The latest upgrade to Fury...

...is this guy. He is really big. I have only recently built him up and painted him, so he hasn't been used in any battles at all. I do look forward to trying him out, and any tactics would be much appreciated. He was relatively simple to put together, and quite fun to paint. The poor terminator he's standing on was painted in Ultramarine colours, because my roomie plays Ultramarines. Hehehe. I kind of see him as the Venomthrope's big brother. Much bigger brother. The Toxicrene. Enjoy!

The Swarmlord, the Tyrantlord of the Hive Mind, the Herald of the Great Devourer, and the Destroyer of the Kha'la Empire.

That's quite a mouthful. But he deserves it. The single most awesome creature in the galaxy. The deadliest, most badass creature you will ever meet. And he doesn't give a shit about you. Unless you're really important. Like...Marneus Calgar important. And even then only maybe. This guy only shows up when you are screwing up the hive mind's plans in a major way, and need to be dealt with. And deal with you he will. While I feel his stats are a little underpowered, such as his invulnerable save shouldn't just be in close combat, as long as he has a Tyrant Guard (which I don't), he will be a major pain for your opponent.

My personal Swarmlord has crossed blades with the great Abaddon the Despoiler himself, and slaughtered dozens of Imperial Guardsmen, troopers and officers alike. He's even taken out a Space Wolf Dreadnought. I really need to get myself a box of Tyrant Guard so he can be even more awesome. Maybe some backup Hive Tyrants to accompany him as well. In any case, I enjoyed painting this guy immensely, I had to do a little cutting and glueing to give him four boneswords, which I find are much more awesome than the ones he's supposed to have. I remember the exact moment he was all painted and I glued the final arm into place, it was as if he came to life. Such an awesome figure.

Now you see me...

...no you don't. My all-time favourite Tyranid unit, the Deathleaper. Not because he's so insanely good on the table when used right, or the model is frikkin' awesome, but because of the fluff. This guy goes in advance of the main swarm, picking out targets of opportunity, causing terror and demoralizing the enemy before the real danger even arrives. Teeheehee!

He was rather quickly painted, but came out rather nicely in any case. I haven't gotten my hands on any Lictors as of yet, so he's not quite as effective in combat as he could be. My friend has some Lictors, but I haven't managed to steal 'em yet. Yet.

Enjoy!

Poison in my veins...

The moment I saw these guys, I knew I wanted them. I absolutely love how they look. All awesome and tentacley and stuff. I love these guys, and I love Zoanthropes (which I have yet to purchase, alas). I can't tell you why, I just do. I think it's the tentacle mouth. Something about it just makes me happy. All my favourite Tyranid figures have it (except my glorious Swarmlord), these guys, Lictors, the Deathleaper, and the Malanthrope. For some reason it makes Tyranids just that bit more terrifying! I love it.

Anyway, so yeah. Venomthropes. These two chaps were also liberated from my friend's swarm (Hive Fleet Titan), though in return I did give him some Tau. I think. In any case, I had great fun painting them, and I will very likely get the new box after Christmas, probably two so I can have Zoanthropes as well.

Here they are!

Bringing out the big guns...

One of the first monstrous creatures I purchased after my Swarmlord, was an Exocrine. I had read about it in the codex, and decided I had to have one, no questions asked. A massive living plasma cannon? Hell yeah. Unfortunately, the range on this bad boy is a little disappointing, and he really attracts enemies. It's like those darned Imperial Guard -don't- like getting bombarded with bio-plasma. Humbug!

Not much more to say about it, I had fun painting it, and might even get another at some point. Who am I kidding, I'll be getting lots more of everything at some point...

Backbone of most 'nid armies, the Warriors!

Well, as mentioned earlier, I got my first Warriors in an army deal. I later stole two more boxes from my friend, after deciding how I wanted my broods to form up. I had gone for scything talons at first, but decided each of the three broods needs at least two sets of rending claws, as well as a barbed strangler in each brood. Since I had already made and painted the first brood with all scything talons and deathspitters, I decided to do the second with rending claws and deathspitters, and the third with rending claws and barbed stranglers. However, I ran out of rending claws for them all, and now need to order some from a bitz website. So the third brood isn't finished yet, though the bodies and barbed stranglers are coated and ready.

