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Inspired by a post i saw in the 40k forum about bugs and guns I'm planning on taking on a personal challenge, which is modifying all of my bugs away from the more "offensive" (as defined by less organic looking) weapon variants, fleshborers with their triggers and ammo packs being probably the biggest offender.

With this in mind I'm looking for inspiration, thoughts, and help making this dream come true. I will of course update this page with my progress to help any fellow gunless buggers out there. Thankfully i have a really lenient group to play with now (shoutout to Maplewood Hobby) that will let me play with my nids regardless of knowing what theyre equipped with at a glance but i think a truly successful project will involve models i could still play at any tournament.

So for the first step i will consider my two dakkas, a flyrant and a fex i modified as my ideal template for mcs, and as soon as i paint the flyrant i will post those (i need the new flying base for the flyrant because i had built him with balrog wings right before i left the hobby years ago). I added extra joints and combined multiple devourers to make it look not only like a true hive but combined them as such to look like a mouth when opened including one of the carnifex tongues from the old kits sticking out of one.

Step two, I'd like to modify my gants and gargoyles. This will be a serious task and I'll like need to cast what i intend to do. What I'm thinking for the gants is buying a bunch of extra scything talons to replace the gun arms and cast and duplicate a custom head or backmounted piece to represent the fleshborers, for the gargoyle i was thinking either chest or tail mounted.

Any tips, suggestions for other nids and weapons or anything else please let me know.

Maybe modify the adrenal gland bits to make little turrets on their backs? I've thought about trying that, but never got it off the ground.

I like that idea actually, gonna have to see how many adrenal glands I have lying around. Also on a side note, how does everyone represent their bio-artifacts? I'm thinking of like a barbed strangler covered in toxin sacs for the miasma cannon and making a crown out of toxin sacs and left over horns I have from a warrior kit I think

This has been a fairly solid way of representing dakka flyrants for a while.
I'm sure it could be rolled out to the smaller bugs with a bit of effort and doesn't look too gun like.

Definitely do tail weapons for the gargoyles (and consider doing the same for other flying nids) - tail weapons usually look great on flyers (but silly on most non-flyers).

@Alex: Is that like a modified Scything Talon? I'm curious how that would represent the guns, it doesn't look particularly hive-y like the devourer gun models, its a beautiful conversion though, I saw someone at the shop I went to with claws like that, I thought they were cool crushing claws or something.

@Clang: Thanks I'll definitely have to do that

They're fleshborer hives iirc from the Tyranofex kit so thematically they're pretty much just full of devourer beetles.
A closer look at a less blurry pic will show lots of small holes for the grubs to fly out from.

Requiet wrote:
Inspired by a post i saw in the 40k forum about bugs and guns I'm planning on taking on a personal challenge, which is modifying all of my bugs away from the more "offensive" (as defined by less organic looking) weapon variants, fleshborers with their triggers and ammo packs being probably the biggest offender.

I know what you mean. Even way back in third ed I had a bit of trouble with all the anthropomorphic 'rifles' and swords and things.

Thankfully i have a really lenient group to play with now (shoutout to Maplewood Hobby) that will let me play with my nids regardless of knowing what theyre equipped with at a glance but i think a truly successful project will involve models i could still play at any tournament.

We might have different definitions of success, but I understand you. I think you're on the right track with your flyrant devourers...

I added extra joints and combined multiple devourers to make it look not only like a true hive but combined them as such to look like a mouth when opened including one of the carnifex tongues from the old kits sticking out of one.

Kinda like a Dune sandworm with more mandibles and fleshworm holes instead of teeth? I'd like to see that.

Step two, I'd like to modify my gants and gargoyles. This will be a serious task and I'll like need to cast what i intend to do. What I'm thinking for the gants is buying a bunch of extra scything talons to replace the gun arms and cast and duplicate a custom head or backmounted piece to represent the fleshborers, for the gargoyle i was thinking either chest or tail mounted.

Good ideas! For non-rifle termagants I imagine something like this:



Front carapace plate replaced with a fleshborer plate for extra recognisability; feed tubes running up the throat and into the head, under the jaw or whereever (thinking about it, those are more spinefisty tubes than fleshborer ones. Oops. It's been a while...); maybe some kind of short tube in the mouth, similar to a carnifex's bioplasma head.

I'd also look at RL creatures with some kind of 'ranged' ability, see if anything sparks an idea. Spitting cobras, fulmars, pistol shrimp, horned lizards, certain caterpillars, stick insects and termites, and so on.

Cobra hoods on the gants would be totally killer actually.... hmmm and i agree with the last plate on the head being replaced with the fleshborer, thats a great sketch.

I was thinking instead of just adding more talons i would either do two front legs that look more like stabilizers (like small tyrant guard legs) or hoses the plug into the jawline perhaps. Im going to try and put some pics of the flyrant and fex today