Hey Dakka,
For years now I've been slowly trying to collecting every non-imperial army that my gaming group doesn't really get to see, all these different flavours of Marine realy bore me so I thought I'd do my bit to mix things up! At the start of the year the only candidated left open to me were Necrons, Tyranids and Tau (as I already have CSM, Daemons, Eldar and Dark Eldar under my belt) and there is only one other Xenos player in the group that has been representin' for the greenskins. Tau are probably my least favorite Xenos and the new 'Cron fluff irritated me so much that my choice was clear.

I spent the last month or so looking around on Dakka, finding out that the internet sure can moan about how much the Nid's suck, so I figured that a "only take what I think looks cool" hordey build would be better than trying to go for a proper face melting list. After my full mech DE list I've been playing for the last year and a bit, hopefully this will yet again give me a completely different play style to have fun with.

I looked through a lot of stuff on Hulksmash's blog and his MC-Free builds to get an idea of what, roughly, might work, then I stripped a lot of the useful stuff out and spammed a butt load of Gaunts in their place

I've never (In over a decade of WH40K) managed to field a fully painted 1500 point army, and that's something I'd really like to remedy. So with that in mind I hopped onto the Army Painter website to look into a way of getting a half decent, fully painted army onto the table ASAP.


Anyway... That's enough rambling from me for now. Here's what arrived on my doorstep last week, tonight I'll have a look at getting some of it glued together

I like the name
Going with what looks cool is probably as good a policy as anything else with Nids, the 'competitive' builds are fairly limited, and once you start playing you may find yourself working towards that anyway.

Have to say i've never played a game with a fully painted army (that I've painted) either, already given up on the idea of getting my CSM painted for a tournament in a week and a half because I paint too slow, so am borrowing my step-dads painted army That pile of Nids looks pretty good already, you seen the new models coming out next month?

MC free, but have you seen the new beasties!

Either way, looking forward to seeing this progress

Something I took for granted has been working for me on painting AND assembly. That is the assembly line style. Get one color out and hit every model with it, then the next color. even if you paint slow this will progress you farther than you expect. and even after the base coat and a few colors the army starts looking better and better. I sometimes do one color per day, but get every piece that needs it, then after a week or so the army is done!

I really suggest what Kerrgrim said I individually paint each one of my ork boyz. I just got stuck in that way and it is hell to paint.

rodgers37 wrote:I like the name
Going with what looks cool is probably as good a policy as anything else with Nids, the 'competitive' builds are fairly limited, and once you start playing you may find yourself working towards that anyway.

Have to say i've never played a game with a fully painted army (that I've painted) either, already given up on the idea of getting my CSM painted for a tournament in a week and a half because I paint too slow, so am borrowing my step-dads painted army

Thanks My problem is that I seem to have very little time that I can dedicate to regularly sitting down to get painting, That's why I started the blog up, to try and motivate myself. I wouldn't say I actually paint that slowly when I find an hour or two to sit down and paint, its just finding that hour that's hardest for me

Vitruvian XVII wrote:MC free, but have you seen the new beasties!

Either way, looking forward to seeing this progress

Yeah, the pic's and confirmation came up a few weeks after I shelled out for a set of chapterhours boneswords! Thankfully the GW version are also expensive, and I think the swords on the swarmlord look a little weedy, so I think I'll still be happy with what I've ordered (when they finally arrive!).

Kerrgrim wrote:Something I took for granted has been working for me on painting AND assembly. That is the assembly line style. Get one color out and hit every model with it, then the next color. even if you paint slow this will progress you farther than you expect. and even after the base coat and a few colors the army starts looking better and better. I sometimes do one color per day, but get every piece that needs it, then after a week or so the army is done!

sam0 wrote:I really suggest what Kerrgrim said I individually paint each one of my ork boyz. I just got stuck in that way and it is hell to paint.

Thank's for the advice I think I paint one model up competely just so I can get an idea of what I'm aiming for and any little changes I might make, but once thats done, I'll try and do them production line style.


Okay.....So I spent a few hours scraping mold lines off last night (dear god Genestealers are a pain in the ass!) and sticking together. I managed to assemble all of one battleforce except the warriors (waiting for the aforementioned boneswords), 6 Raveners and 2 Hive Guard.

It turns out that the first Hiveguard I assembled was quite badly miscast (two of the legs were joined together by a tonne of flash so severely that I just assumed that they were meant to be one piece) so I had trouble getting the first one together, It wasn't until I opened the second one that I realised what the model should have been like The second one went together really easily though. You can see a few patches where I had to crack out the liquid green stuff on the first model, but (conjoined limbs aside) the cast wasn't that aweful, especially compaired to the fiasco I've had with my Dark Eldar in the past.



The Raveners were a delight to put together, There wasnt all that much variety for different poses ect, but they went together well and are a realy nice kit IMO. I did find that they looked a little cluttered with all 3 pairs of arms however so I decided to just go for the rending claws and one pair of stabby arms (mind has gone blank, cant remember what they're actually called ). This meant more green stuff had to come out to fill in the bottom arm sockets. They ended up a little something like this:



After then came the monotonous job of de-mould lining nearly 40 gaunts and half a dozen genestealers. nothing exciting or different here, just 2 hours with a file, bottle of super glue and the cast commentary of the fellowship of the ring



Not sure where the other half of the Termagaunts got to when I was taking this this picture.....but they are around here somewhere. By this point it was gone midnight, so after a full day at work, an hour at the gym and god knows how long doing this, I'll forgive myself for 8 Gaunts going awol

That's all for today, hopefully I'll be able to find a little more time this evening. Thanks for reading

Subbed, need some inspiration, dont fizzle out on me!

Horray my first subscription

I'll try and update as often as possible, knowing there's at least one person out there following this will give me more incentive to keep things going! Thanks Norn King.

Haha! You do realise anyone who posts here is also subscribing, right?

ooh god, I forgot Dakka does that! I turned that off years ago so I didn't just get a massive list of introductions threads come up in my subscribed list

Right, after looking like a bit of an idiot, Here's a rough idea of the list I'm working towards. As I said before, I dont aim for it to be competitive. But I though it might be interesting to share

Tyranid Prime - Deathspitter, Boneswords
5 Warriors - Deathspitter, Rending Claws, Toxin Sacks
16 Genestealers
30 Termagaunts - Toxin Sacks
20 Hormagaunts - Toxin Sacks
20 Hormagaunts - Toxin Sacks

6 Raveners - Rending Claws

1 Zoanthrope
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard

This should come in just under 1500 points. As its all been purchased already I obviously can't make any massive changes, but if anyone can think of any minor tweaks I'm all ears

If yo can fit in a broodlord theyre always cool, also more stealers is awesome. Looks cool though, i always run at least 50 hormies and 30 stealers in any of my nid armies as well. Gotta love a hungry swarm

Cant wait to see some painted. Any particular paint schemes in mind?

Nice King Tango there, defo worth the wait

Vitruvian XVII wrote:If yo can fit in a broodlord theyre always cool, also more stealers is awesome. Looks cool though, i always run at least 50 hormies and 30 stealers in any of my nid armies as well. Gotta love a hungry swarm

I had 60 points left over when making my list and was trying to decide between a the Zoan and a Broodlord. Being used to playing a DE army with 18 Darklight weapons at 1500 points I felt really light on anti-tank, hence the Zoanthrope > Broodlord. I may get a Broodlord as well so I can do a straight swap to mix stuff up at a later date though.

Norn King wrote:Cant wait to see some painted. Any particular paint schemes in mind?

It might be a week or two before I really crack on with the painting but I sprayed up some test models last night to see what the colour looks like. You might be able to see the base colour lurking in the background of the pics below

GoDz BuZzSaW wrote:Nice King Tango there, defo worth the wait

Thanks Rhys If we ever get round to organizing a Dakka meet up then I think it will be these guys that I take. Kicking your ass with Dark Eldar is getting repetative



Well I didn't have quite as much time last night so it will be a slightly shorter update today. I got the last two Hive guard put together, like last time there were a few little defects (bubbles ect) that I had to spend a good 20 minutes fixing up. It's a bit of a pain that I had to do that to a £15 model, but at least THAT one was fixable. Then I went onto the Zoanthrope.....I've had a lot of crappy finecast models so far, but I think this one takes the title of "worst cast I've ever seen".



