Valkia's Universe of Darkness (Chaos, Inquisition, Necrons, Kill Team and Tyranids)

[Valkia the Bloody]

Hello everybody, 

not sure anyone remembers me.

I have been in the Warhammer hobby for nearly 30 years now, and I am active in the Hobby on and off. This really depends on my ADHD.

In the past, I had several threads on here:

I have not been active for nearly 2 years now. 

I had some health issues, and then lots of stress at work, and then my ADHD was interested in other things. Basically, life happened.

Funnily, I had a vivid dream last week about a Warhammer tournament 10 years ago, where I played against an AMAZING Tyranid army.

The opponent had painted their tyranids like toads and based them on amazing swamp bases. It looked awesome. 

The thought was born- "Hey, this is something you can do, too!"

Plus- the new more agile and dynamic Tyranid models look so much better that the static and awkward models of the past. 

So- in my head, a new project was born!!!

 

What I will do now- I am now creating a new Work In Progress Thread where I will collect all my Warhammer projects.

I will use this new thread and not do Thread Necromancy. 

Links to the old threads are above. 

So I will have all my stuff in one thread, and do not have to curate several. 

What do I have sitting here, collecting dust: 

I have an ongoing pretty big (and sadly only half painted!) Night Lord army.

I have some Necrons.

I have some imperial stuff, loyal Space Marines, lots of Inquisition figures (different inquisitors and operatives) and even an Imperial Knight which I have not even assembled yet, not sure if he will join Chaos or remain loyal. 

Have I mentioned my ADHD?

So yes, there is not only a pile, there is a MOUNTAIN of Shame. 

I am hoping that with a new project that motivates me, I can get back into the hobby.

 

Assembling and painting and being creative is actually a very big part of caring for my mental health. 

I have been battling with issues for years now, and Warhammer actually helped me through the darkest patches of my life. 

So even more reason to get back into it!!! 

 

The last Warhammer related thing I did (ages ago) was buying the Kill Team box featuring the Night Lord Kill Team (I am German, so yes, the box has German writing). 

The box is still unopened and collects dust, none of the figures have been assembled. 

I hope I will be able to get back to it:

 

But back to what brought be back this time:

Tyranids! 

I am planning on doing a melee army which I will paint like slippery toads on swamp bases, complete with swamp weeds and reeds and lots of mud and slime.

It will be disgusting.

I got some decoration material for that:

I did not want to spend too much money, so I bought some used models (most already assembled) on Ebay.

I repaired, assembled and primed the Ebay models. 

No idea if this is in any way competitive or not, I am mainly after the painting and modeling anyways. 

I just got some models that looked cool. 

I think it is roughly 1000 points (however, since I do not even have the latest rule book, no idea if that point system is even used anymore). 

 

 

 

 

I love the Cthulhu vibes with these!

 

These are also very cool looking:

 

 

The mighty Swarm Lord

 

And here is, hands-down my favorite model of the army. This guy just looks seriously amazing.

I built him that he rears on his hind legs, and the dead terminator lies at his feet:

 

Defenders of humanity, beware!!!

Story goes, the terminator managed to cut of a tentacle, before succumbing to his wounds:

 

And the Swarm Lord got the dead marine from the decorations box:

 

I even was so motivated that I assembled some spore mines from some leftover bits and green stuff.

Yes, I am aware that these bases might not be legal, but they were bases that were sitting around and since I am not playing tournament (or playing at all) at the moment, this is not very important. I could also use these as objective markers. 

Yes, my modelling skills are a bit basic, but hey, Spore Mines are blobs with tentacles, so I think that I have achieved. 

 

I also assembled these spore mines, since I wanted to test the paint scheme first, and did not want to use any of the "real" models. 

I want to try around first, and see what works best, and then decide how exactly I want to create my slimy swamp toad cthulhus. 

 

And now lets close this post with a citation from the Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos:

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."

Something sinister in the swamp has awakened. The end of humanity is near. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Good luck with the project. I like the modern genestealer sculpts - they're definitely suitably "gribbly"  

[Tallarn Commander]

This should be fun. I'm looking forward to Toadesque swamp-themed Cthulu Nids.

 

I loved your Night Lords and some of my Night Lords projects were influenced by them back in the day.

[Valkia the Bloody]

Thank you for the words of encouragement! 

 

Well, we had a sunny afternoon, and I spend all afternoon sitting on my balcony and using the "spore mines" as test-models for my painting and basing scheme. 

I am heavily influenced by John Blanche ("Blanchitsu"), for me, he just nailed the style and atmosphere of 40k. I cannot deal with this new modern more "optimistic" 40k.

Give me grim-dark any time! 

So I went for something suitably dark and gritty, fitting for a horror race like the Tyranids. 

