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I'm looking to make a 40K titan base with a crashed Chimera reclaimed by wildlife, some vines and trees, etc.
I'm looking for small creatures that could be natural or xeno, to pack into the foliage and crevices but they need to be GW or Citadel in case I ever want to enter it into a painting contest at WHW or so. I'd hate to have to pick a squirrel off a tree or face being disqualified.

So far I've come across:

Birds:
Araloth (Wood Elves) has a lovely falcon swooping up.
The old Iron Hawk familiar.
Njal (Space wolf) has two different Ravens depending on which era.
Archaon comes with chaos crows.

Critters:
Ancient Treeman has little critters and sprites/winged beasties
Skaven Doomwheel comes with lots of spare rats. Some more normal than others.
Gyrinx (not sure I would trust someone not to steal it if I turned my back).

Any more little things come to mind?
I'm not looking for daemons, dragons (maybe an egg though), fairies, etc.

The DE razorwing flock could work

Radagast the brown has critters everywhere. Spiders on the efgt one, and a bunny sled. What about ripper swarms instead though? Can't imagine bunnies would hang around near a titan

What about coteaz's bird? It'd need to be sitting imo

How about a Kroot Hound?

Also the sylvaneth models have owls now that I think about it.

Reminds me of this diorama from Kyle Morgan.

I think Kroot and maybe a few little things would be the best way to do it.

Finally! A use for beaky heads!

kb_lock wrote:
Finally! A use for beaky heads!

Um excuse me? How dare you disparage our beakie helmet overlords?

Ustrello wrote:The DE razorwing flock could work

I'll take a look, thanks! I do not know much about Fantasy Sprues or extras at all.

kb_lock wrote:Radagast the brown has critters everywhere. Spiders on the efgt one, and a bunny sled. What about ripper swarms instead though? Can't imagine bunnies would hang around near a titan

What about coteaz's bird? It'd need to be sitting imo

I know I said it's a Titan, but I can't justify chopping up a £30 bunny sledge. I'll have a look at plastic Radders though.
And basically I want everything to be small enough that upon first look it's quite a plain base with overgrown foliage. Then upon looking you start to see the creatures in the shade and branches. The Titan itself is going to be doing something very unique.

Ghaz wrote:How about a Kroot Hound?

I will end up with one as part of the project, so maybe. Though I don't know if it may be a little big.

Ustrello wrote:Also the sylvaneth models have owls now that I think about it.

Soubds perfect! I'll take a look.

Winter wrote:Reminds me of this diorama from Kyle Morgan.

I think Kroot and maybe a few little things would be the best way to do it.

Oh that's lovely! I've always loved the idea of tbings being reclaimed by nature, or irretrievable. Star Wars with Rey living in the wreckage just cemented the idea of doing something to make a "home" out of a wreck.

I don't want any infantry on the base, but thank you ever so much for showing me that.

There's also (well maybe not anymore) the scarab swarms from the TK range and the spider swarms from the LOTR spider queen.

Plastic radagasts seem to be about a tenner for you, there's also a metal one with a sitting hawk

Argh! I can't chop up a Buddle sculpt!

I'm supposing some stuff I can make myself like beetles and ladybirds.

Just remembered the WHFB jungle critters set (snakes, lizards and such). I have that in metal, I'll dig it out as well.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

Ustrello wrote:The DE razorwing flock could work

I'll take a look, thanks! I do not know much about Fantasy Sprues or extras at all.

DE as in Dark Eldar

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Dark-Eldar-Razorwing-Flock

 Ghaz wrote:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

Ustrello wrote:The DE razorwing flock could work

I'll take a look, thanks! I do not know much about Fantasy Sprues or extras at all.

DE as in Dark Eldar

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Dark-Eldar-Razorwing-Flock

Alright, you got me... If it isn't wearing a natty hat and frowning, I don't know what it is.

There are a bunch of (psyber)eagles in the imperium. The bramd new biker Whitescar in Deathwatch overkill has one that has a very slight cybernetic detail in the face. Should be moddable.

I think the hounds that comes with the Orion model are my favourite animal sculpts from GW. So I always try to recommend them whenever they are halfway relevant ;-)

I think both Mordheim and Necromunda had some sort of beastmaster/wyrd magician with rats. Probably diffficult to find though.

Lizardmen used to have jungle swarms.

Dreadfleet, or if it was that older whfb fleet battles game, has a high elf eagle that is in a very small scale. could be a sparrow etc for you.

I remember Dryads and Glade Guard having some kind of critters too.

There's a nice little vulture and crow on the Giant sprue.

there is a snail in the old bretonian archer sprue if i am not mistaken...

There's a nice hawk in the new Deathwatch Overkill box.
it's part of the white scars biker guy and is mainly separate on the sprue so should be simple to pick up as a single piece.

The warhammer fences and walls set had a nice static bird.

The arachnarok base is covered in spiders.

