Wednesday 20 January 2016

Space Fleet Tyranid fleet



Space fleet... the final frontier... LA LAAAAAA LA LALALALAAAAAAAA...

Erm... sorry about that.

Today I'd like to tell you (again) about Space fleet yes. The reason for this is I've had the opportunity to get some rather unusual models from the excellent Chris Steadman lately.

You might know after confrontation, I have a slight obsession for Space Fleet as you can read here :


Now take a look at this :

All models kindly labelled by Chris himself, this saved me a lot of time and trouble believe me...
I'm usually not the kind to display bare lead for the sake of it as I'm a painter at heart but those are not models you see that often and more importantly, I'm using this opportujity to think out loud about how to procede with them.

Let's take a look at what we have here  (all painted examples taken from Solegend):



HIVESHIP :



The Hiveship is the usual terrorising tentacle monster eating people like the legendary Kraken.


It has tentacle attacks and mind attacks (as you'd expect) which prove quite effective at close range but the most intersting thing about Hiveships is that they can spawn new units and "heal", sort of a space necromancer alien, if you want...




DRONES :



What could be more intimidating that a swarm of giant male genitals flying all around you ? Not much I reckon, The fact they cost nothing and you can have 3 per square makes them pretty useful (think "mosquitoes during a hot summer night" level of fun).


You can see those actually started their carreer as models for the Star cruisers range,




DARK PROWLERS :



Quite a strange idea to design space alien ships like moths but WTF after all ! Giant moths which can play twice per turn are good in my book so gimme moar !


DOOMRIPPER KRAKEN :



Once again, those are taken directly from the Starcruisers range, I just love the design of those, it's like an inverted squid with a shark fin and a giant mouth which acts like a giant tick. It might not be the easiest model to use but it can be pretty fun I guess and quite annoying for the opponent once you get the hang of it...



SPORE MINES :



With models taken from the Star cruisers range once again, spore mines seem to be the annoying trick you pull to piss the opponent. Pretty simple to play once again.



Looking at the models, we can see that the paintjobs ignore most of the sculpted details. Before getting the models, I thought I'd have to add some myself to avoid big flat surfaces I despise (I'm not exactlly a great blender...) but when I got those in hand, I found them actually very neat and precise and as often with very old models, they had very fine and small details that were perfectly captured by the casts.


Rules wise, I've never had the opportunity to play Tyranids and they seem to function a whole different way than edlars and the Imperium. There's two sides to this, one is that the gaming styles are different and therefore fun to switch once you get bored from one but it also means you have more rules to absorb. The good point is that Space fleet rules are quite easy, you basically just have to worry about how many dice you roll for attacks and a few more things like solar winds for eldars and action points for the Nids.

I now have a total of 820 points that may rise to 920 thanks to a pending trade. That means I'll have to break it into 2 swarms if I want to play by the rules :

Keep in mind I can totally ignore that chart if it become a limitation...

I'll soon do the same with my imperial fleet to see if numbers roughly match and to see what kind of table size I'm going to need. I've also been thinking abot a colour scheme that uses the details on the models and which looks properly organic. I'm not going for the old studio job which despite its glorious vintage touch has 0 appeal for me.

I'm still hestittaing as I'd like it to have have both a visual presence AND some organic credibility, yeah I know, good luck with that JB... If you feel like you have a good suggestion , don't hesitate, I'm considering all ideas at the moment (apart from : do as the old studio PJ).
I might want to read some space operas and check some old school art just to see if I can grab a good idea...

28 comments:

  1. Excellent write up on these minis! Wonderful, yet so weird looking stuff! I'm wondering if they really did style those Drones after male genitals, but considering the time they were sculpted it's probably safe to say that it definitely is the case :)

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    1. Cheers !
      As you say, given th etime it would make sense, Alien was after all the story of a Xenomorph with a gigantic penis at the top of its head...

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  2. I for one am looking forward to seeing how you paint your collection of weird genitals :)

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    1. Space moths, space squids and space willies, oh yeah, totally happening now.

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  3. Excellent write-up! Great to see that you are getting so much enjoyment from the models. I do hope I got all those labels right.

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    1. You did and they were a real help ! I'll have to come up with a good painting plan now !

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  4. Wow ! Another blast form the past ! I loved these miniatures but by the time I gathered enough interest and friends to start buying Space Fleet, it had become unavailable...
    I'd like to see what you'll manage to do with them, and cross my fingers hoping to - some day - read a battle report :) Very nice find.

