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Nurgle it seems has devised a new virus, I call it "the conversion bug". Symptoms include having your flooded with ideas to the point where your hands can't keep up. This usually results in taking perfectly valid model kits, chopping them up, splicing in new bitz and wanting to hide large sections of the model with GS so you can extra detail.

Edited the last post to show the right image of the Shrike's Tail.

@Tortured-Robot: I'm glad this is helping possibly get back into the hobby. A good heap of praise should go to Casey for egging me on via multiple PM's and his idea of a Nid Year Resolution. When you're stuck in a rut, nothing beats having friends to push you out of the cave and back to the workbench.

@Tarnish: Glad to hear it. What is your next project? Make sure you link it so we can check it out.

@Prime: Thanks. I'm planning getting the other wing detailed up today and ready for another game tomorrow. The plan is to win by keeping the opponent distracted by the conversions.

@Casey:Thanks again for nudging me and can't wait to see your first update. Your concept for the Mycetic spore sounds good. How do you plan on building it? Foam body with GS over top?

As for the Resin Sand, here's the scoop.

A few months ago I stumbled upon one of BOLS' older articles which spoke about pummice gel.

It seemed like something useful especially since it was right around the time I was looking at basing all of my DE army for an upcoming tourney. Looking at the art supply store I found a variety of products from different companies such as Liquitex and Golden. Both brands offer various coarseness of pummice gel and I chose the medium grit offering. It works like a hot damn. All it took was 45 minutes and the whole 1750 point army had enough texture to be considered "based" for a table-top level..

What does it look like?

Behold! Resin sand in a thick water soluble acrylic gel (this last bit is important but I'll explain later).


How to use it

Get a jar of water and a coarse hog hair brush. A good size to use is a number 3 (roughly 1/4 inch wide) square tip brush as it allows to scoop up large amount of the gel, which speeds up the application when you have a lot of ground to cover. A cool feature of this product is that it can easy go thick or thin and that it will not shrink when it dries, contrary to white glue and sand. This means you can actually sculpt terrain and texturise in one step. When using the pva glue and sand combo for texture, you'd typically have to build up the terrain with another material first (such as putty or plaster) before adding the pva/sand.

Just paint it on and have fun.



Aim for good coverage, don't worry too much about painting over details at this point.


Remember what I said earlier about this media being water soluble? Once you're satisfied with your coating of resin sand, rinse the gel off the brush but don't dry it yet. On the contrary, load it up with water and brush off excess gel in selected, such as the base's rim or bits of terrain like that grey beam beside the ripper.

[url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/322551-Prime%2C%20Tyranids%2C%20Warriors%2C%20Work%20In%20Progress.html]
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Also, because this material has an acrylic base, it functions just like pva glue in that you can use it to hold sand, rocks or whatever else you want to use for your bases. In this case I'm applying the usual beach sand from the bucket.



Total basing time: 10 minutes.

Price-wise, you're looking at anywhere between $12-$18 (canadian) depending on which brand and which coarseness you go for. Is it more expensive than pva and sand? yes. Considering that by using this gel you can effectively sculpt and texture terrain in one step and one sitting, this product is a time-saver. You'll spend less time fiddling with multiple products to achieve the same result which means that, especially if you have precious little hobby time, you'll be able to spend more time working on the models themselves rather than the bases. I now consider resin sand an essential part of my toolbox.

If you're a student, I'd suggest buying pummice gel from an art supply store as they'll frequently give student discounts, unlike hobby stores, which is where you're more likely to find the Vallejo pummice gel.

5 out of 5 stars (regardless of brand since I'm not doing an infomercial here, just spreading the word about a cool product.

Hope that helps.

Dark_Gear wrote:Nurgle it seems has devised a new virus, I call it "the conversion bug". Symptoms include having your flooded with ideas to the point where your hands can't keep up. This usually results in taking perfectly valid model kits, chopping them up, splicing in new bitz and wanting to hide large sections of the model with GS so you can extra detail.

All hail Papa N! And people assume daemons are the bad guys! Actually that reminds m... No, i am actively trying to forget my epic army idea until the rest of my projects are finished!

