Loads of Tyranids - zoats, zoanthropes and spore mines

 Hello again! It's time for a big post about tyranids.

I've been slowly working on a bunch of old tyranid models over the last couple of months. First up, I was able to acquire a second metal zoat fairly cheaply on ebay a while ago. This chap has a missile launcher. While he's a very detailed model, I found it quite hard to work out exactly what was what with his weapon. I suppose it's all "biological stuff", so that's not too much of an issue. I enjoyed painting this model a lot.

Here he is with his friend, about to hit the town.

Next up are three zoanthropes. These are floating psychic creatures that functioned in the game as tank-shooting artillery, a bit like lascannon teams. These models are the second iteration of the zoanthrope and were released around 2000: the first version was a four-limbed creature like a Tyranid warrior with a very big head, and looked a bit silly (like a lot of the very early Tyranids).

Originally, these guys had large helmet-like shields that went over their heads, and were usually painted like bone armour. However, these shields obscure their heads, and I think they they look better with their nasty little faces on display. They're identical models, although someone had trimmed the spikes off one of the miniatures. If you want to bulk out your army with a conga line of giant evil sperms, this is the unit for you.

Last of all, I've painted a unit of spore mines. Spore mines were Tyranid artillery, either fired by a creature called a biovore, or dropped in from on high and left to drift around the battlefield. They were essentially a mobile hazard, and were probably intended to slow down and confuse the enemy. They come in three varieties (frag, acid and krak), and were both plastic and metal. I bought some of these models as a bunch, and others came with various old tyranids. I collected them together until I had enough for a little unit.

Strange looking things, really (they remind me of Smarties), but they do fit the rather jolly colours of the rest of the army, and they're actually quite nice miniatures. They would make good weird little aliens, too. 

I'm not sure what I'll be painting next, but I think it will be some kind of fantasy creature. We shall see!

Zoat!

There are many strange things in Rogue Trader, the ancient tome from which Warhammer 40,000 comes. Some have been elaborated in ever-more-excessive detail (space marines), others haven't changed much (imperial guard) and some have more or less disappeared. 

So, very briefly: zoats were great big tortoise/rhino/ogre centaur things that worked for the tyranids as elite troops and, weirdly, ambassadors. The tyranids produced hormones that made the zoats loyal, but every so often some zoats would break loose and usually ended up working as mercenaries. Famously, according to Rogue Trader, the zoats lived on "Zoatibix". 

There were four 40k zoat models: they all used the same lower body, which makes me wonder if they weren't very popular.

The zoats appeared in the first tyranid army list, which was published in White Dwarf. However, by the time the first codex appeared, they had disappeared. They got a sort of mention in a later codex, as "Colossi" who fought in the "Zoastra-Attila War" against mankind. A zoat appears in Blackstone Fortress, so they're clearly out there somewhere.

Anyhow, I like zoats. Perhaps it's that they're a bit like dinosaurs, or just that they're rather odd. I was very lucky and won an ebay auction for two zoats for a pretty reasonable price on ebay (they normally go for silly money). I painted the first one in a scheme reflecting the model shown in Rogue Trader.

There's loads of good detail on this model: just the two pistols are great sculpting. I was surprised and impressed by how crisp and neat this thing is. It's listed as being sculpted by the Citadel Design Team in the old blue catalogue, but I'd be interested to know who was involved. 

I also took the chance to paint up a few old plastic termagants. These models don't actually overlap with the zoats, but they've got a certain goofy charm.

Another Hive Tyrant and a Load More Tyranids

 I found an old tyranid hive tyrant in a cardboard box, which I probably bought about 25 years ago. I stripped it down and rebuilt it.

This is the second incarnation of the hive tyrant, and appeared in the second tyranid codex. Rumour has it that Games Workshop got into trouble with the owners of the Alien (20th Century Fox, I assume) because it looked too much like the queen from Aliens. I'm not sure if this is true, but I do recall an article on GW's website saying that it looked a bit too much like a certain film franchise. The third version of this miniature largely ditched the second's style, and has remained so ever since. And if you think that's confusing, just wait.

Anyhow, it was a right pig to assemble. I ended up pinning pretty much every limb. I gave it two deathspitters and a barbed strangler: I doubt that this shooty loadout would be much good in battle, but it does look cool. The original model came on a tiny base, the sort that is now used for Space Marine terminators. I gave it a much larger base, to suit the model and hopefully provide some small amount of stability.

It got the usual Hive Fleet Behemoth colour scheme - lots of oldhammer red. It was quite tricky to paint, with a lot of hidden parts that were hard to access. Here it is.

Hideous, really. I particularly like the ammo-scrotum for the barbed stranger. Lovely.

