Purple, or Green?

At long last, the Tyrant's claws are largely finished. I spent the last couple sessions painting the blades, and last night I went back in with pure white and did some highlights, including adding some final streaks of pure white to the armor parts. This is what the talons look like now:

The last thing I need to do on these before moving to the main body is to decide what to do with the ribbed flesh areas on the arms and "hands." My original plan was to make those areas purple, along with tongues and tentacles. In addition, I was thinking of adding some purple spotting to the blades. But now I'm not so sure. I'm second guessing myself and thinking that maybe I'll make the ribbed areas a vibrant green using ink, and skipping the spotting on the blades. My thought now is that maybe purple would be one color too many in the palette.

Any suggestions?

I have to do something with those areas, as they blend in too much with the rest of the arms to leave plain.

Brainstorming: The Ugly Army Makeover Project

I used to be a big fan of buying Space Marines cheap on eBay, stripping their often terrible paint jobs, and repainting them as part of my growing army. In fact, a good majority of my models were acquired and completed this way. For example, these pictures show before and after for some of my bikers:

Simple Green and Easy Off Oven Cleaner were my tools of the trade, with acetone joining in later. The sink in the guest bathroom/laundry room was often licorice scented (from Simple Green) and paint-spattered. These days, however, I'm a total model snob. I have amassed enough parts and kits that I've not built a totally refurbished model in quite a while.

Today I was brainstorming some fun ideas for the hobby, and wondered how interesting it would be to see a full army go from junk to jewel in a photo timeline. The loose plan would be to buy an army secondhand, with a fixed layout. Take a single combined army photo, as well as individual unit photos as a baseline. Then, using a single new box set, slowly rotate the old models into and out of the paint stripping bath. You'd build one brand new model from your box set, and pull one old model from the first unit. Strip the old model while painting your "seed" model. When the seed model is done, put it into the unit and take a picture. Begin painting the stripped model while stripping a second. It's a little cycle that would allow you to document the whole process.

The rest of the box set is there to use for repairs, spares, and embellishments. For example, some models simply cannot be saved from their paint jobs. I found a whole batch of Marines I'd bought secondhand had scarring and bubbling under a super thick coat of glossy spray paint. I managed to save some, but several had had complete sections of detail burned away. I salvaged the non-burned parts, but had to replace bits to get full models.

It might also be interesting to document your costs. Get a baseline cost of the army when you buy it, plus the cost of your "seed" box, a gallon of Simple Green, and a can of oven cleaner. Keep a running tally each time you buy parts, paint, and supplies. When the project is done, it would be neat to compare the retail cost of that army to what you've spent.

I think a Warhammer Fantasy army might be easiest to document. The block layout of units facilitates nice photos and a "start to finish" progression. There are also a lot of very simple WHFB models, like the single-piece Dwarfs from the old Skull Pass box, Orcs from the Empire/Orc starter, etc. Alternatively, a 40K Ork army might work well here, as it is both an army that can be acquired cheaply, as well as an army that typically has some scary beginner paint jobs and the ability to facilitate conversions and kitbashes in order to salvage as much of the old models as possible.

Of course, I definitely don't have time for such a project any more. With a new excitement for my Marines' focus of fast attack, the glacial pace of my Nids, and life in general, I don't think an Ugly Army project would progress at anything but a complete snail's pace, making it hard for readers to follow.
Maybe in the far off future...

Let's Go Back to Bikes

Yes, I'm still working on my Tyrant. I have made some small steps forward (base coating his talons and claws in a golden tan color), but I wanted to jump back over to Marines for a day.
My wife is awesome and switched some shifts around at work to allow me to attend the FLGS's Big Spring Event, the Fratris Salutem. When the date was first announced, I couldn't go, then I could, then it got moved to June 1st and I couldn't, and now I can. It's all very confusing.
It's a 1500 point event, and I obviously don't have a Nid army of any points value done yet. My Tyrant won't even be done for the painting competition (I'll have it for the Standish Standoff 3 instead). So, I'm bringing Marines.
The exact list I'll take is still rattling around in my head, but I'm leaning towards bikes, as that is the easiest for me to run as a "themed" list. My evolving back story for the force is that it's an Ultramarine rapid response and recon strike force. When I run it at events, I like to write up a little one-page short story as a lead-in to the list. The list is always focused on speed: bikes, jumpers, and speeders. My Biker Captain has always been this guy, Captain Equos.

I built this model back int he dawn of 5th Edition, and you can tell. Not only is he not up to my current painting standards and abilities, but he's armed in 5th Edition style.
In 5th Edition, the relic blade was king. S6 power weapon ate most everything for lunch, and at full initiative value. Because bikers were T4(5), you wanted that Captain swinging early to keep power fists from one-shotting him. Storm shields were popular for the same reason, helping the Captain survive those S8 hits a little better than his basic iron halo save. But due to personal preferences, I never ran with a storm shield.

