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Made in us
Ultramarine Chaplain with Hate to Spare






I went and did something a little crazy. You see, Primaris Marines bug me.

It bugs me that NuMarines, "replacement" Marines, "Truscale" Marines, whatever you want to call them, have become more and more prevalent. I remember a time when the idea of Space Marines had a greater emphasis on the threat opposing them, rather than just how big and strong and bad*** they are. A squad of marines desperately fighting their way past a gang of Orks on the farm. Veteran marine Terminators perishing to fearsome Genestealers in the cold of a hulk. I recall a time when the basic Necron Warrior was superior to a Marine, and cost more on the tabletop, while a Necron Immortal was one of the best infantry units in the game. But no more, Marines seem to have gotten larger with the Primaris, while some of their enemies have gotten a bit diminished. It bugs me that the new 'replacement marines' are now towering over their counterpart foes on the tabletop. It takes something away from the feeling of desperation in the universe.

But wait! There is one faction that retains a core choice that is more impressive than even a Primaris in stats and stature. The Tyranids! Tyranid Warriors have been part of the universe for nearly as long as the Space Marines themselves, and to me, they are the most representative unit of the Tyranid race. Just as the Tactical Squad is the mainstay of marines, or Aspect Warriors the mainstay of Eldar, I see the Tyranid Warriors as the mainstay of the Tyranids. So I was thinking, why not build an army around Tyranid Warriors? That would make for some impressive looking infantry.

Also, I love the older models. They new ones are really cool, don't get me wrong, but the old ones are truly strange. They stand upright, nearly twice the height of a normal marine. They're more insect-like and exotic. To me, their posture looks a little aloof, more intelligent and less animalistic than the new ones. A fine foe indeed! Also, a chance for a really unique looking army. Around the time 8th was rolling out, there seemed to be a lot of sellers looking to capitalize on the excitement, and a lot of the old ones were up on ebay. I went a little crazy, and snapped up a bunch of them, adding to my own near 20 year old collection of 12 or so from my days playing 2nd edition.

I now have 63 of them. Enough to build a 2000 point army almost entirely around Tyranid Warriors.

I've always been a fan of Tyranids, but have never had a fully painted army. This will be the record of my expansion into the extra-galactic Xenos threat, starting with a crazy amount of ancient models.




I have all sorts of Warriors in various states. Some need repairs/replacement parts. A bunch need some paint stripping. Everything that needed stripping is now in a pot of Simple Green.

While I've been waiting for some thick layers of paint to loosen up, I've been trying out some paint schemes based on inspiration I've found across the web. Since the collection will eventually include models in both the old and new aesthetic, I did some trial runs on both Warriors and Zoanthropes. I want the army to be darkish, as many of the pics of dark Tyranid swarms looked really nice and menacing. I started with the idea of going Giger-esque, inspired by some of the models I found online. But when I tried it out, the model looked a little colorless, and my first few attempts at layering up an interesting color came out too drab and cool. I tried a number of different sub-coats and over-coats until I muddled my way to something that looked sort of reasonable. After that I fiddled around with secondary colors, specifically avoiding red, as red is often used as an accent color. Instead I pushed towards colors that don't show up in my other armies, like green and orange. This is what I got so far:



I think I like the Warrior with the green face the best. It's enough to get started anyways. I'm thinking I'll do up a whole squad of nine and see how it looks all together.




A friend of mine also plays Tyranids, and he did an awesome Tyranid Prime conversion using Hive Guard, Swarmlord arms, and legs from the old 3rd edition Carnifex. After some more purchases from ebay and my local store, I did some mock ups of those to act as my HQ's.




So far I'm pretty happy with direction of everything and the Tyranid Codex comes out soon. I better start painting assembly-line style!


And They Shall Not Fit Through Doors!!!

Tyranid Army Progress -- With Classic Warriors!:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/743240.page#9671598 
   
Made in fr
Potent Possessed Daemonvessel





France

Very cool project, I love the look of the old school warriors. Keep it up !

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/29 09:33:16


My P&M Blog : Warp Wanderers, Chaos warbands in the Eye of Terror

Voting for my stuff pleases the Chaos Gods and brings you luck in battle !

 
   
Made in ie
Cackling Chaos Conscript





Birmingham

Great work! I often think those old warriors look goofy but you’ve made them look terrifying

Check out my Karloth Valois themed 40k/Necromunda thread
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/406750.page 
   
Made in us
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

Nice! and you've chosen a great title, i love that.

The green works best, i think i agree. It accents without overpowering, and that shade is nice and alien.

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in gb
Esteemed Veteran Space Marine




UK

Those conversions look brilliant.

