Old-School Termagants 2

 This time, I've started work on the plastic termagants. They're really good models, considering that they're from 1995 or so. I think they might actually be better-sculpted than the metal versions, although of course you don't get the same variety of poses (although the heads are separate and can be turned or angled as needed). 

One interesting thing about these models - well, interesting if you're me, and not even very interesting - is that they came with special bases. The models had little pegs on their feet instead of the usual slot, and the bases had tiny holes for the pegs. Strange. Perhaps inevitably, my pegs broke. 

Unlike orks, Imperial Guard and other horde armies, tyranids don't have clothes or a lot of gear to carry, and so just a few colours are enough to make a decent go of the whole model. Given that they're cannon fodder, this seems fair on the player/painter.

There's another reason why I have considerable fondness for these old models. When my first novel, Space Captain Smith came out, the publisher, Myrmidon Books, commissioned a cover from the illustrator Angelo Rinaldi. He depicted Smith standing like a Victorian hunter over one of the giant space ants who are the villains in the novel. It's a really cool picture. I didn't imagine the space ants - they're called Ghasts in the story - to look like old termagants, but there's an inevitable resemblance!