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What do most people use to make a model for the Tyranid Harpy?

Mostly I have seen is a Trygon with some sort of Wings from the Balrog, Dragon or something. Add in some things to represent Spore Crysts (the things that come with Genestealers and look like tiny volcanoes are good. Attack a heavy venom cannon/Stranglethorn Cannon either side and the some ST.

However, it is intereating to note that with addition of a HVC the Flyrant kit would make a count as Harpy and be completely legal. Put HvC in the.middle, add the wings and put it on the Flyrant tail with the ST feet. Just add spore crysts

The Flyrant kit would certainly be the easiest starting point for a conversion. Or grab some leftover wings off someone who's built a walky tyrant, and add them to one of the various other nid monstrous creature models.

I've been thinking of this myself and wanted to do one that's a little more intense than a flyrant using counts as rules. Here's my thought process thus far.

Use the tail from the Hive Tyrant kit. Fill in the holes you would normally put the legs in.
Torso from a Trygon.
Flyrant or Balrog wings (Balrog ones would probably be cheapest. Not sure about size comparison though....)
HVC from Carnifexes. A little work and you can spin them around easily enough for twin linkingness
Scything talons from just about anywhere.
Mawloc head (representation of the sonic screech)
And a little customization here and there.

I thought about adding in the pupa sac from a Tervigon for the spore bombing, but I'm pretty sure it would look a little weird.

It's about $60 altogether with Balrog wings, $70 with Flyrant ones, if you only go through everything bit by bit. Of course that's starting with nothing yourself.

But if you are getting the Hive Tyrant you would get the Flyrant wings so you wouldn't need Balrog ones.

Deadshot wrote:But if you are getting the Hive Tyrant you would get the Flyrant wings so you wouldn't need Balrog ones.

Well, I was only introducing the Balrog wings as an idea if you were strictly buying each piece separately. If you've got the spare wings, etc then you should use what you have and save a few bucks. After that, it moves over to personal preference, and so on.

I'm probably going to build one with the specs I listed soon. I'll post a picture of it when it's done.

If you buy a Hive Tyrant kit, it certainly would be cheapest overall since you get a hive tyrant and some essentials to this conversion done in one fell swoop.

Pretty much, as long as its a MC with wings, youd pretty much be on the right track. Id say the Flyrant kit would be the place to start

The Flyrant is the perfect kit. Just add spore crysts and and extra HVC and it is perfectly legal, no counts as either.

Does it have wings? Yes.
Does it have a Twin HVC? Yes
Does it have ST? Yes
Does it have something to represent spore crysts? Yes, if you convert.
Did you answer yes to all the above? yes
If you answered yes for the previous question it is a harpy. Seriously, just get a Flyrant kit and find a HVC somewhere.

Deadshot wrote:The Flyrant is the perfect kit. Just add spore crysts and and extra HVC and it is perfectly legal, no counts as either.

Does it have wings? Yes.
Does it have a Twin HVC? Yes
Does it have ST? Yes
Does it have something to represent spore crysts? Yes, if you convert.
Did you answer yes to all the above? yes
If you answered yes for the previous question it is a harpy. Seriously, just get a Flyrant kit and find a HVC somewhere.

I fully agree with you. If you just want a harpy, are on a budget, or any other reason, go with the Tryrant kit, add an extra HVC (about $3 on eBay, or your bits box) and you're good to go. I'm only saying counts as because it really ends up just being a hive Tyrant with some extra stuff thrown on. That's just my opinion, and there's nothing wrong with it if someone else does it.

Just personally I'd put a little more work into it than that is all and I just put my concept up if someone else wants to try it out. If you want to go all out on your Harpy, try something like this. If not, no big deal. Acceptable either way.

For a short while, this simple non-GW model was available, but it is OOP now.


Currently the Flyrant kit is the best proxie, but there are strong rumours of a GW kit coming, maybe even this year.

Thanks for the advice. I had bought a tyrant already, but it was an older metal one so no wings/long tail. Right now it looks like I'm going to order some balrog wings and chop up this extra carnifex model I've got; probably take the legs off, move the scything talons to the back, add the wings and guns to the other arm sockets, and figure out something for the spore dropper. I just ordered a Trygon (which I plan on using) so maybe I'll get a few extra pieces in there that I can use to change the head so it doesn't look like a winged carnifex abomination.

Side note, how much leeway is there with counts as weapons? The carnifex I'm going to pull apart came assembled already and has a deathspitter for a gun, but if I remember correctly thats not even an option for the carnifex... I can put the HVC from my Tyrant sprue on the Harpy though.

The Deathspitter is legal for Carnies, as long as its a Twinlinked pair.

Gotcha, didn't have the book in front of me. I wasn't sure how much of a stickler people usualy are about which guns are which, the people I normally game with don't care, but I wasn't sure how people were in general about using 1 gun and calling it another.

Another interesting option that I used is the LOTR flying Nazgul. I replaced the neck with a spare carnie head, and put a trygon head chitin peice on its back, and then just attach Warrior Venom cannons or barbed stranglers.

I can see how that would work. Hadn't really looked at the lotr models untill you mentioned that and people mentioned the balrog wings.

What size base do you think is appropriate for a Harpy? I've heard the Trygon recommendation before for the conversion but Trygons (and hive tyrants) aren't exactly cheap. Do you think some Tyranid warriors or ravenors mounted on a larger base with wings would work?

Well I am planning on using a ravener body and the wings from the hive tyrant kit to make mine and the base size as the Trygons.

I'm using a carnifex base, I'm not sure if thats the same as Trygon size. For my Mycetic spore bases I just traced the carnifex base on some cardboard and cut out the circles. I probably wouldn't do that for nice models though (I was making super cheap spores).

Buy the new flyrant kit. Thats how I made mine. Magnatizd the STC and HVC. No legs, works fine no one complains