I went and did something a little crazy. You see, Primaris Marines bug me.
It bugs me that NuMarines, "replacement" Marines, "Truscale" Marines, whatever you want to call them, have become more and more prevalent. I remember a time when the idea of Space Marines had a greater emphasis on the threat opposing them, rather than just how big and strong and bad*** they are. A squad of marines desperately fighting their way past a gang of Orks on the farm. Veteran marine Terminators perishing to fearsome Genestealers in the cold of a hulk. I recall a time when the basic Necron Warrior was superior to a Marine, and cost more on the tabletop, while a Necron Immortal was one of the best infantry units in the game. But no more, Marines seem to have gotten larger with the Primaris, while some of their enemies have gotten a bit diminished. It bugs me that the new 'replacement marines' are now towering over their counterpart foes on the tabletop. It takes something away from the feeling of desperation in the universe.
But wait! There is one faction that retains a core choice that is more impressive than even a Primaris in stats and stature. The Tyranids! Tyranid Warriors have been part of the universe for nearly as long as the Space Marines themselves, and to me, they are the most representative unit of the Tyranid race. Just as the Tactical Squad is the mainstay of marines, or Aspect Warriors the mainstay of Eldar, I see the Tyranid Warriors as the mainstay of the Tyranids. So I was thinking, why not build an army around Tyranid Warriors? That would make for some impressive looking infantry.
Also, I love the older models. They new ones are really cool, don't get me wrong, but the old ones are truly strange. They stand upright, nearly twice the height of a normal marine. They're more insect-like and exotic. To me, their posture looks a little aloof, more intelligent and less animalistic than the new ones. A fine foe indeed! Also, a chance for a really unique looking army. Around the time 8th was rolling out, there seemed to be a lot of sellers looking to capitalize on the excitement, and a lot of the old ones were up on ebay. I went a little crazy, and snapped up a bunch of them, adding to my own near 20 year old collection of 12 or so from my days playing 2nd edition.
I now have 63 of them. Enough to build a 2000 point army almost entirely around Tyranid Warriors.
I've always been a fan of Tyranids, but have never had a fully painted army. This will be the record of my expansion into the extra-galactic Xenos threat, starting with a crazy amount of ancient models.
I have all sorts of Warriors in various states. Some need repairs/replacement parts. A bunch need some paint stripping. Everything that needed stripping is now in a pot of Simple Green.
While I've been waiting for some thick layers of paint to loosen up, I've been trying out some paint schemes based on inspiration I've found across the web. Since the collection will eventually include models in both the old and new aesthetic, I did some trial runs on both Warriors and Zoanthropes. I want the army to be darkish, as many of the pics of dark Tyranid swarms looked really nice and menacing. I started with the idea of going Giger-esque, inspired by some of the models I found online. But when I tried it out, the model looked a little colorless, and my first few attempts at layering up an interesting color came out too drab and cool. I tried a number of different sub-coats and over-coats until I muddled my way to something that looked sort of reasonable. After that I fiddled around with secondary colors, specifically avoiding red, as red is often used as an accent color. Instead I pushed towards colors that don't show up in my other armies, like green and orange. This is what I got so far:
I think I like the Warrior with the green face the best. It's enough to get started anyways. I'm thinking I'll do up a whole squad of nine and see how it looks all together.
A friend of mine also plays Tyranids, and he did an awesome Tyranid Prime conversion using Hive Guard, Swarmlord arms, and legs from the old 3rd edition Carnifex. After some more purchases from ebay and my local store, I did some mock ups of those to act as my HQ's.
So far I'm pretty happy with direction of everything and the Tyranid Codex comes out soon. I better start painting assembly-line style!
What an awesome project, loving all of it Big fan of old weirdhammer minis in new armies with updated paint schemes, and those strange, bucktoothed warriors are looking great in those test schemes (+1 to green accent). Converted primes are sweet, good echo of the ancient warrior sculpts, while just being badass in themselves.
Also digging the list / army plan, taking underused stuff ftw
I'm really excited about the new codex coming out, and am trying to see how quick I can do these up.
I've got a finished (but not based) squad of 9 now.
The initial pass felt pretty good, but the last lightening drybrush came out a little chalky for my taste. For the full squad I threw an additional wash of Saraphim Sepia on them, while experimenting with thinning the wash a bit. What seemed to happen is the models that I thinned wound up getting a little darker, like the added water broke up something about the drying properties of the wash. On some models where I thinned the wash a lot (50/50 mix of wash to water) the wash dried with a lighter sort of crust or residue in some of the recesses of the model. I'll try just the straight wash again on the next models and double check that it'll be the way to go. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with them, and I'll continue on like this for the Warriors except in larger batches.
Also, once I finished a bunch of them the green looks a bit strong. It's not enough for me to not continue with the rest of them though. I'll get everybody table-ready and then if I feel like adjusting it a bit, I can do it then.
Pulled some models from the dip and boy did they take a lot of scrubbing. Here are my results:
Whatever was put on that black model really wouldn't come off, although the outer layer of red came off real easy. The models that were painted grey had really stubborn paint, too. After reading up a bit I think I should scrub them while they're still drenched with Simple Green. I also wonder if my bucket 'o' simple green has run out of cleaning power after so many uses. I drained it and threw in the rest of the Warriros that need stripping, and loaded it up with some fresh 'Green'.
This is going to be more work than I thought, but I will suffer for my art!
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kernbanks wrote: Love the color scheme, I did something similar and have 20-30 of the old nids and about 80 genestealers I want to turn into force.
How are you dealing with load out, deathspitter and spinefists wasn't an index option...
Deathspitters or Boneswords, with the secondary claws probably as whatever is cheapest. Currently that's Scything Talons, so that's what I'll count them as.
Spinefists though? I guess I could see how the secondary arms look a bit like Spnefists. They're sort of weird looking.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: All those Warriors makes me jelly. Warriors have always been rather expensive so I don't own many of them, but would certainly like to.
I'm collecting a Carnifex Army and may face you one day. Unnatural selection at it's finest.
Both the new and old Tyranid Warriors are pretty expensive :( Like I said I went a bit nuts with them.
