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Hey there, this is the start of my Tyranid blog where I shall put all things of mine that are buggy. I have been doing Tyranids for some time now and I have a large swarm. I have themed my Hive Fleet around scorpions and I've converted some of them to look more scorpion-like. Also others like Mawpede below are a bit different. I hope you like my bugs. Comments, questions and criticism are welcome.

I've got a fair number of pics of them which I'm going to start putting up here. First up is my Mawloc. I've called Mawpede because it looks like a centipede. It has been converted a bit using Hormagaunt talons as legs all along it's lower body. I used pincers from the Daemonettes on it to replace the normal spikes because I find them interesting.

Mawpede.

Absolutely stunning. That is the best Mawloc I've seen.

Awesome! I love the little legs, and the colour scheme is dark and sinister, but still light enough to be interesting, particularly the scaly green weapons are eye catching.

Thankyou, I'm glad you like Mawpede. Next is a Pyrovore, Hive Guard and a Broodlord. The Pyrovore is a poor unit in the game but I really like the model. I dug out the base and put bones in there. They were covered with water effects mixed with green and yellow ink. This was done to show the effects of the Pyrovore up-chucking stomach acid to melt things for consumption.

Pyrovore.





























Here are some Hive Guard. They were done more or less as they come out of the package. I did add a spike on the end of their tails. The left arm was also repositioned on two of them to add more variety to their pose.

Hive Guard.



















The next one is a Broodlord from the Space Hulk game. He was fun to paint and is a lovely model. I use him just as he is to lead my basic Genestealers. Several of my Genestealer broods need a Broodlord of their own since the Broodlord became a squad upgrade and no longer a single HQ choice.

Broodlord.

It just gets better and better. The shading, the bases the color scheme - all spot on.

I really love the way you did your carapaces. Did you do a lot of drybrushing or is it just blended?

Thats one fantastic centipede! I like how you added so much but managed to keep it looking natural.. well alien bug natural.
The pyrovore base is quite inspired too

Wow amazing, the painting is just fantastic and the choice of colour is ace, looking forward to seeing much more.

Loving the mawpede! The extra legs really do look cool. Your jade colour is real nice as well.

Looking forward to more!

They are awesome, some of the best Tyranid models I've seen for a very very long time...

Hope I can do mine justice now

Diakka wrote:I really love the way you did your carapaces. Did you do a lot of drybrushing or is it just blended?

Thanks everybody.

To answer Diakka I use both drybrushing and blending. The carapaces are first painted black. I do spray my models black but I use a coat of black paint anyway to give a cleaner result. I use scaly green to drybrush the edges and raised areas. I then use a mix of scaly green and white over the same area. Then white is used over the whole of the carapace and it is then shaded with black. Then I give it an ink wash of viridian. Then I use white to blend up and highlight the edges and points of the carapace.

The next up is Pyroscorpion. He was made from a Carnifex. I originally made him with the intention of him being a Carnifex with a barbed strangler and venom cannon but then the codex came out and that option was removed, sarcastic= (thanks GW for supporting those of us who like the modelling and conversion side of the hobby). Sorry about that, sarcasm doesn't work well in print.

However now he is a Tyrannofex with a Rupture cannon. The big gob is where his throrax swarm swarms from. I converted him to have armour plates that open up as he uses his weapons and I imagine they would close up when in defence. Right now I am working on another Tyrannofex with a rupture cannon made from another Carnifex and an Arachnorok spider, I've used the actual rupture cannon from the now released Tyrannofex set.

Pyroscorpion.



















This area is where I've used green stuff to show the interior of his carapace.

















Here are the eyes. They were hard to do and use a 3D effect. I made them out of an adrenal gland initially. Then after the model was painted I added layer after layer of water effects. Then I used black to shade heavily around the eyes and then added a few more layers of water effects. The result is compound eyes that have a more 3D look to them. I've got several pics of them to try to show the effect of his big buggy eyes.

I addore that T-fex!!! Fantastic stuff!!!

Brilliant work man, this is what should be on the GW site, instead of those bog-standard black/yellow ones that we've seen so many times before. Bravo! I await updates with baited breath

Only 1 man can adequately sum up this thread...

Amazing.. nice nids i wish i could pant like that

Thankyou everybody. Next up are some Zoanthropes, Malanthrope, Genestealers and another Broodlord.

Zoanthropes. I did them with green brains because it makes them look more like they are filled with psychic alien energy. It also fits in well with my colour scheme.









Malanthrope. This things was loads of fun to paint and has alot of really cool details on it.















This is the Malanthrope's base. I've included lots of dead bits on it and signs of growing Tyranid infestation as Malanthropes scavenge the dead and dying. The eyeballs were fun to paint.



Genestealers. I've named them Brainstealers because they have feeder tendrils which Tyranids use to eat brains, or at least Lictors do. I also gave them scorpion-like tails to make them fit in better in my swarm.





My Broodlord called Scorpionlord.















Scorpionlord leading the Brainstealers.



This is a pic of a little concept art I did for Scorpionlord to show how his claws have evolved into pincers. It was the original metal Broodlord I used for him but I didn't like it the way it was so I converted it heavily to make it better. There is also a wee doodle I did on the pic.

I now dislike you... you have my favourite bug... the Malanthrope.

Looks amazing though

[/img]Hello. Here is a Winged Hive Tyrant I've named Cyclone Tyrant in honour of Cyclonus of the Decepticons. I converted it from the old metal Tyrant and gave it Balrog wings. I uses two twinlinked devourers because they are a very good weapon type. I posed it like it is flying along at stafing it's enemies with fleshworms from it's devourers.

Cyclone Tyrant.

I swear your trying to make me dislike you. . .

more awesomeness as usual my friend

Thankyou very much. Now it's time for Scorpion Tyrant. This is the big, boss-bug of my swarm and always gets to be overall commander when he's present in a game, even when I do up a Swarmlord model Scorpion Tyrant will still be in charge. He is one of my hardest conversions, created before there was an easy plastic set to work with or even resin, from a time when all Hive Tyrants were metal.

I made extra eyes for him and the claws come from Keeper of secrets. I use them to represent a lashwhip and bonesword. The lowered initiative of enemies because of the lashwhip showing he is a wily Tyrant that catches enemies off guard and the possible instant death of the bonesword being shown that he grabs enemies and snaps their necks in his claws.

I would say overall the hardest part to do was the tail. It is made from barbed strangler gun barrels and some green stuff. The base includes little scorpions I cut from the Tomb kings Tomb swarm.

Scorpion Tyrant.

Here are some Meiotic spores from Forge world. They were fun to so as a side project to my main Tyranid swarm.

Meiotic spores.

holy _______ .! Youve got some real stunners on here man. All of these are really refreshing and new color schemes, i get sick and tired of the same old levithan colors, or whatever the standard GW scheme is.

These are beautiful and very inspiring! Please continue to post more of these

The brood lord's inner tail thing is soooooooo awesomely fleshy, and gross. How'd you do the veins?

dangledorf2.0 wrote:The brood lord's inner tail thing is soooooooo awesomely fleshy, and gross. How'd you do the veins?

Thankyou all.

The inner tail thing is it's implant attack. I painted that by first drybrushing it up to a light pink. I then used warlock purple to do the veins in gradual small amounts to maximise my control over it. This was done by apply the purple a little watered down and then carefully blending it onto the pink to avoid the vein being to much of a hard edged line. Then watered down black was applied in tiny amounts to the veins to deepen the look. The pattern of the veins was cooked up to be more or less random and biological looking and I had to be careful not to apply too much veins or the result would of looked less like veins and more like dark purple with pink patches.


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Here are a few more Genestealers. A small brood of six I call Acidstealers for all the poison-like upgrades they have. I also did some blobs of green water effects on thier bases to look like acid drool.

Acidstealers.

Awesome as ever Leech!!!

These are le awesome.

AMAZING.

Thankyou. Next up is Marauder Tyrant. He is made from the original Hive Tyrant model. I gave him Screamer-killer scything talons for his arms and used old Lictor legs for him. He is designed to a cheaper Hive Tyrant if I need one and his smaller size works well with that idea. Also posted with him are three Tyrant Guard. They are very cool models and remind me vaguely of turtles. I added a spike to the end of their tails to make them a bit more interesting as the stubby tail wasn't quite enough for me.

Marauder Tyrant and Tyrant Guard.

Wow! This stuff is MONSTROUS!

Massive props for the second edition Hive Tyrant. I miss the old guy. I kind of like the concept more than the 3rd and 4th edition versions, (even though the modern models are a higher "quality").

Awesome paint scheme. And great execution too! Well done.