This piece is completely hollow, missing almost all of the top portion and riddled with holes throughout, the part that is meant to be glued onto the main body isnt there at all


This one is (apart from the huge bubble at the bottom and the 2mm deep trench all the way down the middle) is what the first piece shoud have looked like. The tail and head were both covered with the usual air bubbles, but nothing as catastrophic as what is shown above though.

After getting suitably annoyed at myself for continuing to buy this finecast crap I decided to have a quick go at assembling more Hormagaunts, I got half a dozen done before getting bored an deciding to go outside to play with some spraypaint

I haven't got any photos specifically of the stealers that I sprayed up, but you can sort of see them in the pics above. I'm going for a pale blue and bone colour scheme using the "Crystal Blue" spray from here, I will be doing their "armour" in Dheneb Stone and the eyes/toungues/details in Liche purple then I'll use strong tone quickshade to help finish them off.

Over the weekend I'll aim to get the rest of that box of Gaunts built, and maybe try and paint up a test model so you can actually see the scheme

Am I the only person to have never had a poorly cast finecast model? (although to be fair, i've only had 3 ICs)

Options for Nids is what you need, i'll think you will find once you start playing, you will need to tinker your list to get it 'right', random lists can actually work quite well, albeit not against top lists, but still it can be fun.

And that blue in the background, looks like a interesting base colour for Nids.... (presuming thats what it is)

GoDz BuZzSaW wrote:Nice King Tango there, defo worth the wait

Thanks Rhys If we ever get round to organizing a Dakka meet up then I think it will be these guys that I take. Kicking your ass with Dark Eldar is getting repetative

rodgers37 wrote:Am I the only person to have never had a poorly cast finecast model? (although to be fair, i've only had 3 ICs)

Options for Nids is what you need, i'll think you will find once you start playing, you will need to tinker your list to get it 'right', random lists can actually work quite well, albeit not against top lists, but still it can be fun.

And that blue in the background, looks like a interesting base colour for Nids.... (presuming thats what it is)

I wish I had been as lucky as you so far I've had to return 2 boxes of Wracks, 2 Haemonculi, 2 Succubi, Urien, an Ur-Ghul, a Medusae and now a Zoanthrope The only things I've ever for perfect 1st time are the other two court of the Archon models. The Hiveguard were by no means perfect, but they were useable as least.

I don't often play against top lists, my regular gaming mates are pretty laid back so this list wont need to be perfectly tuned. I was trying to find a way to get Toxin Sacks on the Stealers but it always ended up with an arkward number of points left over that I couldn't use.

Yeah that blue will be the base colour. After Black Legion CSM's, Ulthwe Eldar and dark purple DE I really wanted to go for a brighter colour!

I know that feel bro. As an Eldar player practically 60% of the army is Finecast.

Good luck with your future purchases.

I havnt had any problems with finecast, spose im just lucky.

i think there finecast techniques are actually getting better, or at least the Q&C is anyway

Looking forward to seeing the life being drained from the planets of the galaxy

The new nid models are on the GW site now, you getting any? there freaking amazing.

Awesome thread, I love the complete start to finish style showing the assembly and mold line removal, following this one closely!

Swordwind wrote:I know that feel bro. As an Eldar player practically 60% of the army is Finecast.

Thankfully I got all of my Eldar when they were still using metal, I can only imagine how awful it would be to replace my 10 banshee's, 15 Fire dragons 5 Dark Reapers, 5 Warlocks and 3 farseers with finecast. I'd never start up an Eldar army now unless the new codex comes with plastic kits for the aspect warriors.

Clumpski wrote:i think there finecast techniques are actually getting better, or at least the Q&C is anyway

Yeah, the first few months were utterly awful in my experience but since then things have looked like they're improving. The Zoanthrope is proof they still haven't quite fixed the process completely though :(

SilverMK2 wrote:Looking forward to seeing the life being drained from the planets of the galaxy

Yeah, I want to see if I can get the majority of this project done ASAP. I normally end up getting distracted and taking far too long to get a job done, but so far everything is going great! Thanks for the comment

Norn King wrote:The new nid models are on the GW site now, you getting any? there freaking amazing.

Yeah, the Tyrant looks much better than it did in the WD photos, I'm really tempted. I really wanted to avoid MC's in this army, but I might treat myself when I get all of this done!

King Thor wrote:Awesome thread, I love the complete start to finish style showing the assembly and mold line removal, following this one closely!

Thanks! I post most of these updates when its really quiet and I have nothing to do at work, so that probably explains why I bother going into so much detail




Okay! I don't usually get much time for hobbying during the weekend but I've surprised with how much I've been able to do since my last update. I got all of those Hormagaunts built (bringing the current total up to 28/40), assembled the second battleforce's Genestealers (now all 16 are built) and sprayed the lot and I've built all that I could of one box's warriors. I was really annoyed to find that one battleforce only gives you one set of Warrior's rending claws, despite the fact that the codex lets every warrior take them as an upgrade. So I've currently got 3 warriors built, two of which are missing a pair of arms I had a quick look on bits and kits and bitz box but they are both sold out of the claws as well If anyone knows of a good place (preferably, but not necessarily in the UK) that I could find some I'd be mega grateful!

As well as all that, I sprayed up and fully painted a Ravener, to give myself (and you guys!) a better idea of what my Hivefleet will look like when its fully painted up! Hopefully I'll have time to post that step-by-step walk through tomorrow, but tonight it's all about the Genestealers!

As I previously said, these guys were a real pain in the ass to de-mold line so I really wanted to get them out of the way first. After an hour or so of scraping (this time watching the cast commentary of LotR: two towers ) I was finally finished! As you probably noticed in my second post, I'm not sticking the bases onto the models yet. As I'm using the army painter spray as the main colour for the models I needed to make sure that I was able to get that spray can in at every possible angle, as there isn't an exact match for a GW colour, I wouldn't be able to touch up the base coat if I missed any patches. Therefore I devised a slightly different (and really helpful) way of spraying these guys up! All you need are your models, A big ball of blu-tac, a bunch of scabby old pencils and a drinking glass.


stick a model firmly to the end of the pencil with the blu-tac, I really need to emphasise that they need to be on there firmly, one or two of mine fell off after/during being sprayed and it made a hell of a mess!


You can then freely move the mini about (holding the other end of the pencil so you don't get your hands covered ) so you can get into all of those parts that would otherwise have been obscured by the base. Sorry the pic is a bit out of focus, but it's meant to show you how I got into all of the fiddly bits!


Once sprayed, you can leave the model to rest in the glass to dry off whilst you spray the rest of the squad. Normally I'd just leave them resting on their base, but as thats obviously not possible here, this way still makes is possible to let the mini's dry without having to rest them on anything when they're wet. I found that after doing maybe 4 or 5 of the 'Stealers, the first one was already dry, so if you don't have enough pencils to do a big unit in one go (I doubt I will have when I get round to doing 40 horma's!) you could probably do them in batches.


Once they were all dry I was then able to get them into their bases. This is the full squad together, They're slowly starting to look like a Warhammer unit, and less like a mountain of grey plastic!


Here's a close up of one of them to give you a better idea of the colour. The colouration is a little off because I took the pic right in front of my lamp, bit IRL its sort of half way between GW's Ice and Enchanted blue's. The more I use it, the more the colour is growing on me.




As I said, I'll try and get the step by step Ravener pics up tomorrow, but it would be great to hear what Dakka thinks of my work so far

It does look pretty cool - looking forward to seeing your colour scheme.

It looks like I forgot to rotate one or two of the pictures that I uploaded for this thread, so they've been purged by Kid_Kyoto

Annoyingly that means I wont be able to post the next update until this evening :(

Looks really nice mate, Looking forward too taking your fully painted army off the table Also you can't do Hive Fleet Kraken though, that's the army i want to do if i ever do 'Nids

Ah, genestealers and mold lines...remember those -.- Good job doing all 16 of them.

I'm liking your progress so far, can't wait to see what scheme you choose. Have you thought about adding a venomthrope btw?

With my photos re-uploaded and rotated I can finally show you guys what the scheme will look like



First things first, here's the model I decided to test the colours out on. I really like the Ravener models and they seem to have a fairly even skin:chitin plate ratio, so I can see how the colours work together. Here's step one, much like the stealers from yesterday, it's just a few coats of the blue spray. I actually assembled these before I finished the genestealers so hadn't thought about leaving him off the base before spraying, it made the spray take a little longer, but I got it all covered in the end




This is after a few, quite heavily diluted coats of Dheneb stone on the armour plates (3 or maybe 4). At first I was considering using red gore for the tongue and other details but it didn't quite look right IMO, I should have really got a pic before I went over it, but I'm much happier now its purple.