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Here are some other tyranid models that I've been working on. These are von Ryan's leapers, a sort of smaller version of the tyranid lictor. Their job is to creep up and attack enemies in close combat. 

They're recent plastic models. To be honest, they are both good sculpts and massively overcomplicated. I didn't especially enjoy painting them. I used a base coat of while, with dark blue contrast paint over it - looking back, I don't think this did anything that a simple wash wouldn't have done. They'll do.

And here are some more new miniatures. These are "neurogaunts", a new form of tyranid. I've no idea what these things do, but I felt that they'd make quite good hormagaunts. Okay, let me explain this.

Back in the days of the first tyranid codex, the only hormagaunts you could get were big spindly metal things that toppled over if you looked at them too hard. They didn't look much like other tyranids, especially not the little red termagants, to which they were meant to be closely related, and were much larger than genestealers, which are the tyranids' close combat experts. Now, these new neurogaunts are the same size as the little oldhammer termagants, and I think they work well as hormagaunts. And if you've read this far without getting a headache, I salute you.

Anyhow, here are some. They're really nice models, with a good range of poses. They were extremely quick to paint, since they've got no eyes and only a couple of colours.

And here is a big swarm of these guys. They don't come out well en masse, but you can see that a horde of these things does look quite impressive. A case of quantity being a quality of its own.

Anyhow, that's enough space bugs for now. Next time we'll have some more Stargrave conversions.

Wonky Metal Tyranid Warriors

 

I've been busy with the nostalgia Tyranids. It's been one of those projects that you chip away at, and a lot of the models aren't anything especially great. One of the coolest things about the Tyranids is the sheer number of the horrid little buggers than you can field: however, this doesn't show up especially well on camera. 

I've also been painting a couple of old metal warriors. Now, nostalgia aside, I think these are pretty ropey models. In fact, compared to the super plastic warriors from a few years earlier, they're terrible. The detail isn't as good as the plastics, and the features are cartoony. While I'm generally in favour of Oldhammer, I do think that there are some poor-quality models from back then, and these - along with such joys as the half-naked Khorne berserkers and the cheesy old undead - are some of them.

(In this case, I wonder if it's the result of trying too literally to turn a John Blanche picture into a miniature. Blanche certainly has his place as an artist, but I think he's better at drawing humans and demons than aliens. But that's just guesswork.)

So, I had two nearly-complete warrior models. I gave both of them necks made from Dark Eldar pistols, which makes them look a little less daft. One had one of those goofy tongue-out Tyranid heads, but I couldn't do a lot about that. They were both missing left arms, so I made some new ones out of old plastic termagant arms, elongated with wire and green stuff. This turned out to be easier than I'd feared. 

(It's worth pointing out here that early Tyranids carried their guns, which makes much more sense than the later versions, who have their weapons apparently growing out of their bodies. This would seriously limit their tactical flexibility, and bothers me way more than it should.)

The old school barbed strangler, which this guy holds, is a really cool design. It's got a sort of facehugger/ribcage structure at the back, a barrel apparently made out of bone, and a couple of anuses. A shame, then, that the model is saddled with those whopping great claws.

This chap has a devourer. It used to have a description worthy of Cannibal Corpse lyrics: a muscular tube ending in a cone of rotting flesh, infested with writhing worms. I tried to reflect this in my painting, but I don't think much could do justice to such a description. Because I'd run out of silly old metal claws, he got some modern rending claws left over from a genestealer.

They join their two derpy comrades armed with venom cannons. I've got to admit that, as a group, they do look sort of cool.

Oldhammer Tyranid Screamer Killer

 Nope, I've still not painted any orks. 

Most of the posts on here boil down to "What I've made this week". However, there are a few things that go on for longer than that: usually projects that I pick away at, put to one side and return to gradually.

One of these is an Oldhammer Tyranid screamer-killer. The screamer-killer was the first ever Tyranid dreadnought, released around the time of the first Tyranid codex in the 1990s. It was, like a lot of the early dreadnoughts, a great big lump of lead that fitted onto a square monster base from Fantasy Battle. Back then, it was an awesome centrepiece model, a hefty monster with huge claws that killed its enemies by literally roaring at them. It looked like this:

Now, of course, it's dated and pretty dinky by comparison with the larger Tyranid beasties, and it's hard to avoid the fact that it looks like an enraged kidney bean. But it's still pretty cool. I happened to have the body and legs of one of these things. Unfortunately, I had no arms for it. Challenge accepted.

The arms are fairly simple scythe-claws mounted at the end of stubby arms (I've no idea how they would function in real life, but still, this is 40k...). In a fit of hubris, I decided to sculpt my own.

