Virago

Here is the Virago!  Now most Tyranids seem to be named after either derogatory terms for woman or odd organs and bodily processes. Looking at my Big Beasty I decided I had to go with a derogatory term for a woman as I felt it was very feminine. Virago however is not just derogatory it also signifies a warrior aspect; a strong woman. 

Would you look at that two other Nids are mentioned as Similar

Taking it to the Tournament I dubbed it the Virago Pattern ShadowSword as it was counting as a Shadowsword. The tournament however hadn't even begun and I was getting questioning looks and people confirming if the TO had okayed it. Mainly from an Imperial Guard player who said that in alot of Tournaments he struggled to move his Guard Super Heavies due to their width. This was due to how the alot of tables were building heavy with Terrain in New Zealand Tournaments at least and his tank often couldn't fit down the main street of the tables let alone any alley ways. And fair enough despite being longer and slightly taller mine was about half the width and really did go wherever it pleased.

              


Onto the First Game, my Opponent one of the best in New Zealand rolled his eyes when I mentioned it was a ShadowSword and for the sake of me not gaming for advantage wanted to check the table for terrain pieces that a normal ShadowSword could not take cover behind but mine would, arguing that they couldn't block line of sight. Of course I agreed, I didn't want anyone thinking it was done for advantage, the conversion was purely for aesthetics. Thankfully we were playing on Pete Dunns Airport crash table where there is either no terrain or huge terrain and it was agreed that we didn't have to make any changes to how we dealt with line of sight. 

     

In the Second game I was once again asked are you sure and that I had the TOs permission. My opponent said if it was his choice it was a no go (He did mention he would accept it as a Barbed Heirodule) but as I had the TOs permission (which he added was not sure how that happened) then that would be the last he said on the matter as I had the 'go' from the one person that mattered (Thanks Hagen). He then promptly detonated my Warlord on the first turn to teach me a lesson. When the Virago returned fire on the Riptide sticking out I forgot to check and yes hidden out of sight but next to it was a large squad of Shield drones. The Virago died next turn and I had wasted the one round of fire it had graciously been granted.

In game 3 I had now lost both my games so hard that I was against a young and enthusiastic player who really didn't care about gaming for advantage he just thought it and my army looked really cool, he was the first opponent to praise its looks. This was a fun and chill game and much needed as I was basically asleep at this point, I lost despite it being a close game due to the fact he picked the deployment side with the Superior Objective and I got the Inferior because otherwise we were tied on score and held the same number of objectives at end of game. 

Game 4 I got the one opponent who was there entirely for the Pretty Toys, Photos and the Smooth Ass I had just sold him. He was quite happy with the aesthetic of the Virago and the counts as (or at least I was led to believe so).

For game 5 I got another experienced player but this time they were all good with the Virago and thought it was awesome that on first glance my army looks like a Nids army until you inspect it and find the Genestealer detachment and the Virago. He won first turn and promptly made sure that Virago was looking good from the side lines instead.

Overall I think I got about 6 or 7 people expressing that they thought it was cool over the course of the tourne and about 4 people who thought it shouldn't count as a ShadowSword some went further to say it would be a good counts as for a Barbed Heirodule but sadly most NZ tournaments are very strict on ForgeWorld models and don't allow counts as or in Hagens case anything FW with the titanic keyword. 

Additionally I don't think I played the army or the Virago right, it should have been more forward and aggressive or hidden better and I hid it in the matches I shouldn't have and left it out in the open on the matches where it should have stayed hidden. Moral of the story is that sleep is important if you want to play well.

Going into 9th it will be costing me an arm and a leg in terms of CP to play it as a Shadowsword in a Nids army and even then the Barbed Heirodule will cost a fair chunk of CP. So despite it now being my favorite model I will be hamstringing myself to put it on the table.

Last but not least for I did hint at it, here is the first draft on the next character for my Genestealer detachment. Please take a guess at what you think its going to count as. 

Tournament Madness

Fuck it I put down a finished army for once.

First of all lets start with lockdown and how it impacted my ability to paint my Nids, I ran out of Ceramite White. Your nids are not white, why is it required you might say.

I blame the old fella, it was his first time leading the army.

Well I based mine on several painting guides from Tale of Painters and importantly how they paint Hive Fleet Kraken skin, this involves priming white before a wash of Seraphim Sepia and a coating of bone however when I primed my first model white with Corax I was like this isn't white and painted all of the skin areas with a thinned layer of Ceramite white so that it was actually white for the Sepia to do its work. I did a test on a spare model to check the difference between straight over the primer and with the layer of white and the difference was huge. 

Game 1 - Death Watch Shred Nids but he had cool objective marker mats

Back to the present once lockdown was over I went to buy some Ceramite white only to find they no longer produce the lumpy white substance any more. Shocked I bought some Corax white in a pot and tried mixing it with White Scars till I got a white that wasn't as bright as white scars but not as grey as Corax and after awhile painted a test termagant. While it passed hiding amongst the crowd of my other termagants I could tell which one it was on inspection and I knew it would stand out on my big Monsters. Time past and I put off painting my monsters in favour of having fun with my necromunda gang.

