Blanchitsu Lictor TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

July was the last month of the 2nd Edition Army challenge. I had a couple of models lined up, including some bonus projects that were not in my original pledge. As usual, no plan survives contact with the enemy and I ended up just scraping through a single model.

I wasn't really in the mood for painting my usual scheme on this model, so I decided to have a go at an idea I have had rattling around my head for a while. I decided to have a go at painting it in a "Blanchitsu" style, using the kind of colour palette we see in John Blanche's iconic artworks. If you are not familiar with his work, this would have to be my favourite, a Dark Mechanicus character from the Horus Heresy:

I mixed a bunch of these colours on my wet palette and just dived into the flow-state, not surfacing until it was finished. It was quite liberating to not worry too much about where each colour was going and just paint for once. I am really happy with the result; I will let you decide whether it was a successful foray into Blanchitsu or not.

Strangely enough, the Lictor doesn't look that out of place with the rest of my Tyranids. The use of fairly neutral colours was very forgiving in that regard.

When the final post goes up on the challenge website I will do a wrap up article with some shots of the final army.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Malefactor TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

This month I have been working on a Tyranid Malefactor for 2nd Ed. 40k. The Tyranid army list of that era was conspicuous in its lack of transport options for Tyranids. Many players at the time were ok with this, as transports were considered to be rolling coffins anyway, except perhaps for Landraiders, which were very expensive. Armorcast released this beauty, which is capable of transporting a mid sized brood of beasties into the heart of combat. 

It has some lightweight point defence weapons, which have the tendency to nibble away at a few models that get too close. It can also attack in close combat, which elevated it above the level of other transports in my opinion. It is like having a Rhino with two powerfists!

Of course, in 10th Edition, every transport can make close combat attacks with its tracks, etc. But in 2nd Ed. it was a real novelty to be able to hit back.

Painting this model was a real joy, though all the orange/brown blending did drive me a little crazy. It is just a great old sculpt, well worth headhunting if you are an old school Tyranid collector. I particularly love the gills/spiracles at the back, where the Nids can probably chill out during transport.

With one month to go in the painting challenge I can feel myself running out of steam. My health has been declining as well, which means I am going to have to make the final push to finish a little earlier in the month than usual. 

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Gargoyles and Friends TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Month 4 of the 2nd Edition Army Painting challenge is done and dusted. My slice has been many months in the making, with the construction of these Gargoyles completed in 2023.

I have been quietly dreading this paint job, the Gargoyles have such tiny features where the flamespurts meet the mouth and hands. I think I managed to do them justice in the end, but it really was a real challenge for me. The flamespurts in 2nd Ed. use the flamer template, so a brood of Gargoyles can really disrupt enemy squads and open-topped vehicles (the driver is going to take a hit). 

To top off the slice, I painted 8 Spore Mines to use with my Biovores from last month. I used some older models which I feel have a little more character. I think they look like little see creatures. I really love how they turned out; the extra time I spent on blending in some lighter green shades was worth it.

I have already started on my June slice, which includes another massive Armorcast figure. The Maleceptor can be used to deliver a brood deep into the heart of an enemy formation, or... It can burst into goop and take the brood with it; them's the breaks in 2nd Ed.!!

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Exocrine and Biovores TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

During April I spent some time painting some fire support units for my old school Tyranids. The large one is an Exocrine, produced by Armorcast. I think the Hive Fleet Proteus scheme works on it quite well, particularly the bright green ribbing. It was yet another exercise in "trusting the process"; I was really sceptical about painting the eyes yellow, but heavy black shading around the edges helps to differentiate them from the orange armour.

In 2nd Edition, Biocannon has a whopping 4d6 + 8 armour penetration. On average you are getting 20, which is enough to penetrate the track on some of the heaviest tanks. You still need to roll well to penetrate the hull or turret, but it can manage it with a maximum penetration of 32! The front hull of a Landraider, it's toughest value, is only 22. Penetrated locations continue to take damage every turn, which makes Exocrines the bane of vehicles.

