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Week has been better. Did some minor repairs and primed today at lunch.


So thinking about the lictor: Do I paint him in the typical scheme, or do him up in a mottled arctic camo? Not as easy as my normal camo, would be hard to get it to look right, not be bland, and mesh with the army.

Some of the construction on these guys needed some help. Not sure how many hands they have been though.

Some cool stuff there. I'm interested to see what you do with the Alien Queen hive tyrant. I imagine it's a very unwieldy bit of metal, but I always thought that model looked cool. Don't really have any advice on the lictor dilemma one way or another. Camo could be cool, but there's also something to be said for him matching the rest of the army... Do you have any minis you could try out a scheme on before committing to the vintage metal?

 brushcommando wrote:
Some cool stuff there. I'm interested to see what you do with the Alien Queen hive tyrant. I imagine it's a very unwieldy bit of metal, but I always thought that model looked cool. Don't really have any advice on the lictor dilemma one way or another. Camo could be cool, but there's also something to be said for him matching the rest of the army... Do you have any minis you could try out a scheme on before committing to the vintage metal?

I could try a gaunt or a genestealer. The question is what to do?

I think I’d keep the stabby bits in bright red, to match the swarm. Makes camo sense? Nope. But it keeps the mini interesting as a model, and gives some points of focus.
I’d like to separate the flesh from the armor. Maybe tint some apothecary white with the normal color, so it’s very pale and washed out. Or do that for the flesh, and stipple some light purple on the armor, and then glaze white?

Really don’t have a solid vision for if/what would look good and be doable with my paints/skills.

In other news; new nids showed up yesterday, almost done building the parasite. Wings did not want to mesh nice with the body, used a little GS. Also put the beige on the marines.

Edit: started putting together a modern foot tyrant. If the right competition comes up, I might see if I can do a 3 sisters entry. Or just paint them seperate. Who knows. Parasite just needs to be glued to its base.

She went together pretty quick. Interesting that I built her off just one of the sprues. I assume the winged sprue (which did include things like an alt swarmlord head) were added later. I’m really feeling the Pile of Shame right now. I’ve got boxes of stuff sitting waiting to be built. Not just the influx of nids, but still some marines and the shining spears. With every day that passes the KT and 30k box tempt me more. The crushing weight of grey plastic is starting to be felt.



It’s not much progress, but it is moving forward. Need to get some more layers down. Not sure if I’ll be able to clear the decks before next month starts, but I can try.

Enjoy your weekends all. Long ones if you are lucky.

The unexpected nids lot looks very cool, although not many people would be happy about this sudden appearance of bugs

Bladeguard are coming along great, they are lovely sculpts and not to shabby on the field of battle.

It's cool to see the blade-guard coming along. Some of my favorite Primaris models -- even if they are one of the dreaded "Squads of three" that drive me crazy lore-wise. Also, for some reason the way the landspeeder gunner is leaning his head sort of makes it look like he's on the phone with a friend while playing video games on the couch. This is now a conversion I'd like to make/see someone make...

Bladeguard are looking great. Do you find it helps to swap between the marines and nids? Stop you getting burnt out on one project?

Viterbi wrote:The unexpected nids lot looks very cool, although not many people would be happy about this sudden appearance of bugs

Bladeguard are coming along great, they are lovely sculpts and not to shabby on the field of battle.

Heh. My house in under siege by other bugs as well. Gypsy moths all over the place outside. But inside it’s just the fun and happy unsaitable hunger from beyond the stars.

brushcommando wrote:It's cool to see the blade-guard coming along. Some of my favorite Primaris models -- even if they are one of the dreaded "Squads of three" that drive me crazy lore-wise. Also, for some reason the way the landspeeder gunner is leaning his head sort of makes it look like he's on the phone with a friend while playing video games on the couch. This is now a conversion I'd like to make/see someone make...

Do yourself a favor and check the codex entry. They might be sold in boxes of 3, but can be fielded in squads of 3-6. So you can put a 5 man “combat” squad on the table like the Codex dictates. Which is my plan. I’ve got the 3 guys from the indominus box, made 2 more (including a new sarge) from the full box as well as a plasma pistol/power fist captain.
Heh. I’ve seen dioramas with the LS guys sitting down, but not playing video games. He dose look like he’s having fun.

