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Thanks for the compliments mate.
You're welcome to steal away, theres alittle bit of sculpting involved so goodluck!

Next is a break from the nids, but I have plans for 40 gargoyles and a shrike brood, and maybe another flying hivetyrant

Back again!

So the rumour mill is rife with predictions of the impending drop of a new Nid codex, so I have gone on a bit of a painting binge to hopefully make use of the new codex straight off the bat.

My selection criteria for the new models was simple, what do I have that I haven't used. This is based on the philosophy that GW makes all the currently [Not on the floor please] units good in the next codex.



Firstly Biovores. Not the worst unit currently, but the strength of 4 for a barrage doesn't really scare many things, I'd like to see a return to the bio-acid mines with rending, or something similar to make them useful for sniping, and scary.



Secondly, Hormogaunts. I loved these guys in 4th, and consequently I had 60 of them in my bitz box. They can be used currently, but only at their most expensive super-gaunt mode to give them poisoned and furious charge.
I'm hoping the cost of bio-morphs comes down, or their is a buff unit like the tervigon for hormogaunts too (or an upgrade that allows tervigons to buff hormogaunts).







Next are the most useless (barring the pyrovore) models in the tyranid lineup currently. With the ability to affect reserve roles, but only if its been on the table for a turn, and you have to roll for them to come on in turn two . . .seriously underwhelming.

Giving them back the wound and attack they lost in the transition from 4th to 5th, and allowing the pheromone rule to work like SM drop pods (half you lictors rounding up come in turn 1) or some other mechanic would see these guys hit the table for me. Also 80 points is way too much, a centurion with 2+ save and a grav cannon costs similar, and will kill alot more. But I love the models and want to use them.





Finally, Shrikes. I used these guys in a doubles tournament on the weekend, and they were seriously impressive. Racking up a massive number of kills and generally scaring anything with more than 2 wounds. I have magnetised the arms so that I can run a different weapon if the boneswords are nerfed, or if i get around to doing lashwhips for them too.

To make shrikes seriously effective the Prime/Alpha warrior needs the option to take wings. make it a 25 point upgrade and I'll take that everyday to give them the ability to tank some wounds and give a boost of WS.

I also have the bitz to make another couple of tyrants, and another 30 Hormogaunts are in the pipeline. Plus I should really get around to painting a few more of my 180 termagants . . . plus whatever new comes around.

Thanks for looking.

Those are some sweet looking bugs! I particularly like the casualties on the bases, good bases are important.

Keep it up! I'm drawing inspiration from your work

These models are so nice, I still haven't decided on a scheme of my own, but this sort of stuff is inspiring for sure. :(

Just awesome!

You are highlighting one of the things that I love about Tyranids. So garish but it really works and looks good. Try pink and yellow space marines or guard... ICK! But your nids look great.

Thanks heaps guys really happy with how they look, I'll try and set up a group shot some tome soon.

These are looking really good! And you're on the Dakka front page, to boot

Wow, nice army so far, im loving the colour scheme you’ve come up with

Flashy looking colors. If I had read that it was going to be yellow, blue and purple for the colors I would have thought it will be a god awful mess. Looks like you have killed that thought with the great work.

The Shrikes have a good pose but I can't place the wings. Where did you get them?

And on one last note I plan to steal your warrior to guard conversion for my hive.

Looking forward to more updated from you.

Are they the Forge World wings?

Thanks guys

Rtides: Dakka front page? How'd I get there? Btw, can't wait to get my hands on the Aliens from prodos, I'm thinking I'll start another log to document my terrain building for the game and the painting of the models when i get them

1-i: Glad i could swing you on the colour scheme, It sounds garish, but works quite well I think, I certainly never forget to move or shoot anything lol.
The wings are from the vampire counts crypt horrors, its a shame but theres only 2 useful pairs in each box, one set is reversed from the weird pose GW gave it.

Eldarcaveman: Nah mate, see above. The FW ones are a bit to swept in for my liking.

Dude those are amazing! From the bases to the wing tips. When you decide to unload them let me know...

Gorgeous scheme. Really, really like it, and beautifully finished.

 Sheep wrote:
Thanks guys

...I certainly never forget to move or shoot anything lol.

HAha indeed, that is a fantastic point

Haha it was a completely accidental side benefit believe me

Kelly: I wasn't planning on it.. . But for the right price I could part with the 4500 points I have painted

Fantastic work, thanks for taking the time to post it

I play Tyranids, Have for many many years, and I have been steadily working myself up to a fever pitch for the latest codex release. . . . what a let down!

After a day of reading the codex these are my initial impressions (the caveat that I have not actually played a game with the new rules should be applied though). All of these have been covered by other bloggers ALOT more extensively than I will, I'm just having a bitch, feel free to skip to the pics further down...

The Bad:
Things that didn't need changing were changed for no apparent reason (Tervigon buffing nearby termagants, bonesword AP, scything talons), points costs were arbitrarily increased with no benefits incurred (hive guard +5pts/ea with -1 BS, tyranid prime +45pts!), and characters and units disappeared from the roster (Doom, Parasite, Pods, Ymgral stealers), exorbitant cost of most upgrades for monstrous creatures, instictive behavior (Wtf is it with random tables? Why eat/shoot each other?), Loss of access to biomancy.

The Good:
General decrease in points of previously overcosted units (Hive tyrant, Carnifex, Tyranofex, Lictors, Warriors Shrikes etc), Venomthropes giving shrouding, General increase in the effectiveness of the tyranids codex psychic powers.

Now I'm sure the codex is still playable, and Ill try my damnedest to do well with it, but it will be a hard slog, lucky I'm Australian and have a love for the underdog.

Enough whinging. Before the codex came out I had started working on an objective marker for games of the Relic. There isn't a prescribed size (that I can find) so I took an old model by my mate "The Hoff" did for our old FLGS themed game and gave it a lick of paint.









Its supposed to represent an intelligence gathering or synaptic node beast, something not real combative, but having an important role. It is a frankensteins monster of pieces with bitz from the Warriors, Carnifex, Hormogaunt, and Genestealers sprues. As you can see the varnish went spotty, I hate humid summers.

Next on the work bench I have a full brood of Carnifexes and a full brood of Hormogaunts on the go too for the army, and 8 cataphracti terminators for the Sons as well.

Finally I couldnt help but notice a combination of powers, wargear and warlord traits could give a Hivetyrant a 30 inch synapse bubble (Synaptic lynch pin = 18 Norn crown +6 Dominion psychic power +6 =30).

I have several Tyrants lying around (who doesn't?) so I figured I'd try and be the first to model a Norn crown. The fluff description basically details it as a parasite that mounts the tyrants head and feeds on his brain. This wasn't enough for me, and I decided to make an actual crown of horns as well.







The horns were cultivated from all manner of places on the tyranid sprues, the tendrils of the parasite are greenstuff rolled out, laid in the correct place and then a extra thin liquid cement run under them to glue them to the head, the testicle like parasite is 2x genestealer toxin sacs from the upgrade head.

Thanks for looking.

I like the conversion mate. It'll be interesting to see how people adapt to the new codex. I just started working on my own swarm, so I'll make sure I look through this blog again and get inspired!