'nids part 187 - Termagants - baker's half dozen

Oh wow, I could feel the Hive Mind calling all day and I had visions of cracking on with these in short order. I managed to start painting at 9:45 and carry on until 11:30, just finishing up the first highlights on three of them and then onto the second highlights. But I managed to complete just 7 of the bleeders and reminded myself that sometimes I actually don't like painting them because although it's straightforward, I know what I'm doing and the results do show up pretty quick it's damn tedious!

I did do some other bits on the remaining 6, tails and some edges it helps break up the tedium and means when I reconvene they'll take that little bit quicker to complete. Of course I could have not done that and maybe completed an 8th or 9th model but it's the mind game and production line-wise I find this works for me.

Still to do heads, shoulders, backs and some Fleshborers but it's a bizarre feeling to work solidly and still not complete what you intended to do. Immense satisfaction for a good nights work coupled with disappointment that I did not get more done. And with that as my last thought as I went to bed and my first thought as I got up the addiction is really strong at the moment

But with less than a fortnight until Throne of Skulls there's an urgency here, even if I may not need them afterall...

'nids part 186 - Termagants - baker's dozen

Renewed vigour - there's nothing like throwing these queue jumpers into the mix to make me feel guilty and desparate to get them done so I can get back to honest work. Funny thing is I'm no less busy than I was before it's just a sense of urgency as I put the first coat of Vermilion on the bases.

Whilst I was at it I did the Deathwing Knights, no harm in getting these past the basing stage so I've a head start when the gaunts are done.

Two sets of highlights later and they're all based. I also threw in some more work on the 30 Genestealers. I figured I could carry on bits and bobs there alongside the Gaunts and that might help speed things along too. It'd be really cool to add 30 Stealers, 13 Gaunts and all the other things on my table to my TO DONE! come August so that's my arbitrary deadline in getting all these things achieved by then. It may change but if these, the Knight, the Deathwing, the Bikes and the Jetfighter got done [not to mention the VSG] I'd be a very happy bunny.

I followed up the bases with basecoast of Bahama Blue on the Chitin and red on the fleshy bits/weapons. Interestingly I realised while also adding blue to the Genestealers that I never allocated any time to the blue, just the Chitin highlights - 2 days/sessions which may have been ambitious. Still I've 10 Stealers to but the Bonewhite base on, 5 are untouched and the other five are half done. I may be able to do that in 3 sessions, bringing them along nicely too.

Another night and they all got Soft Tone washed. I actually think this is a fair bit darker than the old Gryphonne Sepia but it'll do. The following day I managed to spend 15 minutes adding Strong Tone [Devlan Mud equivalent] ot all the Chitin and fleshy bits to make their shadows darker.

And now they're ready for Chitin highlights. Once again I used my Anitas Craft Acrylic Turquoise but this time I tried to use one of the 3 bottles Evan got me and there must be something different in their formula as although it's thicker the paint just does not have the same coverage as my 6 year old bottle, now down to 20% left.

So I switched back to my old bottle but may now consider the Miniature Paints Aquamarine. I've found my second highlight in the Decoart Turquoise often obscures about 80% of the first highlight anyway so colour matching is not the most important part, it's coverage. If the Miniature Pants covers well it may work as a switch, and I can see if mixing it with the new Anita's will make a closer matched but more opaque hybrid...

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day

Just a heads up March 2nd is Old Stuff Day A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs and it's still going strong today. To choose one or more of your own blogposts that you're most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you are to share blogposts from other bloggers which you think deserves the same spotlight of attention before they're returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don't forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems. Feel free to use the Old Stuff Day poster by Firstkeeper from DeviantArt.

40kaddict.uk

Just a little note, you may recall a good few months ago I was having difficulty accessing my blog [and a number of others, but not all] that featured 'games' or 'personal blogs] due to a change in IT security policy. Thankfully the Monkeychuka protocol was discovered when I noticed that when my blog was referenced by his blog it arrived via blogspot.co.nz. So a non-localised URL was able to bypass certain problems and I could respond to comments with a little more regularity.

That said the policy has changed once again, I'm not sure if it's adapting to me or it's just standard procedure so I had to find another solution. I have achieved this on two fronts, the first was to find a way to force blogger not to localise my website and it turns out that you can do this by typing in your URL as .blogspot.com/ncr This worked for me, it may never be an issue for others, it really depends what policies are in place by the 'powers that be'.

The other option, and slightly more drastic, was to actually buy a domain name. I'm not sure if this was a kneejerk response but it's also worked to cloak the blog under a shadow of 'respectability. Nick at theburningeye mentioned the importance of blog names in a recent post. Often you won't think of that when you first begin blogging, although my mate used to have wysiwyg-art.co.uk and told me it was a nightmare to explain over the phone.

I always felt I was ridiculously lucky to get 40kaddict and was really excited when 40kaddict.uk was only £1 on godaddy. For some reason it ended up at £3.50 at checkout but even so, aside from folk assuming it'll be .co.uk and not just .uk I'm really chuffed to have a dedicated URL. It may not be for everyone, but it's definitely a way to overcome a blog name that doesn't roll off the tongue and it may make other avenues of promotion available.

Anyway, it's a new step for the blog [although no plans for Wordpress just yet] it's a little fiddly integrating the redirect into my godaddy account and blogger so I can't honestly advise anyone how to do it as even with a couple of walkthroughs explaining it on blogger help I'm still not sure how I did it. However, I've done it now so I doubt I'll ever have to do it again.

