20 Termagants (Part 1)

 These are the twenty termagants that came with the Space Marine II board game.  Despite being pushfit models, they still took a bit of time to assemble. I glued these critters together using a liquid plastic cement as I'm not keen on the notion of having bits detach themselves during transport. 

They're glad blast templates are no longer a thing.

I had a game recently that I needed ten more  termagants for, so I used half of this lot. To prep for the game  I basedcoated them using Contrast Paints. It was a speedy process but I think they turned out well. The Contrast Paints used were Skeleton Horde, Luxion Purple, and Ultramarines Blue. 'Three point minimum achievement' unlocked! 

The 1st group of ten in action. 

They performed well in the game, and by well I mean that they killed a single marine before being reduced to bug parts all over the sandy dunes of whatever world they were being pacified off of. At least it was quick. Mercifully quick. 

But so was painting these guys. Really, those three Contrast Paints did the trick of creating a nice three color minimum for play and they look decent in the photos also. And it only took an hour.  This will now serve as the foundation to paint them up to their final standard. An example of that scheme can be found and read about in Termagant Fun Part 4. 

The second group of ten was done almost as fast.  However I had time to do a few more things with them. 

The 2nd group of ten. 

I did a Wash of Waywatcher Green Glaze over their fleshborers. And I used Blood Angels Red Contrast Paint on the tentacle parts of the fleshborers and on the tongues of the termagants that are exposed.  Way too many of these guys have their tongues out for some reason. ..

The full basecoat. 

And in the next pic we can see the twenty termagants all gathered together. Ten have green guns and red tongues, but the other ten will catch up sooner than later. Actually, knowing my track record it may be later than sooner. After all these guys are battle-ready-enough, and I have some big bugz I'm eager to paint. 

Battle-ready, and ready for more battles! 

It just occurred to me that these guys are further along than poor old Titus. I need to get back to him soon as well! Also, I just might have the contents of a B&N boxed game actually fully painted sooner than later. Who would've guessed? 

Termagant Fun! (Part 5)

 You got to see a preview of these guys at the end of part 4, now I'm going to talk about them in a bit more detail. 

These guys were painted  primarily using Contrast Paints. Skeleton Horde on the gun, claws and teeth. Ultramarines Blue on the armored parts of their bodies and Leviathan Purple on the rest. 

And I think this not only makes for a nice base coat but it's a decent 'battle ready scheme as well. Especially when you have a horde of these things to paint. 

And the hive node / back-brain thing was based using Applebarrel Terracotta. 

Ultimately these will be colored up to my Hivefleet's scheme. Of Particular note is the fleshborer which will end up green. But I thinking about making it a bit more multicolored. We'll see whenever I get back to them. 

Space Marine Board Game Unboxed.

 I did something I didn't think I would ever get around to doing, I posted a video on YouTube. It's a simple and crude thing, but it was fun and spontaneous as I was genuinely excited to get this today. 

This is the exclusive to Target Space Marine boardgame. The game comes with 23 miniatures, 20 Termagants, 2 Ripper Swarms and the lone Space Marine himself, Lieutenant Titus. This is exclusive to Target and retailed for $39.99. I am sure you won't be able to get 10 Termagants for that price let alone 20 of them, and you know Titus won't be any cheaper. It comes with board tiles for the game that are printed on heavy boards, sling shot ammo dice, and a measuring device. 

And slick booklet that contains the rules to the game with some tutorials for learning how to play it. You kids today and your fancy tutorials! Back in my day, when we got Space Crusade we were thrown right into the fray, tutorials be damned! It also has one of those odd photos of people with strange haircuts awkwardly having way more fun playing 40k then you'll ever seen in reality. A good portion of the booklet is devoted to introducing you to the larger world of Ultramarines and Tyranids.

I touched on this in the video when  I found this, but the cardboard counters aren't perforated. This may seem to be a nitpicky thing to harp on,  but remember, this is a game intended to introduce someone unfamiliar with the larger Games Workshop / Warhammer experience, at least make it easier for these players (most of whom are likely to be kids) to actually play this thing. 

I thought about that more after I stopped recording the video. In particular I compared it to some of the boxed games that GW makes in conjuction with Barnes & Noble as this set is along those lines. Those games usually have perforated game pieces and a plastic tray for mounting your figures in for storage. They are a classier presentation in that regard, but to be fair, I don't think it's conceivable to make a storage tray for 23 miniatures for a box of this size. (Just wait, someone will be selling a laser cut foam one soon just to make me eat those words). The games sold through B&N rarely have more than 10 miniatures included in them and usually have cards and a lot more tokens also. 

All-all, I am pleased with this set. It's a good value and looks like a fun way to introduced someone to miniatures gaming. Hopefully I will be able to put this to the test at some point. 

Termagant Fun! (Part 4)

 

The first brood of ten.

The fun continues. Last time I finished off the first five guys in this brood, and now we have five more. Giving me a unit of ten fully painted Termagants. 

Focus on the pinkish parts of the fleshborer. 

