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Could you sculpt a 'chest-piece' in the space with boreholes akin to a devourer, to represent the grubs? Possibly with a visible grub head or two, or one on a wire having been fired?

That is a great suggestion, monkeytroll, and is what I'm thinking but I'm not totally sure if I'm up to the task!

What's driving me crazy is I feel like I saw a model like this somewhere, with a bunch of little things flying / shooting out of it, but I can't seem to think of what it was. Maybe my imagination

I do think if I could find something "beetle sized" I could add them on myself, and perhaps put some on a wire as if they're shooting out, as you say. I'd love to fill that space with "beetle sized" things... or even a more solid surface that looks like it is perforated and can have beetles coming out of it, as you say.

I'll post here with what I come up with . The Chapterhouse spore pod (to become part of the Bastion) and space bug line came in, and I'm thrilled with both! Now I just have to find some capillary towers and that idea will be ready to implement


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Okay, here's what I found. I ordered some of each and I think one of them should work!

1. Khurasan Parasachnid bugs, which I would leave the legs off of. (Edit: I received these and they're not going to work, unfortunately, so hopefully the second option below will)

2. Ground Zero Games "Crusties" Scuttler bugs (from their 15mm Stargrunt line):



Between the two of those I should have one that will work! Also, for the Trygon conversion I'm thinking of using the extra mouths bit from the Dark Young model posted on the last page. Will experiment with it and see what looks good.

I have now acquired the parts I need to build the bastion with sufficient bulk, here's a teaser pic:



Parts will be:

Chapterhouse Spore Pod
Chapterhouse Space Bug Defense Line
2 sets of Tyranid Capillary Towers (from ebay)

I'm hopeful that my capillary towers are genuine but with items this OOP it's almost impossible to know. The casts certainly look fantastic to me, but obviously that's no indication. If I could've bought them directly from Forgeworld, I would have, but I got these from a seller in the U.S. so I at least hope they're legit

What I need now, are detailed Bastion dimensions. I actually have a GW Bastion, but I cut up many parts of it when trying my Mawloc conversion earlier in this thread. Would anyone be willing to make a detailed drawing of the base level of the Bastion, and then the top level?

What I really need is a top down view showing the width of the various sections. I believe the previous building I used was around 5" x 5" x 7", but having better numbers would be a lifesaver.

If no one can get me these, I'll try to piece together the parts of my own cut up Bastion to get a measurement or see if one of the local game stores has one built.

Thanks for any assistance!

Love the "crusties"... the long, wavy tails should really help with the illusion that they're flying out of the chest cavity.

The bastion set-up looks very interesting. Can't wait to see construction begin!

Ooh, those crusties look like they'll be a good fit.

Not entirely sure where my bastion bits are....if I come across enough of them before anyone else I'll have a stab at figuring sizes for you.....but I'd be willing to bet a fair bit that someone will have a much faster answer

I think so too, Gits! Can't wait to get them, they're coming from the UK though so still waiting.

Monkeytroll, thanks for checking. I may be able to cobble together enough of mine to get a measurement, will give it a go at least . Although if someone could measure theirs I would be in their debt! I can send some grubs as compensation for detailed top-down measurements / drawings, just PM me

shoot me a pm so i remember, but I can get you the measurements of one on Thursday.

I have PM'ed you thanks very much for trying to get them for me!

Whalemusic is my hero and has given me the dimensions that I need . I have a day off on Monday and plan to clean out my workspace from the big AdeptiCon push and start making some good progress on this then!

Hey lads, so with 7th edition about to hit I am thinking it makes sense to wait on working on this until I can make sure everything will still be legal / what I want to take / etc.

I have some other projects I'm working on... would it make sense for me to update the title / OP and show those, or do people generally start a new thread for each separate project?

Let me know your thoughts, cheers

I don't think it would invalidate a bastion. At the worst, you have a cool piece of themed terrain to plop on the display.

That Bastion is gonna look sick.

Makes sense to hold of for a while right now.

Think it's best to go with whatever you feel more comfortable with - I try to maintain separate blogs for my orks and chaos, with whatever else I'm working on going into whichever one is more active at the time, so peeeps who like orks but not chaos don't get put off and vice versa - but seen plenty of mixed blogs too. And to be fair, it generally seems that people who like what you do in one will at least take a look at what else you're doing - I probably would never have thought of looking at Gits MW's if I hadn't been interested in his orks. Which obviously would have been my loss.

If I did a seperate p&m blog for each project then I would have 140+ blogs each a page long . Such is the life a an old gamer with ADHD.

Thanks for the thoughts, guys . I think if it doesn't bother folks too much, I'll use this same thread and just adjust the title and OP (i.e. put some of the prior stuff in spoiler tags).

And whalemusic, yeah I'll still be working on the Bastion simultaneously with other things, as soon as I verify that I can still take it in the new edition lol.

I prefer the single blog for multiple projects. If its a project I'm less interested in, its easy enough to take a quick glance and move on. If it's something I feel like commenting on, even if its a quick thumbs up.

Edit: I've decided just to keep this blog for my nids, after all

I want to update my tyranids to 7th edition, but I'm glad I waited as the lists I'm seeing are very different from what I would have made if I had just dived in. Things I'm currently considering: whether to try to gear towards a swarm list, using my massive number of gaunts, or more of a nidzilla. Also wondering if a Malanthrope model will blend in well with my army, or not, as the rules seem to be amazing and could open up more viable army lists. In that case, perhaps I would eventually update my venomthrope to be the GW model, but converted like this? I think it might help the Malanthrope blend in. Although with the Malanthrope around, the Venomthrope probably won't make it into my lists

Backtracking: Would you happen to still have around those measurements for the official Bastion?

I've been thinking of giving it a shot at a scratchbuilt one, and keeping it in line with the actual sizes is always a plus!

Thanks!

Here are those dimensions for you Littletower:

7 1/8" tall at the highest point (#1 in the diagram below), 5 5/8" wide on each side (#2 and #4 in the diagram), with some protrusions that are 3 7/8" wide on the upper portion (#3 in the diagram). Sorry for the archaic "english" measurements hopefully the pic helps:



Also, my discouragement about not having a list to run I think has been solved! Jy2, my tyranids hero, has given me some ideas, and here is a list that I think I would like to try (using self-allying)


That leaves me needing to build and paint the following:

Bastion
2 Flyrants
2 Malanthropes
Tyrannofex
Dakkafex

Exocrine
3 Biovores
4 Warriors
18 Spore Mines
12 Rippers

Seems doable, I'm excited to try this again now that I have something clear to shoot for.

What makes the mal better then the venom in this list? It's going to chill in the box, yes?

Malanthrope gives synapse AND shrouded from inside the box which before I was hiding a Tervigon behind the Bastion to provide. It's also a lot more durable even inside the Bastion (I've had the Venomthrope die in there before) and of course if the Bastion is destroyed.

But basically, I think synapse is the key- it will allow me to move away from the Tervigon and not rely on easy-to-snipe zoanthropes in the open to have synapse in my backfield.

Ed at Trollforged says he should have the larva swarms (which I'll use as counts-as rippers) ready in the next batch of molds shortly, so I just need to buy the Malanthrope and Imperial Armor Volume 4. Off to the DCM group forgeworld order thread!

Yeah, since the paypal transactions we haven't done a group order. Wanna run one?

Done and done!

Also, I edited the above spoilered list, and also posted it in the 40k army lists section. Hopefully I can get some good advice and know exactly what to build towards! But I think I have a good idea here, maximizing the use of the big bugs I've already painted. I'll still want to one day go back and paint up a Living Artillery Node and some devourers to convert some gaunts with, but I think this would be a sweet list to run now, and maybe even more effective.

I also think I'm going to convert up some of my massive stockpile of painted grubs to be gargoyles, by mounting them up on tall piled slate bases and converting them with gargoyle wings. This means I'll only need to paint up the wings! Which would also be a huge timesaver, of course.

I'm getting more and more motivated so updates will be forthcoming

Thanks! Saved and filed.

And don't worry about the measurements, after all, archaic gets along great with grimdark futuristic gothic.

Will be waiting for your next update

Quick question- I had been planning to cut off this model's legs and use it as a Crone. But now I'm thinking, it actually works perfectly as a Dimachaeron! I can model it as if it is leaping:



Actually looks a lot sweeter than the official model! What do you guys think?

MOAR GRIBBLIES!

- Salvage will be watching ...

I really liked the idea of the crone, and was eager to see what you did with it......but, you're right, that does seem to fit the Dimachaeron for your gribblies

Dimachaeron for sure!

Clearly, my reply broke Dakka this morning... trying again

Just a quick update to say I ordered these:



I wasn't totally happy with the idea for my gargoyle conversions, and think these would be a better fit. I might swap the wings for the GW plague drone wings- or maybe just the small ones. I ordered a set of 3 off ebay, and am considering the larger set (or perhaps both) for my winged hive tyrants instead of the large wings I'm currently using. Spoilered pic for reference of what I'm talking about:


Bugs should have bug wings, right!?

I'm also just about to place the DCM group forgeworld order this week, to get my two malanthropes and the book with their rules. Then it will just be waiting for those to come in, although I've got work to do in the meantime. I've laid out all bits for the Bastion but need to lasercut a base for everything to mount onto.

Finally, two other updates on my plans: despite how sweet the OOP Armorcast Exocrine is, I've decided it's just too big and doesn't fit with the rest of my models. So, I sold it, and am eagerly awaiting the Trollforged version- I'm hoping Ed will have it cast up very soon! It has legs, but to tie it in I'll be converting my Biovores from his carnage hounds. So, it's the larvae swarm, cannon drone, and carnage hounds I'm waiting on from Trollforged, all sculpted by Ed and just needing to be cast:

Larvae Swarm:


Cannon Drone:



Carnage Hound (will convert into a Biovore, thoughts appreciated on that!):



I would also be designating the crazy tentacled model that I'd originally planned as a Crone/Harpy back to that role, as Ed is making one more big drone which I could use for a big FW bug with some converting. So, those are all the plans, will update when I have more actual progress to show in September

What is that you're using for the gargoyles? I'm sure I should know what it is, but can't place it. I'd agree that a wing swap is probably a good idea.

Pleased to hear the crone idea is back on the table.

How does the carnage hound compare size-wise with a biovore? Never had one, but I always think of them as fairly chunky beasts.
What's the plan for the conversion- adding a 'cannon mouth', or re-arranging the head to suit, or something else entirely?