Heart of the Swarm - Waill and Roll's 6mm Swarm - Introductory Post

 It's 6mm Warhammer 40,000, NOT Epic 40k!

A base on a base on a base.
My Gaunts are magnetised and ready to rip and tear.

Hello to everyone following this blog, Waill and Roll here (real name Tom). This will be my first year taking part in the Old World Army Challange, it is intimidating company to keep but I shall do my best not to disappoint.

My project is a bit of a weird one, for a couple of years I have been using 6-8mm models, sourced from GW's extinct and extant games, supplemented by 3D printed offerings, to play "travel-sized" Warhammer 40,000. That is to say, completely normal games of 40k  subsitituting all inch measurements for centimetres. 

I have been reffering to these games as "ShortyK" but it remains to be seen if that will catch on or merely induce groans.

What does that mean for my OWAC entry? Well it means I'm going to be painting a whole lot of miniatures.

For this year's OWAC we were asked to select a piece of classic art to act as a jumping off point. As a die hard Blanche fan, I had to go with the chaotic masterpiece below. This piece is contemporaneous with the Epic 40k Tyranid range that I'll be using for the majority of this project and an absolute banger. Every pixel of this image is Tyranid, from the spore choked skies to the tooth filled landscape, even the ground is hidden beneath the tide of chitin.

Chordelis falls to Hive Fleet Leviathan. Exterminus by Virus Bombs ordered soon after this pict-capture.

So how is a 6mm army going to work for the OWAC? Well what we've settled on is each of the little guys will count as 0.2 of a full sized miniature, everything bigger, like a Hive Tyrant, counts as a normal single mini. So most months I shall be painting a full squad of ten little guys along with a handful of larger beasties. Then there's a couple of bio-titans in the mix just to keep things interesting.

I shall be refrencing this classic colour scheme from the 3rd edition Tyranid Codex. An alternative look for Hive Fleet Leviathan. I have not been able to discover if this paint scheme can be attributed to any particular GW staffer, any info on that front would be greatly appreciated.

The Swarm as it stands so far, desperately in need of a Screamer Killer and some Zoanthropes,
but there's time for that as the year goes on.

Pictured above is the horde of minis I have ammassed so far. Things of note include the hand made 6mm spore mines and ripper swarm conversions, both of which I will show off in detail when I get around to painting them. The 28mm spore mine is gallantly standing in as a 6mm Mucolid Spore (a new-hammer Tyranid unit) and finally the big guy in the back is a 3d printed  Hierophant bio-titan.

The swarm as it stands looks something like this:

1x Dominatrix

3x Hive Tyrants

5x Warriors

1x Lictor

20x Termagants

10x Hormagants

10x Gargoyles

10x Genestealers

6x Ripper Swarms

3x Biovores

6x Spore Mines

1x Exocrine

1x Mucolid Spore

1x Trygon

1x Harridan

1x Hierophant

I have a few additions planned for this force beyone what is pictured above, a few more big beasties and poptentially some Genestealer Cult minis (including a Limo?), terrain too I imagine.

For now I shall leave you to barricade your doors, Leviathan is coming...