Mawloc!

So after a brief absence I return with gloriously crappy pics of the mawloc and termagants. After a lot of hesitation in painting the armour plates I must say I really enjoyed painting this guy,though the magnetised arms were somewhat fiddly (though having said that I'm glad I did magnetise them as it would have been very difficult to reach a lot of spots with the arms in way).

The sensory spines on the head were a last-minute addition as i felt the model was beginning to look a bit bland, so I blended them up to the old GW warlock purple with a few coats of quick drybrushing which turned out nicely considering the few minutes it took to do them. I'm trying to think of other models/areas where I can use this effect. perhaps the lictor feeder tendrils when i get round to making one.

I also had my first game of 40k in... 4-5 years a few days ago, against my best buddy's IG. a mech list with 3 leman russes, 2 basilisks, a hellhound, 2 storm trooper squads, 2 vet squads and a platoon. My army was slightly less coherent with a hive tyrant (2x twin linked devourers and old adversary) with 2 tyrant guard. 3 carnifexes, the mawloc, 2 units of 4 shooty warriors. 2 units of 25 termagants 2 hive guard and 2 units of 4 burrowing rippers.

the idea with the army was to use the rippers to DS in front (or behind, set-up permitting) of the opponent causing him to waste fire on them, and to DS right in the middle of the enemy's force, causing casualties and disruption while the rest of the army approaches.

the mass of tanks wasnt helpful, with all my monstrous creatures having died on the enemeies second shooting phase (the mass of high s/low ap ordnance and emperor-knows how many rapid firing plasma guns left the monstrous creatures dead or close to death) and the presence of a regimental advisor that reduces my DS rolls by 1 left me missing the mawloc until turn 4... by which point it was too late. 2 mawlocs will offset this and changing the old adversary rule to hive commander and perhaps taking a lictor or 2 to add further disruption might help.

im not giving up, as i feel this is one of the hardest armies to come against as the armour-14 leman russes are a bitch to shoot up with 'nids. I was impressed with the hive guard and toughness of the warriors tough will probably swap them for raveners and if i keep any of the carnifexes ill probably cchange their bl devourers for stranglethorn cannons or heavy venom cannons.

conversion-work on the hive guard continues and im looking forward to getting 4 of them painted. im also thinking of a lictor or 2 to add to the army, though am still thinking of conversion ideas for them and will likely go with something lictor-like but more akin to a praying mantis, with the large scything talons on  the front of the thorax and somewhat longer and spindlier than the talons we're used to seeing. another conversion based on by beloved plastic warrior sprue :)

the Fleet Grows

I haven't been posting as much as I've been busy with work and starting work on some boring conversions
(at least, they're boring for now...). I have managed to start work on some more gaunts (repaints of some older ones I had lying around which I cleaned up as best as I could) and a mwaloc (the first of 2 planned ones), though I have tried magnetising it so I can use it as a trygon/mawloc. I've so far done the head and still need to do the magnets for the arms... In hindsight I'll do the magnetising on the second one before I start painting next time..,.

I'm very happy with the way the blue turned out (excuse the pics, I'll take better ones once its done), though am really not looking forward to painting the back plates, a fact that is probably responsible for the week of inactivity on the painting...

the gaunts are in the same state of progress, though finsihing them off will take a lot less time than the mawloc, though then again they only account for about 50 points (6 fleshborers and 2 devourers). the Fleshborers have had their old arms (spinefists) removed and changed with new fleshborer arms. the rest of the models were cleaned up as best as I could (you can still see painted bases on some of them).

next up are three zoanthropes that I'm working on as a commission. looking forward to finishing these off.

And finally, I'm working on the first 2 of 6 planned hive guard. They're coming together nicely and are being built in a similar way to the tyrant guard, though using the larger tervigon crushing claw as a tail rather than the smaller carnifex one. their weapon is built from a warrior venom cannon stuck to the bottom of the torso, with middle arms made from the large warrior scything talons. the upper arms are atrophied and are part of the weapon. the upper carapace is extended, its shape changed, with milliput/GS. I wont post any pics until after they're done ;)