NOVA Update: Finish Line Approaches

My productivity this weekend surprised myself. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Most importantly, I finished the Mawloc conversion that has been scattering around in my head for nearly a year.

I also cleaned up my painting table and it now holds only things I must complete in the next ~10 days.

The table now hosts building materials for my display board, 10 hormagaunts, a single termagant, 8 devourer termagants, and 2 2nd edition biovores. I then proceeded to power through the hormagaunts and regular termagant.

Not exactly sure what happened here to make it wash out like that, but I suppose it's the divine chorus I hear as I see the finish line approaching. Anyway, back to reality, I only did two layers of red on the carapaces here, and then the Purtird Green fleshy bits. I will definitely have to go back and touch up the black, but I'm considering moving on with them and leaving out the Jade Green highlights, at least until everything else is to this stage. 

The biggest hurdle is obviously the display board. While not strictly mandatory, it's something I think would enhance my experience enough to warrant it - namely, help with transportation and make the army look good. My very rough concept sketch is below.

This would be something very straightforward and simple. The black in the lower right will be the road that the Mawloc is bursting out from. The beige strip will be a tiled walking path of some sort as included on my Flyrant, Trygon, and Tervigon bases. The remainder of the board will be based with sand and static grass. The divide will not be so harsh, but what I'm imagining is that there will be green grass on one edge. Meanwhile, the Swarmlord will be out front of most of the army, and everything near him has withered and died, leaving an expanding path of death in his wake. The furthest edge ahead of him will include perfectly green grass, which will quickly transition to yellowed grass, which will become patchy, and become completely barren near where he will be. 

My stretch goal for this base will be to add capilary towers bursting forth in his wake, but that will probably have to wait. I will be out of town next week right up until NOVA, so will have to complete my finishing touches from a hotel. Because of that, I'm planning on shifting my focus to the board first; I don't think they would appreciate me dumping sand for basing all over though. If I can knock that out this week, I know I'll be able to paint in the hotel and wrap everything up.
Must Complete:

1. Mawloc Project 
2. Paint 8 Devourer Termagants
3. Paint 18 Termagants
4. Paint 10 Hormagaunts
1. 75% Complete
5. Paint 2 Zoanthropes
6. Paint 2 Biovores
7. Display Board

Stretch Goals:

1. Repaint 15 Termagants
2. Repaint 10-15 Hormagaunts
3. Model and Paint 1+ Mycetic Spore
4. Doom of Malan'tai Conversion
5. 4 Hive Guard
6. 1 Zoanthrope
7. Repaint 1 Biovore

I don't see me getting to any of the stretch goals, which is why most of them have been cut and reworked. I'm pretty happy with my list as it is, so the real stretch goals will be repainting some of my old little guys to better match.