Olthannon wrote:Bladeguard are looking great. Do you find it helps to swap between the marines and nids? Stop you getting burnt out on one project?

Absolutely. If not the nids, eldar, fantasy, or even alternate paint schemes like phobos/scouts. If I was just painting blue all the time, I’d go insane. Well, more insane. I’m already a bit crazy. But I strongly recommend people shuffle up their paint queue to prevent burnout. Obviously, different people work different, but it helps me keep moving.


Progress:

Not as much as I’d like, but some. Grey and browns done. Next up is the golds. Started some spore mines to keep the empty handles ocupied. They are like 4 steps to paint so should go quick. I need to get some numbers in the “painted” column. My “paint more then I buy” goal is looking pretty bleak. And while the influx of retro nids doesn’t count for that, I does bloat the pile of shame to an unhealthy level. Which is bad, as they were supposed to be PoS neutral.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Plugging away.

Also in the news it looks like the KT box does not include the full rules. I thought it did. So going to pass on that one. Saves the budget and model count for other projects.

Not a huge amount of progress from the last pic, but black wash down, which finishes these two mines. They are now off waiting to be based. Two new ones have drifted down and just got their first basecoat.

Man, I love these barn finds! The classic bugs bring back lots of fond memories. I remember playing my metal Orks against a buddy's metal Genestealers in my mom's attic at around age 11 (sooo... 35 years ago? Yikes!).

 Nevelon wrote:
So 2 of my friends are packing up and moving to Colorado. As part of their lightening the load, my friend Ben is getting rid of a lot of his minis.

If they kept an army and land in Denver, especially Northeast, have them holler!

 MacPhail wrote:
Man, I love these barn finds! The classic bugs bring back lots of fond memories. I remember playing my metal Orks against a buddy's metal Genestealers in my mom's attic at around age 11 (sooo... 35 years ago? Yikes!).

 Nevelon wrote:
So 2 of my friends are packing up and moving to Colorado. As part of their lightening the load, my friend Ben is getting rid of a lot of his minis.

If they kept an army and land in Denver, especially Northeast, have them holler!

I try not to think about how long I’ve been doing this. I feel old enough as it is. I’m pretty sure my friends ditched all their minis/armies, but are still gamers. I’ll try to find out exactly where they are ending up.

So here is a state of swarm:
Painted as of now


Here is everything built. Including stuff that could be striped and re-painted, or fielded as-is.


And here is the plans:


Last page I got some thoughts down, but that was before the reinforments dropped.

The WYSWYG part of my is a little irritated at the old raveners, but I’m not going to look a gift monster in the toothed maw. The guns from the gaunts don’t fit, but the ones from the warriors might (haven’t clipped them yet to test). Or I might just keep them pure melee and just play them as what I paid the points for. I’m going to end up with a lot more rippers. I’ll need to check how many I have saved up, but it might be around two dozen of the little biters. I’ve got 6 bases with 3 each. If I do 6 bases of 4 each with the new ones, that gives me a dozen bases that I can differentiate between two halves of if I want to put multiple squads in a list.

More raveners were on the list, but low. With the metals, I can take them off the to-buy list (not that I’d mind some plastics, but let’s not get silly here. Snake/burrowing bugs are all set.

The artillery side got some more spore mines, but are still all set.

Main core of nids got a massive shot. Spoiled for tyrants, although the old RT is better scaled as a prime. New foot tyrant is magnetized. Due to all the options they have, part of me is saying magnetize all the warriors. Just to future proof them. But that’s a lot of work. 4 arm swaps for each one. I might just glue them 2xBoneswords each, 2 spitters, one VC. The 2 black ones that came built are done with repairs, talons and devourers. Pure chaff clearing build. Will probably be used counts-as whatever the rest of the squad is packing. Still kinda want another box of warriors. We’ll see if that holds after building these guys.

Lots of gaunts. So many little gribbles. Just shy of 100. I’ve got some old metals that don’t match the modern aesthetics I could use to hit that number.
I have 15 devilgaunts. 5 more to bring that up to a 20 bug swarm.
I have 15 Fleshbores. 4 in the supply drop. Build 21 more, for a total of 40.
There were 3 unpainted spinefists. Going to make 7 more just to bring them up to 10.
That will bring the ones painted as my Leviathan swarm to 70.
20 in the silver/lavender job, and a half dozen black spotted. 3 left without a brood

Going to glue a swarmlord together to head the stabby side. Right now the SK is filling the middle spot. The thought crossed my mind to make a pure melee prime just to add some mid-range synape, but that’s probably a waste of a warrior body. The 8 hormogaunts that came to me bare are what I need to a 20 bug brood. If I put all the ones on the table, I have a total of 29. Might want to see if I can find some spare claws for a loose gaunt body just to round that up to 30.

Flappy side is doing well now that the parasite has joined them. I’ve still got 8 metal gargs in a box. Not that they are needed.

So the vanguard here is pretty fleshed out. The lictor fills the middle role. And I have far more stealers then is sane. I’ve got 4 more modern ones on sprue. If I add them to the 6 modern ones that were in the drop, that’s another 10 bug squad. The black spot swarm is a little battered, but another 10. The other 10 guys in the back are a mix of odd paintjobs and bare plastic, but old Space Hulk era plastics. I might grab 4 of them to try to match the paint on my old ones of similar vintage. The rest can join the two dozen or so of old metal/plastic stealers I’ve got in my dead box. Frankly the 20 I’ve got painted in my scheme are probably twice the number I’d ever want to field.

Zoenthrope off to the side needs some friends. Eventually maybe the giant brain bug. But no rush on that.

The goal is still to be Pile of Shame neutral. And I’m pretty deep in the red right now. If all this gets done, it should ballpark around 4,750 points. Add another unit or two and some upgrades, and that’s a 5k swarm.

I am proud of the bugs in the first picture for maintaining social distancing. 100 gaunts would be a sight on the table.

 youwashock wrote:
I am proud of the bugs in the first picture for maintaining social distancing. 100 gaunts would be a sight on the table.

You never know when a virus grenade is going to be tossed at you.

The idea was to have them lined up in columns by type, with space to add all the to be done stuff. Not the best army shot, but it was not intended to be. I should get a proper swarm shot at some point.

That's a formidable army Nev and you're making great progress on it. Thanks for sharing the future with us!

 Nevelon wrote:
You never know when a virus grenade is going to be tossed at you.

One of the worst design concepts of Rogue Trader...had a game once where my Imperial Guard had tabled my Space Marine opponent except for a lone Sergeant, who on his turn tossed a virus grenade the then proceeded to kill what remained of my entire army. Do you know how hard it was to beat Space Marines with IG in Rogue Trader?

CB

Man CB... you take me back!

Heh. There was some broken stuff in the old days. I played RT more as an RPG then a wargame, so escaped most of the gotcha crap that could happen. And only a handful of games of 2nd. I get the dislike of 3rd for simplifying the game, but it did get rid of most of the “and now everything dies, I win”

Sometimes it’s good to take inventory and get a plan down. I will often refer back to it as I go forward, to help keep my thoughts in order, and as a checklist of progress. I should do one for the 30k stuff I have. But might want to wait until the rules are out in the wild.

Speaking of things without a plan, stumbling through layers and washes on these guys:

There have been a few times where I needed to pause or skip a step and go back. Like I didn’t clean up the medic’s head before I started doing the flesh wash. Makes it more likely I’ll miss stuff, but no rush, plugging away.

Looks like the challenge for the month is “Underdogs” so I’ll paint up some hormagaunts. Everyone’s favorite little scrappers.


I missed my blog’s birthday a few weeks ago. Woops. 9 years. But today is 10 years for me as a user here. I lurked for a while before that, but that’s when I signed in. I should do something, but no clue what, and it’s going to be a long day.

Keep painting everyone!

--Nev

I never knew you went back that far Nev... color me impressed. RT was really designed more for roll playing than war gaming anyway.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I never knew you went back that far Nev... color me impressed. RT was really designed more for roll playing than war gaming anyway.

