The last few weeks have seen me furiously scrambling to put the final touches of my 1500pt Tyranid force together. Of course, I chose to magnetize most of the options all for my big bugs, which has significantly added to the total time required..
That said, the end is in sight, and I now have a fully field-able force at my disposal!
The last two kits on my workbench were both from the new crop of releases - Harpy/Crone and the new Warriors box. I found both kits to be nice to work with, having minimal flash to clean up, and was very surprised to see that the Crone wings sit really tight with a just 4.75mm and 3mm pair of magnets holding them up to the body sockets. Although it was a pain to drill them out, I discovered a new method that allowed a much more accurate fit, but I feel that the square "peg" design instead of the ball-and-socket also helped. I thought I would need at least one brass rod as additional support, but it turns out I do not. The Harpy/Crone weapon arm sockets, however, gave me a bit of hassle, so I did have to drill some discrete support holes into the torso and use brass rods to keep them firmly in place.
As for my Warriors, they are meant to be counts-as Zoanthropes, so you can imagine my surprise when I realized just how small they were in comparison! To compensate, I cut out some styrofoam rocks and covered them in wood filler to make up the height. I guess I could have just bought Zoans and saved some time and effort, but a stubborn part of me still hopes for a plastic kit as part of a second wave, and I want to make sure I have the newest hotness (even though I do like the current sculpt. Besides, it seems that I will likely move to Malanthropes as my go-to synapse node unit at some point, so I can eventually un-convert the Warriors back into Warriors. All I need to do is buy some more 2mm magnets, which I am inserting into the 12 "optional" spikes from the Trygon kit (as if it needs MORE spikes to rip into my fingers...) to complete the feeble Zoan-esque arms.
Of course there is still a lot left to do, namely all the basing, my remaining Ripper bases, and some finishing touches with green-stuff (bolstering magnet arm sockets for better fit, etc). However, I have been quite delinquent on my Grey Knight painting goals, so it's time to get back to that!
As the rest of this week is shot due to work and other obligations, it won't be until next week that I will be able to crack open the paint bottles again, so I will hopefully have more to contribute on that front soon!
