Grubnards GT Countdown T-3 Weeks

 ... Or less than a month until the GT....

This past week I was able to finish painting my Dark Apostle. All that is left is to add the basing materials and paint the base. I'm pretty happy with how the tattoo of the chaos star on his head turned out. I was also fortunate enough to get in two games with the guy who runs the monthly events at our LGS. Look for my feedback and thoughts on those games farther down in the post. With this being the last week in October I started to categorize what I still need to paint, build, and play test. So without any further delays, lets look at what I did this past week.

Grubnards GT Countdown T-5 Weeks

... Or Grubnard's big shakeup!

We are nearing the 1 month mark before the Da Boyz GT is upon us and this past week has been a crazy time for me. I've been working on terrain, painting my army, and this past weekend I played in the Millennium Games monthly tournament which was geared towards practicing for the GT. I brought the thus far completed Tyranid terrain to the event so that I could get the players thoughts and feedback on how the terrain worked and what, if any improvements could be made. So without wasting anymore time lets jump into this week's post.

Tyranid Spires Pt 1 and DaBoyz GT Tau List

Grubnards GT Countdown T-6 Weeks

This week I thought I would showcase part 1 of the Tyranid Spires terrain that I have been working on for a good part of the past month. This portion of the project was much more difficult than the other terrain pieces since I was working with new material and did not know what to expect. I will be breaking up the project into two part, this week focusing on the initial stages of development and next week I'll wrap it up with the final results. This weekend is also the Da Boyz GT primer being held at Millennium Games and Hobby so I plan on bringing the full set of the Tyranid terrain and see how it holds up before next months GT.

Tyranid Terrain: Ripper Pads Finished!

After a month of working on this project and a plethora of other projects I was finally able to finish the tyranid ripper pads. Unlike with the first two  projects (the digestion pools and carnivorous plants)  I started to incorporate elements of human habitation to give the terrain a story theme. So in this project I used a section of the crashed ship pieces that came in the BfM 4th edition starter set and I made a small section of an imperial generator room. I plan on continuing this theme with the remaining pieces that I am going to work on for the tyranid terrain. So with out any more delay, lets looks at the pics!

Tyranid Terrain: Ripper Pads

Tyranid rippers are small organisms created to spawn in the latter stages of a tyranid invasion for the sole purpose of consuming all matter on the surface of the planet. When they cannot eat anymore matter they immerse themselves in the many digestion pools to be broken down and digested, along with all matter that they have consumed, and sucked back up by the hive fleets so that the DNA can be assimilated by the fleet. In this series I wanted to create one of the many ripper pads that spawn on the surface of the planet during an invasion. I wanted to make these pieces large than the previous tyranid terrain projects and I also wanted to include imperial elements in the terrain as wreckage that has been overrun by the invasion. So without any further ado, lets get started.

Tyranid Terrain: Carnivorous Plants Conclusion

In my last article, I left off with the basic egg-shaped pod with the tyranid ribbing drying with a mixture of white glue and super glue. Since then I have painted up the pods, added jungle foliage, and flocked the bases. As I did this process over a series of 10 days, I was not able to take pictures of each step but I've included the final images for you to review.

Tyranid Terrain: Carnivorous Plants pt II

Welcome back to the next installment on making tyranid terrain. This latest series is about creating carnivorous plants that will be part a part of a tables worth of terrain that represents the later stages of an Tyranid invasion. Last week I started the project by gluing some foam eggs to particle board and adding feeder tendrils to the base of the pods. You can read about that phase by clicking here. This week I did some clay sculpting to add an alien look and feel to mirror the digestion pools I worked on a few weeks ago (click here). So let's take a look at what I was able to add this week.

Tyranid Terrain: Carnivorous Plants and More

This past week has been a real productive one for me in regards to hobby-related projects, which is a good thing because my hobby time these past few months has been pretty hit and miss. Here is a run down of what I was able to accomplish in the past week. First I was able to pick up Betrayer by Aaron Dembski Bowden. As a huge fan of Aaron's writings and the Word Bearers I was pretty stoked to start reading this book. I am about half way through the book and it has so far exceeded my expectations. While the book does deal with the Word Bearers and their actions going on at the same time as the events in Know No Fear, it deals more with the World Eaters and their involvement in the campaign against the Ultramarines. For someone who did not know much about the World Eaters I find this book interesting as it fleshes out Angron and Kharn (especially Kharn) as characters that you can somewhat feel for. One of the best lines in the book comes right from the opening pages, as a quote from Kharn: "The wolves will always come to heel when called. In that regard, it is a mystery why they name themselves wolves. They are tame, collared by the Emperor, obeying him at every whim. But a wolf doesn't behave that way. Only a dog does. That is why we are the eater of worlds, and the War Hounds no longer." - Eight Captain Kharn. - Excerpt from Betrayer.

Tyranid Terrain: Digestion Pools Pt III

In this article I will wrap up the series on a tyranid digestion pool. Looking back at the first two articles I am pretty pleased with how building these pools have gone. As I mentioned in the first article, I was kind of apprehensive about building tyranid terrain as it was something out of my comfort zone. I did a lot of experimentation and there were plenty of trial and error going on during the process but overall I am pleased with the final product and I am ready to move onto the next project. But before I get ahead of myself, let's wrap up the digestion pool tutorial.

In the first article I built up the borders of the digestion pool and in the second article I added the poisoned fronds and the gooey inside walls of the pool. In this article I will be adding the vegetation to the bases and paint up the pool.

Tyranid Terrain: Digestion Pool Part II

Welcome back to part II of building a tyranid digestion pool. My goal was to have this project finished for this week but real life reared its ugly head and I got set back a few days. Plus our blogging scheduled got a bit shuffled with the announcement of our Parkhammer 2013 event. So without putting this off any longer, lets take a look at what I was able to get done in the past week.

Tyranid Terrain: Digestion Pool Part 1

My last series on building themed terrain dealt with creating city ruins with basic tools and materials and this next series will follow along with the same premise but this time I elected to build tyranid themed terrain. Why tyranids? Well, way back in 4th edition I attempted to start a tyranid army but that never went far and I ended up selling the meager collection I had started, but my love of tyranid fluff has never stopped. The idea of an unstoppable mass that cannot be reasoned with or negotiated with and that is geared with the simple purpose to consume all matter for the hive fleets is a scary prospect. For with the tyranids it is either kill them all or face utter annihilation.

In this series I want to build terrain that represents the latter stages of a tyranid infestation. By this time much of the resistance would have been wiped out, leaving the planet ready for consumption. At this point the alien spawned vegetation would be in full growth and in the process of breaking down all matter to be consumed by the ripper swarms that will soon erupt and ingest everything in their path. The rippers would then immerse themselves into the digestion pools where all of the biological matter will be reduced to an acidic gruel that will then be sucked up into the awaiting hive fleets in low orbit. So my first project for the tyranid series will be to develop some digestion pools as a test to see what I could do to create something that is totally alien and has an organic quality that none of the other 40k races have.