Didn’t think I went that far back here on Dakka or with 40k? Back when I turned 40 (which was a few years back) I posted a little blurb on my history as a gamer. I’m Old Guard from way back, roots of the hobby. Not that there aren’t gamers older than me, because there defiantly are. But I take pride in my role as a living ancestor. I’ve never fully left 40k, but there have been ebbs and surges. Probably played the least in 2nd and 4th. 3rd and 5th were big, rest somewhere in the middle.

As for posting here, I’ve been at it a while. 5.2 posts a day on average if the stats are to be believed. I like to think I represent the quiet moderate. I tend to avoid arguments. We all know the hot topics, and the factions involved. I don’t have people on ignore, but I’m not going to engage them. Mostly. I try to have value added in all my posts, and avid “me too” and “plus one” type posts. That said, sometimes (especially with new players and blogs) just having someone respond is enough to help. I’ve got a soft spot for chipping in the casual POV when people start spewing toxins to someone looking for advice.

I used to post more in certain parts. I made it a point to chime in on the local gaming section whenever someone was looking for a group in NY state. Made it easy to search for my own posts in the section and point people to contacts. I also used to do more with army lists. Especially for new players. But as all my 9th is casual crusade games, I don’t feel as qualified to chime in there anymore.

I might be slowing down a bit in my old age, but I’m not done yet. Still puttering around. Still posting, painting, and even getting in a game from time to time.

I’d also like to thank all the people out there reading, and part of this community. It’s great to have an extended group of friends out there to talk to, and share with.

And just so it’s not all rambling,

Finished up 2 more spore mines today, moved 2 gaunts up to start getting paint. Did a little tidying up on the marines. Should do more, but just exhausted today. I’ll grab pics at some point. Although they are at the not a whole lot of visible progress stage.

Ramble on, man.

We had Guard, Ork and Tyranid players. As a result, we also had a gentleman's agreement: no virus grenades, and we took the outbreak out of the strategy deck.

Chittering noises intensify.

It’s crusade day, and as I feel that the Ultras have finished their story arc, I brought out the nids. Who were a bitch to transport, but I knew that was going to be the case.

Early invasion vanguard units. Fist contact for this poor rural world I need to eat.

The stalwart Ultramarines line up to defend. Newish player, I think this was his 3rd game. I promptly ignore my WL/relics and just keep to the book strats. And remind him of all the tricks he can do. Supply Drop, he goes first.

He bravely pushes forward, shooting one squad of stealers off the table, plinking a spore mine to death. His assault intercessors plow into the broodlord in a display of bravery and/or insanity. He carves 3 wound off it, and in response he kills 3 of them. He’s a bit stabby.

On my turn I advance the gaunts up the table and cast onslaught on them so they can still charge. My surviving stealers move down the table, to charge the bikes, which the gargs shoot a little bit. The gaunts pile in and kill a marine. Lot of dice tossed for not a lot of killing, but they are unsupported. Stealers do better vs. the bikes, and reduce them down to a badly wounded sarge. I loose a few bugs to return swings, and polish off the assault intercessors in the middle.


Turn 2 He falls back out of combat to shoot me up. What an irritating ability, not fun being on the receiving end of it. He wiffs on the stealers, but the intercessors (who used the UM strat I told him about to fallback with no penalties) light up the gaunts. Who evaporate. I think he might have had to use rifle butts to put down the last of them, but it was ugly. He charges his captain into my broodlord and brings him down to his last wound, and I carve a few off him in return.

I swing my stealers around behind his captain, but still near his bike. I manage to finish off the bike with garg shooting (who had also moved up to cover that objective) so the stealers were free to help with the captain. Who they put down in a brutal frenzy of claws.

Turn 3 his brave 3 intercessors hold their objective and exact vengence for their captain, killing 2 of the 3 stealers.

The last stealer slinks out of sight to hold the objective while the gargs swing around to shoot, keeping a talon on their own. The broodlord on his final wound moves up to the boys in blue. After a little softening up with fleshbores, he charges in and removes them from the table.

Victory Nids!

As expected, very glass cannon. I wasn’t leveraging a lot of things I could, but it was still a reasonably close game. The BL was on his last wound, so a flubbed save would have taken him out at a few different times. And he did a lot of work.

