The Prancing Gaunt!

I could have chosen "The Riverdance Gaunt" "The Ballerina Gaunt" or anything similar... but the prancing gaunt just sounds better to me. Kind of like the prancing pony in LOTR. Or some other pony you'd name that way because it was cute. Hopefully, this name will strike terror into the hearts of my opponents when they hear it :)

Seriously though, I think posing the gaunts upright is going to give them character and set my army apart from other similar tyranid swarm armies (although at the local GW store I recently started going to to re-learn the rules and learn the new rules, there haven't been any true swarm tyranid armies that I've seen yet! More "Tyr-zilla" than anything else!).

To do this, I pinned the back foot through the base. I had to use super glue for all of it... because my "Model Master Plastic Cement" glue is drying slower than if I'd tried to make my own! I didn't realize it at first, but the tail is almost touching the surface, extending down below the base. So I better not lean any of them back farther than that!

I also tried using GS (using too many acronyms today... that's green stuff for anyone unfamiliar. I guess using any acronym makes me sound like I'm familiar with something I've never tried before... nifty right?) for the first time!!! I think it went well, the only thing I'm unsure about is covering the seam on his chest (which is usually facing the ground) it was hard to reach in there and get it smooth enough. Otherwise, it was sweet :)

32 gaunt bodies have mold lines removed already... another 64 to go! Ugh! I assembled this guy to give me some motivation... I think it will do the trick :)

Off the sprue = Off the chain!

Well, it's been a whole week, so it's high time for an update! Last week, I spent my time staring at my miniature painting/assembly/awesomeness desk and deciding whether or not to get started... and deciding not to. It was week 3 of "The Academy" course I'm taking at the GW Battle Bunker, and we got to try playing this week, so I spent most of my time reading the rulebook and/or codex and rolling dice in pretend battles :). I know... lame!

But this morning I'm back on track. Every plastic item I own is now OFF the sprue...! and off the hook :). There are 96 unassembled gaunts in the picture above, along with 12 warriors. That's a lot of guys! My remaining two "work" days (meaning the days I'm actually not at work in the morning) for this week will be spent removing mold lines... and probably at least a few days of next week. I'm going to try to tackle all of it by the end of next week, then a week for assembly, and a week for painting! Hold on... I haven't told you about the master plan!

My plan (master, of course) is to finish by Christmas. This means I have 8 weeks. 4 weeks are going to gaunts, 2 weeks to warriors, and 2 weeks to "other" (raveners, lictors, and tyrant). I think it will be faster this way, i.e. doing all of one thing ALL at once. Like taking 96 gaunts off the sprue in the morning. Man... that is off the hook!

(And yes, my sister did give me the "urban dictionary" for Christmas, and no, I don't know the difference between off the hook/chain/table/etc... it says they're all the same, but I know there's a difference in there somewhere! And I know I used it inconsistently in this post...)

Last thing... the second to bottom pic is of my wife's ipod set up to play Oasis' "What's the Story Morning Glory" album over and over (Wonderwalllllll.... Champagne Supernova..... walking down the hall faster than a cannonball... oh yeah!) which is what I listened to during the summer of painting (as it shall henceforth be known) with my younger brother. Hopefully, it will give me similar motivation this time, and better results :)

The final pic is what's going to be left over after all this... anyone want to trade for an Imperial Guard sentinel (for a scenic base I want to do after all this is over) and a few odd guardsmen???

Math Happy and FuzzyWuzzyWig

Math makes me happy. I recently quit my job to pursue becoming a math teacher in the city, for high school students. Don't ask me why numbers make me happy. Some people like cakes. Some people like candy. I like numbers that fit together nicely. It's not normal... but hopefully it can help a few people who like cake or candy appreciate numbers enough to get by in a world all-too-often run by them!!!

Okay, so this part definetly entertains me, but I'm not sure about the rest of you :). I've committed to not playing any of these models until they're fully painted, so it's important that I have some goals to shoot for as to when I'll actually be able to start playing: i.e., some army lists! And it looks like I'll be painting over 50 models before I can play my first game!!

