Delusion? Or Genius?

So while I was scheming about my Tervigon conversion, I had an idea:

All those Rippers we all have kicking around? And all that extra space on the MC bases?

I was thinking of magnetizing 6 rippers onto my next Trygon's base, and pulling them off as wound markers.

What do you think?

Alright, it was Paddy's idea!  I'm scared to contradict him.

Prepare yourselves for the world's laziest Tervigon conversion... And a status update!

Hello, everyone!

I will remind you again that this is representative of my conversion/painting skills

Just a super-quick post to update on my progress with all the new acquisitions, and I can tell you that my league starts in mid-February, but I'm doing well enough here that I may actually be able to play my first game before then.  I know I haven't been keeping up with my posting, but in my defense, you don't want to hear about me working or see pictures of grey plastic models :)

Also I finally figured out what I'm going to do about Tervigon conversions!

But first, an update of where I'm at:

We're Back! And we have a 1500 point 'Nid list for your consideration!

Well here I am on the last day of my holiday, finally returned to the city, ready to build up the Hive Fleet and play in a league!

Hive Fleet Turbo-Ants Cheerleading Squad 2011

I appreciate those who visited during Men With Toy Soldiers' hiatus, and now it's time to get back on attack.

So when we left off, I had asked for input regarding a 1500 point list using primarily what I had available in order to participate in an upcoming league with a 'Golden Standard' of 1500 points.  I got lots of good input, and was told quite firmly that I could not bring Swarmy in a 1500 point list (especially with two Trygons!), and now I think we're on the home stretch for what I'll start off with.

Be warned:  this list may shock your Net List sensibilities!  We have foot slogging Zoanthropes, Genestealers, and a Gargoyle blob!  There are no T-Fexes, no Harpies, and only one Tervigon!

The quest for the 1500 point Tyranid list continues!

Well, I'm trying my best to come up with a 1500 point list for an upcoming league that I'm happy with, and that I don't need to buy/convert too much for.

I'm finding the points total to be really restrictive, however, because I want to include a Trygon -- Which really means I have to include two, and there's a third of my army gone.

The other thing I'm struggling with is where to fit Genestealers in.  I want them to outflank, but if I do, I want the Swarmlord along for the +1 to reserves and the re-roll.  Does anyone have success infiltrating them, walking them up or outflanking them without bonuses?

Put me in, coach!

I also haven't been able to visualize a conversion for a Mycetic Spore, so I don't know that I can put my zoanthropes in.  Does anyone have any experience with scuttling them up the table behind friendly units?  Or is that just crazy talk?

Anyhow, I'll shoot out two lists for now.  I'm not 100% happy with either, but I figure they'll get nicely dissected here and hopefully that can help my though process along.

Help! I need a 1500 point list!

Hi all,

Just a brief call for help here.  I'm thinking of joining a league for this season, starting in a week or two.  It's 1500 points 'golden standard', so we have to play at least that point value and can play above it if both players agree.

Uncle Paddy Needs You!

I want to build a good, balanced, all-comers 1500 point 'Nids list, and I need input!  Please!

Doesn't look like there are any comp rules, but your opponent can award you 3 points for sportsmanship per game, and one point is 'is it a fair list', one point is 'would you play this person again'.

HELP!


Bonus round:


We don't have to take the same army each week, or even the same codex!  So while I might not play it, I'm trying to build a 1500 point Blood Angels list with no mech except for dreads.  Go!

Santa showed up, and brought the Hive Fleet with him!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions on what to pick up!

As it turns out, we bought everything.  All of the Tyranids in the store.  Well, actually, I left a couple boxes of 'Gants and Raveners behind, and an army box.  And since we still had money to spare, I ordered a couple more things, which I'll list below.

So here's what we got:

Santa brought the tequila for Paddy O'Lantern

List and what's to come under the jump!

Help me spend $400 on miniatures!

Sorry about missing the last few days' worth of content, Men With Toy Soldiers was away at the first of many illustrious holiday events!

