Tiny Tyranids - 2nd Edition Epic 40k

  My favourite ever edition of anything was 2nd edition Epic. I played it the most and loved the grand feel of it. The game was simple enough to understand quickly and you had tons of miniatures. On top of the base game there was Armies of the Imperium, Renegades and Ork & Squat Warlords then at the end there was this one which I missed out on.

    It came out in 1995 just as I was discovering, or trying to discover, other distractions. However with the magic of ebay I got myself one 19 years later.

    Hive war is different to all the other expansions in the way the army is created. No longer do you need a company card to get 5 detachment cards. Here you link all the cards together through the synapse and theoretically you could have a never ending swarm but it would be impractical and vulnerable. I will explain how the swarm works in a later post.

    Each card is a different colour to signify the units behaviour when out of synapse. Blue = rampage, green = hunt and red = nest.

    All Swarms start with a Dominatrix. You can place cards in any direction there is an outward arrow. A brief description can be found here. It is the centre of the swarm and a swarm cannot exist without one. As a white card it does not have an Instinctive behaviour and is a command vehicle. so always charges and has first fire orders.It also brings into the game wounds. In 2nd edition, generally, if something failed its save it died but without void shields it needs protection so it can withstand 4 hits and can even regenerate.

    Here is my Dominatrix, don't tell my wife, the model is well detailed and some nice touches. The six appendages give it that Tyranid vibe and alien feel. The tiny head show that this in not where the brains of the beast are.

   For the the brains behind the swarm we have this guy hiding up top. He is never really explained in the literature of the Hive war manual all we get is this: "This rider is a form of Tyranid as far advanced beyond ordinary Tyranid Warriors as Tyranid warriors are beyond the genetically constructed sphincter portals of the bio-ships."

   Then we have the rather large gun which shows that the brood mother is not just a target.

   From her all other Tyranids spring. Next time I will go over the Swarm mechanic and how it effects the units themselves.
 Oh and here is a scale shot with a confused Ork Boy.

Hive Fleet Something Something Dark Side

   As I am moving to a new club in September, due to a work relocation, and I know there they have a large 40k community I am trying to get my 40k stuff done.
   When the new Tyranids came out I thought I would do something different and non humanoid. So I bought a tonne of them and began to build. However as always I got distracted and they fell behind. So I have started again. So I have till September to get them painted up. And come up with a Hive Fleet name.

   So I have started with the Gargoyles.

   Once again going with blue, I have put Sotek Green and layered with Temple Guard Blue on their wings and Rakarth flesh on the body. all washed with Agrax earth shade. The Guns are Dwarven flesh layered with Cadian flesh.

   This should allow them to be painted quite quickly. The bases are only half done as I was doing some test pieces to see how they would come out. However I think they will stay with a purple and red colour scheme.

There is always one lollygagger.

 And finally here is a modern gargoyle with their old epic counter parts. As I do my 40k Tyranids I hope to also paint up some old Epic variants. However these ones were won off ebay and are painted to a good standard so may stay in Behemoth colours

Tech Bees Bootleg done (nearly)

   Well the Tech Bees model is mostly done. There is still some highlighting to do and basing to do. The face was hard to do as I kept messing the eyes up and so have had to leave it. The skin was layered done and I am pretty happy with it. Now the model itself is very nice and as my first infinity model I do like it. I was surprised with the detail in the model and that it survived my attentions. Although I now remember how easily metal models chip and lose paint.
  I may invest in some in the future once my purchasing ban comes to an end, however I have one house move and a job relocation to come so the hobby may take a back seat soon, Haqqislam looks cool.  Anywhoo here are the pictures:

Later

My First Infinity - Tech Bees WiP 2

Just a short post today. With the main Mech done all attention turned to the technician. With the base colours done I have turned to trying to get some details done. I ran a stripe down her leg ME style with blue holdups and a blue top. The leather was done in a traditional colour with her mechanical arm support in metal.

    This is the look I was going for. The above is stolen from Black milk clothing in Australia. But in blue!

I am missing a few paints so the highlight on the blue will have to wait for a bit and i wish i had done the white in bone first instead of a strong white. Next up are the skin highlights and the whole head area so she does not look like she is squinting so badly. However these just arrived from the Kickstarter so I must try and focus!