Edited the last post to show the right image of the Shrike's Tail.

Nice one, it's looks great, i'm going to be doing ... 8? tails so that tutorial was really helpful.

A good heap of praise should go to Casey for egging me on via multiple PM's and his idea of a Nid Year Resolution. When you're stuck in a rut, nothing beats having friends to push you out of the cave and back to the workbench.
@Casey: Thanks again for nudging me and can't wait to see your first update. Your concept for the Mycetic spore sounds good. How do you plan on building it? Foam body with GS over top?

As we always say in my family, there is no need to say thank you: One day i might get stuck in a rut and you could well be the guy that gets me fired up again, that's thanks enough.
As for the Spod, glad you liked the idea i'm quite chuffed with it. I've sourced foam eggs on ebay, the larger ones are hollow and in two halves which is a god send. They have a lot of sizes but i think i'll be going with these two: 1 and 2. I'll probably have to harden them with PVA before i start sculpting over them but they might be dense enough to take the pressure, i'll have to wait and see. This might also be the time to get myself some brown stuff. From what i've heard it's cheaper and comes in larger quantities so it's good for getting the base of the sculpt before you add detail. I've also heard it's easier to get sharp edges with it so it'll make the armour plates infinitely easier to build up in the early stages. That could all change between now and then though as i'm thinking they will be the final models that i green. They may well be the first to get a lick of paint though.

As for the Resin Sand, here's the scoop....
...Hope that helps.

Indeed it does! It looks like you succeeded in adding another must to my own kit. Thats reminds me, these 'Nids are going to give me a nice opportunity to really get a feel for the Tamiya Extra Thin. And when it comes time for me to try my hand with pummice gel i'll be back to your tutorial post to get the low down. It won't be on my 'Nids because i'm going for city basing, or my Marines because i've got a treat panned for them, or my Necromunda Gang because they are getting metal sheet with treading. Hmmm, maybe Infinity, or, dare i say, it'll have to wait to see if that daemon project ever gets off the ground. I'm sure i'll find a reason to play with a new toy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Tau! I'll use the pummice gel on the couple of Tau conversions i'm doing that get my attention now and again.

Just a short post to rest the eyes from sculpting. There has been crazy progress on the Flying Tyrant since the last update, there's only about 5-6 hours of work left to do now.

Had another big game today&mdash:3500points.

For the first time ever, Zooanthropes and a pod were taken off the bench and put on the field. Total kills, 1 Land Raider, 1 Demolisher, 1 Rhino and 4 marines (thanks to an explosion).

Not bad but tally even though I gave up 2 Kill points. In their honour the Micetic Spore concept sketches have been taken out of storage and I've purchased Milliput for a sculpt.

Sketches incoming tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Oooh, lots of fun. Looking forward to reading your updates!

And now for something completely different.

I received a really good question via PM and rather than reply to it in private, I figured I'd post the in the thread as the answer might just come in handy to the modding community at large.

have you had any experience with smoothing out green stuff that you've already applied. I've used layers of watered down PVA washes before with some success, it was quicker than smoothing out with more GS. I'm just wondering if there is a definitive technique that i haven't come across yet. And don't say getting it right the first time.

To start, thanks for teaching me a new as I never have thought to water down PVA glue and use for a leveling a rough surface.

As for how to smooth GS that's already cured, I can't really say what the best solution is… so I'll go with the alternatives

Your options for smoothing out GS, in order of preference and ease of execution, by my experience are:

1. Covering with another layer of GS.
2. Covering with another type of putty, such as Milliput or Mr. Surfacer. Milliput is particularly good because it's water-soluble which means you could dilute a small amount and effectively create your own custom recipe "Liquid Green Stuff".
3. Sanding and/or filing. Word of warning: you'll need to de-gunk your files frequently.
4. Covering with a self-leveling acyrlic gel. Word of Warning: takes forever and a day to dry.
5. Covering with watered down PVA glue.

And finally, the most dreaded of options, which is sometimes unavoidable but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it… Why do you think I resculpted the enitre surface of the Tyrant's wings after a catastrophic GS mishap?

5. Rip the offending section of GS and start all over again. More on this later when I post the progress pics of the wings.

Option 1 is by far the easiest and the fastest as that section with be patched up and ready to work within a few hours as opposed to days.

Of course, the best solution is the pre-emptive one, namely, making sure it's smooth the first time around but again, speaking from experience, I know that is not always possible. If you're having problems smoothing out the GS, then maybe it's not the sculptor but the tools that are the problem. In such a case, let me know and I give a run down of the tools I use and how I use them.

Hope that helps and keep the questions coming.

Stay tuned.

Thanks dude that was really helpful. For a start, i think you've convinced me to stick to the tried and tested green stuff layer.

I agree, tools are the problem most of the time, a lot of people think its themselves because they've never used the right kit. My kit is pretty solid right now, colour shapers being the core of it. As for preempting the problem and getting it smooth first time, its 100% the best solution. I stupidly attempted much of my Tyrant's torso in bad lighting. "That's a no, no." Where's the quote from?

As a side note: What do you think of liquid green stuff? When it came out i was more than skeptical but after i heard that it's closer to the consistency of honey than water, i've been intrigued.

Just a short post, scultping. Expect a major backlog of images to be posted this week.

Yup, GS just works, hence it's popularity with mini-sculptors.

I'll hold off on making a judgement call regarding Liquid Green Stuff (LGS from now on) until i get to:

a) Try milliput for it's water-solluble sculpting properties.
b) Try Mr. Surfacer.
c) Figure who GW licenced and repackaged LGS from for the usual re-donk markup. I'll then buy so I don't pay for repackaging. Heck, as far we can tell, GS bough Mr. Surfacer, injected it with a green dye that matches the tint of GS so they could market it as such.

That being said, some people seem to find that LGS fills a niche (pun intended) need that matches their desires and that's fine. The joy of this hobby is that there's always 1001 ways to achieve the same end, none of them are "the best" method, but some tools are definitely more efficient time-wise or money-wise than others and I'm not the one to judge.

Good lighting is key, especially when painting. When scultping on the other hand, I find have slightly lower lighting to work best as I can see the shadows on a surface, and thus can tell if the surface is textured "just right". For example, the Tyrant wings are impossible to work in a sunlit room as there just is too much light to tell the highlights from the recesses.

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say when you get round to doing those tests. It sounds like your sculpting has been prolific, i'm really going to have to work my arse off to keep up amn't i?

Disaster just occurred! The torso and attached head of my HT just slipped from a height as i put it down, and bounced off of my desk.
Then something awesome happened! The piece appeared undamaged. On further inspection the head was broken off but miraculously had detached where the neck attaches to the torso although remained on the pin. This actually makes the next part of the sculpt easier, i couldn't have engineered it that way.
Thank god for solid gluing, pinning and a firm coating of green stuff!

Anyway, as i was saying... It's going to be tough to keep up, especially with the plans i'm making. It's going to be fun though, i haven't ever worked to a target or deadline, or with such a strong vision and plans laid out. I'll be posting my first images ever tomorrow which is daunting, i hope they aren't too rough(Builders in so i don't have a proper picture taking area.). I'll also be combining the blog with some fluff i've written.

If i'm overreaching my deadline and Tyranids are getting a bit in face i'm going to post up my first army(Very badly painted.) I'm going to rewrite the fluff for them as i go. Do you think i should post them in a P&M blog thread or Showcase?

Sorry about all the questions, think about it this way, soon i'll be spamming up my own blog with this tripe.

“<em>The smart industrious man always over-reaches at the start of a project, but only the fool refuses to scale things back once things are under way.</em>”
—Marc-Andre Renaud | 2012

So go ahead, by all means give yourself a mountainous challenge with your Tyranid army build, just remember that the journey will probably be a long one. FYI, my very Carnifex and the very first time I used GS dates back to 2008… And here I am now, resculpting wings, magnefising models to bases and building display boards. It's been a fun trip to say the least.

