My First Time Stripping

I'm having a go at stripping the paint off a batch of miniatures, a hobby first for me. For this I am using Simple Green and the incessant chanting of the Litanies of Purification. By doing so I hope to salvage a combat squad of Space Marine Devastators for my Raptors army, the models having been terribly fuzzed by priming them when it was too humid. This was at the start of the summer when I still lived in Charleston but right before we moved, and thus it seemed an appropriate note on which to depart the city.

I began soaking my minis a couple of days ago but presumably it is still too early to report on any results. I'll likely let them float around in the Simple Green through the upcoming weekend before I try to remove any of the paint. I don't know if this is going to work as the miniatures were really heavily textured by the primer. I admit that at this point I am skeptical but am eager nonetheless to give it a shot.

Swim my pretties, swim!

After dropping in the Space Marines there was still a lot of room for more miniatures that could be added to the chemical bath. I recently came across a small box of minis that hadn't been touched in ages and which also happened to be in need of cleaning, mostly thanks to some very sloppy priming. In this case however the primer has sat on the models for perhaps twenty or so years. I don't have any plans for these other minis but stripping them seemed like a good challenge for the Simple Green, just to see what the stuff can do. So those minis too went into the sauce...

Squats. Why'd it have to be Squats?

Again I am not sure what effect this stuff will have on these minis, but I'm in the mood to experiment. Maybe they will turn out well or maybe they will melt, who knows? It's not like there is much else I am going to do with some silly little Space Dwarfs. I've considered adapting them for use in an Imperial Guard army but that currently doesn't have much appeal for me. It would be kind of fun to chop up some of them to decorate the bases of my Tyranids. That however might be too cruel even for me as it would be like rubbing salt into the wounded collective conscience of Squat-players. Hmm, then again some 'Nid-themed terrain showing Squats bubbling around in the digestion pools would be a hoot. :)

Well I suppose there's no need for me to worry now over the fate of my Squats. For the time being I'll just let them and the marines hang out in the jar on my desk, like some creepy exhibit in a Mütter Museum for OOP 40k. I hope to start working on the Raptors soon assuming this Simple Green trial is a success. I feel inclined to start using Space Marines again in my games so that has motivated me to focus on them for at least a little while.

Happy painting and gaming!

Requiem for a Termagant

First I have some sad news to report about the passing of a humble Termagant, a steadfast warrior and servant of Hive Fleet Hydra. Yesterday when I was putting away my newly found Tyranids, I must have overlooked this unfortunate 'Nid and left him out in a vulnerable position away from his brood. Somehow the errant model made its way downstairs (I suspect a kitten may have been involved in this stage of the unfolding tragedy), to then be set upon by my awesome xenos-purging dog, Charlie Brown. The results were not pretty.

Upon discovering the dismembered remains of the Termagant this morning, I initially thought that perhaps I could fix him alongside the few other 'Nids that still need repairs. Looking closer though at the damage, I realized that an elbow, a leg, and his entire head were all missing and had been presumably consumed. Thus there will be no more battles for this valiant but woefully outmatched fighter.

Requiescat in pace, little Termangant.

On a happier note, after spending some time with the Codex today I realized that my Tyranids army can potentially field several hundred more points than I had remembered. Instead of the approximately 1500 points of models as I suggested in my previous post, I was very pleased to find out that by loading up on the optional biomorphs my 'Nids can even climb past the 2000 point mark. Although I would prefer to field more models and not have to rely quite so much on the biomorphs to bring up the points total, it is nonetheless an exciting discovery. Hooray!

Hive Fleet Hydra - 2000 points

HQ

Hive Tyrant - extra Scything Talons, Old Adversary, Adrenal Glands, Implant Attack, Wings

Hive Tyrant - Twin-Linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms x 2, Hive Commander, Adrenal Glands, Implant Attack, Armoured Shell

ELITES

Lictor

2 x Zoanthropes

TROOPS

3 x Tyranid Warriors - Rending Claws

12 x Genestealers

16 x Hormagaunts

16 x Hormagaunts

10 x Termagants

10 x Termagants

FAST ATTACK

3 x Tyranid Shrikes - Rending Claws

4 x Raveners - Rending Claws*

HEAVY SUPPORT

Carnifex - Twin-linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms x 2, Regenerate

Carnifex - Heavy Venom Cannon, Adrenal Glands

2000 Total Points

* This brood of Raveners is the only unit in the army that does not comply with the WYSIWYG standard as it contains two models armed with Rending Claws and two with Scything Talons. I doubt this would ever present a problem as I cannot imagine playing this army outside of a very friendly and relaxed environment. I still think that it's something worth pointing out.

