'nids part 378 - Leviathan Tyranids - Basecoats

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the remains of my Leviathan box set Tyranids. That is 20 Termagants, something I am convinced will break me. I'm certain I recall just how hard this many can be to paint.

And yet I somehow believe adding 11 Neurogaunts into the mix will make it somehow more achievable... I mean it is not. But I guarantee I will feel a damn sight worse if I finished the Termagants and then throw in another 11 gribblies.

So if I'm all in with 31 models then I might as well the extra 3 Von Ryan's Leapers from Combat Patrol.

AND, 5 Barbgaunts too. You may recall these almost broke me as well.

But I have timings for these and I'll soon have timings for the Termagants and Neurogaunts which should provide me with a timescale. Once I have that it makes the whole process that much more manageable. 

Initially getting these basecoats done felt like such a retrograde step - like it was so far from completion. Yet each step, bone, blue and red has been achievable with some concerted effort and focus. The Soft Tone and Strong Tone wash will be relatively straightforward and then it's the highlights that will be the true test. A test of patience and repetition that hopefully I can overcome.

And just as I acknowledge the value in painting all of these concurrently, however overwhelming such large batches to paint present we get this:

Kill Team Typhon from Warhammer Community

Granted we knew it was coming. But I thought it was a few pieces of terrain and 5 Raveners. But there are multiple copies of each and the big tower. Not to mention 10 Hormagaunts and a base of Rippers! So it would appear I now have to get this and paint them all for AoP too! If I'm focused it just might be possible, so much for 'What's on my palette?'

#MESBG Middle Earth Goblin Town and the final fellowship

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Middle Earth Goblin Town and Moria terrain. I previously shared this WiP pic.

But failed to share a close-up of the 3 remaining members of the Fellowship - Boromir, Pippin and Merry.

I also had this second throne of Goblin King. I wanted to paint it differently to the other one, with a Blessed Verdigris 🗽and bronze finish to the chair. So it was painted AP Hydra Turquoise, then I think I did another turquoise highlight. Then it was drybrushed. This was a bronze mix I'd created years ago but had fallen out of fashion using.

I don't know why. It doesn't have the red base colour of Sycorax Bronze, is more yellow, I rather like it. Then, following a tutorial on YouTube there was a drybrush of black.

It's a different way of doing my beloved metallic weathering technique. Can't have too many ways of doing something.

The Goblin Town terrain platforms on the cork board.

I then mixed a load of Burnt Umber art acrylic with equal parts wood glue and PVA. I then poured sand into the mix to create very sticky brown texture paint. Two small yoghurt pots wort to cover the board. I then added some larger stones in groups. On top of this Matt Black spray around the edges and anywhere the unpainted stones were giving a nice varied effect.

I mean the platforms are far too garish in comparison. That green effect stands out way too much. I'd though it would look like mouldy wood but I think I made a mistake doing too many individual planks. It works on the bottom of the ramps where it's 3 planks that might be exposed more to damp. Some of the whole individual planks in green just stand out in a weird way. Nevermind.

Anyway, highlights on the board next. All the stones need to be grey and I need to splash on some bonewhite to replicate the bone chips on my Moria and Goblin bases. Some other bits left to finish and then I can get all the TO DONE! pics TO DONE!

What's on my palette?

Bless me #Warhammer Community for I have sinned, it's been over 6 months since my last confession! Lots of progress both on my previous priorities and numerous other projects that somehow bullied their way into my TO DO list - I'm looking at you MESBG armies. I think I've painted over 100 miniatures in this period. It's bonkers, I've never been so productive!

So my previous priorities were:

1. Leviathan Tyranid Prime
2. Leviathan Neurotyrant and Neurolids
3. Leviathan Barbgaunts x5 [x10 at a stretch]
4. Leviathan Von Ryan's Leapers x3 [x6 at a stretch]
5. Leviathan Termagants x20
6. Termagants x30 base extensions

• Genestealer Cult Sentinels
• Ironsoul's Condemnors x2
• Cerastus Knight Acheron
• Cerastus Knight Castigator
• Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan 1
• Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan 2
• Adeptus Titanicus Questoris Knights x3
• Adeptus Titanicus terrain

Which leaves me with:

1. Leviathan Termagants x20
2. Leviathan Barbgaunts x5
3. Leviathan Von Ryan's Leapers x3
4. Leviathan Neurogaunts x11
5. Termagants x30 base extensions

• Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan 1
• Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan 2
• Adeptus Titanicus Questoris Knights x3
• Adeptus Titanicus terrain - this is a second lot of AT terrain 
• Cerastus Knight Acheron
• Cerastus Knight Castigator

All the Tyranids are for this year's Armies On Parade. They're still RAYG rated, but it's changed a bit. Everything highlighted green are my priority before the end of the hobby season. Yellow ones are the stretch goals - a bit more effort. Orange, the Warlord Titans I hope I can get them primed and base as at least one will be my #dreadtober pledge this year. The Termagant basing extensions haven't been started but I've no idea if that will get done, maybe next season?

The Cerastus Knights will be after the Warlords, I suspect that'll be November December. All the red items are low priority but they're clearly more prioritised than The Lion or converted Sammael on jetbike from my actual TO DO List! 😂 So many projects/figures left to paint!

Treasures of Otty's Hobby shed

Afternoon just thought I'd share some various pics of new treasures added to the display cabinets in Otty's hobby shed. I'm hoping I haven't shared them before but I'm sure you'll survive seeing them again. First up, Liam has been working on some Marvel Crisis Protocol villains. He and Ben got very excited very quickly about it. I saw the prices and started to think GW figures are a bargain. You may only need half a dozen models for MCP but they're almost the cost of a Combat Patrol. Still, Liam has done a fantastic job, curse him for his proliferation. He loves the chrome paint, which looks awesome.

But struggles to reconcile it alongside his own passion for NMM, which lets face it, is sickeningly good. I wouldn't mind so much but these 11 figures were a week or so's work! He's like a machine, it;s sickening! 😝

Gamora and Ronan, these have my high-contrast, over-saturated hind-brain tingling. Absolutely stunning.

I'm not even sure which ones these are but they are very cool.

And Nebula, who is equally as cool. He also designed, 3d printed and painted a town house for them, which is fantastic. It will all be brilliant to play with when Ben does his half of the armies.

On top of that he's done an entire SAS Rogue Heroes army for a potential WWII game he wants to play. Not sure what rules system but this convoy rocked up a week or so before the super heroes did.

Not sure what scale it is but there are multiple options for weapons on the vehicles.

It'll be a lot of fun to play with these guys. Otty will be taking care of their adversaries.

They tried to get me into it, as expected, but I didn't have the capacity. Then they threw all those Goblin Town Goblins at me instead! Lots to do in my Hobby Season, it's far from derailed but it's running at full steam right now.

Lastly, what's on the Adeptus Titanicus shelf? Oooh, have some Eldar/Aeldari just appeared from the webway?

Otty has been working hard on his 3D printed and 40k proxies. With the 'Warlord' equivalent Phantom Titan centre stage. A couple of Wraith Lords as Reavers and some old skool metal Wraith Guard as Cerastus Knights

More Cerastus proxies and a couple of 3D printed Revenants to be used as Warhounds.

Some great hobby from the guys. Extremely envious but it's a healthy competitive edge where we're each pushing our efforts. We're all creating some wonderful models and it's great to see them all come together in the shed.

#MESBG Middle Earth Goblin Town - Town and Moria terrain

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Middle Earth Goblin Town... err town. Liam had passed on these pieces for my birthday, I think there'd been some collusion with Otty on this. The two big platforms had been glued together but I could see from Garfy's showcase at Tale of Painters, having them separate was more versatile. So I split them, primed them Red Oxide and then then did a bit of black overspray to get some variety/darkness into the finish.

I probably made this ten times more difficult for myself in how I approached this. A heavy drybrush of VGC Leather Brown.

Then Charred Brown on some of the planks for variety.

I added a strong tone wash on this test piece and then Skeleton Bone drybrush for highlights and I could have almost left it here. But obviously I didn't.

With all the pieces shaded I tried adding some mouldy green planks in, which I thought looked cool.

Then the bone drybrush made them much too light. I think I ended up going back in with a Leather Brown drybrush in places to tone it down a bit.

Meanwhile, I sponged/stippled on some black art acrylic on my Moria pillars to add a bit of texture.

I did the same for Balin's sarcophagus, the stonework on the trapdoors and Leather Brown on the spare scribe and weapon piles.

Lots more was done on the other pieces and the last of the Fellowship.

