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I can get you a picture of my Tyrannofex if you like, converted from a regular fex.

Be happy to see it Vit!

I'm working on some more humble things now... scrabbled up some rippers and have been having fun making little ripper bases. Only had enough rippers for two bases but but they look neat & were fun to build. Hope to snag some more eventually... maybe enough for a unit! The two zoanthropes also arrived so I've got one of those built. When I get the next one done I'll start the painting process on rippers & zoas with the urchin. Be a good weekend project.

Rippers really are fun to build, possibly my favourite part of the giant bug assembly line.

I like Zoeys, rippers are good little nuisance units. As soon as you have a reasonable amount of gaunts you'll be swimming in the buggers, I think you're only 1 base off minimum squad size anyway! (You used to get something like 2 rippers for every 4 gaunts, not sure now though) Are the Zoeys new or old edition??

Here's the Tyrannofex then, the torso has been sawn in half and widened by 4mm, followed by a tediously long amount of time GSing!!

He just saw a really nice looking lady fex!


But nice work.

Surely that would be more the response for the T-fex artwork!! Never saw the point in a cannon for a jaw.

Here's a bit of progress for today... finished the zoanthrope brood!

Nice Brainbugs.

Thanks wolfshadow!

Also have some rippers done.



Anyone out there have any spare rippers you want to get rid of? I'll pay of course. Probably not worth it to ship them from overseas but in the US I imagine a few rippers in an envelope would ship for about the cost of a letter.

Gits

I love the rippers!

And the zoanthropes look very cranky.

Very nice, the rippers look good juming ove those rocks, are they cork?

Have you thought about painting those bits on the carapace, the bobbly bits on the second layer. Youve painted them on the right side of the bodies but nowhere else?

Those 'thropes and rippers look amazing in that scheme. THe 'stealers look good in those colours, but the 'thropes and rippers look fantastic

@ChocolateGork: Thanks!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Very nice, the rippers look good juming ove those rocks, are they cork?

Have you thought about painting those bits on the carapace, the bobbly bits on the second layer. Youve painted them on the right side of the bodies but nowhere else?

If I understand you correctly you mean the little pink bits on the sides of the zoey tail? They're all supposed to be pink... I just missed that one (have fixed it since this picture was taken). There are a couple in the head plates, I just didn't bother to paint them for expediency. Will probably get those done soon.

@Fifty: Thanks, I'll pass that on my my 7-year old! (his idea entirely)


Anyone know how they paint in those triangular streaks in the tyranid carapace? I just have them set so the wash is deepest along the overlap (I actually turn them upside-down to dry after washing the plates), but I am curious about how you do the streaking.

Yeah those are the ones i meant, cant for the life of me think of what to call them!!

I believe 'Eavy Metal do it with a tiny brush, lots of patience and lots of thin lines!

Yep.. small amounts of paint and a small brush. One gal at ou local game store does them with a fine brush then uses a insainly fine brush in a lighter color, It really makes them pop. I've not the hand coord. to do it that well, but the nice thing is if you mess up it's fairly easy to repaint and redo,

Good luck.

Well I did remember a site that had somewhat of a tutorial for the little tinky carapace streaks, scratches, or whatever they are. I believe that it was the user Girlpainting on youtube, then again that was in October and I may be losing my mind.

I like the choice of colors! They ought to stand out on the table.

The ripper swarms are especially cool.

These look really nice, Thing 2 should be proud! Bone loooks much better. As for the lines on the carapace, I tried once, an failed miserably, although I have improved since then. It just takes patience and practice. My local GW did asmall display army with two different shades of blue on the carapace like that just mixed and they looked really good.
I was thinking about starting a Tyranid army with the new dex out but the idea of large numbers got me down...whats it like Git? I'll post up the test one I did for ya to see tomorrow

Imp. Monkey

Battle report is in-process... we had a great, fun game! (and now that I've posted this would somebody give me a follow-up post so I can do the batrep on a clean post?

@Imp: The problem with large numbers (other than all the painting) is that they're really slow to run. I have that problem with my orks and have essentially gone to a battlewagon spam list just to get the number of models on the table to a low enough number that I don't get accused of slow playing. With Thing 2, I'd kind of planned to do a "nid zilla" list (few, really big monsters as opposed to hoards) but he keeps wanting all the hoard stuff. So we'll see. Game today went fine though... 'course it was under 900 pts so that's not a lot to keep track of.

Bump post it is!

Liking the colour scheme BTW, much nicer then my weak black carapace/metallic limb nid army (sold that damn thing off pretty qucik )

I agree with you Gits, hordes can be a pain! Ive been thinking of doing a magnetic movement tray for my gaunts, be very easy to move then. However, id only use them for apoc when ive got an Endless Swarm, theyd be one shotted by a russ all bunched up!

well if it takes a long time to move a hoard I guess you are daing it right, because my hoards just move in these blob-like formations, but then again when my nids shot at by troops with BS2 that forget they have grenades and blast weapons. I digress, it is great that your son enjoys playing with the new army.

I've forgotten how much bloody work it is to produce a proper battle report... sheesh! We could've fought a second game in this time!


O.K. Not much of a back-story to this battle... Thing 2 hadn't the patience for it. Suffice to say the marines were coming in to investigate an old orkish ruin only to find it already occupied. 890 pts each.

Hive Fleet Pepto:

HQ: Tyranid Prime
Troop: Genestealers (10)
Troop: Genestealers (10)
Troop: Ripper Swarm (6)
Elite: Zoanthrope Brood (3)

War gear on all is pretty much maxxed out for points.



