Large Alien Sacks

Hive Fester got some reinforcements, some tyranid artillery. And yes, they are old school.

I am a fan of biovores. As much as I like giant killer monsters (like the other heavy support options), I am a guard player at heart, so I need some plates to drop. These guys can drop two large plates of decent anti-infantry barrage, and for less than 100 points.

The sacks were not big enough, so I enlarged them. The only other conversion done (other than the plague) was the tentacle-face, which is essential in Hive Fester.

This brings the swarm up to about 1600 points, they are growing....
Until next round, be well.

Tyrant Guard

I got my tentacles on three of the old tyrant guard with lash whips and riot shields, so Fester gets some back-up. I like these guys, they already have the pox modeled on!

Of course, there needed to be a squid-face, it's a Fester thing...

Not much conversion on these guys, they are creepy enough, just some extra armour plates, new rending claws and new bases. They should help the tyrant live a turn or two longer!

Back to painting, until next round!

Warp Wednesday 23: On The Table

These are not the droids you are looking for, these are my three 'test'-droids for the mercenaries. I was recently acquainted with Imperial Armour 8 (the ork/elysian one) and got some funny ideas (sky talon for IKE? A dune-buggy driven by beastmen? lolz.....)

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the painting table these two have been threatening passers by, bunnies, mountains, paint, and pirate girls for a little while. Smash and Grab have had painted skin for a while, and then I started painting eldar...

Tony stands guard over the painting table, with his cheese wedges. Mmmmmm cheese....sorry, I just like cheese. 'Awesome' is defined as 'cheese and bacon' where I come from.

And lastly, due to greater range capacity, Marshal. This beastie is what I call a 'claymore' super heavy. It has a couple of missiles.

And that is what is on the painting table (or; very wip stuff). Happy Wednesday,
Ricalope.

Warp Wednesday 18: Whiptails

Hello all, time for another Wednesday!

We will continue getting to know the 609th, but this week, I will begin to discuss the subject of xenology. Xenology is study of xenos biology and cutures ranging from eldar to tyranids. Today's topic: Tyranid Whiptails (tyrannus ---- slicius).

The biomorph known as a whiptail is a simple one and not very common in many known Hive Fleets. The whiptail is a strong, almost metallic, hollow cord instead of the blunt tails of most tyranid organisms. They can be found in many different organisms, from rippers to carnefexes, although rarely in full swarms. Most commonly, a small percentage (2-5%) of a swarm exhibits this biomorph.

The cord contains two long muscles which allow it to coil rapidly, ensnaring potential prey. The end of a whiptail is hooked, allowing the organism to stab its prey repeatedly. Although it is not prehensile, a whiptail may be used for labor duties within the hive.

The whiptail does sacrifice some mobility for its viciousness. The end of a tyranid's tail grows dense, becoming a counterbalance, without this weight the beast moves slower and not as well balanced as its kin. Due to this, whiptailed tyranids are often found at the rear of the swarm, where they ensure all of the biomass they pass by is dead.

(and I am making digestion pits...)
Until the next warp storm hits, be well,
Ricalope.

Tony's Larvae Pictures

He is bigger than Frankie, has more firepower than a squad of marines, and has a great smile. His name is Tony, he is one of those six-wound regenerating monstrosities I can't spell.

He is made of a 'smiley' carnifex head, tyrgon body and scythes, hive tyrant legs and some spore mines. And, as always, a lot of putty and wire.

A happy monster is a good monster...

Added back plates and spines to protect those fleshy bits. The tail is made from a venom cannon ammo tendril, never throw away 'nid bitz.

I mashed a bunch of beads into the putty for his belly, then held it in place with more spines for that 'gripping' feel. The guitar wire will eventually feed into the guns.

I decided to opt for the assault 20 gun, instead of the other options, and thought immediately of huge devourers. It wasn't until later that I realized that they were fleshborers, but I am going to stick with it. To represent Tony's additional flame templates, more bio-weapons were added to his back, made from the ends of the venom cannons used by his gun arms.

There he is with guns attached. They are very heavy with all that putty, luckily there were a couple of warriors to lend a claw. There is still much to do, which will likely warrant another post in the future.

They just keep getting bigger....
Ricalope.