Keep the questions coming

These are real nice 'nids
Subbed

Dark_Gear wrote:"The smart industrious man always over-reaches at the start of a project, but only the fool refuses to scale things back once things are under way."
- Marc-Andre Renaud | 2012

He's a clever fellow, isn't he?

Time for another viewer question:

Why wings? Have you ever thought of a bio-jump-pack?

Yes I have, however, wings will always trump a bio jump pack.

The main reason…



Only wings cast shadows

You tease

My man!

Gotham can rest easy tonight.



P.S. I am following a new hobbyist, trying to help guide her into the world of warhammer. Dropped your quote from yesterday, i thought you'd want to know.

P.S.S. 13hours until i go live with a P&M blog. Their wont be much to see for a few days though, until i start making serious progress.

Bring out the comfy chair, pour out the drink of choice, it's time for a lengthy progress report.

Here then is the current State of the Table:



In the left hand corner you'll notice a wee spider hanging. At this point I'd like to extend some major thanks to Jason for effectively donating an Arachnorok to my on-going army conversions. The kit is greatly appreciated and will be put to great use in short order.



Soon, the kit on the right will have its legs plucked and will be rebuilt as a Tervigon.

I forget where I mentioned this but in a previous post I said something to the effect that one of the hardest things to do in a project is take a step back and know when to just start something over again. While working on the Tyrant's wings, there came a point where a previous addition just didn't seem to fit so the hard choice had to be made…



A few hours of sourcing out bitz, cutting and sculpting all ripped apart, but for good reason. It just didn't fit with the rest of the sculpting anymore. But before I reveal what actually replaced it, I'd like to share a cool little basing demo.

Ever since I started working on the Tyrannofex conversion I knew that basing would be a pain because of the long spindly legs. At first I figured the model could just be fielded without a base but let's face, a model without a base just doesn't look as cool. Eventually the solution came to me when I realised I'd never use that Skyray turret which had been sitting in my bits bin for 2 years and at last the model had a "base". I say that way because stuck to the base and therefore couldn't be picked up during a game, it could only be slid around. The hint of solution came when the Trigon Prime was magnetised to its base. The idea was that with magnets would be easy to carry and stow away securely but it could also be setup and used on the table without worrying about the base and the model coming apart. Once again however, the problem was the legs. Due to their thinness, it would be hell to glue anything. Last weekend I bit the bullet again when I realised I'd have to shorten the legs a bit in order to get a wide enough surface of plastic on which to glue the magnets, hence this image.



Rare-earth magnets come in all sizes and it just happens that I had the perfect size (and strength) magnets for the task at hand. To make sure the magnets wouldn't show on top of the base, holes would have to drilled. Figuring out where to drill was accomplished by painting the bottom surface of the magnets…



… and pressing the model to the base.



With the holes located it was just a matter of drilling them and, with the model slotted in, the magnets were superglued to the bottom of the base.



And voila, no more issues with moving the model and it's base while gaming.



But we're not done yet! As cool as it is that we have a magnetised Tyrannofex, there is the small issue that those magnets now stick out like sore thumbs. The solution therefore is to create some transitional detail with some GS.



Seeing as how it will be covered up with the mix or resin sand and beach sand, the GS doesn't have to perfect. However it does need to set so I did a rough shaping and let it sit overnight and moved onto other projects while it cured. Now using a metal spatula for precision, the resin sand was applied over top of the cured GS.



The acrylic media was then shaped and lightly coated with beach sand to match the surrounding areas.



Some extra resin sand was added to the base to fill out some gaps after a few test fittings.



And now we have a fairly seamlessly magnetised fitted to its custom base.



By playing around with variations of this method I'm sure you could base pretty much any model in your collection, even going so far as to making themed bases for your army.


And now, the main attraction, the Flying Tyrant.