Biovores are only 20 points each, but limited to 1 per 750 points of Tyranids. The reason for that is that they are very effective. Spore mines can mess up infantry, and have a solid armour penetration of 2d3+d6+10. An average of 17 will chew through a track nicely. The kicker is, once penetrated, the hit will continue to do damage, to random locations. So a penetrating hit to the track may lead to a crippling hit to the hull or turret. This makes them excellent!

Next month is going to be tricky, with a bunch of spore mines and gargoyles to do. I am not sure if I will be able to get it all done, but I will give it a shot.

See you across the table,

Marc 

2nd Edition Genestealers TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

This month I worked on some classic Genestealers for the 2nd Edition Army Challenge. They were very much a case of "trusting the process", as it was very hard to tell throughout the paint job whether they were going to look any good or not.

I really like it how these old Genestealers share the same design elements on their back as the old Screamer Killer Carnifex; painting the bright green ridges was so satisfying!

Their faces took an entire paint session to do; hours of painting individual tiny teeth. Thankfully, the rest was pretty easy; it's time to roll out the giant bloody stamp!

For April I am working on some fire support with two Biovores and a huge Armorcast Exocrine, all primed and ready to go.  I can't help but feel I am procrastinating, though. The Gargoyles I have to do seem like a much greater challenge than anything else I have left. Ahhh,  well, we'll see how it goes...

See you across the table,

Marc

2023 Hobby Year Review

 

Hi folks,

Well, it has been awhile. This year has been a quiet one on the hobby front, if painting a 2200 point 2nd Edition army can be described as such. Participating in the Cowabunga 2nd Edition Army challenges is both awesome and utterly time consuming, taking me out of the mainstream of modern 40K for 6 months in the year and leaving me fairly burned out for the following 6 months. 

I started off the 22/23 hobby season with some palette cleanser projects, painting some Ravenwing bikes (which are about to leave the modern scene forever) and a Redemptor Dreadnought for DreadTober.

I have since dropped the bikes from my modern list, so they are left warming the shelf as a nice reminder of how waiting too long to paint stuff can come back to bite you. The dreadnought has made its way into a 2000 point list of 10th Edition Dark Angels I will be working on.

You don't have to scroll too far back to see the models I painted for the 2nd Ed. challenge. My Hive Fleet Proteus nids were fairly well received in the old school community, the paint scheme seemed to tick the boxes in terms of colour choice and overall vibe. My Termagants managed to earn me some Terminator Honours in the first month, which I am very proud of.

Towards the end of the challenge I helped write a short campaign pack for 2nd Edition: Return to Hamelia XI which takes a lot of inspiration from the Jurassic Park films. I wrote some of the terrain rules for the campaign and it was awesome to see some hobbyists really run with those ideas and create entire gaming boards to play the campaign. I managed to play a game with my son, which was his first experience playing 2nd Edition. I think he has a greater appreciation for the streamlined game we play in 10th Edition, though he misses the vortex grenades! I have also been able to connect with some 2nd Ed. players in the mountains over here, about 1.5 hours from where I live. We are hoping to play some games together to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of our favourite edition. 

 

Over the Christmas break I spent a couple of nights playing Kill Team at a local FLGS with a gaming club. The games were fun and I got along with the people pretty well, but ultimately I had trouble turning up regularly after work. When real life turned the screws, it was one of the first things I dropped, which I really regret now. I can't think of any way to change things, though. Family has to come first [shrugs sadly].

With 10th dropping recently, I have reconnected with some mates to learn the new game and throw down some dice. So far I have enjoyed the fact that stratagems are taking a back seat. The additional streamlining hasn't really effected anything that I care about, so the faster games are purely an advantage for me. I have played games with my Nids, "first born" Dark Angels and Iron Snakes, all narrow losses I can easily chalk up to army selection and bad luck (as always!). The key thing is that all the games were fun. I'll be playing more regular games from now on, so my Primaris Dark Angels will be a key feature in my To-Do list next year.

