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After a long period of time away from the hobby, I have recently returned and decided to try out a Tyranids army.

After toying with the idea of Hive Fleet Kraken, I decided the paint job looked a little boring, so I'm now going with an Inferno/Flame sort of feel.

I'm hoping to develop the character and fluff as I go, but my initial project is getting the colour scheme down. I have started toying with flame like patterns on the carapace. Any alternative suggestions are welcome, along with criticisms and advice on how to do things better (I've also not been painting for a long long time!)

Here is a pic of my first fully painted 750 Pnt army - and over the next few pages you will see my journey in painting towards this, as well as some battle reports along the way.

Enjoy!



To start off, here are a few of my first hormagaunts. They're a bit dark, so I hope to upload some brighter pics soon.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Painting: Ok - I've started trialing some brighter blends for the carapace of my Nids, but it's not really turning out how I hoped.

My first try was using black - dry brush scab red, dry brush blood red, dry brush yellow - This is what produced the pics below.

In my second go, I have added an orange dry brush to the mix, but still not really getting there. Any ideas for better blending?


Theme: I have been trying to come up with some unique theme ideas for my army. One was to convert the army to be a 'serpent' army. I figured this would be easy enough on the larger units like Hive Tyrants/Warriors etc as I could use the tails from raveners to convert them, but the hormagaunts and genestealers seem a bit trickier - any suggestions on how I could do this? (or even an alternative theme?)

I have now added some pics for the second trial, and am starting on trial 3 to try and get something a bit brighter... Comments/suggestions on army theme, conversion possibilities and painting tips/advice are all very welcome

Ok, I've started thinking about a bit of fluff for my army and have a few different options:

1. Serpent army: A splinter fleet that crash landed into a volcanic planet. To survive the extreme temperatures and frequent larva spills, the fleet started evolving greater burrowing capabilities. This involved legged tyranids developing 'digging claws' and relying on a larger, stronger tail to move around (like the raveners) - The fleet will be Ravener/Trygon heavy as a result, and will involve converting all legged creatures to sit on their tails like the raveners, and replace legs with 'digging claws' where necessary.

I think the warrior, hive tyrant conversions will be reasonably straight forward, as I can use existing tails from other similar sized beasties. The smaller critters may be a bit more difficult though as their bodies (especially the hormagaunts) don't lend themselves to converting easily in this way, and converting 24+ hormagaunts is gonna take me ages unless I can find a simple way of doing it! Thoughts?

2. Independent army: I haven't thought this one through a lot yet, but essentially it's the story of a small number of tyranids being captured by the Imperium, who then go about trying to play god by experimenting on them, trying to tame them and override the Hive Mind that controls them. Essentially they use their Psykers to try and instill their own will on the aliens, and break the Hive Minds grip on them (a few themes taken from Aliens 4). The Imperium is successful in breaking the Hive Minds control, and seem to have their own 'pet' weapons to unleash against the enemies of the imperium until the tyranids become aware of their own consciousness and turn on their 'controllers' wiping them out. We then have a rogue tyranid brood free from the will of the Hive Mind but ultimately controlled by a single powerful Tyranid with psychic ability (Hive Tyrant - an idea borrowed from Star Craft).

I haven't really thought the potential conversions or army adaptions for this one yet, but I like the idea - any thoughts/suggestions?

ilike the first one a lot better! the second one will lead to fluff nazis hating you! noone likes the idea of imperial people controlling tyranids much, and most people even moreso hate the idea of imperials getting into the hive mind stuff. by most people i mean people really into fluff.

i don't mind too much, but i also don't like the idea of imperials messing with the hive mind, maybe have some other reason of independent army, a genesteeler cult gone haywire? a glitch in the hive mind maybe, something which could be more reasonable.

@Sageheart: I must admit I like the first idea better myself. I'm just not looking forward to converting 24-36 hormagaunts to look like serpents

I'll have to work on the fluff a bit more - I want to really build character around the army so that it's not "just another Tyranid force"

In the meantime, I've tried painting some more Hormagaunts to try and get the colour scheme for my Inferno Fleet down. The blending has come out a bit better on this model I think, and it is a bit brighter, but maybe a bit too orange?

As always - I encourage comments/suggestions on the background fluff, conversion ideas and my painting.

The first idea is good - but yes certainly a lot of effort. Guaranteed to be unique though I reckon.

I have no issue with the second idea - but how would you differentiate them? Seems the opposite extreme (modelling/paint wise)

I still have to get that list of threads together for you - but I've seen aquatic Nids, DOOM () Nids, Aliens Nids, Dinosaur Nids, Lizard Nids to name a few...

Looking forward to seeing these in person - I think the photographs are not doing them enough justice!

@ Arakasi: Alas - it has been overcast in (usually sunny) Perth the last week, and the flash on my camera turns my mini's into iridescent light if I don't stand 3 meters away from them...

Promise to get better pics up once light improves (which should hopefully be this weekend...)

Yeah, the 1st theme I think is better - The second theme mainly came from ideas from Aliens 4 and Starcraft, humans just can't resist meddling and experimenting with alien things (no matter what the risks!) so it seemed logical that the imperium would experiment on 'Nids and try to use them for their own purposes... though perhaps I just haven't read enough Imperium fluff. However it does limit conversion/theme options... where as the 1st idea will have me converting hormagaunts until I'm 80!

If anyone has any ideas on how to convert hormagaunts into 'serpent' hormagaunts in a time efficient manner, I'm all ears!

Ok, I've started work on my first converted Hormagaunt. You can see some stage pics below.

Essentially, I started by cutting off the legs and tail.

I then cut the legs off at the knee, and modified the hooves for my 'digging claws'.