I cut out a piece of plasticard for each arm, which formed a template for the claw and the arm itself. I then built a central rod out of trimmed-down sprues for each arm, which gave me something to work around and provided solidity. Each arm ended in a plastic disc left over from an old tank kit, which was the point where it would attach to the miniature. You can see the basic model on the left of the photo below.

Then it was a matter of fleshing out the arm with DAS clay (for the basic shape) and green stuff (for the details). Easier said than done. Even simple shapes like these claws were tricky. The original model has serrated "teeth" on the inside of the claws, but I decided to leave these off, as they looked too difficult. The pair on the right above show how this looked.

Eventually, I had four sets of replacement arms. Sculpting the little "flexible bits" on the arms was pretty difficult.

Then it was just a matter of painting them, painting the body and legs, and sticking the whole thing together. I added a skeletal creature to its base, which I think was once part of an ogre kingdoms model. Here is the screamer-killer with its new arms.

Looking at the finished product, there are some bumps and imperfections in the claws, which I could have done better. But overall I really like this guy. Here it is with some little friends that I also painted recently. Much redness!

More Old Genestealer Hybrids

 I've been painting more genestealer hybrids, for what is now becoming a small mob of hideous mutants. They're really nice models: very well detailed and very enjoyable to paint. Doing these guys gives me the opportunity to try out different ways of painting skin, to depict the various levels of hybridisation. 

Here are four of the more human guys. I used old metal bodies and plastic arms from the Stargrave Scavengers kit (you get loads of spares). A little bit of cutting was required, but nothing drastic, and I'm really pleased with the way that they've come out.

Here are a pair of less human members. The model on the left is identical to one that I've used earlier. I gave this one a skirt made from some drab green material. Perhaps she hacked up an army blanket. Her equally nasty friend has a plasma pistol and a suitably deranged expression. Obviously, Tyranids aren't especially pretty creatures, but the genestealer hybrids have a really scummy, rabid look.

I also painted up a magus for the group.  This particular magus is the one who came with the seated metal patriarch. This model came miscast, without a proper left arm and with some rough bits around his head. I replaced the damaged left arm with a plastic arm from the modern Genestealer Acolytes set. He's now holding a staff with a speaker on top of it, to broadcast his ravings to his crazed minions. 

After all this, I thought it would be cool to try to recreate one of my favourite bits of Oldhammer artwork. Here we see a horde of genestealers rushing down some kind of manky tunnel.

And here are my guys, looking like a dodgy tribute band. I suggest clicking on the picture, because it's come out quite well.

Right then. Back to the harlequins...

Genestealer Cult Limo

So, in the comments section of the last post, Merijn asked if I had a limo for the genestealer cult. Good point. Every self-respecting old-school GSC has a ridiculous armoured limousine. So, I dug my old limo out and gave it an upgrade or two.

It's based on a Hispano-Suiza MC-36 armoured car from the Spanish Civil War, which has to be one of the meanest-looking vehicles ever. I added parts from a variety of sources: ork cannons, a taurox turret, and a pulpit made from a High Elf chariot. But enough from me. Let's hear from the manufacturers.

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 As the leader of an entirely legitimate religious movement*, you know how important it is to travel in style. Whether you're going to a meeting with the Patriarch, denouncing your rivals to a baying crowd, or just passing yourself off as a human being, it's vital to look the part. You're a "man" of taste: you know that a converted mining vehicle that looks like a Tonka toy just isn't enough.

Here at Cultech Customs, we're on your side. Built around the classic Dominator chassis, our new Firebrand armoured limousine offers a perfect blend of armour and finesse. With the ability to run off promethium and power cells, the engine is just like you - a powerful hybrid. At last, you can own a car whose physical perfection is matched only by its hostility.

It's a dangerous world out there, and the Firebrand has your hunched, ridgy back. When the autoguns start shooting, our plate armour's got you covered - literally. Electro-conductive running boards guarantee that, when Slaaneshi cultists try to fornicate with your wheels, you can get them off quickly (not like that). Plus, they glow purple.

And as for weapons, the Firebrand is like all your best friends - it's got lots of arms. Twin front-mounted autocannons guarantee that you won't be stuck in traffic for long. If that's not enough, why not check out our gatling turret: it's the last word in self-defence, provided that word is "bullets". 

Alternatively, why do all the hard work yourself, when you can tell your minions to do it for you? A fully-equipped travel-pulpit gives you the option of whipping the masses into a frenzied rage on the go. Just pop the sunroof, enjoy a quick rant and be on your way.

The new Cultech Firebrand - the choice of a (fourth) generation.

