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Concur on the splash and the boat, they make for a really great dynamic base.
I love your scheme, after seeing it on 'Gants, Warriors, and now a big ol' boy, it really does work at every scale for the Tyranids! Now all you need to do is try it out on a Hierophant Bio-Titan.
Thanks all! I had a bit of a crisis of faith yesterday where I considered rebasing all these Tyranids to a jungle theme, on account of the sand lacking contrast with the exoskeletons. After seeing some of the praise for the basing, however, I decided to stick with it.
Anyways, with the Hierodule I just reached 2000pts, so here's a group shot:
That said, at the moment this looks like one of those hodge-podge sample armies you find in the codex that isn't optimized at all, so I've still got more models in the backlog so that I can make some adjustments. At the very least, I plan to ditch the Genestealers and Hormagaunts for now, and instead take another three Hive Guard and more Termagants.
I've also got a Neurothrope, a trio of Zoanthropes, four Biovores, a limited edition Lictor (with claws folded up- and not a recast!) and some more Hormagaunts, so I'll be getting to those too.
I find that to be one of the beauties of your basing. The Tyranids would try to blend in with their surroundings, at least in my mind. And through the top of their carapace there's still enough contrast in my eyes.
Love the army shot, that is a beautiful force!
catbarf wrote: 4,531 dots. So I was a bit under halfway.
129 minutes of patterning, start to finish.
Completed Hierodule looks brilliant, army shot is really delicious
Happy to hear there's more to come with this army. Always a blah feel to sideline painted models based on in-game effectiveness, but the meta does push us on to new units and armies, which is more or less a good thing. Here's to the next 10,000 dots!
Boss Salvage wrote: Happy to hear there's more to come with this army. Always a blah feel to sideline painted models based on in-game effectiveness, but the meta does push us on to new units and armies, which is more or less a good thing. Here's to the next 10,000 dots!
One thing I have enjoyed with Tyranids is that there are very few units that I feel like don't have a use. The issue is normally just numbers- nothing wrong with Genestealers or Hormagaunts, but they need to be fielded en-masse, and 8 and 12 respectively aren't very useful. I'll probably use both when, eventually, I get enough models to fill out the units. At the very least, they'll still see use in the interim in Kill Team.
catbarf wrote: One thing I have enjoyed with Tyranids is that there are very few units that I feel like don't have a use.
The model you just painted doesn't have a use.
'Nid LoWs are junk.
Hah, you say that, and normally I would agree, but once you start stacking the buffs the Scythed Hierodule in particular becomes very interesting. It can take hive fleet traits in a Super-Heavy Auxiliary detachment, and with Dermic Symbiosis for a 5+ invuln and gentler degradation, and under Catalyst and Onslaught and with a little investment in CP, the thing can sprint 18", shoot, charge 3D6-drop-lowest, fight twice, and then sprint another 18" back out of combat (and preferably into the waiting embrace of a Malanthrope). It then has a 5++/5+++ to help survive artillery, and if properly screened is hit at -1, so it's hard to kill and stays 100% effective until it gets down to just 5 wounds remaining. So basically it's a thoroughly mediocre LoW to start with, but when you start piling on abilities that cost the same whether they're applied to a Hormagaunt or a Hierodule, it starts to get disproportionate return on investment.
Or to put it another way: One of my regular opponents said much the same thing. Then it ate his Knight
Okay, hype aside, yeah it's still significantly overpriced for what it does and I'm hoping it gets a decent points reduction in the upcoming FW index. But at least it's not Harridan-tier. There's no amount of buffs that can save that poor thing.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/04/22 16:45:10
I decided to try something different, just for the fun of it, before jumping back into more Tyranids.
Inspired by the book Fire Caste I set out to make a jungle-themed Fire Warrior. I did a bit of research and found a camo pattern I really liked by a painter who goes by the handle of 'Tael'. Theirs was urban, but I figured the pattern could be used with greens.
Unfortunately I didn't count on just how much my weathering process would desaturate the camo, so it doesn't look very 'jungle'. I have some ideas for how I might alter the scheme, either to get some proper jungle greens or to push it more in an alpine direction (with basing to match), but I don't plan to do anything with Tau in the immediate future, so for now this was just a fun experiment.
In any case, now it's back to more Tyranids. I'm going to try to do the remaining thee Hive Guard and six Termagants in one big batch.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/04/23 21:04:59
catbarf wrote: Hah, you say that, and normally I would agree, but once you start stacking the buffs the Scythed Hierodule in particular becomes very interesting.
Sounds like a lot of resources to make a bad unit decent. You'd be better focusing on your strengths than trying to patch weaknesses.