 
   
Made in au
Screamin' Stormboy




Australia

I always love seeing people using older models, they have so much character!

Never challenge an Armenian to a game of chess. 
   
Made in us
Dark Angels Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries




Omaha, NE

Love the color scheme, I did something similar and have 20-30 of the old nids and about 80 genestealers I want to turn into force.

How are you dealing with load out, deathspitter and spinefists wasn't an index option...

Kernbanks
definitely not a monogamer, you got it I'll play it. 
   
Made in us
Omnipotent Lord of Change





Albany, NY

What an awesome project, loving all of it Big fan of old weirdhammer minis in new armies with updated paint schemes, and those strange, bucktoothed warriors are looking great in those test schemes (+1 to green accent). Converted primes are sweet, good echo of the ancient warrior sculpts, while just being badass in themselves.

Also digging the list / army plan, taking underused stuff ftw

- Salvage

KOW BATREPS: BLOODFIRE
INSTAGRAM: @boss_salvage 
   
Made in us
Blackclad Wayfarer





Philadelphia

Wonderful idea! I'll be following this journey

   
Made in ca
Insect-Infested Nurgle Chaos Lord






All those Warriors makes me jelly. Warriors have always been rather expensive so I don't own many of them, but would certainly like to.

I'm collecting a Carnifex Army and may face you one day. Unnatural selection at it's finest.

Gwar! wrote:Huh, I had no idea Graham McNeillm Dav Torpe and Pete Haines posted on Dakka. Hi Graham McNeillm Dav Torpe and Pete Haines!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I have an Autograph!


Kanluwen wrote:
Hell, I'm not that bothered by the Stormraven. Why? Because, as it stands right now, it's "limited use".When it's shoehorned in to the Codex: Space Marines, then yeah. I'll be irked.


When I'm editing alot, you know I have a gakload of homework to (not) do. 
   
Made in gb
Devastating Dark Reaper





Vietnam

feth yeah! Teach those Space Marines a lesson with the blunt end of an old school deathspitter.

   
Made in us
Stealthy Warhound Titan Princeps







Nice project - and I agree with the general sentiment!
   
Made in gb
Guard Heavy Weapon Crewman




Cardiff

I absolutely love the look. Seeing older models with modern colour schemes really does make them look fantastic.

I look forward to seeing more!

Please Consider The Environment Before Committing Heresy
32nd Elysian - 1,000 points WIP
Solar Auxilia - 2,000 points WIP
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Made in gb
[SWAP SHOP MOD]
Killer Klaivex







Gorgeous and inventive. Looking forward to see what you do next!


 
   
Made in us
Ultramarine Chaplain with Hate to Spare






Hey, thanks for the positive feedback everybody!

I'm really excited about the new codex coming out, and am trying to see how quick I can do these up.

I've got a finished (but not based) squad of 9 now.


The initial pass felt pretty good, but the last lightening drybrush came out a little chalky for my taste. For the full squad I threw an additional wash of Saraphim Sepia on them, while experimenting with thinning the wash a bit. What seemed to happen is the models that I thinned wound up getting a little darker, like the added water broke up something about the drying properties of the wash. On some models where I thinned the wash a lot (50/50 mix of wash to water) the wash dried with a lighter sort of crust or residue in some of the recesses of the model. I'll try just the straight wash again on the next models and double check that it'll be the way to go. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with them, and I'll continue on like this for the Warriors except in larger batches.

Also, once I finished a bunch of them the green looks a bit strong. It's not enough for me to not continue with the rest of them though. I'll get everybody table-ready and then if I feel like adjusting it a bit, I can do it then.

Pulled some models from the dip and boy did they take a lot of scrubbing. Here are my results:


Whatever was put on that black model really wouldn't come off, although the outer layer of red came off real easy. The models that were painted grey had really stubborn paint, too. After reading up a bit I think I should scrub them while they're still drenched with Simple Green. I also wonder if my bucket 'o' simple green has run out of cleaning power after so many uses. I drained it and threw in the rest of the Warriros that need stripping, and loaded it up with some fresh 'Green'.


This is going to be more work than I thought, but I will suffer for my art!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
kernbanks wrote:
Love the color scheme, I did something similar and have 20-30 of the old nids and about 80 genestealers I want to turn into force.

How are you dealing with load out, deathspitter and spinefists wasn't an index option...


Deathspitters or Boneswords, with the secondary claws probably as whatever is cheapest. Currently that's Scything Talons, so that's what I'll count them as.

Spinefists though? I guess I could see how the secondary arms look a bit like Spnefists. They're sort of weird looking.


