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So, it has been a long time since I did anything to increase my Nid population. There are just SO many horms and terms that you can paint before you just get tired of even looking at them. LOL

Well, i decided to do some additions to my Nid swarm and saw a copy of the Starship Troopers miniature game for cheap so I grabbed it, just to see how the bugs looked and see if they would be compatible with my Nids. They 'sort' of are. Takes a good amount of customizeation to make them (in my opinion) look like Nids...but with the ever changing bio diversity of the Nids...I think that they will do. As an aside...the human troopers are going to be PERFECT cadian troops which my son was very happy about

Anyway, so here are my current WIP nids.

Tervigon: Used air dry clay (cause i am running low on GS and wanted to get it done) for the body. Used an old Nid warrior head for it as well. I am about 80% happy with it...I kind of wanted the body to be more bulbous...but that is not how it turned out <shrug>. Should be fine though for a tervigon:











I will get more pics up as I get it finished and painted. Still have some work to do on the joint between the plastic and the clay...and some other clean up and stuff.

Also going to do a Hive Tyrant and Tyrant Guards. I took what are called 'blaster bugs' from the Starship Troopers mini game and am going to use them for the guard. Have not figured out exactly how to make a Tyrant yet...but i just need to get the time to sit and really look at the models and plan it out.

WIP Tyrant Guard:





comments ALWAYS welcome...I have never really used this much green stuff since I am NOT a sculpter or anything like that <laughing> So any kind of tips are welcome

Very inventive!

Plastic dinosaurs and insects are fun to play around with as well. Greenstuff goes a long way with the nids

For some of the larger areas like the Tervigons sac you can make the general shape with crumpled tin foil to pack it out and layer clay / GS over the top - this will save on the more expensive material.

Also, for larger areas you might consider sculpting in Polymer clay rather than air dry clay - Polymer clay is generally much stronger than air dry when complete. Polymer clay needs to be baked at low temperatures to cure (can be done in a normal oven) and you can get OK levels of detail, not as much as epoxy putty but generally enough for large areas. Price wise its somewhere between GS and air dry clay. Most popular clays are Sculpey, and Fimo. Many 'bust' sculpts are made from Polymer clay. I would stay away from any of the 'soft' makes though


Another thing you see quite often is a ''base'' shape layed with miliput, as miliput is generally cheaper, then GS layed up as a 'skin' on top.

I like the carapace sections, they are a nice shape, would like more pics when they are painted up

Real life got in the way for a little bit, but I got some work done on these. Not a lot, but a little.








The back side of him is really plain...I think that I am going to be putting some GS plates down his back <shrug>







and a little bit more work done on the guard bug.