Next I started modifying the tail. To give it extra length, I ran half a paper clip through a bit of plastic tubing, then bent it into the appropriate pose.

I will then coat the plastic in modelling putty to make it look a bit more fleshy, and fill in the gaps made by all the hacking I've done.

This is the first conversion I've ever done (I never used to convert models when I used to play years ago), but I'm pretty happy so far with how it's coming along. It's a bit time consuming, but hopefully it will be worth it (it will certainly look unique!)

Let me know what you think and whether you have any tips/suggestions.

Great models!

@element206: thanks, hopefully the converted hormagaunts will turn out well. If not, i'll have yo find a new way of converting them.

Wow, love the paint scheme. It's similar to Kraken, but The yellow is really nice. It should look really cool when you put it on some MCs. Good luck dude! Subbed also.

@Samus: thanks - my first mc is going to be the trygon. Hopefully it will come out well, but still playing eith the colours on the hormagaunts atm.

Ok, so i'm starting to think about my bigger nids now, and am wondering whether to use magnets for the arms of the trygon. My main concern is, that ive never done this before so i'm wondering a) is it worthwhile on an mc that isn't going to change arm configuration and b) does anyone know any good articles on how to do it as i've never done it before? (seen lits of examples where they state that they did it, but not how they did it)

Any help anyone? As this would be a good skill to learn for future creatures who do swap arms.

For magnetising mc's it depends alot. For creatures like carnifexes that have alot of options, it might be worthwhile if you magnetise it. For trygons that have only a few options, not so much. The only reason I could see someone magnetising the trygon, is if they plan to switch from trygon to mawlok to trygon prime. On your conversion work: Very nice. I know that it may seem like alot of effort to convert over 30 models, the end result is spectacular if you hang in there and work at it. I like your colour scheme, it's nice.

@munchmunch: thanks, I might just focus on my serpent conversions for now then

On coversions, my hormagaunt's tail now has his putty on him. Just need to file it back now and start painting. Pics to come soon!

I'm really interested to see how you pull of some of these serpent conversions. It's a very cool idea.

@tony_nids_10: Thanks for the comments - My first conversion isn't going as smoothly as planned, however I will endure.

My puttied up tail on my converted hormy ended up being a bit messier then I hoped. I'm trying to clean it up with filing, hopefully I will have some success. In the mean time, I have also recently started painting a gargoyle, so will hopefully be able to post him soon too. I will probably not be converting the gargoyles (as I'm not sure there's much point), but I will have some Tyranid warriors soon so new conversion opportunities will be arriving shortly

Unfortunately I'm extremely busy with work (can't you tell?) so my next pic will prob be a little way away...

Until then...

For the serpent tail, it doesn't look very natural when you you mix in the original tail. Maybe shorten it a bit?

@Munch Munch!: Thanks Munch - I will definitely try that on the second model - that way I can compare the two... It would also save me time I think in the long run

On a different note, he's all together now. Still needs a bit of sanding but the model itself is most of the way there.

See pics below (I have put a regular painted hormagaunt next to him for comparative purposes).

That looks pretty cool! I really like the more upright pose too. Looks more intimidating.

I agree with tony. The upright pose is much better, like a cobra ready to strike.

Thanks for the comments.

I am now starting on by next hormagaunt using green stuff, and not putting the original tail on the end of the putty tail.

So far I think the pose looks good, though I'm not sure whether or not I prefer using green stuff yet. It doesn't seem to be as messy, but may cause uneven thickness in the tail...

Will have to wait and see... either way, preliminary pics should be up later this week

Ok, I now have my second serpent hormagaunt up and running (slithering?) and have started on the third. I'm starting to get a bit faster now, so hopefully I'll have the first 12 up in no time!

Pics are below - I'm not too sure how the tails are going to come up when painted, but I'm hopeful they'll turn out alright. They should definitely look striking as a unit, even if the tails end up a bit off up close... Will have to see, meanwhile I will continue to improve my technique before embarking on converting the warriors (Though I'm not sure whether it would be easier to convert a warrior to have a tail or a ravener to hold weapons... thoughts?) - I think I'll try converting a warrior to have a tail first, as I want to put Raveners in the army at a later date, and don't want people to confuse them with the serpent warriors.

I have also started painting a gargoyle - I think I'm starting to get my painting technique down, can't wait to start on an MC

As always - feel free to make suggestions, comments, critiques etc etc

I'd make the base of the tail where it joins the body a little thicker. Yes, the width you have is what the 'normal' tail is, but the normal tail isn't supporting its body weight. It kind of looks like there is a hinge there at the moment and the belly of the gaunt isn't really connected.

@Morgrim: Thanks for the feedback. I have now added some putty around the join between the tail and body, giving a slighty thicker look to the top and smoothing the connection between the two parts. Hopefully it will all blend well once painted.

Ok, here's my latest gargoyle. I really liked the way the carapace came out on this model, so I've now started on a Zoanthrope in preparation for doing my Trygon.

Let me know what you think, I'll try and get a better quality pic up asap.

And Here's all my painted Nids so far (as yet unconverted). You will notice some of the paint schemes are slightly different, as I have been toying with how I want them all to look. This won't matter as much once I've done my converting, as these hormagaunt minitures won't feature in my completed force.

Looking good. I'd keep them in though (if it fits your list), a few slight variations in a horde list that's meant to be organic in the first place doesn't matter and probably won't be noticed unless you point it out.

@Morgrim: thanks, will definitely keep them until i have replacement minis.

On a different note, i now have my trygon, this will be fun!

And here it is, my first Zoey! Not perfect, but getting in some good practice for the Trygon I put together today