A Tyranid Odyssey: A boy and his bug collection

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**wyomingfox**

Gits, you are going to want to add Adrenal Glands and Toxic Sacs to the Tervigon as these are practically manditory options for a build-out (granting "Poison" and FC to all termie units within 6").

**Gitsplitta**

@DSS: Thanks, I was actually going to ask the blog about that... What is a good way to kit out a Tervigon? I think I can easily magnetize things like that so they can be added or removed as necessary.

@Vit: I agree on the legs... the transition from legs to body is just too abrupt and the legs are too small for the bulk of the creature. Just don't have time to address it on this model. Perhaps if I do another I'll see if I can address it somehow.

@wyfox: AH, you ninja'd my response. Thanks for the pics as I don't know what I'm looking at on the sprue. I'll add those tonight.

Thanks my friends!

**Vitruvian XVII**

Oh yeah forgot to mention, the bases look sweet!

He'll be chuffed to have them all rebased, you should take some pics of their faces when they receive the pressies!

**wyomingfox**

You might find it easier placing the smaller termigaunt sacs and glands on that model due to its details.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
The common kit for a Tervie is Adrenal Glands, Toxic Sacs, Cluster Spines, and Catalyst.

Catalyst is a Psychic Power, so you don't need to model that. The Cluster Spines seem to be represented decently on the model's front carapace as is. So you really only need to add the sacs and glands.

**DarkStarSabre**

wyomingfox is spot on with that. Best thing is to make the upgrades magnetised - possibly using spare Gaunt/Warrior armour plates to cover the option not used.

**Gitsplitta**

Got it. Thanks guys, I can do all that.

Shame of it is there's no way I'll get any termigants built or painted up by Christmas... but it'll give he and I something to do the week after (I'm off all week, so have essentially a 10-day vacation).

**happygolucky**

Gitsplitta wrote:Long time, no post.

Those of you who follow my main blog know that I've been very busy painting Christmas presents for the boys. Some of which they know about because they asked for them, others will be a surprise. I have refrained from posting anything because I don't want them getting to the internet over the blog through their friends, but since school is out now I feel it's safe enough to post progress on one of the projects.

My little one has wanted a Tervigon since he started playing nids. So not having any better options (and having no natural "feel" for nids) I picked up the Chapterhouse kit which seemed as plausible as any. I knew I was going to be modifying at from the start as I did not like the positioning of the head on the model, but I hoped the rest would go together easily enough leaving my head/neck mod as the only real issue.

Now I am an outspoken supporter of Chapterhouse. Love the work they do, had them do shoulder pads for my Mantis Warriors, include lots of their bits in my models. Not too happy about this particular kit though. It comes with the parts but no instructions. I asked Nick about it but he thought it was fairly self-explanatory and referred me to the photo of the fully converted model. Unfortunately, however you're supposed to build it, I must have done it another way because I had a real time getting it together and ended up succeeding only because I have a good array of hand and powered jeweler's tools at my disposal that allowed me to make the major modifications necessary in order to get everything to fit. Still a lot of GS work was needed to fill gaps in between the fex and the kit. I'm sure the fault for this is mine... but with no instructions to guide me, it's a crap shoot.

That being said, I'm pretty happy with the end result, just wish it'd taken less than two days of work to build as I'm quickly running out of time. Here's a quick shot of the build. The rubber band is just there to make sure the head dries in the right position as the GS cures. OH, and I re-based his entire army... you can see one of the new bases here in the pic. Finally, I don't know nid war-gear from a hole in the ground... so any bits that mean anything are purely incidental... they just look cool.

Impressive...most impressive...

**whalemusic360**

I like to think the glands and sacs are sub-dermal, for 2 reasons. 1st, and most important, I think they look utterly stupid. 2nd, I would assume as a rapidly evolving species, they wouldn't make themselves have such obvious week points.

**Gitsplitta**

True, but there is a WYSIWYG responsibility to your opponent...

Not that it would help me as I don't know what most of this crap looks like in the first place.

**Vitruvian XVII**

Ive played nids for a good 5 years now and never have i seen anyone leaning down to my models to check whether they have glands or not.

I dont think anybody really cares, though ymmv.

**Lorna**

Looks really nice. And yeah, no one (i've met) checks to see if they have the upgrade modelled on. And after asking some friends, people telling them at the start of the game, if generally enough for them.

**Grimgob**

Or as WYSIWYG says you can have the option modled but not pay for the upgrade and not use it in game. Thats OK too.