I cant begin to describe how wrong it felt just dunking a miniature into what just looks like a tin of skanky old muddy water. This is the first time in over a decade of wargaming that I've ever (or even seen somebody else) dipped a model but after watching the little video guide on their website I proceeded to take the model out side and shake it around like a madman (this also felt bizarre after spending so much time delicately painting every other mini I've ever owned ). I then proceed to ruin one of my paintbrushes whilst removing some of the really big pools that had formed. The guy on the website suggests washing your brush with turpentine, and I really have to agree with him now, I tried cleaning mine thoroughly with plain water and it's still clumped together in one unusable blob Note to self...never ignore advice from the people that develop a product when they tell you how to use it, it wont "probably be fine my way".




After waiting the full 24 hours for the quickshade to dry (I didn't feel like going against their advice again ) the mini was still REALLY shiny. At this point I was a little worried, thinking that no amount of varnish would stop the Ravener from looking like it had a ceramic glaze all over. However they proved me wrong again, the mini is now completely matt, even more so than if it was done with the little pots of Devlan mud. I'm really starting to love this Army painter stuff! I've only done one model and its already saved me aaaaages of painting time

I think I might have gone a little OTT when spraying the back of the mini. You can probably see in the last shot that the paint has gone all weird and crinkly, its still completely hard and I cant imagine it flaking off though. This isn't anything I've come across before, I've seen spray varnish make models go all cloudy before but never anything like this. Has anybody seen this happen before? and if you have, does anybody know how to fix it/if its fixable/a link to somewhere showing how to sort it out? I'm fairly certain it was just me being too heavy handed with the spray and I'll work on that in the future, but if anyone can help me sort this one guy out it would be much appreciated

Thanks for reading guys

That looks awesome Gorechild, good job I wish i had thought of that colour scheme!

Have to say the crinkle actually looks pretty cool

Liking the scheme, espescially the armor plate, to bad the paint wrinkled. Are you gonna stick with the dipping? I think the body would look better with some other coloured wash than brown.
Keep up the good work!

Whats with the weird texture on the Ravenors back? Otherwise the paint scheme looks sick!

Limbo wrote:Ah, genestealers and mold lines...remember those -.- Good job doing all 16 of them.

I'm liking your progress so far, can't wait to see what scheme you choose. Have you thought about adding a venomthrope btw?

Limbo wrote:Liking the scheme, espescially the armor plate, to bad the paint wrinkled. Are you gonna stick with the dipping? I think the body would look better with some other coloured wash than brown.
Keep up the good work!

I never really looked at the venomthropes entry, I actually quite like the look of the models so I might have a look into it. Thanks for the suggestion
Yeah, I was thinking of going for a blue wash on the body actually, but the amount of time that dipping seems to save may well make the difference between me getting the project done, and getting a month in and feeling disheartened and getting bored

Norn King wrote:Whats with the weird texture on the Ravenors back? Otherwise the paint scheme looks sick!

I think it's something I did wrong with the anti-shine varnish. it came out fine on the front of the model, but I guess I either didnt shake the can enough or sprayed a little too much on the back. As I said in the last post, I've never seen or heard of it happening before, It's really odd.

SilverMK2 wrote:Have to say the crinkle actually looks pretty cool

Thanks I dont mind it so much on the armoured parts (as long as its not going to end up flaking off after a few games of being moved about). It's just the blue areas where I think it looks a bit dodgey.

GoDz BuZzSaW wrote:That looks awesome Gorechild, good job I wish i had thought of that colour scheme!

Thanks It was a bit of a stab in the dark when I was deciding on which base colour to go for but I think it looks pretty neat too.


Last night I really didn't have much time for warhammering but I did sneak 20 minutes to get some Genestealers done. 5 of them now have the claws and teath painted up and I had a quick go at doing the purple detailing on one of them. Hopefully I'll have a little longer this evening to try and get a bit more of he squad ready for dipping, my aim is to get the whole unit done this week

I also bought 3 sets of Ravener rending claws for use on my warriors. For some stupid reason GW only include 1 pair for every 3 warriors, despite the fact that every model in the brood can take them! Hopefully they will arrive by the weekend, along with the Chapterhouse Boneswords that I ordered almost a month ago now! As long as that appears by the time the Stealers are done, they should be my next mini project!

My replacement Zoanthrope arrved yesterday, it's still not perfect (a couple of bubbles on the little chest plate.) but at least all of the peices are more or less intact this time!




You can probably still see a few of the bubble's even after a couple coats of liquid greenstuff. I didn't want to go over it too heavily for fear of completely covering the detail on the front of the model. Buts still, I'm not really happy with it.

In Finecasts defence, I have to say that Zoanthropes are utterly horrible models to assemble! I have no doubt that the old metal version would have been worse than this, but even in finecast it was a pain. There were massive gaps on both sides where the rows of sticky out fins join the body that I had to fill with greenstuff and then smooth off with liquid greenstuff. This resulted in the ugly green mess that you can see in the second picture


After this hash up of a model I think I really will look into other options that I might take with these 60 points People have mentioned a Broodlord and a Venomthrope so far and I will really look into those this evening, but is there anything else that might be worth me having a look at? (a rough copy of my list is on the first page if anyone missed it).

Venomthrope's a fiddly Finecast model. I admire your courage.

Pity about the Zoey. Hope a good paintjob makes it look way better. And hope that quickshade doesn't do something like melt resin.

I like the color scheme, too bad its shiny

Good luck with all that finecast ! Good scheme keep up the good work ! I dont mind the shiny its nids they are gross and such lol

Updates, we need updates!

Norn King wrote:Updates, we need updates!

And here one comes!


Some bits I ordered off ebay arrived on Friday so I got a little preoccupied building Warriors when I really should have been cracking on with the Genestealers There didn't seem to be any Warrior Rending Claws available anywhere on the bitz sites, so I resorted to buying 3 pairs of Ravener claws as I thought they'd be roughly the right size. It turns out that they are a little bit skinnier that the proper ones, but over all I don't think they're that bad, the difference looks more noticable in the pics than in real life....

Proper arms:


Skinny arms:


The Ravener ones are also 1 finger short when compared to set you get in the warrior box as well, so they definitely aren't a perfect match. Ooh well, it's the best I could do If I want the army to be WYSIWYG! All I'm left waiting for now is for the Chapterhouse Boneswords I ordered to arrive then I'll be able to get that unit sprayed up It's been just over a month since I ordered them and the estimated delivery time was 2-8 weeks, so they could appear any day now....I hope.

Now, on to the Stealers! In the last update I'd just sprayed the squad up. Since then I've been slowly making my way through the brood painting the claws, teeth and all the other little details. As Kerrgrim and sam0 suggested, I hit the entire unit with Dheneb Stone for the claws and teeth first, before going back to do all of the tongues, eyes and the weird broken skin patches (no idea what to actually call them ) in the purple. It really did seem to speed things up, so thanks for the suggestion guys

This is the end reslut:


It was really foggy where I live for a couple days this week so I had to wait patiently for a window when I'd be able to take these guys out to dip them. Annoyingly that window didn't come until yesterday so I still haven't been able to get out and use the anti-shine varnish stuff on them quite yet. But I have got them all dipped and based now



Another useful tip, that would probably seem stupidly obvious, but when you're shaking off any excess quickshade from a dipped model, for gods sake make sure you have a firm hold on the mini! One of these guys managed to slip out of the pair of pliers I was using when dipping them when I was mid-shake. Long story short, he got a bit of practice infiltrating whilst I had to clamber through a soaking wet hedge to find him... Luckily nothing got broken, so once I was able to get the clumps of dirt off he was as good a new

I'm just looking out my window now and things seem to be brightening up, so I'm going to take this opportunity to go out and get a bit more spraying done! Let me know what you guys think so far

I usually just use the larger stealer claws for warriors, i prefer the slimmer look meself.

Looking good though!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:I usually just use the larger stealer claws for warriors, i prefer the slimmer look meself.

Looking good though!

Yeah I think I prefer the smaller ones in all fairness. It's just that fact that some are thin and some are fat that makes the squad look a little odd, It probably would have been better if I had been able to get them all with the smaller ones. Ooh well.

Another quick little update
It's probably good I jumped out there to get spraying when I did, It's raining again now!

Here's a de-shiny'd stealer:

Just noticed I missed some mould lines on his hand! damn'd larger than life pictures make you notice so many little problems!