Game 1 - Last Bug Standing vs Death Watch

Suddenly it is 2 weeks out from the tournament and I have to paint my models, I went into my local non-gw gamestore the Caffeinated Dragon (for the best way for any business in Wellington to survive is to sell coffee on the side.. Hell even the 2nd hand clothes stores and hairdressers near my work sell/make coffee to sweeten the deal) found the Reaper Minis paint line and got myself some Dragon White.

Game 2 - Whats red and white and right up your backside.

While its not as pale as Ceramite White its still not as bright as White Scar which meant it was my next best thing and away I went, for some reason I also put on 2 ripper swarms on my list despite only having 4 bases.. So I haggled my mates till I got given some more rippers (Thanks yall) and started getting to work.

Game 2 - Tau plugging my Butt

 

Only then did I discover that it was taking me 3 - 4 hours to apply each layer of fucking paint to this huge beast of a beast. We were in it for the long haul, not only this but it was School Holidays and the Wife was being driven mad and therefore I was limited in the amount of time I had in the Hobby Shed. This lead to waiting till she was asleep to sneak out of bed and head out to the freezing cold shed in the middle of the night to paint or waking up early and getting some done before Work.

A compilation of all the Chaos Armies I did not face in game 3
cause I have no photos of that game and it was the one chaos army I didn't take a photo of...

One week left before Tournaments and our self evaluated painting lists were required to be submitted, looking at my painting metric I was at 31/32 and having a display board was worth 1pt. Between that and having the inside knowledge that Septimus Clegg would be turning up with half painted models I thought maybe with a display board I can have a chance of taking home an award for the Beauty Pageant..

Its okay to drool just not on the models

I say an award because I meant 2nd place trophy as I knew Glen Burfield was taking his Eldar and I cannot compete with that...

How can one compete?

Well let me tell you I was wrong about that... The Bastard is so good at converting and painting he can win first place with 2 models only having a single layer of paint over the primer and I don't even think I got a vote... 

Game 4  - What an Arse

Anyway on the list went the Display board I didn't own. 

Game 4 - What a bully picking on such weaklings.

Adding to my list of projects to finish in a week I needed a better way to transport my army than the 101 ice cream containers and cardboard boxes currently in use so I bought an old travel case from the city mission and got some foam delivered.

My Army is now on Wheels!

I then spent the weekend touching up my old models so that I could coat them as I was sick of the paint chipping due to my way of moving hordes (pick them all up and dump them down..) and my warriors getting caught in each others spikes in my storage tin (another reason for the need of a proper way to transport and store models).

Now thats a display board

Monday passed with me playing Necromunda, Tuesday came and the Wife wasn't well so I worked from home and snuck in a moment to varnish my gaunts and warriors... man did this go wrong.. despite it looking great on my Genestealer detachment, Carnifexs and my Doctor who model (who was the test for this) the gloss varnish from Repco (intended for cars) was applied about 3 times to thick and now my termagants hurt your eyes if lights were too bright. 

So much bling!

At least I was confident that the model would break before the paint would chip... Tuesday night was  practice match with Ryan, still the 2 extra ripper bases were about half done and the 'Virago' Pattern Shadowsword wasn't even half done.

I like the purple and orange

However I am glad I got this game in as I felt so much more confident in knowing my units stats which followed on from my lesson on how does one play 40k with Septimus Clegg.

Game 5 - Target Acquired

Some how from about 9pm on Wednesday night going till 2am on Saturday morning I made a Display board finished my models coated them and cut out all the foam for 90% of my army. Only my old metal Hive Tyrant, Rippers and Objective Markers didn't find room in the case yet. Can I give a time line of what happened, not really.. was my display board still drying when I packed it in the case on Saturday morning.. yes... and I didn't even need to drink any energy drinks on Saturday as I had enough caffeine still flowing through my body after drinking several litres of it over the past 3 days...

Game 5 - My opponent kept asking if I would like to pass any of my saving throws...

Overall I am happy with how the tournament went despite never having done so poorly in a tournament before. The only game I won my opponent intentionally threw! and I would have been tabled 3 times but thankfully managed to finish with 1 model on the table in the last turn in 2 games once cause I killed all their anti tank and Virago was to damm big for bolter fire and in the 2nd one because I screened a character and they ran out of shooting after killing the screen. However I feel this is the first time I have been happy with the presentation of my army at an event (except when I borrowed Septimus Cleggs Hive Fleet Nidrot but that doesn't count).

Rocks and sand painted to look like rocks and sand

Actual photos of the 'Virago' will come once I have had some rest and can be bothered getting it out of the case again for a proper photo shoot ...

Like real bugs they all go Squish

And as always my brain was on overdrive after a tournament and I couldn't help but focus on how to make a solid list with the models I own and what could I do with the Genestealers I got for cheap at the Tournament... I will let you in on a secret: 5 new characters have been planned. Photos of these will come once I actually glue some bits together and its more than just a day dream.