A Day in the Life of an Ankle Biter

Mr. Huggy and some of his Black Legion had stumbled upon a infestation of tyranids from Hive Fester last Sunday. Squiggly-face began the long float from the far right corner along with Franky and the ankle-biters (aka rippers).

Mr. Huggy began with the termagaunts, killing them all. The Quadruped moved towards Franky, completely ignoring the ankle-biters who were much relieved.

While Franky and Qudruped traded blows, and the ankle-biters slithered towards the terminators, the Triplets floated forwards. Except for their initial warp lances at Quarduped, the marines continued to back off keeping themselves out of range, they were getting frustrated.

Once finished with the gaunts, Mr. Huggy set about ripping apart the warriors behind them. The Black Legion must have realized that this was not where they wanted to hang around, as the swarm slithered and skipped towards them they dug into what cover they could.

Franky had eviscerated the clawed chaos robot and wandered over to help out his little ripper buddies with the terminators. As terminators are wont to do, they were holding their line nicely until a monstrous death-beast arrived.

Franky was regenerating his wounds he got from the robot (shrapnel I guess) and tearing apart a couple of terminators, even those berserkers didn't worry him much. The problem was, Mr. Huggy had finished off the warriors and counter-attacked Franky, causing enough wounds for the skull-taker's powerfist to finish off the monster. The rippers went nuts, as Franky died the little buggers killed a terminator AND Mr.Huggy. Never trust a poisonous worm-thing.

The Triplets got in range to give the chaos marines large globs of warp energy. The three of them melting marines, and Fester approaching and spitting death, caused the chaos filth to change tactics slightly. They were on full defensive now.

Fester began pinning down the fire-support squad, while the Triplets blasted anything not in combat with ankle-biters. (Those little freaks lasted over three full turns of combat, with terminators....poisonous rippers are awesome.)

Sadly, the little ankle-biters couldn't get past the terminators and nibble on the other marines. The Black Legion still had enough numbers to seize a victory (or a tactical retreat as the case may be) and won the battle. Until next time crunchy chaos snacks!

Warp Wednesday Fifteen: The Return

Happy Wednesday, it's been a while, but once again it is Wednesday in the warp. It is a bit winterly in the warp today, Tzeentch's work, I'm sure of it.

Some of you may have noticed a poll (up near the top of the page) about who to bring to GottaCon this year. Sorry folks, the guard are out this year, they fought last year.

As many of you know, GottaCon is a gaming convention on our little frozen island, and since last year was so good I am gladly going again. This time there is a painting competition sponsored by Dice Bag Games, in addition to all the other shenanigans.

The easiest question is which army to bring to the 40k tournament. It honestly boils down to: a) eldar that might win some games, look neat, and is all painted, or b) tyranids that still need 50 points of work, have barely been played, and is entirely modified.

I often hear about awards that get handed out at the end of a tournament, and I don't have any, I have different goals in competitive play. I try to get good scores, specifically sportsmanship and showmanship, but those are secondary. I play in tournaments because it is a chance to play against new opponents with amazing armies.

In short, I get to play AND drool.

There is the problem that, if I bring Hive Fester, using swarm armies at tournaments might cause some to cry fowl, and possibly slow down the game to much.

On a side note, those of you who read WW's, I am curious as to what you want to read about. Background of the armies? Hobby stuff? Insane, barely wargaming-associated rants? Reviews? What blog I read that was way too awesome? My lunch menu? Or do you just look at the pictures (that's cool too)...

Well, as I have said before, it is good to be back blogging. It is even better to have the limitless inspiration of the other blogs I follow, I missed you guys.
Yup, still snowing (and I thought we were tropical...)
Ricalope.

The Triplets

Meet the Triplets of Hive Fester.
Or, as they are commonly known, Floating Brain Bugs.
AKA: zoanthropes.
Aren't they cute?

They are built from a current zoanthrope, one of the previous edition ones, a hormagaunt body, and mawloc bitz.

The way I figure it, the bugs with the closest connection to the hive mind would display the most variance within a brood.

Or maybe I just wanted to make the most horrible zoanthropes my bitz box could....

Squidface is possibly my favourate, he's the one with tentacle-face.
...
Ricalope.