'Rant and File

With mere days to go, I have finished off the Tyranid list for the weekend.

The file part first - it's a group of Tyranid Warriors. Six of them in total, of whom only four have made the 'Boot draft.

One of the spare ones is a close range shooter, armed with spinefists and devourer, with flesh hooks for a finishing touch. And the kind of tongue that would have made its teenage party years a painful agony.

From behind the bike sheds, straight to the ENT emergency admissions ward every Friday night. 

The other spare is assembled as a Prime, the Tyranid Warrior officer class.

Sound tactical thinking, Jenkins. Pass the port, what what. 

The others are your standard foot soldier affair, if such a term can accurately be applied to eight-foot high insectile monstrosities with six limbs. Bone swords and Deathspitters all round, except for one specialist who's got rending claws and a venom cannon.

I'm already starting to regret the carapace markings for Afanc (they're on the back and shoulders this time). They do make the colour scheme pop a bit, so it's needed. The fifty plus small gribblies still to come for the army do make my heart sink, rather, although I suspect that would be the case regardless of the paint scheme.


Jeez, you get a lot of spare weapons with this kit! Between all their close combat and shooting options, for which you need six of almost all per box set to cover the possibility of dual-wielding, there's a ton of unused components when you're done. That's before you get to all the spare weird testicle toxin sacs, armour plates and so forth. No wonder it's expensive for a trio.

The same can be said of their glorious leader, the excellent Hive Tyrant.

This one is capable of weapon swaps, but I haven't painted any of them yet. It was enough of a rush getting him done on time without trying to do a round dozen alternative arms. He's held together with pins for now, two per shoulder joint, with an extra pin keeping the wings from wobbling about too much. I made the pins a bit short, see, and found I needed a bit more to stop them sliding out.

This is why, if you look closely, you can see that he has a nutsack in his armpit - it's the end cap for the pin. Although having testicles in your oxter is also pretty Tyranid, frankly. Adaptive Biology in action. 

His adrenal gland. They look like ticks, these things. I can't imagine how that's practical in evolutionary terms, but then evolution isn't really big on common sense as a general rule. 

Painting Guide:

• Same as before! 

I will get to his alternative bits in due course, but for now, I'm too busy trying to massage the life back into my hands after all these stripes. Still some odds and ends left to finish off before the weekend!