The Hobby Hobbit

Background

I rediscovered the warhammer hobby in 2024 after I stumbling up off some old Middle Earth SBG models in my attic. I was quickly swept up in the current of the Warhammer 40K resurgence we’ve seen over the last few years. Navigating through the perfect storm of Games Workshop expansion, the release of 10th Edition, Space Marine 2 and an exponentially growing warhammer community, committing to learning the basics of painting and playing Warhammer 40K and growing a Black Templars army – currently clocking in at 2640 points, with 1600 points of that fully painted.

I’ve been to Warhammer World twice during that time, once just to see the exhibits and once to actually play games – which was incredible. Seeing all the armies on display, there was one army in particular that stood out to me. So, I finally caved and started… you guessed it… a second army. RIP my bank account. Congratulations James Workshop, you’ve done it again.

Why Nids?

I’ve had my eyes on these hungry little guys for a while. My introduction Warhammer 40k coincided with 10th Edition and Space Marine 2, where Tyranids played a key role as the defining threat. Naturally, Tyranids have been dangled in front of me like juicy biomass for the last 2 years.

There’s no denying that the Tyranid faction have some of the most aesthetic, insane looking models in the whole of 40K, especially the big monsters like the Trygon, Norns and Carnifexs. There is undeniably a Trygon tunnelling into my life in the near future.. In addition to having an incredible roster of models to choose from, Tyranids seem to have the most versatile colour scheme. There are so many routes you can go down, whether you follow one of the traditional hive fleet colours or cook something entirely unique.

The hardest decision is which direction to go in: big scary monsters of hordes of flesh eaters…

Picking a Colour Scheme

My main issue with starting a Tyranids army is that I’m not actually a huge fan of the traditional Tyranid colour scheme. Controversial I know, but white and purple doesn’t exactly scream the stuff of nightmares.

When deciding on a colour scheme I think the best place to start is what kind of story you want to tell. When I think of Tyranids my mind jumps to the Alien films, creatures lurking in the darkness, perfectly adapted for stalking and killing unsuspecting prey. The models should look stealthy and deadly.

However, I also wanted the army to be visually striking on the table. Tyranid have some of the most aesthetic models in the game so I wanted to do the army justice (hence why I’ve written a small essay on picking a colour scheme). This meant moving away from black as the base colour. Instead, I went for night-like colours as the base – purple and dark blue, and decided that my colour spectrum would go from purple > blue > green. Stealthy, jungley, alien colours.

Using spray paints to create gradient is a tip I actually learnt from a guy called Paul, who I met through a warhammer crusade. Paul’s Tyranid army looks insanely good and was a big part of my inspiration to join the Hive Mind. He’s also a master of churning out high quality, painted models at an alarming rate.

The reason for two spray paints is one is essentially the base, and you spray the second directly from above to imitate where the light hits. I did an initial test with Games Workshop’s Blue and Purple primers and though it looked sick, so now we’re committed.

Gotta Start Somewhere

The next question was how do I build out my army, which is tricky because there are many different directions we can go in. My instinct is to go for big monsters because they’re the best looking models and… big monsters. On the other hand, imagine a sea of gaunts flooding the table.

I needed a starting point, and a friend of mine suggesting splitting the 10th Edition starter set – giving him a base for a space marines army and me a foundation for Tyranids. This gave me a load of small guys to experiment painting on, three Von Ryans which I think are some of my favourite models in the game, a winged tyranid prime and a bi Psychophage to add a juicy monster into the mix. I also managed to acquire some more termagants from Vinted and a brand new Biovore/Pyrovore. Apparently the Biovore is a staple because of the ability to yeet spore mines halfway across the board and score secondaries, I just think it looks nuts which is the aesthetic I’m going for with this army.

The Bio-Pyrovore I’m particularly proud of, this was the first time I attempted to magnetise parts of a model. Why pay twice when you can magnetise!

More army updates to come…

The first termagants took me about 2 weeks to paint, so I’m hoping I speed up as I paint more and more. I’m keen to get these guys on the table as soon as possible so the goal is to get 1000 points painted by Jan. I’ll share more updates as the swarm grows!