 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
All those Warriors makes me jelly. Warriors have always been rather expensive so I don't own many of them, but would certainly like to.

I'm collecting a Carnifex Army and may face you one day. Unnatural selection at it's finest.


Both the new and old Tyranid Warriors are pretty expensive :( Like I said I went a bit nuts with them.

A Carnifex army would look awesome, those models are soo frigging cool. My Warriors don't have much in the way of multi-wound weapons so that might be a challenge. I do have a lot though!

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/11/03 21:55:19


And They Shall Not Fit Through Doors!!!

Tyranid Army Progress -- With Classic Warriors!:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/743240.page#9671598 
   
Made in us
Nurgle Chosen Marine on a Palanquin





 Insectum7 wrote:
Hey, thanks for the positive feedback everybody!

I'm really excited about the new codex coming out, and am trying to see how quick I can do these up.

I've got a finished (but not based) squad of 9 now.


Have you considered using small amounts of the green on other parts of the body? Random patterns? Just a little might tie the heads and bodies together more?

Also, maybe a thinner other than water for thinning the sepia like acrylic medium?

T

PS, I also prefer the old warriors although I added modern tails, talons, weapons and magnets to mine. Really need to reshoot these pics...





   
Made in us
Ultramarine Chaplain with Hate to Spare






^ Those are cool, niceley done! I often can't bring myself to modify the older models too much, but the details you've added are unique. I'm fond of the beetle-butt native to the kit because of the old illustrations of Tyranid Warriors, but I like how the tails make your models more reminicient of the very first Tyranid models. I also like that you've got one of the metal Warriors.

I did consider doing spots/designs in other colors around the models early on, and tried it out a bit before the "trial models" wound up looking as they do in my first post. Ultimately I decided that I'll make further adjustments to the scheme once I had a large force together, as often what looks good on a single model might detract from the look of the whole army together. But it's definitely on the table for a finishing pass.

And They Shall Not Fit Through Doors!!!

Tyranid Army Progress -- With Classic Warriors!:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/743240.page#9671598 
   
Made in au
Daring Dark Eldar Raider Rider





Canberra

Ahh, these guys are great.* I'm really excited to see how it all comes together.

As for the wash, I've had similar issues to the ones you're describing when thinning with water (including a few Nuln washes that dried whiteish) and I agree that some Lahmian Medium or another acrylic medium will fix you right up.

*yours too, timd.

"..and all his austeren host..." - my hobby projects tumblr.

Unrestrained Ravagings: A Dark Eldar Project Log

Kings of War/Fantasy: Bretonnians. Full Thrust: Oceanic Union and Sa'Vasku. Bolt Action: Poland. 40K: Dark Eldar. 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut






Purging on ctf_2fort

Really awesome plog, love the aesthetic of the old Warriors and the paint scheme that you've chosen. Will follow along, keep up the good work!

   
Made in gb
Renegade Kan Killin Orks






Northern Ireland

Mighty! Loving your work. Will follow with interest.

I remember the 2nd ed. Nids collection fondly from back in the day. Transport nightmares, Metal bits crumbling to ruin all over the table top. Fun times.

Painted up a Tyrant and some termies for a diorama once upon a time. Sold them off of course but still have one of those termies... Just for the memories.

   
Made in gb
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan





Fareham

Spoiler:



Our armies both need to face off once done :p
Love the older nid stuff and spent a while building up a small collection.


Look forward to seeing this blog progress

   
Made in us
Nurgle Chosen Marine on a Palanquin





 Insectum7 wrote:
^ Those are cool, niceley done! I often can't bring myself to modify the older models too much, but the details you've added are unique. I'm fond of the beetle-butt native to the kit because of the old illustrations of Tyranid Warriors, but I like how the tails make your models more reminicient of the very first Tyranid models. I also like that you've got one of the metal Warriors.

I did consider doing spots/designs in other colors around the models early on, and tried it out a bit before the "trial models" wound up looking as they do in my first post. Ultimately I decided that I'll make further adjustments to the scheme once I had a large force together, as often what looks good on a single model might detract from the look of the whole army together. But it's definitely on the table for a finishing pass.


Thanks! There are actually more of the metal guys. Been using them as Primes. Colors are loosely based on the original Genestealer colors: blue violet carapace, pale red violet flesh.

Love your 'Nids BTW!
   
Made in us
Stealthy Warhound Titan Princeps







I am jealous of all the classic warriors and carnifexes in this thread. I have only a handful of each, mostly heavily converted.
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

I've never seen the classic warriors look so good. The prime conversions are also amazing. Consider them stolen, and their DNA added to the pool.

