I started playing nids back in 2004 after purchasing an army from Ebay. Since then, I am usually working on some bug project.



Above is a picture of what started it all, a so called pro-painted ebay purchase in 2004 , whose paint standards I wasn't very satisfied with (The pics were low quality and some kinda blurry so the army looked better on the web than in real life). Nevertheless, it was a great paint scheme that I have copied and improved upon over the years. Note that I ended up repainting the HT scything talons, the bony protrusions, and the tail, as well as modeling a third eye. Also note that only 15 of the 30 hormaguants are pictured. The remainder of the army that was purchased was either repainted or is in the process of being repainted. Hopefully some of the regulars at Atlantic Comics will remember this army as it was there that I first show cased it and cut my proverbial teeth.




This was one of the first units I repainted upon aquiring my new nids army. At the time of purchase it was only 15 man strong, was actually equiped as termaguants, and lacked the hive node mutant. Being that spine guants were so cheap, I thought that a 32 man squad would make a great tar pit unit for my 3rd edition gun line nids.






When I originally bought this model, it was painted white and then shaded with some black ink. Didn't match the rest of the army but I kind of liked the idea of having an albino model. So I completely repainted it, working from a base of Cold Grey and working my way up to Wolf Grey then Ghost Grey and finally White using a dry brush technique. Shadow grey was then used for the spotting. Sound familiar...years later, I used the same color scheme for my Grey Knights armour.



After having painted my albino carnifex, I decided that further mutants (this was back in 3rd Edition) would also be albino. This helps break the color scheme while still including the chetah pattern that helps tie them in with the rest of the army.




Soon afterwards, having realized the necessity of having 2 guns on my TMC, I decided to do a little converting using the MC BS and the lowly hormoguants. For this I simply dremeled off the hind legs and replaced them with inverted spine fists; then I added the guns...thus was born the gun totes for my HT and albino carnifex. Also, this was my first real attempt at blending, having painted them in late 2008.












The Tyrant Guards and Carnifex above were actually repainted twice! Once in 2004 and again in 2008. Also, the back of the Carnifex was painted using a wet blend technique. I think the result turned out quite well .

And now for the main event ...........................






My labor of love and by far the best model I have ever painted . Completed in 2007, I had over 200 hrs into this project and I hope it shows . Unfortunately, my less than professional photo taking has left some of the more subtler colors muted...but something is better than nothing right? The plants were made out of green stuff and the scorpion is actually an adrenal gland combined with a toxic sac to represent them as well as implant attack being equiped on the model.

Well I hope you guys enjoyed. I plan on providing updates to this thread as I work on adding additional units to my expanding nids army. Unfortunately, I am a slow painter so my goal is one update every quarter ...Seriously though, it will be a while . So much to paint and so little time to do so!

Oh, by the way...as it is a desert theme, does anyone have any cool ideas for naming my hive fleet. Looking for some kind of mythological desert monster? Hive Fleet Scorpio?

wow i must say that is fantastic
i especially love the albinos

DAYUM!

thats awesome

I like this realistic color approach , alot better than the typical rainbow nids.

i like the color scheme, it looks good and gives the army a nice feel to my mind.

Great army!! Do you have any photos of the entire army together?

I love your tyranids! The scheme works well and when you look close you can tell there's some fine work.

The albino cernifex though.... holy moly that model is sweet. Great job on that guy!

the coolest thing in Wyoming!
great job all the way around!

Lovely bugs you have there

Hey man, just a quick question for you. I've started painting my 'nids using the dip technique which i'm loving how the bone look turns out. The question is, what colours do you use for the "fleshy" bits to give it that sort of look?

Love the Gunner Gaunts, great job all over!

Wow some of those models are ancient, I like.

MuffinButt358 wrote:Hey man, just a quick question for you. I've started painting my 'nids using the dip technique which i'm loving how the bone look turns out. The question is, what colours do you use for the "fleshy" bits to give it that sort of look?

MuffinButt,

...I just can't say that with a straight face ! Anyways, I am assuming that you are asking about the chest, head, and tail areas. If so, the base is Char Brown (Valejo) followed by a Babad Black Wash. I then apply a mix of Dark Flesh and Charred Brown and then build up to Dark Flesh and finally to a mix of Dark Flesh and Terroccota. The area is then washed with GW's Gryphon Sypia.

goffnob deffsmakka wrote:Wow some of those models are ancient, I like.

Yeah, again, the army was started in 3rd. I do have some of the new genestealers (some...like in over 40), tyrant guards, carnifexes, and ravenors...just not painted. While I am a big fan of the majority of new models, I think GW really dropped the ball on the 4rth ed. Hive Tyrant. To me, it looks too much like the hulking brute/bear of the new carnifex. When I think of the Hive Tyrant, I think of an agile, sleek hunter like a tiger or a vilociraptor, which is more in line with the 3rd edition hive tyrant. I was really hoping that when they remade the HT in 4rth that it would be exactly like the Forge World Hive Tyrants (Sleeker and more Detailed). Instead, I was really disappointed . As such, I have recently bought 3 new Hive Tyrant, all of them being 3rd edition...bonus, they are much cheaper too!

@ Everyone else, thanks for the comments !

looks great!
i would say paint it all in the albino colour scheme though
dont know what it is about it, but it really looks good.

love the older bio's.
the new ones look like gak, same with the new tyrant guards.

impressive work though, cant wait to see more of it

JD21290 wrote:looks great!
i would say paint it all in the albino colour scheme though
dont know what it is about it, but it really looks good.

love the older bio's.
the new ones look like gak, same with the new tyrant guards.

impressive work though, cant wait to see more of it

Oh there will be more albinos for sure! Though such models will be sparse so as to pop out from the army rather than dominate it. I am planning on painting my red terror and the brood lord in that color scheme as well as one of my future Hive tyrants. If I ever purchase a death leaper, it will likely be painted albino as well.

There is just something kind of funny about an albino trying to sneak up on its prey .

yea, i think a white lictor creeping through the grass doesent blend too well
i may have to steal that colour scheme for the albino's

thinking about starting a new swarm once i finish up my orks.

InquisitorMack wrote:Great army!! Do you have any photos of the entire army together?

Nope but it is on my too do list... along with painting: *100 Genestealers*4 Carnifexes*Trygon*3 Hive Tyrants*Brood Lord*10 Ripper Swarms*96 Guants*4 Tyrant Guard*3 Zoanthropes*21 Warriors*Red Terror*20 spore mines...and not to even mention my other 3 armies !

Still I will try to get one in a month or so.

wyomingfox wrote:

MuffinButt358 wrote:Hey man, just a quick question for you. I've started painting my 'nids using the dip technique which i'm loving how the bone look turns out. The question is, what colours do you use for the "fleshy" bits to give it that sort of look?

MuffinButt,

...I just can't say that with a straight face ! Anyways, I am assuming that you are asking about the chest, head, and tail areas. If so, the base is Char Brown (Valejo) followed by a Babad Black Wash. I then apply a mix of Dark Flesh and Charred Brown and then build up to Dark Flesh and finally to a mix of Dark Flesh and Terroccota. The area is then washed with GW's Gryphon Sypia.

The irony with the nickname is the fact that i'm military personel that's 250lbs and plays rugby. Meh, I figure that the nickname fits for a reason.

Anyway, thanks a ton for the tip. Basically, light brown faded up with a wash and ink on top. i'll do the brown and then do my varathane dip instead of an ink wash.

I need to stop reading this forum ! Now I want to go and play a 'nid army !!

That is a truly beautiful army, Id love to see some photo's of it deployed in the field as it were.

I think that albino scheme would be great for a snow themed 'nid army. It reminds me of snow leopards fur patterning.

These Nids are amazing!

I love the more naturalistic scheme on the old figs, not really a fan of the old tyrant guard models but youve made them look great.

The gaunts are great too, i like the off-color of the head and tail, really different approach that works really well with your scheme. The Carnies and FW tyrant are sweet, cant wait to see more of your fleet, Keep it up!

Also, a question: why the spinefist arms on the hormagaunt body? It looks great, but is there any specific reason for this beyond 'it looks cool?' the conversion just piqued my curiosity.

again, inspiring work.

Corndoggy wrote:Also, a question: why the spinefist arms on the hormagaunt body? It looks great, but is there any specific reason for this beyond 'it looks cool?' the conversion just piqued my curiosity.

I had a few hormies to spare...and it looked cool and broke up the look of the squad, making them look more mobile and in motion. Bonus in 5th, my leaping spine guants can now ensure that the entire squad always gets shot, even though my opponent might only see 3 heads .

Well with the new wound modification for Tyranid Warriors, I decided to add some lash whips to my Death Spitter Warriors. Currently, the warriors are all armed with 2 sets of Death spitters, so to make this a little simple, I simply took one arm of each nid and replaced it with 1 scything talon which I then proceeded to convert into a Lash Whip. (This way I can either play them as TL DS or as DS and LW).

So anyways, I started off with a Tyranid Warriors Scything Talon (the medium sized ones).


I then whittled the talon with a exacto knife to about 1/2 its thickness.


At this point, I simply bent the sything talon into an S shape


I then twisted a thick rope of GS around the talon and drew the green stuff down the length of the talon and beyond. Oil and sculpting tools were used to further refine the shape and smooth the newly formed lash whip. I then laft the model over night.




The next day, I took a dremmel tool with a cylinder shaped sander and sanded the the lash whips down to remove and bulges and imperfections. Dremmel sanders are actually quite effective at sanding down GS.


Lastly, I added a webb of veins to the base of the talon with Green Stuff.


Well pretty simple conversion

Good lord, do I love your color scheme.
Concerning the lash ... I think you couldve gone with a bit more ... curvature. Now, it kinda looks like the scythes melted and got slightly repositioned. Thats just me though.

You can never have to many albinos

Looking good so far.


What do you use to differentiate units?


take care

Flachzange wrote:Good lord, do I love your color scheme.
Concerning the lash ... I think you couldve gone with a bit more ... curvature. Now, it kinda looks like the scythes melted and got slightly repositioned. Thats just me though.

Really...hmmm....well now that you pointed it out I kinda agree . Actually, that is kinda the limmiting factor of working with the talons as even thinned down, they have limmited motion. I think I will try simply using a thick wire for the base next time.


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albinoork wrote:What do you use to differentiate units?

Either biomorphs (in the case of my 2 painted hormie squads) or different base colors (various browns)

So...been a year or more BUT...a recent campaign league has given me the opus to start working on revamping my nids for 5th edition. Unfortunately, 5th edition and the recent codex pretty much raped my previous army which revolved around wariors, gun fexes, and sniper rants. So I have had to go back to the drawing board in building a competitive force of up to 2000 points.

So to start off, I began by building my first Tervigon....OK, its just a carnifex on a large oval base...but it will work till we get the real Tervigon model in a few months. Of course, I wasn't about to let my $60 Carnifex model become outdated in less than a year when the next edition comes out...so I decided to magnitize all the options from the head to the tail.



Most of the magnets used are Neodymium Magnets from K&J Magnetics with the following dimensions

Head: 1/8" diameter x 1/32" thick

Body (Arm attachments): Radio Shack Rare Earth Magnets which are roughly 1/4"x1/16"

Body (Head attachment): 1/8" x 1/16"

Body (Top Carapace attachment): 1/8" x 1/16"

Body (Tail attachments [2]): 1/16" x 1/16" and 1/16"x1/32"

Top Carapace (Body attachment): 1/8" x 1/16"

Top Carapace (Adrenal attachment): 1/16" x 1/32"

Adrenal Gland: 1/16" x 1/8"

Tail [2]: 1/16" x 1/16"

Arms (Body attachment): 1/8" x 1/8"

Arms (Toxic attachments): 1/16" x 1/8"

Toxic Sac: 1/16" x 1/32"

Well as you can see I pretty much butchered my bits in order to fit the magnets in more dynamic poses. So next the greenstuff, which once cured was followed with a throrough sanding with artist sand paper. If not sanded, the boundaries of the green stuff tends to show up after priming.



After the end product was assembled, I was quite happy with the result...not only was it magnitized, but the pose was very dynamic and fluid:



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And a bit of a pic of my work station...actually just showing off the Basing Stick, which is just 2 sales signs (the wooden stakes) duck taped together and then taped in a reverse manner sticky side up. Allows me to spray paint 10+ models at a time. It is a good idea to leave about 4-5" space between the models or else if they are too bunched up then the models will block off the paint flow from one another.

So just here is my assembled and based FW Trygon: Only the adrenal sac (not shown) has been magnitized.

wyomingfox wrote:

A bit late on saying this, but the back of it reminds me of those shark thing from Fallout 3. Looks amazing!

Very well done, love the color scheme!

I love the idea of mutants being albino to stand out. Very nice paint scheme.

Thanks gretar and ph34r: The new nid codex actually offers up alot of opportunites for albino mutants: Tyranid Primes, Trygon Alphas, Swarm Lord, Ymargls, Parasite, ect. So there will be more albinos in the future.

OK, so a bit of a discussion and how to guide for easily pinning Hive Guard (for those of us with metal Hive Guard still unassembled ).

Basically, the traditional method of pinning which revolves around drilling holes in each of metal parts separately, glueing a pin, and then trying to allign the two parts doesn't work to well with the complex beast that is the Hive Guard - Largely due to the poor fit of the joins coupled with the multiple attachment points. Fortunately, there is not alot of detail (as in none) on the shoulder areas, which lends itself well to another simpler method.


Step 1: Get your tools. a) Super Glue b) bent needle nose pliers c) clippers d) router and drill bit for which I used a 3/64" drill bit e) pinning material for which I used 18 gauge aluminum wire you can readily pick up at a True value Store (in the US) f) pin vise and a 1/16" drill bit f) File.

Step 2: Assemble your model with superglue. Don't worry about pinning at this point, just make sure that the parts are lined up as best as you can.

Step 3: Start by using the pin vise to put a small hole (1/64" deep or so) on the shoulder to be pinned to mark the point of entry. Next get the router and drill a hole about 1/2" deep. You will be penetrating through the arm and into the body. Trying to drill a 1/2" hole through metal with a normal pin vise sucks. I find it usefull when using a router to work the drill bit in and out of the hole to avoid lockups/jams as well as to both widen the hole and remove the metal filings. I should warn readers, that after pinning 4 Hive Guard Models, the 3/64" drill bit was toast.

Step 4: Cut a length of wire about 3/4". One end should be cut at an angle to facilitate entry into the hole you made with the router.

Step 5: Place a drop of glue (non-gel if possible) into the hole. Place the pin into the hole and allow the glue to set The pin should stick out of the hole a 1/4" or so.

Step 6: Snip the protruding pin material while still allowing 1/64" to stick out.

Step 7: File the pin down. Due to the softness of aluminum, the extra metal will fill in the edges of the hole, filling in the seams perfectly so that no further work will be needed.





2 of my 6 Hive Guard. In thier case, I was cutting the pins too short and thus had to fill the holes with green stuff, which after curing, I sanded down to a smooth surface. This can be avoided as long as you keep the hole only slightly larger than the pin and allow a bit of the pin to stick out of the hole after clipping.

The mottling... Just... Wow! Truly stunning work. The paint scheme, while muted, really makes the models stand out from the usual mess of colours people like to slather onto their models. I can only hope my painting can come to half of that once I start painting my conversion heavy swarm.

And then to top all off you end up sharing a very cool pinning trick that eliminates one of the biggest pains of pinning — alignment.

As I'd been considering mottling in my paint scheme, I'm just curious as to how much time it takes per model, on average, to get the effect just right.

By mottling, I assume you are refering to the leopard spots that are on the body. They are only one color: Shadow Grey for the albinos and Black for the normal figs. It has been a year or so, but I think it took roughly 10 minutes per model which included some time needed for touchups around the spots to get the interlocking pattern just right. :arger models might have taken up to 30 minutes. I use a 000 sized brush when painting the leopard spots.

The pinning trick posted above is very usefull when you have a non-detailed surface to drill into. Do note, that after pinning 4 Hive Guard Models, the 3/64" drill bit was toast.

Uploaded pics of my assembled Tyranid Prime which comes equiped with dual bone-swords and a deathspitter as well as magnitized options for toxic sacs and adrenal glands.



Also pictures of my second fully magnitized and assembled Carnifex. This one is currently loaded out with Devourers.

Great use of bitz on the Prime. Also love the fact that this is the first slithering Prime I ever see. The Paulson Swords really suit that model well. Did you magntise them or do you solely plan on running him with dual swords rather than sword/lash?

Thanks for the inspiration on the Dakkafexes. Your upright stance gives them much more presence and is exactly what I needed to realise to push my design forward. I'd originally built mine in the standard hunched pose and was never quite sold on them. They just seemed so short and low to the ground. Plus it was the first time I built up a carnifex kit without any conversion work and it just felt lazy to rush them. Ripped the two of them apart on Friday for a total rebuild.

In regards to pinning, I prefer to use 16gauge steel wire on the bigger models for exactly what you said about the drill bits being burnt out after a few uses. A 1/16 HSS drill bit last a lot longer and the larger diameter wire makes a better anchor. The chief downside though it that it can't be smoothed out as per your technique, which I'll definitely have to try one of these days.

Just wondering... did you go as far as to give your army a "name"?
Ex. Hive Fleet Exterminate... etc.

@meatman33: well after 5th edition I kiddingly started calling it Hive Fleet Mascocist...because 5th edition put the screws to the old codex. But I never have found a good desert themed legendary monster to name them. Most of the fleets are named after monsters of legend and my nids are suppose to be desert themed.


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Dark_Gear wrote:Great use of bitz on the Prime. Also love the fact that this is the first slithering Prime I ever see. The Paulson Swords really suit that model well. Did you magntise them or do you solely plan on running him with dual swords rather than sword/lash?

Thanks for the kind comments, I wanted something to help differentiate him without resorting to massive ammounts of plasticard (Aduro I am looking at you ). It's no where near the mind-blowing conversions that some other posters (still looking at you Aduro) have come up with, but I think it gets the job done. While I did magnitize the toxic and adrenal glands, I did not magnitize the weapon options. I was thinking about it...but I was short on time, having a league game that next morning.

Thanks for the inspiration on the Dakkafexes. Your upright stance gives them much more presence and is exactly what I needed to realise to push my design forward. I'd originally built mine in the standard hunched pose and was never quite sold on them. They just seemed so short and low to the ground. Plus it was the first time I built up a carnifex kit without any conversion work and it just felt lazy to rush them. Ripped the two of them apart on Friday for a total rebuild.

Great minds think alike . My first carnifexes were also built hunched over and the poses were much less dynamic as everything was pretty much assembled along a single axis. Very boring. While I did magnitize those carnifexes as well (though in the later cases it was just the head and weapon options), the magnets were weaker and as a result suffered from droopy arm syndrome. Like you, I ended up throwing these models in a bath of simple green, breaking them down into thier separate components. I then reassembled them into the models you see above.

In regards to pinning, I prefer to use 16gauge steel wire on the bigger models for exactly what you said about the drill bits being burnt out after a few uses. A 1/16 HSS drill bit last a lot longer and the larger diameter wire makes a better anchor. The chief downside though it that it can't be smoothed out as per your technique, which I'll definitely have to try one of these days.

What...is this...HSS drill bits...you speak of? [/shatnerese]

HSS = High Speed Steel = standard steel drill bits that you buy at any hardware store. It's not so much that they last longer because of the material they're made out of it's more that due to their larger size the bits don't get dull as fast (if at all) when you're just drilling soft metal.

Speaking of Carnifexes, finished the rebuilds today. Poses are now more upright and the first pair of arms has been tweaked a bit by making them longer. Used a pair of large ScyTal arms chopped at the wrist. The weapons were cut off from the "stubby arms" close to the wrist as well, filed neatly and then blended into the ScyTal arms with copious amounts of extra thin cement. I should have the pics up sometime tomorrow in the Spawning Vats(tm).

Regarding naming your fleet, Masochist is a great choice as I can definitely relate to your feelings about the 5th ed dex.

At first it looked really good on paper yet my army kept on getting beaten...badly. Lately though, the tides have been turning. Once I realised that "quantity is a quality all it's own" I also realised that Nids have the ability to apply this truism not just to "boots on the ground" but also to armour saves through shooting. Not many can claim this but as it stands my nids currently outshoot Tau. Very seldom do I actually have to get into combat with my gribblies as most armies are just killed before I even get there. Thank you Biovores.

By saying the above I'm not at all trying to gloat at my recent successes, on the contrary, what I'm saying is that, yes, the latest Nid Dex is for masochistic players. You really have to love to learn the hard way, through trial and error, because figuring out the synergistic combos of this army takes a while. Until you figure out how to coordinate: army selection, terrain selection at the start of the game, objective placement, deployment, coordinated movement of multiple units, synapse, synchronisation of multiple psychic powers, assault, feints, outflanking, running through cover and target priority; your games will always be masochistic ordeals for you. Once you do figure out how to work all of these components with the Nids, it might be time to change your name to Hive Fleet Sadist because very few armies will really mess you up and you'll be the one bringing the pain. I'm not a WAAC player by any stretch of the imagination but I just love a good challenge and as far as fun challenges that help me relax on weekends, very few equal the satisfaction of mastering this Dex.

To give you an idea of my line of thought regarding the Nid's "strenght by torrent of fire" ask yourself: If 3 Dakkafexes cost the same as 1 tervigon and 40 devourer gaunts, Why spend points on 18 t6 wounds with 36 shots when you could have 40 wounds and 120 shots (and many other benefits)? Yes you lose some anti-transport shots but this dex has other ways of dealing with tin cans but few ways to deal with disembarked infantry that are as cheap as devilgaunts.

Pardon the rambling but i figured you'd enjoy the thoughts since, just like me, you're converting dakkafexes even though cheaper options exist in the Dex.

Dark_Gear wrote:Regarding naming your fleet, Masochist is a great choice as I can definitely relate to your feelings about the 5th ed dex.

I think you misunderstood . I was refering to the 5th edition main rulebook putting the screws to the 4th edition nid codex.

Pardon the rambling but i figured you'd enjoy the thoughts since, just like me, you're converting dakkafexes even though cheaper options exist in the Dex.

Actually, 2 of the three carnifexes are standins for Tervigons as GW hasn't released those models yet. My current list was largely inspired by tactic and BR reviews writtin by Jankinth, Hulk Smash, and Shep and currently consists of:

Tyranid Prime w/ Dual BS, DS, Toxic Sacs

Hive Tyrant w/ BS & LW, Set of TL Devours, Paroysm and Leech Essense, Adrenal Glands, and either Hive Commander or Ancient Advisary depending on the mission

2x 14 man genestealers

2x Tervigons with Cluster Spines, Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, and Toxic Sacs

2x 10 man Guants with Spinefists (Meh...they are painted from 4th )

2x 2 man Hive Guard

Carnifex with 2x TL Devourers

7 man ymargls

So next up is my Samurai Hive Tyrant, Heihachi, displaying his supreme wood chopping skills!



As you can guess Heihachi is magnitized with the following options so far:

Lash Whip: 1/8" x 1/8" magnet

Bone Sword: 1/8" x 1/8" magnet

Body (Arm Sockets): 1/8" x 1/8" magnet

Body (Chest/Adrenal Gland): 1/16" x 1/16" magnet

Adrenal Gland: 1/16" x 1/8" magnet

Toxic Sacs: 1/16" x 1/32" magnet

Devourers (Toxic Sacs): 1/16" x 1/32" magnet

Devourers (Arm Sockets): 1/8" x 1/8" magnet

The compiled picture above shows where I placed the magnets in the devourer arms to hold the toxic sacs in place. It also displays some of the conversions. I orginally bought the metal Hive Tyrant on Ebay. The body's carapace was already extended, increasing the length of the abdnomen. This part was not done by me. I then hired a Dakka member to magnitize the tyrant model...but that fell through and all he did was drill some holes in the Tyrant's body. So the rest of the drilling and magnitizing was done hesitantly by yours truely...But I got it done and have grown quite adapt at magnitizing because of these latest efforts. The holes by the way were drilled using a 1/8" drill bit via a router . Moving the bit in and out of the hole widened it enough to fit the magnet in snuggly. Finally, the lash whip and bone sword looked too spindly for the 3rd edition body, so I added carapace plates to the shoulders and sculpted the transitionary flesh out of green stuff for a pretty nice result if I say so myself. Unfortunately, the weight of the metal arms was too much for the magnets alone so I needed pins to help hold them up (as shown above). The pins are blended, using green stuff, into the flesh of the shoulder carapace with the protusion fitting into small holes drilled into the body adjacent to the arm sockets (where the magnets are located). Lastly, the lash whip was missing a barb at the end. Fortunately, a small arm talon off of junk hormaguant happened to be perfect tip with only a little green stuff to help blend it in!

Oh, and lastly, a compiled picture of my three magnitized carnifexes. It was around the time of basing my last carnifex that my back went out and a week later I found that I had two bulging disks :(. I guess several weeks of all nighters spent hunched over modeling took its toll.



Oh and a few tips on magnetizing to share:

Magnitizing isn't so bad if you have a dremel to drill out the holes. I usually make the hole a wee bit wider (by jiggling the drill bit around) and deeper so as to green stuff over the hole (creating a softer surface for the two bits to rub against as metal on metal tends to quickly scrape paint).

Making sure the magnets are all facing the right way when glued into the model can be made real easy by stacking all the magnets together and painting the end of the stack that will remian exposed a differnet color than the magnets. When inserting the magnets into the model you place some glue (gel works well) on the unpainted end and stick the stack into the hole. Using your thumbnail, you separate the glued magnet from the rest of the stack and with your other hand pull away at an angle, using your thumbnail to keep the magnet in the hole.

Loving the angle on that Tyrant. Great. Now you make me want to convert my 3rd ed. fellow into a similar sort of dynamic.

(I have 2 but one is clearly going to be a Doom.)

gakky about your back. I hope you have a better chair now so you can keep up the great work hehehe

wyomingfox wrote:I think you misunderstood . I was refering to the 5th edition main rulebook putting the screws to the 4th edition nid codex.

Yup I totally missed that you were talking about the 4th ed Nid Dex. I actually thought the 4th ed. dex was fine at the start of 5th ed, what with the fact we had flesh hooks, grenades and cheap Carnies back then. With time I've grown to prefer 5th ed nids by far.

wyomingfox wrote:Actually, 2 of the three carnifexes are standins for Tervigons as GW hasn't released those models yet. My current list was largely inspired by tactic and BR reviews writtin by Jankinth, Hulk Smash, and Shep and currently consists of:

Tyranid Prime w/ Dual BS, DS, Toxic Sacs

Hive Tyrant w/ BS & LW, Set of TL Devours, Paroysm and Leech Essense, Adrenal Glands, and either Hive Commander or Ancient Advisary depending on the mission

2x 14 man genestealers

2x Tervigons with Cluster Spines, Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, and Toxic Sacs

2x 10 man Guants with Spinefists (Meh...they are painted from 4th )

2x 2 man Hive Guard

Carnifex with 2x TL Devourers

7 man ymargls

Interesting list. I'll have to try it sometime just to throw my opponents a curve ball. It's play style seems so utterly alien to me as I run a very "shootie" list.

Hive Tyrant w/ BS & LW, Set of TL Devours, Paroysm and Leech Essense, Adrenal Glands, and either Hive Commander and Ancient Advisary

2 x 3 Hive Guard

2 x Venomthropes

6 x Warriors Whip Sword, Deathspitter, Barbed Strangler, Adrenals (outflanking)

1 x Tervigon Adrenal, Sacs, Catalyst

6 x Biovores

2 x Carnifex with 2x TL Devourers, Adrenal (for initiative 4 on the charge)

Great use of bits on the prime, even more so using a router for drilling. One thing I really appreciate with your pics is that you showed the underside of the old Tyrant's head plates and I'd always wondered what it looked like. I'll put that to good use on the tervigon I'm working on, once I get to sculpting the head.

@Darkstarsabre: I look forward to seeing your "Doom"rant. Oh, and I have 4 3rd Ed Tyrants and a Forge World Flyrant.

@Dark_Gear: I understand what you mean by an alien play style. I ran shooty nids throughout 3rd and 4th edition. In fact, I remember getting all these dirty looks back in the days of third edition from my fellow gamers at Alantic Comics because my lists were unfluffy...they prefered nid players to emphasize CC and run head long into thier gunlines and rhino rushes. I prefered to smack thier armies at range with my only CC units being hormies whose only role was to tie thier deathstars up in CC till the end of the game .

wyomingfox wrote:@Darkstarsabre: I look forward to seeing your "Doom"rant. Oh, and I have 4 3rd Ed Tyrants and a Forge World Flyrant.

Indeed. Soon as he's stripped and ready - and probably once I've bought more green stuff for it.

My own collection? 2 FW Flyrants, 2 3rd Ed. Hive Tyrants (1 normal, 1 Doom), 2 4th ed Hive Tyrants (1 normal, 1 Swarmlord). And 4 2nd ed. Hive Tyrants (2 Tyrant Guard, 2 Hive Guard!)

Curious question. What's the base on the head plates?

OK...you win . As for the colors, the Tyrant has Shadow Grey and the Carnies have a 1:1 mix of bestial brown and dead flesh (Vallejo Colors)

Ah. So actual paint bases. I thought it was something odd.

And so not a competition.

Also - curse you Dakka! CURSE YOU! You now have me wanting to paint 'bids again....

*Whimper*

I already have Dark Elves and Exinction Angels to paint...and the Sisters of Battle I've been doing for a friend for the past few years....and my Imperial Paladins...and my Lizards....and my Death Guard...and finishing Typhus off and starting Harry the Hammer for Golden Demon....

Oh, wait...are you talking about the Oval and 60mm Bases the models are mounted on?...I thought you were refering to the head carapace.

The bases were painted with the same base colors as the models via spray paint.

For the carnies it was Rustoleums Camouflage Dark Brown (this is not a primer!). Also make sure you shake this well and test on some models you really don't like as the first spray caused a rough finish on one of my carnies, forcing me to throw it into the Simple Green Vat .

The Tyrant was painted with Krylon's Rust Tough Grey Primer.

For the past several months, I have been assembling a 2000 point army for our area's local league. Because they only require a base three colors (and since I am a slow painter) I have stuck to priming the models, washing the flesh with Babad Black, and painting the head carapace a different color.

Oh no - definately the paint, not the bases

And that explains - I take it you will be going back and torturing yourself with that beautiful detail. Clever plan too as it lets you play while you paint.

Of course...but until then I shall refer to them as Hive Fleet Dennis Rodman.

wyomingfox wrote: In fact, I remember getting all these dirty looks back in the days of third edition from my fellow gamers at Alantic Comics because my lists were unfluffy...they prefered nid players to emphasize CC and run head long into thier gunlines and rhino rushes. I prefered to smack thier armies at range with my only CC units being hormies whose only role was to tie thier deathstars up in CC till the end of the game .

Funny thing you should mention that. Last weekend after eeking out a tie against a fully meched up IG player (12 or 13 tanks in a 2k point game) I had 3 players trying to convince that my list was unfluffy because it had so much shooting and very little CC. I just shook my head and laughed. I guess a lot of players have swallowed the internet misconception that Nids are a lower tier list that can't deal with Mech at all in 5th ed. Either that or they can't stand having to think in a skirmish. <shrug>. I usually redress their concerns about not being swarmy enough by showing up with a 38 winged model Deathstar. <cue: evil grin>

So how's the Doom coming along?

Doom? I think DarkStarSabre is working on that for his bug list. I have no plans on building a Doom as I can't see putting him in any of my lists.

Yep. I think we've confused folks with this talk of Dooms (and I'm largely making him due to the sheer size of my swarm - it'd be an insult not to have things like him for Apoc games).

And Hive Fleet Dennis Rodman?

As long as it doesn't try to consume itself....

Not confused one bit, I just figured that since you've got some conversion skills, why don't we all just have a "Doom Build-Off" (TM)?

Yeah, seriously, we have enough 'Nid artists here for such an event don't you think?

Oh man that make me cry, they are beautiful

Thanks for the praise Kevlar'o


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dark_Gear wrote:I just figured that since you've got some conversion skills, why don't we all just have a "Doom Build-Off" (TM)?

Yeah, seriously, we have enough 'Nid artists here for such an event don't you think?

My conversion skills are pretty limmited. You my friend have conversion skills . Mad skills. What I do have is painting skills (and budding magnitizing skills) but it is aganizingly slow. Though I have to agree, Dakka does have its fair share of very talented nid artists and a "Doom Build-Off" (TM) would be very entertaining...especially if each participant posted his work in progress as tutorials on a compiled thread .

It has been a few months since I painted (beyond simple base colors). Think next week, I will start back on my space wolves and get those bikes and longfangs finally finished - wow, I have been working on them for over 6 months .

Officially my favorite 'nid scheme.

Thanks Raccoon and welcome to the thread

I'll def readup on the previous pages.

So...after seeing the upcoming releases for August and noticing yet more DE models on thier way, I decided to email GW customer service with a formal complaint, requesting they expedite the rollout of the plastic Tervigon.

This was thier response:

GW Public Relations wrote:Dear Tyranid Force Owner,

On Behalf of the company we would like to apologize for the vagrant neglect and open hostility that you been exposed to over the past several years. Be rest assured, that those responsible for these actions have been identified and punished for their heinous deeds. For instance, the design staff responsible for 5th edition has been shipped off to Ethiopia, where upon arrival they will be summarily fed to a litter of starving kittens. Phil Kelly, the originator of JOWW and Codex: DE has been locked in the basement closet where he is currently being co-molested by the Teletubies. Matt Ward, for his efforts in designing Codex: GK has had all his orifices stuffed with pineapples. Lastly, Robin Cruddace, the writer of Codex: IG, Codex: Tyranids, and, yes, the related FAQ, has been relocated to…Kansas. We offer up our heartfelt condolence for your past suffering. As compensation, please accept this Lollipop as well as a personal message from Jervis Johnson: He would like you to know that he had it shoved up his butt for the past three days; he humbly requests that you…

SUCK IT!

Sincerely,

GW Public Relations

Well not a WIP progress post but a little comedic relief. Anyways, this evening, I should have posted pics of my WIP on the genestealers and ymargls up.

That amused me greatly. I think GW are getting annoyed of my every comment on their Facebook 'coming Soon - Marine/DE/etc' posts being 'So....Tyranids?'

Probably not half as annoyed as all the Nid players who were left out in the cold with no second wave.

My guess is GW cancelled the 2nd wave once they realised how much more money they were making by selling:
-Arachnorok combined with Carnifex kits for Tervigon conversions.
-Straight Carnifex kits for anything but Carnifexes in general.
-Balrog wings and Trigon Kits for Harpy conversions.

Yes, we nid players are a victim of our own adaptability

Working off some stress are we?

I figured with your trouncing of Hive Fleet Pepto over the weekend (not to mention the BBQ ribs) you'd be in a pretty good mood.

Ha! That post was from Friday...Friday wasn't such a hot day for me. Hanging out with you and your family, on the other hand, put me in a great mood ...up until I went back to work on Monday

The kids were really excited (obviously) about your visit. Thanks for being so generous with them chattering at you.

No problem, having been an uncle since I was eight, I can say that I am quite a fan of the wee ones.

Up for review is my assembled squad of Ymgarl Genestealers. I like my stealers to have poses that suggest that they are carefully stalking through the enemies camp, picking off sentries who might otherwise set off an alarm. Therefore, several are posed with thier arms held shielding thier eyes, as if they are peering off into the distance, while others are pearched as if reaching out to grab some unexpectant victim. There are even a few who are carefully climbing over the remains of thier enemies. Currently, I only have the base coat painted; in this case, grey, as I plan on them being albino mutants.

Excellent poses. Really "creepy" which is just the effect you were looking for. Nice use of Tau bits too. Are you actually going to PAINT them or is this the best we can expect??

*poke* *poke*

Ooo, now those are some nice ymgarls. Of course, including the drones means you'll now need to antagonize a Tau sept. So, who's it gonna be?

Like the use of drones, Kaesar II

@Lord Kaesar II: Welcome to the blogg Lord Kaesar II! I can't think of them off the top of my head, but I believe it is the red and tan ones as I figured that would go well with the current color/base scheme.

As stated, the reason for all the recent re-building of my nid force was due to a spring campaign league that was run in Madison. It involved 6 separate missions with 4 teams representing Choas, Imperium, Creepy (Nids and Crons) and Farries. The name of the campaign was called "Road to Babad" and of course it has highly modified to allow choas, creepy, and faries into the mix. Though it all, I succeded in winning 5 out of six missions with my list, though I was blown out of the water by a DE Mechanized list in the final game. During this time, we were encouraged to post up narrative battle reports that reflected the games we played. Saddly, I only managed to write up one such narrative.

Therefore, I thought I would post the following Narative Battle Rep from Mission 5, which was against Chaos Marines:

The Warmaster Abaddon stared silently into the viewing port of containment cell as dark techno savants dissected the remains of what had once been a genestealer broodlord.

His thoughts brought a snear to his face, twisting his already scared features. Years earlier, he had secured several broods of the advanced bio organism from a drifting space hulk within the warp and placed them into stasis fields for such an occasion as the Babad War was providing. He was quite aware of the psychic signature that drew their kin closer to prey worlds and was using this to his own dark purpose. While the imperium was drawn into yet another rebellion, he had carefully seeded these organisms amongst those worlds where the fighting was harshest in hopes of maximizing the damage upon the imperium. His strategy had been quite successful…too successful perhaps. In fact, not one but two large splinter fleets from separate systems had been drawn into the Eastern fringes of the Babad system and had swiftly grown as its bioships fed upon the carnages of war, cutting off much of the sector... and was even threatening to cut off his own means of escape…only a small corridor existed and the noose was rapidly tightening. He himself had already halted an advance on a nearby moon that threatened to close off this corridor and had only recently returned. Still, his present location on this lifeless asteroid should not come under scrutiny, giving him a few more days to tie off some loose ends.

His musings were eventually interrupted by one of his champions who entered the room with a sense of urgency, the sounds of alarms growing in the distant corridors. He was to learn that several spores had, against all odds, landed 3 miles from his present location under the protection of a meteor storm and, as impossible as it sounded, that a living carpet of Tyranid organisms was making a bee line right towards his fortifications! With a curse, he ventured down into the depths of the compound to alert his second-in-command, warlord Lucius, of the unexpected threat. Upon reaching the lowest landing and advancing into a large training cell, he was greeted by a scene that instantly filled his soul with rage. Lying upon the grounds, the bodies eviscerated, was the corpses of not one but three brood lords…and hovering above this carnage was Lucius, his face twisted in ecstasy. Within a heartbeat, the Warmaster crossed the room with but a few bounding leaps and smote the warlord, flinging Lucius’s now unconscious form nearly 10 feet. For long moments, Abaddon stood over Lucius’s form, struggling with the overwhelming desire for murder, before finally withdrawing from the room. Such desires were useless and in fact fatal when faced with the particular "gifts" of Lucius. No, he would leave the fool and his fellow “Children” to the fate they thier commander had earned. After ascertaining a private channel to his subordinants, he coldly stated, “Have the "Children" abbandon the outer defenses and secure the grounds around the main compound..." He trailed off as another thought quickly asserted itself, "There is a squad of Slaanesh’s Chosen aboard my cruiser; have them ready themselves and then teleport them into... an inconvenient position south of main command post. Once complete, jam all signals in the surrounding system and have the savants destroy the compound’s teleporter. Finally, have my transporter ready to launch within the next 10 minutes with the techno savants and my Chosen aboard, scuttle the remainder.” The Warmaster had decided that now was as good as any to leave.

Lucius awoke long after the Warmaster had fled the asteroid and listened in bitter silence as he was made aware of his present position by a subordinate. His Children had been stranded upon the asteroid, the facility's teleporter had been destroyed, the communications signals within the complex were being blocked by outside interference, and a swarm of Tyranids was rapidly advancing on their position. Their only option remaining was to secure one of the two Vox Caster towers that lay both North and West of the compound and hope that the stronger signal strength could be used to send a boosted distress call to one of his Raiders out patrolling the sector. Unfortunately, the posts had already been abandoned, thanks to the Warmaster’s last orders, and were already overrun by the Tyranids. Never-the-less, Lucius wasted no time in formulating a plan and within the half-an-hour, he had organized his remaining marines into three strike forces. A squad of “Children” aboard a rhino would advance to the North with his sole defiler as escort. The second squad consisting of a cell of Obliterators led by his Champion, A Demon Prince of Slaanesh, would storm the bunker to the west, which housed the second Vox Tower. Finally, he himself would lead a second squad of Children aboard his personal Landraider in order to disrupt the advance of the main Tyranid force and buy his units additional time.

He was initially met with some measure of success, as the strike force led by the Daemon Prince was able to clear the bunker to the East of a large brood of Genestealers that had advanced ahead of the main swarm. Though his Champion had died in the process, the Obliterators were able to barricade themselves within the compound and were making thier way towards the the signal room. However, that was to be the limit of his advance. To the North, the defiler and rhino quickly found themselves torn to pieces by massed impalor cannon shards shot from two broods of Hive Guard. The stranded occupants were quickly torn to shreds as they came under assault from several waves of guants being ushered onwards by the massive psychic bulk of a Tervigon Brood Mother. The Landraider barreled into the front lines of the Tyranid host to disgorge Lucius and his squad, the swarms hive tyrant their quarry. Their advance was quickly blocked by two broods of guants that reflexively threw themselves into Lucius path. But that was only a distraction; detaching themselves from their hidden alcoves within the ruins of nearby research facility, a lethal brood of Ymarls threw themselves upon the unexpecting “Children”. As his fellow marines died around him, their heads and armored limbs torn from their bodies, Lucius himself was fatally hit by a salvo of flesh borer beetles that were able to work their way into his armor and devourer him from the inside. Through the ecstasy of death, he was just fleetingly aware of his Landraider, barreling through the swarm, the Hive Tyrant and its brood of Tyrant Guard in surprisingly swift pursuit.