Now that the relic blade has been changed (not nerfed, changed), I'm seeing a need for a new Captain Equon model. In many of the recent tourneys, I've replaced the above model with the one I've used as a Company Champion on a bike. That one has a sword and shield, and I tend to give him artificer armor, a storm shield, and the relic blade. The load out makes him a house in melee against anything that's not a Terminator or monstrous creature.
But now that sixth edition is here, the relic blade is not the best option any more. It's still serviceable, but there are better options: a lightning claw or a power fist.

All three options result in the same number of attacks on the charge (four), but they differ in stat line.
The claw is nice because it's AP3, and rerolls wounds at S4 and I5. Against basic unit leaders like Marine Sergeants or Chaos Aspiring Champions, it does the job admirably for the fewest points. But, it won't scratch artificer armor, Terminator armor, or high-toughness monsters.
The relic blade is double the points, wounds more reliably, but at the same AP value. This wasn't a problem when power weapons simply ignored armor, but nowadays the AP3 is a liability for such an expensive investment in points.
The power fist runs at S8, AP2, but is Unwieldy and swings at I1. As I mentioned before, this was a death sentence in 5th Edition. But the change to biker toughness to a flat T5 makes it far less risky in 6th. It's not as expensive as the relic blade, but more expensive than the lightning claw. The nice kick here is that it can cause instant death to T4 models, like generic Marine HQs.
If you want to go back down to lightning claw points levels, you can go with a generic power weapon.
A sword is ok, but the single extra attack it'll get you from having a pistol alongside really isn't worth the swap from rerolling wounds with a lightning claw.
The axe is S5, gets the extra attack for a pistol, but attacks at I1. Not bad against something like Tactical Terminators, but it really requires investment in a storm shield and a bucket of luck to make sure you don't get punched down in return by the Terminators.
Staves and mauls are for Librarians and Chaplains. It's got the same strength attacks as the relic blade, can get a bonus for a pistol, but is a lowly AP4. MEQ models are going to laugh at you. You don't even get the chance to cause instant death from Force like a Librarian, or Fearlessness and rerolls to hit like a Chaplain.
Lances attack at I5, S5, and AP3...on the charge. After that, they drop to S4 and AP4. The only people who should be carrying power lances in a bike army are Command Squad members attached to Kor'sarro Khan, and only because he has Furious Charge and Hit and Run.

After all that, I feel like the power fist is my best bet. The lightning claw is a close second, but is intended for cutting down large numbers of chump models or basic unit leaders. It tapers off fast when faced with better armor saves or higher toughness. A Bike Captain in artificer armor can weather the attacks of those types of units by virtue of his 2+ armor and Toughness 5. Marine Bikers have no real problems dealing with the chaff of enemy armies. It's the leaders and monsters they struggle against, and the power fist is the answer in my opinion.

So after all that rambling, I think I want to build a new model to represent Captain Equon. He needs new armament and some of the fancy, new Marine bitz that have become available since I built the original. He'll end up on a bike with more decorative and stowage bitz courtesy of the new Ravenwing Command box, a powerfist, and artificer armor. I'll skip the storm shield, as the number of S10 melee attacks available on characters is small, and the mobility of bike armies can help to simply avoid those tough fights.

Time to get shopping!

Armor Complete, More Army List Questions

I found some extra time yesterday, so I worked some more on the Tyrant's body parts. I think I've gotten the armor plating to a point where I can consider them "done."
Here's one of this claws:

And then his head:

I just started working on the streak method after the Faded Khaki layer. I went for a 2:1 Faded Khaki to Stained Ivory mix, then a 1:2 mix of the same colors, then straight Stained Ivory, and finally some very light lines of Yellowed Bone.

The streaking is both a simple and challenging technique. Essentially all you're doing is drawing some thin lines on the model, but the trick is keeping your paint of the correct consistency, a nice point on your brush, and then spacing the lines of varying lengths properly so that it doesn't just look like an edge highlight or very poor color blend. It took some practice, and you can probably see a couple screw-ups in there.
Overall, I like how it looks. What do you think?
  The next step will be the talon blades and elbow spikes. I'm leaving the forearm spikes the same body color green, as there's no distinct separator from the forearm itself.
I'm planning to start the talons out with a golden tan, then blend out to the blade edges to a yellowed off-white. I'll then use a suggestion from the folks over at Warpshadow, and use purple blotching around the meeting of armor plates and talon blades to create a visual distinction between the two areas.

After that will come the ribbed flesh and joint areas. I'm leaning towards purple for those, as it will compliment both the green and the ivory tones. I'd originally thought of using a hot pink color, but I don't think it would look very good against green and ivory.

