One of the first hobby gifts that Xenonmage gave me, way back when her Tyranids started to use my space elves as a buffet, were a few pieces of aquarium scenery that she’d picked up to help us fill out our running floorhammer board (a.k.a. the floor). Over the holidays, I returned one of those scenery pieces to her with interest. I was finishing another Christmas project for her when a friend of ours dropped off a box of old bits, models and books that he’d hauled up out of his parents’ garage lately before they sold their home, and there just so happened to be half a dozen Rippers and a few old Genestealers, in and amidst the other (mostly Chaos) models. (More on those to follow eventually, if all goes well.) But it was finding the Rippers and Genestealers that sparked the idea behind this, since XenonMage’s army has always heavily favored both.

I didn’t want to complicate the build on this too much – I just took the original aquarium piece Xenon had given me, added it to a resin 100mm base that I had for another project that fell through, and then started painting Nids. The Rippers were what I wanted to be the focus of the terrain piece, with the Genestealers kind of just a nice little extra. In the box of bits I also found a couple of Spore Mines and I thought they’d be a nice little addition to this. The terrain I painted up more or less with my existing formulas, and I used the green ‘slime’ colors that I usually run with for Death Guard. As for the Tyranids, I made sure they would blend in with XenonMage’s Hive by following the now-well-known Coconut Crab method by CatGut Painting, with colors that matched Xenon’s other hivemates, though I let glazes do most of the work on top of the Spore Mines.

In the end, I’m very happy with how this one turned out. I mean, it’s Ripper Swarms, what’s not to like? But it’s also one of the standalone terrain pieces I’ve thrown together that I think has turned out the best. The frustrating part was getting it together and keeping it together since the Rippers had a mind of their own and regularly wanted to leave their tunnels and go exploring. Fortunately, they made it safely to Deer Lake and back, and they now live at XenonMage’s family home there. I’ve got a couple more fun terrain pieces coming up, though, and then we’re diving headfirst right back into space elves. (Also, have I mentioned it’s XenonMage’s birthday today? Happy birthday! May you and your Hive eat lots of cake to tide you over until your next feed of Aeldari.)