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Hey guys,

With the joys of Christmas I ended up spending most of my Christmas money on a second army, the Tyranids Right now I have a Necron army that I consider near complete and I wanted to give a CC army a shot and I've always loved being "the bad guys" so I picked up the Tyranid battleforce, codex, and Hive Tyrant HQ.

I was skimming through the Codex last night before bed and again this morning looking at the different units and one thing I noticed: Not every unit in the codex is on the GW website...

To name the ones I've noticed are missing:

Swarmlord
Tervigon
Tyranid Prime
Parasite of Mortrex
Doom of Malan'tai
Ymgarl Genestealers
Mycetic Spore
Shrike Brood
Sky-Slasher Swarm
Harpy
and lastly, the Tyrannofex.

Again, I'm coming from a Necron army where what you buy is what you get - its very simple .I'm just wondering, are all of those units above part of other units (Ie: Ymgarl Genestealers can be represented with regular Genestealers? perhaps pick up a seperate box and paint them a diff. color?)

What about all of the other units? Swarmlord, Tervigon, and Tyrannofex seem like a couple "big ones" that you would think would have their own units...

Can you guys give me some tips on where I can find these guys, or how to make them? (Do I have to buy additional pieces to make them? etc)

Thanks in advance guys

Forge world has a few models, but other then that you are generally going to have to either kitbash or proxy.

Or pray that GW actually gets around to modeling them.

I was thinking Swarmlord could be "substituted" using the Hive Tyrant (just saying to your opponent "he is treated as a Swarmlord for this battle). Tervigon and Tyrannofex... dunno where I would even start with those... maybe Carnifex meets Tyrant Guard?

Tyranid Prime - you can convert this from a regular warrior
Ymgarl Genestealers - the feeder tendril heads are in the stealer box, just not many of them.
Shrike Brood - wings are available from FW
Sky-Slasher Swarm - are available from FW

Tervigon - chapterhouse studios have a conversion kit available
Mycetic Spore - chapterhouse studios have a suitable model available
Harpy - you need make your own
Tyrannofex - you need make your own

Swarmlord - Hive tyrant with four swords
Parasite of Mortrex - who know quite how big he's supposed to be?
Doom of Malan'tai - take a zoanathrope and give him head spines

^^ Dumb question scott, where can i find head spines or are they a scratch mod? If so, whats the best way to do them?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Also where can I get 4x Boneswords to make a Swarmlord out of a Hive Tyrant? the bits I can find on GW's website only show claws/guns for them... :( I don't see anything on FW either

Both spines and swords you can make from plasticard and a bit of green stuff. I think chapterhouse do boneswords also.

I personally am not a fan of chapterhouse's lash whips or bone swords and plus with their latest litigation suit from GW they probably won't be in business much longer.

I repurposed some carnifex scything talons (the ones that DON'T have the carapace running up the length of the blade) by clipping them at the wrist, and then at the base of the bone, and gluing them back/reflipping them to look more like pirate sabres. If i had a suitable camera I would post pictures. Essentially a scything talon curves down from the hand part, a bone sabre/blade curves up. It's fairly easy to tell the difference on the battlefield, which is what matters ultimately.

Welcome to the swarm!

Paulson makes some Awesome boneswords that I just recently used to arm my Swarmlord. Can't give you the link off hand because I'm not in my PC but IMHO they're much better than Chapterhouses.

Chapterhouse does however make some awesome heads for Ymargl stealers. Hoping I can round up the funding to get some of those before the hammer drops here shortly.

Prime is just a bigger more BA warrior. Parasite is described as warrior sized, so a BA warrior with wings and rending claws. Doom is a BA zoanthrope.

There are a ton of available models from various companies and sources to count as a spore pod.

Harpy is a Trygon with wings and big guns.

Tervigon and T-Fex are the hardest IMHO. Personally I made my tervigon out of a trygon, and made m T-Fex out of a few, working on making both larger than the original. Can check em out in my gallery of the link in my sig.

I'm insanely jealous the work you guys can do with the green stuff... I dont know how you do it... add all the details to the arms and legs, etc.

Looking at Paulson Games I found these swords:

http://www.paulsongames.com/catalog/item/7434381/7782942.htm

Whats the best way to get these onto "arms" ? I don't think im talented enough to greenstuff my own makeshift arms...