What seemed like ages later, Lucius found himself far to the north, gazing at the corpses of his most devout marines, their terminator armor rended and torn by what could only have been the claws of genestealers. Thinking back...he had lost count of the number of times he had died upon the desolate battle ground to the south only to take possession of the monstrosity that had last slain him. The hive mind had unfortunately and to his great frustration learned not to send its synapse beasts into the fray once he had taken possession of a Brood Mother, sending scores of guants into synaptic death. Instead, he had had to endure death after meaningless death at the hands of nothing more than slave minded guants. Eventually, the Hive Mind must have realized his immortal nature as it had sent the last cursed beast into the wilderness, away from the swarm. He counted himself fortunate, as even his unfathomable bloodlust was starting to reach its limit under the tedious, repetitive exercise in boredom and futility. Upon assuming form, he had at once made his way to the western most Vox Caster, only to find the premises ruined, the bunkers fortified door ripped from its hinges…though what had become of the squad of Obliterators was a mystery as he was unable to find any bodies. Having found the signal equipment destroyed, he then moved on to the North, where he found himself presently. Hardening his heart and swearing and oath of revenge against the Warmaster, he trudged on, the silhouette of the Northern Vox tower growing in the distance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Objectives: Nid’s victory 2-0

END OF LINE: Nid’s Success; Chaos Fail

Line of Retreat Bonus Campaign Points: Both Nids and Chaos scored +3 Campaign points for having a unit/units in the enemy deployment zone for the last 3 full game turns. Andy earned this one with pizazz as his Land Raider managed to hold off numerous impaller cannon shots and an angry hive tyrant that repeatedly assaulted him four times during his mad dash through my deployment zone, while suffering only 4 weapon destroyed results 8-) .

SECURE THE VOX AMPS: Draw. Chaos had its second remaining unit within 3” of a Vox Caster. Nids had units within 3” of each Vox Amp.

Secure the Vox Amps Bonus Campaign Points: Nids scored +1 CBP for having units within 3” of each Vox Amp.

BOOST THE SIGNAL: Nid’s Success; Chaos Fail. Nids had an HQ unit within 3” of a Vox Amp.

Total Score: Creepy +8 CP (Death or Glory added in); Chaos +3 CP

Once again, my opponent was waylaid by horrendous bad luck :( . But Andy laughed through it all. Very classy .

I thought I would post this little tactic up for any budding nid players out there:

How to assault units partially in cover in order to deny them the benefit of cover:



Where yellow Triangles are the opponent's models with the green pentagon showing the boundaries of the area terrain. Red Crosses are the genestealers with a single lead genestealer being 4-6" away from the closest enemy model not in terrain. The remaining genestealers are grouped together roughly 2" behind the leader to ensure that they will not be able to get in B2B with models wholly in area terrain.

And just for clarification, it is not whether a unit is in cover or not, but whether the assaulting unit has to enter into cover that is the determining factor. If one of the greyknights was even a fraction outside of the bounds of the area terrain, this method would still work.

That's actually quite helpful wyfox, thanks!

Some great models you have here. I really like the light grayish paint jobs on page one.

Depraved wrote:I really like the light grayish paint jobs on page one.

Those are my albinos. They were painted up in third edition to represent tyranid mutants such as "Hivenodes" that you were allowed to take at the time. It allowed you to give a certain number of models in a unit such mutations as lashwhips, rending claws, leadership 10, or increase their strength and thoughness for an added cost. The next generation of albinos will represent special units like Tyranid Primes and one-off characters. After I get my SW bike done (pretty soon), I will start work on my ymargls, which will be painted in the albino color scheme.

@Gits: Thanks, I was thinking of posting up other diagrams of nid tips as I come across them.

I think it's a god idea.

This is a really good log here, wyomingfox - I like the discussions re. different codex editions and your use of units.

I loved your 'Gaunt gunners' on page 1, they remind me of a macro version of the Tyranid Warrior that sprouted out of the Epic Dominatrix spine!

Paint scheme is very cool. Where are you getting those green plastic plants for your bases from?

I would like to see more battle reports - I wanna see all this Tyranid dakka in action if possible

Welcome Jihad_Ragsta

I loved your 'Gaunt gunners' on page 1, they remind me of a macro version of the Tyranid Warrior that sprouted out of the Epic Dominatrix spine!

Well, now that you mention it, yeah they kinda do

Where are you getting those green plastic plants for your bases from?

They are actually hobby scenery from Pegusus Hobbies. You can see thier line of products here.

I would like to see more battle reports - I wanna see all this Tyranid dakka in action if possible

Oh, it's in the works. I have a couple friends who I've recently met who live in the area. One is dakka's own Gitsplitta. I wouldn't expect much in October, however, as I am taking some time off to travel on the weekends and enjoy the lovely Fall scenery.

OK, so I thought I would give a few very small but very divergent updates:

First up a view of my gaming table complete with lots of Pre-painted terrain! I just love it when someone does the work for me. Terrain comes from ESLO, Warmill, and some other companies. This represents about 60% of my in house terrain. I have two boards, a 5.5'x8' (pictured) and a 4' x 6' board that each fold up for storage.



Next up my Tau army as prepared for the GBU Tournement. This is an army that I had commissioned a painter to build, magnitize, green stuff, and paint for 250 dollars. The color scheme followed my design and direction. Overall, the paint job is a rough table top and the greenstuffing and oversized magnetics was pretty bad. Still, it was definately worth what I paid for it. Not expecting to do well, but my Tau is the only army which I had largely painted up.



The two crisis suit teams were repainted by yours truely 6 years ago...otherwise they looked like the broadsides being almost all ivory with some black. I didn't bother to correct the greenstuff, rough priming, or rough gs job...just simply repainted over the models. Also it is a base color + 1 highlight + 1 lined in shading. Not my best work, but I got it done in a couple weekends.





Currently, I am working on my comander which I built and magnitized on my own 3 or so years ago. Just the base colors. Personally, not happy with how the central band of electic blue is clashing with the darker blue. Think I might repaint it ivory.

wyomingfox wrote:

Currently, I am working on my comander which I built and magnitized on my own 3 or so years ago. Just the base colors. Personally, not happy with how the central band of electic blue is clashing with the darker blue. Think I might repaint it ivory.

Agreed! The scheme works really well without the darker blue to be honest!

Oh... I meant I was going to repaint the electric blue area (in the center) to ivory. The darker blue helps to visually offset the comander from the rest of the crisis suits.

wyomingfox wrote:Oh... I meant I was going to repaint the electric blue area (in the center) to ivory. The darker blue helps to visually offset the comander from the rest of the crisis suits.

Yeah, I agree, I think the dark blue is a lot better. The electric blue gives it just too many colours, and it really doesn't fit in with the rest of the scheme.
Also, could use some shading/highlighting, considering he's your commander and all.

Of course, I was just getting the base colors blocked out. I will work him up to the same quality as my most recent space wolves.

Take a trick from the marines and differentiate your commanders by removing their helmets!

Gitsplitta wrote:Take a trick from the marines and differentiate your commanders by removing their helmets!

Ummm...



No!

Interesting 'Nids. I see a lot of washes.

-Ogryn

Hi Ogryn!

Actually the most commmon was watered down Chestnut ink which was applied more as a glaze. Most of my nids were painted prior to GW amazing series of washes. So I was forced to work up from a a much darker base. For my nids, Chestnut was my primary go to and was usually applied towards the end to help tie the various layers together. The brown ink around talons, conversly, was simply painted on direct from the pot. Blank ink, however, which was used on the albinos, was applied more like a traditional wash to the darker fleshy carapace prior to highlighting. Then you have the wet blending on the carnifex; where I had to quickly add a layer and blend it into the bottom layers while the paints were still wet.

OK so, after going 1-1-1 at the GBU, I decided to ditch the stealth suits for a third team of crisis suits as well as see if I could add some outflanking kroot to the picture.

So here is the progress on that goal so far. Three fully magnitized crisi suits posed to llok as if they are just touching down while veering to avoid some enemy fire. Also 18 Kroot led by a ghostly shaper . Metal and flash don't mix well.



Also a pic of my smaller 4x6 gaming table with some different premade terrain (featuring a tau outpost I bought several years ago off ebay).

All looking good WyFox.

Just found this blog - very nice pics

Looking forward to seeing those Ymgarls painted up - though your use of posing has given me some ideas for my own when I get around to doing them

Thanks slicendice glad I could provide some inspiration

So after playing some 15 games with the new nids, I have been a bit perplexed by the poor results from my Dakkafex+Warrior Prime combo. Specifically focusing in on Mr. Fex. I've played them against SW, Vanilla SM of all flavors, DE, more SW, Tau, Sisters, Chaos, more SW, Deamons, Orcs, Nids, and GK. While I do quite well, the carnie doesn't seam to be throwing his weight around. Each time, the shooting nets me little in rewards...and in assaults...Mr. Carnie kills 2 on a good day thanks to WS 3. Nor is his unit a enemy fire magnet as the focus is usually on the horde stealers, tervies, or the Hive Tyrant.

Several people sing gospel by them, including Hulksmash. I'm just not seeing it.

I ran some numbers and they don't seem to promising either.

(Termies = Terminators)


So based on theory hammer and my personal results on the table. I think I will be giving this bad boy a rest. Maybe exchanging him for some ravenors or a Trygon.

Sadly, I fear you're quite right to retire the twin Brainleech Dakka Fex. Over the past year I've been experimenting with them as well and in roughly 20 games, I can only recall 3 times where they actually did what I wanted them to achieve. Once was against Imperial Guard. Only 1 of the 2 survived but they managed to take down 2 Chimera chassis and their contents . Their shining moment happened 2 weeks ago while fighting Chaos Marines. For this game the 2 Carnies had their weapon loadout changed from pure Dakka to Brainleech and Heavy Venom Cannon. Working in concert with Hive Guard, who'd exploded a rhino just moments before, the Carnies unleashed the small blast on the clumped up squad of 10 Berzerkers. Not only did both blasts not scatter but the squad was also within range of the Brainleech guns. The Berzerkers were vaporised right there on the spot.

As those instances of brilliance and efficiency are so few and far between, I've come to the conclusion that the points are better spent on another Tervigon and 20 more Devilgants.

For a company that claims they are first and foremost a model company, it really boggles my mind why GW would make the rules for such a beautiful (and expensive) kit so horrible...

Raveners, in spite of now having 3 wounds and new plastic kit, are just not worth it compared to Shrikes. Both units die just as easily but the Shrikes move faster, are synapse and thanks to their whips and swords, whatever unit they get to usually just vanishes. Contrary to Carnifexes, I've lost count how often Shrikes have exceeded expectations, both mine and my opponents'. The funniest such occasion was when my opponent, who didn't know how lash whips or bone swords worked, lashed a squad of 4 Warriors closer to him and charged them with only 3 Chaos Marines at his side. Things didn't end well...

Barring the use of Shrikes, a Trigon Prime would definitely be your best bet.

Yeah, I figured you would be in strong agreement; you weren't really keen on the Dakkafex in the beginning. I was highly thinking about adding another Tervie and some guants. Probably be the best bang for the buck. The only issue is that their is already a crap load of models (with 28 stealers, 2 tervies + 60-90 guant horde) on the field as is and I am already slow playing the hell out of matches.

Don't get me wrong I love the model, which is why I built 2 of them, but they're sadly not what they used to be. There is a use for them that I haven't tested yet and that is the role of bodyguards for a Hive Tyrant. Deploying 2 Dakkafexes, 2 Venomthropes and 3 Hive Guard alondside a Tyrant with Old Adversary would make for a very tenacious and shooty Death Star, especially if you give all Monstrous Creatures in the group Heavy Venom Cannons. Give the group a bubble-wrap of Hormies or Devilgants and you something that is both very hard to eliminate and too dangerous to ignore. Old Adversary would help the Fexes in CC thanks to the re-rolls so you could depend on them actually hitting something once they get in close.

As for your army, I see your point. If you already have 2 Tervies and a scittering horde there's no real point in adding another Tervie/Gant group.

As I run a very shooty Nids, what I typically sub in for the Dakkafexes is one of the 3 options.

6 Hive Guard, 2 Biovores

3 Hive Guard, 1 Trigon Prime with Adrenal Glands

6 Biovores, 2 Venomthropes

(20 points leftover for more Gants)

The second option tends to be my favourite as I get 8 more T6 wounds, an extra 6 shots at 24 with a higher strength as well as an extra source of Synapse.

Are there any options you've been pondering to replace the Dakkafexes or to try and make them more effective?

Well, I never went the two Dakkfex route. I always kept it to 1 dakkafex with attached Alpha Warrior. The alpha warrior which can jump in and out of squads seems to hold his own, so I could keep him and attach him to either the Hive Tyrant squad or HG unit and from there he can jump into guant spam squads if nessessary.

Otherwise, if I ditch both, that leaves me with 300 points.

I am going to change up my elites which are currently 2-2 man hive guard squads and 7 man Ygmarls. The Dakkafex represented a much needed shooty unit (its just that it sucks at the job IMHO). Therefore, I will be replacing the Ygmarls with a third 2 man HG unit. That nets me 68 points to spend elsewhere. I love ygmarls, but I need some more anti-mech dakka...that ignores cover.

So I've replaced one shooty unit with a better, cheaper shooty unit. But I am out a fast CC unit as Ymargls pop up usually on turns 2 thanks to Hive Commander...and in the back field (and a synapse if I don't keep the Alpha Warrior). So I have 268 points (or over 368 points if I shunt the Alpha), no open elite slots, 3 open heavies, and 3 open fast attacks. I need a fast CC unit to prop up the stealer swarm in the first wave...(and a synapse if I dump the Alpha Warrior).

Oh, have any of you guys assembled the new Tervie? If so, do you think you can magnitize all the parts to convert between the T-Fex and Tervie? Going to have to buy two of those to replace my carnifex stand-ins, and I like to magnitize models so as to help save time on painting.

humm, 268 points eh? Do you already have a Trigon Prime? It's fast (initiative wise), it's durable, has synapse and is more effective than Genestealers for popping Dreadnoughts in the backfield due to it's Strength.

As for the new Tervie kit, looking at the sprues on GW's website, it appears as though the kit could easily be magnetised to allow for all options. The Gant sacs look as though they just slot over the belly of the beast. As long as you don't mind seams showing up you should be fine.

hey wyoming just saw your blog on gits' blog and thought i would pop on in and say hello and great job cant wait to see waht your nids are doing next i got a buddy starting nids he has already 1000 points of stuff. i was wondering if you had any more tips that i could pass on to him

@Alabama: Welcome to the mini blogg . Well, my next project will be building 2 Tervies and another Trygon.

As to advice: I think knowing your list inside and out is about as important as creating a good list. Our codex has alot of rules and synergies which makes it a bit harder to play than the simple point and shoot armies of IG and SW. Also being able to correctly guess 12" and 6" distances is critical as most of your best synergistic abilities are at this range (Catalyst, SITW, Paradox, and Synapse are all 12", where as the tervies guant buffs and the HT prefered enemy bubble are 6".

