Long time between drinks

Its been a while since I posted - other projects and work.

Other projects consists of a 1500 Soviet army for the excellent Flames of War rules. Expect some pictures soon.

One the Tyranid front some colour decisions have been made. The red colour will come from the GW Scab Red; the yellow from the GW Golden Yellow. The greens will need to be custom mixed.

Now to get some of this real work out of the way, so I can get back to painting...

Some assembly required...

The assembly of the combat patrol is coming to end with the last Ravener being assembled.

I've taken the time with the Raveners to pin everything. Possibly a case of overkill, but I have a a number of cases of my Necrons dropping unpinned limbs - particularly my Flayed Ones. Considering that the Ravener models have more bits to catch on things and the model is pretty top heavy, I am taking no chances. Eight pins later and the completed Ravener looks pretty strong. I have also been using a new superglue that has some give in it, reducing the chances of the bond shattering on impact.

The Warriors and the Genestealers got the usual plastic glue treatment. But the rear arms of the Genestealers required supergluing - there simply wasn't enough contact to make the plastic glue join strong enough. The Warrior leading the patrol got Enhanced Senses to target with the gun. I glued on a couple of tiny beads to represent massively enhanced eyeballs. I can see a challenge here making them look like an integrated part of the monster, but still stand out so that people notice them - the whole WYSIWYG thing with GW.

Some "before" shots - one picture of each type in the patrol.

Tyranid Warrior - patrol leader

Genestealer


Ravener

Paint scheme

I've spent a bit of time pondering about a paint scheme for the 'Nids.

I considered schemes inspired by the natural world, specifially beetles. I liked the idea of a metallic sheen on the armour plates that bugs have. I baulked at this on the grounds that with my limited skill, they would end up looking like my Necrons!

I also thought about a camouflage paint scheme, but discarded this also purely on the grounds that camouflage is for defence or for sneaks. Apart from Lictors, I figure 'Nids are as subtle as a sledgehammer - so bold colours it was going to be.

By chance I came across the results of the US GW painting competition for Tyranid Warriors - here. Nick Marchetti's entry leapt out at me (Page 3) so this is what I currently aiming for.

Now to figure out exactly what colours he used...

I've reproduced the competition image here, so I can retain it when it eventually gets removed from the GW website. Original competition page is linked above.

Tyranid beginnings

Inspired by a couple of boxes of Tyranids, I decided to start a blog on my experiences with wargaming.

To start with I'll track the painting effort for the Tyranids - after that who knows!