'nids part 77 - Magnetized Winged Hive Tyrant - The Scourge of Oktavia

Day 2 of Throne of Skulls and perhaps I'm slaying all-comers for the Great Devourer or perhaps I'm being spanked atrociously. However the new kid on the block, star of the show is my Magnetized Winged Hive Tyrant, who actually has a name - the Scourge of Oktavia [fluff may one day follow]. 

So this is pretty much a photo bomb of it complete. A lot of pics in front of my Ferron Proxima battlemat which has somehow given it a washed out look, damn those new Halogen bulbs. 

Anyway, later on there are some in natural light against my dining chairs which make the colours pop a bit more and you can see it being built piece by piece thanks to the magnets. Devourers look overlarge in this but I think thats more to do with the close-up shot. If I'd have stepped back and used the zoom the proportions may make more sense.

Gotta love that Chitinous tail, not too much and not too little. The veins are just visible, although not quite as sub-cutaneous as I'd hoped. The stripy bits do work well, with the veins being something you only notice as you look closer.

Here's the Scourge in pieces, I'm so glad I started to put some of that yellow Gale Force 9 flock on the bases, really makes it pop.

As you can see a little Adrenal Gland is out for a stroll, looking for a new host and the stripy wood grain tail really works.

The top of the carapace.

Left wing on, you can still just see the sepia marks - damn them, but underneath it's not so bad.

Here's the stripy wing effect on top. It doesn't hold close scrutiny [nothing of mine ever does] but as a whole the effect is what I hoped for and it tidies up most of the Sepia problems.

Like I say the veins are still a bit too much on the surface, too blue to look as if they are sub-cutaneous but never mind.

Death from above!

Some more Vermilion on the Devourers make it even more angry and raw looking, just like in the fluff, whether I add some X27 to the mix who knows...

Anyway, I'll no doubt be online at some point to let you know how I got on with him but until then I hope you like it

'nids part 76 - Magnetized Winged Hive Tyrant update [WTF where's all the inbetween bits?]

My hobby mojo has been fixed squarely on painting these past few weeks. Blogging and even photographing the progress has been low down on my list of 'to do' because I've actually just had a whole lot of fun on this Winged Tyrant, Sepia debacle notwithstanding. The enjoyment has translated to leaps in progress and this is in no small part to the proportions of the model and how much of each element needs painting. Chitin, bone and reds seem to be in amounts that just don't result in feeling of tedium and frustration.

So I've steamed ahead with the first highlights on everything. On the bone areas I'm going to be continuing to add in extra texture through highlights, as I've done with some of the large creatures recently. This effect is similar to Ghoulio's over on Legiominimus and is also similar to the effect my mate Otty does on his. I think this stripey woodgrain effect is particularly effective on the tail.

Here's the wings and as you can see I was able to salvage the sepia fiasco somewhat but thanks to natural lighting and the dark background these look much better in the photographs than reality. Extra wash has covered up the powder marks and the veins here act like a baffle disrupting the view of those areas where it's gone a bit wrong. 

I was hesitant at this point to add anything else to the wings but the veins were too prominent so extra stripey textures were going to happen.

As you can see the veins are too bright, perhaps if I'd added them before the red it might have worked a bit better. Of course there are those GW glazes, but I'm reluctant to try any such effects following the sepia reaction.

The veins are actually highlighted too, I think I used a cocktail stick to try and keep the lines thin and the line weight variable. You can still see the sepia 'cigarette burn' mark in the wings though...

Lastly here's the Felshborer Hives as Twin-linked Brain leech Devourers. You should just be able to see the crusty scab reaction in the crook of the fingers on the left hand [nasty isn't it]. To get away from the pinkiness  of some of the red highlighting I have used my Vermilion art acrylics on the fleshy bits. This 'double-cream' thick paint can be thinned with water and adds a nice glaze in places.

Anyway, ToS tomorrow, lets see how this baby performs!

'nids part 75 - Magnetized Winged Hive Tyrant and the abomination that is Seraphim Sepia

It's Throne of Skulls again this week and I better just catch you up on the Wingged Hive Tyrant. Much like the Tervigon for October I've kind of run out of time to showcase the mini before the event. i suppose I could sneak an extra post in but content [and motivation] is low at the moment so given the choice between chronology or no posts I'd rather have stuff out of order. Sorry for the downturn but it's just the ebb and flow of the hobby. Anway the Tyrant is complete but not without it's problems. I had to purchase another pot of Seraphim Sepia from GW and I was appalled at the end result, what you see below. While it was wet it acted like the previous Gryphonne Sepia wash and even my other pot of Seraphim Sepia. It pooled perfectly, however when I returned a few hours later everywhere it had pooled looked like some cheeky elves had sprinkled flour into the crevices and it had dried as a fine brown powder. You can see the odd 'cigarette burn' marks where I have brushed the dried crust away. In the deepest recesses it formed a scab like coating and was just plain awful.