This is what I have settled on (and I think the cobbled together spore mines look quite good for some bits stuck into green stuff). 

As you can see I am using "Blood for the Blood God" as a signal color for "danger". I think I will keep this idea also for the larger Tyranid models. 

 

 

 

 

To get into the mood, I even bought some Black Library Tyranid books- I already had Peter Fehevari's "Cult of the Spiral Dawn" sitting on my Kindle for much too long, so now I also got "The Great Devourer- The Leviathan Omnibus" and "Day of Ascension". Yeah, I know, two of these books are about Genestealer Cults, but honestly, these count as Tyranids for me (and one day, I even might expand towards the cults for my Inquisition teams to hunt down). 

Edited yesterday at 05:25 PM by Valkia the Bloody

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks like you're off to a good start

[Valkia the Bloody]

Oh, and I just browsed Black Library and got Peter Fehevari's new short story as well as Dominion Genesis- Adeptus Mechanicus against Tyranids! 

Dominion Genesis got good reviews, so looking forward to it. Hope it gets me into "the mood". 

[gaurdian31]

Glad to see you back, really enjoyed your Night Lords. Those spore mines came out really well. They look really fleshy, in a good way.

[Valkia the Bloody]

Time to make a list of the Tyranid models which I have pictured above:

- 1 Swarm Lord

- 1 Deathleaper

- 1 Maleceptor

- 3 Van Ryan Leapers

- 10 Genestealers

- 10 Termagants

- 11 Neurogants

- 1 Ripper Swarm

- 6 Spore Mines 

As I said, I got these models used on ebay (or cobbled them together myself in case of the spore mines), and I went for what looked cool. 

This is not (yet) meant as a competitive list. 

48 minutes ago, gaurdian31 said:

Glad to see you back, really enjoyed your Night Lords. Those spore mines came out really well. They look really fleshy, in a good way.

Thank you! This is what I was going for. The Maleceptor model came with the fleshy "brain covers" for the alternative model, which is the Toxicrene. I love the swollen veins on them. 

I did not have enough covers for 6 mines, though. So what I did to achieve the fleshy vein look on the mines that were missing out was pretty simple: 

I just used wood glue, and added some super glue, which makes the wood glue react and form stringy vein-like strands. It is a bit trial and error, since super glue can also make wood glue to crystalize (which works perfect for mud to form footsteps or tyretracks and a general "muddyness"). I will go all in with this army with this method. 

 

Well, talking about the spore mines. 

They need to come from somewhere- right?

So the tyranids have access to the (ugly) Biovore model as well as the Harpy, which can both shoot the mines.

I needed one of these models!

But I am just not a fan of these particular models. 

Then a bolt of lightning hit me.

There is a Games Workshop model which I absolutely adore, but since it is in one of the Fantasy Elven Ranges, I never considered buying. 

But now I had a closer look. 

The model is PERFECT for the army I am planning (scary monsters from the swamp!). 

So I looked up Ebay again, and I bought another used model. 

(this is the picture of the Ebay seller, by the way, NOT mine)

 

The model is of course the LEVIADON of these deep sea elves. 

 

Before you scream "Heresy!" hear me out.

(I know there is this silly rule on this forum about fantasy models in 40k, but this is a hill I am prepared to die on if need be) 

 

This swamp I am creating is on a low gravity world. In reality, none of the Tyranid flyers should be able to fly anyways because of physics, and we are talking about a fictive alien race, anyways, so who cares how they manage to take to the air. They obviously can do so. 

--> box ticked

The Leviadon is a scary big monster with big teeth on a flying base. 

--> box ticked

The model looks awesome and fits PERFECTLY with the swamp theme and it can be painted to fit in with the rest of the army

--> box ticked

The model even features tyranid scales and spikes! (yes, they are fastened with bridles and belts, but there are ways around covering these up)

--> box ticked

The Leviadon even has the tyranid typical 6 limbs! 

--> honestly, case closed! 

Bonus- turtles are among my favorite animals. 

So now I DARE anyone to tell me I cannot use this as a stand-in / proxy of a Tyranid harpy - because, reasons!! 

Huge scary flying monster with big teeth on a flying base that is the right size, with tyranid scales and spikes and the 6 limbs of the tyranid bioforms. Produced by Games Workshop. Painted up as a swamp creature like the rest of the army. Sounds like a Tyranid Harpy to me. 

Sorry, you lost the argument. 

 

So yeah.

My Tyranid army will now also feature a Harpy, which is the source of those disgusting fleshy spore mines. 

Plus, I get to paint one of the models I had adored since it came out (minus the Elves of course, they will go straight to the bits box). 

Huge win for me and gets me even more motivated to dive into this army. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Valkia the Bloody