Hive Fleet Behemoth Hive Guard and Gants!

Old School here with an update on Hive Fleet Behemoth. This time I have a group of completed Hive Guard and Termagaunts. As the army has grown, I have really started to love how it all looks on the table. There is something to be said for Tyranids that have been feathered and placed on the field in numbers. They really give a strong impression of movement and with bright colors, are seen across the room. Let's take a look at the newest broods in my Hive fleet (click on the pics to make them larger).

First up are the Hive Guard. Paint-wise, these guys were pretty fun. I loved painting th guns in shades of grey and adding that tentacle pink was something I looked forward to from the time I unboxed the models. One of the great things about these photos is that I just noticed, I didn't quite finish the yellow eye on the weapons for the Guard and the Gants. Now I can fix that.

Anyway, the Hive Guard aren't as much a part of my current lists as they used to be, but they still have a place. It's really just that Ymgarls and sometimes Venomthropes find their way into my lists and my anti-tank has to get a little more creative. Let's face it, Hive Guard have a big target on their head and sometimes, it makes them suck more than they should.

Hive Guard always have the same pose, though I don't see a problem with them. They were born yesterday (literally in many battles, hotboxed from Tyranid DNA and pushed out the door to fight - but like any set of twins ... or whatever a brood of a thousand would be called,) they have small differences.

Sometimes, I give my nids spots. While this may seem like a nice touch, it really is a little bit of tyranid laziness on my part. You see sometimes, we miss a stroke in the blue stage of the carapace and we end up hitting the upper highlights of an arm, typically at the shoulders. Now, I can try to blend it in with multiple, thin layers of blood red ... or, I can give it a few little freckles, which also appear in many of the 'Eavy Metal teams designs. You will see these little birth marks all over my army. A gaunt here or there, a Hive Guard ... it's a little time saving trick that happens to make it look like you spent more time than you really needed to on your army.

A little shot at the backsides. I purposely feather the carapace a little differently on each nid, since they will likely grow at seperate rates based on their environment and exposure to hostilities: creatures with such a rapid metabolism would divert energy from growth to healing and thus grow differently with the shell marking age and to a degree, experience. Odd, I know, but it is something I think about ... that and there are no true identical parts in nature.

Now we reach the Gribblies, the unwashed masses, the unloved, but often under-rated and under-estimated Termagants! These bad boys can be the bane of an enemy death star when supported on the table. At the paint station, they can really be a pain for the nid player. There are so many places that need detail if they are to reach the same standard as the bigger models, but with so many, it can really be a drag to paint them, which means you can try to do 50 and go crazy ... or you can do what I do and sneek five or ten in with each new Nid project you paint. This lead to me painting these guys to a higher standard and not really losing any steam doing it.

There will be more to come. I took a week off of painting due to real life and work issues, but I will likely be starting my Hive Tyrant this week and maybe his unit as well. Keep your eyes open for these as well as some other projects the teams has brewing. As always, let me know what you think!