This HDR picture highlights the marks more thought the above picture is more representative of the end result. Apparently this is a known problem, some forums suggest the shade needs to be shaken vigorously to prevent this happening which I find disgraceful [although Purity Seal serves up a similar issue]. This is a flaw in the formula, with the washes if the mix wasn't 100% you were able to use the slightly thinned top layer of the wash for lighter shading effects and the bottom, where the darker ink had settled for darker areas. These shades no longer offer that option. Additionally the forums suggest it is a reaction to non GW paints, I can't comment on that. It's true these were washing non GW paints but I think the Tervigon, Ymgarls and a number of others were also washed with my previous Seraphim Sepia pot and didn't result in this abomination.

Although this picture seems little different to the above one it is after some application of my [Devlan Mud equivalent] Army Painter tone. It managed to fix the powder in some places but was not able to fix it in others, despite numerous coats. In fact it was in these areas where the powder began to crystallize into the crusty scab I mentioned earlier. 

Sadly when I next returned to a GW and raised this issue with a staff member he wasn't even apologetic. I'm sorry but that product is not fit for purpose and if it screws up someone's expensive miniatures they should be damn well sorry and perhaps ask for it to be brought back in so they check if the formula was wrong. Anyway apparently Vallejo do a sepia wash so I will look into getting some instead. Meanwhile I have plans to add veins on the wings and then highlights across the so the veins look underneath the stretched skin. Hopefully this extra paint will cover the problem and where is does show through perhaps it will just look like extra texture amongst the other colours

Full sized Chaos Space Marine Helmet

My mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame [I may have to change his title after this] has sent through his latest creation, yes that's right a full-sized Chaos Space Marine Helmet! In actual fact this is his army list for Throne of Skulls! It would seem that after November where is awesome leather bound  hand rendered Dark Eldar tome was pipped to the best army list prize by Otty's Tyranid Inquisitorial Encyclopedia that Liam decided to go the extra mile hence... 

Here he is actually wearing the monstrosity and believe it or not that is an actual dental cast of his own teeth in the front there!

As I said, it's his army list and I believe that's it hand painted on the non-metallic metal brass plaque on the back of the helmet there!

And in case you were wondering what it was like inside, with the LEDs and what not voila, here's a peak inside an actual Astartes helm you'd have thought it'd be a bit more techy but no progress is not the Imperial [or even chaos powers] way now is it!

Anyway, ToS is this weekend so I'll try and do some decent battle reports again.

1600pt battle report - MAWS Challenge nids Vs Imperial Guard

Here's the third of my MAWS tournament matches. This was a four-way tournament between my local friendly neighbourhood Gaming club - The Lost Boys against The Ribble Warriors, Northern Warlords, and our hosts the Manchester Area Wargames Society [or MAWS]. There were three battles of 1600pts with a time limit of 2 hours, sadly this meant I was pressed for time, you know me, so pictures are sparse given the need to actually play. Also it's been a few weeks now so memory will be even more sketchy in places than usual. Paul [sorry I forget his surname] was up last with his Imperial Guard.

Psychic Powers Tervigon HQ CC Tervigon T Tal Broodlord [Adrenal] Broodlord [Toxin] Warp Speed Enfeeble Iron Arm Iron Arm Haemorrhage Haemorrhage Endurance NA Haemorrhage

The low down:

• The Scouring (6 objectives ).
• Hammer of Wrath
• I lost deployment, but eventually stole the initiative
• Warlord Trait - Tenacity - Feel no Pain within 3" of Objective :)

Here's my initial setup, my Aegis was right on the half way mark as you can see Paul set his Aegis up within 12" of his board edge. So I still had 24" of empty killing field to cross so I kept the Trygon and Stealers off to Deep Strike and Outflank.

I spawned some Gaunts and pushed everything forwards but tried to stay in cover with the big stuff. It turned out the objective behind my Tervigon was Sabotaged so I would spend the rest of the game trying to keep fragile Termagants away but near in case I needed to secure the objective.

I repositioned the Tervigons so I wouldn't get anymore wounds taken off by the Leman Russes. Everything else moved up to the Aegis and I think it helped keep them alive and I can recall thinking it actually paid for it's points in saving lives this game, however I think the Hive guard had taken a casualty or two.





With a vacant spot where the Leman Russes had been the Spore Pod landed exactly where I wanted it to be.