I'll finish the season with a photo from the last game that I watched; I was too tired to participate but happily played the part of rulebook checker! Here is a photo of Mephiston drinking some quality Ork brew, outside an old school Ork pub, deep in turn 5; a worthy objective if ever there was one.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Month 6 Complete

 

Hi folks,

June was the final month of the 2nd Edition Army Challenge, run by Dr The Viking over at The Cowabunga Journal. I had huge plans for the month, but real life really turned the screws on me. In the end, I was lucky to scrape through. Lucky is perhaps the wrong word, I did plan for multiple contingencies, I just wasn't expecting things to go quite as pear shaped as they did. 

My last slice included 10 Hormagaunts. If you have ever handled one of these you will know how unbalanced the models are. Most people attach lead weights to the underside of the bases to help keep them on the table! I love how following the established paint scheme for my Hive Fleet has produced something that looks so different. The old school studio collection was similar, in that the Hormagaunts, Genestealers and Biovores had slightly different colours when compared to the rest of the army. These gaunts, with t heir prominent purple heads, seem to stand out in the same way when placed with the rest of the collection:

The challenge was, once again, an amazing experience. There is something special when you get a bunch of like-minded people together in an artistic space and add some hard deadlines. About 1/3 of the group didn't make it to the end of the challenge, but we all gave it a red hot go. The camaraderie was awesome and I am very much looking forward to the next challenge (if there is one!).

I have a couple more models I want to finish for this army, before I will be content to say it is complete. With the school holidays just started there is a good chance I will get some more done in the short term, though I am also very keen for a break. A total palette cleanser may be in order over the next couple of days.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Month 5 Complete

 

Hi folks,

For the 5th month of the challenge I worked on some really iconic models from the 2nd Edition range; a classic "Screamer Killer" Carnifex and a Lictor. Both play important roles in an old school army in terms of target saturation and disruption. At the start of the month I was planning to paint two of each, but half-way through the month I realised I was in a bit of trouble and had to reduce my workload to just stay in the challenge!

I spent a lot of time working on the blend on the claws and getting shading into the armour and skin tones. Edge highlighting was a bit laborious, but I was really happy with how it turned out.

This isn't actually the first time I have painted one of these old Lictors. I did one back in the 90's for a mate, which was green with some bright spot colours on the claws. I was pretty proud of it when it was finished but I think my mate was expecting something more like the box art. This one doesn't match the box art either, but I think it has the right vibe.

For the final month of the challenge I have a brood of 10 Hormagaunts to do, which are a real pain to put together (all kinds of physical balancing issues). They are going to be tough to do, but I guess that it is why it is called a challenge!

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Month 4 Complete

 

Hi folks,

It has been a while since I actually finished these, which is a reflection of how things are going for me at the moment. Life has just been pretty intense and I am not quite sure what to make of it all. 

The two models I painted for the challenge last month are both Epic 40K monsters at 28 mm scale. Unlike other large creatures from the Tyranid Codex, they are follow the same rules as vehicles, with armour values and hit locations. The Dactylis (left) lobs bile pods at the enemy that hit like battle cannon rounds. They are a huge amount of fun to use on the tabletop, if you can keep them alive! The Haruspex (right) hits like a ton of bricks in close combat. It also has two acid spray weapons that can eat through both vehicles and lightly armoured troops pretty efficiently. The Dactylis was produced by Forge World back in the 90's under licence (not that Forge World), and the Haruspex was made by Armorcast.

I painted the backdrop during the last big fires over here, which were so bloody awful that it has taken me this long to feel comfortable using it!

This month I am working on some Carnifexes and Lictors, which are bucket list models for me. 

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Month 3 Complete

 

Hi folks,

I am half-way through the 4th season of the 2nd Edition Challenge and really starting to feel the burn. I had originally thought that I would get some Gargoyles done as well, to create a bit if a flying circus for my flying Hive Tyrant, but just constructing those things was difficult enough. They will have to spill over into the Month 4 pool of unpainted models. 

