Used Nids, eBay, and Boxes in the Garage

OR - how I was able to jump start my new hive fleet with incredible savings!

Over the holiday week last week, when I was back visiting family in Ohio, I was able to rummage around some old boxes from my parents house and discovered quite a few tyranid models and bits that I had completely forgotten about in recent years.

I was also able to strike a deal with a buddy, who had a huge selection of used Nids that had been looking for a home.

And finally, I found an amazing deal on eBay to grab a forgeworld barbed heirodule for 50% off, which I scooped up immediately.

For the total sum of about $150, I now have at my disposal, to jump start the resurgance of my hive fleet:

2 hive tyrants with wings
1 deathleaper
3 tyranid warriors
6 genestealers (5th ed box set)
88 termagants
1 tervigon
2 trygons
3 carnifex
1 barbed heirodule

While the new codex will have to be released before I determine which pieces of this puzzle will become my standard 1850-2000 point "all comers" list, not a bad way to start things off!!

I'll likely pick up another tervigon, 2 of the new flyers, the new exocrine, and a box of the new hive guard on release day to better construct my list. But this all adds up to about 3000 points on its own, so I'm already ahead of my goal for both January and February. Things are looking good for the fleet!

This weekend I'll post some WIP pictures of my models being cleaned, converted, and painted up. I'll also be including pics of my finished hive tyrant, so you can see what the scheme is going to look like across the swarm.

Cheers,
-Nick

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

2014 is shaping up to be an exciting year hobby wise. As anyone who knows me will tell you, although I've built and played just about every army that GW has ever produced in my 15 years in the hobby, the army that will always stand out as my favorite (in either WHFB or 40k) is the Tyranids.

Something about this absolutely alien force, with its unique army dynamic, extremely cool organic aesthetic, and the sci-fi horror fluff revolving around the galaxies total destruction at their cold, gribbly hands, just draws me in every time the codex gets a reboot.

And so, with the new Tyranid book on the horizon for next weekend, I've decided to undertake an amazing hobby challenge for the year of 2014. I will be building my old hive fleet, Hive Fleet Tempestus, from 0-13,500 points throughout the course of the year.

I'll be sticking to a lose framework of 1000 points per month (with January's alotment being 2,000 so I have a workable "standard force" while I build up the rest of the swarm). Once the book drops in January, I'll have an explicit outline of which models will be added for each month of the year...including numerous Forge World purchases towards the summer months.

Stay tuned all, and welcome to my progress blog!
-Nick