Setting a goal for an army a month was never about completing the force but rather about having the motivation of a deadline. Three-quarters of the way through the first challenge and that deadline nears. The Tyranids have a long way to go and many lessons have been learned along the way. Hopefully, those lessons learned can help me next month but they are not going to help me get this Hive Fleet done. So where is the Tyranid fleet at?

There are a lot of little aliens all over the painting desk. At present in various states. I’ve got models still to be cleaned. Undercoating still to be done on some. Basecoating at various stages on others. But one lesson I have learned through this month’s challenge is to break up the squads. Luckily, I’ve been able to apply this straight away.

So for the last few days, I’ve made a concerted effort to focus on small 5 man groups or one single model at a time. This has enabled me to actually see things getting finished. That has been a great motivator to keep going as well.

Up until now, the only squad completed was the Biovore and Spore Mines. While I had a lot of the termagants 90% finished it was the little touches and highlights that were not complete. Trying to do those across 15+ models at a time was not working for me. I would start on teeth for example and just lose motivation and stop.

Moving to smaller groups of five has seen me progress a lot quicker. So a motivational tip I’ve learned from this is to work in smaller groups. At least that’s what has worked for me with this horde.

Show me the models

Working like this has actually helped a lot. Having a few days off work and more time has also been beneficial. Over the last couple of days, I’ve finished a Hive Tyrant, a Broodlord, a Zoanthrope, and the 15 Termagants. Not bad for a few days’ work. Still, plenty to get through.

With only 6 days left until the end of the month, it will be a hard push now until the end. There is still a lot of the force left so if I’m honest it’s unlikely they will all get finished to a standard I’ll be happy with. The plan is to have a playable force at the end of the month though.

I don’t have time to play large scale games much these days. I also don’t intend to use Tyranids in any tournaments. So a force of about 1500 points is what I was aiming for. Having said that though, I didn’t realise just how cheap Tyranid squads are when we started this. So I’m aiming to have at least 1000 points finished. If I get over that, and closer to 1500, it will be a bonus.

Still to get finished are a lot of models. Cleaned, glued, and in various states of completion are Hormagaunts, Gargoyles, Carnifex, Tyranids Warriors, Genestealers. If I can get a good chunk of those done I should still end up with a complete force.

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