Greenstealers

I always said I wouldn't do this. O, obsessional hobbying, how you make fools of us all*.

Space Hulk was the first actual GW game I played, if you discount Heroquest on the grounds that MB produced it. Which obviously I do, because I'm a purist. It's a good game that has stood the test of time, as you can see by the way the Woikshop re-releases it every year for a limited, last-time-ever seasonal run just before Christmas.

I own the original and its expansion packs, which means I had a ton of unpainted purestrains lurking in the cupboard. And I always said I'd never paint them, beyond the five or six that had purple and blue blobcoats from years ago. They almost never see the light of day, and many of them were in bits, and I just couldn't be bothered. All that identikit plastic? No thanks.

And now Codex: Tyranids is out, I've pretended I never said that, and conveyor belted my way through as many as I could salvage. Forty, horrifyingly. Twenty four from the original box, I think, then another twelve from each expansion and a box set of eight I bought for unimaginable reasons about fifteen years ago. Once I'd repaired what I could, I had forty, which is enough for two full squads.

A few head swaps and variant poses, but not so's you'd notice really. Green tide rising and all that. I can stick an Acid Maw biomorph in there somewhere, and a single flesh hooker. Should make all the difference. The paint jobs are very slightly different too, in a feeble attempt to stop it getting too boring to do. As if switching pots to a new shade in any way helped. Bah.

The markings are either on the thigh...

...or the wrist and shoulders. There's also tiny variations in the flesh and carapace colours, so there are two separate units here, but you have to squint to see it.

I'm going with the green caterpillar look the big worm premiered. So this is also hello to Hive Fleet Afanc, named for the Welsh Nessie. All the big scary mythological creatures were already taken, and Hive Fleet It's Probably Just A Big Otter sounded a bit weak.

We have orange nipples and we're angry!

Painting Guide:

• Basecoat - Corax White, then a wash of Biel-Tan Green over everything
• Shell - Either Rotting Flesh or Putrid Green drybrushed over the above, twenty of each
• Fleshy Bits - Either Kislev Flesh or Rakarth Flesh washed with Seraphim Sepia, then Wrack Flesh or Pallid Wychflesh drybrush depending
• Tongues - Genestealer Purple drybrushed with Etherium Blue
• Claws, etc - Ushabti Bone, a tiny bit of Pallid Wychflesh drybrushed at the same time as the skin
• Stripes - Black, Pallid Wychflesh and Jokaero Orange, which is also the spot colour for eyes and the lumps on their carapace here and there
• Base - Watery Dryad Bark over sand, GW Grass flock and The Terrain Painter Lowland Grass clumps, black rim

Seeing as I now have pretty severe RSI from that little lot, I'm going to rest for a bit.

*Or at least me specifically.