And just got the Zoe base coated I'll see If I can have a go at sorting her out this week


Here's a pic of the WIP Ravener brood that I seem to have forgotten to upload earlier in the week These guys (and the Zoanthrope if I have time) will be my goal for this week

I really am liking that paint scheme.

Norn King wrote:I really am liking that paint scheme.

Thanks again mate, The more and more i'm getting used to it the more i'm liking it as well. So simple but I think it looks ace.

Okay, Time for another update

This is probably mind-numbingly basic but I though I'd do some pictures for a step by step guide to dipping. It really is straight forward, but I couldnt resist taking a picture of a Ravener upside down going head first into a tin of goop I got four of the 5 remaining Raveners painted so far (the 6th model was the test models I posted a while ago) and did a little bit on the Zoey when I got bored. But anyway, onto the mini "tutorial".

Step One:


Get a decent pair of pliers to get a really firm hold on the base of your mini. Make sure you hold it firmly, or you might have a mishap like I previously had with my genestealer

Step Two:


As the name would suggest, the next stage in "dipping" a model is to dip it head first into the tin of quick shade At this point I realised it would probably been more sensible to do this with a smaller mini, as all the big claws got caught in the rim of the pot, making it a real pain to get out again!

Step Three:


After getting the man/monster out of the quickshade, leave it a few seconds (4 or 5 is ample) up the tight way so that it all settles in the recesses. Then comes the fun bit...shake the model fairly vigorously a couple of times, then turn the pliers around in your hand and shake it again, so that the model is facing the opposite way from when you shook it the first few times, this stops most of the dip gathering all on one side.


Then put it down somewhere safe and repeat with the next model! See I told you it was simples.

Here they are back up at my painting station, post-dip.




And here is the 'Thrope



Well....I said dipping was simples..... The attentive ones of you may notice that I said above that I'd done 4 Raveners. BUT WHY ARE THERE ONLY THREE IN THAT PICTURE GORECHILD?!?!?!?!?! I may have had a small disaster with the last one. I'm going to spoiler this picture, because to be quite honest I find it a little depressing, and I don't want to have to keep looking at how stupid I was.

Oh dear

But thanks for the dipping 101

The poor ravenor, then again, he is sort of used to hitting the ground anyway, maybe not concrete though.

That crinkling on the first Ravener is pretty much what happens when people brake-clean/dettol/whatever models. It's the paint having a reaction and changing consistency. Because you let it sit, it sloughed up like that, then eventually dried again. If you had've touched it when that first happened the paint would have slide right off the model.

It's probably not the dip that did that, but if there were certain chemicals in the spray, or if you sprayed too close, or if you sprayed before everything dryed completely, you can get reactions like that.

It doesn't look too bad... but it's irreversable unless you sand or strip the model and do it all over again.

I would check and see if the dip has a recommended wait time for drying... like "Ready to Paint in 2 hours! Fully Cured in 8!" and aim for 10. Better safe than sorry.

Good luck with your nids!

SilverMK2 wrote:Oh dear

But thanks for the dipping 101

No problem I felt like just having another post of "This is what I painted this week" would be a little dull, and dipping is pretty much the only other thing I can talk about in any sort of detail for this project! Hopefully somebody might find it slightly useful

Norn King wrote:The poor ravenor, then again, he is sort of used to hitting the ground anyway, maybe not concrete though.

I'm going to see if I can put him back together this evening. I'll try and update tomorrow, hopefully he'll be okay

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:That crinkling on the first Ravener is pretty much what happens when people brake-clean/dettol/whatever models. It's the paint having a reaction and changing consistency. Because you let it sit, it sloughed up like that, then eventually dried again. If you had've touched it when that first happened the paint would have slide right off the model.

It's probably not the dip that did that, but if there were certain chemicals in the spray, or if you sprayed too close, or if you sprayed before everything dryed completely, you can get reactions like that.

It doesn't look too bad... but it's irreversable unless you sand or strip the model and do it all over again.

I would check and see if the dip has a recommended wait time for drying... like "Ready to Paint in 2 hours! Fully Cured in 8!" and aim for 10. Better safe than sorry.

Good luck with your nids!

Thanks for the advice
They suggest to leave the mini's 24 hours between dipping and spraying with the varnish, which is what I did. I think, as you mentioned, the problem was because I was holding the mini too close when I was spraying. It started happening again when I was doing the squad of genesteaers, so I went back and sprayed them at full arms length. After I started doing it like that the problem seems to have stopped.

Time for another mini update

It turns out that it took quite a while to fix the Ravener that I broke to bits. Super glue and plastic glue don't seem to take very well over the quickshade, so I had to file off the surface, which obviously meant I'd have to go back and re-paint and re-shade everything that I'd removed! But after all of that, he ended up looking like this



With him all fixed up, the unit is pretty much done. There is 1 left that still needs spraying to get rid of the shine, but other than that they're done and dusted




I also got the Zoanthrope all finished off too, but I seem to have forgotten to take a close up picture of him. I'll try and get one up soon. That said, I did get a group shot of everything I've painted so far. It's a bit blurry, but you can see the Zoan lurking in the top corner.



That's all for now! All that's left is a little teaser of what I've got ahead of me this week.....Gaunts.....lots and lots of Gaunts!

And that is why I'm thinking of investing in Quickshade when I start my Nids. The thought of painting all those gaunts is terrifying.

These are some excellent Nids.

Excuse me while I put my Jeremy Clarkson wig on.

"You idiot! You're sticking together your Raveners with the WRONG GLUE! Have you never heard of plastic glue? What were you thinking?"


Just being silly. Great job!

Nice - I've always wondered what effect 'dipping' had... now I know

Seems to be quicker then the current 'washing' of my nids... may need to try it out some time.

Looking forward to seeing more

Very nice color scheme.

As for the weirdness on the ravener; the best I could think is it "orange peeled" to an extreme. Usually the result of spraying when it's either too humid or too cold.

Swordwind wrote:And that is why I'm thinking of investing in Quickshade when I start my Nids. The thought of painting all those gaunts is terrifying.

I agree, I'd never get this project done in a million years if it meant doing it all by hand! Even with the coloured spray and quick shade I'm still feeling like its a pretty long winded job
Thanks for the comment

LoneLictor wrote:These are some excellent Nids.

Thanks

Squigsquasher wrote:Excuse me while I put my Jeremy Clarkson wig on.

"You idiot! You're sticking together your Raveners with the WRONG GLUE! Have you never heard of plastic glue? What were you thinking?"


Just being silly. Great job!

Yeah, I ran out of plastic glue after doing about 40 gaunts Rather than just stopping and not doing any more I resorted to the super glue until I can pop to the shop next.

slice'n'dice wrote:Nice - I've always wondered what effect 'dipping' had... now I know

Seems to be quicker then the current 'washing' of my nids... may need to try it out some time.

Looking forward to seeing more

Yeah, its a real time saver. It was a bit of a fiddle with the Raveners as they are so much bigger, but I got that whole lot of Genestealers done in about 10 minutes I might actually time to see how long it takes to do the 30 model termagaunt unit just so I can see how fast it actually is!

l33tninj4 wrote:Very nice color scheme.

As for the weirdness on the ravener; the best I could think is it "orange peeled" to an extreme. Usually the result of spraying when it's either too humid or too cold.

Thank you I think I've narrowed the cause down to either being because of humidity (had just been raining an hour or so before), or because I was simply spraying from too close a distance. Either way, thankfully it hasn't really happened since


Next update! I got a decent bit of time yesterday evening to crack on with the Tyranids, so I thought I'd make another post to show you what's happening now



Here's the full squad of Terma's all assembled After the painstaking removal of the millions of mold lines on my genestealers, this squad, despite being nearly twice as big, was done in no time at all. It even gave me time to go out and spray them, I really look forward to getting them sprayed as it finally allows me to get them on bases! Then they suddenly start to look like an army, rather than just a pile of unassembled bits!.




As I forgot to post a close up of the Zoan yesterday I thought I'd bring you one now



This guy made me realise I hadn't really decided on a colour for the plant-like bits on all of their bases! I'm kind of stuck for idea's, I want something that stands out from what is on the mini's without looking too out of place on the rest of the base. The rest of bases will be sand painted scorched brown, with a grey dry brush afterwards. What colour do you suggest?

Thanks again for reading guys, I look forward to seeing some of your suggestions!

Interesting stuff - I have often contemplated using the army painter stuff but never really taken the plunge yet. Apologies if this has already been asked, but what 'type' are you using? Is it the strong tone or dark tone etc?