H.B.M.C. wrote: Sounds like a lot of resources to make a bad unit decent. You'd be better focusing on your strengths than trying to patch weaknesses.
When the resources involved (Adaptive Physiology, psychic powers, Stratagems) have fixed costs that are the same whether applied to a LoW or a pack of Rippers, I find they confer disproportionate return on investment when applied to a stronger unit. Its basic statline may not be worth the cost on its own, but it's extremely AP/psychic/CP efficient, and that has value.
I would suggest having a look through the Tactica thread for Tyranids. Nitro Zeus in particular has had success with the Scythed Hierodule.
I like your bases dont change them. With monsters like these you're not trying to draw the attention anywhere in particular because all of the details look great and frightening, the bases actually help the effect making them look more real in the environment. Well painted from what I can see.
If you wanted to change anything I would change the black rims on the bases to something more GW style so when they are on the table you're not having black rings everywhere. I usually consider black base rims to be for display models. Maybe a sand/brownish colour. Not sure. I wouldnt worry though honestly they look really nice.
Edit: Yeah I think graveyard earth like the GW base rims would take it to the next level visually, I dont think a jungle base would suit these as well, they look more like desert dwellers
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/04/25 06:16:08
Scary beastie, wouldn’t have noticed the water effects if it wasn’t for the above comment but so glad I have now looks great. Makes me want to go to the beach.
AngryAngel80 wrote: I don't know, when I see awesome rules, I'm like " Baby, your rules looking so fine. Maybe I gotta add you to my first strike battalion eh ? "
Nah, but similar idea- two coats of Army Painter Dark Tone (a direct equivalent to the old Badab Black) over white.
Sherrypie wrote:Damn this is a beautiful sight. Also adding to the choir of keeping the bases as they are, the beach look suits the general outlook of the army great.
Thanks; I'm pretty well convinced at this point. It can be a bit time-consuming to build but I quite like the effect.
Another of my rare WIPs, born out of sheer cumulative frustration.
I have painted and stripped this Vulture twice now. It was actually after the second time that I put it aside and painted the Biovores as a diversion.
The first time, I did my usual sponge weathering, only to discover that sponge weathering on an aircraft looks wrong. I also overdid it, making something more akin to my Renegade tanks than to a serviceable aircraft.
The second time, I had it looking just how I liked it, then I did my all-over acrylic wash to tie it all together. Well, it pooled on the flat wing panels and looked like crap.
The third (current) time, I painted the top of one wing, then tried pin washing with acrylics. It worked okay, but there was some spillover that I couldn't easily clean up.
So I re-sprayed the whole thing, ordered some oil paints, and this last try represents a couple of firsts:
-First time trying to paint a canopy effect.
-First time using oil paints.
-First time using panel modulation through my airbrush.
Overall I'm generally happy, but the oils are messy and somewhat difficult to work with- I chose charcoal grey as I figured it would be lighter than pure black, but if it is, it's not by much, so even the slightest bit of excess has a very stark effect.
Anyways, there's a little bit of cleanup I still need to do on the oils, but for the most part it is now done pending some final details, burn effects on the engine, and basing.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/06/23 22:04:29
Ezki wrote: That looks good! Especially with that many firsts.
How did you do the canopy effect?
I painted in the canopy in black, applied a coat of gloss varnish, and then washed each panel with a 1:1:1 mix of water, VMC Transparent Yellow, and VMC Transparent Green, keeping the model upright. The transparent wash collected in the lower edges and corners to build up a hint of color.
Unfortunately, there was a bit of texture on the 'glass' due to superglue fumes, so some of the wash settled on the surface and produced a 'fogged' effect. Hopefully should be a bit cleaner next time.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/06/24 19:32:03
And on another note, I finished a test Genestealer Cult Neophyte.
Having finished this, I don't think I'm going to actually pursue a GSC army- this took too long to paint for a 5pt model. But I did record the process so I can put together a tutorial video.
Thanks Boss. It's tough for me to find forces that are either easy to speed-paint, or worth enough points to be worth the time-consuming method. The Stormtroopers are about as low a ratio as I'm willing to go, and even then only because the list is padded out with aircraft.
Anyways, I got my first three Zoanthropes and a Neurothrope done. Another three Zoanthropes are on the way, then some Raveners.
Genestealer cultist looks great, but it is one of the depressing things about a horde army that the points/time/painting effort ratio is often not in favour of such units. A shame, as it would have been good to see your work on the minis in advance of me embarking on mine!!
Relapse wrote:
Baron, don't forget to talk about the SEALs and Marines you habitually beat up on 2 and 3 at a time, as you PM'd me about.
nareik wrote: Perhaps it is a lube issue, seems obvious now.