Hive Fleet Ceryx - In the dark of Space, a Shadow stirs...

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!

Initial Grey Knights Impressions - Alladin's Afternoon Pilsner Musings #1

Hello All,

I finally had a chance to pick up Codex: Grey Knights and do a quick read-through (that, and some blogs and articles from gamers much wiser than me).

Ta-Da!! ... ... ... (crickets)

Mini-Tutorial: DIY Twin-Linked Brainleech Devourers (part 2)

Well that was fast!

After playing around with some Green Stuff, I have completed the first arm!

This took a lot longer as I am still very much a novice when it comes to sculpting. However, all things considered, I am happy with the result.

As for the second arm, I decided to re-pose the claw as it was drooping down quite significantly. I clipped the claw as best as I could to avoid collateral tissue/chitin damage, then after a bit of clean-up with the hobby knife I drilled and pinned the claw back on at better angle. This was followed by a fairly successful Green Stuff fill-in.

I still have a bit of cleanup (mold lines, etc.) to do on both arms, but will wait until the Green Stuff has dried.

Pictures below. Hope this tutorial was actually useful!

(As a side-note, since I had to do sculpting anyway, I managed to finish magnetizing my Tervigon arm sockets, as well as all 3 sets of Trygon/Mawloc talon sockets, as well as the Trygon/Mawloc head carapace, jaw area and pincer sockets! I still need to drill and magnetize the talons, pincers, and remaining head carapace, but all-in-all a productive day!)

Finally, a pic of the Devourer on my Carnifex... and yes, I do realize that the radical angle I decided to place the arm magnet is a bit odd. Live and learn.

Mini-Tutorial: DIY Twin-Linked Brainleech Devourers (part 1)

In a first for this blog, I attempt to post something actually useful!

This morning I decided to jump in and get started on my brainleech devourers. Previously, I had scoured the net for inspiration, and found a lot of great resources. Of course, now that Forgeworld makes their own, there is always the option to buy them. However I still find them to look a bit flimsy, and besides they are super expensive and hard to come by.

With my research complete I decided I wanted to use Crushing Claws as the base for my conversion. I first saw this idea used on a showcase that GW had featured on their online blog (now gone). However, a bit of Google Image searching paid off, and here is a link to the owner's Hive Fleet Titan flickr feed. There are a lot of great conversion ideas on there, and I don't assume to come anywhere close to his skill level.

The Great Devourer...

...of my precious time.

When facing a seemingly insurmountable horde of grey sprues, my motivation to keep up on this blog is drastically diminished. That said, I am officially done assembly with my gribblies* and can ramp up work finishing my bigger bugs.

I really want to get my force assembled, so I can actually start learning to play. If I muster up the courage I may sign up for a 40K escalation league  at my FLGS that starts this week. I don't have all of my army built-up but it may give me the motivation to power through the remainder!

Either way, completing my Tyranid assembly frees me up to go back to painting my GK's (who are now pseudo-obsolete thanks to the Codex drop next week).

Once we get the Codex in our hands I will hopefully have more to add!

It he light at the end of the tunnel is at least visible now, if not more than a speck...

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*This does not include the basing, which I will worry about closer to when I am ready to paint. Unlike the big bugs, the gribblies won't have complex bases.