Tau Units: HQ Choice 2

While technically this is the second HQ choice, it's the first one to get painted as it's a relatively easy model to put together and paint.

This the first model that I've tried a blending technique on, and although it's not exactly 'Eavy Metal standard for my first attempt I'm quite please with it. The majority of the blending work is on the cloth folds on the front and back and on the skin of the hand and face. I left the metal silver and washed it with blue to get a nice clean feel but I'm not sure if I'm 100% happy with it yet.

I intend to place him in among the front lines as any Tau units with line of sight to him can re-roll failed LD checks. I'l probably play around with joining him to one of the Fire Warrior Teams for now. Should he be assaulted he not too shabby in close combat, with three Strength 5 attacks. He's accompanied by a shield drone because he has no Armour Save at all, and a Gun Drone which provides his only shooting ability, and provides another ablative wound. Neither of the drones are pictured, as I was too lazy to get the out of the case for the photo, sorry.

Random Update - Pre-visit check-list going well

So, remember I said I had a few things to do before my friend came visiting for the week?

So far it's going well. I've finished repairing and repainting the broken Necron Lord, I've finished the three partially completed Necron Immortals, who have now been joined by the fourth which I've built and painted up.

I've completed two Assault Terminators with Lightning Claws and have almost finished the next two, then I've just got the sergeant left to paint.

The second Tau Broadside is almost completed as well, with a shield drone. Just the Team Leader to paint next and they're all done as well.

We also sorted out the hobby/guest room at the weekend to make room for our guest.

However, I haven't sorted the Realm of Battle board or painted any more Tyranids.

Tau Units: Elite Choice 1

Here's the first of the two XV8 Crisis Suit teams in my Tau Hunter Cadre at the moment.

Consisting of two Suits; a Team Leader with twin-linked Missile Pods a Plasma Rifle and a Shield Drone (not pictured), and a second suit with a Missile Pod and Plasma Rifle with Shield Generator.

Capable of deploying via Deepstrike, moving 6" in the Movement Phase, shooting all weapons (at different target units), then moving another 6" in the Assault Phase, they are a highly mobile team which I envision using for anti-heavy infantry and light vehicle hunting.

The Plasma Rifles can always Rapid Fire or be fired at full range regardless of whether or not the Suits moved as they both have the Relentless rule thanks to being Jet Pack Jump Infantry. At Strength 6 and AP 2 they are good against such heavy infantry targets as Space Marine Terminators as they negate the normal 2+ Armour Save.

The Missile Pods have a range of up to 36" and are Assault 2 weapons; allowing 2 shots per Shooting Phase with Strength 7 and AP 4, allowing some additional fire-power to be landed on hard targets and giving them some bite against lighter vehicles.

They have a 3+ Armour Save and a 4+ Invulnerable Save from the Shield Generator (and Shield Drone), but although they have 2 Wounds each, they will die instantly if they fail a Save against a Strength 8 or higher weapon.

Random Update - What's been going on?

Productivity slowed down a bit lately, mainly due to being on holiday and the opening of a new GW store in my home town, which was a bit of a major suprise really!

I've managed to finish up both Tau Crisis Suit Teams, more Gaunts (I may be saying that for a while...), also about two-thirds finshed on two Assault Terminators.

I've finished off 3 of my good friend J's Necron Immortals by finally gluing in the green rods and gun barrel ends, and have started building a fourth and finally got round to repairing his Necron Lord's Warsycthe which had snapped off at the hand due to an unfortunate gravity/floor/bad angle intersection last year.

All I need to do before he gets here in September is finish an Immortal, paint the repair on the Lord, finish some Assault Terminators (and as many more Marines as I can manage), paint more Tau and Tyranid Gaunts, and flock a full 6x4 foot Relam of Battle Board - in 3 weeks (while working).

No problem...

Tyranid Units: Elite Choice 1

Here's the finished Tyranid Zoanthrope.

Although they can be fielded in broods of 3, I currently only have the one. I really wish they'd release them in plastic as I'd buy more but the current metal model is a pain to put together.

A potent Leadership 10 psyker in the game, it is 'armed' with two psychic shooting attacks; a Warp Lance and a Warp Blast.

The Warp Lance has a range of 18" as Strength of 10, with an AP of 1 which allows it to ignore enemy armour saves, and do increased damage against vehicles. In addition it also has the Lance rule which makes any enemy vehicle armour value higher than 12, count as 12!

Warp Blast is a 24" range Assault 1 Blast weapon with S3 AP3 using the small blast marker and is ideal for killing Space Marines. It once killed an entire squad of Ork Nobz in one shot with this power.

It acts as a Synapse Creature and so helps control the lesser Tyranid creatures such as the Termagaunts by allowing any within 12" to ignore their Instinctive Behaviour, and it causes enemy psykers to  take any Psychic Tests on 3D6 instead of 2D6.

There will be more of these in time, it just comes down to getting everything else done first.

Tyranid Units: Termagaunt Test Models

Here are the two Tyranid Termagaunts that I painted up as testers for the army colour scheme.

Finally settled on a quick paint scheme of the following steps:

1. Spray Chaos Black Undercoat.
2. Base coat of Gretchin Green foundation paint.
3. Paint all armour plates with Hormagaunt Purple foundation paint.
4. Paint claws and blades Chaos Black.
5. Wash entire model with Badab Black wash.
6. Wash armour plates and body with Leviathan Purple wash.
7. Paint eyes and tounges with Iyanden Darksun yellow foundation paint.
8. Paint base.

This is a quick paint scheme as after step 1, steps 2-5 can be done in a single sitting. After step 5 you need a day for the wash to totally dry, after which step 6 can be done, and a day later steps 7 and 8 can be done to finish up.

After step 6, further highlighting of the armour plates can be carried out using Hormagaunt Purple on the raised edges if required. This was done on the Zoanthrope as it was a larger model and has some  prominent armour plates with good ridges to highlight.

Using a batch painting process I should be able to do batches of 10 models and get through the 60ish Gaunts in no time.

Random Update - More Painting

Just finished painting the following units:

• The first Tau Crisis Suit Team, albeit without their Shield Drone.

• The two test Tyranid Termagaunts by painting the bases up - they now match the Zoanthrope.

• The Tau Etheral (HQ unit), also without Drones. This features my first real attempt at blending as the folds of the cloth were too tempting not to try it. I think it looks fine for my first attempt.

Pictures and unit descriptions will follow in due course.