A Carnifex army would look awesome, those models are soo frigging cool. My Warriors don't have much in the way of multi-wound weapons so that might be a challenge. I do have a lot though!
Insectum7 wrote: Hey, thanks for the positive feedback everybody!
I'm really excited about the new codex coming out, and am trying to see how quick I can do these up.
I've got a finished (but not based) squad of 9 now.
Have you considered using small amounts of the green on other parts of the body? Random patterns? Just a little might tie the heads and bodies together more?
Also, maybe a thinner other than water for thinning the sepia like acrylic medium?
T
PS, I also prefer the old warriors although I added modern tails, talons, weapons and magnets to mine. Really need to reshoot these pics...
^ Those are cool, niceley done! I often can't bring myself to modify the older models too much, but the details you've added are unique. I'm fond of the beetle-butt native to the kit because of the old illustrations of Tyranid Warriors, but I like how the tails make your models more reminicient of the very first Tyranid models. I also like that you've got one of the metal Warriors.
I did consider doing spots/designs in other colors around the models early on, and tried it out a bit before the "trial models" wound up looking as they do in my first post. Ultimately I decided that I'll make further adjustments to the scheme once I had a large force together, as often what looks good on a single model might detract from the look of the whole army together. But it's definitely on the table for a finishing pass.
Ahh, these guys are great.* I'm really excited to see how it all comes together.
As for the wash, I've had similar issues to the ones you're describing when thinning with water (including a few Nuln washes that dried whiteish) and I agree that some Lahmian Medium or another acrylic medium will fix you right up.
Mighty! Loving your work. Will follow with interest.
I remember the 2nd ed. Nids collection fondly from back in the day. Transport nightmares, Metal bits crumbling to ruin all over the table top. Fun times.
Painted up a Tyrant and some termies for a diorama once upon a time. Sold them off of course but still have one of those termies... Just for the memories.
Insectum7 wrote: ^ Those are cool, niceley done! I often can't bring myself to modify the older models too much, but the details you've added are unique. I'm fond of the beetle-butt native to the kit because of the old illustrations of Tyranid Warriors, but I like how the tails make your models more reminicient of the very first Tyranid models. I also like that you've got one of the metal Warriors.
I did consider doing spots/designs in other colors around the models early on, and tried it out a bit before the "trial models" wound up looking as they do in my first post. Ultimately I decided that I'll make further adjustments to the scheme once I had a large force together, as often what looks good on a single model might detract from the look of the whole army together. But it's definitely on the table for a finishing pass.
Thanks! There are actually more of the metal guys. Been using them as Primes. Colors are loosely based on the original Genestealer colors: blue violet carapace, pale red violet flesh.
Insectum7 wrote: Both the new and old Tyranid Warriors are pretty expensive :( Like I said I went a bit nuts with them.
A Carnifex army would look awesome, those models are soo frigging cool. My Warriors don't have much in the way of multi-wound weapons so that might be a challenge. I do have a lot though!
The new ones were cheap here because Warriors sucked for three editions. But the older ones are also expensive because no one bought them before they went OOP. Kinda the same issue with the fex with me (i.e: trying to find Grinfexes here for a not-stupid price is hard as hell since few of them sold. Crapton of OOEs though).
Cleaning and building the last of the Warriors is taking a while as I'm super strapped for time atm, but I painted up the Primes in the meantime.
Also had my first Tyranid game since 4th edition. Slammed together an army with what I had built and hit the table right after grabbing my pre-ordered codex from the counter. It looks gross, but the preview of all the Warriors together on the table was inspiring.
Only finished three turns in the time we had, and I made a bunch of errors while learning strategems on the fly, but good times were had. Opponent called it after I killed Guilliman with a super lucky Zoanthrope round, but honestly he wasn't in a bad spot. I think it was closer than he was giving credit for.
Our armies both need to face off once done :p
Love the older nid stuff and spent a while building up a small collection.
Look forward to seeing this blog progress
Haha. I love those old Fexes too. I sold mine off in 4th and a kinda regret it. I got some Spore Mines though!! I think I have a metal Termagant or two, and a Biovore somewhere.
Insectum7 wrote: Both the new and old Tyranid Warriors are pretty expensive :( Like I said I went a bit nuts with them.
A Carnifex army would look awesome, those models are soo frigging cool. My Warriors don't have much in the way of multi-wound weapons so that might be a challenge. I do have a lot though!
The new ones were cheap here because Warriors sucked for three editions. But the older ones are also expensive because no one bought them before they went OOP. Kinda the same issue with the fex with me (i.e: trying to find Grinfexes here for a not-stupid price is hard as hell since few of them sold. Crapton of OOEs though).
Yeah, two of my primes are sporting OOE legs because they were easier to find. I got one top half of a Grin-fex now though. I don't really know what to do with it, gotta be good for something, and the expression is priceless.
Reshot pics of my updated early warriors. Still have not decided on eye color so eyes are not painted.
Waiting for the new codex before configuring the warriors.
Those lads look really good, between the conversions and the scheme really going to work. Orange pop combined with green accents is lovely, guessing that combo is maybe reserved for these HQ bugs? Great minis regardless.
And test game looks impressive even with all that weird pale plastic! You can really pack a lot of warriors into a game!
The army is shaping up very nicely dude. Your paint scheme is really cool and looks good on nids new and old alike. The Tyranid primes are just downright inspiring, I love that conversion. Seeing them all painted up gave me a huge urge to go out and start a nid army for myself.
I really hope you get a good chance to put some serious work into those guys before the buzz wares off. I know how hard it is to keep at it when they're all very similar and it starts to really drag especially on the larger minis like warriors.
But you're really making something special here and I'm excited to see it all come together. Those primes are incredible!
Cleaning and building the last of the Warriors is taking a while as I'm super strapped for time atm, but I painted up the Primes in the meantime.
Also had my first Tyranid game since 4th edition. Slammed together an army with what I had built and hit the table right after grabbing my pre-ordered codex from the counter. It looks gross, but the preview of all the Warriors together on the table was inspiring.
Only finished three turns in the time we had, and I made a bunch of errors while learning strategems on the fly, but good times were had. Opponent called it after I killed Guilliman with a super lucky Zoanthrope round, but honestly he wasn't in a bad spot. I think it was closer than he was giving credit for.
Our armies both need to face off once done :p
Love the older nid stuff and spent a while building up a small collection.
Look forward to seeing this blog progress
Haha. I love those old Fexes too. I sold mine off in 4th and a kinda regret it. I got some Spore Mines though!! I think I have a metal Termagant or two, and a Biovore somewhere.
Insectum7 wrote: Both the new and old Tyranid Warriors are pretty expensive :( Like I said I went a bit nuts with them.
A Carnifex army would look awesome, those models are soo frigging cool. My Warriors don't have much in the way of multi-wound weapons so that might be a challenge. I do have a lot though!
The new ones were cheap here because Warriors sucked for three editions. But the older ones are also expensive because no one bought them before they went OOP. Kinda the same issue with the fex with me (i.e: trying to find Grinfexes here for a not-stupid price is hard as hell since few of them sold. Crapton of OOEs though).
Yeah, two of my primes are sporting OOE legs because they were easier to find. I got one top half of a Grin-fex now though. I don't really know what to do with it, gotta be good for something, and the expression is priceless.
Those primes are really really good. Black and brown are neutral and makes the broody. What really makes them very good is that the green is eye catching on the places you nee to contrast. And it makes the orange edges so good with the contrast.
Your paintjob is absolutely wonderful. I love the colors you went with but I'm just not a fan of the old sculpts. The conversions are pretty awesome though.
Holidays are eating up my time! I've been squeezing in work here and there to keep things rolling, and now I have some real progress to show.
Step 1: Strip, clean and reassemble all the painted warrior parts I received from ebay. Hours of scrubbing, and then more hours of carefully matching parts and re-pinning them together, while cleaning mould lines. This took many days sort of scattered across the past few weeks. A whole big mess, here's what that looked like in progress.
Once everything was finally pinned back together and rebased, then came the very important step of setting up the collection in one big display. Um, for inspirational purposes.
Then came the relatively easy part. Priming all the unpainted stuff and hitting any missed parts with Abaddon Black.
I really hope you get a good chance to put some serious work into those guys before the buzz wares off. I know how hard it is to keep at it when they're all very similar and it starts to really drag especially on the larger minis like warriors.
Totally. I knew that if I did this a squad at a time, it was in a greater amount of danger of not getting done. That's why I'm going to DO THEM ALL AT ONCE! Which is going to suck, but it'll work better.
I'll try to get a picture of every phase as I do them. I think that'll be kind of interesting.
bunnygurl wrote: Your paintjob is absolutely wonderful. I love the colors you went with but I'm just not a fan of the old sculpts. The conversions are pretty awesome though.
Thanks! I know not everyone is a fan of the old models, and it's totally understandable. But for historical purpose I thought it might be cool to put them in context with some of the other old plastics:
I am really enjoying following this blog! All of those Warriors ranked up is simply awesome! Yes, please keep us updated with how you’re getting on. I know that it’s really helping with my own Nids.
You’re absolutely right about painting them all at once. I know that if I’d also painted my Gaunts in smaller chunks I’d never have wanted to finish the rest!
Good to hear that you’ve got a bit of a winter break to do some hobby stuff. I’ve just finished assembling six of the new plastic Warriors today. They’re cool, but I think that your guys are certainly cooler! Keep up the good work
Once everything was finally pinned back together and rebased, then came the very important step of setting up the collection in one big display. Um, for inspirational purposes.
I am so jealous of this build up of models. Love it!
As we go. Over the weekend I was able to get some good blocks of time, and also spent game night painting instead of playing. These are basically drybrushed coats of varying intensity.
Doombull brown:
Gorthor Brown:
Dawnstone:
Baneblade Brown
It would have been nice if I had done these all with the same lighting conditions, but I paint when and where I can paint or else it ain't getting done.
To have so many old school models in one army is incredible. And that paintscheme looks very effective. Keep up the good work, you're making excellent progress.
This thread's title really deserves it's own 80's cartoon theme song
It's nice to see the classic models in a modern scheme and, as others have said, those three "synapse" warrior conversions look awesome.
Love these models, and your paint skills are really making them look menacing. It is nice to see a more 'realistic' looking tyranid scheme, and you seem to be quite the machine when batch-painting. An inspiration to those of us with gigantic piles of grey plasitc
Been a while since the last update, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been any progress. The step after my last update was to do a light dusting of Screaming Skull to pick out any natural hilights on the models. After that, I did all the black sections on the models to make way for the carapace and details. This took a looong time to do, as every model has many sections selected for the treatment, and it had to be fairly precise. Also, since I was going over the models more closely, I found myself scraping and cleaning mould lines that had been missed during prior painting and assembly, meaning I also had to repair the paint job post-cleaning. So far it's been the most tedious part of this project. Thankfully, once it was done the models looked waay more complete by just having that single cleaner coat added.
After the black was done the next few steps went pretty quickly. A splotching of Incubi Darkness was added to the carapace details to give a bit of beetle-color. The Deathspitters were treated to a thin, blended coat of screaming skull to pick them out a bit more, and the boneswords were given a base coat of Emerald Green (yes, the actual Emerald Green from the 90's, I still have some functioning 20 year old GW paint).
While doing this I rebased my metal Zoanthropes/Neurothropes from 40 to 50mm to help keep them from tipping over, and I brought them up to about the same level as the Warriors so I can finish them all at once.
Turaxa wrote: This thread's title really deserves it's own 80's cartoon theme song It's nice to see the classic models in a modern scheme and, as others have said, those three "synapse" warrior conversions look awesome.
I can definitely imagine them featured in an 80's cartoon, especially as their poses are basically all the same
IGtR= wrote: Love these models, and your paint skills are really making them look menacing. It is nice to see a more 'realistic' looking tyranid scheme, and you seem to be quite the machine when batch-painting. An inspiration to those of us with gigantic piles of grey plasitc
Not as fast as I used to be! Work, wife, baby etc. I'm feeling like I can field a fully painted army by the end of February, but we'll see.
Special thanks to the Hardcore History podcast for keeping me company while I paint. I'm almost through the WWI episodes and they've been pretty epic and educational.
Awesome stuff, Insectum, a real joy to behold! I really like the colour scheme, and you've absolutely sold me on the versatility of drybrushing. Those Zoanthropes really showcase your paint job.
How do you think you'll base these guys - with good oil' sand, perhaps?
Ah! 20 year old citadel colours. They're like old friends that just keep giving. Well some of them are. I've got a dark angels green and shining gold that I still use regularly. And an even older Wyrm purple. They don't make 'em like they used to.
If I walked into a gaming club and saw your army arrayed for battle I'd likely be grinning like a freakin' fan boy. I reckon you'll see that a lot.
Cosmic wrote: Awesome stuff, Insectum, a real joy to behold! I really like the colour scheme, and you've absolutely sold me on the versatility of drybrushing. Those Zoanthropes really showcase your paint job.
How do you think you'll base these guys - with good oil' sand, perhaps?
Thanks! Drybrushing is reeaaallly effective for certain models/armies. But about 90% of it is picking the scheme and layering well. Having the right sort of brush is also incredibly key, imo.
I do all my bases with sand (drybrushed again) and patches of static grass. It's simple but it works.
theCrowe wrote: Ah! 20 year old citadel colours. They're like old friends that just keep giving. Well some of them are. I've got a dark angels green and shining gold that I still use regularly. And an even older Wyrm purple. They don't make 'em like they used to.
If I walked into a gaming club and saw your army arrayed for battle I'd likely be grinning like a freakin' fan boy. I reckon you'll see that a lot.
Yeah I have a bunch of those old paints and they're still good. It's miraculous how well they've held up! Stuff like Ultramarine Blue, Lightning Bolt Blue, Scorpion and Putrid Green. I even have most of their first ink set. All those paints I bought in 3rd edition dried up by halfway through 4th.
I've pulled the Warriors out at the club a few times now and some of the older crowd are like "whhaaaaaa. . . ?!" Turns out it's also a pretty scary army too!
Latest update: Did edge highlighting on the dark carapaces, claws, hoofs etc. using Baneblade Brown again. Blended the swords from green to bone with Screaming Skull. Did the faces green (ye olde Emerald Green and Putrid Green), and the Deathspitters got the same colors on the barrel-ridge. They're getting close to the wash phase and I'm excited.
Woooo!!! Well I hit my end of February deadline, sort of. Everything done except the bases, do they count?
After some long extra hours I was able to get the wash of Seraphim Sepia on, and then do all the details for the models to finish up the painting. Rather than post each individual phase here, this one pic sorta wraps it all up. I did the weapon details prior to washing them, this was done with Yriel Yellow, and the "sacs" on the gun were hit with a bit of Camo Green. Then the old Firey Orange post-wash to start the little carapace decorative highlights, Yriel Yellow again, and then a washy Mephison Red to bring the edges back down and enrichen the color a bit. Same for the Zoanthropes, except I started with red on those guys and worked up.
I was able to get sand and paint on all the bases (72 models total) in time for my first game with them. Just some static grass and cleanup with black on the base itself and we have ourselves a finished product.
My first game out with them post-paint was cut short for time, but overall was a mutual slaughter with the Nids having a bit of an advantage at the end. I made a couple mistakes, mostly just throwing my models on the table being happy that they were basically done, but I'll have to improve my generalship for next time around. I think some reorganization of squads is in order, and I'll have to rank up better to protect my shooting a bit more. Also our local Primaris-only opponent has tightened up his list and improved his own generalship a bit since the last time we fought, giving me a bit of a headache mid-game using his Repulsor to charge multiple units and stopping a lot of my firepower for a crucial turn. That said, the loads of Deathspitter shots from the Warriors was awesome. I've already begun organizing my next batch of Warriors with more Deathspitters, since overall I think they're more useful than the Boneswords. It may be a little while before I want to paint Warriors again, but we'll see how they play over the next month or two.
Hopefully I can get the bases done before my next outing with them.
Damn dude, way to see a crazy project all the way through, awesome result when out in force
Small thing, what colors did you use for your basing? I've been looking for a simple badlands scheme for my (very pale) daemons, that might fit the bill.
Thanks guys! I'm really happy with how they turned out as an army and looking forward to adding to it. I'm not sure what unit do next yet. I have a bunch of the original Genestealers though, so that's high on the list. I also have some Raveners scheduled to show up at some point, and that's going to improve my maneuverability as I'm playing Jormangundr and they'll allow my Warriors to come up out of tunnels. That should be pretty epic.
Boss Salvage wrote: Damn dude, way to see a crazy project all the way through, awesome result when out in force
Small thing, what colors did you use for your basing? I've been looking for a simple badlands scheme for my (very pale) daemons, that might fit the bill.
- Salvage
I cheated a bit on the bases, using an artists acrylic as the base coat because it's cheaper by volume and a tube lasts for years. Plus I can water it down a bunch so it spreads nice and easy over the sand. I used M. Grahm Artists' Color, either Raw Umber or Burnt Umber, I forget which. I have tubes of both in my mini-paint case and honestly I just use the one that I can open at the time. Looking at the bases, I probably used Burnt Umber as the base, which is a little redder. Raw Umber is darker and a little cooler. Over that I drybrush Tau Light Ochre, and sometimes a light brushing of Screaming Skull. I was a little worried that if I lightened the bases on these guys too much it would blend too much with the brown on the model, so I'll take them to the gaming tables a few times and see if they want that last dusting or not.
Appreciate the breakdown. I actually have some old Delta Ceramcoat 'Burnt Umber' that's one of my favorite brown paints, may see how that works out for me along with the ochre.
*looks back at the game shots and marvels at the horde of alien weirdness gawking their way towards the UM *
Fantastic! It is surprising how much a modern paintjob can save old, seemingly bad models. And those warriors are surprisingly big! The orange spots really pushed the look from decent to really good.