I think if I did it I would be a bit averse to whole mini dipping - I think it lacks control plus I don't like the idea of going outside and whanging the mini around to shake the excess off. I wonder what the comparison is with applying the dip by brush alone? And running on from that, what is the difference between dipping and simply slathering the mini with devlan mud?

Very good work so far though and I like the colour scheme.

filbert wrote:Interesting stuff - I have often contemplated using the army painter stuff but never really taken the plunge yet. Apologies if this has already been asked, but what 'type' are you using? Is it the strong tone or dark tone etc?

I think if I did it I would be a bit averse to whole mini dipping - I think it lacks control plus I don't like the idea of going outside and whanging the mini around to shake the excess off. I wonder what the comparison is with applying the dip by brush alone? And running on from that, what is the difference between dipping and simply slathering the mini with devlan mud?

Very good work so far though and I like the colour scheme.

Nobody has asked and I think I forgot to mention, good catch! The one I'm using is the strong tone, I really had no idea how it would come out what I bought it, so I just went for the middle of the range.

I was petrified just dunking mini's into the tin of quick shade at first, it just seems to go against everything I've ever really tried before. But after the first few fig's are done yo sort of get the hang of it. What I've found to be good about this method is that, as you're not meticulously brushing the wash into every nook and cranny yourself, each mini ends up slightly different as the quick shade settles in slightly different places and different amounts remain on the model each time.

I think I'll have to end up brushing it on to the larger models later on, as the depth of wash in the can gets shallower and wont cover the entire figure. It would work just as well as far as I can see, when my bone swords finally arrive from chapter house I'll be brushing it onto my Prime and Warrior's, so keep checking back and I'll go through it in more detail when the time comes! The only thing to point out is that you really will need some turpentine to clean the brushes off, water doesn't work too well at all. Other than that, it basically is the same as covering the models in Devlan mud, but just far cheaper than having to buy dozens of little pots!

Thanks for the comment!

Re the Plant bits on the bases, IMO paint them the same way you paint your nids, carapace bits bone and fleshy bit blue.

Norn King wrote:Re the Plant bits on the bases, IMO paint them the same way you paint your nids, carapace bits bone and fleshy bit blue.

I've been looking through the gallery and that does seem to be how most people do it. I just though they might blend in a bit too much. I'll have a go at it and see what I think, thanks for the suggestion


Whilst I was out this morning I popped into GW to pick up some glue and another bottle of dheneb stone, I came out with this




So much for sticking to 1500 points and not taking any big beasties

I also got the bone colour done on 10 of the 30 Gaunts this morning, even doing it this way it is tedious....hopefully they wont take me too long!

Looking good. I really like that GW is now selling assembled models.

Did you magnetise any of the bits or did you keep make the kit purely as the Tervigon?

Dark_Gear wrote:Did you magnetise any of the bits or did you keep make the kit purely as the Tervigon?

I magnetized the crushing claws/scything talons, but everything else is glued. I don't think I'd ever use a Tyrannofex really so I couldn't be bothered to go through the trouble
Thanks for the comment


I've just spent the last hour trying to work out a few new lists to accommodate my impulse buy, does this one look okay to anyone who, unlike me, has actually played a game with Tyranids?

Tervigon - Toxin Sacks, Scything Talons, Catalyst (190)
Prime - Deathspitter, Duel Boneswords (95)

20 Hormagaunts - Toxin Sacks (160)
20 Hormagaunts - Toxin Sacks (160)
16 Genestealers - (224)
5 Warriors - Deathspitters, Rending Claws (200)

2 Hive Guard - (100)
2 Hive Guard - (100)
1 Zoanthrope - (60)

6 Raveners - Rending Claws (210)

TOTAL 1499

I'm happy to look at any suggestions And, from peoples experience, is it uncommon for a single Tervi to poop out more than 30 Termagaunts in a game?

Lets see the Tervi!

First of all, beautiful nids. There is nothing quite like a well painted tyranid army on the table, and is one of the coolest looking armies, imo. Your list looks good, but I would add a few more big gribblies when you get the chance. Trygons are good, of course, but Carnifexen can be good is you keep them cheap and have alot of nobs/paladins/thunderwolf cav in your area. A Hive Tyrant with paroxism can turn your hormagaunts into monsters when they get the charge, and can take pressure off of your raveners and warriors.

If you decide to buy gargoyles (amazing models) you should really magnetize their bases. I don't know how many stems I broke before I magnetized mine, and I havn't had a problem since.

Again, great work!

Norn King wrote:Lets see the Tervi!

No Tervigon today Norn, sorry! I may have been impulsive in the shop, but I've stuck to the painting plan. I think I might save the big beastie til last, to give my self a reward for painting all 103 other models

Eddtheman wrote:First of all, beautiful nids. There is nothing quite like a well painted tyranid army on the table, and is one of the coolest looking armies, imo. Your list looks good, but I would add a few more big gribblies when you get the chance. Trygons are good, of course, but Carnifexen can be good is you keep them cheap and have alot of nobs/paladins/thunderwolf cav in your area. A Hive Tyrant with paroxism can turn your hormagaunts into monsters when they get the charge, and can take pressure off of your raveners and warriors.

If you decide to buy gargoyles (amazing models) you should really magnetize their bases. I don't know how many stems I broke before I magnetized mine, and I havn't had a problem since.

Again, great work!

Thanks for the comment I've always really liked the look of the Nid's too, It's the main reason I went for them next! I'm not against having MC exactly (otherwise I wouldn't have gone and bought the tervi ), but from a fluffy point of view I've always preferred the "endless swarm" side of things a lot more than the TMC's. I'm not really looking for the list to be massively competitive, I generally just opted for models I like most, hence the 40 Hormagaunts and squad of Warriors

The whole reason I posted the list was just to make sure I hadn't missed something obvious that would mean the list simply couldn't work on any level That said, I was tempted to get a Tyrant at first, so I might just pick one up when the rest of the force is done and dusted!


Update time!

Thanks to having 3 days off work this week I really got some quality painting time down. As I've said before, I'm not looking to win any golden deamons (or even best painted in local tournies ), I simply want to get a fully painted army at long last! That said, I think they turned out to be a pretty decent table top standard! Let me know what you think




It probably took about 10 minutes to do the bone and the details on each model and only 35 minutes to dip the whole horde. The varnish spray only took about 2 minutes to do the whole squad! Army Painter, I love you. My previous army, dark eldar, only has 30 fully painted infantry models so far, and I've been painting them ever since their new codex dropped, I did all of these in a week!



Its a bit of a shame that after all of that, this squad isn't even in my list any more! Hopefully my Tervigon will be productive and be able to poop all these guys out at some point

And finally, 6 weeks after ordering them, my Prime's bone swords finally arrived from Chapterhouse! I had to cut his right arm at the elbow to rotate the blade round, I thought he looked a bit goofy flapping both swords up in the air Other than that I simply added an extra bit of chitin to each shoulder and green stuffed an extra long spike onto the back of his head so that he'd stand out more, and he was done. Nice and simple, yet I think he really stands out




Now that they have finally come, I will be aiming just to sort the Warrior squad out this week. If I happen to have some extra time I'll make sure all the Horma's get assembled at last (still got 18 to go!).

Thanks for reading as always, let me know what you think!

Loving how this swarm is coming together, nothing better then 30+ painted gaunts/gants rushing against the enemy! I like your tyranid prime, but he's abit plain atm. Some more spiky bits, beefier tail or a more dynamic pose, something to make him stand out more.

List comment: I'd recommend dropping a few gaunts so you can give your stealers toxin sac, will make em that much better in CC. Also, you should decide if your warriors are gonna do range or melee primarly, those rending claws will be abit wasted if you're just gonna have the warriors shoot over the gaunts

Keep it up, can't wait to see the Tervigon!

Ironically, there are now official Boneswords. Oops.

Anyway, great work!

Nice blog, dude! Keep the models coming!

Love the paint scheme, keep 'em coming!!! I feel your pain on the amount of finecast you've that was just plain botched... sad times...

Btw, how in the name of the great devourer are you going to dip and shake the Tervigon... there isnt a paint pot big enough I'd have thought

^ In sections?

Anyway, MOAR updates!

Limbo wrote:Loving how this swarm is coming together, nothing better then 30+ painted gaunts/gants rushing against the enemy! I like your tyranid prime, but he's abit plain atm. Some more spiky bits, beefier tail or a more dynamic pose, something to make him stand out more.

