Mustafa’s GSC and Nids. Total so far 963 points (727 points)

Rank and file month 3 

Banged out a lot this month! 28 minis to bring the army total up to 963 points!

Genestealer Patriarch 72pts

20 Genestealers 560pts

5 Spore Mines 50pts

2 Biovores 40pts

Total 727pts

I wanted to see how much I could manage using just washes and drybrushing. With all their textures, I thought that Nids would be the perfect choice to give it a try on.

First up, the Patriarch and Biovores.

The Patriarch is from the recent Space Hulk. I do have an old school metal one on a throne, but I’m saving him for the Leader month.

The Biovores were great fun to paint. Loads of lovely textures on them.

Next up, spore mines. Simple but quite characterful little minis.

Finally, the Genestealers.  Can’t have a genestealer cult without stealers! They are a mix of Space Hulk and regular ones. Don’t look too closely or the mould lines will get you!!!

And finally, a group shot of  everything that’s been done so far!

Next month will most likely be more from the nid side of the army.

Cheers :)

AdamH's Tyranids - In the jungle, welcome to the jungle! [Wrap-up post]

Well, that’s it, another challenge is in the bag. I think like a lot of challengers I find that the work I get done during these six months are by far the most productive I am throughout the year, and in fact since joining the OWAC three years ago I have painted more models than the previous 25 years in the hobby.

Anyway, here is my ugly face and my even uglier kitchen (we have recently moved, it is getting re-modelled soon), both of which I have tried to offset by the inclusion of my fluffy painting companion:

So the thing I like most about this army is the cohesive nature of it all, I feel it really does look like a swarm and despite the various bright colours they all seem to work together:

I am also shocked with how many I managed to get done, out pacing my original goals and the overlord’s minimum requirements:

I still have plenty more Nids in the box awaiting painting, I may do them for a future OWAC as it would be nice to have a fuller force and be able to field all of the available units:

So what about next year I don’t hear you ask; well I haven’t 100% decided but I am leaning heavily towards a sexy group of demon ladies. However, I do have several other forces in dire need of painting: Chaos Dwarfs, 2^nd Ed Necrons, more Skaven, more Brets, and of course more Nids. I think I will mull it over until the end of the year however will continue prepping all of the forces just in case one of them takes my fancy.

But until then my dear readers, I hope you have enjoyed this year’s challenge as much as I know all of us have. And Sam, I’m coming for you buddy! your puny Arnie rejects are going to be biomass soon enough!

AdamH's Tyranids - We've got fun and games (230 Points)

We are back again with more bright red, second edition alien gribblies!

Rank and File #2

So, this month was more of the same really, more termagants painted in the same style as last month's entry, however armed with different weapons, Spike Rifles:

Emboldened by my previous month's success I decided to add a few extra models on top of my original plans. I find that the most difficult thing I encounter when painting is settling on a scheme, once I have that down I can break the steps down into blocks and batch paint my way through units fairly easily. Therefore, adding models that follow my established scheme is pretty easy, thus I present to you the first of my surprise additions this month; a Biovore and three Spore Mines:

Finally, I have the first of what I consider "the advanced organisms" within the hive fleet. For certain models I plan to introduce blue as gradients over the parts of the model that I consider to be defining features. The first of these I painted this month:

As you can see the top half of the model here has that blue gradient, implying that the back claws/blades and the head (i.e., intelligence) are mutations or improvements that the lictor has over the rest of the swarm. Not sure if it really conveys that message as a model on its own but hopefully when you see some of the other models I use this technique it will make sense. I guess at worst case the blue breaks up the tide of red and makes for a slightly more interesting force to look at on the tabletop.

This month’s Rank and File submission is as follows:

UNIT	EXTRAS	#	TOTAL
Termagant Brood (6)	Spike Rifle (1)	12	84
Biovore (20)		1	20
Spore Mines		3	30
Lictor		1	96
TOTAL			230

Next month will be comprised entirely of new models (so no more Termagants for a while) including another new one not listed in my original target force.

There are some great forces coming together so far in the challenge with a crazy high standard of painting this year. Special shout out to Tom's Bad Moon Orks, he put out some amazing models this month so great job!