It may be slightly large for what you want, but I've always thought the Fenrisian Wolves were really nice and pretty realistic as far as GW goes.

*EDIT* cant read

While old, The old Morgana le Fay came with a little toad. There were also the swarms, some lizard man (snakes, lizards) rats, bats, spiders, etc.

Mellon wrote:There are a bunch of (psyber)eagles in the imperium. The bramd new biker Whitescar in Deathwatch overkill has one that has a very slight cybernetic detail in the face. Should be moddable.

I think the hounds that comes with the Orion model are my favourite animal sculpts from GW. So I always try to recommend them whenever they are halfway relevant ;-)

I think both Mordheim and Necromunda had some sort of beastmaster/wyrd magician with rats. Probably diffficult to find though.

Lizardmen used to have jungle swarms.

Dreadfleet, or if it was that older whfb fleet battles game, has a high elf eagle that is in a very small scale. could be a sparrow etc for you.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll have a furtle for the more modern ones. I don't think it was dread fleet had the eagle. I actually bought it in a moment of insanity.

CragHack wrote:I remember Dryads and Glade Guard having some kind of critters too.

Cheers! I'll have a look.

hungryp wrote:There's a nice little vulture and crow on the Giant sprue.

Awesome! I need to get that bits sprue anyway for the running peasant.

Viktor von Domm wrote:there is a snail in the old bretonian archer sprue if i am not mistaken...

This I must find.

Alex Kolodotschko wrote:There's a nice hawk in the new Deathwatch Overkill box.
it's part of the white scars biker guy and is mainly separate on the sprue so should be simple to pick up as a single piece.

The warhammer fences and walls set had a nice static bird.

The arachnarok base is covered in spiders.

Thanks for the bird tips!
No spiders for me.

Jadenim wrote:It may be slightly large for what you want, but I've always thought the Fenrisian Wolves were really nice and pretty realistic as far as GW goes.

I agree, but sadly they are too big. What I'm going to do is get the old Leman Russ Primarch metal and use his wolves. They will have a "den" in the chimera.

Nevelon wrote:While old, The old Morgana le Fay came with a little toad. There were also the swarms, some lizard man (snakes, lizards) rats, bats, spiders, etc.

I own the jungle swarm. Just forgot the name for it!

I'll probably make a Where's Waldo style checklist when I build this.
I'm hoping that using 1980s figures wouldn't get me mistaken for 3rd party manufacturers, but the £600 Titan may distract from that anyway.

Ask and ye shall receive...if you have time I will look for it...and I know for sure I have a small beetle too...

Nurgle Daemons have small piles of maggots in the box, Woof Elf stuff usually has little winged creatures, Bretonnian stuff has birds iirc. The death world basing kit from GW has little groupings of carnivorous plants, snakes, insects, etc as well. Some spiders. Orc kits have spiders as well.

I actually have a small ziploc bag labeled 'familiars' with all kinds of the above and more in it - but mostly they wouldn't go with your idea because it'd all look out of place - except for the maggots and perhaps insects. I use familiars for named heroes and for large diorama-style bases like you're doing. Always adds that extra bit of character and charm.

Reaper also does a variety of small animals if that's an option for you.

https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/animal/latest/page1

 Ghaz wrote:
Reaper also does a variety of small animals if that's an option for you.

https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/animal/latest/page1

Fraid not. It excludes entry from any of the big GW painting contest to have 3rd party artefacts or basing pieces.
I'll be skirting the line having critters old enough to be unfamiliar to any youngster staff.

I'm not saying I stand a chance of anything but getting displayed as a basic entry, but if I go over to Warhammer Fest in 2017, I'd like to entertain people by entering him there.

The Titan himself will be somewhat whimsy.


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 Viktor von Domm wrote:
Ask and ye shall receive...if you have time I will look for it...and I know for sure I have a small beetle too...

I want to say "see a doctor!"

And I have time to see this. I will not be buying my Titan until April at the very earliest. Then finding someone to cut the base for me!


The model idea:
Reaver Titan (Imperial) standing with one foot raised on a crashed chimera that has been reclaimed by the elements and nature. Trees and foliage around him as he stands very still.
There will be a very slight upward twist to the torso and head. At least one arm will be a power fist raised to eye-line (if it kills me!).



Instead of a butterfly, I'm making a kroothawk from a Ripperdactyl, kroothound and some other parts, painted in bright reptile and butterfly colours.


If you pop the hood, the crew inside will be watching it on their screens.

When you said whimsy i was really scared

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions! I'll have a furtle for the more modern ones. I don't think it was dread fleet had the eagle. I actually bought it in a moment of insanity.

Ny pleasure!

Please leave a link to a project blog in this thread as soon as you get started. I'm really curious about this project :-)

kb_lock wrote:
When you said whimsy i was really scared

White and gold/blue with very very subtle honeycomb patterning and honey bee emblems.