I've decided to try to trade off the 24 new-on-sprue Termagaunts I have acquired for some Warrior models. I am trying to do a retail-for-retail value trade, meaning those 24 Gaunts on sprue would bring in 4 Warriors on sprue. I have an ad up over at Bartertown, so we'll see. If any of you dear readers are interested in such a deal, let me know. I'd be after 4 sprues of Warriors, and one of the upgrade sprues that come with the kit. Also, all of the Rippers have been removed from my Gaunt sprues so there's some wiggle room there.

I also thought about revising my 1000-point starter list, and taking out the Hive Tyrant. Yes, he's an awesome unit and model, but in a 1000 point game, he eats up over 20% of my points. I'm thinking of switching to either a Prime to compliment the Warriors int he list and be crazy cheap for what he does (seriously, like 105 points for a nasty, nasty melee Prime). Alternatively, I was thinking about the Parasite of Mortrex, because he's a great modeling opportunity and his rules are seriously fun. He's not an overpowering force, he's just a fun HQ.

Regarding a Prime though, is it better to take the dual boneswords, or the lash/bonesword setup? He runs at Initiative 5, and so would outpace many basic units, but not any Marine Captain-level HQs. Without an Invulnerable save, I'm concerned that if he runs with dual boneswords he'll end up dying right alongside the HQ he's trying to challenge/assassinate. Dual swords also doesn't help him against most non-HQ units, as the instant death value of dual swords is lost on single wound models.

More Paint and a Quick Army List

More progress on the Hive Tyrant from last evening.
Here is one of his talons worked up to Green Ochre:

And the talon worked up to two coats of Faded Khaki:

You can see a couple tide lines on this talon's armor plates from the shading wash I applied. With something like Space Marine armor, I'd have had to spend time retouching that area entirely. With organic things like Nids, I can just leave them there and they end up sinking under the lighter coats, leaving a sort of sublimated pattern that looks like it's part of the natural growth of the plates.
I'm trying to figure out what tone is best to lighten the Faded Khaki, since it's got that green-brown tint to it. I'm leaning toward an ivory color. Folks over on the Reaper Message Board suggested that as well. Alternatively, I have a very light green I can use, but my concern is going to further colors would leave me stuck with that green as my highlight, and I don't want a pale green highlight on these parts.

I also spun up a very rough army list to paint toward, aiming for 1000 points. By the time I'd picked out all the units I wanted to use, I was at 1700 points! So, I started snipping out units and came up with this, which is 1161 points. I obviously need to drop something, but have no idea what to drop:

HQHive Tyrant (double scything talons, armored shell, paroxysm, psychic scream) - 210
Tyrant Guard - 60

TROOPS10 Genestealers, Broodlord, scything talons - 206
5 Warriors (no upgrades) - 150

ELITES5 Ymgarl Genestealers - 115

FAST3 Shrikes (adrenal glands, double scything talons) - 120
4 Raveners (spinefists) - 140

HEAVYCarnifex (frag spines) - 165

It's a pretty crappy list, but it focuses on models I like. I really wanted to put a basic T-Fex in there, but he was just far too expensive. Maybe in the 1500 point bump.
The Carnifex is the easiest thing to drop, since it is almost exactly the points I'm over, leaving me 4 spare to play with (which can't really be used for anything here).
I did have one rules question while working on the Warrior unit last  night though, so any of you Nid experts, care to help me out?

Can a unit of Warriors that has exchanged all of its Devourers for another set of scything talons still have one Warrior with a Venom Cannon or Barbed Strangler?
It's one of those order of operations issues, like with a Space Marine Company Champion or an Ork Nob. The option for venom cannon/strangler is listed before the option to swap devourers for other biomorphs. If I swap that one Warrior's devourer for a strangler, and then elect to swap all devourers for talons, he's got no talons to swap, so does he keep the strangler and remain a valid choice?

Going by the Ork Nob FAQ, I'd say yes. Does that seem right?

Caving to the Pressure?

I spent the last couple days of last week testing out colors for the armor on my Nids. I flopped around between a dark green, green-blue, gray, and khaki colors. I decided I had to test some stuff out before deciding, and slapped a ton of swatches right onto the talons I was working on:

There's a lot of random colors on there. I didn't end up using any of them. I slapped a light coat of primer back over the colors and started painting in an ochre brown scheme. I snapped a shot, but it got corrupted in the transfer from SD card to PC. I'll put up another later on, when I've got a few more layers on it and you can start to see the transition from dark to light.

