How to make really
creepy Tyranids
Some time ago, I came across a site that featured all sorts of converted tyranid creatures. Some had extra arms or feeder tentacles or spikes sticking out all over the place. One particular one caught my eye. It was a metal hormogaunt model that had the back legs cut away and replaced with an extra set of scything talons, which made it look very creepy and more like a bug or arachnid. The site was Sherman Bishop’s Magos Biologis website. Later on, as the new Tyranid Codex came out, I saw that someone had done something similar with the new gaunts, replacing the legs with scything talons. This made them look much like the Warrior Drones from the movie Starship Troopers. Very creepy and cool. I was hooked. When I got my gaunts, I decided right away that was what I wanted to do with them. Right away I realized that I’d need more scything talons, since the gaunt box comes with 16 gaunt bodies and 16 talons, leaving me 80 talons short of a completed set! I explored my options. You can purchase the individual sprues from mail order, but that gets very expensive. You can try molding your own (not something you should do with a whole figure, but as a converted bit as opposed to most of the model, that is acceptable) but that is difficult to do right and the resins I have tried do not glue well to the plastic Citadel uses. You can also trade with other people or make your own, you’ll find the instructions below. You will need: 6 scything talons of appropriate size Zap-a-gap or other glue An exacto knife or other razor cutter or something tougher for metal models A Tyranid creature Note: scything talons can be made relatively easily. Use the straight lengths of plastic sprue and bend them with one corner on the inside of the bend. That corner will be the inside cutting edge of the talon. Carve one end into a point with the long tip pointing into the curve. One side of the sprue will be further from the cutting edge than the other, since the sprues are not square in cross section. Carve the shorter edge flat all the way from the cutting edge to the diagonal opposite corner. Measure the talon-to-be against a standard talon for length, but don’t worry too much, a little variation makes them look more natural. One note about this, I would recommend whittling the sprue down a millimeter at a time in a series of tiny shaves, rather than cutting through a good chunk of it all at once. Trust me, your thumbs will thank you. These talons can then be attached to one of the termagant gun arms (with the gun and hand cut away, of course) to make perfect scything talons. The ones I use are a good deal thicker than the standard ones GW makes, but I’ve had a few people say they prefer the bigger ones anyway, so it works for me. Cut any legs away from the body and discard them or save them in the bitz box for something. Cut away from yourself and only shave off a little at a time, to avoid losing fingers or damaging the model. C’mon people, you know how to do this stuff safely! Glue the scything talons on in the sockets where the legs were. The last set of talons will be mounted with the talons going toward the back of the creature, so if you’ve got a right side talon, put it on the left hip. I have found that the best pose is to have one front talon and one middle talon (opposite sides) in the air, like they are striking or walking, while the others will be on the ground. This really makes them look like they are in mid-stride, like the various action poses Citadel uses for it’s miniatures. You can also vary the poses by using different length talons or differently angled talons to change the attitude of the creature. You can have them sticking nearly horizontally out from the creature, giving it a low, scuttling appearance. You could also make the talons stick almost vertically under the model, making it sit very high like some spiders and the Starship Troopers movie bugs. You can also make a low-rider bug by having longer or more vertically attached talons in the rear, giving it an about-to-pounce look, or reverse it for more of an arachnid threat display, lowering the rear and raising the front. I have also modeled a few gaunts on flying stands, with all four front talons raised in an attack position. These look very menacing and really make the whole brood stand out, but more than a few would be too much and start getting opponents to confuse them with Gargoyles. With the larger models (Warriors, Tyrant, Carnifex) I must recommend that you use the “high sitting” pose with the legs close to straight down from the model, since otherwise they take up too much space, which can really complicate combat as an opponent tries to move models into base to base contact with you. If you use a lower body with spread out legs, enemy models will have a hard time contacting the body, but many more than normal will be able to make contact with the legs, so it isn’t good for either of you. Personally, I like the way that Lictor scythes look on the Tyrant and Warriors, while they look too thin to support the Carnifex. The Carnifex looks better with the Monstrous Creature Scythes as arms and legs. You can see the results of my Hive Tyrant on the Main Page here, and I will eventually post pictures of some of my other ones as I have access to a better camera. Incidentally, the standard Rending Claw “hands” look out of place on these bugs, so I used Lictor scythes for the Scything Talons and legs of Warriors, but I used the Monstrous Scything Talons as Rending Claws for them. These bugs are a lot of work, but they really stand out on the table. Although my painting skills are meager, the legs and the poses really bring out the idea of a chittering swarm and catch the eye. Note that doing this to your whole army is a very difficult task and I wouldn’t really recommend it to other people, since it is a huge undertaking. Once I had converted 32 gaunts to this standard, however, I felt I need the other creatures to match them. I have converted 3 Warriors, a Carnifex and a Tyrant to this standard now, and still have plenty more to do. If you do it, it will look very cool, but you might consider doing it to just a single showpiece figure or a small squad (Maybe your Tyrant or Carnifex by itself, or just a few Warriors) so that it’s not such a massive undertaking. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |