Genestealer Brood Complete.

So with a bit of painting last night and half an hour this evening I have managed to finish the second part of my first Genestealer brood.

I think they look good all together even if they lack detail on an individual basis. Because the Genestealers lack any real carapace I was worried there would be too many flesh tones but there seems to be plenty of other details on them to break this up. They also fit in nicely with the rest of the army so far, so I'm a happy with them.

New Tyranid Codex Confirmed For January 2010

At UK Games Day 2009 Games Workshop officially announced the release of Codex Tyranids (5th Edition) for release in January 2010. The Codex has been written by Robin Cruddace (Author of Codex Imperial Guard) Cover art by Adrian Smith.

"The new Codex features lots of new units - there will be three new plastic kits and three new metal models released alongside the Codex."

"January 2010 signals the release of the latest Warhammer 40,000 release, Codex: Tyranids. A 96-page volume packed to bursting with background, history, artwork and stunning miniatures"

"As well as a fantastic new Codex, there will be a range of exciting new miniatures, including Tyranid beasts never seen before! So, start gathering your broods, prepare your digestion pools and get ready to unleash the Great Devourer upon the galaxy this January."

According to various internet sources it is rumoured there will be four new never seen before species in the Codex, with one that will tower above the Carnifex - almost certain to be the Trygon (in plastic kit).

Lictor Completed.

After a few weeks break from painting due to a holiday I'm back in the painting seat. The Lictor is finished now.

I plan to move on and complete the last 4 Genestealers from a few posts ago, which will leave me with only the Hormagaunts and the Carnifex to complete before I have finished the Battleforce boxset.

Built A Lictor and 2 Ripper Swarms.

I bought a Lictor over the week-end and have just found the time to put it together. Its the 1st metal model I've build since geting back into the hobby. I spent a bit of time gap filling and cleaning up all the mold lines etc and it's now ready for an undercoat and painting.

I've always loved the Lictor model. The whole praying mantis thing it has going on really sets it off for me. It looks brilliant, although this particular release is a little too static compared to previous models. The fluff behind the Lictor is brilliant too and the thought of it lurking in the shadows, colour changing camouflage, poised ready to pounce on its next victim sounds so cool. So whether the Lictor itself is worth it's points or not, or if they need adjusting in the next codex is open to debate. Either way it will find a place in my army regardless.

I also built 2 Ripper Swarms - nothing to harp on about really, they are what they are.

Genestealer Brood Started.

I finished these four in one painting session which is good, even for my "speed painting" standards! The things that took the longest on these stealers were the drying time for the heavy Ogryn Flesh wash and the bases.

I use a production line method to paint my broods i.e. paint all the flesh, paint all the claws etc. I find this method good for getting multiple models painted quicker than painting them individually. I split the broods in half as this is a balance (for me) between getting a number of models painted quickly and the boredom factor of repetative painting.

I need to undercoat the remaining 4 genestealers before I can finish this brood.

Tyranid Warrior Brood Completed.

Following yesterday's post I have now finished my first Tyranid Warrior Brood. They are nice sized models and I enjoyed painting them far more than the termagants. As there are only 3 models in this brood and they are of more importance I could afford to spent a little more time on these whilst following the same painting system I have in place.

Tyranid Warrior Brood Started.

Work on my Tyranid Warrior Brood has begun, I have opted for a "shooty" unit and went for 2 Deathspitters and 1 Barbed Strangler as these are all template weapons and should make up for the low BS the warriors have due to rolling scatter dice to hit.

So far I have finished 1 warrior from the brood and I now feel comfortable with the colour scheme. I have a good system in place which should speed up completion time for each brood, I should now be able to get quite a fews models painted up quite quickly whilst maintaining a good tabletop quality appearance.

These are the other two models from the brood. To get to this stage I did the following:

1. Undercoat Skull White
2. Basecoat Tallarn Flesh
3. Drybrush Bleached Bone
4. Heavy wash with Ogryn Flesh

Once the wash has completely dried (about 2 hrs):

1. Drybrush Bleached Bone
2. Drybrush 50:50 Bleached Bone and Skull White
   

Completed models so far. All completed models recieve a coat or two of games Workshop Purity Seal Satin Varnish to protect them.

1st Brood Completed.

So I completed my first brood from the Battleforce Boxset. I decided to start with Termagants as I figured I'd probably end up painting a fair few of them by the time this army is finished, plus they are the cheapest models from the boxset and if I wasn't happy with the colour scheme it wouldn't be such a big deal.

I decided to go with Hive Fleet Kraken as my colour scheme (or my version of it at least). I like the fluff behind this hive in the codex and the colour scheme is quite organic and natural, I'm not a fan of skittle nids.

For a test Brood I'm happy with the results, bearing in mind these are just Gaunts I didn't want to spend too much time on them and have gone for table top quality scheme that looks nice when they are all together, even if the quality lacks on an individual basis.

As you can see the quality of each individual model is not that great but when they are all together they are nicely uniformed and look good enough, as I've already said I'm looking for a table top quality army and with this colour scheme and painting method I hope to be able to not spend too much time on each brood but still achieve an overall coherent and crisp looking army.

I will post again in more detail another time as to what my actual steps and colours I used to were to achieve this end result.

Tyranid Battleforce Boxset.

Where best to start my Tyranid army than with a Batttle Force Box? It gives me a good all round balance of units I will need and is a good base to build on. Looking at what you get I will probably buy another one when I'm finished painting this one and get my units up to a playable size and build from there.

Box Contents:

• 3 Tyranid Warriors
• 8 Hormagaunts
• 8 Termagants
• 8 Genestealers
• 1 Carnifex
  

In addition to the listed box contents I was surprised to see that you also get 2 Ripper Swarms (bases included) - strange that GW don't advertise that.

I hope to get building these over the next few days. I will be building all the models apart from the Carnifex as I want to magnetise the weapons so I can change them when I need.