I then went through the interminable process of highlight all the bones and skulls on the platforms. Mot forgetting all those bits attached to the poles. I added various stains on the wood too, but they don't really show up. Then I varnished the whole thing. I've run out of Army painter Anti-Shine [I don't even think they call it that anymore]. I've been using Miniature Paints Matt Varnish with mixed results. It's been more of a satin finish on figures and definitely was more 'glossy' than matt on the wood. On my Goblins it had even started to leave an almost frosty look on the bases in the recesses. This was something that has evolved over time, it was definitely not as bad when I painted it on or the next day or so. Anyway, with these slightly shiny wooden planks I tried fixing it with my big bottle of Winsor & Newton Matt Varnish. I tried it alongside a bottle of Craft Acrylic Matt Varnish. The consistencies were wildly different, with the W&N varnish being thin and transparent, while the craft acrylic was milky coloured and slightly thicker than normal paint. Testing it on the underside they both made the paint very matt, with the Craft Acrylic making the paintwork just a tad lighter looking [as far as I could tell]. So I went with W&N across the whole surface. To be fair these will have models moving over them so additional protection is worth it. Now I just need to get back to a varnish I am confident in and happy with.

That corkboard will make a display board for or Midweek MESBG tournament. So, that's another thing to do alongside the remaining bits of terrain. And another Great Big Wooden 'BIG BUILD' Stamps of Approval.

Not a battle report - Star Wars Legion Droids Vs Wookies

Afternoon, here we are again with Star Wars Legions. This was a game from a month or so back. It's worth noting that Ben had decided to get a vinyl forest gaming mat to create Endor. This was a controversial decision as Otty is very much against such 'artificial' backgrounds. He's much happier with his own flocked boards, particularly the new ones he'd just completed that were overlooked for this! Much gentle ribbing of this mat followed. For me, I like neoprene mats. I like the sound of dice on them and if it's a cool pattern I'm all for it. This one is OK, but as it's vinyl you can see the reflective sheen, which doesn't help with immersive play. I would recommend it if you're on a budget, but if you can stretch to something more substantial, or build your own then it's worth the effort for a better experience.

Anyway, this game was Droids, with General Grievous.

Including Liam's 3D printed Droid tank.

Versus Wookies, including Yoda, Chewbacca, 

And some Clone Troopers on their BARC Speeder and another unit out of shot on the far right of this view.

As I recall we won the order bidding and managed to get relatively far up the board. Wookies are great climbers, so can ignore climbing checks. Yoda jumped on Chewie's back, which gave us some bonuses and benefits we planned to make use of next turn. However, they also made a prime target and took 4 wounds. Not sure if that's to Yoda or Chewie but those Super Battle Droids and Grievous put the hurt on them. The Fluttercraft had done a great bombing run but had overextended and got wiped out. The second Fluttercraft with the rear gunner did OK, but it was clearly a challenge to get a firing position to use the gun effectively.

Our Clone Troopers on the far left focused on the rolling Droidekas. I knew they'd be nigh impossible to shift off the objective when they stopped and got their shields up. They took one down and wounded the second.

While another squad of Wookies halved the unit of Super Battle Droids facing them in the trees.

Yoda eventually got to General Greivous, for a suitably impressive looking battle with wholly unimpressive results as the Jedi Master was cut down by Grievous - underwhelming.

And that's about all we could fit in in one evening. Once again, entertaining but so slow going. With Yoda gone [maybe Chewie too at this point, I forget] and many order benefits lost with his death the idea of continuing this game next time around was less appealing.

But we persevered and the Wookies got into the Super Battle Droids.

While the BARC Speeder went for Bossk, who'd been a thorn in our sides taking out the second Fluttercraft. It's such and ugly design, but in game it was proving extremely effective.

Three Wookies became the command squad and were out for revenge for the loss of Yoda and Chewie.

They charged down Grievous.

And pulled his arms from his sockets to soothe their loss!

On the right far side a lone Wookie took on a spider droid.

While another squad faced the last of the Super Battle Droids. I have no idea if we won. I think perhaps we did because we prioritised getting on objectives. I'm not sure if we even scored points per round or if it was points at the end of a specific game turn [not that we ever get though many of them]. I think despite our losses we may have swung it our way due to objective control.

But ultimately, it's not about the result. It's two nights of hanging out with these guys and having a laugh!