Scythe & Teacup 1850pt battle report - nids vs Dark Eldar and Chaos Allies - game1

Given the extra points than I'm used to using I went with 2 Hive Tyrants and then gave my Warlord Hive Commander just to have some fun outflanking a Tervigon, that way I could have 6 things turning up on turn 2 [if he survived] - Mawloc, 5 Ymgarls, Doom, 10 Devgaunts in Pod, Tervigon and the 2nd Hive Tyrant. Lets see someone resolve that target priority.

I took less photographs than usual so hopefully it'll be quicker to do the reports sbut maybe more sketchy in what went on.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Winged Tyrant Tervigon CC TR Tervigon Plain Tr Endurance Smite Endurance Enfeeble Warp Speed Enfeeble Iron Arm Warp Speed Doom of Malan'tai  Psychic Shriek

The low down:

• 6 objectives, equally spaced
• Dawn of War
• Line breaker and Slay the Warlord, no First Blood
• I won deployment and went first.
• Warlord Trait - Night Fighting - of no use against Dark Eldar.

Will, was my opponent, he had plenty of Dark Eldar [which I forget their names] including 7 Venoms and 3 Ravagers with some Chaos allies of Obliterators, cultists and a Heldrake. I moved forwards cautiously, maybe stupidly. Tervigon spawned out on 9. 

The flyrant was open to the Venoms and the Ravager on the right so I flew him towards the trees just out of shot.

More Venoms than you can shake a stick at. Having been tabled last time I played Dark Eldar I felt slightly more confident in that my six turn 2 'beta strikers' should do some serious damage.

My Ymgarls were asleep in the shrine area, waiting for victims.

My Flyrant on the right flank.

I think the Tervigon took a couple of wounds but most of Will's shooting was ineffective. Although I don't think that unit of gaunts in the crater survived as they don't appear in any further pictures.

With my Warlord still alive I got my +1 to reserves, but the Ymgarls failed to turn up as did the Devgaunts in their pod! So much for beta strike. The Doom pod deviated but I got within range of the Oblits and sucked the 3 wounds out of them. The Flyrant managed to get a Hull Point on the Ravager, meh!

With only two wounds remaining I send the Tervigon forwards, it was either that our skulk back, which may have been the better option.

Hive Guard enter the Iceblood River, one takes a wound.

Flyrant manages a Hull point vector striking the Venom bu fails Devourers on something else. Mawloc misses and the outflanking Tervigon doesn't do much. My 'beta-strike' sucked the big one.

Heldrake arrives and flames the spawned gaunts. Tervigon implodes.

The Doom sucked another wound, I should have insisted the already wounded Oblit take it but didn't want to be an a$$ so he got two shots on the Doom and he was insta-killed - the price of kindness ;)

The Flyrants on 3 wounds bu manages to chase down the Heldrake and tears it a new one. It blows up and crashes backwards into the iceblood river where it can do no harm. The Mawloc just in view in the top right smashes the Venom, disgorging the Homunculus and his retinue. He would later kill him getting me Slay the Warlord.

Having secured the Bastion with my Biovores Will manages to target it with Dark lances which blows the thing sky high, killing the Biovores and a nearby Hive Guard.

The second Flyrant [with 3 wounds remaining] Vector Strikes a venom with 4 hits, manages to wreck it and then with it's Brainleech worms pins the cultists. I later reposition him to contest the objective and Enfeeble the cultists so they will struggle to reclaim the objective.

The Devgaunts arrive to hold my objective but are quickly removed from play by the Dark Eldar.

Warriors on the far side of the river target the last Hive Guard, wounding 5 times but his armour is impenetrable and does not lose his last wound.

The game ends and somehow I've won 5 VPs to 4 VPs. I'm assuming the outflanking Tervigon captured an objective as I had Line Breaker and Slay the Warlord and Will had Line Breaker and 1 objective. However, there were victory points too for the units you killed, but to get them you had to kill a unit and it's transport. Just taking out one element was not enough. So although I had won my FOC points were quite low and Will, although losing, had made quite a few points, with 1130 points in tatters.

I have to admit I was physically drained after this game. It was such a close thing at the end. Splinter rifles are relentless, Will did say it was one of the most tactical games he'd played. It felt to me like game three on a Throne of Skulls not game 1 at a local tournie. I was shattered and still two games to go!

What happens when the wells run dry? Oh no, I've run out of paint!

A couple of years ago when I was knocked off the wagon and back into the world of wargaming I was searching around for paints to start doing my son's Tyranids [what I would eventually adopt as my own]. In doing so I popped into Southport Hobby Scene a tiny little shop just off one of the main streets in Southport. It's one of those places where you wonder how it's still kept going but clearly it's down to the passion of the owner. Anyway, it was there that I picked up my Anita's All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint Turquoise No.11021.