I've also been thinking ahead to list design, and that's where the title of this post comes from. My intent when I first started working on a Nid army was to create an all-melee force. Everything that could fight in melee would have melee upgrades like scything talons, rending claws, and toxin sacs. I wanted a walking Tyrant with armored shell, a couple base Carnifex (all scytals), and scything/rending Warriors and Raveners. I even thought about doing nothing in the army with less than a 40mm base, which meant Warriors as troops. Then I became obsessed with Genestealers after playing some games of Death Angel and seeing some awesome Ymgarl sculpts. My Hive Tyrant isn't even half done, and I've managed to buy 25 or so Genestealers and a bunch of Gaunts. I never intended to run Gaunts!
I am falling into the same trap I fell into with Marines...buying and trading for items because they're cheap. I've got a box of stuff next to my desk, and it bothers me.
The more I read about Nids on blogs and forums, the more I drift toward playing a force I never intended to run. I'm looking at Dakkafexes, flying Tyrants with brainleech devourers, etc. I've held firm against Tervigons, but everything else seems to be eroding. I looked at gargoyles, and found them interesting as well. I never wanted to run any of those units!

At this point I can do one of two things: pare my now-growing Nid collection back down to what I actually intended to run, or cave to the competitive pressure and run models that are awesome on paper (and the table), but total crap in my mind. I'm not sure yet which way to go. I'd really like to hold to my convictions and run only 40mm+ base models with lots of all-melee upgrades. But where do i draw the line? I love Raveners both for the models and the rules. Raveners can take various shooting weapons, and still retain their melee orientation. Do I skip taking spinefists on a model they're actually useful for in order to preserve my all-melee force? Do I not take a Trygon because it has a base shooting attack? Gargoyles are incredibly useful, do I break the 40mm rule and the no-shooting rule to take them?

I think the first thing I have to do is purge myself of all these Termigaunts. I know I'll never actually use them, so I should try to trade or sell them towards Warriors. I'll hold onto the Hormagaunts and Genestealers because they do fit the melee rule, but not the 40mm rule, though I can see myself shedding the Hormas as well.

It's a good thing I caught this problem early. I can still salvage some value out of the gaunts while they're still new on sprue. If I'd assembled and painted a ton of them, I'd have lost a lot more time and money.
Of course,the biggest obstacle to my Nids right now is my lack of painting! I need to get rolling on the Tyrant at a faster pace. I have til November for him to be perfect and competition-ready, but if i stall that long on him, I'll never move onward to other models.

Tyrant Progress

Here's some proof that I actually am working on a Hive Tyrant.

This is his top right talon as it currently sits:

This is the previous shot, when it was just a base coat and shading wash:

That second shot is more for my personal edification, as I'm not sure how much I like the paint work. Right now the arm has six or seven color layers on it. My concern is that it might lack definition, a contrast between dark and light. What do you folks think?

Here's a shot of his head:

I like this a bit better, as the lines around his jaw help with the contrast of shading to highlight.
I'm torn as to whether I should go back in and darken some areas or not. I have a temptation to blast it with Dullcote before I go on, as Dullcote has a tendency to help blend transitions. Not sure how it does it, but it does. Of course, you also lose some of your highest highlights when you do this. It's why I now try to highlight as close to white as is feasible and appropriate. I don't think white would be appropriate here.

Do you think the colors might pop a bit more once I get the talons and the ribbed flesh painted in? I'm thinking maybe a tan-to-ivory transition for the talon blades, and either a flesh tone or pink color for the ribbed flesh parts. I also considered a sickly yellow. I'm really stumped, honestly. I might go with a dark blue-green for the carapace armor, though. My reasoning is that I'm using a yellow-green for the main body chitin shell, and blue is the complimentary color to yellow. So having a blue/yellow contrast in my greens feels like a good plan. It also helps me stick a little closer to my original plan of "green crab theme". I actually almost started painting this guy in a tan/ivory scheme with a mahogany shell.

The final shot is of his body:

You can see all the fiddling about I did trying to fill gaps with Liquid Greenstuff. I did some more last night and will have to sand it back to smooth tonight.
One of the reasons I haven't started on the body yet is that I cannot for the life of me figure out how to mount this sucker for painting!

As you all know, I normally put a pin in one of the model's feet and clamp it into an old Dremel. I did this with my metal Dreadnoughts, and it worked just fine. The problem here is that the only part of him that touches the ground is that little tiny section of tail and sculpted-on rock. There's just not enough there to drill for a pin. I could drill in at an angle (20-30 degrees), and bend the pin downward after it clears the tail. But the rest of the model is so top-heavy that I'm afraid it would pull through the glue bond and just spin around the pin. The top-heaviness is also the reason I can't just grab that sculpted rock area in a vice or clamp and hold it that way. I tried with a couple clamps, and it kept tipping out due to the weight of the torso.
Anyone have any suggestions? My last resort will be to glue him lightly to his 60mm base with either a tiny amount of plastic glue, or a bit of superglue. I can use an Xacto to separate the former or just break the latter.

As a tiny bit of pointless trivia to end this post: the assembled Tyrant body pictured above actually stands freely on its own on that little sculpted-in rock section under the tail. Once I add the head and arms it won't but for now it sits proudly on my desk, daring me to finish it.