I've made quite a lot of progress so far with the Tyranid army rescue. after about 6 hours of painting, I've got the red down, which makes up the fleshy parts of Hive Fleet behemoth, and painted the carapace armour black as the basecoat. The GW painting guide says to go to Sotek green next, and i'm looking forward to it. these miniatures have been a pleasure to paint so far.
Adding the units to Battlescribe, a truly awesome tool for any player of 40k, the total points of the army so far came to about 800 points (including a hive tyrant which is not pictured). The tyrant guard are 1 mini short, and I only have the one Ravener, although it is a gorgeous metal mini. This is enough to play a few small games, but 40k tends to be about the larger games and a mere 800 points will not suffice. So I set about finding some deals that didn't look too bad on eBay. It didn't take too long for me to find something, and after a last minute snipe, I acquired what looked like a bargain.
One of the things I love about buying old miniatures on eBay is that you are never quite sure about what you will get. Pictures can only tell you so much, and it can be hit and miss as to whether you will get some hidden gems, or what arrives is hardly worth the cost of the postage, never mind what you paid for it. I was delighted when my package arrived. I wasn't too happy with how it was delivered, having been thrown over my side gate despite the fact both I and my wife were home.
A quick sort through of the contents revealed some pleasant surprises, and some unpleasant ones. A Swarmlord needed only some light repairs, and as happens from time to time, there were a few nostalgic gems. Plastic Termagants from 2nd edition, and Genestealers from the same time, though I suspect they appeared in Space Hulk first.
Also present are some metal Gargoyles, you may recognize them from 3rd edition. They are certainly better sculpts than the original rogue trader ones, but the new(er) plastic miniatures put them to shame, nevertheless a pleasant surprise.
The next delight was a largely intact Venomthrope, along with the parts to make it into a Malceptor. I decided that the later would probably be the better fit for the type of army I was going for. I'm intending to have a large number of Carnifexes in the force. and the Malceptor will supplement them quite nicely. This comes from the stratagem Encephalic Diffusion which subtracts 1 from any wound rolls against friendly units within 6 inches of it. this can make all the difference between a big gribbly being wounded and not, and its especially useful against Strength 4 weapons as it halves the number of incoming wounds, and against big guns, like lascannons, meltas etc changes a 3+ needed to a 4+ against a Carnifex, and itself. and as a psyker it can use catalyst on itself to supplement the 4+ invulnerable save with a 5+ feel no pain roll. all in all, with the exception of the base being the wrong size (replacement is in the mail) and the Scything Talons being from a completely different kit (they still fit) i'm happy with this.
Not so great was the condition of the two plastic Carnifexes, while the bulk of the miniatures were intact (badly painted, but nothing a dettol bath can't fix) they both had old one eye heads the weapon loadouts were less than optimal, and there was a distinct shortage of replacement parts.
In hindsight i should have anticipated this. Army rescues often require a selection of spare parts. Usually when you buy a kit new, there will be a plethora of parts that you don't use, and can be added to your bits box for use later. When all you have is what you get from eBay, you will find you get few, if any spares. Thankfully there are a few things you can do, the most obvious thing is to ask someone who collects the same army as you if they can help you out. this is what i've done and it's truly gratifying when loads of people from your community come to your assistance. Even if they can't provide the exact piece you want, you will get many pieces you can use on other miniatures you may have. Secondly you can go on eBay and look for bits auctions. normally you will pass them by as who wants to buy just piles of bits? well, an army rescuer or person on a budget, thats who! don't go for the single bits auctions, go for the job lot ones. the price of them might put you off sometimes, but i cannot stress enough just how important having bits is to a miniature builder or painter, as not only can you complete minis that are missing parts, but you can also work on conversions. Lastly, you can pay full whack for a new kit. you will get the spare parts you want, as well as the minis from the kit you just bought. Whatever you choose, you need those spares!
It starts to get a bit more depressing from here though. the bag of goodies had a 3rd Edition Carnifex (the crab looking one) with more glue on it than metal, and a broken 3rd edition Zoanthrope. both are definitely salvageable, but will also require some cleaning and pinning to get them to a useable state. I certainly prefer the newer iterations of both these minis. When it comes to the 3rd edition Carnifex 'what were they thinking' jumps into my mind. its essentially a walking crab and has none of the personality the original Rogue trader Screamer Killer has. From my perusal of the examples up for sale on eBay, i think you have to pay people to want them. But, despite that, it can be used, and a carnifex is a carnifex.
What we are left with at the end of the sorting process was a few minis in good condition. These can be painted straight away although the aesthetics of the old school termagants and Genestealers don't quite match the aesthetics of more recent sculpts. With that said its always fun for me to have some old minis in any army and see if my opponent notices. I have been left with a fair few minis that have gone straight into my junk box. this is always a risk when you buy second hand. Sometimes what you get is broken, missing parts or so badly glued together the best you can hope for is to use them as basing materials. For old minis in bad condition, this is not that bad a fate, they might otherwise end up in the bin. as a last resort you can always try to sell on what you can't use on eBay, after all, there is likely someone like me willing to take a chance!.
These additions put the size of the force up to about 1500 points, and I will hopefully make a start on painting the new additions this week.
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