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Hey guys,

I've been playing Tyranids since I was 11 but in 2008 I started commissioning this army from Blue Table Painting out in Utah. It's a pretty impressive collection and I think this is the biggest fully painted Tyranid army in the world. I don't say that to be arrogant, but rather I'm throwing down the gauntlet. I want someone to prove me wrong and post up their massive Apoc Army.

Without further a do, the army.



Total Roster Cost: 21369

Formation List
Hive Mind Brood
Genestealer Infestation
Eye of the Hive
Endless Swarm
Leviathan Gargoyle Swarm
3 Subterranean Swarm
Mycetic Assault Storm
Screamer Killer Brood


Model List - 587 models
1 Aegis Defence Lines
3 Barbed Hierodule
3 Biovore
3 Broodlord
9 Capillary Tower
9 Carnifex
1 Deathleaper
80 Gargoyle Brood
51 Genestealer Brood
1 Gun Emplacement
4 Harpy
1 Hierophant Bio-titan
9 Hive Guard Brood
3 Hive Tyrant
60 Hormagaunt Brood
12 Lictor Brood
9 Mycetic Spore
18 Ravener Brood
9 Ripper Swarm Brood
9 Spore Mine Cluster
220 Termagant Brood
140 Termagant Brood
80 Termagant Brood - Devourers
5 Tervigon
1 The Doom of Malan'tai
1 The Parasite of Mortrex
3 Trygon
2 Tyranid Prime
6 Tyranid Shrike Brood
25 Tyranid Warrior Brood
3 Tyrannofex
6 Tyrant Guard Brood
12 Venomthrope Brood
3 Zoanthrope Brood

My next few purchases will consist of:
10 Gargoyles
3 Warriors
20 Hormagaunts
6 Trygons
3 Crusher Carnifexes

... and maybe 3 Harridans...

It's crazy to think I'm so close to fielding every formation the Tyranids have to offer and my force features every model in the book besides Old One Eye, Skyslasher Swarms, Mawlocs, and Pyrovores.

How about some closer pictures of the models instead of a written list?

Wow that's pretty awesome...I reckon there are bigger but that is impressive!

That is an insanely impressive amount of painted tyranids.

We need some closer pics so we can see how nicely they are painted.

Would have been far more impressive if you painted them yourself...

 Still Standing wrote:
Would have been far more impressive if you painted them yourself...

And why is that? Why is he less of a hobbyist if he uses painting services? Not all of us have unlimited free time, or the precious we have, is used for more important things.

Bottom line, he has a painted army of over 20,000 points. Most people don't have a 1500 point army painted, due to general 40k gamer laziness, so I think he wins here.

Any of us can throw money at something. That's not impressive. Also, I have no free time at all...

With that many models you might have to pay people to move them and roll dice for you, too.

All in all, it's a beautiful and very impressive army from what I can see in the one picture you posted (close ups would be nice). I'm sure it makes for awesome battles.

But, as many others here, I'm not too big a fan of commission work, especially when it comes to showing it off on the forums. IMHO the whole idea of this forum is to gather criticism and possibly compliments for one's paint job and hard work. That goes for people who paint for fun or for money. But showing off an army that you didn't actually paint, leaves the question: why? Of course it's nice to see and I am glad for you to have such a nice army, but I guess there's not much else one can say.
Just my 2 cents

 Joyous_Oblivion wrote:
And why is that? Why is he less of a hobbyist if he uses painting services? Not all of us have unlimited free time, or the precious we have, is used for more important things.

Bottom line, he has a painted army of over 20,000 points. Most people don't have a 1500 point army painted, due to general 40k gamer laziness, so I think he wins here.

I personally am of the opinion that a "true hobbiest" is someone that collects, builds, paints, and plays with the models. Now I am not taking anything away from the guy, as it is still pretty cool to have an army of that magnitude in one's possession (and the money to afford it), but at the end of the day he is a dude that bought a bunch of plastic toys. With an army that large he clearly loves the game and is proud of what he owns (nothing wrong with that), but showing pictures of an army you didn't paint in the Showcase Forum is really nothing more that saying, "Look how much money I had to throw at my toy soldiers!"

Say what you like about this army being "paid for". This collection is well painted , uniform in colors and basing , interesting in individual models, and consists of a variety of pieces. I have personally seen this force and can attest to its solid execution.

I play and describe 40k as a threefold hobby, gaming, collecting, and painting. I am no expert at any of them but enjoy all facets. With that being said, we generally dont fault others for not excelling at any of these. We accept and promote getting better at all areas for the betterment of the hobby. Its a gentlemans game and we strive not to flame or berate. Now no-one has been rude and we all like to express our approval for a nicely painted army to its owner. If this were 500+ pieces of mismatched paint and varied degrees of basing , would it not be an impresive collection still? As a "collection" it is impressive in size . As an Apocalypse Force it is wonderful in its selection of models,...not 45 carnifexes and 5 halloween spider Heirophants ( I have one). Formations have been selected to make this collection look like an army.

We have played the Apoc game where there are only tanks and titans and my latest shoebox creation. I dont begrudge the guys who do this so why would we begrudge the guy who didnt paint his army. I know this is a thread is to show off paint ,and as a painter of 24750 points of IG I too would like to see others do it themselves but that is not the point of this post. This post shows off an Apocalypse sized army, well painted, and well chosen. This is a visual game, and the opportunity to play againt an army this big and this nicely executed doesnt happen often.

pretty sure good old nard has this guy beat. I didnt do a model count on nards side, but i see more then this guy. http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Nard%27s_Nid%27s. His article doesnt have all his nids, wed have to ask him.

 cormadepanda wrote:
pretty sure good old nard has this guy beat. I didnt do a model count on nards side, but i see more then this guy. http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Nard%27s_Nid%27s. His article doesnt have all his nids, wed have to ask him.