One thing that I did to all ten of these models was to add some additional color to their fleshborers. On the tentacle and the ribbing (what else can we call this texture?) beneath the plate at the front of the gun I used slightly thinned Volupus Pink Contrast Paint. Painting that over the green creates an interesting, well, contrast effect that gives a gutty kind of vibe. I haven't decided what to paint the exposed organic ammo in the "clip" so I reserve the right to revist these guys whenever I figure it out. 

Force Ten for the biomass. 

I have twenty more of these models before I move onto the new termagant models from Leviathan and Space Marine 2 The Board Game. The next ten are the guys I made with the weird brain things on their backs. I don't think they have had any in-game function for a few editions now, but I like how they'll help me distinguish them from the first brood. And, yes, they have already seen combat. Expect to see these guys again in Part 5...

Twice the brains, twice the headaches. 

Until then, keep your bio-mass fresh! 

Termagant Fun! (Part 3)

 Inspired by the recent distraction caused by the old school Hunter Screamer I recently painted, I felt compelled to paint up a few more Termagants. Since the last time I dabbled on these guys it only netted me a single fully painted model. 

Well now I have a painted squad of five. Which is only half-way towards the minimum unit size. So... progress? 

It allowed me to experiment a bit with the basecoats. I painted two of them using different Contrast Paints for the purple areas. Leviathan Purple was a bit too dark my tastes. The other one, Luxion Purple worked a bit better. The other two were done using the method I described in Part 2. But when they were all done, I like the Luxion Purple one the best. I guess it's the wariness of the hue. Probably why the Indian Red I used on some of my other nid models appeals to me also.  I am thinking that the other five models will probably be painted this way. 

Luxion Purple basecoat. 

Fast forward to the highlights stage: I used Kakophoni Purple as my final highlight on the Purple areas and White Scar as a final highlight on the blue area. I skipped the White Scar step on the Hunter Screamer and I am trying to decide if I need to revisit that model or not...

Finished model.

All-in-all I am pleased with how they turned out. In the pic below you can see them joining up with the lone gaunt (he's on the far left) from Part Two to form their half squad. Oh, their guns are slightly different colors from each other as I played around with different colors to wash over their bone colored base in an attempt at getting the best look for those fleshborers. 

The brood grows .

That's all for now, hopefully I will get the squad painted up to the minimum squad size soon. 

Termagant Fun! (Part 2)

 All this attention brought on by the Warhammer 40,000 9th edition Codex: Tyranids shifted my attention back to these little bugs (for a few moments anyway). As stated last time I want to use the same scheme as I employ on my Genestealers. And the best way to figure that out was to paint up another Genestealer alongside a Termagant. I took them outside and primed them all, but I only selected one for this first color test. 

Outside and primed.

I decided to hold off on WIP pics this time and cut to the chase. Here are the two finished miniatures:

The recipe for painting these guys was described in Killteam Genestealers-part-2. And I followed that (mostly). I used Screaming Skull as the highlight color on their claws and teeth. 

The Fleshborer was painted by using Ushanti Bone as a base color with a wash of Waywatcher Green. I used Averland Sunset on the eye with a slash from a Micron to finish it off. Anyone else think it's weird that these weapons have a clip that isn't really an actual detachable clip? 

I think they turned out good. Next up is to repeat this process on the rest of his chittering and chattering gribbly friends. 

Termagant fun! (Part 1)

 After painting the dead tyranids (or, um,  parts thereof) for my Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnought, I had the itch to paint a few more nids.  Maybe I just needed a break from painting black armor?

I looked at what I had here in Unicoi and found that I had a single 5 figure box of Termagants that I bought a few years ago.  If I recall correctly I was considering doing some nids for an older edition of Kill Team. But I never made it past the acquisition step.

. 

In fact I just opened the box! 

These are the "cheap" $10 ones. Actually, I am not sure if these are even produced any longer... Anyway, they are intended to be push-fit, easy build, snap-together models. On a few of them I found the pegs to be a bit problematic so I clipped them off with sprue clippers. With just a little bit of time spent on them, I was done with their assembly. 

Assembled and ready to serve the Hivemind!

Checking the rules it would seem that I need at least five more miniatures to make this a legal unit to play with. I immediately was on the look out for more but after fruitless online searches attempting to get another "cheap" set, I settled on the Termagant Brood set from my local Hobbytown U.S.A. 

How many box variations has this set had?

These are a way more interesting kit to put together in that there are gun options and you can swivel their heads. Exciting dynamics for sure. Also there are some biomorph options, however the kit doesn't explain what these are supposed to be. And neither does the box. I don't have the current Tyranid Codex so that's not a resource I have on hand either.

What are these specific biomorphs? 

It's a mystery to me. Perhaps when I find a few moments between dealing with the new baby, handling my 6 year old online schooler, working and drawing, maybe, just maybe, I can locate a spare moment to research the older Codex Tyranid editions (i suspect the answer I seek might be in the 4th edition Codex or a supporting White Dwarf article from around that time). Unless some kind reader could help a guy out and reply in the comments? 

Anyway, here is the full squad of 10 Termagants with Fleshborers. I need to flock their bases and prime them, and then I can start working out their color scheme. They're different enough from the 2nd edition miniature that I used on the Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnought that I may have to rethink how I pull that off. Regardless I want them to be close to how my old school Genestealers are schemed. Stay tuned for that post!