Waill and Roll's First Wave is Birthed. (399 points)

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

Pict Capture of Hive Tyrant on Chordelis

> Reinforcements needed...Hab Block Maximus has fallen...

> Massive Xeno-form nesting in ruins...Bombard location...

> Swarms everywhere...current position compromised...

> Is anybody there?..

> Oh Emperor... It's...

> Ruins of Maximus occupied by gargantuan xeno womb beast...

> Birthing more of the gunner beasts, dozens...

> There's something else...

> I'm taking the shot...

> ...

> It sees me...

I can't believe we are already at the end of January and it's time to post some ShortyK progress.

In order to get a little ahead I started the month by priming and basecoating absolutely everything, it felt really good to tick off a few processes for the entire horde. The real biomass of this months painting however was the following 26 models (points values as per 2nd Edition, where possible): 

1 Hive Tyrant with Venom Cannon, Bonesword and Lashwhip 219 points, 

1 Exocrine N/A points, 

20 Termagants with Fleshborers 120 points, 

3 custom Ripper Swarms 60 points, 

and a 3D printed Tervigon with hand sculpted additions N/A points.

Total points for the month = 399

The vintage Epic40k Tyranid sculpts are a bit of a mixed bag. The plastics are almost two dimentional, reminisent of Egyptian bas reliefs, the metals on the other hand are very characterful sculpts though many of them are radically different from the modern versions of those Bioforms. This is most evident with the Exocrine, a creature that bares no resemblance to it's modern plastic version, here it is a strange bug tank, a flesh gun with seemingly no means of self propulsion. Tee Hive Tyrant on the other hand is a more direct ancestor of the modern beast, I have painted one of the three available Tyrant models, the others shall follow in future months. The Gaunts were very easy to paint and took contrast paints well, I think these Epic40k Tyranid plastics are a little oversized compared with other 6-8mm offerings from GW but that's fine by me, it makes them nicer to paint.

My Ripper Swarms are made from 40k Tyranid Toxin Sacs mounted on Legions Imperialis bases, I saw this done on Reddit a while ago so cannot take credit for the idea but I think they work really nicely. The eagle eyed amoung you may notice that the relative scale of my ShortyK bases is a little fast and loose. My Rippers are on bases that are too big, but I do not care, these are purely for my own enjoyment and this kind of base-scale-wonk is an unavoidable element of this project. Perhaps this will slightly unbalance my games? It remains to be seen.

The Tervigon is a modern 3rd party 3D print, not Old School at all! I know, I know! I'll not be using many modern minis in this project but there will be another couple in future months, I own them so they're getting painted. I had to hand sculpt an extra pair of arms and some head crests on this one in order to make it a true Tyranid.

I'm really just laying the groundwork at this stage, there's so much more to come. Next month Leviathan will be vomitting up more Gaunts, this time with airborn support.

Finally here is a cheeky Blood Angels Terminator that I am sending to Jaakko, this is my first ever Blood Angel and it feels great to tick off such a classic. Of Course I hope he will be ripped open by a Genestealer as soon as possible.