Imo the orange was crucial to the scheme, otherwise it was too bland. I wanted a scheme that was sort of natural and dark-ish, so that it looked semi-realistic and threatening, but it needed a little pick-me-up at the end. I took inspiration from poisonous frogs and deep sea fish.
Yeah the old Warriors are taller than the new ones, although the new ones are bulkier. I got a shot of these guys vs. some of the new Primaris. Nice to know primaris marines aren't the biggest troops in the game
Really fun shot! I love the retro sci-fi look of these Warriors. It’s amazing just how much detail they have, especially considering that they were hand-sculpted all those years ago. Once again, really superb paint jobs. It will be fun to see what other battles they get into, and what other additions you might make! Perhaps you can find an old-skool metal Tyrant/Flyrant, or some Gargoyles?
Amazing work. You really have put the hard graft in and its paid off mightily! Nothing but love for this project and huge respect for a job seriously well done.
It's been a while since I've done any painting on my Nids (although I've done a great deal of collecting/playing), and it's time to get some brushwork done. In playing the "Warrior Horde" and tooling around with it, it's been clear that I could use some more anti-vehicle capability. A popular unit for this is the Hive Guard, but looking at the stats of the Impaler Cannon, and comparing them to the stats of the Venom Cannon, they're virtually identical. So, the initial anti-tank solution for my particular collection was pretty obvious. I found a bits re-seller on ebay and ordered 18 Venom Cannons. I mounted them low for a believable center of gravity, and then gave the models boneswords because A: It looks better than putting the old claws up there, and B: The Boneswords have come in really handy vs. stuff like Custodes with their 2+ armor save. I invested in some Hive Guard too, as they're some of the cooler Tyranid models imo. Those are in line to paint right after the Warriors.
Amusingly, the ready-made army is super easy to make in 1000 point blocks.
I've never actually seen old school Nids in the flesh, with the exception of a few carnifex! Gorgeous army and I'm amazed you had the motivation to paint so many of the same model in one sitting.
It's giving me an urge to dig out my Tyranids again, I started in 5th edition with them when they had the 4th edition codex and shelved them halfway through 6th.
How do the warrior broods perform? With so many multidamage weapons are they sticky enough to be worth their points?
@Cosmic: Yeah, those are 1st edition metal Genestealers. I've got them built up now and they're awesome. They're a little more bloated and gross looking than the new ones, which are more sleek. I have the metals and a bunch of the old Space Hulk plastics. I think those will be the next big batch of things I do.
@Tyranid Horde & Boss Savage: The "Tyranid Warrior Phalanx" has been my "fun" army, and has had mixed, but generally positive results. I've been running them as Jormungandr, which gives them a 3+ save, which helps a bit. I'll try to summarize my experience below:
Spoiler:
The first versions of the list had seven squads of nine, either mixing boneswords in or running pure Deathspitters, plus two primes and three Neurothropes.
As luck would have it, I wound up fighting a Guilliman-Priamris army a bunch of times. These wound up being roman-style blocks of buffed infantry slamming into one another, with the Nids coming out on top something like 4 out of 5 times. 180 odd Deathspitter Shots and a bunch of Smites tended to out-damage Hellblasters, Intercessors etc. is a stand-up fight, and towards the end Guilliman would get Smited down amid the corpses of both armies by the Neurothropes. But often the takeaway was that killing Repulsors with Deathspitters was an uphill battle.
They fought a Guard list that involved a "somethinghammer" Superheavy tank with a gun that did a flat 3 damage, and that thing tore the Warriors up pretty good. The Warriors and Neurothropes eventually killed the superheavy, and carved out the middle of the table something fierce, but couldn't withstand the additional Leman Russ tanks pounding them form the distant flanks. Amusingly, I wound up winning that game as it ended on turn 5 with my only remaining model, a Neurothrope, passing a bunch of saves like a champ and floating away with the Relic. Hah.
They fought another Tyranid list, (Kronos, I think) and got killed. It was an Open War game and my first takeaway was that I divided my reserves poorly and suffered for it. The second takeaway was that, again, my lack of anti-tank firepower was really hurting me, as it took far too long to kill a Tyrannofex that was spraying acid on my Warriors for a few turns. That was an ugly battle.
I fought a 3K game vs. Custodes and my army included a ton of Termagants in the additional 1K. The 2+ armor for the Custodes turned into a real tough nut to crack with just Deathspitters, Devourers and Fleshborers. I also played kinda poorly in that game (and heroically failed a crucial Genestealer charge). But again, it was the lack of heavier firepower that hurt. However, in that game the importance of Boneswords becaome more apparent. That -2 AP really began to prove itself against the 2+ saves. Lost that game, and it was clear that it was time to adjust things.
- - - - Warrior Phalanx v2 - - - - -
The following games are after reducing model count for Venom Cannons.
First game was against Custodes. The Venom Cannons helped bring down harder targets, and the range helped immensely for focusing fire on specific targets. Again, the Boneswords really helped too, and multiple squads teaming up on Shield Captains did good work. Win.
Next Game was against Custodes and Space Wolves. Big 3K game where I brought nothing but models with 3+ wounds, for kicks. Additional points were filled with more Warriors armed only with Boneswords (because they were painted), Hive Guard, Raveners, and two additional Neurothropes for a total of 4. I feel like the Venom Cannon output was rolling poorly, but despite heavy losses, I managed to swing to one side and kite much of the opposing army while keeping my damage output high. Win.
The latest match was against the dreaded "loyal 32" Guardsmen, Custodes and a Castellan Knight. This game was weird again, because we used the Open War cards. We literally deployed right next to each other, and I got first turn, giving me a huge advantage. I won out after a massive, messy scrum in the center, eventually killing all the Custodes and Guard, and running away from the Knight who was about half-damaged. I'd say I only won because I played some close combat tricks to minimize the damage the Knight could do by locking my squads in combat, if my opponent had gotten first turn I don't think I would have stood a chance,
- - - -
Most of the games with the Nids have been on the casual side, and overall the army lacks sophistication. It's like piloting a battleship for the most part, as it just winds up being a huge slow-moving blob. That said, it takes damage like a champ, and deals it out pretty nicely too. D3 damage and 2 damage weapons hurt, but that 3rd wound on the Warriors slows them down quite a bit. They murder screens like nobody's business, in that game against the Guard I think I had one round where I decided to take out Guardsmen from the center of the table and I want to say I killed 60ish of them with shooting at 24" range. The fact that each Warrior has 3 attacks in CC, and the Boneswords get 4 with a -2 AP, is pretty awesome. I don't feel like I've been leveraging that very well until the last few games. Zero maneuverability though. It's a fun concept of an army but it's a bit monotonous. Overall it's a skew list that will do well if the enemy doesn't have a good answer to the 3W Warrior. But some weapons will really wreck them, and because the army lacks mobility, it can be very vulnerable. There are some major lists that I haven't tried it against either, so there are big holes in my experience here.
However, what the list lacks in sophistication, it makes up for by looking villainous. I also feel like I'm just not particularly good with Tyranids yet, I don't feel fluid with the Stratagems or like I'm using their movement/placement to the fullest.
Insectum7 wrote: However, what the list lacks in sophistication, it makes up for by looking villainous.
Thanks for the recaps, and I have to say the horde has done better than I expected I do wonder what you've got when up against Eldar, with their speed + guns, but like you say 3 wounds is weirdly strong, as there really aren't many damage 3 guns that I know of, and random damage is pretty likely to get stuck in the first dude's body, especially the D3 variety.
Love this army! Was inspiring to see this plog when I got back into 8th edition, helped me revive my own Nids army that also include a lot of old models from back in the day, and also made me purchase more Warriors (but thanks to you they are a bit more rare nowadays it seems ).
I still managed to get a very sweet lot for very cheap, but had to do some work to replace the missing parts (mostly swords and chest piece that I made mold off)!
Great to read the reports and to see you loving the army on and off the battlefield. That's the sort of attitude that really endears this hobby to me.
Those warriors definitely look intimidating on the table - they tower over the Primaris! The venom cannons are a surprisingly clean fit - excited to see the Hive Guard - and whatever the monster in the blister is!
Oh. Mah. Gawd. It's been a while since I've posted an update here. Thanks for all the comments!
But that's not for a lack of painting and playing. (Taking pictures, then processing and uploading images is just weirdly time consuming.)
So I've been adding to the army to give me some more flexibility on the tactical front, and so far this is what I have painted up.
I think this one was a 3000 pointer and might be the first game I had the Hive Guard alongside the Venom Cannon Warriors as well. The Venom Cannons are doing great work for me on the table, as they're essentially the same class of weapon as a Hive Guard, just embedded in the Warrior units themselves. Is it ideal? I dunno, but it does a pretty good job of solving some of the anti-tank issues I was having when I first took the army out.
Spoiler:
Continuing the army. . . Space Marines (which are my primary army) are getting so much flak about being OP and spoiled for choice right now, that I'm really happy I have an "underdog" Tyranid army available to me. (It's so much more fun to win with an army that's percieved as the underdog . So I've been more inspired to do Nids rather than SM for a bit. To help with making my collection more competitive/flexible, I've got some other things on the way which will help me complete a Tyranid Brigade. I've got some Ripper Swarms and a collection of Lictors (somehow I wound up with 4 Lictors plus a Deathleaper), this along with the new Raveners and Biovores will make it easy for me to build a Brigade + Battalion. There's a case to be made that I should get the Psychic Awakening book with the new Tyranid updates, too, but it's likely that for any game in the near future will be just among friends and I won't need to be on the bleeding edge of competitive builds. Besides, everyone else would expect me to have Genestealers in my lists by now, and that's still a big NOPE! I have lots of the original plastic Genestealers, and I've slowly been re-positioning arms to make them less identical. That's taking a while and slowing me up on that front.
Those warriors definitely look intimidating on the table - they tower over the Primaris!
What's surprising to me is that they feel like they tower over the current Warrior kit. I built a couple out of curiosity and I'm sorta disappointed. It's a cool model and I like the design, I just thought they would have been slightly larger than they are. I'd still like to do a squad of the current kit, but I'm less enthused about it now. (and it's not like I'm lacking in stuff in the painting queue right now.)
amazingturtles wrote: The size difference is interesting. Really, the old warriors just have better posture.
Yeah they seem to be roughly the same mass, but the new posture is a little more "dinosaur", especially with their tail. The old upright posture feels more sentient, proud or arrogant to me, which I like.
I don't know how I wound up with four Lictors, but here we are. Also Deathleaper. I like the creature design but somehow I don't like the models very much. I kinda rushed these guys and just finished them a couple days ago. They're slowly growing on me. Also mine are all metal. One or two of them seemed like a recast because the metal was a little powdery looking. That's what I get for Ebay. These are definitely prime designs to get into plastic kits. Anyways, they're cheap Elites for Brigade building and now I can check them off the big list.
Then I'm finally working on my Tyrants. Well, technically a Tyrant and Swarmlord, but they're basically the same. The Tyrant model with Venom Cannon and Bonesword/Lash Whip is one of my favorite models in the range. I friggin love it. Something about the way it fills it's space is really sculptural and satisfying. Beautiful model. I know the flying Tyrant is the go-to for competitive gaming, but I gotta go classic with this one. I have an awesome conversion my friend did for a flying Tyrant. Maybe I'll put that on the short list and do him sooner rather than later.
I'll probably get these guys done in the next few days. I'm looking forward to getting them in a group shot with a bunch of Warriors.
In the interests of continuing the Old School nature of the army, have you considered using that new upcoming Zoat as a Counts As in the list?
Yeah dude! I want a Zoat so bad. I don't know what to use it for. I'll have to get one first and size it up against the other models. Seems like he'd make a good Prime, but I really like my Primes. Maybe a Pyrovore.
Hi Insectum7, just discovered your blog, and I’m loving the mix of realistic feeling swarm of insects and the glowing green sci-fi vibe you’ve seemingly mastered!
On the Zoat, he/she will most probably come with rules for use in 40k. All of the rest of the Blackstone Fortress minis have anyway. So you should be able to run them as a legit Zoat!
Insectum7 wrote: One or two of them seemed like a recast because the metal was a little powdery looking.