We also had a family dinner tonight, at which I over-indulged.  I think the Hive Mind was fully in control, because I was definitely The Great Devourer!

But we're back in town for a couple of days until we do the real Christmas marathon, and Santa is coming around tomorrow in the form of a shopping spree at my Friendly Local Game Store, sponsored by my Sugar Mama.

It's all about the Elizabeths, baby

So I'm going to put up what I have, and if anyone still reads the blog you can help me choose how to spend money!

Here's what we've got:

1x Tyranid Prime

2x Tyranid Warrior

16x Hormagaunt

28x Termagant

8x Genestealer

1x Trygon

So, I've got $400 (Canadian) to spend, at 20% off GW prices.


What should I buy?  GO!


Bonus round:

If you run out of Tyranids worth buying, I've also got a budding Blood Angels army....

Finished Trygon!

Well, that was a journey!

I actually finished it yesterday but didn't have time to post anything up.  I also want to say that by 'finished' I mean it's ready for the tabletop, but I'm going to be finding small errors and correcting them for weeks to come, I'm sure.

Here it is!

Bring on the AV14!

Detail pics and my thoughts after the jump!

The Biggest Bug of All - Trygon almost finished!

After much. much work, we're coming around on the home stretch!

I have to paint three of these eventually? Goodness.

I am actually tired from painting.  However, it's almost done!

Here's what I have left to do:

- Edge all of the carapace sections with Dheneb Stone
- Clean up a couple of the details
- Do some general fixing of errors
- Base it!

So what you're looking at is very close to the finished product, with a little less depth in the carapace!

Here's a closer view of the front that shows the details a bit better:

Terrifying, isn't he?

So I should be done, dare I say, tomorrow!  Although it's such a large model that I'm sure I'll be finding errors on it for the next month, so it'll keep me busy.  As for the base, I think I'm going to take the Rippers off, just because I don't really feel like painting them or that they add too much to the base.

I'll wait until tomorrow to do that, though, because maybe I'm just tired and grumpy right now!

The Biggest Bug of All - Trygon WIP Update!

Well, this thing is a pretty big project but having started it I'm much less intimidated!  I had a nice night where I popped the movie Hot Fuzz on the computer in front of me and just painted away.  So here we are:

The Trygon got a manicure with OPI colour "Voracious Vermillion"

 - The exoskeleton is done, highlighting shading and all.  It will get another thin coat of Leviathan Purple wash over certain parts, but other than that it's finished.  

 - The (very) bright red on the talons will be toned down considerably after a couple coats of Baal Red, but I really like the effect -- it's very attention-grabbing!  This will probably be the method I use for MC talons on all of my bugs, except perhaps the Tervigon, but more on that at a later date.  And what you're looking at there is just two layers of Blood Red over white primer.

- The Carapace is what I'll be working on tonight.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to shade and highlight it, and I still haven't picked up Devlan Mud to test it and see if I can get a more natural, consistent shade on the Dheneb Stone.  One thing I'm very pleased with, however, is how smooth of a coat I managed to get on the large back Carapace section (the only part I'm really stressing about) by being very patient and thinning down the Dheneb Stone alot:

I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave

As always, any input is appreciated!  One decision I'm still struggling with is whether or not to use the red for any other 'spines' on the model, such as the side ones that I've left unpainted on the tail.  I'm not sure if it would add anything, or just make the model look busier.

Thoughts?

The Biggest Bug of All - Time to paint a Trygon!

EDIT: The next one gets painted before it gets fully assembled.  Made that tougher for myself than I had to.

Well, here it stands in all its white-primed glory:

Whitesnake!  Haha!

This is by a large margin the largest model that I've ever attempted.  The next largest was a Bloodthirster, which really isn't all that big without its wings.  This model poses a couple unique challenges that I'm going to have to overcome:

1) The two-part Scything Talons.  Because I've been painting both the carapace and talons bone-coloured for the rest of my models (such as these hormagaunts), I've got a bit of a quandary here, since there is carapace on top of the Talons.  After doing a lot of test runs on a spare Mawloc arm, I'm going to try leaving the carapace bone coloured, but doing all the talon 'blades' in bright red.  We'll see how that works out!  I can always repaint it.