The Model that Won the Beauty Pageant, it had to be first to die 😜

Paiiiiinting

I don't know why I painted skeletons but I really wanted to paint these skeletons.

I got them trading some bitz down at the club and both were missing arms, I decided however only the shield one needed another arm and got a shoddy knockoff skeleton arm from another bitz trade at the club.

For Painting them I decided to try using a single contrast paint as an all round depth highlight shade over a coloured model, I then went about blocking out a few simple colours till the whole model was painted before giving them a very thick wash of skeleton horde contrast. Surprisingly I feel it works and has made an easy table top look that's nice on the eyes and the whole model being covered in the same contrast gives all the colours a similar blend and gives the model a cohesive feel.

Next up we have the 3 next gangers for the Death Lotus Cult, a witch and his two boys. These were being painted in a logical boring process and I was finding it a bit of a drag. Then I accidentally bought Long Beard grey (well the purchase was intentional, not noticing it was a dry paint was accidental). And for the first time ever just gave my models a good thwacking.

Next up was some fun with Hexwraith flame. First I painted the model in light pastel colours to make sure that it would have some mixture of colours but nothing would be too bold and jarr with the ghostly look.  Once the colours were blocked out it was a heavy dousing in Hexwraith and to finish it off an extra good thwacking with Longbeard.  The other girl was a contrast cover up again, much like the skeletons, this time blocking out the model in dark colours, mixing a small amount of black or dark brown into every paint applied. Finally one thick coat of Shyish Purple.

The fun did not stop, while everyone else is playing around with Non-Metallic Metals I decided to try Metallic Non-Metals. 

And so we have the Doctor, Doctor Who you ask? Well the third doctor to particular.

Did I stop painting you ask? Well no, at this point I was banging them out and on an amazing losing streak in Lol so less of that and more painting.

And so I moved onto my Hive Scum, I get these two fellows free thanks to my Blood Pit. Derek and Rob have been accused of being Trump fans due to their choice of skin tan. Ohh and you know they got a good thwacking!

And last but not least we have the Biggest of Boys the Chaos Ogryn. My son requested I paint him like the box art. So that has been done to the best of my ability by purely looking at whats on the back of the box + some thwack thwack. 

Genestealer Detachment

 

Here are my loyal 17. The Genestealer Detachment. These bad boys are here to unlock the the 'Virago' Pattern ShadowSword. Being a Pure Genestealer Detachment they get a 6+ Lightning Reflex invunerable save on all the units that don't already have lightning reflexes. Consisting of 1 Patriarch, 1 Abominant and 3 units of 5 acoloytes....  now lets take a closer look at each squad.

The Original Design

These boys were the original design for the acolytes, slightly more upright and slowly pistolering their way towards you.

The Quick Save/Dynamic Design

This squad started the process for each squad having a different pose, it all happened when I messed up one of my models and then decided it could be saved by having a totally different pose and piece of the Killa Kan I ripped up to bounce off, originally just going to be a squad leader it turned into a full squad when I messed up two more. I think only the one leaping over the leg was intended to be in this squad from the beginning..

The Harlequin Design

 

Probably the most and least fun unit to do, they make them feel so much bigger and deadly but they were also a pain in the ass with all those knee replacements. Then again most units needed hip and ankel surgery so it was only a little more pain on and existingly painful process.

The Abominant

I had the idea of using crushing claws on a broodlord as the Abominant since the model got spoiled, however that looked terrible, it did not look good in an upright pose and to get it looking awesome and in some sort of animalistic pose across all 6 limbs would not fit on the tiny abominant base. Instead they got turned into the BioHammer we see today, more fitting for the required cave mans first step pose on his teeny tiny base.

YOU ARE MINE!

The Patriarch himself was the first model done for the detachment, originally posed on a pipe when I got him it had to be fixed, considering my nids were already based on grass and dirt.. I feel the result makes him stand out from the rest and provides a nice narrative.

Patriarch Power

Do you have a Flag?

 

Do you have a Flag? What you mean that burning pile of scrap used to be a flag well in that case it looks like you don't have one and this territory is ours.

When considering Necromunda objectives I wanted something that my opponents could thematically set fire too and so my 'Relic' for my Chaos gang is a flag. And nothing shows your own it more than a flag, I mean ask Eddie Izzard, it was how Britain ruled the world.

This was amongst the very few things I actually painted however it was not alone meet Immeral Thamynn my latest DND character. 

Hes a warlock of the deep and how can you be bound to a primordial god of deep sea beasts without a tentacle, I got this printed originally as my beast lair marker for Necromunda but when making a new character this was too good to miss out on.

There are a few other pieces thats have been progressed but my big nids lost alot of steam when I found my pot of white paint that I cover them in before the wash had dried and I couldn't paint them if I wanted to. I now have some white paint but its not the same one as GW discontinued the one I was using, hopefully it doesnt change the end colours to much. More on this to come.

On a side note as of Monday Aotearoa New Zealand is officially COVID-19 free, with no active or new cases. Yes, We did that. Life can finally take a turn towards 'normality'. To celebrate here is a DND Character I painted for a friend taken at our first session in level 1.