Bugs!

Posted by Ranillon on 19. December 2008 19:14

It's the Christmas season and with everything going on I have less time to work on 40K projects.  So, to fill the void here is a blast from the past -- my Tyranid army.

This is one of my four painted 40K armies and by far the largest.  When the (then new) Tyranid codex came out I immediately decided that I wanted to do a horde army.  Frankly, just on general principles I think every Tyranid force should be a horde.  Come on, when you think Aliens or Starship Troopers do you imagine the heroes fighting a single monter here or there or a gigantic tide of claws and chitin?  Sadly, the new Rending rules make a horde force less viable, but there is still something deeply satisfying about putting down an army more than a hundred models strong.

I have so many models that I can't quite get them all in the same picture, but for the record the force you see above includes:

One Winged Hive Tyrant
One Tyrant with Barbed Strangler and 3 Tyrant Guard
One Brood Lord
15 Tyranid Warriors
3 Raveners
3 Zoanthropes
2 Carnifexes with Venom Cannons and Twin-Linked Devourers
1 Lictor
40 Genestealers
80 Gaunts with various weapon loads

I painted my army using the dip method -- you do a basic highlighting job on each model and then dip them in wood finish to give them a final, balanced look.  I had to experiment to find the right color for the dip (it's easy to go too strong and ruin the model), but overall I think the method works quite well for a Tyranid army (and, potentially, with anything that has an organic look).  It won't win any painting awards, but it does well with the 5' rule and has a great overall effect.  Best of all, I finished my whole force is less than three months.

The only negative about the army is the time it takes to actually move and shoot so many models.  It makes completing turns when you're on the clock (say, at a tournament) a frantic affair.  This also makes me hesitate to bring the army to an apocalypse game. 

Oh, and guess what force you'll be facing if you come play 40K Space Hulk at Origins.