List comment: I'd recommend dropping a few gaunts so you can give your stealers toxin sac, will make em that much better in CC. Also, you should decide if your warriors are gonna do range or melee primarly, those rending claws will be abit wasted if you're just gonna have the warriors shoot over the gaunts

Keep it up, can't wait to see the Tervigon!

I've been rummaging through my bits box to try and find a way to make the prime stand out a little more but haven't really come up with anything. I think its easy enough to differentiate him from the rest of the squad as it stands so I'm not really that fussed about beefing him up any more. I actually got to play my first game with the Nids yesterday and found the Warrior squad were pretty good as they were. The Deathspitters managed to tear open a transport and they slashed their way through a unit and a half of GK's before biting the dust. Pirmarily, I was just using them to give cover to the units behind and to provide synapse, which they seemed to do pretty well.

As far as the rest of the list goes, as I wasn't playing with the full 1500 yesterday I ended up taking the Tervi as a troop, and put Toxin Sacks on both the Warriors and the stealers which I really liked. I'm going to see if I can work that into the list.

Squigsquasher wrote:Ironically, there are now official Boneswords. Oops.

Anyway, great work!

Thanks Yeah, the official boneswords weren't even being mentioned in the rumour threads when I ordered the chapterhouse ones! By the time they finally arrived though I probably could have got them from GW

LostSoulCasey'sLaw wrote:Nice blog, dude! Keep the models coming!

Thanks

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:Love the paint scheme, keep 'em coming!!! I feel your pain on the amount of finecast you've that was just plain botched... sad times...

Btw, how in the name of the great devourer are you going to dip and shake the Tervigon... there isnt a paint pot big enough I'd have thought

I have no idea
to be quite honest I hadn't even thought of that until you mentioned it! I assume I'll have to just brush the quickshade on or crack out the Devlan mud. I'll probably do a bit more of a detailed paint job on the Tervi anyway, as it will sort of be my centrepiece.

Norn King wrote:^ In sections?

Anyway, MOAR updates!

I don't really fancy disassembling her to do that though I think a brush will have to be the answer to this one.



It feels like ages since I last updated, so her we go! As the weather has been so glorious here over the last few days I've bee struggling to make myself sit down and get painting, but here is how the hivefleet is shaping up.....




This second pic shows you how basic and bog standard the painting has to be with the army painter stuff. After spraying I probably only spent 10-15 minutes from start to finish on this dude. Sure it doesn't look awe inspiring, but after he gets a once over with the quickshade he'll look at least as good as the Raveners, which is all I'm really looking for. A reasonably painted army is a million times better than a grey plastic army, and that, unfortunately is my only option with a project that includes so many minis




And here's the rest of the brood! I hope to be able to get these fellas all quickshaded tomorrow and varnished the next day so you can see the (almost) end results. I say almost because I think I'll be leaving all the bases blank for the time being, so I can see how decent these new textured GW paints will be and so I can do the rest of the army in one hit if they're worth the investment.

I was originally planning to take my DE to my battle yesterday, but I rushed in the morning to get these guys all sprayed up so I could stick their bases on! Shame most of them were clensing flamed off the board in a single turn, but at least it gave me an incentive to get the tippy-gaunts ready for the painting station!

*sings Motley Crue's "Girls girls girls" to the words "Gaunts Gaunts Gaunts" hehehe*

Those gaunts are barely a scouting party.

^ Lol, the calm before the swarm.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Btw, sorry if this has been asked, but are you using the army painter spray?

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:*sings Motley Crue's "Girls girls girls" to the words "Gaunts Gaunts Gaunts" hehehe*

Swordwind wrote:Those gaunts are barely a scouting party.

True, but it's as near to a real swarm as I'd be able to paint without going completely insane

Norn King wrote:^ Lol, the calm before the swarm.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Btw, sorry if this has been asked, but are you using the army painter spray?

Yeah, Crystal blue and the medium quickshade




Mini update, unfortunately I've not been able to get much done this week on the Warhammer front due to family stuff coming up. I hopefully should be able to get some time next week to sit down and get painting again, but it means I wont have any pics up for a while. Sorry!

Keep checking back though, I'll try and get something up (It may only be something little though) as soon as I get an oppertunity.

Hey guys,
Sorry its been so long between updates. I'm really struggling to find time to get any hobby done at the moment, but I did get an hour and a bit last night to get a little more done. I think I'm going to try and crack on and get everything painted before getting the quickshade out again, so unfortunately it's just going to be pictures of flat 3 colour painting for the time being!




Here's the Hiveguard squad that I managed to get finished off yesterday

I didn't get a close up on the more noticably miscast model (the back one of the two in the top pic) that I mentioned previously, but it's almost looking okay now. When I look at it alongside the other ones, its still pretty easy to see where its gone wrong, but if you look at it on its own then it looks pretty aright



And here's my first 10 (of 40 ) Hormagaunts. It's really slow going painting the Hormas, before I started them I thought they'd take no time compaired to the Terma's as there is much less armour, but it's turning out to take even longer!

Here's a little checklist just so I can keep track of whats left to do:

1 Tervigon - Needs spraying, painting, quickshading
1 Tyranid Prime- Needs quickshading

5 Warriors - Needs quickshading
16 Genestealers - Done
30 Termagaunts - Done
40 Hormagaunts - 30 need painting, all quickshading

6 Raveners - Done

4 Hive guard - 2 need spraying, 2 need painting, all need quickshading
1 Zoanthrope - Done

Good update! I will soon be joining you in the painting of Gaunts. (My new nid army is going to have the never ending swarm theme)

Very nice pain scheme dude!

Norn King wrote:Good update! I will soon be joining you in the painting of Gaunts. (My new nid army is going to have the never ending swarm theme)

Thanks ooh good luck with it! Any idea what scheme you're going for yet?

TH3FALL3N wrote:Very nice pain scheme dude!

Thank you

Hive Fleet Kraken, I know I know, everyone does it. It just love the colours, i dont know why.

Norn King wrote:Hive Fleet Kraken, I know I know, everyone does it. It just love the colours, i dont know why.

I'm the same, Kraken was my second choice, If I wasn't planning on redoing my Khorne Chaos soon I'd have gone for it. But I didn't think i'd be able to cope with painting that much red



Time to have a look at this weeks work I did pretty much the same as I did last week, so most of this update wont be hugely exciting, But here it is none the less!

First up was the tedious job of getting another 10 Hormagaunts painted up. Thats a whole brood done now, one more to go! (you can see them stood ready and waiting in the background of the picture )


I got the Gaunts done by Friday so I got to spend yesterday afternoon sorting out my last two Hiveguard. All 4 are done now and just awaiting the mass quickshading!


And as I had the blue spray out again I went ahead and got the big beastie sprayed up as well! Hopefully now I know she's sat waiting for me will spur me on to get through the last Hormagaunt brood!



I really enjoyed the pretty colours at the end of my last post so I thought I'd go for it again today Thanks for reading, any comments are appreciated!

1 Tervigon - Needs painting, quickshading
1 Tyranid Prime- Needs quickshading

5 Warriors - Needs quickshading
16 Genestealers - Done
30 Termagaunts - Done
40 Hormagaunts - 20 need painting, all quickshading

6 Raveners - Done

4 Hive guard - Need quickshading
1 Zoanthrope - Done

Really like yours scheme! also that prime is compleatly badass, well done

Why didn't I think of this for my Tyranids?

Instead...over 12 stages for a single Gaunt...

I am officially subscribed as I am also building a hive fleet myself, it is still in the design phase but it is coming along. I already have a hive tyrant and codex. Nice work on the paint. I will be following this closely.

Looking great, as usual!

bigfish wrote:Really like yours scheme! also that prime is compleatly badass, well done

Thanks I really like him too, not too overstated but I think its clear enough to that he stands out

Squigsquasher wrote:Why didn't I think of this for my Tyranids?

Instead...over 12 stages for a single Gaunt...

Wow that's impressive! have you got any pic's? I'd love to have been able to spend more time on these guys, but I don't think I'd ever get them done if I was spending that much time on each fig

Synister_Intent wrote:I am officially subscribed as I am also building a hive fleet myself, it is still in the design phase but it is coming along. I already have a hive tyrant and codex. Nice work on the paint. I will be following this closely.

Thanks man, good to have you on board I'll try and keep you updated as regularly as I can

Norn King wrote:Looking great, as usual!

