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.