Building a Tyranid Hydraphant, the swarm's biggest bug

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**Eddtheman**

This thread will illustrate my progress as a build a hyraphant, the largest land-deployable tyranid organism. Working with people here and on Apocalypse40k.com, ive developed rules for this big gribbly.

Spoiler:

In the Epic fluff, the Hydraphant was the largest monster available to a tyrnaid swarm. It was meant to be an answer to the imperial warlords and imperator titans. Hopefully these posts will keep me working, and will inspire others to make scratchbuild tyranid monsters. I am a part time student with a full time job, so these may not be updated regularly, but I'll do my best to give you guys a step by step breakdown.

The Original Epic model

An artist's rendering of the hydraphant.(not me)

My rough sketch to outline the shape and size of the model. This will be used to make stencils in preparation for sculpting.

and the legs

Ill be back to post more in a bit. Hope You guys enjoy!

**TechMarine1**

So, just curious, how much bigger is this thing that a hierophant bio-Titan?

**Eddtheman**

Mine is probably going to be in the 15"-18" height range.

As an update, here is a tutorial for how a build my bugs. I use 1/2 inch foam insulation board and a razor blade

Step 1- a block of foamcore

Step 2- trace the design onto the foam

Step 3- carefully cut out the design

Step 4- shave down the fleshy part of the model from the chiten

Step 5- Round the corners of the fleshy portion

Step 6- Trim the chitin to create the appearance of overlapping bands

Step 7- round the chitin for a more organic look. the piece is ready to be painted and attached to the model

Im off work tomorrow and have the day to myself, so I should have more updates then

**darkkt**

Ok, Im interested in seeing how this will go

**Eddtheman**

Ive ive been able to make some progress this morning, and have an update.

I began building the front torso, sketching the design onto six pieces of foamboard.

Afterwards, I carefully cut out three, focusing on one half of the body rather than workin on both sides at the same time. Once I built each side, ill align the two halves and glue them together.

Heres a pic of what Im gonnna do from the front. Each vertical line is a piece of foamboard, so I know how large to make each piece and where each will meet up.

Using the fron plans, I carefully drew the areas to be removed from each layer of foam, marked woth a sharpie.

Once the area was removed, I lined up the pieces to ensure that they would still work.

This side is now ready for detailing! More in a bit.

**DiDDe**

Hehe i love this idea!

god job so far. i'll stick around to see how this one developes.

**Eddtheman**

Another update

I trimmed the fleshy part of the torso, as seen in step 4 of the tutorial. I also rounded the bottom portion, and trimmed the chitin for a smoother transiotion between the pieces. Once both sides are glued together, Ill mark out where the bands of chitin will be, and carve/ detail the top pieces. I glued the first three pieces together, and I'm putting this half to the side to dry for about a day, and am starting on the second half of the torso Once the pieces are done drying, Ill smooth out the fleshy bottom portion a bit more.

I also started on the second side, cutting out the pieces, trimming the fleshy portion and rounding the bottom of the hydra and the top of the chitin

While the pieces are drying, I stenciled out the tail and began cutting them out

Thanks for looking! I'll have more soon

**allibator**

pretty cool stuff so far! can't wait to see the final product. i like the idea of using the foamboard! are you also planning on using green stuff or some form of modeling putty?

**deathstreak2000**

Looks like one hell of a project and I can't wait to see the final result!

If you don't mind me asking, what's the projected cost of the build?

**Eddtheman**

Thanks guys. Ive got a heirophant over in the showcase that I built to get some practice before sculpting the hydra. Its Here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/466729.page if you wanna have a general idea of the end result.

@ Deathstreak- Im not sure what the final cost will be, but so far it has been very cheap. The foamboard was 10 bucks for a 6'x8" piece. Ive bought two over the years, and with those two pieces ive built a thunderhawk, a reaver and warlord titan, the heirophant and now the hydraohant. Im probably going to use most of whats left to complete this project, but foamboard is pretty inexpensive and goes a long way. My heiorphant cost me 11 dollars for the base, plus pieces that I had in my bits box.

**Young_Logan**

This is so cool

i really want to see this gribbly finished

Young Logan

**Eddtheman**

Ive gotten a lot done recently, so here's another update.

I shaved down the two halves of the torso so that they lined up correctly, smoothed out the parts areas where I cut a bit too deeply, rounded the bottom of the torso and the chitin, and cut grooves into the chitin to represent the banded armor.

I also got some more done on the tail. I cut out the pieces, and glued them together. I shaved down the tail for a smooth transition between the end of the tail and the wide area that connects with the torso. I also trimmed the flesh area around the chitin. I also began smoothing out the area around the tail.

Here are a few reference pics to show the scale

Thanks for looking, as always comments and criticism welcome. More soon!

**Eddtheman**

Just another quick update. Between 12 hour workdays and preparing for a couples vacation, i havent been able to get much done.

I added spore chimneys to the back of the torso, and started building the connector between the torso and the tail.
I also hated my initial forward legs, so I redesigned those, and am happier, but want to do a bit more with them. I also began planning the look of the head.

The new leg and chimney plans

The chimneys

The back

The Connector

How it will look once in place

The face (upside down)

Thanks for looking

**bibblles**

I must say, I am impressed. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

**Eddtheman**

Thanks everyone, I should have another update up tonight

**SoloFalcon1138**

TechMarine1 wrote:So, just curious, how much bigger is this thing that a hierophant bio-Titan?

I think it may be a little soggier than a hierophant...

**walker90234**

cool!

**Squigsquasher**

Subscribed!

**Mortalitas**

Keep it coming PLEASE!!

**adamsouza**

I'm on board for this ride.

Great work so far, looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

**JoeyFox**

DUDE -awesome- I never thought of doing it this way!

Keep it up man!

**Eddtheman**

Another update!
Ive been very busy (again) so I haven't been able to bet as much done, but I'm making progress.

I made the bands in the tail chitin (the same as in steps 6 and 7 in my second post), and added spore chimneys to the tail. I Shaped the connector piece and connected the torso to the tail. I also sanded the entire model to smooth it out. The main body is basically complete. I also began on a neck protector which will attach the head to the rest of the body, and began on the forward legs. They will eventually be 1" wide (2 pieces of foam) where the leg meets the body and 1/2 inches at the foot.

The tail and connector

The neck guard

The neck guard removed

A rough outline of the leg, and the shot to show the transition from top to bottom

Oh, and because someone asked about scale, here he is compared to a heirophant

Thanks for viewing, More soon!

**Eddtheman**

Here's another update

I completed one of the forward legs, I shaped the pieces for a better transition, sculpted the chitin and flesh areas, added fleshy spacers between the pieces of the leg. All I need to do now is add blades to the back of the middle arm and the protruding area over the scything talon. I also green stuffed places were the pins in the legs broke through the foam. We'll see if green stuff can hold to foam. if it does, it will make building the head much easier.

The shoulder piece to attach to the torso

the greenstuff

More soon!

**Squigsquasher**

Looking cool!

One thing I will say though is that the body needs ribs or some other detail. The flatness of the Hierophant's chest detracts from it, and with something as big as the Hydraphant, it could ruin an otherwise awesome model.