40k Combat Patrol Delivery 2 - Problems Take Root

I'm going to say right off the bat, I'm still on track here, and everything is fine.

My goal was to keep on top of the arrivals in the post, now that I have a subscription to the 40k Combat Patrol magazine. This means painting 4 weeks' worth of models in 4 weeks, before the next delivery arrives. I'll keep posting them here, and also working through the missions in the magazines to possibly learn how to play 10th edition, or more likely get a few missions through and start complaining bitterly about 10th edition.

Anyway, things were going fine - I got everything painted with what I thought was a few days to spare, only for the next delivery to arrive about 12 hours later. Unfortunately, at this point, real life happened and I've struggled to get the games in and write a blog post about it.

As you can see, that's now rectified, the post is written, there are photos and everything.

I won't say much about these, since I laid out the colour scheme in the last post and this is more of the same, really. What I will say is that given my intention to use the models chiefly for 5th edition 40k, this is the least useful delivery I can expect, until we reach the Leagues of Votann somewhere down the line.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's the delivery, first of all. Some paints in there, an extra brush, and a binder that I probably should start using if I'm going to keep the rules bits from the magazines.

Shiny

For the Tyranids, we get 5 barbgaunts. These don't have an equivalent in 5th edition, but given their general feel and size, I think I'm most likely to proxy them as pyrovores, if I use them at all. I don't hate the models, but they are a bit different from anything in the 5th edition lists and so that's probably my best bet.

The marines get an Infernus squad, which was followed in the next issue by an alternative sergeant. This is apparently a model unique to the magazine, but seems a bit daft since they literally tell you to swap it out for the sergeant that came with the squad. If I was really getting these as my first ever models, I'd probably be a bit miffed about that. 

As it is, I figured that the basic sergeant, drawing a combat knife and holding a bolt pistol, seems a lot more "sergeanty", so I did a little bit of kitbashing (which these sprues really don't allow for much) and used extra "sergeant" bits on him and turned the unique fella into a standard marine. 

This is a sergeant!

This isn't!

One thing I will say here - I've never been a fan of sculpted flames. There's been a real trend for it from GW for a while now but even brilliant painters don't seem to be able to make them look realistic, presumably because a model has to be more "solid" than flames really are. But since we're stuck with them on the tactical Tyranid head on this model, I found a tutorial and while I still don't think they look very flame-like, they do at least give some idea of being bright. 

They're also out of focus. Whoops.

This left me with a spare marine with a flamer, so he got a tactical squad badge and will join a squad as soon as I get some more marines painted. 

Models done, let's have a look at the games...

Just like last time, Kieron took control of the Tyranids for these. To start with this didn't mean a great deal as in effect the Tyranids were scenery, represented by some cards for "infestation sites" that came with the magazine. 

Action!

Somehow, the imperial forces prevailed against largely inanimate enemies.

Things escalated slightly with some more combat...

Technically this is the wrong
Tyranid, but it doesn't really matter.

and then culminated in a scenario where the Infernus squad, now out of ammo, was meant to just escape while under fire from barbgaunts. This didn't go so well for the Emperor's finest - the whole squad were cut down, the sergeant succumbing within touching distance of his objective. 

"Quickly, brothers!
We must rejoin the main force!"

The whittling begins with the first barrage

Cue mournful classical music

Nooooooooooooooo!

Sadly, this ruins my unbeaten record at 10th edition 40k, and I'm now at a paltry 87.5% win rate.

Still, that's delivery 2 dealt with. I've now somewhat lost track of when I received delivery 3, but I'm motoring through, so another post for that should show up soon. I bet you can't wait.