I should end up with three broods, each with three Warriors, armed as mentioned above. One rending claws/deathspitter, one rending claws/barbed strangler, and one scything talon/deathspitter. Here are the six I've completed so far.

Hive Guard

I mentioned a friend in one of my earlier posts, who first got me interested in Tyranids. Well, he used to live where I live now, and because his new place was small, he left a lot of stuff laying behind, to be picked up at a later date. Now, amongst his 'stuff' I found several boxes of Tyranids, which I 'liberated' for the greater good. I mean for the hive mind.

In any case. This led to my first box of Hive Guard, which I had chosen to make rather than Tyrant Guard, a decision I now regret, having purchased a Swarmlord. On the other hand, with their blind firing, Hive Guard are very awesome indeed, and have gotten me a lot of kills. I also really enjoyed painting them, and certainly plan on getting a box of Tyrant Guard and maybe another of Hive Guard.

Here are the painted miniatures!

Genestealers

Fluffwise, one of my all-time favourite units in the 40k universe. Genestealers are frikkin' awesome and terrifying. I knew I had to have a unit of them, probably more than one. And the Broodlord was always way up on my to have list, even before I started collecting 'nids.

I actually believe these Genestealers came in the same box I mentioned earlier, and they were what I painted right after the Warriors. I didn't get a Broodlord until later, and then another when Games Workshop re-released Space Hulk. Unfortunately, during construction and moving around furniture, one of his arms got lost, and I was forced to replace it with rending claws and talons from the Warriors box I had. Ah well, he came out good enough. I wanted to do the Genestealers a little different from the regular troops, give them a slightly more... well, human appearance I guess. They are infiltrators afterall, so I felt they shouldn't be as chitinous and shiny as the rest of the troops. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Next on the evolutionary line... gaunts!

Everyone loves gaunts. Actually that's not true. Everyone hates gaunts. Whether it be hormies or termies, they're just not loved by anyone. My opponents hate them because there are so many of them, and they have so many attacks! I hate them because there are so many of them, and I have to paint each and every one to a decent standard or I will cringe every time I see them!

That being said, the hormagaunts were painted during the internet outage last winter, and as such where finished quite swiftly and painlessly. There were only 16 of them, and while I feel I should definitely pick up another box, I do not look forward to painting another 16 of them. We shall see. In any case, here are the little buggers. Stabby stabby.

 

The Termagaunts were finished at a much later time, actually during this fall. So almost 9 months after their Hormagaunt cousins. I had volunteered to partake in an exhibition match against Chaos Marines at my university, to promote the Warhammer Club and try to get some more members. Before the game started though, we had some time to sit and paint, and chat with people coming by our stand to look at our miniatures and ask what it all was about. I got in a good deal of painting that morning, having basecoated all of them beforehand. Since my colourscheme is mostly drybrushing, it does go fast to paint, it's the cleaning and filing beforehand that takes time.

A few days after the exhibition match, I had finished all the termies I owned. It was rather the same feeling as with the hormies, I loved how they performed in battle, but there was just so much cleaning involved in a squad I wasn't looking forward to another (though at this point in time, I actually do have a box ready and waiting). Here they are, in any case, for your viewing pleasure. I also realize I failed to mention it in my earlier posts, but comments and criticisms are welcome!

Let's start small...

So, as mentioned, I was now totally into Tyranids. I started by purchasing an army box, the one with 3 Warriors, 16 Termagaunts and 16 Hormagaunts. It's probably no longer even available. I then started by leaving said box alone for quite some time, painting a few Grey Knights (which I might show later), trying out Imperial Guard, but one fateful day last winter, the internet went out in my crummy apartment.
It was out for a total of three days, and I thought I was going to lose my mind. However, during my boredom I found my brand new box of Tyranids, and having saved the article mentioned earlier, I started painting. Now, I didn't start with the Ripper swarms, I believe the first miniatures to be completed was a squad of 3 Warriors. But for this blog's sake, I am starting with my little Ripper swarms. I do like these chaps. They pack a serious punch, especially when upgraded a bit. And they're great for keeping your opponent locked in combat so you can focus on other things.
I found them fun and easy to paint, albeit a little fiddly, but I managed nonetheless to paint a whopping 7 of them in a day. Here they are in their tiny but furious glory.