I've bought a lot of pewter models that had a powdery, pitted, grainy look. As far as I'm aware it's just corrosion over a long period of time. I wouldn't worry about them being recast.
And since they came out looking great, it looks like the paint filled in any surface irregularities just fine.
Alright! Finished the Tyrants and did a quick hero shot. Not the greatest photos, but they'll have to do for the moment. I had a little trouble matching the brown of the Warriors, I never really remember how chalky the Bone needs to look before the Seraphim Sepia that goes over it. Little bit of correction brought them up to a reasonable spot. Good enough! I'm not sure what model/s I'll do next yet, I'll have to dig around.
gobert wrote:Hi Insectum7, just discovered your blog, and I’m loving the mix of realistic feeling swarm of insects and the glowing green sci-fi vibe you’ve seemingly mastered!
On the Zoat, he/she will most probably come with rules for use in 40k. All of the rest of the Blackstone Fortress minis have anyway. So you should be able to run them as a legit Zoat!
That's good to hear. I hope they can be run as Faction Tyranid.
Boss Salvage wrote:Lictor pack look great in your scheme, really makes me see that sculpt with fresh eyes. Talons down sneaky boi is particularly nice.
As for the walking tyrants, I'm a sucker for those minis. Stompy alien overlords ftw.
Thanks! I think the darker carapace color on the talons helps the Lictor model a lot. It sorta brings out the bug-ness.
catbarf wrote:
Insectum7 wrote: One or two of them seemed like a recast because the metal was a little powdery looking.
I've bought a lot of pewter models that had a powdery, pitted, grainy look. As far as I'm aware it's just corrosion over a long period of time. I wouldn't worry about them being recast.
And since they came out looking great, it looks like the paint filled in any surface irregularities just fine.
Yeah I've had some pitted models before but these ones seemed more severe than I normally see. It's true that once painted it really didn't seem to matter anymore. Makes me want to think twice about buying old models on ebay though, and maybe choose painted models instead as the paint can protect the metal from corrosion. I'm so lazy though, and stripping models takes work
Jin wrote:I'm suddenly realizing that your army is essentially the color scheme I was planning on my stuff. Glad to know the scheme works
DO IT. I find the hardest part is getting a satisfying brown. It's easy to make it too cool or dark. It's just drybrushing though, so still speedy
Inevitable_Faith wrote:Loving them Lictors and Tyrants, great work. I'm with you on finding something appealing about a Tyrant on foot, just so menacing looking,
Beautiful Tyrants and collected force as well. Once put all together the muted tones on the majority of the models gives them a nice and menacing look.
As someone just getting back into 40K, and going hard with my Tyranids (seriously), it's inspiring to see someone working on Old Skool Warriors.
I had... I have no idea how many original plastic Warriors (and a bunch of the metal ones from 2nd Ed), and I think it'd be fun to rebase them on newer bases (they're all on square bases, which is what they used to come with!) and get them up to scratch.
Your Primes are just incredible as well. Inspired design.
H.B.M.C. wrote: As someone just getting back into 40K, and going hard with my Tyranids (seriously), it's inspiring to see someone working on Old Skool Warriors.
I had... I have no idea how many original plastic Warriors (and a bunch of the metal ones from 2nd Ed), and I think it'd be fun to rebase them on newer bases (they're all on square bases, which is what they used to come with!) and get them up to scratch.
Your Primes are just incredible as well. Inspired design.
Yo dawg, that is a biiiiig pile of Nids.
Bonus points for the five Tyrannocytes. I really like that model. Are you going to make the pod or Nid building with those kits?
Extra bonus points for the Stargate DVDs in the background
I can't take credit for the Prime conversion, I stole it from a friend. But thanks!, I love em.
Slowly getting smaller. Since taking that pic I've built 6 Warriors, 3 Primes, 1 Neurothrope, 2 Venomthropes, a Toxicrene and a Maleceptor.
Insectum7 wrote: Bonus points for the five Tyrannocytes. I really like that model. Are you going to make the pod or Nid building with those kits?
Well... it's 6 now... I bought another one.
3 will be pods, three will be the fortification thingy (plus the 3 big spore mines).
Insectum7 wrote: Extra bonus points for the Stargate DVDs in the background
All 10 seasons are up there.
Insectum7 wrote: I can't take credit for the Prime conversion, I stole it from a friend. But thanks!, I love em.
Every now and again you see someone's conversion on an existing concept and it makes you sad that GW didn't make them like that. Your Primes are that kind of mini. Make the "official" Primes look so quaint.
Exciting updates. . . sorta. Did some "Tyranid due-diligence" and knocked out some Rippers and Spore Mines. 24 Spore Mines and the competitive 9 Rippers for cheapo troops. But also, I think they look neat.
H.B.M.C. wrote:
Insectum7 wrote: Bonus points for the five Tyrannocytes. I really like that model. Are you going to make the pod or Nid building with those kits?
Well... it's 6 now... I bought another one.
3 will be pods, three will be the fortification thingy (plus the 3 big spore mines).
Nice, good spread. I haven't brought myself to really invest in that kit because I'm not sure how often I'd use them and they're big models. But they are really cool.
H.B.M.C. wrote:
Insectum7 wrote: I can't take credit for the Prime conversion, I stole it from a friend. But thanks!, I love em.
Every now and again you see someone's conversion on an existing concept and it makes you sad that GW didn't make them like that. Your Primes are that kind of mini. Make the "official" Primes look so quaint.
D'aw shucks.
Sherrypie wrote:I really like those orange, glowing spots these guys have. Gives them a bit of exotic, animalistic flavour without going full on cheetah
Thanks! Instead of mammals I found inspiration in poisonous frogs/amphibians and deep sea fish. That gave me a good direction to go in and I'm happy with how it's turning out.
Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Nice paint scheme (and oh god oh god so many lictors!).
Thanks! Yeah I dunno what happened with the Lictor thing. I think I bought one or two, and then bought two more because I forgot that I bought the first two. Oh well!
I think they look neat too! Some day i will understand the part of my mind that thinks rippers and spore mines look almost a bit cute, but today is not that day
Very nice to see this blog revived! Was one of those thread that inspired me when I got back in 40k and make me want work on my old models too!