Genestealers came in on the flank.





The Doom sucked life and was up to 10 wounds, the Spore Pod failed to do damage.





So, all the Doom had to do was make two saves or be insta-killed. That's right he makes one and fails the other. 4 saving throws in three games! He obviously did some damage but I really want to seem him last a couple of turns just to add an extra level of annoyance. The Spore Pod also got killed. 



The Warriors suffered extensive damage, I'm not sure from what but given the Warrior that's left nearest the Aegis I'm thinking it was some form of barrage weapon or perhaps a Vendetta shooting from behind?



  

The Broodlord had managed to survive a torrent of lasgun fire and managed to trash the Chimera, exploding it with the occupants left to hunker down in the wreckage.

Unfortunately this was the last of the pictures. The Trygon eventually appeared in the same spot the Doom had been and the second brood of Stealers cam on on the other flank and headed for the objective on the second floor of the building. Amazingly the Biovore had struck and killed the two guardsmen defending it and the unit routed. The Stealers got into the ground floor but later on another unit of Guardsmen managed to make it into the ruins. Eventually we ran out of time, unfortunately we only got a 1 minute warning in this game and only just completed Paul's 4th turn, with mine still to go. At that stage I was 1VP up somehow 6-5. We debated whether to 'rewind' to the end of turn 3 so we would have a fairer VP count which I believe would have been more in my favour but I settled for the small win. Who knows what would have happened with the Trygon, remaining Broodlord on the left flank and stealers gunning for the objective in the ruin on the right flank? 


Anyway, a good game overall, tough but a great learning experience. As for the actual tournament we came 3rd, which is one place better than last time and I came 13th overall [presumably out of 24] with a win, loss and draw. I'm happy with that, the draw was lucky and the other two games were also finely balanced. I'm convinced if the Doom had have been just slightly more durable he'd have been the key to tipping the balance further in those games. So does that mean hope for Iron Arm in Biomancy or forget it and just make him even more killy and take the Telepathy primaris power - Psychic Shriek - essentially his Spirit Leech special ability just with a Deny the Witch but no armour or cover saves! Of course I may not need the extra wounds Absorb Life gets me and I miss out on the AP1 of Cataclysm but it could seriously damage nits round an objective... something to think about.

Throne of Skulls 2 - help with my 1500pt list please...

Throne of Skulls again next week and another 1500pt conundrum. After the last time where I somehow managed to win 4 out of 5 matches I'd pretty much settled on a potential list after the event, trimming some of the units I didn't think had worked and adding in others that could deliver, this was it [with 19pts left to play with:

HQ

  Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter, Synapse Creature,

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

Elites

  3x Hive Guard(s)

  The Doom of Malan’tai with Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper Tentacles 

Troops

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

  10x Termagaunts with Devourer

  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,

  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,

  4x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands

  Broodlord with Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons ,

  4x Genestealers with Toxin Sacs

Heavy Support

  Trygon

Fortifications

  Aegis Defence Line

Anyway, I've got me a Winged Hive tyrant recently, just finished painting it and can't decide whether to run a list with it in. It's a 6th of my points and although difficult to hit, if it is hit it could get spanked. So the list would be more like this:

HQ

  Hive Tyrant, Wings, 2X Twin Linked Devourers

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

Elites

  3x Hive Guard(s)

  The Doom of Malan’tai with Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles

Troops

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

  10x Termagaunts with Devourer

  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,

  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,

  4x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands

Heavy Support

  Trygon

Fortifications

  Aegis Defence Line

Now this leaves me with around 97pts and a number of options.

1. Drop the scything talons on the Troop Tervigon and I could add another unit of 10 Devgaunts and make the HQ Tervigon a troop, which would be useful, but also mean my Warlord is the slightly fragile Tyrant.
2. Drop the scything talons on the Troop Tervigon and I could go for 10 plain Termagants, make the HQ Tervigon a troop and add another Hive Guard [2 broods of 2]
3. Add another Hive Guard and 1 Biovore [Big Guns makes it a scoring unit and they're really annoying, however it does make an easy kill point [although there was only 1 KP mission last time]
4. Find some way to shave off 8pts and add 3 Warriors with Deathspitters - extra synapse and more durable than the Devgaunts but can still be instakilled and are less effective without the Prime.

So which would you do? Stick with the first list or option 1,2,3 or 4 from the second list. Incidentally I tried option 2 the other night [no battle report] and it wasn't bad. The Hive Guard were effective in pairs and the 10 Termagants, although not game changing were useful to have around. The Hive Tyrant survived the game but did regenerate two wounds through Endurance...