For list building some of the more desirable units in the codex are: Tyrant w/a Guard (Paradox, Preferred Enemy Bubble, and/or Bonuses to Reserves are great synergies), Hive Guard (your only reliable anti-tank ranged weapon), Ygmarls (combined with Tyrant's Hive Commander, makes a good backfield hitter early on), Genestealers (strong cc unit), Trygon (strong cc unit), Tervigons (Catalyst, scoring, creates scoring units, and guant buff are great synergies), Parasite (hinders opponents outflankers and is a great leader for a swarm of gargoyles), Gargoyles w/ adrenals and toxic sacs(economical cc unit), guants (to make your Tervie a troop choice). In building a list, these units should form the majority of the points used.

I tend to stay very minimalistic when it comes to upgrades as I prefer a larger number of bodies. This is because tyranids are very much a "in your opponent's face" type of army and therefore sustain horrendous casualties crossing the board. So I avoid giving my Tervies anything beyond Catalyst, Adrenals, and Sacs. Genestealers and guants run naked (guants get buffs from the tervies instead). Gargoyles would be the only exception as thier TS and Adrenal upgrades are cheap and they can't get these benefits from an outside source.

@Dark Gear: I ended up cuting some point here and there and ended up taking 2 Trygons. At this point, I am going to see how the army plays with three synapse (the Tyrant Brood and the two Tervies).

For list building some of the more desirable units in the codex are: Tyrant w/a Guard (Paradox, Preferred Enemy Bubble, and/or Bonuses to Reserves are great synergies), Hive Guard (your only reliable anti-tank ranged weapon), Ygmarls (combined with Tyrant's Hive Commander, makes a good backfield hitter early on), Genestealers (strong cc unit), Trygon (strong cc unit), Tervigons (Catalyst, scoring, creates scoring units, and guant buff are great synergies), Parasite (hinders opponents outflankers and is a great leader for a swarm of gargoyles), Gargoyles w/ adrenals and toxic sacs(economical cc unit), guants (to make your Tervie a troop choice). In building a list, these units should form the majority of the points used

That's a very sound bit of advice and very similar to what I already espouse. The key difference between our approaches is that I privilege shooting over CC as I'm loathe to run headlong into an army while doing no damage during the encroachment phase. This means that Hormogaunts and Genestealers rarely, if ever, have a place in my list.

Keep in mind I'm not saying that Genestealers or Hormogaunts aren't good, I'm just saying that to use them well you need to build your list to support them and that such a list is not my play style.

Trigons are definitely a great choice in the Heavy Support slot. By fielding 2 of them you'll find that you'll almost always have one pop up on a turn 2, leading to a convenient turn 3 charge. They make a great outflanker or counter outflanker. The one thing I don't quite like about them is that tunnel is about as effective as a Webway Portal, i.e., not at all. On boards with a lot of tall terrain, and thus grant cover to the Trigon, the models can be very hard to eliminate, which means your opponent will invariably have to divert a lot of resources to clear whatever is being chewed up.

Can't wait to hear more about your testing.

Yeah, the tunnel is about as effective as the lictor's support abilities (scatter mitigation and reserve bonus)...as in not effective .

Not sure how they thought a reserve bonus that only occurs after the unit arrives from reserve was a good thing.

Or why you can't just deploy Lictors on the table.

Just to flog a dead horse—If GW were serious about being first and foremost a model company, not a game company, one would think they would do their best to have terrific rules for all of their models... Lictors, Carnies, Pyrovores, Raveners, Mandrakes and Talos in particular come to mind.

Heck, even Hive Guard or Zooanthropes could benefit from having larger squad size.

The best piece of gear for tampering with Reserves belongs to the Tau IMHO. If Lictors could force a single unit out of reserves per tun, while forfeiting any other reserve rolls that turn, I'm thinking many Nid players would have bought the model. As it stands Lictors are merely cool bitz of scenery on my dusty shelves.

Cool blog dude!

The paint scheme for your 'Nids is sweet, very natural looking. I might just have to absorb some of your biomass utilise your ideas for my 'Nids!

fox and gear,

thanks for the advice ill be sure to pass it along to him right now he lacks any sort of heavy support. like i said when i first posted its only a thousand points but it will get bigger

yea i agree with the webway portal thing ( i play the deldar)

LostSoulCasey'sLaw wrote:Cool blog dude!

The paint scheme for your 'Nids is sweet, very natural looking. I might just have to absorb some of your biomass utilise your ideas for my 'Nids!

Welcome to the mini-blogg. Glad you like.

OK so...started painting again after 2 months of playing SWTOR and decided to return to painting some albino nids. The work so far: the skin is complete but for some shadow grey cammo spots near the base of his limbs. Otherwise, all that is left is to work on the upper carapace (spacewolf grey fade to white), the feeder tenticles (purple) and the claws/talons (ivory).

I like him wyfox... it's a good scheme. Are you going to color the splits in the skin any differently? I'd always imagined they were exposing some kind of inner tissue that might have a different color?

I assume you are talking about the gills on the legs and arms. No. If you look at my other nids you will notice they are simply shaded and the ridges highlighted so that all in all the areas become darker. Toxic sacs, adrenal glands, tenticles and various other sacs get a fleshy purple color.


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I also noticed that some areas of the skin have a yellow cast. That is the spot lights from my new photo light box. Pic was also taken with my new camera. The skin is various shades of nuetral grey.

looks good man! you guys depress me with my paintbrush thats all im gonna say
seriously great work man good to have you back from the empire

Hi Alabama.

Good to be back and thanks for the compliments. It really all comes down to practice and learning to thin your paints to a milk like consistancy (2%).

I've been painting since I was 16 (now nearing 32) and these were some of my earliest models:



So cheer up, things only get better with time...except back issues

i already have back issues thanks to the army. man those guys still look better than mine im jealous eh ill get there one day. now off the mmo and get your paintbrush good sir and show some awesome off.

Just a thought, but what Carnie needs is Bio-Plasma. It's a 12" Plasma Cannon that doesn't get hot. Excellent against MEQs.


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Also, here's a name: Hive Fleet Stygian.

Heah Squigs,

Bio-Plasma would be nice if it wasn't a 20 point upgrade on a model that is horribly overcosted as is. For now, I have simply shelved my carnies. If 6th edition makes them worth thier weight in points, then adding a bio-plasma head would be easy sinch the current ones are magnitized .

Hmmm Stygian. What does that name refer to?

I don't actually know. I know it means something biblical, but I actually got the name from Darksiders, to be specific, a gigantic ashworm called The Stygian.

"The word Stygian as an adjective, usually refers to the River Styx of the underworld Hades." (from Wikipedia)

Stygia was also one of the kingdoms in the world inhabited by Conan the Barbarian.

LOL guys, I actually kind of like the sound of it "Hive Fleet Stygian"

Glad to be of service! However, I may steal the albino idea, just to break up the monotony on my models. After all, imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

Go right ahead Squigs

Thank you! I shall test it out tommorow, if I get round to it.

No problem, just remember to post the results on DakkaDakka and post a note pointing me to them

So a shot of what I have been up to this past week. Basically assembling and magnitizing a Tervigon I purchased over 6 weeks ago.



All of the magnets used are Neodymium Magnets from K&J Magnetics with the following dimensions

Body (Arm attachments): 1/8" x 1/8"

Adrenal Gland: 1/8" x 1/16" and I left 1/32" or 1/2 of the magnet exposed

Arms (Body attachment): 1/8" x 1/8"

Arms (Toxic attachments): 1/16" x 1/8"

Toxic Sac: 1/16" x 1/32"

Legs (Adrenal attachments): 1/16" x 1/8"

The adrenal glands fit quite well on the top carapace of the back legs' thighs; the adrenal gland fitbest with the "tail" pointing down along the length of the thigh. The 3-sac toxic sac fits best on the lower inside of the scything talon arm's forearm.

As of tonight, I have just finished greenstuffing the model to cover up the damage I did in magnitizing the model. I ended up rotating the head slightly and cocking it to the side. As a result, I had to greenstuff some tendons to cover up the large gap that was created.

Otherwise, the Tervigon was an amazingly well designed and executed model, with little in the way of flash or moldlines and all-in-all the parts fit together very well (especially when compared to the carifex, which always had an issue with lining up the vents). There was only a few minor gaps that needed to be green stuffed over where the parts didn't fit perfectly together.

Nice job wyfox. Looking forward to seeing it painted!

Awesome!

As for my first attempt at an albino gaunt...it failed.

Thanks guys . So Squigs, what happened? What made it a failure?

Well basically it looked nothing like an albino. I tried painting it to look like it had translucent skin with visible veins, and, well...it didn't work very well. The wash and the glaze went a bit wrong...

Ah, any pictures?

Interesting... I'm heading in that direction (albino) for the Hordes "Pureblood" wolf I'm working on. I too would be interested in seeing the pics of your attempt... would probably teach me a lot.

I will try and get a picture, no can do today though. Going to see Prometheus, so I will be occupied for the rest of the day.

So what ever happened to that picture squigs

Well, a small update that I am ashamed to say took all of 2 hours to procure.



It is the start of the buildup on the carapace. Basically it is the base coat (wolf grey) + shade (nuln oil) + reapplication of the basecoat. However, I ended up redoing this stage 3 times as I just didn't like the effect. I kept getting these jaring transitions in the recesses as well a tendency to have the base color (which was heavily deluted) flow into the shaded areas. Finally just painted over the entire back with wolf grey, applied a wash of nuln oil, built up the ridges with wolf grey, and then applied a few thin layers of wolf grey over the entire model. Tidied up a few transitions and called it a night.

From here I will build up the ridges from wolf grey to ghost grey and finally to white, hopefully in significantly less time.

Ah. Sorry. Completely forgot. Whoops!

The nuln oil (whatever the heck that is) doesn't do much for shading does it? I think you'd be better off with a dark grey base coat and building it up from there without the wash.

Gitsplitta wrote:The nuln oil (whatever the heck that is) doesn't do much for shading does it? I think you'd be better off with a dark grey base coat and building it up from there without the wash.

Nuln Oil is the new Shade equivalent of GW's old Babad Black Wash. It pretty much performs the same. It actually does shade. It is just that I couldn't make the transition work as the base paint used to highlight the ridges kept flowing into the deep crevaces. So after building up the ridges of the carapace, I went back over the entire model with very thinned out wolf grey. So the shading is barely there but the transition is smooth.

Prior to that I tried starting with a dark base coat twice and transitioning to wolf grey and was repeatedly let down with the results. The thinned paints tend to flow into the deep resesses making a complete wreck of the shading. Pissed the hell out of me.

Did you try putting the figure upside-down for drying? I do that all the time for Thing 2's nids.

No...you do that when you are re-applying the base coat to a shaded area?

For me, the paint was running into the resesses when I was applying it?

OK...so went back and adding a wee bit of cold grey to wolf grey, applied it into the crevices. So the recesses are a bit darker now. Then worked the carapace up to Ghost Grey and finally White. So Carapace is done.

Much better, nicely done wyfox.

So Gits, about hanging models upside down to dry, do you do that for washes, glazes or...? Seems like the wash would travel out of the recesses that way?

I haven't used an glazes yet... not even sure what they are.

I brace the model so that the wash concentrates in the cracks of the carapace... whatever orientation that happens to be. Nose down, backwards, upside-down, etc. If I'm doing a wet blend (which is essentially a lighter wash), I may do the exact opposite so the pigment concentrates on the highest areas.

Ah, thanks for the explanation . By the way, when are we having fish dinner this weeked

Saturday. Say 6 PM?

Sold


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Ah crap...actually I just saw that I am going to be down in Madison for a Financial Planning Seminar. So I won't be available Saturday :(

Hmmm... I'll check on Sunday.

Well I am off to South Korea and won't be back in the states till July 8. I wish you all a wonderful time in experiencing the new 6th edition

Hopefully by then I'll have my new computer up and running and will have spammed my own thread with photos of me hugging it. Considering I get to order it on Friday.

Have fun wyfox!

Thanks. I'm currently at OHare airport waiting for my plane to take off at noon. Had a late night getting stuff wrapped up at work and got home at 9pm. A bit tired and hoping I can get some sleep on the plane.

How long is the flight?

16 plus hours if i remember correctly gits

Oh man... I don't envy you!

i did that flight several times when i was in the army

17 hours to busan...but I have a connecting flight in Seoul. The plain ride is around 12 hours. Hopefully I can sleep through most of it.


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The flight attendants are super cute by the way.

I demand pictures!

Actually the women of South Korea are super cute in general and tend to show off there legs like American women emphasize their chest.

Gotta like that!

What time is it over there?? Should be late PM?

It was a 13 hour difference or so ahead. Just got back to Chicago btw.

Glad to have you back wyfox... quite an adventure I'm guessing.

hooray for making it back home in one piece

Thanks guys

So a bit of the rundown on my Trip:

Friday

Just got back from the historical seat of the Silla Empire. Visited a palace, the Bulgusa and Sakutam budist temples, several royal tombs which are really massive massive burial mounds, and a 1000+ year old observatory.

Saturday

Visited the Busan Korean War memorial and cemetery, the balmosa temple, the ocean temple, and the history museum. Then had a great barbeque meal of duck and beef.

Sunday

Took a speed train to Seoul yesterday. They go up to 180 mph! Visited Deoksugong Palace in Seoul. Ate at the Cheonggyecheon River District and visited the Myeongdong Shopping District. Koreans tend to stay out and shop till midnight or later drinking and such as well.

Monday

So yesterday we hiked in Bukhansan Mountain National Park. We climbed to Beakundae Peak which is the highest peak in Seaoul. After washing up we met Heath's friend Su who was Miss Busan in the 1990s and was also the 9pm anchor women for the news. We went to the Namsan Tower.

Tuesday

So yesterday me and Heath Horner visited Suwon and spent the day touring the Korean Folk Village that is similar in presentation to Old World Wisconsin in that it is a collection of old period buildings (from the 19th century) that have been moved to the park...including temples, mansions, pheasant hovels, ect. We saw the people perfoirm the Farmers Dance while we were there. That afternoon, we hiked along the Hwaseong Fortress, a massive 3 mile circular wall that encompasses several city blocks.

Wednesday

Today we hung around Seoul. We visited the Sejeong Museum...a tribute to King Sejeong, the most popular king of the Josean Dynasty who invented the Korean Alphabet. We passed through Gwanghamun Gate into Gyeongbokgung Palace, the grandest of the Josean Palaces where we saw the Changing of the Palace Guard. We ran through the Korean Folk Museum before making out way to Changdeokgung Palace and Biwon Gardens. Lastly, we spent the evening touring the Insadong Traditional Market.