Thanks for the support man



Okay, life has been manic the last week or so so I haven't had much time to get more done, but I got a little more to show you


That brings me up to 30 painted Hormas (only 10 left now!) I'll try my best to get them done this week!

I've had 2 more games since my last update and After what felt like an hour of trying to balance the tippy-gaunts I've come to the conclusion that I REALLY need to find a way to weight their bases. I've had real trouble with them, with normal bases I just superglue a penny underneath, but as these guys have the slot bases that obviously doesn't work. I've tried blu-tac, but then they seem to stick to the board. I've tried green stuff but that seems like a waste of my supply, and its not exactly cheap. I keep trying to think of small heavy things I can glue on either side on the slot in the base, but haven't had any great ideas so far.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It's going to bug the hell out of me if these guys keep faceplanting every time they get moved!

I use modelling clay on my Hormagaunts, it's cheap and it weighs them down. However, they do fall out, so always have some superglue to hand.

tis the very reason I hate Hormagaunts... Give me Termagants any day of the week ^_^

I use fish weights then mask them with paint and alot of grass

These look amazing man. But every time I see them I think of the Smurfs. Just saying.

Squigsquasher wrote:Why didn't I think of this for my Tyranids?

Instead...over 12 stages for a single Gaunt...

I'm nearly as bad.

White undercoat.
Blue wash.
Bone.
Blue wash.
Bone.
Black.
Midnight blue edges
Regal blue edges.
Ultrablue feathering.
Yellow eyes
Stone/white teeth.
Purple tongue.
Purple wash on tongue and weapon ends.

We need help man.

This simples scheme has me all jealous of it.

DarkStarSabre wrote:

Squigsquasher wrote:Why didn't I think of this for my Tyranids?

Instead...over 12 stages for a single Gaunt...

I'm nearly as bad.

We need help man.

This simples scheme has me all jealous of it.

I think it pays of in the end to have these stages on your nids, escpecially if you focus on the carpaces. Can't deny that I wish it went this fast with such good results thought. Here's a good tip for you thought: Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray. Cut my painting time (escpecially on larger creatures) by alot.

These guys are looking really good, i love the simply painting style, but in the striking colours. Any chance of an unblury army shot please?

Young Logan

Squigsquasher wrote:I use modelling clay on my Hormagaunts, it's cheap and it weighs them down. However, they do fall out, so always have some superglue to hand.

Thats one of the problems I've had when I was trying with modeling clay and blutac and things like that, it either falls out all the time or they sometimes stick to the gaming table! havent found a happy medium yet.

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:tis the very reason I hate Hormagaunts... Give me Termagants any day of the week ^_^

Yeah, I'm starting to wish I'd decided on taking more Terma's. I love the look of the Horma's, they're just such a pain to stand up and store in a case!

Limbo wrote:I use fish weights then mask them with paint and alot of grass

Thats a great idea, thanks for the suggestion. Theres a fishing store about 10 mins from my house so I'll try pop in there soon and see what I can find

Jones wrote:These look amazing man. But every time I see them I think of the Smurfs. Just saying.

I I only just recently noticed that actually, I was paying a game against my mates Ultras last week and noticed the unfortunate similarity thankfully they look a bit brighter than smurfs IRL, but still, you're definitely right

DarkStarSabre wrote:

Squigsquasher wrote:Why didn't I think of this for my Tyranids?

Instead...over 12 stages for a single Gaunt...

I'm nearly as bad.

White undercoat.
Blue wash.
Bone.
Blue wash.
Bone.
Black.
Midnight blue edges
Regal blue edges.
Ultrablue feathering.
Yellow eyes
Stone/white teeth.
Purple tongue.
Purple wash on tongue and weapon ends.

We need help man.

This simples scheme has me all jealous of it.

Both ways have their merits, I'm sure when yours are all done they will make mine look like utter crap If I had the time I'd love to be able to put so much effort into each individual model, but this is about as good as I'd be able to get with the very limited amount of hobby time I get.

Limbo wrote:

DarkStarSabre wrote:

Squigsquasher wrote:Why didn't I think of this for my Tyranids?

Instead...over 12 stages for a single Gaunt...

I'm nearly as bad.

We need help man.

This simples scheme has me all jealous of it.

I think it pays of in the end to have these stages on your nids, escpecially if you focus on the carpaces. Can't deny that I wish it went this fast with such good results thought. Here's a good tip for you thought: Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray. Cut my painting time (escpecially on larger creatures) by alot.

Yeah, when Nid carapace is done properly it can look amazing. But for the amount of time I've spent on these guys, I'm really happy with the results. You're competely right about the spray, I can't describe how impressed I've been with army painter, it's cut my painting time in half!

Young_Logan wrote:These guys are looking really good, i love the simply painting style, but in the striking colours. Any chance of an unblury army shot please?

Young Logan

Thanks man
Once I get the last of the Hormagaunts done I plan to quickshade everything thats painted (whole army except Tervi). I'll get a group shop for you then




I've got the bone colour done on 4 or 5 of the 10 remaining gaunts so far. Progress is going a bit slower than usual thanks to the arrival of my Forge World order and the new GW paints I'll try to get some more pics up over the weekend if time permits and I can draw myself away from the Khorney goodness! Thanks for the comments guys

TAKE THEM OFF! MY GREY KNIGHTS WILL OWN THEM, MWAHAHAHAHAHA

have you considered battle foams hormagaunt trays for storage and travel???

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:have you considered battle foams hormagaunt trays for storage and travel???

Yeah, I spent an arm and a leg on a DE case from Battle foam that I've been really happy with, but I cant really face spending £100+ again I've got a cheap little KR multicase for these guys that fits everything except the Tervi, and for a fraction of the price, I'm not going to complain!




Update time



It's been a long time coming but this morning I finally finished painting the last of the Hormagaunts! I was hoping to be able to get the quickshade out when I finished these guys but unfortunately it's pissing it down with rain atm. Hopefully I'll get a chance when the weather clears up!

Until that time comes, all that is left for me to to is to crack on with the Tervigon! I haven't had a chance yet, but fingers crossed I'll be able to get to work on her over the next day or two! Sorry It's only another short update today, but now I've got the boring the bit out of the way, the last little part of the project should be a little more interesting


1 Tervigon - Needs painting, quickshading
1 Tyranid Prime- Needs quickshading

5 Warriors - Needs quickshading
16 Genestealers - Done
30 Termagaunts - Done
40 Hormagaunts - Need quickshading

6 Raveners - Done

4 Hive guard - Need quickshading
1 Zoanthrope - Done

Wow. You have been painting hard.

Hey guys (and possibly girls),
Just another short update. I finally got to make a start on Mrs Tervigon this week. It was only a really rough go at sorting out the carapace and even that is nowhere near done yet, but I thought a small post would be better than none at all





Whilst I was painting this beastie I realised I haven't had to paint a single pair of scything talons for this army yet, and I'm not quite sure what to do! Shall I make the blade the same colour as the carapace at the top? shall I do the blade a different colour? I think it will look really plain/lazy if I was to just do the whole thing in bone, I think purple would look bizarre, leaving it blue looks silly, but incorporating a whole new colour into the army just for this final model doesn't feel right.

Any ideas?

Leave it bone. I paint my talons the same way as my carapaces, and it works fine (although my method of painting is significantly different to yours).

If you want to see my colour scheme, check out my gallery. It only has one model up so far (a Hive Guard) but ratings and comments would be appreciated (shameless self advertisement).

Leaving it the bone colour might be you only option IMO, but I'm not really an expert.

Edit: Just noticed this is the PBlogs 100th reply Woo celebrate

Squigsquasher wrote:Leave it bone. I paint my talons the same way as my carapaces, and it works fine (although my method of painting is significantly different to yours).

If you want to see my colour scheme, check out my gallery. It only has one model up so far (a Hive Guard) but ratings and comments would be appreciated (shameless self advertisement).

Norn King wrote:Leaving it the bone colour might be you only option IMO, but I'm not really an expert.

