# Swede's Bug Plog



## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

It was born on a cold world. A world once ravaged by the fires of war long ago. left uninhabited by nuclear winter and radiation. What had once been a thriving Imperial world lay isolated for thousands of years, the once great cities mere shadows of what they had once been. It was not exactly a dead planet, at least not in the beginning. There was animal and plant life, and even some nearly sentient primate analogues. And a single dormant spore of unknown and alien origins. The records name this planet Wendigo, and as the spore awoke it listened to the voices of its overmind. It began to feed, to build, to grow. After the first month the swarm had devoured the small continent on which it first began to thrive. By the end of the second month it had finished devouring the entire planet. All of its biomass was used in the construction of a single massive ship that felt only the need to feed. It quickly swept through the other planets int he system, devouring and growing as it went, until, finally, it was able to gorge itself no more. It traveled then from system to system, its psychic shadow growing ever stronger. It stumbled upon a system infested with orks, and it began to feast again. What left the system was no longer a small fleet of Hive ships but a massive force comprising hundreds of ships, it scoured the stars traveling through Tau and Ork worlds alike with nothing able to slow its advance until it finally encountered the edge worlds of human space. It destroyed over a hundred imperial worlds before it was classified, named, and a force was dispatched to deal with the new xenos threat, officially designated as Hive Fleet Wendigo

And there you have it a little bit of background for my newest army. Ive always detested tyranids but ive come to really enjoy their place in the 40K universe so i thought I might as well try my luck. this is where i stand so far...

To start off with my work area is no longer as large as i would have liked for this kind of work. but it is plenty big enough for cranking out minis


Because of the Hive Fleets Background I plan on doing all Snow or Ice bases for my army. I got a little adventerous and perhaps a little ahead of myself but i wanted to get close to this result for my bases.

so i decided to give something like this a go. and the inital stages looked promising so without waiting i went ahead and did the bases for my warriors. 



And then they turned out like this.

Now i realize that my mistake began by not using an airbrush. but that was never really a viable option for me anyways. However i do think they turned out rather well all things considered. I finished my test mini today base and all and im very happy with how he turned out as well. 



So with that decided i am working on putting together the warriors next. I should be priming them tomorrow if all goes well. Any comments or suggestions you guys have im always happy to hear it, even if its negative!


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

Good stuff dude !
With the bases did you try starting with white and then glazing the blues and then dry brush back to white, that may get you closer to that airbrush look.


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## Jolnir (Feb 11, 2014)

As pretty as the original bases you posted are, the ones you made are much more realistic.

Good job.


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

DaisyDuke said:


> Good stuff dude !
> With the bases did you try starting with white and then glazing the blues and then dry brush back to white, that may get you closer to that airbrush look.


that's a great idea actually. Looking at the bases that I've made so far I've come to a few conclusions. the first being that the bases need to be done AFTER the Mini. Ive started on the warriors and unfortunately the wash has mignles with the whites... sooo..... noob mistake there. The second thing is that the guants are notorious for tipping over . Im thinkin they might need a counterweight


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Yes to counterweighting, I think I'll be going to my local Bunnings for some weighty steel washers when I eventually get to my bugs...

Nice colour scheme!


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

Ha just wait till they fall over and the ankle snaps. One of the worst sculpts for weak snappy ankles ever!


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

So heres a quick update on what I've managed to get accomplished with these guys so far. Ive finished my test model and i went ahead and painted my warrior in the same paint scheme. My intent with this was to pick something that's quick and easy to reproduce enmasse AND that has the added benefit of not needing to be as tight as my paint jobs for my Imperial Fists. Since they are completely organic, imperfections and mistakes can easily be explained as nothing more than the variations inherent to each creature in nature (yes this totally means I am justifying being sloppy, at least with the rank and file).

The test Mini


The Warriors:






Moving forward now that I'm comfortable with how the minis turn out with a few coats of paint on them its time to scale up. I have started putting together the Hive tyrant, because any good army needs an HQ. I should probably mention that this will mainly be a winged army. My focus will be mostly on flying models but naturally ill have plenty of ground units. But the plan is to basically blot out the sky with gargoyles. 


Finally i think i may have found a solution to the issue afflicting these Hormagaunts. Using a combination of Fishing weight and modeling putty (mainly green-stuff but milliput works just as well im able to create a very stable platform. Knowing that the bonds that hold all of it together May(though not likely) loosen up I also opted to used plastic cement to make a permanent bond using plasticard to cover the base. as you can see it only adds a little bit of height to the mini but the results are a MUCH more stable mini.


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

The warriors are looking good dude!


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

@DaisyDuke Thanks!. I forgot to put on the coat of varnish on them which serves to also make them glisten a bit more. Helps the carapace appear more chitinous. 

On a separate note it bothers me beyond belief that the base hive tyrant kit comes with all the parts to make all the variations except the twin devourers. Ive been sitting here racking my brain to see if i can come up with a satisfactory alternative and while i MAY have one i still need to do some work to see if its going to pan out. And Frankly, i have no intention of shelling out 20 some dollars for the FW arms. Ive seen some good ideas on other sites but was wondering if anyone here might have other ideas?


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

I converted my own as at the time the FW one hadn't been released. I'll take a pic, it may help with some ideas.


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

DaisyDuke said:


> I converted my own as at the time the FW one hadn't been released. I'll take a pic, it may help with some ideas.


it most certainly will


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

Up on the painting bench alongside my Vindicator is my Flyrant. Going to try and paint the head separate to focus on some details and im not sure what i want to do about his base yet but seeing as he is one of the few true character i will definitely have to spice him up a little bit.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Damn that is such a cool model. Why so much GS work, just fixing up where the parts meet?


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

ntaw said:


> Damn that is such a cool model. Why so much GS work, just fixing up where the parts meet?


Yeah. Lots of seams that would look put of place on this mini. I might be able to get away with seams on a marine or vehicle but never anything organic. Besides it's lots of coats of liquid green stuff plus some sanding so it wasn't all that much extra work while assembling TBH. 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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