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Hi guys and girls, I thought I'd share my mahoosive pet Tyranid: Harry the Hierophant. This thread is to report his life (building and some small accounts of his battles [not many though])

When the Termagaunts and Hormagaunts aren't enough to break a defender's position, the Hive Mind calls on the Carnifex to break apart tanks and bastions. Sometimes the humble Carnifex isn't enough for for the bigger things that the Prey like to use (Baneblades, Titans, etc) so the Bio Titans are sent in to the job.
September 2009 at my local club we were celebrating our birthday and to do so we decided we were going to have a tank battle. Now, 'Nids don't have tanks, so my brother (who plays them) felt a bit left out. MCs were then incorporated. He had 4 Carnies to wreak havoc with but I decided that with that much armour they would eventually all be turned to paste (there was alot of armour!) As a result, 5 hours prior to the game starting I showed my Dad what I wanted to scratch-build (via the Forgeworld site) and we had a think, and another, and another.
We did a bit of planning, bought a hot-wire cutter and went ninja on some polystyrene. The result? A Bio Titan. Which Bio Titan? A Hierophant - I mean if you're going to have a Bio Titan, it might as well be the biggest one with rules Well, I say a Hierophant, he was more like a Polyphant stuck together with cocktail sticks but it looked the part. (For the record, the Polyphant did very well in the Tank Battle)

Of course, he couldn't remain a flimsy, bright white bug.
We ceremoniously dumped the limbs in the bin and went for another think. Thinking done, we thought perspex would be the best thing to use for the limbs (better than polystyrene at any rate) so we cut replacement limbs from the perspex. Due to perspex being very angular and polystyrene not liking being sprayed, neither were very Tyranid-like so we had to coat it in something for both durability and realism - Dad found some Car Filler. I'm not going to pretend that I know why it works so I'll give you the simple version: You add a little bit of the squirty red stuff into the grey stuff and mix it together then apply to whatever. Result, Polyphant becomes Hierophant after the stuff sets like concrete

Then we sprayed it black.

Now for some pics...



Everything sprayed black at this time are the limbs made from perspex. All pieces shown have been coated with the car filler.
From top-to-bottom, left-to-right: the main body, Bio-Cannon, Scything Talon, Bio Cannon, Scything Talon and the legs.



A close up on the body. Althought maybe not clear, there are grooves to show its ribs on its underside.

Using the car filler again, the limbs were attached (unfortunately no image for this stage :( )

At this time, the Hierophant was ready for war, albeit unpainted and unarmoured. Following his second outing (a specific 'Bring down the Bug!' mission) he was to be known as Harry


I'll finish his story (up to now) in the next post along with up-to-date photos. For those that want a sneak peek, they're up in my gallery

Any questions and C&C is welcome

EdM

Excellent!

The car body filler is unpolymerised polystyrene. You can buy it in small tubes or big cans from Halfords. It's made by a company called Plastic Padding.

I use it for rough filling jobs like bases and buildings.

It's rather stinky until it sets.

Thanks Kilkrazy

Yeah, the smell is pretty nasty but meant that I had to do next to nothing to create a flesh effect

EdM

I always like when people make these from scratch cause the FW one is TOO small.

Actually, we made ours to the size of the FW one and, to be honest, any bigger and we'd have issues with storage. I'm sure I could make a bigger, collapsable one in the future though

EdM

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Time for some pics of Harry now he's big and strong - and devoured a few prey worlds!



A side-on view having defeated the forces defending my dining room table



And just before he eats you!

The colour scheme may seem a bit dull but my brother has changed his mind on how his bugs are to be painted that I stopped painting him before I finished - just as well because the scheme has altered again recently and I'll probably be re-painting Harry in the near future.

Thanks for looking. More pics will follow

EdM