closed, perhaps a hole burned through it. However the falcon doesn't take up as much room as the wave serpent, so after I glued it shut, I changed my mind and popped it back open.
Back onto the project, getting ready for the wet coast GT in July. I'm back to working on the Dimachaeron with that being one of two models that really have any work to do on them. The Dimachaeron has a lot of work though. I've been working on the leg plates for the beast itself. Adding three plates for the shin and five for the thigh. An under plate and over plate where the hips are.
Details for the arms are next, adding the particular Tyranid venting by cutting a little depressino and adding the ridge and vent regular to the aliens. It also provides another detail for breaking up the color scheme.
Trygon prime:
Spoiler:
I think I started this trygon project two or three years ago. I had this plan to create a trygon fighting a troupe of harlequins, and wanted to make a much more aggressive repose then I did with my mawloc who is simply tipped up on his crater and slightly chopped and reformed. I'm afraid I didn't take pictures at the start of the process, but there is a lot of green stuff extending, chopping and reposing the model, probably around 5" longer then the usual model. I needed the extra length to emphasize the movement and to pose it in a manner that matches the height dimensions of the original.
The shadow seer there will be the only living model left on the base, a troupe master and a harlequin will be in various states of defeat attached to the trygon.
Got some work done on the trygon. My goal for the next game was to get the actual guy on his base so I could replace the Mawloc stand in. I finally got it mounted to the base, the spines in the curl of the tail are counter sunk all the way into the base. I plan on coming back to that spot with some green stuff this evening. Then build just a little paste to cover the green stuff and make it smooth into the rest of the base. Where the worm contacts the rock outcrop there is a pin running nearly through the trygon, and nearly through the base. Next point of contact was the first scything talon. A slight boring into the rock outcrop allows the talon to act as another pin into the base. Remarkably stable already. I plan on the other lower scything talon being pinned into one of the two dead harlequins and into the base. I am afraid that my positioning of the worm however may have prevented me from using a standard talon. I might have to cut and re pose the talon. The troupe master in mid air I just slid onto the tail for the moment. I'm going to reattach his legs first, then finish the bore through the greenstuff waist.
Speaking of changed scything talons. I held the other scything talons in place on the upper body, and I really felt the are was getting cluttered. So I took a new scything talon and cut it into pieces. Here it is being pinned back together in a much extended pose. I may do this with the other largest talon as well. I'll wait until I can at least hold them both up against the body though.
I had so much fun with the first of the scything talons. I decided to shift two others as well. The lowest of the three is the one pinning the harlequin to the ground, the second is the base facing one giving a good counter point to the rest of the model. The third I was hoping to get angled all the way to the base as another contact point. However after I straightened it all out, I'm not sure how I like the looks of it. I'll give it another look with the rest of the talons on before I potentially chop up another.
So here I have the upper and lower two scything talons attached. The two in the middle are cleaned and primed. Once they are painted they will help balance the mass of the trygon I hope.
Here is the harlequin pinned down on the base, you can see his face under the body of the trygon, face up on one of the rocks there.
I am obsessed with my base attachment points in an active model like this. So the harlequin on the base there in his two parts is pinned twice into the base. Then the scything talon itself is pinned through the harlequin into the base. Finally greenstuff to fill in the division between legs and torso covers up one of the pins, and wraps around securing the scything talon. There are also three or four points where cape, shoes, weapon of the harlequin touch the base and are superglued. All of this is to really focus on making the model super durable for picking up and moving around.
The off base scything talon re shaping just didn't look right to me, so I junked it for a standard one. Attached that here. I also got the troupe master finished, bored and attached to to the tail.
On the other side, I'm really quite pleased with the stretched out scything talon. The ease of re-pinning and molding the talon encourages me to do so in the future as well.
I really enjoyed the troupe master as the final piece. The greatest goal of it being that this is the height of the standard model. It was important to me to have a solid object for an opponent to search for as far as line of sight. It's hard to tell that the body has been lengthened by a 1/4 of an inch, had to be done to make the leg sag look appropriate.