2) The sheer size of the model.  As I said, I've never tackled anything this large, and the wash-over-primer method I use for the little bugs won't really do this justice -- plus it would take a lot of wash!  So I'm going to do a traditional paint/highlight/wash on this model. Which could take some time!  I'm also going to try Devlan Mud for the carapace sections instead of Badab Black, since I think it will give me an overall 'smoother' finish.  I'll be testing that out beforehand, though.

So that's what I'm up to.  How are you all doing?  I feel like we haven't talked in so long!

I'll update the WIP as I get something accomplished on this beast.

P.S.:  I had to add a couple rippers to the base.  I like to think that they look up and say, "I want to be a Trygon when I'm all grown up!"

MathHammer, Episode 1: Termagants are better than Tactical Marines!

This is the first installment of a series of articles that use the power of math to show that some units are better than you think.  We're delving into some dangerous uncharted territory here, and I'm likely to make errors, so feel free to contradict me!

I notice after posting that he has dirt stuck to his gun!  Silly Termagant!

Everyone knows that you only take Termagants in units of 10 so that you can take Tervigons, right?  That's what the internet says, so it must be true.

As those of you who have been reading along know, we try and do things a little bit different here at Men With Toy Soldiers.  While I agree with the consensus that Termagants + Tervigons are possibly the best unit in the game at scoring objectives, I want to see if we can find other uses for them, and possibly even... have them kill things?

So how does Acid Blood work, exactly?

Super short post:

I'm trying to wrap my head around how Acid Blood is supposed to work.  Since I can't get clarification by googling it, and it's not in the FAQ, maybe I'm just imagining things.

But if I had unit X attacking, say, a Pyrovore (comes with Acid Blood), and let's say for argument's sake that unit X was really good at close combat:

30 attacks, hitting on 2's = 24 hits
Wounding on 2's = 20 wounds
20 Wounds, 4+ armour save.... 10 unsaved wounds.


"For every unsaved wound a model with acid blood suffers in close combat, the enemy unit that struck the blow must pass..."   - Tyranid Codex p. 84.

So despite the Pyrovore only having 2 wounds, would you have to take 10 initiative tests for the unsaved wounds as opposed to 2 for the Pyrovore's wound total?

I'm going with yes, and here's why:

1) Rules!  If I cause 200 unsaved wounds on your model that had 2 wounds, and you had Feel No Pain on that model (triggered by unsaved wounds), I guarantee you would want to roll 200 FNP checks to try and save its life, despite the model only having 2 wounds.  Exactly the same situation.


2) Fluff!  If I bleed acid and that hurts you, and you beat my corpse into a bloody lump, you're going to cause more acid spray.

Thoughts?

P.S.:  The Zoanthropes who run the legal department here at Men With Toy Soldiers would also argue that the definition of 'unit' in the base rulebook, combined with acid blood as written, verbatim, would mean that every model in the unit that wounded the acid blood critter must take its own initiative test and risk a wound.  Not sure if anyone plays like that, but that's the logical conclusion of both rulesets.  Either way, we might be able to find a use for the Pyrovore (god I'm trying so hard...) as a melee suicide bomb.

Interlude over!

How To Cheat At Painting -- Part 2

Part 1 here.

Recap:


If you're anything like me, you face two very large obstacles when starting a new painting project or (heaven forbid) an entire army:

1) You are physically disabled when it comes to painting.  Your hand quivers as though in constant terror of the brush, and you have eyesight somewhere between a myopic bat and an a rock.

2) You have little time, and less attention span.  You are also the slowest painter in the world, and it's a shame there's no trophy for that.

Because I'm determined to enjoy this hobby despite my challenges, I had to figure out a way to paint up 'Nids quickly, smoothly, and (since I started a blog) in a fashion that photographs well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We left off with this:

We've come so far together!

Now I'm going to continue the step-by-step and show you how to finish off a model's details and give it a good looking base, all with minimal effort and time!