It's a million to one but I will finish one project before starting this!

Later

My First Infinity - Tech Bees WiP

   This is my first Infinity model, I love the models but nobody plays this around me so I have yet to invest in any but a couple of the Bootleg models. The details on it are nice, the mechanical arm on mine has sheared off but is recoverable so I will put it back later.  

This is what it should look like

   I started off with the idea of doing it Mass Effect style with the stripe down the right arm. 

   So a base layer of grey and metallic silver for the mechanical parts. This was washed with a couple of black washes to darken it as it was a bit light for my liking. Then I took no more photos till I was done with the Mech.

   Some random wear on the Mech with blue lighting and the red stripe.I dry brushed the mech with lighter shades on grey to give it some relief and a gritty look. I think the Internals could do with a bit more colour and variation to the silver. 

   And so onto the maintenance worker, I am an engineer and none of my technicians look like this and I don't know where to start on the health and safety issues, she needs to stand out and so I am going to my usual blue and white. So all the base coats are done on her and requires washing with later highlights. Hopefully this will get done today. 

  Later 

Saved from the Spiders - Project Ork

 As I am hopefully moving house soon, again, I have got to sort all my stuff out. However I seem to be opening more boxes than I am packing. In my spider infested garage I keep all my old projects that have fizzled out. However with the new Ork codex coming out I thought I would see what I have.

   Also I am moving soon to a 40k dominated club so these may soon see some action. There are 2 Black reach box sets. Which is how these started as I gave the Marines to my brother and kept the Orks. I painted them up with Blood Axes in mind.

 
 I kept the paint scheme simple so that I would hopefully have an easier time painting them.

 My only Mega Nob. All alone!

  The kopters have suffered abit but being Orks it probably still works.

 

   The battle wagon has lost the 'Ard cover and one of the trucks with a couple of storm boyz looking sad in black. Now they have to go back into a tub for moving. But hopefully they will soon see some action after the move! It is sad they all they have to battle at the moment are the spiders.

The Architect WiP Part 2

  With the basecoats done and washed I started with the highlights. And as prophesied at the end of my last post my attempt at sheer painting would go horribly wrong and so it did. So I will have to hone my skills a bit more before I can finish this model. 

   I have highlighted the stomach a little and re-highlighted the cape a bit more. I have also done the hair a light brown highlighted with a yellow. The face was finished with some eyes and pink lips.

   The rest was just touching up and covering up my rubbish sheer attempt so the legs are lighter and not washed no.

   The base will be done later with the shoes highlighted and I think the glove is too bland and so needs something to distinguish it. The problem I have really with these models is that I have not got the game yet so I do not know what the board looks like. If I bae it incorrectly it will look out f place with the rest, so yet more procrastination.

   Below is a quick comparison between the resin, on the left, and the plastic version. The resin has more relief detail as seen on the models right leg with the feather things but apart from that there is very little difference which is a good sign for the Kickstarter. 

Kingdom death Architect WiP

  Due to the fact I have been put on a purchasing ban, due to a house purchase, I have realised I have LOTS of unpainted minis. So i have finally grown a pair of balls and decided to paint some Kingdom Death stuff, these models are so nice I am afraid of making a hash of them. 

  So i decided to have a go at The Architect. A fine model with quite a bit of flesh on show and quite large mammary glands, the pinup label gives that away though.

Random picture sizing does not help

I use GW paints, as I am lazy/have yet to learn how to blend properly, placed the base layers and gave her a wash. Now her little g-string bits were very fine and needed steady hands, however I have Parkinson hands and had to correct myself a lot.

   Now I researched female abs on the internet and after trawling through many, many unsavoury pictures I found at least on that showed the light off quite well. I apologise if the yellow stars offend you.

 

I have just found Win 8 editing tools so next time I may balance the light on these pictures

 

  Now I have to highlight and attend to the detailing of the skin and the white areas to take away from their blandness. I am going to attempt to due some sheer work. this may go horribly wrong.

  And Orks woohoo. If only I had not spent Andorra's GDP on Tyranids! Stupid, gorgeous bugs.