Sir, We've Got a Bug Problem

And we're gonna need some Bug Dust. ASAP!

Hot on the heels of painting a bunch of zombies I intended to complete painting the half finished WSS English cannons that are sitting on my paint table. Instead I broke out a box of Wargames Atlantic Harvesters and started snipping and gluing plastic bugs.

I've wanted to do a hoard of bugs for a long time and I actually acquired a box of Starship Trooper bugs a while back. I painted them up but then lost interest in the whole bug thing and sold them. Silly thing to do: but there you have it! Anyway, now, for what it's worth, I've gone and made anther bunch of bugs.

These figures are difficult to put together and it took me most of the week just to construct this lot. On the other hand painting was easy. White undercoat, heavy wash using contrast paint, heavy light khaki dry brush, then dry brushed the red and then the black. A bit of detail on the fangs, mouth and eyes. Very easy. They are mounted on 40mm bases with a simple pva/grit mix. Reddish to make it look like Mars or any other desert terrain/planet.

I've since constructed a few more with ranged bio-weapons. I have 4 more to construct but I haven't decided how to do them at this stage: close combat or ranged? I think I'll get myself another box of these. I've got a method now for their construction which is still a pain in the arse but at least I know what I'm doing. There are 20 models in a box as well as 10 little ones. I'm not sure what to do with them. Put them onto individual 25mm bases or make swarm bases?

Here's a photo that gives a better idea of their actual colour against a more neutral background.

I also picked up a couple of other figures last week. This first is a spider queen. I think she could work well as a Hybrid Hive Queen. I picked her up a a local store House of War. If she doesn't work out she could become one of the leaders of my evil fantasy army. Either way, this is a great figure.

These next ones are Ankheg - I only know these creatures for D&D. I don't know if they exist in any mythology or fantasy literature. I'm just going to use them as big bugs/bug leaders... Whatever. They should look okay. Also, these are the first ever 3D printed miniatures I've ever bought. It will be interesting to so how the material reacts to painting.

Now, I also have a bunch of other things that I can shoehorn into this bug army of mine. Some of them I actually bought when I started with the Starship Trooper bugs. It was actually waiting for a long time for them to arrive in the mail that crushed my first attempt at a bug army.

This guy is pretty big and looks pretty imposing. He'd make a good sort of tank-bug.

I have quite a few more more of these flying guys than the ones pictured here. I'm pretty sure I still have some unpainted ones too. I'll have to try and find them. I used them as giant flies when I was playing Rangers of Shadow Deep.

I also have these figures that might fit in with the bug theme too. I have a feeling I might have added a saddle and a goblin to the scorpion. The other is an umber hulk. It looks buggy and mean. It doesn't fit with any other figures I have so maybe this is army could be a good home for him.

These are from my evil army and they could work but I don't think they'll fit in. Wargames Atlantic make some fantastic spider models but they are so good that they worry me. I have a very acute case of arachnophobia and those figures just scare me. These GW spiders don't worry me because they look like silly toys. But realistic spider figures just freak me out. I have about a dozen or more of these and I'm pretty sure I rebased them onto round/oval bases at some stage.

So there you have it. Bugs, bugs, bugs.

As far as rules are concerned: I have a copy of Xenos Rampant which I've dragged out. I'm pretty sure there is a generic space bugs list in the book. I'll go through the book again and see what I can come up with. I already have an enemy for them that is ready to hit the ground fighting. All I need to do is work out a good list for them.

On the other hand I also have Firefight from Mantic games. I like those rules although I haven't played them for a while. But the last time I played the game there was no scope for a bug army. Maybe that has changed. I'll look into it.