Shame has motivated me. The poll at our club that shamed Fury into getting stuck into his painting has motivated me as well. It has also demoralized me a little. Fury at least got a couple of votes whereas I received none. Not a single person thinks I’ll finish this force by month’s end. Time to prove the world wrong. Now that’s motivation.

Admittedly, my track record when it comes to finishing armies and projects is dismal. Many a late night before the start of a tournament I’ve been found up until all hours still painting. Too many times armies have gone to battle unvarnished and suffered for my procrastination. This slight by my fellow gamers should be enough to at least get this one finished though. Maybe?

I voted Fairy because of Sparky and Fury’s track record of getting distracted. Also, Fairy will be sure to do it out of spite.

– Club member explaining why they voted against Sparky and Fury finishing their forces this month

Time to prove all the naysayers wrong. Fairy has been very coy about the actual amount of miniatures in his force so he has an advantage there. While Fury has been upfront about how many models he’s painting. It is still a lot smaller than a swarm of Tyranids. The goal is to get them all done obviously but to make it manageable I’m breaking them up into smaller chunks and plotting out a playable force that will then be expanded if time permits.

Bigger Than a Kill Team

I’ll be honest, I was tempted to just whack together a small Kill Team and claim that was my force for the month. With so many Tyranids sitting in the pile though I decided to undertake a full restoration. Easter Sunday became a resurrection of the Hive Mind as I spent the weekend piecing together models and reading over the latest Tyranid Codex to work out what I could get into squads.

Once it was all laid out I realised just how large the Tyranid force actually was. It also became obvious just how many hormagaunts had broken off bases! Another realisation was that some of these squads didn’t meet the new standards in the current codex. This is where bad habits got me and I became distracted. Distracted enough that I got stuck on websites looking at models for some hours and then made a few new purchases for the force. Particular hard at the moment due to a lack of stock everywhere. So the weekend was spent bringing the whole swarm back to life. This is what the entire force consists of.

A Tyranid Swarm

This is going to be a bloody hard task to get through all of this:
1 x Broodlord (2 if I drag out Space Hulk)
4 x Hive Tyrants (of varying size from across the decades)
2 x Carnifex
3 x Lictors
2 x Zoanthropes (with more on the way after the weekend)
2 x Raveners
6 x gargoyles (more on the way)
12 x Tyranid Warriors
24 x Hormagaunts (give or take)
30 x Termagants (give or take)
1 x Biovore with spore mines galore
Uncountable Genestealers

Looking at the sheer size of the swarm three things stand out. One, there is not enough cannon fodder. Two, how can I make this a playable force? Three, how many points do I actually have? I’m still keeping my goal of finishing all the models but I’ll be happy if I get a playable force out of it. With that in mind I will sit down this weekend and work out a few lists from 1000 points to 2000 points and that may determine what’s actually achievable. Breaking it into manageable chunks though I’m going to start with the termagants, hormaguants and new hive tyrant so I have my HQ and a couple of troops as a base.

What colour is this hive fleet?

Deciding on a colour for an army can be a stalling point sometimes for people. Things are easy if you follow an already determined path such as one of the studio designs around a particular fleet. It’s even easier if you play marines! With these Tyranids, I had a couple of colour options in mind and I like to start by doing a basic troop and seeing how they look. The termagant at the top is the final choice but as part of the process, I also did this guy.

The red and green came up looking good and were fun to paint. I was actually leaning toward this until I asked for an opinion from my wife.

“I like the red and green one because it reminds me of Christmas.”

– Sparky’s wife

So the decision was made, green and bone it was. I can never look at this red and green guy again and not see a Christmas tree now and that is not the fierce all-consuming force I want to put on the table. This model is now destined to become a base decoration for a large Imperial model. I did like the red and green though so I might have to work it into another army soon. Hmmm, maybe some speed freaks? Better stop now before I get distracted again.

How do you decide on a colour scheme for your army?

Follow us & join the conversation with
#40kHeresy

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest