Apocalypse Game May 2014

My poor neglected blog! Gearing up for this Apocalypse game has been a real trial, resulting in an absolute terrain building frenzy! It was all worth it though, because we ended up with a great looking table!

The idea was that 2 sides battle over 3 crossing points into the Imperial city. The bridge below was Andy's effort (done at very short notice!)

This is what i have been slaving over lately - Imperator Bridge! Its nearly 5 feet long and 2 feet wide.

The final crossing point was this infected Tyranid Section. More like a Bio-Bridge!

This is my Defence Laser Heretics Bane, finally painted up! Its inspired me to build to long planned second laser.

These are just a few random shots of the game in full swing. We had 7 players each side, with each player bringing 2000pts each. It was Imperial vs Xenos.

Yes, that is an Eldar Phantom Titan (well over 2K of points on its own, but we allowed it!) This is what destroyed my beloved Reaver Titan Praetorian.

The Imperial side of Imperator Bridge - not terribly inviting!!

Space Wolves and Grey Knights guard the Tyranid Bio-Bridge.

A massive Dark Eldar force loaded with Kabilites and Incubi!

The Phantom stood watch over the Xenos side of the bridge, wipping out 4000pts of models on its own!!

Despite a Vortex grenade swirling around its feet for the whole game!

There wasn't much left of the Imperial defences once 4 Daemon Princes landed...

Imperitor Bridge in the final stages of the game - a last minute dash for the objective in the centre.

This was a really great day! We had a lot of players who had never played Apocalypse before but they all seemed to really enjoy it. I'm hoping that this will be the first of many to come.

Im really looking forward to getting back to some model painting now. I've spent to long building terrain. I did  pick up the new HH Book III: Extermination, and im loving the new Mechanicus list in there! I'll scrape some cash together and get building soon.

The GunGrave

Tyranid Capillary Towers....Have Multiplied!

The capillary towers have been quietly multiplying over the past few weeks.... almost enough terrain for a 6x4 table now. There are still 2 large towers waiting to be painted. 

Some baby towers bulked up the numbers nicely!

I really like the 'ruined' towers! The only reason these were made is because i broke the polystyrene by mistake!

And of course, the Spore Chimney. One day i will do a second one of these, but with an Apocalypse game coming up at the end of May (of which i'm providing a great deal of terrain!) ill be focusing on other projects. Namely the recently neglected Imperator Bridge!

I also attended a small local doubles tournament in March (which we came unexpectedly 2nd!) at which the Towers got a look it. Here they are in (in)action!

More terrain, and hopefully Legion Death guard, soon!

The GunGrave

Jumping on the Knight Bandwagon! Legio Astorum Knight

Its been a bit quiet on the blog lately. As usual though, the Forge has not been idol!

Like everyone else in the hobby world, I became absurdly excited with the news of the Imperial Knight release.  Naturally I ordered one from my FLGS (with a cool 10% off RRP), and assembled it immediately.

I made a small adjustment to the pose of the legs. I hated how it was so static (about the only thing i don't like about the model) so i went for a forward-striding pose. I wanted my Knights to match my Reaver from the Legio Astorum Titan Legion, so i replicated the scheme on the Knight.

I haven't made a decision on the transfers i want to use yet, so i've left them off for now. That being said, it looks pretty smart without them!

I used the Eclipse symbol of the Legio Astorum for the shield decoration. Its a little wobbly, but it was my first attempt!

I lavished the usual amount of time on the base, going for a generic urban theme.

Chain sword Arm:

Battlecannon. Finished off with some weathering powers.

The working parts at the rear were kept simple, with a splash of bronze.

Some weathering was applied to the top of the carapace to break up the blue.

Naturally i magnetised the arms:

Unlike most magnetised Knights, i magnetised the limbs at the elbow:

Most I've seen magnetised at the front of the weapons housing. Reason i did this was because if Forgeworld release any weapons options (which they're sure to do) then its more likely that they'll be sold as a whole arm. Well, that's what I'm hoping!

Finally here's a shot of the Knight with Praetorian! Like father like son eh?

The GunGrave

Tyranid Spore Chimney Completed!

With the successful build of the Capillary Towers I quickly wanted to get the Spore Chimney painted to see if it would look as good! I wasn't disappointed.

The application of the 'slime' was quite a lengthy process! It was worth it though.

Painting the central tentacles really helped make them pop!

I went with the stripes here for the carapace markings.

The broken groundwork was left based in a dark grey as not to distract from the main chimney.

Finally a scale shot with some Termagaunts!

I'm really pleased with his piece! The only trouble now is going to be transporting it! Especially when I build a second...

The GunGrave

Tyranid Carnifex Brood Complete

The latest weapon in the arsenal of the Hive Mind - a Canifex Brood!

I've never run 'Fex's before (couldn't tell you why!) but with the dramatic points reduction in this new edition, it was hard not to - if at least to give them a go!

You saw the Crusher Fex in the last post, so here's the completed Dakka Fex with two twin linked Devourers.

This is the second Dakka Fex - although i've used Deathspitters here until i source some more Devourers (got 2 but need 2 more) Of course the weapons arms are magnetised, so weapons swaps won't be a problem!

Looking forward to giving these guys a run out!!

The GunGrave

Tyranid Capillary Tower Tutorial Mk II

So after the initial experiment making a Tyranid Capillary Tower i decided to have another go, further refining my technique.

Firstly, base your quartered polystyrene cone. This time i used a pre cut wooden disc as the base (which looks much neater!). 

To help create the effect of broken ground around the base of the tower, i glued some foam pieces around the base to assist with the effect.

Once they dry, start cutting the ridges into the back of the styrene piece. I roughly measured out the spaces to create a roughly uniform look. These will just provide a guide for when the clay is applied later on.

Once the ridges are cut in, take some air-drying clay and begin to coat the back of the tower. Make sure you coat the tower in a reasonable thickness of clay as this will help you cut details into it later.

Coat the foam at the base of the tower in clay as well to create the broken ground effect.

Once your happy with the shape of the clay, carefully cut some ridges into it, following the cuts made in the styrene foam earlier. For this i used the back of a kitchen knife.

The clay will take roughly 24hrs to dry and i recommend waiting before moving to to the next step, otherwise you'll end up putting finger marks in places you really don't want them!

Once your happy the clays dry, take some basic polyfilla (or similar). This needs to be applied to the front of the tower. I watered down the filla with water in a 50/50 mix. This obviously makes it more runny, and will hopefully give the filla a more organic look when dry. Try to cover every surface of the styrene so it doesnt melt when you spray it later on!

Give this an hour of two to dry before adding some texture to the front of the tower with some medical gauze soaked in PVA glue. At this stage you'll also need to add some 'spikes' in the front of the tower. You could use anything for this, as long as its vaguely pointy!

This is great at creating an organic feel. Make sure you stretch the gauze between different sections of the tower. Base the tower with some sand, and your build is complete!

Give it another 24hrs to let the gauze dry and get painting! I went with the same colour scheme i used for the rest of my 'Nid army, but you might want to go for something more neutral.

After painting and varnishing i added one final touch - slime! I did this using a hot glue gun, stringing the glue between different sections of the tower. Do this after varnishing, otherwise the glue would go cloudy with the vanish.

I couldn't decide whether to go with spots or stripes on the back of the towers - what do you guys think?

Scale shot with the Crusher Fex!

A close up of the 'slime'. This was really easy to achieve, i think it really makes the towers pop!

There we have it. There's another 7 Towers at different points of construction on the table at the moment, as well as the Spore Chimney which is now half painted. More on the terra-forming efforts of the Hive Mind soon...

The Gungrave