The lists are made up of the same models (i.e. no upgrades / biomorphs / changes of weaponry) so that it can all be WYSIWYG (everybody says this out loud, right? "WuzzyWig"? Or is it just me? FuzzyWuzzyWig... I have a FuzzyWuzzyWig... or at least I did until I cut it all off the day after this picture was taken last week!) all the time! So here's the lists, in descending order:

Ritide's Nids- 2000 Points (1997)
Tyrant- Wings, RC, ST, Catalyst
Warriors- (6) Wings, ST x 2
Warriors- (6) Wings, ST x 2
Raveners- (6) ST x 2
Lictors- (3) FT, FH, RC, ST
Hormagaunts- (32) ST
Hormagaunts- (32) ST
Hormagaunts- (32) ST

Ritide's Nids- 1500 Points (1499)
Tyrant- Wings, RC, ST, Catalyst
Warriors- (4) Wings, ST x 2
Warriors- (4) Wings, ST x 2
Raveners- (3) ST x 2
Lictors- (3) FT, FH, RC, ST
Hormagaunts- (24) ST
Hormagaunts- (24) ST
Hormagaunts- (24) ST

Ritide's Nids- 1000 Points (993)
Tyrant- Wings, RC, ST, Catalyst
Warriors- (3) Wings, ST x 2
Warriors- (3) Wings, ST x 2
Lictors- (2) FT, FH, RC, ST
Hormagaunts- (24) ST
Hormagaunts- (24) ST

The most important thing to me was to keep close to 50% of my points in troops, so I'm taking 48 hormagaunts at 1000, 72 at 1500, and 96 at 2000 :). I also wanted to keep an even number of Lictors to troop squads (with the idea that they're scouting ahead for them) and get the mix of raveners and warriors in as soon as possible. There didn't seem to be any good way to get raveners into the 1000 point list, it's just too small of a list for such an expensive (albiet awesome looking) toy :)

Finally, the options were chosen based on looks, not effectiveness, so that's why there's so many scything talons (instead of adding a few more rending claws). I know I need more armor penetration and/or power-weaponyness, but that's this army's weakness, and damn it all, I'm sticking to it! Not to mention, scything talons look totally awesome! Rad, tubular, mondo! Far out, dude! (If you download Super Mario World for the Wii and get to Star Road, you'll know where I'm coming from :)

In Technicolor!

And finally... the moment you've all been waiting for!!! Ok ok, "all" of you can't have been actually "waiting" for it... since I've only told one person about this blog, waiting until this moment had arrived (after all, it's not too interesting to read a blog about building an army, if the army is totally nonexistent... even with all of my incredible wit and humor sprinkled in!) to advertise it :)

So here are my first nids, and they're on models that technically will not be in the army... test models if you will (since I'm not taking any genestealers or termagaunts, but I have them because these are the ones they gave me for free at the store to take the painting class!). The first test model isn't pictured... he's got different shades of yellow and red all over him!

These are the "finished" tests... the guns aren't painted (I'm not taking any guns in the army, anyway) and the claws aren't blended (I didn't have time to try out this technique, but I think I understand it. I'll also be going white-grey-black instead of just grey and black... if all goes according to plan that is!) and the bases were done at the last minute, but all in all, this is about what my standard guys will look like! The pics are: first in artificial light, second in natural light... and third between the two extremes :)

The paint scheme is done as follows (over a white primer): 1) Skin- basecoat of Iyanden Darksun, wash of Ogryn (which by the way, is an extremely hard word to spell for me... kind of like "rhthym") Flesh, drybrush of Sunburst Yellow / Iyanden Darksun mix. 2) Scales- basecoat of Mechrite Red, highlight of Red Gore, highlight of Red Gore / Blazing Orange mix. 3) Base- basecoat of Chaos Black, drybrush of Calthan brown, then adding static grass. 4) Miscellaneous- claws are (going to be) blended from Skull White-Codex Grey-Chaos Black, eyes and tongues are Scorpion Green, mouths are Skull White washed with Badab Black.

And that's it! I really hope you like them :). I got some great advice about the colors, that you need three dominant ones for balance- a light, a medium, and dark. I've got red and yellow, so I can either go with black for dark, red medium, yellow light, or go with white for light, yellow for medium, and red for dark. Does that make sense? I've elected to go with the "black balance", and it should look a lot more tri-tone and less duo-tone on the models I've chosen, since ALL of them have at least one set of scything talons, and 18 of them have TWO :)

The next post will be the army list for 1000, 1500, and 2000 points, followed by (hopefully) a squad completely finished! There it is, in text!!! I'm committed!!! (except for the "hopefully"... everybody needs an out, right?)

The Paint Station and The Payment

Here's my paint station in a little corner of our room :). I had to convince my wife to commandeer the computer desk (with the help of my sister assembling two pieces of Ikea rolling-cabinet-things-we-had-no-previous-use-for to replace it) and turn it into a hobby sanctuary of sorts in the bedroom. I've got everything I need here!

