Infestation - part 1.

 

The first Tyranids are leaving the paint tray now, which also means that the first bits from my yearly to-do list are finished!!!!

As mentioned I'd gotten two sets of the Tyranid half of Leviathan a little while ago, and with some time now I decided to get cracking, before I head back to work at the end of the month.

I picked this 5th edition codex up off eBay for 99 pence (plus postage) in order to play with the force against Cardboard Fortress when we eventually meet up again for a game*:

Onto the miniatures, and we'll start with my favourites of the collection, Three Von Ryan's Leapers:

Some close ups of the unit prime:

Next up the symbiotic, heavy weapon touring Barbgaunts:

And some close ups of one member of the unit:

The diminutive Neurogaunts are next:

Close ups of the unit Prime and one of the small guys:

Finally, one of the Neurotyrant's and the floating brains (I forget what they're called):

Once again, some close ups:

For the fleet colours, I didn't want the traditional Leviathan colours which everyone seems to be doing at the moment**. So instead I followed a painting guide by Mediocre Hobbies and settled on the second scheme in this video.

I followed most of the guide, except I didn't use the contrast purple, just a second layer of Druchii Violet, and I used a bright contrast turquoise (the name sticker came off my pot and I don't know what it's called) for the "brain" areas of the models.

Tentacles and fleshy bits were started with Guilliman Flesh and over brushed with Pallid Wych Flesh, Claws are simply Skeleton Horse over brushed with Ushabti Bone.

Then I decided upon using my drab urban basing scheme on the models to make the purple jump out a little, but the turquoise brains really pop and stand out as something bright.

This is a final photo of the entire set of finished miniatures so far:

I am very pleased with how these few have turned out already, and can't wait to get the force up to this level, as I only have the second unit of Termagants to build, I can base something else and get it primed tomorrow to get started on.

I've been looking at adding a Hive Tyrant to the force for an overall commander, but I'll get what I have finished first I think, that was the point of the "To-do list" after all...

Until next time, have nice day...

*I'm not going to make my friend buy a bunch of new books for a game he'll only play once, maybe twice a year and one which isn't cheap.

A fair few of the new models can "counts as" entries in the book if we're being honest, Von Ryan's Leapers counting as Lictors for example.

For other stuff we'd have to tweak codex entries to make our own versions, like giving Termagants access to one of the heavier weapons and limiting them to ten in the unit for example to make Barbgaunts.

As it'd just be us two using it, I'm sure we could agree and not make something overpowered as we don't play cutthroat level of WAAC.

**With the box literally being called 'Leviathan' I wonder why everyone is doing hive fleet Leviathan...