How To Cheat At Painting -- Part 1

If you're anything like me, you face two very large obstacles when starting a new painting project or (heaven forbid) an entire army:

1) You are physically disabled when it comes to painting.  Your hand quivers as though in constant terror of the brush, and you have eyesight somewhere between a myopic bat and an a rock.

2) You have little time, and less attention span.  You are also the slowest painter in the world, and it's a shame there's no trophy for that.

Because I'm determined to enjoy this hobby despite my challenges, I had to figure out a way to paint up 'Nids quickly, smoothly, and (since I started a blog) in a fashion that photographs well.

I should have special parking at my hobby shop.

Now, I've posted the evolution in how I paint my bugs, but I feel like I should share a step-by-step for others on how to quickly and easily put together a decent looking model, from priming to basing.

A Surefire Way to Attract S8 Weapons - A Tyranid Warriors Review

The Hive Mind came to me in my dreams and spoke to me.  It used no language, as such, but its message was clear:

If I didn't get back to posting Tyranid-related stuff, it would open one of its six mouths, and sing the song that ends the Earth.

So I'm taking a break from batch painting the last of my Hormagaunts -- more on that later -- to bring you another Unit Review!

Well, before I can play a game, or even assemble and paint an army, I need to figure out what I'm going to field. So I guess I'll start examining the units one by one and asking:

 - Do I like the unit? That is to say, do I like the aesthetics, background, etc?

 - Do I think it's worth putting into a game, for its point cost?

This installment: the misunderstood Warrior.

Not a basketball player from Golden State.

Born To Run - A Hormagaunt Review

Well, before I can play a game, or even assemble and paint an army, I need to figure out what I'm going to field. So I guess I'll start examining the units one by one and asking:

 - Do I like the unit? That is to say, do I like the aesthetics, background, etc?

 - Do I think it's worth putting into a game, for its point cost?

This installment: The oft-maligned Hormagaunt.

"We so Hormy!"  I crack me up.

My lazy Tyranid Prime conversion, Part 4... Finished!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

RECAP:

I've made a Tyranid Prime conversion using a Warrior, a special base, a large Scything Talon flipped around to be a Bonesword, and a Trygon headpiece converted into a large shield that is a 'counts-as' Lashwhip.

And now it's done!  Behold:

My large sword and shield are not compensating for anything! Shut up!

I'd love to hear any constructive criticism.  Or praise.  Especially praise.

But how do I feel about it?  Jump!

My lazy Tyranid Prime conversion, Part 3...

Part 1 found here.

Part 2 found here.

RECAP:


I've made a Tyranid Prime conversion using a Warrior, a special base, a large Scything Talon flipped around to be a Bonesword, and a Trygon headpiece converted into a large shield that is a 'counts-as' Lashwhip.

So after finishing the conversion, it was time to paint!

This is a bit of a milestone for me because now that the Prime is put together I can actually play my first game if I want -- he's my first HQ.  Granted, it would be a game with a couple small units of little bugs, a Prime, and a Trygon, but still...  Getting there.  It's probably enough that I could conceivably field it against either side of the contents of an Assault on Black Reach box.  And lose to the Marines.

Not those Marines!

My lazy Tyranid Prime conversion, Part 2...

First part found here.

RECAP:


I left off describing how I had come to choose the parts for my Tyranid Prime:

1) Warrior as a base model
2) Needs a Lashwhip and Bonesword
3) Needs to be bulkier than a regular Warrior, to stand out as a Prime

And to that end, I chose to convert a spare Trygon head plate into a shield for him, to count as a lashwhip.  I really like the idea of a Tyranid Warrior with a sword and a shield.

I also carved up and flipped around a spare large Scything Talon from the warrior kit.  I used my knife to cut small 'flattened' parts out of the edge of the blade in an attempt to give it some hard edges.  If all goes according to plan, layers of highlighting should make it look crystalline, which is the effect I'm going for.  At this point, I was absolutely unsure of what colour I was going to use for the bonesword.  Not even a tiny clue.

Assembled and Primed.  See what I did there?