The last week has been a very productive one in regards to the Tyrant. The weapon arms were finally converted and magnetised so that I can swap out the layout should I so desire. The tail was touched up and the joint between the tail and the body was filled a bit more. The neck and some rib cage gaps were filled in as well. Most importantly, all of the wings' flat areas were covered up and resculpted, or should I say redetailed. The leading edge of the left arm was ripped off and resculpted in order to be more in line with the rest of the model. The wing claws were chopped off and replaced with new claws taken from a Trigon kit. And finally, the Tyrant's base was given the now customary resin/beach sand texturising treatment.

From here you can see the underside of the wings and the resculpted neck muscles. I tried to replicate the flow of the wrinkles on either side of the wings as much as possible rather than just sculpt detail in at random.







Last but not least, the top view for the wing and carapace details.




This then is what I've been up to for the last week. The Nid Year Resolution is progressing faster than anticipated, which means I'll probably dedicate February to Dark Eldar and I need to build up some Wracks and some Grotesques so I can play with a hybrid Coven/Uber-shootie list.


Comments and critiques welcome as always.

Stay tuned.

Awesome stuff! you make my mind boggle with how you can convert those models! they all look absolutely amazing, my favorite that i've seen is actually the one with the arachnarok abdomen and carnifex torso you showed next to the gifted model! I just love how it looks!

bravo!

Nerdfest09

The Tyrant is looking slicker than ever! Are the flesh hooks a count as lash whip? The neck sculpt is nice and tendony which adds to the overall look really nicely. I've gone for something distinctly more fleshy because it suits my pose better but i think the muscley look is nicer.

Good job on basing the Tyrannofex, every model needs a base they can be proud of!

The last 4 days have been a blur! Found out at noon on Friday that I'm boarding tomorrow morning at 7am for a 14-day business trip to Mexico. Needless to say, there will be no progress on the models and quite possibly no posts at all during that time.

Talk to you all in 2 weeks.

Well, i'm certainly a sad panda. I'll hopefully make tonnes of progress for you to view on your return. Enjoy Mexico!

What a crazy 3 weeks it's been!

A bunch of crazy personal insights happened during the trip to Mexico which sparked a renewed focus on the hobby. I'm not normally one to share intimate details online but seeing as how these events sparked a renewed interest and focus in the hobby, writing this out could help you appreciate where I'm planning on going in the next few months and why.

If you just want the hobby updates, ignore the spoiler button and read on.



While in Mexico I started up a blog over on Tumblr as I'm seriously considering starting to make conversion kits available. it can be found at:

dark-gear.tumblr.com

Dakka will be used mostly to post the WIPs as various projects proceed because the level of community feedback here is just astounding, whereas Tumblr will be used to post the major project milestones. The idea is that it will be easier to add a webstore component to a blog down the road once some kits are available.

In other bits of news, in case you've been living under a rock for the past 3 weeks, GW will soon be releasing the Tyranid 2nd wave. We finally have official models for bone swords, lash whips, the Flyrant, the Tervigon and the Tyrannofex. Unfortunately, I'm not really impressed with any of them. While the Tyrant's wings are very nice sculpts, the Rupture cannon and the sword/whip combo look like they were designed by a fresh-faced intern. They look rushed, poorly thought out and generally just don't fit seem to fit the Tyranid aesthetic as well as other GW creations. I'm looking forward to working on my own solutions and then making them available as kits as soon as the Tyrannofex and the Harpy are done.

Another project will be a spore pod. I was waiting on a delivery of Milliput before I could start and it thankfully showed up while I was away in Mexico. I'm really looking forward to finally using a new material for sculpting. We'll see how it goes.



Stay tuned

Nice. Congratulations on your epiphany. You're work is what I would shoot for if I could do a nid army. Saw this, thought relevant... "Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. And you will get the enormous reward of having created something." -Kurt Vonnegut

Thanks Jabba, both for your compliment and the Vonnegut quote. It sounds like what I've been thinking for quite some time, hence my renewed focus on Nids.

Damn it, Dark_Gear! As usual your eloquence has given me a lot to think about. Maybe i need to re-evaluate some stuff too. I'll get back to you when i've had a think!