So with this list as a jumping off point it should be really easy for me to expand the army using the remaining models I own but have not yet assembled or painted. I mentioned yesterday that I already have a set of three Hive Guard and a Trygon waiting to join the swarm, and I also remembered today there is a pair of Tyrant Guard hiding somewhere amongst my boxes of minis. Once they're ready for the tabletop, just those six models alone will add close to another 500 points to the maximum size of my Tyranids swarm. I very rarely play games above 2000 points but it certainly would be nice to have the option, not to mention having a wider range of choices in lower point-level games.

Therefore even though this day started out with the grim discovery of my Termagant's demise, overall it feels like it has been a very positive day for my Tyranids. In fact the last two days have really renewed my excitement and interest in this army. I do not anticipate ever trying to fully update my Tyranids so as to include some of the more popular new units like the Swarmlord, Tervigons, or Tyrannofexes. However I am now at least willing to put some more time into working on the models that I have in order to get as much out of my collection of 'Nids as I can.

Well that seems like a decent enough plan I suppose to get me going again with these bugs. I look forward to the next chance I get to play a game using my Tyranids... should be fun times. I've never had much success with this army before but I have always enjoyed the experience leading the swarm. I like fast, aggressive armies and this one suites me quite well in that regard.

Okay, that's it for tonight. I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead... happy painting and gaming!

Missing 'Nids Found, Light Casualties Only

While cleaning out the garage today I came across an army transportation bag that had been missing since we moved into the new house almost three months ago. Along with an assortment of blisters, sprues, and other random miniatures, perhaps most importantly this bag is where I had stuffed most of my collection of Tyranids for the move to North Carolina. Even better is that the 'nids managed to survive the trip sustaining only minor damage to a few models. Woo-hoo! This is surprising to me because of the lack of care with which I packed them. After lifting out the upper layers of hobby detritus, this is what I saw today in my army bag:

Wow... I'd forgotten just how haphazardly I had crammed these minis into the bag. There in the picture you can see the uppermost portion of my Tyranid swarm in a tangled mass of chitin and claws. I knew for quite a while leading up to our departure for the mountains that I would not have enough foam or other safe means of storage for all my miniatures and armies. In particular I had never bothered to work out a good way of transporting my Tyranid army as I rarely ever had a reason to take them anywhere. Rather than come up with a plan to handle this I instead ignored the problem for as long as I could until that last night in our previous home.

Finally with a healthy sense of desperation and growing panic I then set about packing my bugs. There was room left in the foam that I used for my Dark Elf War Hydra in which I was able to fit the Tyranids' winged Hive Tyrant, as well as the winged Warriors and my Zoanthropes, too. The rest of the army however would have to tough it out jammed together in my last army bag, which also served as the receptacle for whatever other remaining loose hobby junk that I came across in my haste. I was worried about the 'Nids but hoped that the minis would be packed tightly together so as to prevent them from shifting around much and crashing into each other. As unlikely as that seemed, at the time it was the best option I could think of in the few hours left to pack.

It was therefore to my great surprise today when discovered that the irrepressible Tyranids did in fact survive and in relatively good condition no less. After unpacking everything and sorting out all the minis, I could find only three damaged models. Of the medium bugs a single diminutive claw arm had popped off of a metal Ravener, and one Warrior's Rending Claw arms broke away, too. The only small bug in need of repair is one of the Hormagaunts who snapped off of his base, something which I expected many more Gaunts to have suffered due to their fragile ankles and minimal contact with their bases. Fortunately none of the large bugs however sustained any damage. Incredibly it looks like it should all be fairly easy to fix... nice!

So here is the entire swarm of Tyranids unpacked and deployed onto my desktop:

Under the previous Codex I could play games comfortably in the 1850-2000 points range with this army, although by maxing out on biomorphs this could be pushed up to around 2200 points. It has been a long time since I looked at the most recent Codex: Tyranids, but I believe the army now comes in right around 1500 points with the current set of rules. Thus it seemed like it would cost more money than I was willing to spend in order to update and expand the army to take advantage of the new strategic options and units now available to the Tyranids.

I've since revisited this and decided earlier this year that I would go ahead and make a few more additions to the army. I now have a unit of Hive Guard and a single Trygon/Mawloc kit waiting to join Hive Fleet Hydra. I would also like to pick up a couple boxes of Gargoyles if for no other reason than to celebrate their transition from plastic to metal. Lastly I think I need to sort out my Raveners as they currently cannot be fielded legally as a WYSIWYG unit, so I'll likely also pick up a box of them eventually. While I was not terribly thrilled with the current Codex: Tyranids upon its release, I'm at least interested in them enough to again put my 'Nids back onto the hobby to-do list. Maybe I'll even provide for them foam or a case of their own, though I doubt that will be happening anytime soon.

Happy painting and gaming!

Welcome To Your New Home

We arrived home late last night from our trip to Asheville. To my delight I saw that the Copperhead Valkyrie from Col. Hessler had arrived while I was away but I was too worn out and decided I should wait until I had recovered from the trip a little. I unpacked it today while my daughter took her nap and took it for a test flight around the yard. The crew of the Valkyrie seem to be quite happy and look forward to their easy new assignment. They've heard that they'll just be flying around a factory boss and his bodyguard. Sounds simple enough, what could possibly go wrong?

Welcome to your new home, flyboys! Don't worry... it's a quiet, safe neighborhood. Most of the time, at least.

Thanks again to Col. Hessler for this awesome model! If anyone has suggestions for color schemes, I'd love to hear 'em.

Great Devourer

Today I found curled up in my mailbox my copy of Codex: Tyranids so I'm assuming that it got delivered on Tuesday, but I just didn't think to check in the regular mail... kinda thought it would be sent via FedEx or UPS to avoid this very thing. Instead it went by the regular USPS which goes a long way in my mind to explaining the delays in shipping. This has taught me an important lesson about GW's mail order service, which is to never order from them unless it's going to require them to ship in your items in a box. I'm optimistic that the book will flatten out with time, it's just an annoyance after all. Now begins the fun part of absorbing the new information and rules, then a whole new cycle number crunching and list building... yeah! Hooray for math!! Hooray for lists!!

I'm excited to see what type of army of I can put together and just maybe get in a few trial games with my brother. I never bought into the whole 'Nidzilla style of play that was so popular with the last edition, and even though I've heard that horde swarms are viable with the new Codex, I'm not convinced that my bugs are going to be that much better. I appreciate them lowering the points value of the little bugs, but it looks like everything else became more costly to take so I don't know really how much different Hive Fleet Hydra will function on the table. Nonetheless I'm looking forward to the process of learning how the army works now. So far the only thing that's jumped out at me as affecting the organization of my army is the change of Ravener broods increasing to a minimum size of three. My army has four Raveners groups into two groups of two each, but combining them is not possible within the restriction of WYSIWYG as the two broods are armed differently. I may just lump 'em together and count them all as being armed identically, it just won't sit well with me. Also some of the bio-morphs on other broods may cause some trouble too but those should be easier to either make use of or to simply ignore. We'll see... I'll probably start posting lists soon, as well as my thoughts on how the army has changed.

Yesterday I varnished the Dreadnought, successfully avoiding any final mishaps such as excessive shininess, and got the optics glossed and sparkling. Finished! Even though he took basically a month to do, I am still really happy with him and had lots of fun from beginning to end. I feel like I really pushed myself on this one to try new techniques and get the most out of my painting and modeling abilities. Still no camera though so I'll have to wait before I can show it off. I still think I can improve on the extreme highlighting but regardless of that I am quite pleased with my Brother Abraxos and expect great and heroic deeds from him. I'm now thinking about ordering some resin arms from ForgeWorld so as to take full advantage of having things magnetized. It's also been recommended to me that I look into getting a second Dreadnought, especially one equipped with a Multi-melta, so that I can run them in pairs. It makes sense to me as single Dreadnoughts have never seemed to perform particularly well for me, either getting immobilized or else having their arms blown off fairly early into the game. Oh, and also putting them in Drop Pods too... at this pace though all of that is going to have to wait until I get some higher priority units painted up. Time for some Troops!

Last night I got started on the Scouts squad and made more progress on them tonight so that all they need now are heads and whatever little bits I decide to add. I ran into a problem last night trying to figure out which legs needed to go with the various torsos, but I think I have come up with a solution that shouldn't be too labor intensive. Were I not going to see Avatar tomorrow during the day I would probably be able to start painting them tomorrow night. I expect therefore to complete their assembly and be ready to prime them on Friday so that I can begin painting them this weekend. Although I'd probably rather keep working on my minis than go see a movie, this is the first chance my wife and I have had to go out in many long months. She's really excited about Avatar, having heard all sorts of things about how spiritual it is or whatever, but I am not so thrilled which is weird considering how much of a geek I am for sci-fi and animation. I just don't want another sermonizing morality piece, especially one that is almost three hours long. Sorry but I just don't see James Cameron as much of an authority on these matters. Aliens is one of my favorite movies so maybe I'll be surprised, I'm just suspicious of all the hype.

Lost In The Warp

My copy of Codex: Tyranids did not arrive today so I'm a bit disappointed right now. I've never been let down before by the Advance Order service offered by Games Workshop which is why I was so sure that my book would be delivered on the day of its release. In fact I have become accustomed to actually getting things a day or so before the official release date. I am optimistic therefore that this is just some fluke and not indicative of how they will operate in the future. It seems like I wasn't the only one to not receive my order on the promised date, therefore perhaps there was some sort of systemic failure that screwed up their shipping. On the GW website it says my order was dispatched but I have a feeling it's been listed that way for at least a week now. It looks like I just need to exercise some patience and everything will be okay. Even though I know I would have enjoyed playing around with the new book and reading through the updated fluff, ultimately I think I am grateful to have gotten another night of painting done instead. I feel like there's so much painting to be done that any extra time that I spend with brush in hand is a small victory for me.

On the subject of painting, I'm now very close to finishing the Dreadnought whom I have decided to name Abraxos. I hope to have pictures of the completed model soon, assuming of course that I find the camera which I appear to have lost again. (Hmm, maybe it got sucked into the Warp along with my Codex: Nids.) Tonight I am particularly happy with the lenses that I painted, attempting for the first time to represent the effects of light reflecting off of the optics. I think they turned out well and will look really nice when I add some gloss varnish to make them shine. I'm confident that I will have wrapped up the painting by this time tomorrow night. Other than going a little crazy from painting green lines I have thoroughly enjoyed working on Brother Abraxos, Dreadnought of the Dark Angels Sixth Company. I think it's going to be a lot of fun seeing him purge the heretics... flame on!

Ten Weeks Out

AdeptiCon is now seventy days away, giving me ten weeks left to get my Dark Angels painted and packed. That deadline is creeping closer all the time and I have a considerable amount of boxes and sprues untouched. I really want to have them ready to go with me, but as a backup I did unpack my old generic Chaos Marines from around '04. Since they already fit into my army case everything would be taken care of and totally simplified. I'm having fun painting my Dark Angels and I don't want to rush, so my Plan B really will only be as a last resort. It will be fun to spend some time working out lists for what I have using the more current Codex: Chaos Space Marines. I anticipate getting extra painting time in the coming weeks so perhaps I'll be able to pull this off anyways.

I do also have my Tyranids that I could use, though I would prefer not to as I'm sure there will be plenty of bugs running around in the coming weeks and months. Why? The new Codex: Tyranids is released tomorrow! I've had my copy ordered for a couple weeks now so I am excited to see how Hive Fleet Hydra fares with the 5th edition book. Even though I have been reading a lot of internet chatter about the new book, I made sure to take all of it in with a bit of skepticism until I see it myself. Regardless of the changes that are inevitably coming, it really won't affect my current plans for my Tyranid army. I do not want to buy any new Tyranid models for as long as possible... ehh, with the possible exception of a Trygon. That thing may be just too amazing to pass up. Otherwise, no new Nids! Just like in the fluff, my bugs will have to adapt. This should be easier to do since I'm scaling down my army builds from 2000+ to the 1000 to 1500 point range. Also I don't want to worry about trying to figure out how to cram all of them into foam... Tetris was never really my thing.

After yet another week of diligent painting I am still not done with the Dreadnought. Turns out I significantly underestimated how long it would take to highlight the myriad hard edges on this model. Early on I started to panic a little over this extreme highlighting style that is still new to me, as well as questioning whether or not I even had the right colors picked out. I decided that I just needed to keep going with it and I'm pretty happy now that I did, although there were times when painting all those little green lines did become tedious. I still have the final layer of highlighting to do tomorrow so I am hopeful that it will all come together nicely. I've made a lot of progress on all of the non-green details, even including a freehand company badge. Not too shabby, I'd say. Once all of the painting is done I will be sure to get some pictures posted. Plus I'm happy to report that I varnished the Librarian today with Matte Sealer so he is now completely finished! And he's not too shiny either... hurrah!!! Pictures of him will be coming soon as well.

Hive Fleet Hydra

Since it looks like I'm getting back to 40k for the time being, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce you to the last army that I had been using with 4th edition rules a couple of years ago. Please say hello to Hive Fleet Hydra, a 2000 point Tyranids army. Since these are the guys any future armies will most likely be tested against, I thought it might be useful for me to post their army list.

Hive Tyrant (176) Acid Maw, Adrenal Glands (I, WS), Flesh Hooks, Toxin Sacs, Winged, 2 sets of Scything Talons

Hive Tyrant (139) Adrenal glands (WS), Bio-plasma, Enhanced Senses, Toxin Sacs, Toxic Miasma, 2 Twin-linked Devourers

3 Tyranid Warriors (99) Enhanced Senses, Toxin Sacs, 3 Devourers, 3 Rending Claws

Lictor (80)

6 Genestealers (96)

6 Genestealers (96)

12 Termagants (108) Fleshborers, Without Number!

12 Termagants (108) Fleshborers, Without Number!

16 Hormagaunts (192) Toxin Sacs

16 Hormagaunts (192) Toxin Sacs

3 Tyranid Warriors (141) Enhanced Senses, Toxin Sacs, Winged, 3 Devourers, 3 Rending Claws

2 Raveners (80) Scything Talons & Rending Claws

2 Raveners (76) 2 sets of Scything Talons

2 Zoanthropes (110) Warp Blast

Carnifex (162) Adrenal Glands (WS), Enhanced Senses, Regenerate, Spine Banks, Tail Weapon - Scythe, 2 Twin-linked Devourers

Carnifex (145) Adrenal Glands (WS), Enhanced Senses, Tail Weapon - Mace, Scything Talons, Venom Cannon

The army totals to exactly 2000 points, although if conditions allow I also like to give the genestealers the Scuttlers upgrade (18 points per unit) and Flesh Hooks (4 points) to the Hive Tyrant with the Devourers. Of course one of the really nice things about using the Nids is the amount of customization possible so when extra points are available there's always numerous useful options. With an opponent who is fairly open minded to the WYSIWYG rule, I find it a lot of fun to try out different bio-morph combinations as often as I can. Having said that, if I just need a 2000 point list to take on all comers, then the one above is what I'd use.

As I have noted before with playing games of 40k in general, I feel as if I really didn't get that many chances to field this army in a competitive environment using the previous set of rules. I am thankful though that the current version of Codex: Tyranids is compatible with the updated core rules as I am now really curious as to how well Hive Fleet Hydra will fare in 5th Edition. I've got a sense that the game's new reliance on true line-of-sight shooting could significantly change the way the army performs, though I have no idea whether it will be a net benefit or loss for this particular army list. For a Tyranid army it has a decent amount of shooting but almost all of it short to medium ranged, and with only a single Venom Cannon able to reach targets more than 18 inches away. Therefore I suspect it should be possible to use the new LOS rules to more effectively hide my units behind cover without having to lose too much of my own firepower in the return. Only in battle, however, will this become clear.