New Codex?

It's been a while since I've done anything with my imperial guard, though I have recently taken a look at the new codex - and it seems that my old 750 point(ish) army now comes in at around 600 points.

While this is good for the battlefield (i.e. 150 points worth of 'more stuff' to throw at the enemy can't be a bad thing), I can see how many folks might think that it's not so great on the wallet.

Fortunately, I still have a number of unpainted guards lying around (and also another sentinel still on the sprue), so I don't really need to buy any more miniatures for a while - but those figures were supposed to get my 750pt army closer to 1000pts - but now that looks very unlikely.

Anyway, regardless of all that, I really like the idea of the new Master of Ordnance advisor in the new codex, though I really don't want to spend almost £10 on a pack of miniatures to get him.

So, since I have a lot of bits and pieces lying around, I figured I would have a go at making my own plastic version …and here's the result:

The body, legs, left hand, and backpack are all from the regular Cadian guardsmen sprue, and the right hand (shown here pressing a button) was from the heavy weapon sprue (which was originally on an arm that was supposed to be pointing out in the direction of the enemy).

The head is that of a space marine scout, and the arms are some really old guardsmen arms I've had lying around for quite some time.

The small scanner/radio thing in his hand is a space marine auspex (I think that's what it's called) with some of the top pointy things removed - and the centre one replaced with the aerial from the catachan radio backpack.

I know it doesn't look exactly like the Master of Ordnance miniature, but I think I will be good enough proxy in most games.

What I’ve been up to (part 2)

Here’s a quick look at one of the other things I’ve been working on lately… another (hardened veteran) melta-gunner.

It’s pretty much the same as the last two I made, and consists of a normal Cadian torso, legs, and head (with the heavy weapons backpack included too), Catachan arms, and a space marine melta-gun.

So I can now put all three of these guys into one hardened veterans squad, and possibly ‘infiltrate’ or ‘deep strike’ them close to enemy armour.

What I've been up to (part 1)

It’s been a while since I updated the blog… but I have been working (off and on) on a few pieces here and there, and so over the next couple of days I thought I would add a few pictures and things.

But first off, I did manage to pick up a cheap Tyranid codex on Ebay, and I also picked up a single tyranid warrior sprue (I think together they cost less than £10).

I then used the tyranid warrior (and a few other bits and pieces) to create the following…

…a Ravener…

…and a Zoanthrope…

For the Ravener I used mainly tyranid warrior parts – aside from the middle talons (which are from the genestealer sprue), and the lower talons (which are from a hormagaunt – but shortened somewhat). The only other thing I used (aside from a bit of greenstuff here and there) was one of the armour plate thingies from the biomorph sprue - which I used to fill the gap between the armour plates upon it's back (between the upper and lower torso pieces).

For the Zoanthrope I used the spare head from a tyranid warrior with an adrenal gland underneath to represent the exposed brain. I also had to extend the armour plates on the top of the head a little (using one of the additional armour plates you get on the genestealer sprue) to accommodate the extra length of the head & brain.

The upper torso is a plastic gaunt (that has been cut in half to remove the legs), and the abdomen is the front half of a devourer gun. I also added two more of the aforementioned armour plates to the top of the creature's back, and widened the neck a little by gluing a toxin sack to each side (I'll use these to represent some kind of gland that poisons the air with the 'toxic miasma' effect).

It's main arms are made in two parts - the top part being the upper halves of spinefist arms, and the bottom halves being the lower part of a gaunt's legs. It's secondary arms are already present on the original gaunt body.

The whole thing has then been pinned into the nest-like egg-sack thingies, with the pin being hidden with a few more (greenstuff) tentacles. All the areas were also tidied up with greenstuff (to fill in any holes, make the joins less obvious, extend armour plates, etc.) during the course of making the model.

So at this moment in time I have around 400 points of tyraninds (though with only one ‘troops choice’ thus far) to borrow to anyone I know who wants to learn the game.