BASE - in your face

The queue jumpers all got based, tried to get some pieces of slate on their too so the notoriously unbalanced Hormagaunts were less tippable. Funnily enough I've just been looking at some of the other formations and realised that I need a few more Hormagaunts so I can try out the Endless Swarm formation and I may want to investigate more Gargoyles too, it's about time I gave them another shot.

As mentioned though I did not completely abandon the Dark Angels, the Knights all got based too as I made a decision and chose not to add any stealer limbs on the bases, although the Thunder Hammer dude does have a Stealer skull.

I primed them all with Army Painter Skeleton Bone Primer which is really good, because it doesn't pool in the crevices. In this lighting the coverage looked great but closer inspection did show some of the darker areas from the badly stripped old painted models. However, in this instance I'm happier with a thin prime than some thick blobby coat. Afterall there are going to be successive coats of paint on top too.

I started my Red Planet Basing with a coat of Vermillion, which wasn't dry by the end of the evening. Army Painter Strong Tone is next but it seems like that's going to be another night before I can begin to base them proper

Dark Angels - Azrael and Company Commander TO DONE!

A final push managed to complete my Dark Vengeance Azrael conversion and my Assault on Black Reach Commander. I used some dregs from a couple of bottles of Army Painter Anti Shine and they came out all glossy so I'd definitely advise always sticking to using a bottle with a decent amount in it.

In all honesty I'm not overly happy with either of these guys, they're not my best work but I suppose they came out better expected in some places. There are definitely some bits that work but I think the overall effect is a bit confusing.

Sadly it's not helped by the pictures being overly dark, I should have tweaked these but forgot but as I'm just glad there off my To Do List I really don't want to invest any more time in them.

Azrael with his Watcher holding the Lion Helm.

I think the Commanders face came out really well but it's the freehand lettering that spoils it for me a bit

I may also go back in at some point and put so freehand patterns on his cloak or litanies on the back of the banner.

All my HQ choices togetherm makes a cool 'last stand'.

Took some pictures on my phone too, bit of a difference.

But it does do better macro-shots

And pictures that manage to capture the models as if they were life sized.

And here we go the Big Green Stamp of Approval, been a while since I had one of these and I've ticked it off my list too. Additionally I've already started compiling my review of the year for August. For those taking part in the hobby season it's easier to keep track of achievements as you do them than having to write a big old post at the end. So far I've got three things completed, which is understandable given I'm working on numerous projects at the moment which means progress is slow but I'm hoping they'll all mature within a short time of each other. Regardless I know full well I've been pretty productive and although I've had some tough times so far I've overcome a lot too.

 

Battle Report aftermath and help with my Nid list

After my crushing defeat to Ben I have serious reservations about my 1700pt list. In fairness this was it's absolute worst performance and Ben's Orks are the most difficult Orks I've ever faced, but we all know there are other armies out their meaner and dirtier than  what Ben brings to the table. So if I can be wiped out by the Orks what hopes have I against a nastier list?

I'd tried to take as much shooting power as I could must, only S6 but weight of fire was my aim. I had loads of cover saves and two lots of Catalyst and was still not able to hold out. Ben mentioned that Otty is goign with 3 Tervigon so I didn't know whether to ditch my second Flyrant and go for a second Tervigon instead. I definitely missed having a Tyrannocyte in play, scoring units are really important and those Flyrants only stay alive so long as they're not scoring! So with twin Tervigons in mind I suddenly went completely off list and did this

These were from an old ebay auction, where I picked up a load of Hormagaunts that I was going to kitbash into Termagants. They're all going to have Adrenal glands on their backs so they can join the other 20 Adrenal gaunts so I have two distinct groups of 30. Of course I have just this second realised the plan was not to have two Tervigon tax broods but I've started it now and they always needed doing. Having chopped off the SyTals the Fleshborers were a little fussy to glue back in place with out their ball and socket joint, hence why they're upside down as it helped them to glue in a better position. What's also unclear is that there aren't 10, erm there are 13... I had 8 Hormagaunts, one of which was headless so I used a Genestealer head and I also had 5 normal Termagants so why not do the lot?

The excitement for this is much like the decision to advance Old One Eye to the top of the queue for the last Blog Wars, only not to use him. But with a deadline, and now something to complete it by, it's definitely a Catalyst for sustained effort and progress [there goes any chance of an early night!]. 4 weeks is quite a stretch for me I think to get all these done. To speed up the process I've got the Army Painter Skeleton Bone Primer and will be prepping the Deathwing Knights simultaneously to at least keep progressing something Dark Angel.

So, should you feel inclined here is the list [which seems quite small now I look at it] of all my nids. If you can think of a better army list at 1700pts. I definitely want at least one Fortification in because it's a showcase but if you can find anything slightly more competitive I'm open to ideas.

2 x Flyrant
3 x Tervigon [1 magnetised so it can be a Tyrannofex with Fleshborers]
1 x Tyranid Prime LW+BS and Deathspitter
1 x Deathleaper
1 x Lictor
4 x Hive Guard
2 x Zoanthrope
1 x Venomthrope
1 x Malanthrope

Termagants [20 Devgaunts]
Hormagaunts [not sure how many, at least 24]
4 x Rippers
4 x Warriors [3 x DS and Scytals 1 x Barbed Strangler]
3 x Broodlord
Genestealers lots of them
2 x Biovores [lots of spore mines]
3 x Carnifex [Magnetised but mainly dakka]
1 x Trygon [or use as TPrime or Mawloc]
10 x Gargoyles [but don’t like to use them]

3 x Scrathbuilt tyrannocyte

1 Bastion
1 Quad Gun
1 Aegis Defence Line
1 Skyshield landing pad
[So I can run an ‘Imperial’ Strongpoint, which is a lot of points but showcases the scratchbuilt Fortifications]