Thursday

So Thursday we went to the DMZ and visited Paju where we saw the Freedom Bridge, the oldest train in Korea, the third infiltration tunnel in Imjinkak, Tongil Unification Observatory, and the last train station before North Korea that was meant to connect to the trancontinental railroad. We finished the day by visiting Seoul's National History Museum.

Friday

On Friday, we traveled by bus to Sokcho, located on the North East Coast, where we stayed at an old "James Bond"-esque era hotel called Seorak Park Hotel. We took a taxi over to Seoraksan National Park where we hiked up to Biryong Waterfalls, then took a cable car to Gwongeumsong Peak, visited a massive seated bronze budda constructed in 1997 located near Sinheungsa Temple. We then traveled 10 minutes south to Naksansa Temple located on the cliffs overlooking the coast, which was originally founded during the Silla Period but has been destroyed 4-5 times, the lastest being 2005 during a forest fire. There you can see a 12 meter white buddavista known as HaesuGwaneumsang. Afterwards we had a local dish of squid sundae -- sliced squid stuffed with noodles, tofu, and spices and then fried in eggs.

Saturday

Today, we traveled to Andong and visited the Hahoe Village, a village dating back 600 years old with many buildings built in the 1500s and the birthplace of Ryu Sengryong, the Korean strategist and war hereo who drove the Jaqpanese out of Korea during the first invasion, Imjinwaeran. These period buildings are still lived in by the respective descendants! There we saw a 1 hour Korean Mask Dance. We then made our way back to Buson where we enjoyed a local treat called Honey Bread...pretty much really thick texas toast, drenched in honey, toasted and then topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce. To our suprise, our hotel ended up being a "love hotel". You can probably imagine what the normal patrons are... though budget families and backpackers stay at them as well as they are normally pretty luxourous and quite cheap.

sounds like you had a very good time. well take it easy jet lag and all that and hopefully work wont suck too much for you tomorrow

What a trip! Going to be a real let down to get back to a normal life after all that excitement.

Thanks guys. Believe it or not, I don't get jet lag. Never have. I think it is because I can't sleep on planes. So when I get to my destination, I stay up till nightfall and then crash for 8-9 hours. When I wake up in the morning, I am rejuvinated and ready to go.

So just completed my second magnitized tervigon and have ordered some basing materials that are in the mail, including some cork board and winter grass clumps. In the mean time, I will be working on some born sword conversions for my Magnitized Hive Tyrant...go go Swarmlord!

Those are pretty large mounds of plastic! Looking forward to seeing them get painted.

Hardy Har Har. I'm looking forward to you painting them as well ;P"

Not bloody likely!

Spent the morning working on a set of bone sabres for my magnitized tyrant. For the upper arms, I used a old 3rd edition set of scything talons. I did this as the older version of MC arms have larger spaces between the arm sections allowing me to easily separate them for a more extended swing. For the lower limbs, I used a newer 4th edition set of lower MC scything talons from the carni set. The blades are from Paulson Games and have been slightly modified.

The first pic on the left shows the components unaltered. The photo on the right shows the bits cut up and sanded ready for assembly as well as a hint of the poses. I was hoping to take a pic of the parts put to gether with putty...but the Uhu tac I have doesn't cut it by any means...not sticky or sturdy enough so the parts just fell off.



Do modelers use some other type of tac? I started to use some "green stuff" (just the blue component), but I saw that it leaves a residue befind and the tyrant is already base coated.

Looks very promising wyfox. Nice job cutting and pasting those arm parts!

No pasting yet. The bent arm comes like that.

So got some Duck putty from Menards and was finally able to pose the arms on my Tyrant:



Gives you an idea what I am going for.

Anyways got my first game in against a local opponent at the lab, a dark eldar player. Army Buidler was down and he got tired of doing math, so he estimated that he gave me a 100 point handicap. Still, its dark eldar vs Tyranids (traditionally our worst matchup) and this is my first 6th edition game, so I am still expecting to be tabled by turn 3.

Edit: When I built his list using Army Builder, it actually came to around 1900 points. I probably have some upgrades off as I am going from memory but the minimum should have been at least 1834, so much closer than we thought.

OK so here is the progress so far!



Step 1 Select Parts: For the upper arms, I used a old 3rd edition set of scything talons. I did this as the older version of MC arms have larger spaces between the arm sections allowing me to easily separate them for a more extended swing. For the lower limbs, I used a newer 4th edition set of lower MC scything talons from the carni set. The blades are from Paulson Games.

Step 2 Modify Parts: For the upper arms, I removed the scything blades and the flesh parts between the arm segments. For the lower limbs, I removed the scything blades only. For the upper bone swords, I removed the bone protusion from the back of the hilt. For the lower bone swords, I removed the pike on the tip of the blade.

Step 3 Position: Using Duck Putty (a type of blue tack) I positioned the various arm segments into the pose I desired.

Step 4 Mark: While the parts were adhered to the model in thier target poses, I took a couple different colored markers and ran straight lines down the legth of the arms to help allign them during assembly. Also, while holding the arms firm and in the selected position, I used a dremel with a very small drill bit to drill a hole through the shoulder into the arm socket. This way, when I was later drilling out the hole for the magnet to go in I would have aan easy reference for the angle and position to drill out the hole.

Step 5 Magnet and Pinning the Upper Arm: I simply positioned the shoulder part so that the arm socket was facing up and I could look straight down the hole I had made in the previous step. I then dry fitted the magnet in. I actually didn't glue the magnet untill all the parts were assembled, properly alligned and test fitted on the model. I then drilled a deep hole with a thin pin vise drill that ran down the center of thh arm in parallel. Then glued a piece of wire in.I used a thinner wire and I wanted it to bend a bit for adjustments.

Step 6 Pinning the Forearm and Bone Sabres: I simply positioned the shoulder part so that the arm socket was facing up and I could look straight down the hole I had made in the previous step. I then dry fitted the magnet in. I actually didn't glue the magnet untill all the parts were assembled, properly alligned and test fitted on the model. I then drilled a deep hole (over a 1/4") into the upper arm section with a thin pin vise drill that ran down the center of the arm in parallel. Then glued a piece of wire in -- I used a thinner 22 guage wire as I wanted it to bend a bit for adjustments. I then drilled a deep hole down the center of the forearm and dryfitting the wire, I kept cutting it down until only a narrow gap remained at the elbow. Before glueing, I used the markings that ran down the side of the arms to help allign the sections. I repeated this step for the hand mounted bone swords: first drilling a hole into the forearm, then inserting drilling into the center of the wrists. While dryfitting the blade, I had to bend the wire downwards at an angle as shown.

Step 7 Final Adjustments: With the parts all lined up and glued to the wires, I then positioned the assembled arm to the model for some last second bending and positioning. I then glued the magnet into place. Note: the hole I left allowed the glue to escape through the back of the arm rather than the socket...a real nice feature as it was easy to wipe the excess glue away.

Note: for the right arm swinging backwards I had such an ackward angle that part of the original arm socket was sticking out, forcing me to dremmel the plastic down to form a new shoulder. You can see the scrape marks where the original socket was. As pictured in the photo, the magnet which was protruding out of the hole, then became the new socket socket with some green stuff work of course.

Step 8 Lower Arms: I simply repeated step 5 and step 7 above (skipping Step 6 as I never separated the Upper arm from the Forearm). The blades were positioned downwards in a guard pose.

Step 9 Coming Together: All swords assembled, magnitized and in position.

Step 10 Smile: Look at how happy he is

Cool beans!

Some pictures of the progress I have made over the past few weeks:

First up a pic of my Parasite of Mortrex, a Kit Bash Conversion using: a Chapterhouse Alien Head, Tyranid Warrior Head, Tyranid Warrior Flesh Hooks, Ravenor Torso, Ravenor Tail and Ravenor Rending Claws, 3rd Edition Ravenor Scything Talons, FW Tyranid Warrior Wings, and greenstuff.



Second is my assembled base for my 2nd Tervigon, featuring a magnetized ripper to represent ability to produce babies (intelectual property properly stolen from Gits)



Lastly, the majority of my 40 assembled bases (some are currently being used in an ongoing game) for... well, I will let you guys guess . Anyways, this was my first experience with corkboard in simulating rock outcroppings and I have to say that I am now hooked on the stuff.

Don't think the last pic is what you wanted (it's a duplicate of the second pic). Nice work on those bases though.

Fixed and thanks

Looking good!

Thanks Squigsquasher. I want to tie up some loose ends this week. Finish painting my Ygmarl test piece and complete the swarm lord conversion. Oh, and I've officailly changed my fleet's name to Stygian . Thanks!

I assume those bases are for the little flying gaunt things?

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I assume those bases are for the little flying gaunt things?

Getting warm...but they aren't gaunts . Though in 3rd edition there was a unit called NightGaunts. The 3rd edition codex was significantly more mutable than either of its descendants. For example, you could give termigaunts wings...which the codex refered to as nightgaunts and was a fast attack choice.

Also, harpies were a species of winged warriors in the 3rd edition codex.

Well let's see... small things that could fly... you can give rippers a kind of wings can't you? But they'd need to be on 40mm bases to be correct. Gargoyles?? Is that the word for the smaller flying critters?

Yep! Gargoyles!

Ah.... and the Tyranid air force is born! You going to make those flying warrior guys too?

Shrikes?


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Oops, didn't notice there was another page.

Gitsplitta wrote:Ah.... and the Tyranid air force is born! You going to make those flying warrior guys too?

Squigsquasher wrote:Shrikes?

Though I have enough wings to assemble 5 shrikes (what 5th edition calls warriors with wings), I really don't think they are very competitive given thier 5+ armour save and high point cost. For now, my warriors are gathering table dust.

OK. Completed the Swarm Lord Conversion!

Following up on my assembly guide:

Step 11: On the upper arms, filled in the rough shape of the elbow and sculpted the wrist with green stuff.

Step 12: On the lower arms, sculpted the wrist with greenstuff.

Step 13: Sculpted the shoulder and shoulder socket as well as expanded the carapace of the forearms around the elbow

Step 14: Sculpted the fleshy folds at the joint above the elbow (after the previous steps have cured) and glued elbow spikes into place (small spikes come from the tervigon/T-fex kit that run along the stoumach)

Step 15: Green stuffed the gaps around the elbow spikes, further enlarged and sculpted the wrists, and glued 2 overlapping carapace pieces from the Tyranid Warrior frame onto the shoulder and greenstuffed some connecting issues.

The finished product is pictured below.

Looks great!

May I ask, why is the Tyrant plastic? I thought the 3rd Edition Hive Tyrant was metal?

Anyway, long live Stygian!

I thougt the Swarm Lord had wings... or am mistaken?

Looks fantastic though!

 Squigsquasher wrote:
Looks great!

May I ask, why is the Tyrant plastic? I thought the 3rd Edition Hive Tyrant was metal?

Anyway, long live Stygian!

Thanks Squigs . To answer your question: the 3rd edition Hive Tyrant was a combi kit that included a metal body and plastic biomorphs and plastic arms with weapons. The body of my Hive Tyrant is indeed metal (though the torso was extended by the model's previous owner); it is just that the body has been painted with a grey primer followed by a black wash. The grey primer is probably throwing you off.


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 Gitsplitta wrote:
I thougt the Swarm Lord had wings... or am mistaken?

Looks fantastic though!

Nope the Swarm Lord is flightless and is armed with 4 bone sabres. Thanks for looking !

My pleasure, always fun to see you work on your nids!

It was a fun project, I haven't had an extensive experience in green stuffing, so this was a significant trial for me. Still, it is mostly a kit-bash -- though one that required alot of cutting, filing and gap filling. I am also really happy about the pose. If I remember correctly, the idea of reversing the holding stance of the lower limbs was yours .

Ah, That makes sense. Thank you!

 Squigsquasher wrote:
Ah, That makes sense. Thank you!

No problem. I am pretty much in denial that thier even exists a plastic hive tyrant due to what I see as a grossly bulbous design more akin to a ponderous carnifex than a sleek agile preditor that the hive tyrant is suppose to be. Fortunately, I own 4 metal HT and a FW flying one.

So a bit of fluff on my Tyranid Fleet in preparation of Dakka's worldwide 40K campaign!

Splinter Fleet Stygian was first encountered in 744 M41 upon the Desert World of Masali in the Ultima Segmentum during the First Tyrannic War. The organisms that assaulted the Agri World proved to be extremely adaptive, camouflaging their chitinous plates to blend into the surroundings and readapting their organs to withstand the hot arid environment within hours of making landfall. Unlike the fleet core that assaulted Ultramar, the organisms of Stygian did not launch a war of attrition. To evade the debilitating day time temperatures and artillery bombardments, the tyranids burrowed into the desert surface, emerging from underneath the Hab-Dome settlements to attack at night. Such hyper adaptability is likely due to a second Swarm Lord operating in the system that was labeled the Moor Stalker by the local Masali population it terrorized.

After the annihilation of Behemoth at the hands of the Dominus Astra, the splinter fleet fled its occupation of Masali and escaped into the empty regions of the Ultima Segmentum. In doing so, it narrowly avoided the wrath of the surviving ships of the Tempustus Imperial Fleet that otherwise cleansed the worlds surrounding Ultramar of any remaining xenos threat.

Having lost all contact with its host fleet Behemoth over a quarter of a century ago, the splinter fleet has since wandered from the Ultima Segmentum, preying upon isolated agri worlds in route. Uncannily, it has been without exception that Stygian’ s prey worlds have been left poorly defended whether due to environmental disasters, viral outbreaks, or warfare in other parts of the sector that have drawn its defender’s away. In this way, Stygian has been able to steadily grow with little expenditures of resources or biomass, evidence that the Moor Stalker of Masali is very much alive and an ever growing threat to the galaxy.

To date, rogue traders whisper of a looming threat that gathers on the outskirts of the Ventis Majoris subsector -- for the ravaging wars of the 13th Black Crusade and the resulting devastation have drawn the attention of the opportunistic predations of Splinter Fleet Stygian.

Nice wyfox. Sneaky nids... just what the galaxy needs...

Regarding Shrikes, I never take a list without them. Deep Striking synapse on demand is awesome. just give a squad of 5 death spitters and watch the carnage begin. 5+ is kinda bad, but they have 3 wounds each and a fearsome assault line. If nothing else, its great for attention. The trygon on the other side of the table isnt as scary when there are 15 ws5 s4 attacks suddenly coming from right next to you. AND they get to reroll 1's

I fully agree about Shrikes being an awesome but I usually run them with Whips and Boneswords, whatever they pounce on typically does not survive too long. And you said 15 wounds is not too easy to put down either.

