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I have recently started to expand my Tyranid army and i'm considering making a biotitan and/or other large tyranid models. Does any1 have any advice or ideas on scratch building large tyranids. i have been making models for a few years and have resonable modeling skills. I have looked at building imperial titans but livng models look harder to make. I'm not sure what materials and tools i need and how to make the model itself. Can any1 with experience or ideas please give any suggestions.

Welcome to dakka...and this should have been posted in the painting and modelling forums.

As a new guy here don't worry about it too much, a mod might move it for you or you could just repost the thread there.

Hello and welcome

HFN

yeah sorry about that i just realised when i continued looking around. Im still not familiar with this site.

no worries. Have a look around and enjoy...Dakka (IMHO) is one of the better organized sites.

Is there anyway i can move the question or if not delete this it so that i can repost it in the correct area?

If you PM (private message) a moderator he will be able to move it for you. Clicking on the exclamation mark in a triangular box on the right hand side of this message will alert a moderator to your problem.

Thanks a lot for the help i will alert a moderator and ask them to move it.

Ive seen a few people scratch build biotitans on here before. If you do a dakka search either in the modeling section or the dakka blogs, you should be able to find some of the ones people have made. Good luck!

I saw a scratch built Bio-titan as well, it was made out of pink packing foam I believe. It was so light that a fall couldn't even damage it!!!

Wrex (poster above me) has been working on an amazing scratchbuilt daemon. Look there if you want some tips or something on how to get going

And no wrex isnt paying me to advertise for him

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/242802.page

Im going for a heirophant and i think i know what i'm going to do. If its a success i will post a few photos.

The Devourer wrote:I have recently started to expand my Tyranid army and i'm considering making a biotitan and/or other large tyranid models. Does any1 have any advice or ideas on scratch building large tyranids. i have been making models for a few years and have resonable modeling skills. I have looked at building imperial titans but livng models look harder to make. I'm not sure what materials and tools i need and how to make the model itself. Can any1 with experience or ideas please give any suggestions.

What kind of bio-titan???

Trygons are my favourite but if you want a huge one try a Hierophant

My advice is to go on Forgeworld.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/acatalog/QUATERMASTERS_STORE_TYRANIDS_13.html

Pity they got rid of the old GW Australia site. The Laos Horror made a good Trygon.

The forge world heirophant looks cool so thats the 1 i'm going with. I am still looking for materials. Does any1 know a good material for putting on the frame to bulk out the body. I might use foam but im not sure which kind to use

I know this is the wrong part of the forum but this question is linked to the heirophant that i am making. If i make a scratch built model will i be able to use it in games and tournaments or do they only allow GW models?

Thanks for the help so far

My trygon with a link to my step by step tutorial


and a pic of my biotitan (no building pics but some of it unpainted on page to of that thread)

I have been thinking about this for a bit. I wonder if the pink insulation foam would work. It is lightweight like Wrex said. It would be easy enough to sand and shape. Laminating a few pieces together with wood glue or something could allow you to make a large body and carve it out. I haven't figured out how to keep it really strong. the insulation is so soft you can leave fingernail marks in it.

Maybe a fiberglass covering or something thin and hard... oh, varnish?? Just some thoughts for scratch building organics.

Oh, here is an example
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/209615.page
my searchfu is strong

Wire, Paper Mache and Green Stuff?

Wow Delkins thats an great biotitan, its the kind of appearance i'm going for. So far i think im going to make a frame from copper piping, bulk out the body with paper mache coated in a fibre glass / resin kit then make the armour out of plasticard. Any gaps will be filled with car body filler.

Thanks for the Trygon guide Delkins the modeling on it is amazing, very helpful for developing new ideas.

Wire frame/piping frame, bulked with paper mache? That sounds like it will work.

The only trouble you are going to run into is that you will need a lot of green or grey stuff to finish it off. It would look best if you cover the whole outside of the titan, so that you don't have any of the mache texture showing (that's a lot more work, but it will end up looking much better in the end).

None of the paper mache will be showing. It's just for the basic shape, over the paper mache will be some kind of resin / fibre glass thing that i've got (as you can see i am not sure exactly what it is). Then i will coat it in a car body filler paste that will let me sculpt the detail like you would with green stuff.