All that's left for this model is to detail paint and varnish. Then come back with the attack of the sharpies. I doubt I will have time for that before TSHFT. Although schedule conflicts may prevent me from going at all it seems.
Stone wrecker carnifex:
Spoiler:
In the mail still. It has arrived, I'm surprised that it is all cast plastic, even the parts that were forgeworld resin. Good casting China.
Well, once I un-bagged and really looked at the material, it is comparable to forgeworld and is resin.
I laid out a plastic venom cannon, followed by the new china resin, followed by the forgeworld resin, followed by my usual china resin.
The casting quality and resin even down to the smell are the exact same. This new chinese caster may have stolen GW's recipe. As well as their quality control guy, the flash lines and casting blobs are almost the exact same between the forgeworld venom cannon and the Chinese caster venom cannon. There are no air bubble embedded in the thin parts like with the yellow casting Chinese company.
Here are the fex parts, laid out and getting filed and such for partial assembly and followed by painting. My loose plan is to have the fex smashing through a wall with some striking scorpions on the other side. I'm going to use a base from the Baal deathstorm carnifex to give me just a touch more space for the modeling.
Next step is to start putting the parts together and priming them. I might do a little bit of re-positioning of the wrecker ball so that it is crashing through the wall.
All right, got my parts all together for the stone wrecker. I ordered an MDF base of the deathstorm carnifex oval base. This gives me more room for the basing and laying out of my fex. I primed it in this picture, and as I have been feeling fit I'm a little concerned at the long term integrity of what is basically particle board. I'm going to counteract this a little bit by varnishing the entire base, and re-priming it.
The wall for the fex to smash is a Mantic battle zones wall I originally got as part of a set I'm going to use for my future knights project. I used a pair of taller sections to assure the chitin rams were crashing through the bricks.
The pieces fit together pretty well, a touch of trimming where the sprue used to be. There are 90 degree snap in pieces that fit so well I probably could have nixed the glue. I would say you could potentially snap fit a series of these for terrain, and change it later for variation. After assembly I trimmed the top of the larger wall section clipping the top place where brackets fit, and removing the 45 degree angle for joining to other pieces.
These are the two striking scorpions that will be on the base. The one who looks like he is grabbing his leg will be posed on top of the wall as if he were jumping over, while the second scorpion will be crouched behind the wall, with the fex chitin rams smashing through above him.
Here is a rough mock up of how the base without the carnifex will be set up.
Painting is a slow process for me, but here is the fex mostly assembled and pinned down to his base.
From here I varnished the carnifex. I like to use one or two coats of gloss varnish diluted 50/50. Then two to three coats of matte varnish, with touch ups as needed. I've found the dabbing method works a lot better on complex minis. Unless you have hours to kill and are willing to properly glide on with a very small brush, cross hatching and then smoothing. Dab makes it a ten minute process instead.
Again from the front.
I also assembled the flail arm as well. This one I counter bored and used some green stuff for the larger base connection of it, then I pinned that larger of the two tendons. The base was a touch loose so the green stuff worked well to fill and make it much more solid.
The wrecker flail is now completed painting and is drying as shiny varnish now.
The plan is to magnetize both the fex and the flail, but running low on time, I may do a very light glue job instead when I get there. Then break the glue and magnetize it later.
Sure enough, went with the glue, but the fex looks pretty awsome.
Crunch time ad on units:
Spoiler:
Dakka filled flyrant on an avatar base. I made this quite a while ago. Continued the planned customization of my army to more of an extreme. You can kind of see the super long neck that I gave him. Gives them a much more serpintine look. Metal frame followed by green stuff and a bunch of the spare armor plates from a warrior kit.
The base is a metal eldar avatar who has been drilled through and into the base. This was how I put the first of the legs as an attachment. The second point is a tip of a claw bored into the resin stone piece on the base. Avatar is holding onto the broken end of his sword of khaine the wailing doom.
