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.

Tau Units: Heavy Support Choice 1

Here's the photos of the first usable heavy support unit for my Tau army.

A 298 point, XV88 Broadside Battlesuit Team, with Shield Drones.

With all 3 suits sporting twin-linked sets of the longest-ranged, most powerful weapon in the game, the 72", S10 AP1 Rail Cannon which is ideal for tanks and large creatures, together with 2 Smart Missile systems which allow for a total of 8 shots that ignore line-of-sight and can take down light vehicles and infantry with ease and the Team Leaders' twin-linked Plasma Rifles for some shorter ranged defensive power they can, on paper, at least "bring the rain".

They are able to move slowly and still bring the guns to bear on targets, and have the ability to split fire between 2 enemy units and the Team Leader can target a different enemy unit to the rest of the squad.

With a heavy 2+ armour save, backed up by 2 Shield Drones with 2+/4+ Invulnerable saves, and 2 Wounds each they should be able to weather a decent amount of fire-power before going down.

These guys should bring some heavy hitting which has been sorely missing in my last few games with the Tau.

More pics when they're fully painted, however for now here they are in all their glory:

Whole team

Team Leader and Drones

Nova Storm Units: Elite Choices 2

Here's the newly finished 5th Company Dreadnought. A towering metal walker machine piloted by a critically wounded Space Marine, who is now wired into the machines controls and life support until final death takes him.

It's the model from the Assault on Black Reach box set, and is therefore armed with a Multi-melta and Storm Bolter, and a Dreadnought Close Combat weapon.

Being a Walker unit, it moves the same was as Infantry which means it can traverse Dangerous and Difficult terrain the same way, which allows it to enter buildings and other areas where traditional vehicles cannot go.

It can move and fire both weapons, and is most useful in an anti-vehicle or monstrous creature role due to the Multi-melta which gives it a 24" range S8 AP1 shot (with an 2D6+8 for vehicle armour pen. if within half range.)

It has a decent front armour of 12, which all shots are directed against to represent the manoeuvrability of the machine, never retreats from assaults, and can perform Death or Glory! against other vehicles that attempt to Ram it. (A Dreadnought punching out an enemy tank makes me chuckle..)

It is equipped with Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight, neither of which have been modelled on yet, but they will be later when I've found some parts.

In games with no vehicles or other units worth hitting with the Multi-melta, it makes a great tar-pit for large units of fearless but weak infantry (I'm looking at you Termagaunts...) where it cannot be harmed as the minimum Strength needed to Glance the Dreadnought is 6, and can, if it hits, auto kill 4 enemy per player turn. (until the savvy Tyranid player realises that all he need do is move his Synapse Creatures out of range, removing the Gaunts Fearless rule and sending them scampering for cover. That's not happened yet though!)

Nova Storm Units: Elite Choices 1 - Concluded

Here's the second 5 man Combat Squad of the 10 man Terminator Squad that makes up the first Elite choice of the army.

This Combat Squad consists of 4 Terminators with Storm Bolters and Powerfists, and the Terminator with Heavy Flamer and Powerfist. Unlike the first half, their primary use is anti-infantry or heavy shock troops, delivered into the enemy battle lines via the Deepstrike rules.

Capable of laying down 8 Strength 4 shots from the Storm Bolters and 1 Strength 5 Template shots from the Heavy Flamer; all while moving and backed up in assault with of 10 Power Weapon Attacks from the Powerfists which are at Strength 8, and all of which Ignore Armour Saves make this unit an all round threat to anything nearby.

The downside is they can't Assault after arriving by Deepstrike; although they can shoot. They can also take a significant amount of fire due the their 2+ Armour Save and 5+ Invulnerable Save (for those occasions that they are hit by an AP1 Melta weapon or some form of heavy ordinance weapon).

As Marines they have the standard And They Shall Know No Fear rules, along with Combat Tactics.

And finally, here's the unit in it's 10-man entirety: