'nids part 18 - Hive Tyrant

It's been a while since I showed off some my son's tyranids. I've actually got quite a lot of group shots to showcase the whole hive but thought I'd just fill you in on some of the individuals. This here hive tyrant was another impulse purchase on ebay last year. Itt was another bargain, I won it for £10 with £3 p&p which is less than half price! He originally came with Mechrite Red Chitin and the body was a much darker base than I would usually start with for my bonewhite but I persevered. Armament wise this setup may be a mistake. Lash Whip and Bonesword yes, but a Heavy Venom Cannon. I've read some bad reports [see below] on it and given the -1 to the vehicle penetration chart it isn't quite the anti-mech we need but we really have very few options anyway so we'll take what we can get.

There's still a bit more painting to do on the Lash Whip and Bonesword and Heavy Venom Cannon. Some extra highlights need to be in place. Of course if I were to follow Ghoulios advice at legiominimus: 

"The Venom Cannon is the worst gun in the game period. In 14 games with this book I have stunned a very small handful of tanks and on the 14 game I did my first bit of damage to a vehicle and that was blow off the battle cannon from a defiler. The worst part about it is you think you MIGHT be able to do something with it instead of running the big man up to get into combat where he will actually do something. Right after my last game I actually pulled both venom cannon arms off both tyrants right there."

I may well reconsider his armament, here I see the advantage of magnetizing...

A view of his back armour plate sand more spots and stripes.

The other side view.

Better off Dread - Dark Angel AoBR Dreadnought

Once again my evening photos leave a lot to be desired but waiting for daylight is the difference between having content or not. Anyhoo, here's my AoBR Dreadnought. So far it's an undercoat, Boltgun Silver and a Badab Black wash but I also did a little kit-bashing which you should just be able to make out. The Multi-Melta has been bored out, and not with one of those namby-pamby 1mm drill bits, this thing looks meaty now, which is how it should, in my book! I also used some of that plastic strip you get loads of in kids toys, usually attached to wire that holds the toy to the packaging. Here it's a girder which should look cool poking out of the re planet dust.

You should also be able to make out the Dark Angel chapter badge on his right leg. This is from the Ravenwing set. I got a really good deal on a complete set of upgrade parts for the two bikers I'd got. Although I needed a third bike to complete the squad and was able to get a set of four on ebay for the same price as a brand new one from GW so now I need a new Ravenwing upgrade sprue! Anyway, the wings were bent a bit and it was glued in place a little too much glue but at least there's no gaps.

As I am still suffering the fear of Dark Angels green I thought I'd go mainly metallic on the back, with only the front armour green. Still not sure, can't decide if I should make the exhaust manifolds also green or gold. Lastly I put another Dark Angel chapter badge on the corner of his left arm. I split the wing so it wraps round. It'd have been nicer to have the sword actually wrap the corner but nye on impossible so this is a decent compromise.

Think he may need a banner though so I may invest in the Dark Angels Chapter Upgrade Frame now it's gone up in price, which would actually allow me to make use of the two metal Terminators I have that are short of a few weapons...

Terrain is everything - Honoured Imperium pt3.

Back to the old Honoured Imperium terrain. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out I actually got to this stage in around 24-48 hours, I'm not sure. I pretty much got carried away with it, really enjoying the process, again, because I knew what I was doing. This was because it's all just Red Planet basing up to here, click on the link if you want the full details.

As you can see the Aquila has also benefited from a Leather Brown base coat which I'm going to build up to Bonewhite.

The ruin is pretty much done, I'm not sure whether I want to pick out too much detail. I like the GW buildings but most of my buildings are scratch built and I don't want this to draw attention to the fact it's clearly not of the same design aesthetic. So long as I just stick to the same colours I should be able to let it blend in seamlessly with my other building/ruins.

Oh Lordy, that Red Planet effect is 'sweeeeet'! It's come out so well I can't believe it. Additionally I've added a thin coat of Black poster paint to the Statute. The Matt Black was a bit too smooth and I wanted to add a bit of texture for the verdigris to cling too. I think I also glued him together at this stage. Everything is looking rosey.

Meanwhile today is the day of the Kendo Seminar I've organised and tomorrow is the day of the British Kendo Association Kyu Grade [beginners] competition [although I'm too experienced to enter, I'll be refereeing]. So I'm gonna have sore feet and a sore throat and probably all sorts of other sore things!

Terrain is everything - 40k Hex tower 2.

Here's one of my oft delayed terrain pieces. You can probably tell reading through it that there was a lot of improvisation going on and as the piece developed ideas about how to make this even more versatile cropped up, hence the delay because I never got round to creating the STC. I'll get there in the end don't worry but meanwhile you'll just have to enjoy the process and the inspiration.

After I made the 40k outpost, that got bigger and it's attendant tower the next addition to my scenery collection [way back when] was inspired by 'found materials. We get large scale plotter paper at work and these rolls have plastic endcaps as shown below

So I wanted to build a platform based around this end cap, here's the sketch:

A hexagonal base was made and stuck to a CD [no warping card this time]

Then, foamcard was used for the walls and granny grating for the base. A hole was cut in the centre to allow a lift to come up from the base [still to do]

In the process I realised if I split one of the walls I can create walkways to connect more of these babies together. Here's the removable section

 

I have some different sized end caps which will add some variety and I may add some variety in height so I could potentially stack some of the platforms [if they come without CD bases]. Alternatively the hex tower can fit in the centre, but it'd look kind of odd.