Second flyrant had much the same theme, but I wanted to get the second set of limbs in. I used drill bits and dremel to create another set of sockets for the wings to go into higher on the back of the flyrant. This allowed me to install both the brain leech worms, and the sword/whip combo. The primary goal I had for this was was to get the model entirely off the base, but still have a stronger connection then the first flyrant I did.
I did so by having a pincer tail connect to the wraithlords leg, the whip is a wire wrapped around the arm, and then green stuffed. The sword created a third solid connection point, both slotting in and pinned into the wraithknights head.
Display board:
Spoiler:
For some reason with three days left, I decided I should start a new display board. One much more convoluted in design then the one I have. Having a canvas paint frame as I have been using, I can just flip it over. One side has eldar runes on it and a neat desert set up my wife did. The side I'm working on will have three different basing compounds, a river, and some pavers where my bunker and ruins would go.
So the three basing compounds. I use Golden paints for this. In the upper right corner is crackle paste. This is the dry desert waste that many of my models are based on. It comes in to the fiber paste material which is by far my favorite. I then used coarse pumice stones to create a river bed. Fiber paste bank on one side. Now to experiment because i had this other material I haven't used before. Medium body Gel. I made the left side of the river and to the board edge of this stuff. Weird. Wish I had used fiber paste, but too late now. I'll put lots of pavers down to cover it up a little, and the dust covering will help with hiding it. The gel is, well rubbery like gel should be. Duh. It would be great for a base that was supposed to be like alien skin or something. I could see using it for the skin of the tyranid bastion I want to finish some day.
The board is the same as I have been using so it would be super crowded to fit everything on it. So I will also be using a 1250 display board I have from a while ago. It's a canvas frame with the canvas on it. I'm going to finish painting the boarder, and lift it so the over lapping cardboard hills will drift over the edge of my primary display board.
Brown paint added to the banks of the river, then water primer for the river bed.
Waiting a little bit between coats creates a ripple effect on the water.
Watered down some brown and coated everything.
Added the water effects ripples and rapids for flowing around the various bends, rocks and pavers.
Here is a close up of the rapids near the end.
Glued down a bunch of pavers I had painted up in case I needed to weight down the hormagaunt bases. These were placed around where the bastion is going to be located.
All right, three games in, I can take a minute to think about the tactics and start fine tuning the list. First things first, the trygon prime is underwhelming. The crater he leaves is a necessity as sometimes the bunker gets blown up. However, since he dies the turn he arrives nearly every time, and he doesn't kill more then a guardsman on arrival, the points are not worth it. Second thought would be that with the practice I'm getting in, the games are going faster. I'm willing to give a psychic phase, (only one though) a try as I think speed will no longer be a super issue in tournament, at least not from my sides speed of play.
As to general tactics with the large swarm.
Endless swarm is a hit or miss formation, when it works right and you get half of your dead units back, you can bury your opponent in bodies. It doesn't matter if you are losing ten models to one, if your getting those ten models back twice over. So getting to the opponents side of the table and trapping him in his deployment zone is key. Once you have restricted the movement of your opponent you can achieve the various maelstrom objectives at your leisure. This is what the spore field really helps with. By infiltrating six separate units, half of them with shrouded, and all of them potentially coming back. You can trap your opponent and direct his movements right from the get go. This could potentially be accomplished with any infiltrating units (genestealers and lictors, or if you roll the infiltration warlord trait.) The spore field in particular does this well though since it regenerates similar to the endless swarm, and it only costs 90 points, (leaving you with points to spend on other things.)
The swarm itself, is all about the bodies. I'm of the opinion that upgrades on the gribblies is a waste for the most part. I started out with devourers on all three units of termagants. I've sacrificed most of those for gaining other things. A single biovore is likely to do more damage then two of the squads throughout a game, so might as well take simple units. Hormagaunts are not there to attack big beastly things and win, they are there to tarpit and cause some wounds, or more likely charge into that mass of ork/tau/marine/IG bodies. You can cover the battle field and restrict those eldar jetbikes in their movement, eventually charging and trapping them.