**Gitsplitta**

OK, the Nid nards are on and I grabbed a tervie gland as the big one wouldn't fit anywhere. Getting ready to prime... then we're off to the races!

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Update: Primed, first wash down... used an airbrush to apply wash because of all the odd angles, will probably need a second go-round tomorrow morning. Going to be lucky if I get this done... Made progress on wings as well. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

**slice'n'dice**

Looking good

I also had a few issues with the kit, but all in all it comes together ok.

I'm sure he will thinks it's fantastic!

Looking forward to seeing it painted up

**wyomingfox**

Gits, did you use a straight up GW wash? Or was it a home made recipe? If so, how did you make it? It would be nice if you could snap some pics of the product "washed" via an airbrush.

**Gitsplitta**

slice'n'dice wrote:Looking good

I also had a few issues with the kit, but all in all it comes together ok.

I'm sure he will thinks it's fantastic!

Looking forward to seeing it painted up

I think you're right... now that the base color, first highlight and the wash are finished, he'll look just fine.

wyomingfox wrote:Gits, did you use a straight up GW wash? Or was it a home made recipe? If so, how did you make it? It would be nice if you could snap some pics of the product "washed" via an airbrush.

It's tricky. I have tried to spray the GW wash straight out of the bottle but it fowls the brush almost immediately. I now dilute with water (2/3 wash to 1/3 water) and I have no problems. This does of course, dilute the impact of the wash, but if you look at that jumbled, spiky, ball of a figure, doing a good job with a brush would be nearly impossible. So I did two separate sprays with the wash, then if there are specific areas that need more work, I go in with a brush, but by-and-large it seems to work quite nicely.

Here's something else I'll share. I picked up some Balrog wings for Thing 2's hive tyrant. They are huge, but because nids are biological organisms and not "magical" like demons or technologically assisted like eldar/humans... I felt large wings would be necessary to move the tyrants bulk. I did cut the shoulders back to a narrower part of the arm and trimmed the membrane down at that area. This is still WIP & will probably get a Baal Red wash of the wing membranes in order to give them more definition from the arm/hand and to ease the transition to the red parts of the membranes.

The wings have two pins each so they can be easily added or removed & are quite stable. Note I haven't changed the base on him yet. Thing 2 has always really liked this base (we got this fig used & I just tweaked the paint job) so I may just leave him as-is for now and give Thing 2 the choice of changing out the base or not. The "arms"/wing supports are not as pure white as they look... just problems with my camera dealing with the black background. You'll also note they are not perfectly symmetrical in their arrangement. I had no intention of doing so as "sails" of that size would be constantly shifting in the wind or with changes of body positioning. I may also put a couple of the "shoulder" type caraplace plates at the bases of the wings in order to bring them a little closer to the overall color scheme.

**Anvildude**

I always thought that the larger creatures, with 4 weapons, aught to have the wings instead of the legs. Keep the whole '6 limbs' thing.

**Moltar**

That looks pretty dope, Gits. Usually I feel like winged Hive Tyrants come off looking goofy, but not this one. This one looks down-right menacing. Good use of bits and great execution.

**Gitsplitta**

@Anvildude: Interesting point... never thought of that but you're right... this more spider-like an arrangement.

@Moltar: Thank you sir. When I first got the wings I thought... "Good Lord these things are ridiculous!" But after trimming them down just a bit I think they worked out well enough. I may try to sneak a bit of the pink back onto the membranes to back the red off a bit... I like it, but I don't want it to overpower the figure... then a red wash should pull everything together nicely. Certainly makes the figure more imposing... which is a good thing from a fluff perspective I think.

**Solar_lion**

Can you show a pic of the back? I'd like to see how you pinned the wings?

SL

**Gitsplitta**

I'll take a pic when I get home SL. there are two pins in the base of the "arm" then two matching holes in one of the carapace plates. There just wasn't any way of mounting the wings without going through the carapace unfortunately. If I was going to do a permanent mount, I would try to GS a "soft" area where the wings would protrude through the carapace, but as these are intended to be added or removed as necessary, I didn't see much point to it (and don't have the time... and he wouldn't care anyway).

Automatically Appended Next Post:
OK, tyrant is done. Will change the base after all as it'll pull the colors in the wings down and finish the figure nicely.

**Ifalna**

Oh my god, the tyrant.

Freaking amazing, the red wing membranes totally set it off. You were right to go for the Balrog wings, anything smaller would look out of proportion for him.

It's a shame there arent more readily available plastic insect wings for giant nids, I've seen some conversions back in my day where the owner had gotten big cheap toy flies, snipped off their transparant wings, and created a 4 wing dragon fly ish set for his hive tyrants that just pinned in. It was a very crude conversion but the idea behind it was freaking brilliant.

The kids are going to go crazy for these guys, seriously.

**slice'n'dice**

Very nice - would love to see some pics of the wings partly removed to see where you joined them and the length of pin you used. I currently have a finecast Tyrant and some Balrog wings sitting in pieces in a box, and have been toying with how to make the parts interchangeable in case I want different options for my Tyrant (as I don't want to fork over the $ for a second one...)

The wing membranes have also turned out really well, will have to keep it in mind when it comes to doing my wings.

Cheers!

**DarkStarSabre**

The balrog wings work beautifully. And for those wondering, they're about the same size as the FW Winged Hive Tyrant wings anyhow!

**Gitsplitta**

Ifalna wrote:Oh my god, the tyrant.

Freaking amazing, the red wing membranes totally set it off. You were right to go for the Balrog wings, anything smaller would look out of proportion for him.

It's a shame there arent more readily available plastic insect wings for giant nids, I've seen some conversions back in my day where the owner had gotten big cheap toy flies, snipped off their transparant wings, and created a 4 wing dragon fly ish set for his hive tyrants that just pinned in. It was a very crude conversion but the idea behind it was freaking brilliant.

The kids are going to go crazy for these guys, seriously.

Thanks Ifalna, I appreciate that a lot. I certainly hope Thing 2 will appreciate it. He's 8... I think he's going to look at this now *massive* appearing figure and be pretty thrilled.

The dragonfly wing idea is really cool too. I keep thinking in the back of my head that I should be able to find cheap toys that I can dissect for conversion parts, but I can never seem to find the right toy in the right scale...

slice'n'dice wrote:Very nice - would love to see some pics of the wings partly removed to see where you joined them and the length of pin you used. I currently have a finecast Tyrant and some Balrog wings sitting in pieces in a box, and have been toying with how to make the parts interchangeable in case I want different options for my Tyrant (as I don't want to fork over the $ for a second one...)

The wing membranes have also turned out really well, will have to keep it in mind when it comes to doing my wings.

Cheers!

Cheers slice'n'dice! I have to confess that the idea to use the Balrog wings wasn't mine originally, got some help from a mate at our FLGS (Norbu the Destroyer) who's used them before. They weren't all that expensive to order as I recall. Wouldn't want to have to buy a dozen sets mind you... but a single set for a IC wasn't a problem. I'll get you those pics of the removed wings... hopefully tonight (by my central US clock that is).

DarkStarSabre wrote:The balrog wings work beautifully. And for those wondering, they're about the same size as the FW Winged Hive Tyrant wings anyhow!

Adding the Baal Red wash at the end served two purposes... blurred the borders of the various shades (I was a little ham-handed with the airbrushing) and added deeper shade to the little creases in the membranes, making them look more dynamic. It was a big improvement. You'll get one more set of pics of this guy when he's on his final base, which is the pic I'll allow voting on. I guess I'm not too cranked up about that as he is NOT painted to a really good standard... but he's decent looking and has good visual impact (whiz-bang factor is high... perfect for an 8-year-old) and perhaps it will provide some ides for someone who actually paints their Nids with the attention to detail they deserve.

It's not obvious but I did add a couple of "shoulder plates" along the back of the wings where they meet the body. While they kind of get lost in the overall green of the carapace, I think they do improve the continuity of the piece a bit.

**CT GAMER**

Tyrant looks great. The wing coloration is very striking.

**Gitsplitta**

OK, the tyrant is done. Here's a shot of the wing attachment... pins in the wing and holes in the carapace (arrows).

And here's the finished piece. Decided to go with regular old flash photogrophy as it shows the colors better. Not quite full depth-of-field but good enough for a figure of this quality.

**monkeytroll**

So good he showed it twice

Seriously, that looks great gits. As Iffy pointed out the red wings really work well with the rest of the scheme, and having them removable is a big plus. He's going to be thrilled with it.

**endtransmission**

Those wings look perfect on there, especially in the striking red.

**Vitruvian XVII**

I see you decided to swap the base, looks v cool Gits. Merry Xmas!