The first picture is the whole thing, followed by a close up of the cabinet with 1) a shelf of primer, sealant, wings for converting, scything talons, lictors, raveners, and the Red Terror tyrant 2) a lower shelf of 24 hormagaunt sprues, 12 warrior sprues, bases, and spare parts. Finally there is also a close up of the top, with 1) files, modelling tools, brushes, all manner of glues, paint, and grit/flock. The three models I've painted in my scheme are also there :) but you'll have to wait until the next post for that!!!

The last picture is of what's paying for all this- a guitar freshly paid for on ebay!! I had to travel all over Baltimore this morning, first to Home Depot for the packing paper (145 sheets! and 144 of them made it in the box... I forgot one, and I almost reopened it just to put it in! but hey, at least it's a multiple of 12 now... stuff like that makes me happy, kind of like Monk if you've ever seen that show...), then to the UPS Store for the box, then back home to pack it, and finally back to the UPS store to ship it on my way to work!

Because of all this... I was actually going to be late to work, and the boy I work with (who has autism) can't get in his house if I'm not there... also, I'd left the number for his Dad at home... but just when I was thinking this, who do you think called!? You guessed it (or maybe not)- the Dad! Tada!! Neighbor comes over and saves the day, boy takes advantage and gets himself a soft pretzel and a big glass of chocolate milk... but hey, what more can you ask for from as desperate a starting point as I was at, right?

Chasing Trucks and Attack of the Rat

So yesterday, I spent my time doing mostly one thing: waiting for the package to arrive. I even posted this nifty note on my outer door so that I wouldn't miss the UPS guy. But between going outside to walk my wife to work at 1:00, and my going to work at 1:30, he came, left a sticky note... and drew a little man in the UPS truck I'd left on my note for him. How messed up is that!? I'm guessing he didn't have a phone.

No problem... down the street I spy a UPS truck! I sprint to my car, race down to it (I only ran one red light... honest!) and jumped out at a stop sign brandishing my sticky note. Unfortunately, it was the wrong truck.

So I called UPS and got a time to go pick it up at their station in the middle of nowhere. But I got it! It's got everything except most of the gaunts and the warriors- those should ship tomorrow!

The second part of this post involves another truck- the trash truck. I put out the trash about 10 minutes late this morning, and of course what happened!? I missed the truck, but it's still in sight down the street. So I throw the trash in my trunk, race down the street and ask if I can toss it in. They were real nice about it. Then I went and got a chicken biscuit for breakfast- nothing beats that!

Last thing... the second two pictures are of my doorframe. A rat lived around here before we moved in... and it wants back in with avengeance. It chewed on both sides of the door frame. We heard it, I stuck a plastic bottle on one side (which apparently kept it out, where the tattered ribbon we'd stuck in before didn't) but it just mauled the other side of the door instead. Yikes!!!

I'll post new pictures of my soon-to-be rat trap, and my painting station with all of the supplies unpacked and set up, and the models that I've already received :)

The First Model

And there you have it, my very first model!

This model, and only this model, was ordered directly from Games Workshop for full retail price. I had it shipped to the store in Glen Burnie (so that shipping is free) and there you have it! My first model.

I had to order this one from GW because it is one of their "archive" items. I decided this time around that I would only paint the models that I liked (both for their looks and the idea... I don't want any guns, or any big slow bugs in this army! in my opinion, these don't belong on a ravenous army like the one I'm making), and so I have limited myself to the following:

Hormagaunts

Raveners

Lictors

Warriors

Tyrant

For the Tyrant, I am going to be converting the Red Terror model above. I will also be adding wings, as well as to the Warriors. This will make for a very small, very fast army, with absolutely no guns :). This is what I wanted to do, and damn it all, if I'm going to pay over $700 to get all this stuff (models plus materials) I'm going to do what I want this time!

Hopefully this will be something that is fun, fluffy, a little crazy, and hopefully not overly powerful (the only thing that I'll have to take down armor with is a few sets of rending claws... yeah that could be a problem :). I want to have a weakness that others can exploit (every real army does) and so yeah... that will definetly be it! More fluff on the reasons for these choices later, including the full idea and storyline behind the army.

The rest of the models are coming, along with primer, paint, sealant, brushes, greenstuff, flock, glue, dice, rulebook, codex, and tools. Everything I think I'll need except 1) white glue (not on the website) 2) the Red Terror (already obtained, see above) and 3) a painting station (more on this to come).

I ordered it all from Neal at The War Store (the guy I used to order everything from) and I'm bugging him about it like every day, so it should be here by Friday! I'll take a picture of the whole order then.