Synapse:
The best synapse for a swarm is of course the malanthrope. If I had a third one, I would probably figure out how to fit it in. They are just indispensable handing out both shrouded, fearless, and control. When you get the preferred enemy, that's just gravy.
A flyrant could be a great upgrade as HQ, I'm bringing one largely because everyone has a flyrant, nobody uses the prime. Zoanthopes I will be trying out shortly. Warriors as already a part of the endless swarm at least give you one more target for the enemy to shoot at. Trygon prime is an absolute waste of points.
AA:
Anti-air in the pacific northwest meta has lost much of it's necessity, however at least a nod to it can help. Flying monstrous creatures benefit from ruins and the malanthrope shrouding much better then most flyers. This is also the most mobile source of haywire for the army. While vehicles in the meta have fallen off, the use of lords of war like knights can provide quite the challenge for this army. Requiring the haywire, even if it is much more hit and miss then most.
Big hitters:
The dimachaeron provides more then anything a massive bullet magnet. The model is scary, and people want to shoot it. There is good reason too as a rampaging dimachaeron can eat its points in models really quickly. It only gets stronger with its feel no pain once it has eaten someone. I come to the table expecting it not to make it to the enemies battle line.
Transportation:
The trygon seems to be a necessary evil in the army, providing that crater and another advanced board edge for returning units. I have come to the opinion that giving it the prime upgrade and any kind of other points however is a waste. The trygon often becomes the primary target the turn it comes in, it's just a scary beast. You have to expect the trygon to be a bullet magnet and that it will die the turn after it comes in. It will not make up its points, but it will soak up a lot of damage. Especially if you have it pop up in terrain, or a malanthrope nearby.
The biovore is a recent addition to the army for me. Directly in response to gaming against an imperial guard player. A little softening up of the enemy lines can drastically help my forces. Every gun that is removed, and the aim of sniping out fearless models, or flamers.
This message was edited 40 times. Last update was at 2016/03/03 17:26:14
Updated the travel plans for the swarm. Both the crater and the escape hatch with a bit of progress. Quite pleased with the look of the escape hatch there. I just have some varnishing left to work on that one.
Got a game coming up before too long, and I took a pic of whole army as it stands currently.
Automatically Appended Next Post: More updates. Did some work on the swarm, got some of them on the custom bases I cast.
Some work pulling out the stone wrecker carnifex as well.
These are the four different castings of venom cannons that I have. The top one is a plastic one from GW, the second is the Chinese re-cast from forgeworld, the third one is from Forgeworld itself, and the bottom one is from the VIP cool castornot caster in China.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/11/13 02:08:57
It is a recaster, Chinese, where I usually get my basing material from. I purchased a number of things and got some tyranids sent along as a bonus.
The quality of the casting is pretty good. Larger casting is the best, molding halves are lined up well. (Unlike the Russian ones) The resin is harder than forgeworld, but doesn't tend to suffer from as much wobbly model bent syndrome.
When you get castings of cables, (like brass scorpion, or decimator kind of power cables. There would sometimes be air bubbles in the cast.
The price is crazy good though, so I find the slightly greater effort to be worth it. (Lots of off gassing, when you get them, as well as when filing. Always wear proper protection when filing, trimming etc. I let them breathe for nearly a month out in storage before I tend to work with them.) Oh, and thanks for the compliment on the escape hatch earlier. I appreciate it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/11/15 02:24:08
Updated some work on the Trygon. My goal was to get it on the base before my next test game.
Attached to the base:
A scything talon I'm reposing.
@SBG I have not yet gotten to the assembly point on the stone wrecker aside from very light body assembly. As I get into it I'll have my opinions under that spoiler. Currently just dry fitting the parts, they are no more difficult then any other gw monstrous creature assembly. A little flashing, but not bad.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/11/23 21:09:11
Updated swarm units a bit, and added a new section with time crunch adjustment units. They are models that I have completed previously so I don't have any of the step by step work to show.
Working on finishing up some of those goal models I had before, tweaking the list (no more flyrants for you.) As well as getting some more practice games in to hone my skills.