So finally completed painting the test Ygmarl




Photo Shoot #2

That's looking really good wyfox! Nicely done.

Yeah, I am having a hard time with my current lightbox.

I think it is just way to large to get enough light on the model.

Well, you need to have lights that match the box... true.

I think it is just way to large to get enough light on the model.

If your camera is on a tripod, you will always have enough light as long as it's even light. The trick is to lower your shutter speed until it's low enough to get enough light for the shot, say, 1/50th or even a whole second if your len's aperture is stopped down to something like f16 so you can a really wide depth of field.

Also, if you have the option on your camera, you might try bracketing the shot so you can then combine 3 photos in photoshop to get good highlights and shadows.

Barring the above options, you might also consider getting stronger bulbs for your softbox.

That is some great advise Dark Gear!

Actually I don't have a Tri-pod. Guess I can put that on the wish list .

And shutter speed over apiture plays a larger role?

What do you mean by bracketing?

Otherwise, what type of bulbs would you suggest?

You're welcome.

If you don't have a tripod, try setting up some kind of platform for the camera so it remains steady when you're shooting.

Shutter speed doesn't necessarily play a larger role than aperture, they work together to control how much light comes into the camera.

[technical session warning]

While shutter speed only controls 1 facet of photographic exposure, time, aperture controls 2 facets, amount of light and depth of field, a.k.a. how much of an image will be in sharp focus.

To get as much of a model in focus as possible you need a wide depth of field which means that you should close the aperture down to a higher number, such as from f2.8 to f11.

While this reduces the amount of light coming in through the lens, it also reduces the amount of light that will bounce around inside the camera, meaning you get a sharper image.

Each full stop of aperture either doubles or halves the amount of light going through the lens depending on whether you open or close the aperture, respectively. This relates directly to your exposure time because you would have to double or half your shutter speed to maintain the same exposure, depending on how you change your aperture.

How does bracketing fit in all this? Bracketing is a technique whereby you'll take the same shot 3 times but with 3 different aperture setting, one being your base and the other 2 shots being 1 stop higher and lower. This basically gives you a wider range of light values that you can then combine in photoshop by blending the layers together. In the days of film cameras it was a way to increase the chances of getting a successful shot when you weren't sure of the exposure, whereas nowadays, thanks to software, you can easily combine all the shots into a high dynamic range image, more commonly known as an HDR image.

[/technical session warning]

So in plain english, this means that if you're not getting enough light for your photos, you can either use a smaller aperture number (opening up the lens and reducing your depth of field) or decrease your shutter speed so you get a longer exposure, thus maintaining full depth of field. The reason you need a tripod for a longer is that unless you have really steady hands, holding an exposure of 1/100th sec with a macro lens, or 1/30th sec with a 50mm lens is not easy. Camera shake equals blurry photo.

So before I can give you solutions, I have 2 questions:

1. How is your lightbox setup? Please take a picture and post it here or to my email: darkgearphoto@gmail.com.
2. What's your camera?

From there i'll be able to see how we can tweak you setup. It might as easy as pushing it further on the desk, and putting a stack of books for your camera to rest on so you can take longer exposures and not have to worry about camera shake.

Don't worry, we'll have you taking crazy good shots in no time.

Dark Gear that is amazing and actually easy to understand. Thanks. I will get the info to you tonight when I am back home. Thanks again!

Looking forward to it.

 Dark_Gear wrote:

How does bracketing fit in all this? Bracketing is a technique whereby you'll take the same shot 3 times but with 3 different aperture setting, one being your base and the other 2 shots being 1 stop higher and lower. This basically gives you a wider range of light values that you can then combine in photoshop by blending the layers together. In the days of film cameras it was a way to increase the chances of getting a successful shot when you weren't sure of the exposure, whereas nowadays, thanks to software, you can easily combine all the shots into a high dynamic range image, more commonly known as an HDR image.

How on earth do you "blend" shots in photoshop?? Inquiring minds want to know. (Well, one inquiring mind anyway...)

That's a really good question. Due to the amount of steps involved, I have a feeling I should do a step-by-step tutorial with images.

I'll exalt that idea .

Ditto.

Then gentlemen, tie your hats down with duct tape, you're getting yourselves a tut!

p.s.: Might take a few days to produce but I'll post the link in here when it's up.

I'm sure it'll be well worth the wait DG... thank you.

That will be awesome! Thanks Dark Gear!...now I just need to buy Photoshop.


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So a pic of my work station



My Camera is a Nikon D3000 with a AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm Lens

I don't think putting those two lamps behind your subject is doing you any favors. Move those in front (on the sides) and your problem may be solved.

Pardon the lag on the response, I received my birthday present: a cavernous Battlefoam 720, and I've been plucking foam feverishly since. So now, on to the pictures and a few tweaks you can easily make.

For one, that is a really big soft box! What material is it made of?

Light has to travel a long way to get to your models. Bring the lamps closer to the model if you can.

The two side lamps look like they're fluorescent so you could possibly press them right up against the side as they don't really get warm and thus won't burn anything.

Your top lamp also looks like it too far but, more importantly, it's practically right over top of the model.

To light the model properly you would want at least one light source to be coming in at about 45-60 degrees in front of the model, so that more light bounces off the model and into your camera. Remember your high school physics classes, light always bounces off an object at the same angle it arrived. To minimise blooming highlights when you take a picture, never place your camera in the direct path of reflected light. Incidentally, that's what soft boxes are designed to do, increase the size of imminent light source so you have less chances of getting super sharp specular highlights.

Now that we've talked about how light bounces around, that gives us a solution to getting lamps closer. Put the lamps inside the soft box! Sounds crazy right?

One technique for softening light if you don't have a soft box is to bounce the light off another surface, say, the ceiling above you or the wall behind you. In your case, since you have a soft box, you could use this technique the same way but bring the scale down. You basically have a miniature room to bounce light in. Bring the lamp inside the box, point them up and to the sides so the light bounce all around inside the box.

You might also consider putting a piece of white paper in front of the model in order to bounce light that's escaping the soft box back onto your model. Many product photographers actually build themselves a cardboard cutout with a hole just big enough to allow the lens through so they through their "front reflector".

So in summary here's what you could start doing:

1. push model a bit further into the box.
2. bring lights inside the box, pointed away from model so light bounces on interior surfaces before hitting model. Doing this might also reduce your required amount of lamps.
3. use a front reflector to bounce escaping light back in towards the model.
4. use blue-tac and some boxes to jury-rig a stable platform for shooting.

Start with this and see how it goes. If your images are still too dark, then we'll discuss camera settings.

Hope this helps.

Very cool. I am currently in the apostle islands until Wednesday so it will be a bit before I can try out you suggestions.

I posted up my experiences at Foy Con in Eau Claire back in October in the DCM forum and decided to post them here as well for those who may be interested in how to lose expediantly against Dark Eldar .

Armies at Fires of Battle GT



My List:



Foy Con Game One:


Foy Con Game 2



Foy Con Game 3



Foy Con Game 4



Foy Con Game 5:

 Dark_Gear wrote:
Pardon the lag on the response, I received my birthday present: a cavernous Battlefoam 720, and I've been plucking foam feverishly since. So now, on to the pictures and a few tweaks you can easily make.

For one, that is a really big soft box! What material is it made of?

Light has to travel a long way to get to your models. Bring the lamps closer to the model if you can.

The two side lamps look like they're fluorescent so you could possibly press them right up against the side as they don't really get warm and thus won't burn anything.

Your top lamp also looks like it too far but, more importantly, it's practically right over top of the model.

To light the model properly you would want at least one light source to be coming in at about 45-60 degrees in front of the model, so that more light bounces off the model and into your camera. Remember your high school physics classes, light always bounces off an object at the same angle it arrived. To minimise blooming highlights when you take a picture, never place your camera in the direct path of reflected light. Incidentally, that's what soft boxes are designed to do, increase the size of imminent light source so you have less chances of getting super sharp specular highlights.

Now that we've talked about how light bounces around, that gives us a solution to getting lamps closer. Put the lamps inside the soft box! Sounds crazy right?

One technique for softening light if you don't have a soft box is to bounce the light off another surface, say, the ceiling above you or the wall behind you. In your case, since you have a soft box, you could use this technique the same way but bring the scale down. You basically have a miniature room to bounce light in. Bring the lamp inside the box, point them up and to the sides so the light bounce all around inside the box.

You might also consider putting a piece of white paper in front of the model in order to bounce light that's escaping the soft box back onto your model. Many product photographers actually build themselves a cardboard cutout with a hole just big enough to allow the lens through so they through their "front reflector".

So in summary here's what you could start doing:

1. push model a bit further into the box.
2. bring lights inside the box, pointed away from model so light bounces on interior surfaces before hitting model. Doing this might also reduce your required amount of lamps.
3. use a front reflector to bounce escaping light back in towards the model.
4. use blue-tac and some boxes to jury-rig a stable platform for shooting.

Start with this and see how it goes. If your images are still too dark, then we'll discuss camera settings.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Dark Gear. I finally got around to painting another model and took a picture with your suggestions of moving the lights inside (actually used 4 smaller ones) and using a, recently gifted, tripod. Results can be found here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/240350.page#5172368

Well, been a while. Wanted to post up some progress pictures of my two Flyrants. These are 2-3rd edition Flyrants that have been converted with the new plastic hive tyrant wings. I had to position the wings farther back so that I could keep all 4 arm locations, which have been magnitized. The wing sockets were hollowed out, filled with green stuff and pinned into the carapace. Green stuff was then used to fill in the gaps.

Flyrant #1: WIP shot shows the green stuff work and location of the pins.


Flyrant #2:

Looking great wyfox. Seriously imposing figures.

Looking amazing. I love the use of the plastic wings on the 3rd edition Tyrant, it works really well!

Thanks guys, I was pretty happy with how they turned out. The fun part is that my Flyrants actually have 4 arm slots...not two like the FW model or current plastic kit. Originally, I had purchased the first set of wings for $20 to be used with my magnitized walking, metal tyrants, in that I would swap out the upper arms for the wings. Then, upon arrival, I realized that they were too heavy to be magnitized.

So I popped the magnets out of the arm socket in the wings and kind of played around with the location. In doing so, I found that the wings fit into the crevice under the top carapace plate in the back. Just needed to keep the wings far enough back that they didn't obstruct the locations for the 4 weapon arms.

Swarm Lord WIP #6:



Armor Plates and Flesh built up. Just need to paint the base, legs and do the detailing around the mouth and add the spots.

Nice to see you making some progress Wyfox. He's looking really good. Will really come into focus when you get those leg plates done.

So have the base figure all painted...just need to finish the arms.

Nice Wyfox. Love the blue and grey together. Subtle but a really great look.

Thanks Gits

Also, this was my first experiment with rust effects that are featured on the steel drum.

Excellent. Very natural looking.

Looks like a mirelurk

Hmmm...well the crabifex conversion certainly resembles those



However my swarm lord is far closer in appearance to the Alien's franchise, which they soooo....did not borrow from

Ooh love a bit of giger ! Fair point though have you seen blue table paintings tyranid Aliens

I have not!

Glad to see you start posting again..

What's your take on the new Nid models? Did they help with improving the changes the new dex nerfed?

Model wise, the only thing of interest to me is the Spore Pods and Mucaloids. Spore Pods allow me to run some old 5th edition units like Devil Gants in a pod or DaKKafex in a pod. Also the FW Dino can now go in a pod and deep strike somewhere on the board.

Mucaloids offer some supper cheap troop slots to open up second CADS or just save points on troops in general. You can force your opponent's 100-200 pt unit to shoot at one so as to not get pie plated in assault and they don't give up any victory points/first blood.

They reprinted Skyblight in paper, which is nice as I don't own an Ipad or Cheapreader. The Flyrant Gargoyle Bodyguard is interesting.

The new org chart opens up 3 Flyrants and allows you to reroll the IB result; which to me sounds like it will mesh with Skyblight quite well...4 Flyrants. Unfortunately you give up a fortifications so no venom or mal in a box to help against 1st turn alpha strikes.

Anyways, much greater minds than my own are hashing out the win/fail of the new releases here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/5760/572843.page

Well, small update. Just finished a few custom bases for an upcoming Apocalypse event held down in Madison every few months .

Nice to see your back posting.. take some Pics of the Apoc game.. you know for 'Historical' purposes only. Yeah.. historical

Will do! Gitsplitta and one of his "Things" will be attending as well .

Nice work on the bases wyfox. Good to hear from you again.

Yep, have my own little side projects for the game. And I do mean "little".

Funky bases!

EDC

Pictures from the Apocolypse event this past Saturday.

Mission: Valedor: The Mirrored Shield

Scenario: Eldar Deploy in the middle and Tyranids are split up into two armies that deploy on either short edge. 4 Game Turns.

Special Rules: Eldar models get Hit & Run & Furious Charge all game long plus Shrouded 1st Turn. Super Heavies and Gargantuan Creatures use the 6th Edition Apocalypse D Table. The two Tyranid sides treat each other as desperate allies. Eldar side deploys second and gets 1st Turn, no seizing.

Victory Conditions: Their are 6 objectives that give up 1 Strategic Victory Point and are scored at the end of the 2nd and 4th round. Tyranids get 1 Strategic Victory Point for each Tyranid (not GSC) unit that is in the opposite deployment by the end of the 4th round. If no tyranids make it to the opposite deployment then eldar score 1d3+2 Strategic Victory Points. Each SH or GC destroyed gives up a Strategic Victory point. Slaying the general's Warlord gives up a strategic Victory Point.

Nids:
Wyomingfox: Tyranids 3365 and 3360 SH/GC
John S: Tyranids 7000 & 2300 SH/GC
Player: Tyranids 3000 & 1200 SH/GC
Thing 2: Tyranids 3800 & 1200 SH/GC
Player: Tyranids & GSC 4000
Player: GSC 2500 & 535SH, Cornbread
Player: Tyranids and GSC: 4000 & 2700SH/GC
Total=27,665pts, 11,295 SH/GC

Eldar
Gitsplitta: Mechanicum and IK 2800 & 1200SH
Player: Eldar 1500 & 900SH
Player: Eldar 3500 & 1600 SH/GC
Player: Eldar 2000 & 650 SH
Player: Space Marines and IK 5000 & 1305 SH
Player: Mechanicum ???
Total=14,800pts, 5655 SH + ?? Mechanicum

Nids won 17-14.