   
Made in ca
Insect-Infested Nurgle Chaos Lord






 Insectum7 wrote:
Both the new and old Tyranid Warriors are pretty expensive :( Like I said I went a bit nuts with them.

A Carnifex army would look awesome, those models are soo frigging cool. My Warriors don't have much in the way of multi-wound weapons so that might be a challenge. I do have a lot though!


The new ones were cheap here because Warriors sucked for three editions. But the older ones are also expensive because no one bought them before they went OOP. Kinda the same issue with the fex with me (i.e: trying to find Grinfexes here for a not-stupid price is hard as hell since few of them sold. Crapton of OOEs though).

Gwar! wrote:Huh, I had no idea Graham McNeillm Dav Torpe and Pete Haines posted on Dakka. Hi Graham McNeillm Dav Torpe and Pete Haines!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I have an Autograph!


Kanluwen wrote:
Hell, I'm not that bothered by the Stormraven. Why? Because, as it stands right now, it's "limited use".When it's shoehorned in to the Codex: Space Marines, then yeah. I'll be irked.


When I'm editing alot, you know I have a gakload of homework to (not) do. 
   
Made in gb
Renegade Kan Killin Orks






Northern Ireland

Yeah, my old screamer-fex proxy was an OOE for exactly that reason.
Spoiler:



   
Made in us
Navigator




Virginia

This is awesome. I'm surprised that many old edition models still exist! I haven't seen any since 2001 locally.

16,000 Wins: 40 Losses: 12
Imperial Soup : Raven Guard, Astra Militarum, Knights, Adeptus Sororitas


DQ:90S++G+++M+B++I+Pw40k97#/re7D++A++/cWD817R+++T(T)DM++ 
   
Made in us
Ultramarine Chaplain with Hate to Spare






Thanks all! The encouragement is encouraging

Cleaning and building the last of the Warriors is taking a while as I'm super strapped for time atm, but I painted up the Primes in the meantime.



Also had my first Tyranid game since 4th edition. Slammed together an army with what I had built and hit the table right after grabbing my pre-ordered codex from the counter. It looks gross, but the preview of all the Warriors together on the table was inspiring.



Only finished three turns in the time we had, and I made a bunch of errors while learning strategems on the fly, but good times were had. Opponent called it after I killed Guilliman with a super lucky Zoanthrope round, but honestly he wasn't in a bad spot. I think it was closer than he was giving credit for.



 Jackal wrote:
Spoiler:



Our armies both need to face off once done :p
Love the older nid stuff and spent a while building up a small collection.


Look forward to seeing this blog progress


Haha. I love those old Fexes too. I sold mine off in 4th and a kinda regret it. I got some Spore Mines though!! I think I have a metal Termagant or two, and a Biovore somewhere.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
 Insectum7 wrote:
Both the new and old Tyranid Warriors are pretty expensive :( Like I said I went a bit nuts with them.

A Carnifex army would look awesome, those models are soo frigging cool. My Warriors don't have much in the way of multi-wound weapons so that might be a challenge. I do have a lot though!


The new ones were cheap here because Warriors sucked for three editions. But the older ones are also expensive because no one bought them before they went OOP. Kinda the same issue with the fex with me (i.e: trying to find Grinfexes here for a not-stupid price is hard as hell since few of them sold. Crapton of OOEs though).


Yeah, two of my primes are sporting OOE legs because they were easier to find. I got one top half of a Grin-fex now though. I don't really know what to do with it, gotta be good for something, and the expression is priceless.

And They Shall Not Fit Through Doors!!!

Tyranid Army Progress -- With Classic Warriors!:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/743240.page#9671598 
   
Made in us
Nurgle Chosen Marine on a Palanquin





Reshot pics of my updated early warriors. Still have not decided on eye color so eyes are not painted.
Waiting for the new codex before configuring the warriors.

Rogue Trader Metal Warriors. All arms magnetized


Plastic 2nd Ed. Warriors. Upper arms magnetized


Size comp pic

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/11/15 06:11:04


 
   
Made in us
Omnipotent Lord of Change





Albany, NY

 Insectum7 wrote:
I painted up the Primes in the meantime.

*flailing*

Those lads look really good, between the conversions and the scheme really going to work. Orange pop combined with green accents is lovely, guessing that combo is maybe reserved for these HQ bugs? Great minis regardless.

And test game looks impressive even with all that weird pale plastic! You can really pack a lot of warriors into a game!

- Salvage

KOW BATREPS: BLOODFIRE
INSTAGRAM: @boss_salvage 
   
 
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