Since then I've also amassed a decent amount of old models, or repainted those I had, tho no-where near the amount of warriors you have
Also to keep the old school look for the Prime that would tag along my warriors I got a metal Rogue Trader model that I made taller (and used alternate arms as it was incomplete), but yours a definitely bad ass and would make proper kickass Tyrant Guards too!
I've been avoiding it for too long, and finally worked up the gumption to paint the Termagants. I have 120 of them. 60 with Devourers and 60 with Fleshborers. I put basecoats on 30 of them, and it went a little faster than I thought it would. So I decided to do them all in one go so I didn't decide to quit halfway through the lot. They're at maybe 70% atm I suppose.
Although personally I think the major roadblock on the little biters is cleaning the mold lines. Painting seems almost an afterthought to finish them. Although I cheat, so YMMV.
^Yeah the mold lines are obnoxious, and as I paint I can see a bunch that I missed too. . . I'm conflicted. I could go back and do some repairs and touch up. We'll see.
Now’s the time to do it. If not you will always notice what you missed. A little time now will save you the stabs of self loathing every time you pick up gaunt #112 and see again how you missed his lower left claw.
Absolutely amazing! Its so cool to see how different the original tyranids looked. I was 2 years old when they came out, so pretty much missed them all together haha
120 gants! omg! Looking forward to seeing how the army progresses!
Hey y'all, thanks for all the kudos! I was just finishing up some more phases of painting the gants and got inspired to do a little pic with some Warriors and Prime. I find the "sit back and take a look at progress phase" is an important step to keep me excited about painting, lol.
Looking at the pic I think they'll need a bit more color in the green faces. I was hoping I'd be done with that, but I guess not. After that I'll so their teeth, and they'll get a Seraphim Sepia wash. I might be able to start doin bases after that.
Not the sharpest picture. I'll make sure to do a better one once they're done.
You’re absolutely right, doing in-progress shots really helps to see just how far you’ve come. 120 Gaunts is a hell of a lot! I love your Tyranids, a superb use of drybrushing - keep up the good work and keep at it for the final push!
That is one heck of a batch of gaunts! That quantity of nids is what I always imagine a Tyranid Horde would be like, just a sea of them. Can’t wait to see the finished wave
Question, catbarf - you mentioned using AP Dark Tone (I think it was) over white to get the black look on your 'Nids. Have you tried using it on SM armour plates and, if so, how did it come out?
Thanks for the kind words, y'all! The definitely encouraged me to press through this batch of gants at a quicker pace than I normally would.
After returning from a week long vacation, I found another 10ish hours here and there to push through the rest of the group. I did a 'brightening' pass on the green faces, gave them all their Seraphim Sepia wash, then got on with the basing. Sand, paint and a bit o static grass for each of them. They're not varnished yet, but since it's raining and I don't want to risk the frosties, I'll wait until a warmer day comes along. Here's the lot of them:
After finishing the batch of 120, I feel the need for more of the suckers. . . like double. I figure I ought to get through some of the other choices I have already though.
In between mind-numbing batch painting, I've been prepping some customized Mawloc/Trygons. These are the product of getting some second-hand bits. I was able to use Carnifex torsos for the body, and then geared them up with the 3rd edition Scything Talons. I chose to use the Mawloc heads because they look more gross than the normal Trygon ones, even though I suspect I'll usually use the models as Trygons (I've never met anyone who cared which Tyranid TremorsSnake model was used.) These will join a standard Trygon and get painted up in a group of three.
And here's a little diorama of the gant tide again, updated a bit with the finished models and some RT-era Terminators. I think I've discovered that the available lighting in the man-cave is pretty terrible. Doing these little setups makes me interested in improving that situation though. I think better light would allow for more depth of field even when using my phone camera. I might invest in some little adjustable LED things that I occasionally see for photoshoots. A backdrop other than black foamcore would be nice. . . I can see this getting out of hand pretty quick, lol. Fun times.
Those terminators really sell the swarm for the army pic. Might need to steal that idea.
Getting a proper photo setup is nice. Couple lights and a dedicated box with a few backdrops shouldn’t cost more than a box of marines. Obviously, you can pay more for higher end stuff (or less for junk). Well worth the investment if you are going to be taking/sharing pics. The cameras in phones these days are more then up to the task of getting the pics.
They lack the final varnish, and there are some small spots where the wash pooled and left some lighter residue that I'll touch up, but they're done enough to show and tell.
Pics are still kinda lousy, I really gotta improve that.
Wow. Great looking unit. I always enjoyed the burrower bugs. I think it's because they provide me with a nostalgic feeling for Hydralisk Zerg rushes in Starcraft when I was in middle school...
Nevelon wrote: How big is that display space? Can your swarm completely carpet a battlefield yet?
Nice looking group of bugs.
That space is only 2' x 4', so I can't quite properly carpet a table yet. . . But hey, I got Genestealers, Carnifexes, Hormagaunts, Tyrannofexes, Gargoyles and more to come. (Ack!)
Dysartes wrote: Thanks for the army shot and the list, Insectum - using the "Power Level Update" file, I've done a rough count of PL for that lot.
This does exclude the Malanthrope, as I'm guessing it is a FW unit and doesn't appear in said PDF.
I make it to be 250PL, plus the Mawlagons - depending on whether they are used as Marlocs, Trygons or Trygon Primes adds 6/8/10PL each to that total.
Well I don't have a good feel for power levels (never played with them I think), but I finally did a point tally using the way I've run the models most commonly. I get 5,764 points. More than I expected. Gratifyingly, the Warriors themselves are just over 2k. Then I pointed up the unpainted models plus the expected "fill out" (like I have 30 Hormagants but I'll expand it to 60). . . . 4,963 points to go! Well I'm more than halfway there at least, haha. How hard could it be?
Edit: Forgot 3 Tyrannocytes, so add another 285 points to the to-do pile
Great stuff. I came her via the link in your sig, read the first post, got the gist of what you were up to and skipped to the end - boy did it turn out well. Awesome stuff.