Nid Advice and LOL Prices!

Hi all!  I have been out of 40k and painting for over a year. One of the last things I painted before I fell off  the map was this Broodlord from Deathstorm. At the time I was entertaining the creation of a Tyranid army but just didn't have the gumption.  But I have been feeling the itch! So I want to get back into things. I have a long stalled Blood Angels Mech army I was working on that I plan on restarting. But in the meantime I wanted to play with nids again!  

SO I dug out this Brood Lord and want to start painting the whole army.  I worked on this Warrior below. What is that gun called?  

I currently have the contents of the Deathstorm box set. The stealers are pretty straightforward to paint, but I was wondering about the Carnifex. What is a good standard loadout?  He has like 5 different heads!

I guess that brings me to my big question of the day.  What the heck are people playing nowadays?  I am at a loss. I have a few models I want to play, like winged Hive Tyrants and Mawloks. Plus I am going to play this broodlord and some stealers. But the rest is open.

Can any one help me out with pros and cons of current decently competitive 2k nid lists?  I would like to play in tournaments again but simply cannot go packing a weak list like I did with my Lamenters.  I am not really married to any nid models so the floor is open!

I don't plan on running out and buying 2k worth of models, heh that is one of the first things I tell new players NOT to do.   But I would like to paint again and want to work towards a larger goal.

The floor is yours gentlemen!  For starters, I was looking online and came up with the formation out of the Blood Angels books, Hypertoxic Node. Winged Tyrant, lots of Venomthropes and fun.  What do Venomthropes need to be good?  What about the Tyrant?

I also was looking at the Broodlords Hunting Pack formation.  That will get the guy above and some stealers on the table.

Thoughts?

Also, I was browsing the GW site for new stuff that has come out recently.  I was absolutely shocked to see this...

A single, molded, plastic model... no options, no upgrade bits, no posebility..  Just this single model in a clamshell for 33.00 US Dollars..  What in the name of Sanguinius is GW thinking?  33 bucks!  A sanguinary guard box set is 33 bucks, and there are 5 equally nice and poseable models plus LOADS of extra bits!  I seriously coughed some M&Ms I was eating up into my sinuses and then spent the next 10 minutes sneezing and crying.  I hope to god no one has bought this atrocity. I also noticed the terminator captain from Deathstorm for 33 bucks.  It seems Deathstorm is no longer available so the only way to get that captain is to offer your left kidney.

After taking a year off, it truly sickens me to come back and see this.  This model should be 15 bucks. 20 tops.  It really has me reconsidering playing again.  Needless to say I will not be buying it.

On top of starting the Nid army and wanting to finish my new Mech Angels, I have a couple of other things going on.

First I was asked by a friend of my brother to help him out with his Chaos Marine army.  He is a soldier deployed in Afghanistan and he sent me some pics of his models. I am going to help clean them up and make them presentable.  On top of that I am going to paint some new stuff for him.  So I am going to start with an Aspiring Champion. He wants a purple and gold color scheme so I am going to see what I can do. Ive never painted purple other than the armor on that Broodlord.

Finally, I am painting a Weirdboy for the Nova Charitable Foundation.  It is going to be Badmoons so it is nice that I go tall that yellow experience with Lamenters!  I am going to be ordering up those models soon.

That is about it!  After a long hard year and a half I am seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Things have settled down with the divorce and I will soon be making an offer on a home.

With a Mancave.

More to come!

Jawaballs