Termagants - the never ending

Haven't posted in a while so going to ease back in gently with a vague update of what I'm up to at the moment.  It can pretty much be summed up in one word, Termagants.  Anyone who has ever collected (and actually tried to paint) a swarm force will recognise the sense of for boding and weary inevitability the idea of painting core troops brings. 

I've always loved the idea of a scuttling swarm taking up most of the tabletop, with individual units outnumbering some armies.  Without Number in the previous edition didn't quite cut it as the swarm generally arrived in dribs and drabs and only when some other element of the swarm had been wholly eliminated.  With tervigons (but still no tervigon models GW) the Tyranid player can finally get the feeling of unleashing an endless tide onto the opponent (until they role a double at least). 

the problem with unleashing the endless tide though means you first have to unleash it onto your painting table and that means many long hours painting virtually identical models. 

Progress has been good as you can see from the picture.  I'm aiming for 80ish termagants (40 taken as troops the rest possible tervigon reinforcements) and have lined them up in rows of 8 so you get a better idea of percentage progress.

Tricks and tips for painting massed termagants?  I've found a production line approach is a bit dissatisfying.  you get the payoff of completing 12 termagants in one go but have to wait a few days to reach that point.  and when you paint the same feature (a tongue say) for the 12th time its inevitably going to be sloppy.  I've found basing, washing and doing the block colours in batches of 10, then block highlights in batches of 5 before doing all the fine details and highlights on just one until its finished much better.  you get the instant payoff as you finish a full model and don't get bored of painting the same thing 12 times in a row.

Beyond that there isn't much else to it.  BBC iplayer (especially the radio plays) are amazing and can be found here if you can access them http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/categories/drama/horror_and_supernatural.

At about 40% of the way through I think it'll be late Feb before the termagants are ready for the tabletop but that at least gives plenty of time for ToS.  Lists and thoughts to follow in next few days (whenever I'm sick off the sight of termagants!)