 

Pure class. Pure style. Purestrain.

* We have been asked by High Magus Elron the Litigious to stress that the Genestealer Cult is not a cult.

More Genestealer Hybrids

 First up, thanks very much to everyone who commented on the last post. There were some really useful suggestions. I've been watching some of the videos of Tabletop Minions, which is well worth a look. I was interested when the presenter pointed out that practice has made him not so much better as a painter but faster. I have exactly the same experience.

Anyway, I'll look into the various tips for photography I've received as well, and hopefully my pictures will improve!

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In the meantime, I've been painting some more genestealer hybrids. I don't intend to make a large force of these, but they're enjoyable to paint and the metal models are really good. They're full of details: their armour reminds me of the House Harkonnen armour in the 1984 film of Dune, and they're carrying lots of odd techy gadgets that look really cool. As Games Workshop models go, they're quite cyberpunk.

Here are two more humanoid hybrids. The guy on the left has arms from the Stargrave Scavengers kit, which is the right scale and suitably battered. The chap on the right has a metal autogun from Necromunda. I really like his face, which is extremely detailed and has an expression as if he's just heard some really good news.

Here is a rear view. You can see the odd computer-type machines they're carrying on their backs. Happy-face man has an extra arm clad in some kind of futuristic armour, held down by his side. It's a really nice touch.

These two are somewhat less human. The person on the right is a one-piece metal model. It occurs to me that this might be a female hybrid, as it's smaller and seems to be wearing a skirt. The one on the right has very old plastic Imperial Guard arms and a Stargrave gun that I trimmed down to fit.

And here is something of a rarity. It's an old genestealer/ork hybrid, made in metal. It's in the old blue Citadel catalogue, under "Freebooters". It actually looks quite a bit like the later style of ork, with a face like a mantrap. It's a really cool miniature, and gets the balance between being ridiculous and scary just right.

Finally, here's a group photo. Ever since the original Genestealer Cult army list appeared in White Dwarf, together with limousines, I've always thought that there was something rather gangster about the GSC: less of an army than a weird street gang. They look low and scummy, which feels about right!

More Ugly Models

It's time for some more terrible models! I've been painting some more of the legendarily ropey plastic genestealer hybrids from the Space Hulk add-on Deathwing. After putting one together last week, it occurred to me that they looked quite like ork/genestealer hybrids, not stealers mixed with human DNA. The bulky bodies and hunched pose makes me think of orks rather than people.

Which led to me putting some ork arms on a stealer hybrid body, and finding that they fitted quite well.

I'm not going to pretend that this looks perfect, but it's a lot better than the alternative. I only used a little green stuff to get the arms to fit, and they at least look like they ought to be there. I used a drab green as the basis for the skin, highlighting up with pink after a purple ink wash (the same purple I used for the purestrains).

Emboldened by this, I had a go at another.

I've got to admit, I quite like this guy! Here are all three of the Ugly Brothers, about to let the side down.

Could be worse!

Random Model Time - Radio Lady and Plastic Genestealer Hybrid

This week, I fancied painting something a bit cyberpunk. For some reason, that meant sticking some Stargrave arms and head onto a Bolt Action British commando body. The Bolt Action models are quite slight compared to the Stargrave ones, so it made sense to make this person a woman. I gave her a bulky communications/hacking device made from some Games Workshop bits. 

She got some bright colours on her backpack, jacket and gun to stop her looking too much like a soldier. If anything, she's a freelancer with customised gear. I like the end result. Stargrave models are great.

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 I was tempted to give this next section some kind of stupid clickbait title like "The WORST mini EVER?" but I respect both of you who read this blog far too much for that. And it's not as if I'm suddenly going to get a horde of new visitors who are going to come here, buy my novels and make me incredibly rich... or is it?

Anyhow, some of the most despised models in GW's long and dubious history are the plastic genestealer hybrids from the old Space Hulk additions. Personally, I think there are worse (the Space Hulk terminators, for instance), but there's no doubt that these aren't really very good. Inspired by the old-school painting of a guy called vintage_warhammer on Instagram, I found one of these sorry things and had a go at painting it.

This was surprisingly enjoyable, and I'm happier with the end result than I'd expected. The sculpting isn't bad, in that the proportions make sense, but there are two main issues: first, the model doesn't look much like other genestealer hybrids (my first thought would be "shark-man?") and, second, it's a very basic model without much detail. In fact, it's hard to work out where the hybrid's skin ends and its clothes begin. Perhaps he's wearing blue clothes in honour of his purestrain mates. Or he's nude apart from a belt. Who knows?

I might do a couple more of these. If nothing else, they're very nostalgic.