Yeah I did decide to leave them bone coloured in the end. Great minds think alike


Okay, so this week I've spent most of my hobby time super-gluing fishing weights to the bases of my hormagaunts as suggested by Limbo (thanks again for the suggestion man!). I've never fished in my life and have absolutely 0 knowledge of fishing, so I had to take a complete stab in the dark when guessing what size of weight I needed (I ended up going for size 9 whatever that means ). It seemed to pan out okay though, they do the job, they don't protrude from the rim of the base and they were really cheap. If anybody else is looking for a way to sort their bases (and doesn't want to walk in into a fishing shop and look like a complete n00b) I got them here



When I got bored senseless of gluing balls I got a little more time to work on the Tervigon






It doesn't seem to show up too clearly in the pics (and probably wont after its been quickshaded either tbh ) but the baby sack hanging under the Tervigon was painted in a couple of layers of Enchanted blue, Ice blue and astronomicon grey slowly making it lighter and increasing the amount of grey with each layer. followed by a light dry brush of straight grey. Seeing as she is going to be my centrepiece model, I thought I could at least try and make her look a little more pretty

And with that, finally, everything is painted now hopefully it wont rain one evening this week so I can get outside and let the dipping commence!

1 Tervigon - Needs quickshading
1 Tyranid Prime- Needs quickshading

5 Warriors - Needs quickshading
16 Genestealers - Done
30 Termagaunts - Done
40 Hormagaunts - Need quickshading

6 Raveners - Done

4 Hive guard - Need quickshading
1 Zoanthrope - Done

Really liking momma Tervi. The purple is really striking, contrasting very nicely.

Love the quick shading, might get my self a pot.

Okay! It's been a fair while since I've been able to bring you a big update, but as I finally got some decent weather this weekend I decided to get dipping

First, I had to get the last few weights stuck on the base of the Hormagaunts, but now, thankfully, they can stand up by themselves! With that little task out of the way I cracked the Quickshade out and went out to enjoy the sunshine (and to get a headache and feel sick from the Quickshady fumes )




I soon found that I'd have a lot of trouble with the bigger beasties, see the first pic below for example I ended up brushing the quick shade on for the Hive guard seeing as they couldn't fit in the tin.



I didn't really get on with working with it this way, the brush made the wash bubble and almost go foamy so I was struggling to get such a consistent cover as I did when dipping them. Once I finished the Hive guard (I wanted them all to look uniform) I decided It would probably be best to use Devlan Mud from now on, on the bigger things at least.

That said, the quick shade was perfect again when doing the gaunts. I managed to get all 40 done in no time at all!



Then all I had to do was leave them to dry. This morning I bunched them all up close on a tray so I could spray them with the matt varnish, As long as you do it this way I'm sure a single can of the stuff would last for years. I've done over 100 models so far and the can still feels completely full They ended up a little bit like this.





As I said, I decided against the quickshade for the Warriors, sure its a little more time consuming but it got the job done, and I much prefer the finish on these guys.





Damn, I didn't realise how out of focus this was when I was looking at it on my phone, but at least it gives you an idea of the over all look!



Anyway, with that little update, it makes my little check list look a lot better

1 Tervigon - Needs quickshading
1 Tyranid Prime-Done

5 Warriors - Done
16 Genestealers - Done
30 Termagaunts - Done
40 Hormagaunts - Done

6 Raveners - Done

4 Hive guard - Done
1 Zoanthrope - Done

Looking awesome Gorechild, glad to see an update finally

although I'm a fine one to talk atm

keep it up dude

I've been trying to decide what the choose as my second army. This blog has just inspired me to do a swarm Tyranid army!

Really cool scheme and consistent throughout. Keep it up.

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:Looking awesome Gorechild, glad to see an update finally

although I'm a fine one to talk atm

keep it up dude

Yeah, sorry about how slow the updates have been recently. It's partly been down to the fact that I really haven't been able to do much because I can't quickshade inside and the weather has been crap, and partly because I'm lazy

CaptainHonkey wrote:I've been trying to decide what the choose as my second army. This blog has just inspired me to do a swarm Tyranid army!

Oooh yay I inspired somone! Thanks for the comment dude

mousespook wrote:Really cool scheme and consistent throughout. Keep it up.

Thanks, glad you like it

i understand that horde painting can be a pain but just basecoating and dipping isnt really doing it for me...
maybe an edgehighlight on the carapace and a quick drybrush over the blue??

im loving the models poses however! its a good looking army overall!

to avoid throwing more models onto the floor, you can try brushing it on. not as quick but a lot safer!

Must buy... boxes of Gaunts...

Dijinsk is very welcome to his opinion and I can see where they're coming from BUT I for one am loving the finished scheme. The Hormagaunts you show close ups of look very good indeed!

I've been lurking your thread like an Imperial scout ship on the Fringe for some time - I was interested to see how this quickshade method came out!

I love that latest shot - it's like the last reel from an Imperial security camera in some distant hiveworld!

MOAR PAINT!!! Oh, and good luck washing those monstrous units.... :S

DijnsK wrote:i understand that horde painting can be a pain but just basecoating and dipping isnt really doing it for me...
maybe an edgehighlight on the carapace and a quick drybrush over the blue??

im loving the models poses however! its a good looking army overall!

to avoid throwing more models onto the floor, you can try brushing it on. not as quick but a lot safer!

Thanks for the comment. I understand entirely that this approach isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I really wanted to get these dudes done and dusted to reasonable standard in a sensible amount of time. I've been playing World Eaters CSM's for more than a decade and still don't have a fully painted 1500 point army, realistically I'd never have got the Nid's painted in any other way And I'm sure we can all agree, this is better than a horde of grey plastic!

angel of ecstasy wrote:Must buy... boxes of Gaunts...

I can confidently say that, after all of those guys, I wont be buying any more Gaunts for a LONG time

Jihad_Ragsta wrote:I love that latest shot - it's like the last reel from an Imperial security camera in some distant hiveworld!

Then hopefully you'll like this next post


I'll start off with the Tervigon. As I said in my last post, I wasn't getting on very well with brushing the quick shade on, so this big beasty used up the last of my Devlan Mud
Still....I think its come out okay:





And now, finally, as everything is painted, I managed to get some half decent group shots of the whole army together.
















And that, sadly, is just about the end of the blog. I finally have a fully painted army and I hope that at least some people out there have enjoyed following me through with its creation Let me know what you think, I might see if I can throw together a battle report with these guys if people are interested in seeing one

Thanks again to everyone for all your comments (and criticisms ) and thank you for every one of the nearly 7000 views so far

maybe a clean up on some of the larger models as you can see where the wash has pooled. still looks good though, and you did knock out an army really really quick

Congrats on completing your force, mate

YES, please can we get some battle reports? ^.^

Jihad_Ragsta wrote:
Congrats on completing your force, mate

YES, please can we get some battle reports? ^.^

Shouldn't be too long away, my first written battle rep will hopefully be my GKs against GC's 'Nids, but I need to get my army painted first!

Wow, a surprising amount of models! Great job, everything looks sick!

bigfish wrote:maybe a clean up on some of the larger models as you can see where the wash has pooled. still looks good though, and you did knock out an army really really quick

I've been looking at doing that over the last few days but havent had much luck. The only model it really bothers me on is the Zoanthropem but I'm sure I'll be able to live with it. I did over 100 models in under 3 months, and considering I only really get like 3 hours a week for hobby-ing I'm really happy with how they turned out.

GoDz BuZzSaW wrote:

Jihad_Ragsta wrote:
Congrats on completing your force, mate

YES, please can we get some battle reports? ^.^

Shouldn't be too long away, my first written battle rep will hopefully be my GKs against GC's 'Nids, but I need to get my army painted first!

I might see if I can knock up a little report at home over the next week or so just as a proper fairwell to the blog, odd's are the Nid's will get flattened, but at least they'll do it looking good Then I'll be ready to go for our rep GoDz

Norn King wrote:Wow, a surprising amount of models! Great job, everything looks sick!

Thanks for your support and comments throughout Norn, There were a couple of weeks last month when I'd never of got round to updating if it wasnt for you

It certainly was not a chore. Everytim i saw it update, I would literally go "Oh good, gorechilds updated it".

Awesome! Are you going to base them?

Squigsquasher wrote:Awesome! Are you going to base them?

Now you have a way to continue the blog! :B
I wish I had the attention-span to give my whole army a consistent scheme D:

Norn King wrote:It certainly was not a chore. Everytim i saw it update, I would literally go "Oh good, gorechilds updated it".

I'm glad you've enjoyed it

Squigsquasher wrote:Awesome! Are you going to base them?

I am going to, but its tedious, slow work and I didn't really see it being that interesting for you guys. I can do if you want though

Crackgnome wrote:I wish I had the attention-span to give my whole army a consistent scheme D:

I know what you mean, I've never been able to finish one force off in a single scheme (or at all even!) until now, that's why I was so keen to finally get these guys done and dusted.

Do it. Everything looks better based. The new GW Texture paints are really good for quick basing, just apply, shade, drybrush abd you're done.