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This might not be the right place, but I'm trying to figure out how to mark/distinguish different units of termagants that are spawned by my tervigons. Unit sizes are variable, so I don't want to paint anything. I was thinking of putting a small magnet on the inside of the base and then using a small colored push pin on the side of the base. The magnet would hopefully (need ot experiment) grip the metal pin and hold it in place. The color of the pin would indicate different units. Thoughts or suggestions?

Not really bothered with it. Termagaunts die so quick. The only time I have had it be an issue is in multi gaunt assaults. In those case I just track the dead models so when they break I know how many models are in each group.


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Thought, color rubber tubing. Get some that has a small enough interior diameter to fit over snuggly over the tail and make small tail bands. If you use two or 3 colors you can set up color patterns on the tails to keep them separate.

I tend to mark things like that by having slight variations in basing. A particular colour flower on each base, maybe bones or body parts, that sort of thing.

I get colored electrical tape and cut little 2mm by 10mm strips which I put on the base edges of my orks. This distinguishes squads without having to paint squad markings since I can interchange shootas in 12-man trukkboyz, 20-man battlewagons or 30-man mobs. I can then use the same models in any configuration and paint all my orks generally the same clan. Same goes for LOOTAS who I have 45 of, and often run in multiple 5-15 man squads.

Peels off easy for reconfiguration, and I can color code lists for tourneys for opponents. The nice thing is since they are already in 'common' configs, I don't have to change things much. My 'orange squad' of 20 shoota boyz have been krumpin for 2 years now and have some serious team spirit going on!

I just simply have my termagants face a different direction from one another. So for instance, if I am in a situation where it looks like I will have a hard time telling the differance between 2 units of termagants, or if 2 units of termagants are involved in the same CC, I will simply leave all the models in one unit facing foreward, while the models in the other unit are facing backwards. If a third unit joins the party, then they will be facing right, and a 4th will be facing left. Usually the gants die so quickly, that it usually doesnt go past 4 seperate units all bunched up together, but if it did you could always turn the models facing 45 degree angles, or lay them down on their side.

I tried to fiddle around with giving seperate markings, but then you end up with hard indicators on them odels, and the random number of gants that are produced from tervigons can leave you with not enough models of a certain type, or not enough seperate hard units. Much better I think to have a system that allows flexibility during a game.

Put small dots of paint on the back edge of base... 1 for squad 1, 2 for squad 2, etc!

Paint stripes on their tails, in something that totally clashes with your colour scheme, but not enough to ruin it.

If you don't want to paint markings then the magnet idea is a good one. If its under the base you might not get enough attraction through the plastic, so maybe try surface mounting a 0.5mm thick magnet on the top of the base? A related idea would be to drill little holes in the bases and use pins without the magnets. Cheaper that way too Or maybe an area of bluetack or putty under some foliage that you can easily stick pins into.

Or even model a small crater on every base and use glass beads of different shapes and colours?

I don't bother, and I have 66.6 Termagants, but if I wanted to I would stick a coloured dot sticker on the back of the base when spawning.

I just arrange the different squads separately on the table. I've not had any problems.

The magnet idea is clever but maybe a bit expensive for just Termagants.

How do have .6 Termagants?

If i were trying to distingish nids i'd just put a white dot on the base for one squad. 2 dots for another squad and etc.

It's been a problem in the few games I have played them, they just get all mixed up and all over eachother. Best thing is to record how many are in each unit, then note deaths, so that when you do something like assault etc, you can see how many should be in the group at about X position beside group Y

Numbers on the underside of the base in silver sharpie has always worked for me.

I don't bother. A number under the base is a good idea, I use that for some of my Fantasy regiments that need to be ordered a certain way to rank up properly. I wouldn't want anything painted or converted on the model, because I so often change the sizes of my units that I wouldn't want anything like that.

 Snrub wrote:
How do have .6 Termagants?

My Tyranids army are a snake mutation with long tails rather than legs.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Hive_Fleet_Kielbasa

For the Termagants I made a snake tail and base, I cast a load of them in resin and chopped down the body of the normal model to go on top.

By luck I had one more body than base, and it wasn't worth mixing another lot of resin, so I stuck the body on a base as if emerging from a hole in the ground.

Thus I ended up with 66.6.

This goes for my whole army... each squad is kept together by the heads I use.

So one unit has termagant heads, another hormagaunts, and my devilgaunt squad uses warrior heads (shoutout to the old hive node mutation )

I don't bother with the spawned gaunts; those are juicebox gaunts pure and simple.

Honestly (as much as I hate to admit it) my friend has had the best idea for his Imperial Fist army. Every squad of marines has the lip of their base painted in the same color. Looking closer, you'll see that 5 of them are painted a bright shade of that color, while the other 5 are a darker shade. This way, if he combat squads them or not, he can always tell who's in what squad. He's done this for every unit, and he has a fully painted IF army. No one has ever gotten one unit confused for another. Visually, it makes me twitch, but it's definitely effective.

If you are putting magnets in the bases, you could use colored washers under the bases to denote squads. It will raise them up a bit, but not a significant amount.

What I do is subtle variations as suggested above. Here are the variations I use:
-2nd Editon gants, especially fo Tervgon spawns. Smaller, easy to tell apart in a crowd.
-I curl the tail upward on one squad, downward on another. Easy to do with a lighter.
-Carapace colors or different colored space marine helmets on the base.

Here is a (crappy) picture of how I do it.


I have rolls of colored electrical tape I cut strips off and put them on the models. It is not permanent at all so I don't have to worry about codex changes.

Different colored tails and weapons to mark each squad.