Monday, April 30, 2012

Hobby Week


This week and next will continue to be hobby time as I repaint a small tyranid force for the upcoming team event.  I'm attempting to batch models, but I still get lost in the details.  This is a dakkafex I spent a lot of time on this week.  Here's the before:




And after:


Anyways, it's a wacky scheme but I'm having fun with it and hope it brings in more painting points than the last version.  What sucks is now the original bases don't look great with the new scheme, so I'll have to dream up a new basing scheme for them as well. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any.  I've also been working on some warriors with deathspitters and barbed stranglers.


As well as some warriors with boneswords.


The progress is pretty quick with the airbrush and washes.  Hopefully I can finish in the next two weeks.  Stay tuned for more progress shots, some tyranid warrior theory and tactics, and hopefully some interesting 4 player batreps.

5 comments:

  1. I like the notion of the back-vents being the same colour as the chitin rather than the carapace.

    Kinda curious about the army list too.

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  2. These look really great, what would you compare your time into your original Carnifex and the new method of painting the Carni w/ an Airbrush and washes to be?

    I like the idea of Warriors for the random team tournament as well. My experience in them is noone seems to bring enough anti-tank.

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  3. I estimate the new scheme takes about 1/4th the time as the original. My original nids were primed black (probably never doing this again). The metallic green took 3-4 coats to cover up the black primer. The same with the pink. Then dry brushing the highlights and whatnot. The original carnifex took about 12 hours.

    With the new version, the models are primed white. Then the armor is airbrushed ivory white fully, tapioca in the center of each plate, then honeycomb inside the tapioca area. You can see this effect in the 4th pic with warriors. Their backs are only airbrushed except the front model which is finished. So maybe 15min per model to do 3 colors. Then the skins are washed purple, maybe another 15min per model. Thunder blue and black washes are applied via wet palette. The striations on the armor plates are also washes/wet palette. Maybe 3 hours to do the whole carnifex the new way?

    Here's my thoughts on the format and list. This is a team event, but teams will be randomly assigned the first round, then 1 winner + 1 loser following rounds.

    Army Composition:
    1000 Points consisting of :::: 1 HQ, 0-2 Elites, 1-3 troops, 0-2 Fast, 0-2 Heavy.
    No Special character/Named Sergeants upgrades
    Choices for Elites, Fast, and Heavies are 0-1 I.e. No two long fangs.
    Choices that modify army selection are allowed. I.e. Master of the Forge. Sagas
    You must also have at least 4 of the 5 force org slot

    So, no special characters or elite/hvy spam. This is good for tyranids. Each player will have only 1,000pts to bring so not "all the toys" you'll find in 2,000pts. I've wanted to resurrect some of the old nids so this would be my chance (or at least I hope).

    Warriors are vulnerable to str8 shooting, but with a cap on long fangs and rifleman dreads, they'll be a bit safer. To maximize their survival, I'll use MSU units instead of a deathstar so they can't be focused and opponents will have to split fire to target them. Then, I'll add a deathstar that demands high str/low ap shooting to further increase their survival. Then, I'll kit them out with barbed stranglers so they can contribute from 36" away if needed. Here's the final list of what I plan to take:

    Tyranid Prime + boneswords, regen, devourer
    Hive Guard x3
    Warriors x3 + boneswords, devourers x2, barbed strangler x1
    Warriors x3 + deathspitters x2, barbed strangler x1
    Warriors x3 + deathspitters x2, barbed strangler x1
    Carnifex x2 + devourers x2 each

    So everything has multiple wounds. Warriors are vulnerable to str8, but will always have cover and the carnifexstar and hive guard will almost always draw more fire. The prime joins fexes, hive guard, or bonesword warriors depending on the pairing.

    It's something totally new for me to try. No tyrant, no tervigon, no genestealers. I think/hope the warriors will prove to be very durable scorers with multiple wounds, allocation, and fearless. Another cool thing happened when the list came to fruition. This list will cause tons of pinning tests and modified morale checks with all the barbed stranglers and devourers. I'm hoping all that dakka suppresses some infantry throughout the games which will further benefit my survival.

    Anyways,that's it in a nutshell. Hopefully my random partners will help with target saturation as well =).

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    Replies
    1. I really like the colours. What ink did you use for the purple? Am I correct that you shaded the recesses with darker colours?

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  4. Looking good! Great to see som critter love again.

    When it comes to bases you know by now what I go for... I would try to mimic the paint scheme in some way and for theese guys I think that a small patch of light green grass on every other base would look great. Since Nids are masters of adaptation I find it fluffy that they would have at least some aspect of camouflage going on and also I think it looks good when you mirror some colour from the mini to the base.

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