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I'm looking for some tips and advice for how to make a Warrior Prime stand out against the rest of my Warrior Brood. Since he will have the same weapons as the Warriors there aint much left beside the painjob. One thought I hade was to reverse the colour scheme, that would certinly make him stand out. So, anyone got some more ideas? If you can post a pic of your Prime next to a regular warrior for comparison, that would be great!

Not sure really. Personally, I am using the old style Hive Tyrant model as my tyranid prime; bigger than a normal warrior but slightly smaller than the current Tyrant model. That way I can easily distinguish them yet keep the paintjobs unified.

If you want to keep the colour scheme uniform, then the only suggestion I can offer is to spend a little more time and detail on it to make it stand out. Alternatively, give the base some extra decorations/modelling just to give slightly more focus.

I'm not a Tyranid player so I can't help out with any pictures, but one of my friends is. He has done a couple of things to make a Warrior into a Prime. One is to stick a lot of spikes and spines to it's carapace (I know that Nid players get very full and interesting bits boxes very quickly, I'm sure you have a few knocking about), the other is to paint the carapace on his synapse creatures with a very bright and distinctive red colour. I don't know what colour scheme you have gone for, but keeping the colour scheme for the arms and legs the same and going for a colour that stands out and is different from the rest of your swarm for the carapace plates will make him, and any other synapse creatures really stand out.

I made sure that he was broader than my normal Warriors. I used spacers to increase all his dimensions compared to a Warrior.

Then I gave his carapace an elaborate pattern, as opposed to my normal Warriors who have no pattern on their carapace.

Personally I think a different paint job, such as a different or stronger accent colour, is the least one can do.

I used the Ravener Deathspitter torso, Ravener head and two of the tiny Ravener scythes in place of the bottom arms. I was going to use Paulson Games' warrior bonesword and fashion a Lashwhip out of greenstuff until I heard that GW will be selling a blister with those items in it. I had to shave the connection of the Warrior tail/hip to get it to fit well with the torso, but overall, it gives my Prime a more menacing, lunging appearance.

I've trimmed down the crests on all my Warriors, and so my Prime is the only one with a crest. It also helps that my Prime has a lash whip and bonesword, while the Warriors all have Death Spitters and Venom Cannons.

I took extra plates and covered its face and head. I then added spikes to the head in an attempt to form a crown. It's in my gallery.

Id go with some sort of stand out pattern on all the synapse creature.

Dunno what colours your using, but say the are blue and green, add a red pattern to stand out.

Posing also has a lot to be said for it, try having his scything claws or whatever in a really agressive pose above it's head.
Speaking of heads, theres 2 crest types, one with 3 points and one with 2, I used the 3-pointed one for my Prime.

I used extra plates on the shoulders, head, and the thigh carapace. I also used ravager bodies and head as the bodies are bigger then the regular and the head has the mouth pincers on it.

Also why dont you equip him differently? Pair of boneswords or bonesword/lashwhip depending on what your regular warriors have.

Just my $.02

give it a really big hat

or make him bigger

I gave mine a Ravener tail, massive pink choppers, extra pauldrons, and put him on a larger base.

Thanks for all the tips! Got somethings to think about now. Got my first pack of warriors about a week back, and I noticed that they come with a pair of really big talons, I'll probably use those among other things on my prime to make him stand out .

@Fallenbourne, I'm going for a shooty warriors squad, so I'm arming them all with Deathspitters. Don't know if it'll do much of I give him a bonesword and lash whip, althought it would be nice to have atleast one power weapon in the squad, even if they're not gonna be assualting much.

@Killkrazy, I really like your prime, but that's probably cause I love Ravenors and Trygons ^^ Gonna have 6 Ravenors, a Trygon Prime and a Mawloc in my Hive fleet.

My whole hive fleet is snake like creatures.

I've heard of people using Carnifex legs but I don't know how well it would turn out.

those would look a little big wouldnt they :?

I used the ornate 2nd edition Hive Tyrant model updated with Chapterhouse arms and head (pic left):

I will add a picture of mine tomorow but I added extra poildrons to his shoulders, hacked the little 'finger' bits from some scything talons and GS them to make mandibles, I then used the left arm from a carnifex venom canon and took the organic tube end to lengthen the tail, and added spikes
I have pics in my gallery and I'll post them tomorrow ,
IMO the result is not too 'bulky' but still makes him look tougher than your average warrior


Dan

That prime looks really mean! Hade something similar in mind when I started thinking about a prime, extra spiky and extra bitz. I particulary like the shoulderguards and the mandibles. Are those shoulderguards from the warriors box?

I gave mine the ravener torso and head, and also made it stand on a big rock.

The shoulder guards are the ones from the warrior kit, on the Venom Canon sprue.
I made the mandibles by cutting the 'fingers' from the end of scything talons.


Dan

Kroothawk wrote:I used the ornate 2nd edition Hive Tyrant model updated with Chapterhouse arms and head (pic left):

while i normally dont comment on nid threads because i cant really add anything, i need to say that, that right hand one is freaking ugly (i polited that up) o.o; , not the paint job, just the design, looks like im going to be having nightmares tonight x)

Hey Kroothawk, I gotta say, that Prime is the absolute best I've seen!

Mind if I potentially nab that conversion idea?

When I made my Tyranid-toting friend a Prime for his birthday I put it on an elevated base (standing on the broken body of one of my marines) and took some Scything Talons, cut off the talon and gs'ed them onto the Prime's back plates. Easy to do, looks cool.

I used a very old carnifex/tyranid model modified with a "modern" gun. He may get a little more conversion yet (thinking of green stuffing some head carapace plates or something). He's about the right size though and is certainly distinctive.

Clumpski wrote:while i normally dont comment on nid threads because i cant really add anything, i need to say that, that right hand one is freaking ugly (i polited that up) o.o; , not the paint job, just the design, looks like im going to be having nightmares tonight x)

It's the 2nd edition Warrior, in this case the rarer metal version. Now that Warriors can have boneswords again (and current GW models don't have them), it is legal and sought after on ebay. Same with webgun and spikerifle gaunts, Mycetic Spore, Exocrine (Tyrannofex) and Malefactor (Tervigon)

ghosty wrote:Hey Kroothawk, I gotta say, that Prime is the absolute best I've seen!
Mind if I potentially nab that conversion idea?

Go ahead, you are welcome And thanks BTW

Gitsplitta wrote:I used a very old carnifex/tyranid model modified with a "modern" gun. He may get a little more conversion yet (thinking of green stuffing some head carapace plates or something). He's about the right size though and is certainly distinctive.

Another fine example of the unexpected return of 2nd edition tyranid models

Do you have a picture of that Prime TiB? Sounds interesting

Like Kroothawk, I am also using a 2nd Edition Hive Tyrant for my Tyranid Prime (great minds think alike, I suppose).



As you can see, it's slightly larger than a Warrior without being too big. Perfect size. There's several on eBay right now, as well.