I did manage to get my other two models completed, which I had originally pledged for the challenge. The first is a more traditional Hive Tyrant, armed with a barbed strangler, spinefist and bonesword. It would have been unusual to see one armed like this back in the day, as the kit came with a lash whip. I like the spinefist, though, as it gives the tyrant something to shoot when it moves, albeit a short range. The barbed strangler is a move-or-fire weapon, so has the effect of slowing the Tyrant down. The spinefist would give it an extra force multiplier when things get up close.

The zoanthrope is such a classic, ugly, model. The newer versions depicted the Zoanthrope as a creepy floating brain bug, which I really love, but he old model hits me right in the nostalgia. Zoanthropes are great to use on the tabletop in 2nd Edition, particularly using the Dark Millenium rules. They add to the warp flux that powers the Tyrants but can also unleash devastating psychic blasts all by themselves. I wasn't sure how to paint this guy, as I would usually add some kind of glowy brain effect that does not really fit my 2nd Ed. scheme. I decided to just trust in the process and used the purple spot colour, with some extra highlights to bring attention to the veins. 

 

This month there is the subliminal pressure to paint something armoured for Armour in April. I have a couple of Carnifexes to work on, but I think I will have a go at painting some of my Armorcast figures instead. 

See you across the table,

Marc

Monster March TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

March has passed us by and I somehow managed to complete this monstrosity for Monster March. Having used winged Tyrants in 40K for ages, I was excited to have a go at creating an old school version. The key was to find wings that were the right scale, I think, and these Dark Pegasus pieces really tick that box. 

The arms were left over pieces from the Tyranid warriors that I worked on last month. With only a few days to go before deadline, I realised I didn't actually get a tail with this guy, so I used one of the toxin spikes I had left over from my 9th Ed. Trygons.

To make him usable in 2nd Ed. 40K I created two custom biomorphs, Chiropterous Wings (which work like a jump pack) and psychotropic sting (which works like a one-shot digi-weapon, that also uses the hallucinogenic effects table). If you want to check out the full rules you can download them from the 2nd Edition Army Challenge Month 3 post. Be sure to check out the other completed projects for this month too, there were heaps of amazing models.

Overall, I am really happy with how this model turned out and I am looking forward to adding a bit of a flying circus to my list, with some old school Gargoyles. Next post I'll have some photos of my main projects for Month 3 of the challenge, a more traditional Hive Tyrant and a Zoanthrope (with legs!).

See you across the table,

Marc

Monster March Progress

 

Hi folks,

I have just realised that March is almost over (madness!!) and I haven't posted anything about #MonsterMarch7. I bombed out the challenge last year due to a horror run of bad health, so have been hoping to make amends this year. With the 2nd Ed. Army Challenge about to reach the half-way mark, I was also keen to work on a project that wouldn't feel like I was dividing my efforts. For that reason I have chosen a 2nd Edition Hive Tyrant that will work well with the rest of the army I am currently painting. I have converted it to have wings, which was not an option back in 2nd Edition, but makes for a fun custom biomorph. It opens up an opportunity for me to write a unique Codex entry that can also contribute to the overall challenge. At the moment I am painting it parallel to the other two units I actually pledged for the 2nd Ed. Army Challenge this month: another Hive Tyrant (armed with a barbed strangler, bonesword and spinefist) and a classic Zoanthrope.

So far, I have been able to block in the main colours on each primary sub-assembly, as well as some washes, highlights and other details.

At the moment, I am working on blocking in the main colours on the smaller sub-assemblies, including the arms, bioweapons and tails. This is about as much work as painting a whole unit of little bugs, so I still have a lot of work to do, followed by the basing. I feel pretty confident that I will get them done, though.

To complete one of the side-challenges (secondary objectives?) I have also constructed a faction specific terrain piece. In this case, I have a built a Hive Node, designed to look like a coral outcrop with stinging fronds. The colours fit my swarm pretty well, I think!

That's it for now, hopefully I have some good shots at the end of the month to show off these finished projects.

See you across the table,

Marc