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I have followed this blog and constantly find it inspirational in my Nids work - in fact, whenever I feel like I'm slipping behind in my modeling, this is one of my 'go to' blogs - so thanks

I must say - the Flyrant is looking really good - I wonder though whether you wished you had waited for the plastic one? I know you comment that you don't really like the wings (which I'de have to agree with) - but just thought it would be easier to use the plastic as a base to convert from rather than the metal...

I love your T-Fex - its a pity that some 'sticklers' may not let you use it during tourneys (claiming modelling for advantage) - but hopefully anyone you play will follow the rule of cool and be more than impressed enough to let it on the table.

I'm planning on getting the T-Fex and converting it with 6 legs and (a converted) rupture cannon on its back - I hope you don't mind me 'borrowing' some of your ideas when I finally get around to it.

Anyways - looking forward to seeing what you come up with and happy to comment/provide feedback (for what it's worth) in the meantime to help you get there.

@ Slice: Thanks. I"m glad I can be an inspiration considering you've done a lot more progress on your paint scheme than I have yet. I still have no idea what I'm ever going to do for all the fiddly details with my models. Only time will tell.

@Casey: I wouldn't go so far as saying that I have the gift of eloquence but thank you. I'm just happy to be a catalyst for self-reflection.

Regarding the GW Tyrant, as cool as the kit looks, I'm not sad at all I haven't waited. I actually find metal a joy to work with. At an earlier point in my life I spent about 5 years cold-forging steel armour for live-steel sword fighting, not SCA armour to fight with foam-covered batons, so working with pewter is actually somewhat relaxing as it's so soft and pliable. Granted it's slower than plastic and more brittle once it's complete but the heft of metal models is also a very satisfying perks of pewter based conversions.

A good pin vise, some titanium drill bits, a sharp bone saw as well as a set of slow, steady and patient hands is all you need to make the most of metal models. Using non-GW crazy glue which sets quickly also helps a lot.

As for the T-Fex conversion thus far it's pretty much as you say, the cool factor much wins out. What helps with any of the naysayers is that when I set out working the Tyrannofex I made sure that he was much larger than a standard Carnifex. My logic at the time was that if the Trygon came on a large flyer base, and considering that both the Tervigon and Tyrannofex pictures portrayed them as quite large, whenever the official GW models would be released they would probably be produced on large oval bases too. In other words, even before the GW came out, I was already building models that were much larger than Carnifexes and thus was actually building for dis-advantage on the proper size base. No post-release corrections will be required.

I've posted the Carnifex to Tyrannofex size comparison on Dark Machinations in case you're curious.

As long as you don't mind mentioning where your inspiration came from, feel free to steal any and all ideas.

If I can scrape the cash together to get both the Tyrant and Tervigon Kit, I foresee a unique Swarmlord conversion happening. The first thing would be to elongate the 4 swords as the current designs look like puny bone daggers. One of the better renditions of the Swarmlord thus far can be found on the BugSculptor's Tumblr. Tall model, long angular swords and many other cool touches make for an overall gorgeous and impressive conversion.

So what's next then?

Right on cue for another healthy does of motivation, a tournament was recently announced in my area. Details can be found here.

Having taken the Dark Eldar to the last Tourney, I'm tempted to take the Nids out for a stroll this time around but there is one annoying niggle. As any players familiar with the Nids knows, low-point games are not where the Nids shine. This tourney's cap is set for 1500points and there is an extra rule that you need to spend at least 400 points in Troops, which is somewhat annoying as my first test list only had 330 points of Troops.

The list went something like this.

Flyrant.
6 Hive Guard
1 Tervigon
13 Devilgants
1 Harpy
3 Biovores
1 Tyrannofex

While tiny it does fulfill one my main objectives, namely, show off the highest amount of converted models in spite of the low-points total.

Due to the requirement of having to spend at least 400 points in troops this list won't work so it's back to the drawing board.

Stay tuned for more as I fine tune the details.

Also later on this week, progress on a new Dark Eldar special character conversion.

Still weighing my options for the next Tournament's list and also still perplexed.