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    1. Given how the rules are simple, whenever I get those painted, I'll have a batrep to provide as well !
      I played quite afew games with imperial and alder forces at the time so now I have tyranids, I'm really eager to have a go with them !

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  5. Wonderfully obscure! Looking forward to seeing how you approach the painting... I'd start with a flick through Metabarrons for ideas on vast organic star-creatures!

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    1. Mate, you must have read my mind... The Metabarons were exactly where I was going to go find some inspirations ^^

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  6. Wow, interesting to see how those are so dissimilar to the BFG ships... well, aside from the command ship. Much less spiky, and with less "ribbing".

    They look much better in the bare metal than they do painted, so I am sure you can improve on the official paint jobs!

    I think you should do all the "hard parts" up as shell patterns, maybe the same pattern per type or per squadron, and then the "soft bits" should be a unified fleshy color. That way you can have the variety that this fleet demands while also unifying it a bit by using the same color.

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    1. Not a bad idea at all, it's more or less what I had in mind but I like the idea of teh hard parts differntiating each squad, I have to decide if I go for a dark flesh colour or light one, (might even use both actually).

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  7. Other than those images shown in have never seen those models painted.

    I have high hopes...

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    1. Same here, for some reason it eems I sometimes chose to paint models you've never or rarely seen painted, just like I want to avoid any comparison or influence... Iv'e got an idea but now need to find the way to make it fit with my skills.

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  8. Woow! So cool! Your fleet's gonna be the weirdest this side of the galaxy! I bet you can still add even some more unsettling oddities :D
    Seriously, looking forward to seeing it painted :)

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    1. Cheers, I'd like to be able to put them in front of your orks one day ;)

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  9. I think those models would look really good painted similar to how Don Hans of Realm of Citadel paints. It would give them that deep sea glow effect that would make them really cool.

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    1. I'm all with you on this mate. It's actually one of the 2 options I 'm considering so far. It would require from me to change radically the way I paint but getting out of the comfort zone could be good !

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  10. Congrats - that kind of collection doesn't make itself! How long did it take you?
    Like the others, I can't wait to see how you eventually decide to paint them. Maybe some blue-green bio-luminescence?

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    1. I got all the nids in one trade but the collection of imperial ships was more painful, this is a range where only patience or a stupid amount of money can lead you anywhere. I'm fairly short on the latter but have plenty of the former so I know I'll get where I want at some point. ;)

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  11. Wow - very jealous of your two Hive Ships! I've got a burgeoning Hive Fleet myself (but no Hive Ships) and a game planned once my broken leg has recovered enough to drive.

    Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the painting - extra inspiration is always good as I've never seen anything other than the official paint jobs.

    Oh and the Drones really are very nob-like - I was quite surprised when I first inspected mine (the models!) as I hadn't really noticed the resemblance from the pics in White Dwarf!

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    1. Cheers ! That's a game I've always been fond of in its simple basic form or its more elaborate one. I might have found someone to play with me here in France but a game at BOYL could be quite something !

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    2. Yeah, I was planning on running a game at BOYL with my two small Imperial fleets with the Pirates and Troop ship as some kind of objective and perhaps the Tyranids as a nasty GM controlled surprise mid-game. I found the White Dwarf with the scenario generator the other day and the sub plots look like they could be a lot of fun.

      Of course, facing off against your fleets or combining our Imperials against both our Tyranids would be great fun also if you're coming over again this year?

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    3. Can't say for ceratin now, but if I can make it I'd really love to make Space Fleet a reality. We still have to play together so what better occasionthan this one !

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    4. Well fingers crossed you can make it - keep me posted!

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  12. Hi. Just read this post again. The chart you listed shows the number of ships in a swarm. A swarm is the equivalent of a squadron. There is no min/max for the types of ships in the fleet, so you are free to include all your ships, you just need to obey the swarm/squadron limits.

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    1. That's what I later understood, I just have to divide the fleet in the right amount of swarms !

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    2. Ah, I see! I've just secured my first Tyranid ships and am waiting on them arriving in the post... Managed to get a bit of everything except Krakens and Spore Mines. Really interested to see how you paint yours. I am torn between using a similar scheme to the ones pictured on the data cards or going for a more 'fleshy' look...

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