Mantis Warriors:

HQ: Pedro Kantor counts-as
Troop: scouts (5), snipers & hvy bolter
Troop: Inushi's Tactical Squad (10), flamer, ML
Elite: Sternguard (7), 3 combi-meltas, plasma, PF
Elite: Venerable Brother Caius, TL autocannon, CCW, HF

I like Kantor because he's got a couple of nice force-multiplier effects that are subtle, but useful... and he does not seem to be an overwhelming presence on the battlefield.



And for the record: Here is Brother Sergeant Inushi (WIP), Ice Angel's GMS marine from me. I like to run each of my trades in my army at least once so it can honestly be said that they are true Mantis Warriors. It's interesting that Inushi, the first of the "new" Mantis Warriors should start his career leading a squad of my original plastic ones.



Thing 1 set up the table then insisted in playing on it lengthwise... but only half the tables worth... so effectively we were on a 4x4 table.

Deployment: Thing 2 set up two strong flanking groupings with the genestealers on my left and the zoeys, prime on rippers on my right. I did a center-left deployment selecting one tall ruin for the scouts and it's flanking alleyways which gave me good fields of fire.



Turn 1a: (Nids) Much like his orks, Thing 2 came charging forward full-bore.



Turn 1b: (MWs) And true to form... I backed up a bit. The sternguard made a dash for cover & the combined shooting of the scouts and dread accounted for 4 stealers in the center-most unit.



Turn 2a: The Nids continued their headlong rush with the damaged unit diving for cover.



Turn 2b: Ever cautions and trying to lure the stealers into a trap, Inushi backs his squad up yet again, whilst the combined arms of the other squads accounts for 4 genestealers in the previously untouched squad. Unfortunately the sternguard plasma gunner plasmas himself.



Turn 3a: While the assault units push hard on the flanks, the zoanthropes take up position behind a ruin and start to project psychic death on the Sternguard, killing 2.





Turn 3b: Inushi springs his trap and the tac squad moves back around the corner of the building. Inushi's plasma pistol misfires, but his squad's fire combined with others eliminates the center-most stealer unit. His squad will almost certainly be hit by the other genestealer unit next turn, so they prepare for the worst. The sternguard and the chapter master pour fire on the zoanthropes, but their 3+ invul keeps them from harm.



Turn 4a: On the left flank, the stealers smash into Inushi's unit, killing 4 marines in a flurry of claws and teeth. In return the marines kill only one stealer, fail their morale roll and rout. They are caught by the xenos and cut down. The prime and rippers continue to advance on the right. The entire flank pours shots into Kantor who is separated by casualties from the sternguard, but thanks to his armor, the cover and two misfiring psychic tests by the zoeys... he survives without a scratch.





Turn 4b: Venerable Brother Caius rounds the corner and unleashes vengeance upon the zenos with his heavy flamer and autocannon, killing 4 stealers. On the right the veterans fall back to stay out of charge range and to lure the xeno HQ into another kill box... while the scouts shot at the zoanthropes (who continue to make their saves).



Turn 5a: The two surviving stealers dive into cover in order to save the kill point. On the right the remainder of the Tyranid army moves ominously forward...



Turn 5b: The marines on the right flank now spring their trap in hopes of cleaning the rippers swarms from the Tyranid Prime, leaving him to face the marine forces alone. The sternguard move into position and fire their 3 combi-meltas, which Pedro Kantor (counts-as) calls down an alpha-strike on his own position (effectively) for an orbiting ship. Unfortunately the 3 melta gains fail to wound (no sh*t) and the orbital bombardment scatters enough that only 1 ripper swarm is eliminated. Further shooting from the rest of the army wounds a few rippers but none are taken as casualties.



The dice are rolled and the game ENDS!

Final results... Nids - 1, MWs - 1... TIE!


We had a wonderful time, Thing 2 loved his nids & did well with them... *and* they look good on the table.

Can't ask for more!

Great Report!

Does he know about infiltration? It is nearly always a better way to deploy than standard deployment.

Nice battle report!
found it easy to read

Lovely batrep Gits. I LOLed at "Bored Child..."!! Genius!

Seems like Thing 2 seems to have had a good strategy, stealers are the perfect units to go on a flank as they ignore synapse. Maybe a bit cautious with the Prime though, that models hardcore in assault especially if it has a pair of boneswords! Also, i would have split the Zoeys, with no other Elite choices they could have been separate.

All in all looked ike a great game! The MWs look great together (despite the od paintjob tac marines!), particularly the Tranquilty detatchment.

PS. Was he fleeting the stealers? Did he know they had infiltrate? [edit: Ninja'd, gah!]

Good Batrep! The Stealers did surprisingly well.

Looking forward to seeing some more stuff painted up for this army so you guys can get some slightly bigger battels going.

Thos Tranquility vets look awsome on the table, and so do the 'Nids.

I love that old 'Fex.

Thanks folks!

Yep, he knew they could infiltrate... but he's stubborn like his mother so once he digs his heels in he's going to just do it his way no matter what. I thought he did a great job of keeping both units alive by using cover on his advance so that one of them could hit home.

I didn't think about splitting the zoey's up... I guess I was just trying to keep it simple for him since this was his first time out with his army. Though if you split them up you give away tripple the kill points. But then they are a stone-cold bee-itch to kill (3+ invul never failed all game). I do have some warriors for him so when I get the time I'll get them built & we can paint them up so the prime has a proper posse (besides rippers nipping at his heels).

Primes re definitel very good in warriors, the increase in WS and BS (to the primeslevel) is awesome!

Cool report, and those 'Nids are lookign good, especially the rippers!