As I've mentioned before, 1500 points is hard enough for Nids already but when you add the extra difficulty of needing at least 400 points of troops, well let's just say it's hard to fit the few overpriced vehicle popping units and an HQ choice within 1100 points. Although I'm still not fully satisfied with the following list, it's getting close.

1 Flying Tyrant | HVC, LW/BS, AG, OA, AG, Wings

2 Harpies | TLHVC, AG

2x2 Hive Guard

1 Tervigon | ST, AG, TS, CS, Catalyst

20 Devilgants

1 Trigon Prime

The idea with this list is that the Tyrant and the Harpies would be flying around sniping vehicles or disembarked special characters thanks to their range, never lurking too far from the firebase just in case I end facing an accursed Space Wolf pod list. Should that happen I figure that 4 monstrous creatures should make short work of termies and Marneus. Seeing as how only the Tervigon has Initiative 1, 80% of my big gribblies don't have to worry too much about JOTWW. The Trigon Prime would serve as the backup long range/backfield interloper. The rest of the army would be the crawling bunker of chitin, sticking close to cover and objectives while it keeps bubble wrapping itself.

This list only offers up 8 KP's, assuming I don't produce any gants with the Tervigon which means MSU lists will find it hard to compete on that level.

The biggest weakness I can however is that if I do not diligently focus my attacks, my low model count means that I could easily be overwhelmed. At least the survivability of the Monstrous Creatures also means that the same applies to my opponent. If he doesn't focus fire, he'll just end up causing scattered wounds without ever really killing anything.

While taking a break from the Nids I tried to build an alternative list with Dark Eldar and I've come to the conclusion that 1500 points just is not a points level that is favoured by any 5th edition Xenos Codex as IG, GK's and Marines all seem to have enough cheap yet survivable options that fit really well in 1500 points games. Nids and Dark Eldar... not so much considering you always have to consider the fact that you could be facing 10 vehicles or more. How do you counter that with Nids? When you figure that out, let me know. In the meantime, I'll be playing Spreadsheet Hammer and working on new and interesting lists.

Well i've had a think and i'm none the wiser. You've definitely raised some questions which i'll be reflecting upon a lot over the next few weeks. Never mind that now though, there is much hobbying afoot i see!

I'm sensing some conversions coming on, myself. I'm going to ignore the pull of the new kits at least until i have finished the Tyranids and have started my Marines.

Taking your 'Nids to the tournament sounds like great fun, it's shame about the 400pts of troops though. I'm not equipped to offer any advice on your list but i see it's starting to come together. I think the Trygon Prime is a great choice and the Tervigon is pretty much a standard necessity. In fact, everything is great, it would be hard to improve upon without adding more points. I think the Prime might serve you better as an aggressive distraction though rather than backup. Keep us informed! So you know i'm checking out your Tumblr but i can't comment, i may just have to get an account at some point.

Came up with a new list that has a few advantages.

1. More boots on the ground
2. More anti-tank
3. No extra purchases required

Sadly it also has the following disadvantages.

1. Not as many Monstrous Creatures
2. Not as scary in CC as the other list.
3. Doesn't showcase as many of my conversions

On to the list:

Hive Tyrant | BSLW, HVC, AG, OA

Hive Guard | x2 squads of 3
Zooans | x2

Tervigon | ST, AG, TS
Devilgants | x 24

Biovore | x3
Trigon Prime | AG

The key difference this list has over the last one is that now every element in army except for the Trigon Prime behaves as one intrinsically connected part of a big angry octopus. The Trigon should act as the lone Vanguard whereas the rest of the army just creeps forward like a solid 1300 point blob. Anything that assaults a section of the army will have to contend with the whole. By the same token, the ratio of medium-sized models to Monstrous Creatures is such that every unit barring the first rank will be getting a 4+ save.

I'll have to test on the weekend and see how it goes.

It'll be nice to find out how it play tests, it certainly looks strong.

This is such an amazing thread. So much wonderful xenos stuff here to go blammo, but the conversions are so prestine and clean, I cant wait to see more of this. I hope the milliput works well for you, its a lot different to GS but I personally prefer it for simpler things that don't need to stretch out or fill gaps.