I deployed very aggressively, and he had a pretty choppy army as well. He went first and took half the wounds of my BL and a whole unit of stealers. It was a risk, but if I had gone first it would have been brutal with me charging pretty much my whole army into CC turn one.

It’s a new codex, so everything feels like fresh paint.
Broodlord is still a blender. Still a little soft. Killed 2 units, probably my MVP of the game.
The stealers who lived were fresh paint, the ones I just finished last month. One kill, but a solid assist on the bikes.
Garg shooting was good. He never shot back at them, so the fact that they are made of tissue paper didn’t come up.
Hormagaunts are fast, especially with a little psychic backup. They chuck a TON of dice, and can get some results. But they are still a little chaff unit. Marines are not their ideal target, but they did OK.
Spore mines went boom, did 2 MWs to the bike. I love having a 1PL unit I can use just to round off the roster.

So the initial invasion is underway. I’ve racked up 2 biomass and 4 crush resistance points. I need 5/2 to progress to the next stage, so should choose a biomass agenda next time.

In painting progress the first 2 gaunts are at the detail/touch up stage. Marines are slowly plodding along.

Oh, and while I was down there I pre-ordered the HH box and a set of special weapons. So that’s happening.

Have a great weekend all.

So a little informal survey of the minis this morning.

I’ve got 5 Mk. IV and 8 Mk. III left on sprue.

The 3’s were going to be deathwatch, and I have a few that were geared with stormbolters/chainswords with the DW shoulderpads in the primed pile. They might get their arms ripped off and replaced with bolters. I’ve still got 5 built as duel-pistol destroyers (one with a ML) magnetized for jump packs. A bit ago GW put out a new unit for UM specific destroyer-type unit with special bolters. I could use my Mk. 3s to represent the hardened armor for the rad troopers, 2x10 man squads. Assuming the new rules are the same.

I’ve got 2x10 man Mk. IV veteran tac squads. 5 on sprue, and I think the other 5 got turned into other projects (like the medic and master of signals). Those last 5 can turn into a special/heavy weapon squad. We’ll see what my list looks like it needs more. I’m guessing heavy. Problems is all I’d be able to give them are HBs or MLs.

I’ve got 40ish RTB01 or other era appropriate troopers. Right now they are on the shelf as 3x10 man tac squads and 1x10 man ML dev squad for 40k. I’ve got about 20 more that still need to be cleaned up. Also 3 on the YTD shelf, might be more scraps of guys scattered around. If I muster them all, there should be 90 RTB01s total, but some will remain in their BA colors. Lot of bolter boys here, probably going to hit the field as basic legion tac squads, with the ML/F set into their own specialized squads.

Plenty of terminators and tanks as well. The army concept of a sparten and 2 LRs plus 2 rhinos full of vets punching a hole in the lines to be exploited by a block of troops could work. We’ll see what happens when the books are in my hands.

So the medic is almost done. He needs his blue ink on the parts that are actually blue (not a lot for him) and edging. Speeder and crew is also ready for their wash. After that dries, the crew will need their belts tidied up, but almost done with that. BGVs need their cleanup blue pass.

These are the second 2 gaunts. First two are off waiting to be based. Just put the base grey seer on, they can get their purple on break/lunch today; we’ll see how busy my Monday ends up being.

Apothecary needs a little cleanup on the white, and then the while/blue edges. Done with washes and the reds.

Speeder needs a detail splash of ink in a few places the big brush I was using wouldn’t fit (the TML pods. While I’ve got that open, the crew could use a bit on the blue parts I couldn’t get to while on the holders.

Gaunts are at the eyes and teeth stage. Then a cleanup pass. After that the next two. I should also start thinking about baseing. I’ve still got some spore mines in queue for that.

Halfway through the week folks. Hang in there!

Edit: apoth and gaunts done and off to be based. Put some blue on the speeder, now the missiles need a cleanup pass.

Next up is the flocking. More gaunts/spores drifting across the workbench. BGV are at the cleanup stage, so I really need dedicated time for that. Not just a quick coat before work or on lunch. Still, they are getting close, I should push them through.