A Quick Update

Getting a cheap Tyranid codex on eBay is proving to be more difficult than I though, but in the meantime I’ve been working on a few bits of terrain and a game board.

In truth I don’t see myself ever building/playing massive armies, and so I’ve decided to just make a small board out of two 3 ft. x 2 ft. cork notice boards (for a total playing area of 3x4) and I’m planning to cover the join (where the frames of the two boards meet) with a raised road section.

And since I already have a few Hirst Arts moulds (which I’ve used to make a few pieces of D&D terrain in the past) I’ve been building a few bits and pieces from some of the spare blocks that I have lying around.

So here’s a quick snapshot of part of an imperial perimeter wall or something (apologies for the quality of the picture - it is the only one from a batch of about 10 that I took that is in focus):

Pretty much everything here is made from plaster of paris blocks that I’ve cast from the Hirst Arts moulds - with the exception of the imperial eagle (which was left over from the chimera) and the pinheads (used to represent the rusty bolts) and two small bits of a paperclip (to represent the steel rods in the reinforced concrete).

A Basic Tyranid Force

I’m still looking for a cheap Tyranid Codex on eBay, but just from looking on the GW site I’ve been able to put a small force together that contains all the compulsory unit types (i.e. one ‘HQ’ and two ‘Troops’ choices).

I’m guessing that this force will be somewhere in the region of 200 to 250 points, and as I said in the last post, these are not really meant to be a well balanced force or anything like that… just a few models for a quick skirmish game to help learn the rules.

HQ : Broodlord

Troops : 6 Genestealers

Troops : 8 Termagants

Someone/thing to Fight!

Since I don’t really know anyone who plays the game, I thought I would try and build up a small Tyranid force so that I can run through a few solo-battles if the mood takes me (just so that I can try the rules out, and maybe give me a better understanding of them) or to loan to anyone who wants to try the game.

I also thought that since the witch hunters book has lists for ‘traitor’ allies - I could also use a predominantly Genestealer force with some of my Guard figures to represent a genestealer-cult type army to give me yet more choices of what kind of army I can field.

So, to start with here’s a look at the Broodlord figure I have made from various plastic parts.

This picture shows a plastic genestealer body with the head removed and replaced with a (slightly larger) termagant head. You can also see that I have extended the right leg a little (as it looked to be a little smaller than the other one) and I’ve also made an incision at the waist and bent the torso into a more upright position. In addition, I have given the illusion of a little more height by having the right foot resting upon a bit of sprue. I have also shown where I have pinned the model for some extra strength. The one at the waist is not really pinned, but rather just glued into the gap (to stop the gap from closing).

And here's the mini with the relevant arms added to match the Broodlord pictured on the GW website. I've also filled in all the gaps with a bit of greenstuff.

And finally, here’s a size comparison shot with a regular genestealer.

As far as painting these guys, I’m just going with as simple a paint scheme as possible (purely for speed) - which is something akin to the monster from the Aliens movies.

Senior Officer Conversion

Up until now I’ve only painted a few metal figures for inclusion in the army, but I’ve since got to thinking that I would like to have the entire lot made out of plastic if possible.

So after the success (at least in my eyes) of my last officer conversion (which I now plan to use as my junior officer in the 1st platoon command squad), I’ve decided to do something similar for the senior officer in my HQ command - and here’s the results:

Once again the legs are regular cadian legs, as is the hand holding the boltpistol (from the sergeant arm). The boltpistol itself is from the space marine weapon sprue I purchased a while ago, and the torso is from the imperial guard tank commander (that came with my Chimera). The head and arms are from a (Warhammer Fantasy) empire militia sprue (the hands originally held flintlock pistols) with the left hand being replaced with a misc. closed hand (I cant remember exactly what it was from) with a hole drilled through it to allow it to grip the powersword.

Hopefully this has given me a reasonably unique looking figure to represent my captain without going too overboard.