The Diet of Bugs: Hive Fleet Utoy

Pootle here, documenting a new Hive Fleet that has appeared in space near Bagot Prime (as if they didn't have trouble enough there what with the Marines facing Orks, various flavours of Nurgle devotees, Chaos Marines and Necrons). 

When I heard that Nids would be in the tenth edition box set I decided to get in early and, before the price rises hit in the spring I bought the combat patrol (Tyrant, 3 Warriors, 36 Termagants) plus a Carnifexes brood and a T-Fex/Tervigon. This meant that when Leviathan hit, I had a proper horde of unpainted plastic. Gulp.

General paint scheme

I decided in advance that this army will be my first foray into Contrast paints. Everything gets a base spray of Chaos Black, then a (pretty heavy) zenithal spray with Wraithbone.

The main carapace is Stormfiend (as discussed in my tester article here, I think this is closer to my version of the original Genestealer colours than Celestium Blue, which Stylus used on his Stealers recently). This is drybrushed with Fenrisian Grey and then Administratum Grey.

The purple flesh is Magos Purple, with a fine drybrush of Fulgrim Pink on the larger models (I didn't both doing this on the smaller ones).

Red flesh is Flesh Tearers Red. This has quite a heavy coverage so rather than dilute it, I dry brush with Kislev Flesh.

Bone is Skeleton Horde as a base, but although that's quite a good effect, I then dry brush with Ushabati Bone, Screaming Skull and Pallid Wych Flesh.

Swarmlord/Hive Tyrant/Winged Hive Tyrant

I took a little bit more time over this fella, befitting his status in the hive. He's magnetised to be any of the three options and I'm really pleased with how he's turned out. 

The winged version in particular looks great (better than shows up in the photos). In addition to the usual paints, this was Guilliman Flesh contrast with Bleached Bone and Pallid Wych Flesh drybrushes on top

Broodlord

I couldn't find a separate proper Broodlord, however I grabbed a Genestealer Patriarch from eBay (who, let's face it is surely pretty equivalent) and he's going to lead my Stealers into battle.

Tyranid Warriors

These were a bit of fun: naturally they're magnetised for different weapon options (though the different melee options are no longer any different from each other so I've not bothered doing all of them...yet). However the pack comes with four bodies and heads but only three legs. Searching around for how I could make effective use of this fact, I came across three lizardmen-like models that came free with my Archon Studio ruined cathedral. I decided that it was completely reasonable to say that the hive mind  decided to create Tyranid Primes with snakelike lower torsos. However GW, in their infinite wisdom, decided that (wingless) Tyranid Primes were no longer a thing in tenth edition, and furthermore units of Warriors only come in multiples of three. Blast! Never mind, it was fun and who knows what might happen in the next edition (or maybe I'll buy two more packs of Warriors and then create two more lizard mutants to create a "free" fourth unit).

Genestealers

Technically these guys were my reason for starting Tyranids as I already had several dozen from Space Hulk/Deathwing. The sculpts are far from great, particularly when compared to the very recent ones (drool), but they have classic vibes to compensate and I already have more than I could possibly be likely to want to field...probably.

Von Ryan's Leapers

It seems to me that these guys fill the same slot as Genestealers, so I don't really *need* them, but they do look great.

Barbgaunts

Carnifexes 

You can't have a Tyranid army without a Distraction Carnifex. And as they come in twos, that's what I have. Both are fully magnetised (lunatic that I am, I've even magnetised the carapace plate that holds their spine banks: I did this before tenth edition dropped which removed the points cost of this kind of thing).

The second one can be a regular Carnifex, but he's got Old One Eye's head so he's also got that option.

Tyrannofex/Tervigon

I've been on the wrong end of Kraken's Tyrannofex many times so it's great to get hold of one myself and naturally magnetised it so not only does it have all the shooty weapon options, but it can be fielded as a Tervigon as well.

Here she is as a Tervigon:

In action

My first game with these guys has already been documented here where they took on Necrons piloted by Kraken. Next up is King in the North this coming weekend!