Here's Nard's army pic.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/404259-.html?m=2

Lucarikx

There you go "@thatguy..." asked and anwered.
I believe this was the goal. I had also been looking to see if there were any massive, coherent, completely painted Xenos armies out there. Imperial ,and CSMs with demons seem pretty well represented but I dont see those qualities in the other races as often.

I like it, and I have no problems with the painting of it being done by commission. Congrats to the OP for owning a truley spectacular army. I would love to put my Grey Knights army on the table against this force, he would out point me 2 to 1, but hey, that would be like a true Nid onslaught!

Congrats to Shaun and his minions at BTP. I am sure he is grateful for the money you spent. Yes, you do own an impressive collection but like others have mentioned it is far more impressive when it is something that you have accomplished not purchased. Try adding a few models painted by your own hand, after all this is a hobby, painting is part of that and... you may actually enjoy doing that rather than just throwing money at something then posting, "Hey guys, look what I got!!!".

It's big, it's painted (rather well, from what I can make out), and it's nicely laid out - that's impressive, and I'm glad I got to see it (of course, I'd be even more glad after some close ups ). I am rather curious as to how you transport all of that, though.

Agree that yes it's impressive and a big congrats to the guys at BTP for building and painting this huge army over the years and to keep it as the same standard and colours..... so I tip my hat off to you guys.

To the OP, doesn't be a about it honestly. All you have proved is you had money (your or someone else's) to spend on an army. No great achievement there.

Alright, I've updated the OP with more photos.

Well, I understand the sentiments about me not painting this. However, I just want people to know this exists and I do that by posting up photos on a major site like Dakka.

I won't make excuses, but I've always had a hard time painting and assembling. I glued together a 2000pt army of tau and orks, burying 150 magnets into 10 suits, and the glue I bought was defective. I used loctite because I thought it would be good for the models and now I have to deal with an army that is constantly falling apart on me. Oh, and I'm only about 25% painted. It's frustrating when the paintbrush pulls off heads and other parts of your models and they fall on the floor.

I was willing to spend a little extra to have something I'm proud of. Nard's collection is beautiful, he's clearly a great painter and converter with all those tenticles.

Having a painted army is the responsibility of the army's owner. I don't take that responsibility lightly. When I was playing in GTs up in New York I wouldn't have ever been able to play had I not commissioned my first couple of lots. Please understand that. If I have free time, I want to go to the shop and play, not sit in my dorm/apartment like I always do and paint.

Super job. I love the color scheme

Wow thanks for posting! What an amazing army and a treat to see in full force.

You should really make a point to get it arrayed fully on a table with nice terrain against some poor enemy troopers facing wave after wave of Tyranids, and snap some amazing pics (with good lighting and focus)...the way we know Tyranids fight but rarely see represented properly on the table!

And don't let the haters get you down...seeing any kind of giant fully painted army is the real treat in our hobby...yeah, if you paint it yourself then you get kudos on your modeling skill, but just spending the money to actually make sure you have a massive painted army is a treat for everyone you play against.

So thanks for the pics and I hope someone takes you up on your challenge because I love seeing pics of massive fully-painted bug armies (because mine's so small).

So take more/better pics, and don't be afraid to host them in our gallery (its free and you can link them onto other sites like you can with photobucket).

hang on a sec... is that 22 THOUSAND points with or without "wargear"?

and i understand spending money on it because its a big enough task to paint smaller armies. and the thing i see on here is people taking amonth to build and paint ONE box..... ahhhh yeah no.... not on armies this size... one thing i can tell you about BTP's consturction of models its second to none.... very very solid

great army, now bring it to valhalla !!!!

YOU are the SWARMLORD

I appreciate the supportive comments guys. Brother Paen helped me set everything up and take the photos and I'm going to do the same for him when he gets his IG set up.

Would you guys like to see a battlefield set up with IG and Tyranids colliding? We could probably manage that... though it would take a great deal more time to set up. It may be time/effort prohibitive... but I'll bring it up.

Great army, I don't care how you got it. 99.99% of people here don't own a painted regular sized tourney army, and yet the feel the need to throw mud on someone who actually values the painting requirement for this game.

When I play a game, if I see a beautiful army across from me, I'd much rather that, than a crappy army painted by someone themself. We all know our limits, and make do.

That poor Blood Angel looks suspiciously like a dead Dante. Your army is awesome! I think people would be happy to play against/with you, be it small battles or in apoc.

 Know No Pear wrote:
That poor Blood Angel looks suspiciously like a dead Dante. Your army is awesome! I think people would be happy to play against/with you, be it small battles or in apoc.

in the gold armor it sure does doesnt it. id smile and all but, im jsut glad mephy isnt in the wreckage....

i also have another question... i love the way that youv had the quad gun and aegis done up for your nids, but you realise you cant field them right?
and prev question was, is the points listed with/without wargear? because if no gear then ...... jesus thats a even more points

drooling..... It looks like my Eldar collection only Nids and all painted. Very nice man, very nice.

Thatguyoverthere11 wrote:
I appreciate the supportive comments guys. Brother Paen helped me set everything up and take the photos and I'm going to do the same for him when he gets his IG set up.

Would you guys like to see a battlefield set up with IG and Tyranids colliding? We could probably manage that... though it would take a great deal more time to set up. It may be time/effort prohibitive... but I'll bring it up.

Heck yeah!

But only if you're going to set it up on a table with terrain, though.

Nice one!

And don't worry about it, if I could afford to have someone lose paint for me, I would!