I continue to clean up the nid wave. Still working on the old stuff, but I’ve got a hankering to dig into the fresh plastic. I think once I clean the plastic on the bench I’ll build something new. Still need to fix the snake boys, but that’s dedicated drill and pin work, so again, not before work quick stuff.

I’d like to keep enough stock of gaunts ready to go so i can constantly cycle them across empty handles. I might not be able to make my paint more then I buy goal this year. I’ve been very bad with the purchases. But I’m not going down without a fight. Looks to be around 120 new models bought this year so far. I’d like to hit over 100 painted. At least 45 nids.

We’ll see how that goes.

TGIF everyone. Almost the weekend!

Great to see you still so enthusiastic after all those years (meaning the game, not dakka). Though your dakka record is impressive too!

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Great to see you still so enthusiastic after all those years (meaning the game, not dakka). Though your dakka record is impressive too!

It waxes and wanes, but I’ve never fallen out of the hobby. Going to the local store and playing in the crusade league is actually helping a lot. It’s nice to get games in against new players, full of enthusiasm. As much as I like it here on Dakka, there are enough toxic jaded vets that tend to poison conversations. Damps down some of the joy. But 90% of my hobby discussions are here with this community, so I put up with it. It helps to stick to the painting forums as they tend to be a lot more supporting and encouraging.

--

So I finished baseing the guys on deck, and moved the gaunts from the handles down to start the queue for the next batch. This will be the last of the Horms, and 2 more spore mines are standing by.

Finishing the Apothecary is the last of the 3rd company command elements. It feels a little off that there isn’t a primaris command squad/bodyguard unit. I guess as an Ultramarine I could use the Victrix Honor Guard. I should check my spare bits and see if I have a pair of stormshields and swords to make another pair of VHG, but not blinged out the the level of the official models/BGVs, just chapter command levels of bling. I think there is a limited release company champion, with rules, somewhere out there, but the Judicair is going to fill that role for me.

Captain
Chaplain
2x Lts.
Apothecary
Ancient
Champion (Judicair)

I should get a pic of all of them together. And then start plugging away at more line troopers.

On the build front I finished cleaning all the bare plastic but assembled nids from the supply drop. It’s a nice day, I should try to get them primed. Rattle can is getting light, need to grab another. But I want to ensure a constant steam of bugs to paint. And start building more. I think I might alternate building gaunts with other things, just to prevent burnout. So many of them on sprues. I also need to print up some 40mm bases or just order some to make more rippers. Although some came in the combat patrol, I’m going to need more. I also need to work up some of the infestation nodes. While they probably don’t need bases, I’d like them to be on some, just for consistency.

Hope everyone’s weekend is off to a good start.


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I put a swing arm lamp next to the YTD shelf to help with the lighting, but it’s got a crappy bulb in it. Need to fix that. Some guys are packed in the foam to go to the FLGS (The new TDA captain, proxied here by the old one, and 5 stealers). Overall not bad progress. I’ll do a more formal halftime at the end of the month when Q2 wraps up.

Carnifex moving in on that Speeder like Momoa on Cavill. Nice to see the RTB01 boys up front. Nice work, Nev.

 youwashock wrote:
Carnifex moving in on that Speeder like Momoa on Cavill. Nice to see the RTB01 boys up front. Nice work, Nev.

Heh, Speeder better move out quick.

So did some building this morning.

Cleaned up the snakes, and clipped and built 4 gants. Off to the to-prime pile, which needs a fresh rattle can and a clear day.

Clipped 5 intercessors and need to start cleaning and building them. They are going to be the back half of a squad, so nothing too fancy. But they will get an AGL and in lieu of a sarge are going to get a comms trooper. Part of me wants to trick out the rest of the guys as a KT, but intercessors are not the go-to for this edition. Eventually I might grab the new phobos guys. That said, I might trick out these guys for the old edition, just for fun. So a demo guy, vet, etc. We’ll see what I’m feeling. Clean up the bodies first and start the builds, splash more bits on as the mood takes me. Probably need another box of intercessors eventually.

Wow, Nev. I see so many models move across your bench. How big are your armies now?

Very impressive.