This bad boy [or girl, seeing as it's Anita's] has painted every Tyranid I've ever done, from the smallest Ripper to the biggest, well, Tyranid Bastion [yeah, that's right I made one, lets not forget!]. I've enjoyed using it, with it's slightly unique properties and it's done me proud. However, I started noticing the pot was feeling much lighter and I planned to pick up a replacement.

Unfortunately the Docrafts Artiste Acrylic Paints do not have a Turquoise equivalent, so the many places this was available have offered me no joy and Anita's seems to be scarce on ebay, at least, my Turquoise is extinct. However, my recent painting competition win at the Scythe and Teacup did provide a similar colour called Aquamarine but I was kind of holding out on the off chance that Southport Hobby Scene might still have some Anita's in stock. So last weekend when visiting GW to pick up White Dwarf and see all the Space Marines I dragged the kids back to the shop. This is the sort of place that looks like it's been untouched by time, RC cars, train sets and model aeroplanes inside, however even though the paints were clearly 'mature', with a thin layer of dust, it would seem Anita's have been replace by DecoArt but I took one anyway. It's typical that the £1.55 cost was announced with a "but if you've got £1.50 it'll save the change" and I walked out thinking I was safe for another 2 years yet. So this is what I'm left with:

And this is as best as I can illustrate my current predicament. I have to say the Miniature Paints Aquamarine is a much closer match to Anita's Turquoise than this picture illustrates but the other colours are pretty much spot on. My new DecoArt Turquoise is actually a good match to my Chitin Highlight Mix of Anita's and White so it's not a total bust and the MP Aquamarine will do in a pinch, while the Light Turquoise will do for a super extreme third highlight on the larger creatures. However, I'm short of my Anita's Turquoise.

On the plus side I actually opened the bottle and found that it's not as empty as I imagined. I believe there is a third to a quarter of the bottle left but I still wish to future proof my supply. The big issue is despite Anita's being very popular for certain craft materials, I use her PVA Tacky Glue, the paints have disappeared, not doubt replaced by Docrafts. I've found a few places online but they have minimum orders of £15 and no online purchasing.

But there does seem to be availability in America, in Hobby Lobby for instance so if there are any followers of the blog who can access these paints without too much effort, either from Hobby Lobby or any other place they stock Anitas and would be willing to purchase and post them to me in the UK I am more than happy to reimburse them for their effort and come to some kind of arrangement. I have a Paypal account obviously, well you'd struggle to get anything on ebay these days without one. So, if anyone could help me out please leave a comment below or on the Facebook group which would allow me to message you directly to deal with arrangements etc.

Thanks for your help in continuing my addiction ;)

'nids part 104 - To done! Plasma Hatchers Mycetic Spores

These Plasma Hatchers scratchbuilt Mycetic Spores finally got their Tamiya Clear Red X-27, I think I may be reverting to my teenage persona and just putting as much gore on as possible. So juvenile!

I really love the way the 'brainy' bits have come out though, they really look like exposed flesh.

And the tentacles too look positively icky thanks to the gloss varnish, must get some more.

Damn that mould line on the the top. You try really hard to get rid of them all and they still show up, nevermind these are only spares.

Yep that's some raw fleshy bits on top.

I think you could get definitely get away with these being Vengeance Weapons Batteries.

The slightly dull side view where I added some extra texture with my rough bone stripes.

And yet more pics, they deserve it, this has been a project over 12-18 months since I bought them.

I wish I'd picked up more of the beggars now, they're actually hard to get hold of and even then not the £2.99 I paid, more like a tenner! May as well look at the GW model IF it ever arrives, although on principle I may wish to abstain.

Anyway, job done!

Mycetic Spore V2.0 Plasma Hatcher | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. |

'nids part 103 - Magnetised Hive Tyrant part 3

Back to my second pair of Flyrant wings. I've added some veins again. I find a cocktails stick is handy for this as you can roll the stick to get areas of thick and fine paint, much as you do veins.

I'll be adding some lighter highlights at the junctions and then be overpainting them with more red highlights to give the impression the veins are 'sub-dermal'.

It's amazing how similar these look to my original wings, although the pictures are a little misleading. Due to the red oxide primer base these wings are a lot darker than the original wings. I'll do a straight up comparison at a later date.

At least I don't have the crusty deposit of Seraphim Sepi as you can see in these old pics of the originals. However you can see that by starting with a Bonewhite base and then adding thinned Mechrite red and both sepia and mud washes I was able to get many tints in the wings making it quite 'membranous' something that was my intention but slightly lost on the new ones, they look practically rigid but they do match the old Forgeworld Shrike Wings, form what I've seen, so that's not too bad.

And the Devourers have had a nice wash too. Lets hope those playtest rumours don't hold true for the Hive Tyrant and they can no longer take them. It would be a real kick in the balls for all those who've made them only to no longer get the de-facto Flyrant build.

The Big question is what colour do I do the blades for the Swarmlord?

As you can see my Boneswords currently have a glossy crystalline look that uses black and turquoise.

However, this is the Swarmlord so would an alternative colour work? Particularly as his Bonesabres are so unique.

So wthat colour should I do them

1. Black with turquoise
2. Black with green
3. Black with red

I know I can do some really nice effects with the green and red but the green may be 'yet another colour' and the red may be lost in the base but what do you think?



'nids part 102 - Kitbashed Tyranid Warrior to Tyrant Guard part 1

This is another of those embryonic ideas that just sits in box/tub for months [read: years] until you can bring yourself to move it forwards. You may recall April last year I won a couple of bits auctions. With those bits I was able to round out my objectives to a decent number, certainly enough to meet the needs of 6th Edition - Prescience there I think [and that was before we knew what Prescience was]! Additionally I made my Warrior to Hive Guard conversions, some more Termagants, a new Warrior with Deathspitter and enough Genestealers to start my Ymgarls. Essentially these paid for themselves many times over and I've still got bits to use and a couple of 'foundations' for a complete kitbash - this is one of them - Warrior to Tyrant Guard.

This has always been challenging as the bits will not fit on a standard 40mm base. I trimmed the tail off in the same way I did the Hive Guard and with all those Crushing Claw arms left that were spare after making the crests for the Hive Guard they were ideal for the bulky fore-limbs for the Tyrant Guard

The final pose is very much like the 'gatekeeper' and 'keymaster' hounds from Ghostbusters.

Next up was to bulk them out a bit, try and make them more armored. I achieved this with the use of the two spare chest pieces from the Trygon/Mawloc kit. Luckily I'd used the Adrenal Gland chest plate on my Trygon so the two spare ones are plain and slightly spiky. A quick trim with the scalpel and the spikes were gone and each were shortened to fit over the arms.

Now the really big issue is the 'really big issue' With the size of those feet the Tyrant Guard doesn't fit on a 40mm base. I do have 50mm bases, which he's on in these pictures but the real problem is that if I add Lash Whips so that he can bring down the Initiative of their opponents he's suddenly got a bigger base to get into B2B contact. The alternative is a 40mm base with a big piece of slate but so far his feet don't sit flat on it. The other option is to just go Scything Talons, which I have lots spare and wouldn't require any modelling skills.

This is the side where the spikes were trimmed off the Trygon plate on the shoulder.

Not sure where to go next on this. I've trimmed down a Warriors head which should work, taking the crest bits of the back of the head but something needs to be done to the shoulders to make it work right. I'll probably take another 6 month breather on this so, like this time, when I return to it I will have new ideas from a fresh perspective.

WAAAGH TIME at the Scythe and Teacup

The Scythe and Teacup is a gamers cafe in Liverpool. Mark, my local gaming club car share buddy from round the corner works there and has put on regular tournaments for 40k. Up until now I haven't been able to fit it into family life, they finish late on Sundays and usually that's family time. Anyway PeteB was going and at £7.50 for three 1850pt games in 2hrs 45mins I thought - why not? To round it out I also took the nipper who played with PeteB's nipper all day - not bad considering it was 10am to 11pm nearly.

Anyway the tournament was 18 people and it was not random pairings but you went up against folk who had been as successful as yourself. Thanks to some success I managed to achieve second place overal and came away with this rustic but still dinky trophy.

But also £20 in store credit! Wow, real world winnings! At this rate I think I'm going to need to add an awards section to the blog ;) Anyway, I may use this to pay for the next tournament in October, or perhaps hold out until November and if the new Tyranid Codex comes out then this could cover the lions [or chould that be Lictors] share of the cost.

Not only that there was a painting competition, however the rules were that only Infantry from your list could be entered. So I took my Ymgarls in my list, mainly for that reason but also so I could have yet another thing come from reserve alongside the Doom, Devgaunts in a pod, Mawloc, a second deep striking Flyrant and with my Warlord Flyrant having Hive Commander an outflanking Tervigon! Beta strike shenanigans!

Anyway, there was a bit of a mix up when it came to the time to enter my Ymgarls and I was told it was not Infantry but troops, so instead I handed in my 10 'adrenal' gaunts.

It was a 3 vote system where your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice got 3, 2 and 1 votes respectively and I managed to win best painted figures too! There was a nice Dark Eldar unit and some very clean Wraithguard so I was quite surprised to win. The prize was my choice of 8 paints from their 'Miniature Paints' range by Gamecraft, which looks to be a local hobby company. PeteB said they're not bad paints, if a bit glossy so I picked my 8:

1. Black [you can never have enough]
2. White [you can never have enough]
3. Black primer [why not, it could be handy]
4. Aquamarine [not to far from my turquoise, and that's not goign to last forever]
5. Light turquoise [not too far from my light turquoise, ditto]
6. Coffee [just took my fancy]
7. Gloss varnish [you can never have enough]
8. Matt varnish [you can never have enough]

Anyway, battle reports to follow.