Wishing for Tyranids

[Wishing]

Today I went exploring in my old half-finished tyranid army, and decided to put it into the painting queue to maybe try and finish it some day. So here is a shot of some of its contents, some painted, some still to do.

One of the models I'm happiest with, a Zoanthrope.



Here is my currently most involved project, an old screamer killer I am trying to turn into a Hive Tyrant. It is missing a head at the moment because I am trying to sculpt one, but if I can't get it looking good I will just order one of the new ones online I think.



Some Gaunts.



And a Genestealer converted to be more tyranid-looking, and giving it a gun while I'm at it.



Comments and suggestions welcome.

[Avatar of the Eldar]

Hey Wishing,

I like that Zoey and those Gaunts! It's got the naturalistic, "dirty" look that I prefer for Nids. (See my Hive Fleet Kali Ma).

I'd say, paint more like that and post when you can!!

Thumbs up,

AotE

[silverstu]

The look great! I love the scheme- one thing- I'd leave the screamer killer as is- he looks cool and retro without adding a head.

[Wishing]

Yay, thanks for the replies guys!

@ avatar: I've already checked out your army and commented on it too, I really dig their style too.

@ stu: It's not that I'm impervious to the charms of old school models, and the screamer killer does look cool, but none of the rest of the 'nid range have got that weird sunken head thing going, so I'm determined that he will get a dragon head too. If I was into just collecting models for display I would have left him as is, but I'm kinda obsessive that all my models have to have a home in an army somewhere. At least I'll always have this pic of how he looked back in the day:



Another unfinished model I have tucked away is a scratch build I started about 10 years ago, long before the new plastic Trygon. It was intended as a 40k version of the old epic Trygon, who was pretty big and in the super-heavy range. I did finish it and started painting it, but then redesigned it, and it is currently in pieces. But here is the main piece, the body without tail or arm claws. I'd really like to finish it sometime soon.

[Wishing]

Since last night, the Tyrant now has a head and a tail, and is looking close to finished, although I am intending to add some more spiny bits to his head to make it more imposing.



I also dug up another old model, which is intended to represent a Malefactor transport creature, model loosely inspired by the old epic model. He has lost half of one of his claws, but that can be easily rectified.

[Wishing]

After a burst of inspiration, the Trygon is almost finished, and here are some pics to celebrate. All it needs is tidying up and adding detail, unless someone has any ideas.

[Magos Explorator]

Nice conversions and sculpting here--good work.

[Wishing]

Thanks for the compliment! I gotta say I'm getting a bit puzzled as to the general lack of responses to this thread in particular, when the other threads I started seem much more popular. I guess it's because I used to post mainly on the Privateer Press forums, and scratch-built models tended to generate a reasonable amount of interest because they were very rare. Here in GW land, it's "oh look, yet another scratch built titan log", so people are a lot harder to impress with that kind of thing.

[BossKhamzi]

LOL Nice models.

[Godfiend]

I think your Trygon might be just a little bit bigger than the current model :P. Also, how is it not instantly crushed to death under its own gravity?

I really like your scheme, and I think it looks wonderful on your zoanthrope and your gaunts. However, I don't like the old 'nid models (not yours, per se, but the models in general) so I can't really comment usefully on those.

I look forward to more updates!

[Wishing]

Thanks for the comments! I intend to have more models painted soon, hopefully I can remember how to do the scheme properly.

You are of course right that the Trygon model is bigger than the current Trygon model. I guess it needs a new name. Hypergon? Ancient Trygon? In the old tyranid monster design rules it is described as being the size and weight of a Baneblade, so I hope it's not too far off that.

As a matter of fact I just finished adding some last details to it, so here are some more photos, starting with the image that I was working from (not to exact detail, just inspiration). After that we have a classic size comparison shot.

[Wishing]

I'm making steady progress on the hive tyrant, which I think deserves a new photo.

[de Selby]

I liked the old screamer killer face (actually I suppose I like the hunched over pose) but the new one is good too.

The 'trygon' is good, it could count as a heirodule or something? It's a bit too ginormous even for a Prime.

[Wishing]

Finished painting the trygon. Almost anyway, it may still need some touching up here and there, but basically it has ended up looking like this.
Cue dramatic lighting!

[Logarithm Udgaur]

I think the trygon is good like that myself, but it might be harder to hide. Anyway I like the look of everything so far.

Edit: Forgot to mention the Malifuax. I like him with the one damaged claw, it fits the color scheme real well to have him looking slightly haggard.

[Wishing]

Thanks. I'm planning to run the trygon with the old VDR stats with a few tweaks, not as a modern trygon, so no worries about comparing the two.

[Verumhaz]

That trygon is good but I think it is screaming, "I don't like cover saves"

[Wishing]

Still with a passion for putty, I started building a tervigon. With the rumours of a plastic one coming, it will be interesting how much mine will end up looking like the real one. Here is what I've got so far.

[Wishing]

I dug out and touched up some of my old Genestealer models the other day, so thought I would celebrate with a few pictures. I am happiest with the patriarch and magus, so this is mainly in honour of them. Since the first edition of Space Hulk I have been a genestealer fan, so they are painted in traditional colours and I see them being inclined towards Tzeentch worship, perhaps being fielded as a mercenary contingent to my Tzeentchian forces.



The guys they go with look like this. Not very well painted, but perhaps serviceable for table top play. I have a small unit of metal hybrids too, but the models are too small and flimsy somehow that I don't think I want to bother with them, and make up some newer plastic brood brothers instead. Not sure what to do with my second patriach either, maybe make him into just a big purestrain mutant of some kind.