That sounds like a great way to start tyranids I've picked them up from the battle for macragge set and whatever left overs my friends can spare

Yeah, it's kind of sad, actually. Even in the 4th edtion codex, there were the same problems. Tyranids have always kind of been a converter's army. For people like me, who have a hard time doing even simple conversions, tyranids are unappealing..

Cryage wrote:Whats the best way to get these onto "arms" ? I don't think im talented enough to greenstuff my own makeshift arms...

Find an arm you like, chop off the hand/weapon and stick that on?

Scott-S6 wrote:

Cryage wrote:Whats the best way to get these onto "arms" ? I don't think im talented enough to greenstuff my own makeshift arms...

Find an arm you like, chop off the hand/weapon and stick that on?

Seems so simple... just seems like i need to buy tons of extra units just to get a few bitz though :(

Maybe ill check ebay for a stack of bitz

Look around in the bitz section on GW's website. I don't remember what all is in there but they do have a cheap sprue of just random add ons.

take a Scything Talon arm, clip off the very tip of the talon, and then clip the talon off at the base.

Now invert the talon, and reattach it. It looks suprisingly like a bonesword. Very little talent needed.

Was thinking about picking up 2x of these http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440301a&prodId=prod1400032

using those arms with 2x orders of these (so 4x swords) http://www.paulsongames.com/catalog/item/7434381/7782942.htm

Course this is down the road when I finish building what I have right now... right now the regular hive tyrant is giving me GRIEF to try and glue... had to break out the epoxy to make his tail stick to his torso and legs to his tail! The regular superglue just wouldnt hold... glued the tail to the torso and left it over night, picked it up and it fell apart in the morning lol.

There really is no practical way to get a Hive Tyrant to stay together without pinning. The torso is going to be so weighty with the arms hanging off it that the pieces will never stay super glued and as you saw the tail is just straight up impossible to glue on. Even with pinning the tail's quite difficult to secure permanently but it is possible.

Palsons swords work best on Scytal arms. Just cut the scytal off at the "wrist" and glue the sword on.

I believe that at one point GW stated something along the lines of "we will accept any conversions for units we currently do not make models for"

I'm not sure if they have since changed this, my friend showed up to a GW tournament with a Tyrannofex modeled as a "Rex" (Yes the T-rex from toystory) that he glued googly eyes & some claws onto with a standard infantry base. The TO was less than pleased but he had printed the rule so they had to let him do it. Also his Tervigon was a Hot Wheels car with scything talons again on an infantry base. You should have seen the TOs face but the rules were clear. I was shocked he wasn't kicked out***

*** I would NOT recommend ever doing this, he didn't even want to play he just wanted to be a ****.

Shas'O Dorian wrote:I believe that at one point GW stated something along the lines of "we will accept any conversions for units we currently do not make models for"

I'm not sure if they have since changed this, my friend showed up to a GW tournament with a Tyrannofex modeled as a "Rex" (Yes the T-rex from toystory) that he glued googly eyes & some claws onto with a standard infantry base. The TO was less than pleased but he had printed the rule so they had to let him do it. Also his Tervigon was a Hot Wheels car with scything talons again on an infantry base. You should have seen the TOs face but the rules were clear. I was shocked he wasn't kicked out***

*** I would NOT recommend ever doing this, he didn't even want to play he just wanted to be a ****.

I actually, literally, LOL'd at this!

Funny friend haha.

The epoxy seems to be holding the Hive Tyrants legs and tail to the torso quite well (I have him glued to the stand now), so it appears the hardest part is over

Can I sneak in 1 noob question here regarding CC attacks?

Hive Tyrant says he gets 4 attacks and has a bonesword and a lash whip... how do i distribute these attacks? Are all his attacks done with the bone sword? Is 1 done with the lash whip so I get the benefit of it, and then the last 3 with the bonesword? Is it 1 attack with the bonesword, 1 with lash whip and the last 2 are assumed to be claws/teeth? Or is it 2 bone sword, 2 lash whip?

Again, my last army was Necrons so it was very simple to figure them out for CC's, so sorry for the dumb question

Thanks guys!

Edit**

^^Forgot to mention, my above question is assuming you replace the scything claws for a ranged weapon of some sort...

Would that get rid of 2 of his CC attacks?

Tyranids do not wield CC weapons. Rather, they gain bonuses to their attack profile for each weapon. ScyTals no longer give +1 Attack like in the 4th ed codex.

A Lash Whip/Bonesword tyrant will get 4 attacks, 5 on the charge, that all benefit from the ID rule and all models in BtB will strike at I1

^^ Thank you so much for clearing that up, thats amazing!

Question about boneswords for warriors though... I bought the battleforce and codex - and I don't see any boneswords for the warriors that I can equip/glue on... do the boneswords+arms come with the individual 3 pack I can buy in stores? (ie: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440297a&prodId=prod1050114 )

Also when you guys play in tournies, lets say you give your warriors a pair of scything talons and a gun - do you ever tell your opponent - this batch has scything talons and rending claws, or are you basically stuck with whatever is glued onto your unit? (Cause if so, i may have to invest in lots and lots of magnets then lol).

To your first question - warrior sized boneswords were standard fare a long time ago, but GW no longer makes or sells anything resembling them. I suggest either getting really good at modeling with plasticard or just finding another equipment loadout.

Secondly - Tiny magnets will be your best friend when it comes to your hive tyrant and carnifexes! Unlike MEQ armies, who can field different wargear fairly easy with different troops holding a gun, monstrous creatures are far more expensive to buy multiples of. I have all my tyrants/fexes magnetized at the arms for the very reason that sometimes i like dual scytals, sometimes i like 2x brainleech devourers, etc. I highly recommend magnets.

tetrisphreak wrote:To your first question - warrior sized boneswords were standard fare a long time ago, but GW no longer makes or sells anything resembling them. I suggest either getting really good at modeling with plasticard or just finding another equipment loadout.

Secondly - Tiny magnets will be your best friend when it comes to your hive tyrant and carnifexes! Unlike MEQ armies, who can field different wargear fairly easy with different troops holding a gun, monstrous creatures are far more expensive to buy multiples of. I have all my tyrants/fexes magnetized at the arms for the very reason that sometimes i like dual scytals, sometimes i like 2x brainleech devourers, etc. I highly recommend magnets.

Yeah I ordered 100 magnets about a week ago when I got the battleforce + hive tyrant.

Thing im worried about is the termagaunts, I don't want to have to buy HUNDREDS of magnets with their variety of weapons, so I dont know if its safe to say "This squad has devourer's where as this one as fleshborers, and this unit has spine fists" (mind you, fleshborers seem decent enough to keep equipped)

You don't need to worry about magnets on gaunts. You can give a unit or two devourerers to taste, but oherwise you'll just want them all with flesh orers

+1 To aduro's post. Out of 100 termagants, i gave 32 devourers and the rest fleshborers. Even with 3 Tervigon lists I've never needed fleshborer gaunts that i didn't have, and i have enough devourer gaunts to run 2 decent sized squads or one full squad with a couple leftovers.

Ignore spike rifles, and spinefists. They aren't worth it.

Good to know, thanks for the tips guys!

there is a swarmlord model.

Tervigon I believe chapterhouse makes one. that is, if they don't get their pants sued off.

Doom of Malan'tai just use a zoanthorpe? .-.

Ymgarl Genestealers paint genestealers differently.

Mycetic Spore same.

don't know.

So what you guys are saying is order now from Chapterhouse while I still can? lol

Edit: why are they being sued btw? IMHO it's sort of GW's own fault for not making the units that they have in the books...

There is no swarmlord model made by gw, but frankly it's not hard to convert.

Get 3 extra hive tyrant bonewswords, greenstuffing to taste. Ebay is pricy on this, but your local FLGS may have a bitz box.

If you want to go all out add a second horn to the head, 4 small horns to the face (i used mawloc movement claws)and use the hivetyrant's lashwhip in place of the tail tip.


What i object to is a stonking awesome model like the pyrovore having it's rules written by a 14 year old who came in on 'bring your kid to work day' ... (pet peeve- love the models, but can't justify buying them as dust-collectors..)

Cryage wrote:So what you guys are saying is order now from Chapterhouse while I still can? lol

If you want Ymargl Genestealers, I would get the heads from Chapter House. Theirs are cooler than the Zoidberg-ish Feeder Tendril heads that come with the Genestealers. Plus those aren't going to be much easier to get anyways since you only get one tendril head for every four `stealers.

If you want a Swarmlord or Boneswords and Lashwhips for Warriors, I would get the Boneswords and Lashwhips from Paulson Games. His are MUCH better IMHO. Chapter House's are almost comically over sized when you get them on the models, and I dislike the arms they come attached on.