Here's Looking at You, Squid

Tyranid time, after a few months' pause!

This lot has been lurking round my in-tray since February, give or take. And for most of that time, they've been half-painted. Other stuff just kept creeping past them, Spore Mines aren't particularly inspiring models. I mean, yes, floaty death blobs, they do their job, but you don't look at them and think 'yes! must grab brush!', do you?

This one's a bit better, the slightly larger Mucolid Spore. He's got a couple of green stuff tentacles, I used the proper ones elsewhere, as well as a deathspitter for a beak for the same reasons. 

Funnily enough, they're apparently quite popular in the tournament scene, as anything doing Mortal Wounds tends to be. GW only currently sells them solo as a nine-pack of resin ones, which is a funny number for a squad. And who wants to pay over the odds for resin anyway? So these are actually the freebies who come with a much larger floaty death blob, the Tyrannocyst.

The Quest for the Holy Grell!
(This is a DnD joke, there's an old school monster that's a floating, tentacled brain called a Grell. And this looks a bit like a cup, and could in fact be used as one, to drink the tears of your beaten opponent or something. Bonus points if you got all that, otherwise I hope you now appreciate how hard I have to work to be funny about nerdy crap)

Of course, it's a dual kit that also makes the Sporocyte, so it makes sense to not glue the top bit on and keep my options open. What a gruelling job I made of painting it, though! I didn't glue the petal/airbrakes on (and while we're passing, I don't think airbrakes should have big chimney holes in, I doubt that really helps them function), and painting five of them got very monotonous.

Looks a lot like a drop pod from this angle. No coincidence, I'm sure. 

See? Identical.

It wasn't helped by three of the main paints I was using all drying to rubber last week, Kislev Flesh, Putrid Green and Ushabti Bone. Mulching dried out paint about in Lahmian Medium gives you a heavy enough glaze that you can sort of use it like a layer paint, but it's grainy and needs several coats. Blech. Slog.

So to cap it off, I slipped in a little Massive Darkness. That's been neglected since last year, and given that I've sworn to finish it before next year, I've got a fair bit to do! This one has sneaked ahead by dint of being a good ringer for a Neurothrope. Otherwise it's a Beholder in all but name (Overlord, I seem to recall being it's MD name). Fantastic sculpt, and a proper joy to paint. Same scheme as my Hive Fleet, other than the grey stone base to go with the rest of its fellows.

Right! One final Tyranids unit to do, then it'll be Massive Darkness until I cave in and buy some Van Saar Christmas.