More photos can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ApocLuck/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1453246621414961

you know what's missing.. A Reaver titan!

Seriously awesome pics. Must of took hrs to play a turn.

Well, you will just have to grace us with your Reavers presence one of these times . Actually it goes quite fast comparatively as we are limited to 40 minutes per player turn. This means that sometime you run out of time and have to forgo some assaults.

Yeah, unfortunately WyFox would have handed me my butt earlier in the game but time ran out before he could do his assault, so while we were in assault on the next turn, he didn't get any of his charge bonuses.

A figurine I painted for my friends pathfinder campaign where I play a lovable and mischievous child. I'll be adopting this color scheme in regards to the cloths and garments for my Genestealer Cult.

Looks good Wyoming, but probably needs a 3rd arm. That way I can do a better assessment of how your cult will look. I am picturing a group of young orphans on the street covered in orange rags. When the fight starts they throw them back to reveal their lovely chitinous parts and start slashing the horrified locals.

Yorkright wrote:
Looks good Wyoming, but probably needs a 3rd arm. That way I can do a better assessment of how your cult will look. I am picturing a group of young orphans on the street covered in orange rags. When the fight starts they throw them back to reveal their lovely chitinous parts and start slashing the horrified locals.

The Cult of the Artful Dodger

Wonderful work on that figure wyfox. Really nice!

Looking good!

EDC

Looks great!

Thanks guys, it was fun painting a non-GW model and the D&D mini has a lot of character.

Looks great.. but what is child out adventuring!

I'd be interested in your take on your Nids and Tau in the 8th Edition since these are your main armies.

I think I will get a game in with my Tau this Saturday.

Oh, Damion Knight is the 9th in line to inherit in the Knight merchant house. He has inherited his Mother's ancestral side's cursed magical blood, which his father looks down upon with skepticism and apprehension and his older brothers often pick on him. So he has no real future at the household...nor is he interested in his fathers business. Growing up he often would avoid his educational lessons and choirs in favor of scampering around with the cities street urchins. As he has gotten older his magical talents have manifested further as has his wilder tendencies, causing his mother to put him into the care of her older brother, a wondering bard and rogue who has agreed to train him in the use of magic as well as life lessons in living in the world at large.

So got my first game of 8th in on Saturday. Tau vs Tau 2000 point mirror match. We rolled up missions scouring with 12" opposing deployments.

My opponent list: Dylan

Stormsurge w/ Pulse Driver Cannon & -1 rend & Move and Shoot w/out penalty (later he realized the redundancy as storm surges can due this naturally). He should have taken a 4++ shield.
Riptide with Ion Accelerator & Smart Missiles & -1 rend, & Move and Shoot w/out penalty + 2 marker drones
3 crisis suits w/ dual Burst Cannons & -1 rend + 2 marker drones
3 crisis suits w/ ? & Missile Launchers & -1 rend + 2 marker drones
3 crisis suits w/ melta gun and plasma & -1 rend + 2 marker drones
5 Fire Warrior Strikes + 2 marker drones
5 Fire Warrior Strikes + 2 marker drones
5 Fire Warrior Strikes + 2 marker drones
Ethereal
Fire Blade
Farsight

+4 CP

My list:

10 Fire warrior strikes
10 Fire warrior strikes
10 Fire warrior strikes
9 Breachers + Devil Fish
10 Kroot
6 Gun Drones
6 Gun Drones
2 Broadsides w/ HYMP & EWO + 4 Marker Drones
Commander w/ 4 Fusions Guns + 2 Gun Drones
Commander w/ 4 Fusions Guns + 2 Gun Drones
Commander w/ 3 Missile Pods & Drone Controller + 2 Marker Drones
3 crisis suits w/ dual Fusion Guns & 1 with Drone Controller & 2 with re-roll 1's + 2 marker drones
Ethereal w Hover Drone
5 pathfinder plus pulse acceleration drone + 6 " for pulse weaponry.

+ 6 CP

He has 3 objectives scattered across his deployment, I have two in mine. Last objective is in the center.

Deployment: We take turns deploying.

Dylan: Farsight and Crisis Suits are Manta Striking (Deep striking basically). Each of his 5 man warriors get placed on an objective. Ethereal behind the center Fire Warrior squad. Fire Blade behind the right flank Fire Warriors. Storm surge centered. Riptide on left flank. Everything but the Stormsurge is in cover providing terrain.

Mine: Commanders and Crisis Suits are Manta Striking. Kroot is on my right flank. Left Center is a unit of fire warriors, pathfinders + drone , and gun drone squad. Dead Center is my Ethereal and Gun Drones. Right Center is broadsides + Drones and 2 fire warrior squads. Right Center is the devil fish + breachers. Everything but my Ethereal is in cover providing terrain.

Dylan finishes deployment first and I fail to seize.

Turn One: Dylan moves his army forward and drops Farsight (his Warlord) on my far left flank but not into terrain. He also drops his burst cannon suits about 13+ inches from my front line in cover providing terrain. Shooting, his marker light drones fail to hit as he doesn't have a drone controller nearby and he can't roll above a 4. He then fires his small arms fire into several of my Fire Warrior Squads and the Kroot, Killing 10 or so Firewarriors from 3 different Squads and 3 Kroot. The big guns go after my Broadsides but end up killing nearby drones instead (savior protocals). He fails to assault Farsight into a nearby Fire Warrior Squad even after re rolling one of the charge dice and takes 2 wounds from overwatch. Ethereal is within 6" off most of my army and his leadership 9 helps me pass all my morale tests except for the lonely Kroot who only lose 1.

Note EWO only has a 12" range now and since you will likely be screening your broadsides, it is likely that your opponent can deploy an assault troop win the 10" range of one of your units and outside of the EWO threat range. So I don't see this being very useful now unless you are fielding an un-screened stormsurge.

My turn: Ethereal takes the re roll 1 ability for Stationary Battlesuits & Infantry and moves up. 1 squad of gun drones moves towards Farsight while my second depleted squad moves towards the crisis suits. Breachers get out of the devilfish and advance towards the crisis suits but are outside of 5" range :(. Devil fish advanced forward. Kroot advance up slightly and I forget to shoot with them. Crisis Suits + Fusion Commanders and drones deploy in a pocket right of the storm surge and into cover providing terrain; half of the marker drones however have to be placed out of cover. Note: Finding pockets in the backfield that are more than 9" away from all enemy units is going to be tricky. Missile Commander + Drones drops down by my Ethereal. I start with my marker lights, having my drone assisted 2 man marker drones (near the missile commander) fire first on the storm surge so as to get the reroll 1's for my next volley. In the end, my marker lights place 5 hits on the storm surge and 4 on the Bust cannon suits. It takes the combined fire of all three melta-squads and the missile commander to take the stormsurge out. I use a CP to reroll a melta damage roll from a 1 to a 5. Breachers, Broadsides, 1 Gun Drone Squad, and two Fire Warrior Squads fires into the Burst Cannon Crisis Squad for 1 wound. Second Gun Drone Squad and 3rd Fire Warrior Squad take 2 more wounds off of Farsight.

Note: I couldn't utilize MONTKA when I dropped so having the +1 to hit from 5 Markerlights was critical for my melta squad...otherwise I would have failed several to hit rolls and not killed the Storm Surge.

Turn 2: Dylan back peddles his entire army towards my 3 melta squads. His marker lights continue to fail and he only gets 1 hit on the marker drone squad and 1 hit on the crisis suit squad. Really wishing he had some drone controllers now. He uses his small arms fire to remove most of my marker and gun drones, however, I manage to keep 3 alive. Then his riptide fires into my Crisis Suits (Closest Unit) and I pass them off, slaying two more drones. Farsight shoots and slays two pathfinders and dies to over watch when he charges in.

My turn: Ethereal takes the re roll 1 ability for Stationary Battlesuits and Infantry and moves up while still staying within 6" of the pathfinder and broadside unit. Units in my backfield move up except the broadsides and the pathfinders. My melta suits stay still and one of the melta commanders calls Maunta (re roll shooting hits for units that don't move this turn). Marker-light shooting scores 4 hits on Dylan's Melta/Plasma Crisis Squad and 1 hit on his Missile Crisis Squad. Gun Drones shooting the nearest units is pretty fruitless as it ends up bouncing off his Burst Cannon Squad with a 2+ saves due to cover. Dylan uses a CP to re roll a 2+ save. I then proceed to fire all my small arms and wipe out half of his marker drones, particularly the ones near the melta suites and burst cannon suits. Fusion commanders and the 2 remaining fusion suits wipe his missile and melta suites. I use a CP to re roll a melta damage result. Missile Commander and Broadsides wipe his Burst Cannon Suites. We go ahead and call the game as my firepower can wipe all his fire-warriors next turn, leaving him with just two characters and a riptide.

Take away:

I don't see myself going 1st against a whole lot of armies and thanks to drones splitting, I'm going to have a lot of easy kill points for first blood...thankfully the maelstrom cards have a small number of VP for slaying units.

Pathfinders: Seam OK for a cheap source of marker-lights and can also fire over watch. Plus you can get a pulse accelerator drone for 8 points, which is small enough that you should be able to hide it first turn and then move it to support your advancing gun drones or stationary fire base with 6" of additional range.

Ethereal: Real value is in the leadership 9 6" bubble which makes it easy for me to pass or limit morale test damage on either advancing gun drones or strike teams. Hover-board allows gives him FLY and 8" Movement, allowing him to keep up with gun drones and more easily get away from combats that consolidate into him. He does gain Battle-Suite Keyword and thus can't be taken in a Devilfish. Being able to reroll 1's was an added benefit, though redundant with Markerlights. I like him. Dylan who spread his fire warriors out and was always moving had much less benefit from his.

Devil Fish: Lackluster in this game, 12 Str 5 shots at BS 4 and no rend -- that I already had plenty of from far cheaper platforms. Basically provides protection. Can't fire the breachers out of it. You can consolidate drops by combining I'll usually be going second to large number of drops so if the ethereal is not on the table, then I'll be losing morale tests to my opponents alpha strike. Seams like you would be better served with a unit that has more firepower for the points.

Breachers: Lackluster in this game...really hard trying to get in that 5" goodness range as Devilfish sadly is not open-topped and you have to disembark before the Devil Fish Moves so you only have a 14" threat range with the much desired -2 rend unless you advance and take the -1 to hit .

Firewarriors: Seam OK. Cheap, good range and synergized with my ethereal + Pulse Accelerator Drone.

Broadsides: Lackluster in this game...due to lack of rends on Smart Missiles and HYMP combined with poor rolling. Would have benefited more from Advanced Targeting System to boost my rends rather than EWO. As it stayed still, it can synergized with the Ethereal or Montka. Very, very expensive now.

Markerlights: Did well and I didn't feel like I had an excess. Drone controller was key. Was able to get cover reduction and re-roll ones constantly on units I wanted dead. Helps to support my deep-striking units. Also provides soaks wounds for battlesuits in a pinch. Having a unit of Marker drones drop with Battlesuits can keep them from being alpha struck off the table.

Gun Drones: Did well with the drone controller and soaks wounds for battle suits. Fast moving and can be deepstriked if accompanying crisis suits and commanders.

Commanders: Worked well for me. The fusion was better, but having a missile commander in the backfield with the advancing drones was also good. BS 2+ is very good. Being able to call Montka was amazing...but probably situational...how often will you be able to afford standing still with your army? Definitely jealous of armies that have characters that allows re rolls every turn.

Crisis Suits: Dual fusion worked well for me and you can have 6 drones accompany them on the drop. Burst Cannons on Crisis platforms are expensive and it didn't seam worth the investment as you can get that from gun drones.

Farsight: Lackluster. Not really great at close combat, not really great at shooting. Being able to call MONTKA twice in a game is a benifit but seams very situational as the units can't move. He made a mistake by dropping him unsupported. I'll pass.

Riptide: Lackluster this game. I just ignored during the game and passed his best firepower onto my nearby drones. Very expensive platform for little damage output but extremely resilient with a 2+/3++. He suffered 3 wounds this game due to overheating and nova charges.

Stormsurge: Lackluster this game as he died right away to my Beta Strike. Dylan missed out on the 4++ save. Always take that. Better firepower to cost ratio than the riptide and would have survived my alpha if he had had a 4++ save.

Fireblade: Lackluster this game. Dylan's firewarriors were too spread out and too MSU to benefit from this cheap HQ. Also harder to keep up with gun drones as he lacks Fly and only has a 6" move.


On the other table was two opposing necron players. When I left they had only lost a handful of models each by turn 4 due to Ghost Arcs allowing a second reanimation roll and Technmancers generating +1 to reanimation.

I guess another note is that we were playing by the basic cover save rules.

If we would have played by the Advanced Cover Save Rules, then the Battlesuits and Drones would have needed to be 50% obscured + be wholly within a woods or ruins to receive cover (AKA, less likely to happen as wargaming area terrain is designed to be able to move through/stand in, not impede LOS). With the advanced rules, only infantry get automatic cover for being in terrain pieces.

How do you feel about a 2 turn game? Games of 3 turns or less seem more common than not under the new system.

I was reading last night that match play was saying max 4 detachments.

How will you be changing your list after your first game?

At Gits: I've had 2-3 turn games in 5-7th due to bad matchups. My list was a bit more optimized as his list spammed too many battle suits. Sure he got 1st turn, but he had far less durability in his units. Also there was wargear he was sorely missing combined with some poor deployment choices. So it ended up being a one sided matchup. So I couldn't comment at this point due to lack of experience.

Well I only had 2 detachments, to be honest. TOs that allow more than 2 detachments are asking for troubling spam lists given how crazy flexible the detachments are.

Also depends on how cover works. If it advanced rules, only infantry get cover for just being in area terrain...otherwise you need to be 50% obscured. That means suits and drones will have a much harder time getting cover.

I was looking at replacing the broadsides perhaps for a 3 man missile suite unit w/ controller. Changing up the missile commander to a fusion commander w/ controller and gun drones. Dropping the fish, breachers and kroot for more gun drones and something else to be determined.

Another list I wanted to try was a 4 detachment: two Stormsurges, 2 ethereals, 2 missile commanders w/ controllers & marker drones, 3 farsight marksmen, and the rest gun drones.