I've still to prepare the walkways but I will be using foamcard and granny grating for the base of those and walls with the same pattern.
Here's the slightly smaller one

A view from above which shows that the smaller printer end cap is not closed, so you get a nice see-thru effect through the granny grating.

A possible layout using the removable wall plates. Still need to complete some walkways but it's quite versatile already, although probably too much for my small table.

Here's a figures eye view showing the completed doors.

Quite a lot of pics there, so I'll post the painted ones another time. As I mentioned before the STCs for these are still in development. I wanted to add an internal hexagonal column that would be the same height as the corner pieces. This would allow the stacking of the platforms. Additionally I have the advantage of the printer end caps, providing extra bits for you to make your own floorplate within the template is another thing to consider. I'll get there though.

My son ACTUALLY gaming!

So wonders never cease. My son actually played a game of 40k with his cousin and up until the frantic melee below I'd kept out of it. Somewhere along the lines his 11 Genestealers and Broodlord outflanked onto the side. They charged the Terminator squad and at this point had taken out his Terminator Armoured Chaplain [2 wounds? I thought those guys had 3]

Here's a wider angle shot with a sneak peak at some of my Honoured Imperium terrain and my future containers.

Moments afterwards the Genestealer mauled two of the Terminators [33 dice delivered two deaths!] however the squad failed their morale check and were slaughtered as they ran away.

Later on the Trygon had 6 penetrating and one glancing hit on the Predator in the centre so it was destroyed also. The marines had little chance. Can't say he's learned about good sportsmanship but he's never beaten his cousin yet and perhaps it'll excite him a little more about it. Later the wife asked him again on his thoughts and he said I'm 'still sticking my nose in too much and make decisions on colours etc.' although I'm not sure what he's referring to as we haven't done any painting for at least a month! Didn't even want to be involved in the game but they kept asking my advice. Anyhoo...!

ebay sales YOU won't regret!

This post is worthy of interrupting my every-other-day schedule You may recall I have mentioned my mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame, a few times. His painting and modelling skills are awesome he admits he's a 40k geek, he scratchbuilt a Warlord for G.O.D.sake but he stops short of a blog so I asked him if he ever had anything he wanted to share on my blog he could.

So below I have some of his magnificently painted Adeptus Arbites and Ultramarine Rhinos but the killer thing is that they are all up on ebay NOW! Starting price 99p and decent postage rates.

Here's the Arbites with some gorgeous 'non-metallic metals, hurry I see these have already reached £6!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/40k-Adeptus-Arbite-5-man-Squad-inc-Champion-lot-105-/250795076474?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a648d2b7a

"We are the law!"

Here's the full set of four Rhinos being auctioned off individually:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Warhammer-40k-Space-Marine-Rhino-Ultramarines-lot101-/250795076647?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a648d2c27

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Warhammer-40k-Space-Marine-Rhino-Ultramarines-lot102-/250795076761?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a648d2c99#ht_500wt_1156

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Warhammer-40k-Space-Marine-Rhino-Ultramarines-lot103-/250795076882?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a648d2d12

And lot 104 is here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Warhammer-40k-Space-Marine-Rhino-Ultramarines-lot104-/250795077046?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a648d2db6

Of course you don't have to buy you can just enjoy the fantastic quality which my friend is typically modest about and if you dig his work please leave a comment so I can share it with him. Just to whet your appetite for the future he had this to say:

"If you want more stuff I have WIP images of loads of stuff I've made
4 x Scratch built Landspeeder hibreed (fully inclosed)
Scratch built thunderbolt fighter
3 x Scratch built lightnings
Scratch built warhound
Scratch built warlord
2 x Scratch built from GW parts knights Paladin
2 x Scratch built caestus assault rams
Scratch built from GW parts An'ggrath"

So if you like he's stuff hopefully we'll get to see some more quality output. Oh and just a reminder of his scratchbuilt Warhound and Warlord...

Terrain is everything - Vent Tower pt 3. EVOLUTION!

OK, a lot's gone on with the Vent Tower recently and I suddenly thought that despite the evolution recorded in the blog through photographs we were short in some evidence of how the actual model is wrought from the initial idea [below]. Yep we've seen that initial concept a few times but the main issue for the roof was tested 'virtually' in Illustrator.

Here you can see how I was looking to solve that problem, the solutions to which I discussed the other day. As you can see the planned extension was also developed and in such a way as that I can still retain the roof section I've already constructed. Not only that, due to the 'plug and socket' module that the roof and extension use I could potentially keep creating more and more extensions as the the top and base are the same dimension!

My wife did a night shift the other night so I got in a lot of work and hopefully I'll be able to bring you up-to-date on all my progress next week. One post to cover the tower, the fences, the drop pod, dreadnought and even my AoBR marines!