'nids part 4. The Tervigon Tutorial part 2.

Here's part 2 of 'how to get some use out of that old Carnifex' 'how to build a new Tervigon'. Here you can see what happens when you take a strip of 1ply tissue paper, coat it in PVA glue and wrap it over the tin foil embryos, using a wooden stirrer to poke it into all the crevices. Then I pulled out the old string to add some veins to the sac. Separating out all the threads, coating them with PVA and what do you know they looked really cool!

Here you can see a view from the back. I'm amazed how the PVA made the tissue paper transparent. I'm sure there is some way to egt the best out of all those lovely tin foil colours but you'll see late on in the blog it wasn't to be. You could also have stuck a Termagant head in there somewhere pressing against the sac. It would have been really cool but I forgot.

The other side view, you can see how the termie was being spawned. Not sure what the black line on the sac was for, perhaps it was when I draped the tissue over the back I then drew on it so i had a rough template of how much I'd need. You really don't want a mansize PVA-ed tissue draped over this thing if you can help it.

Lastly, the spawning sphincter in it's STOMACH! That's right, you think otherwise if you wish. Some string formed the orifice, more tissue paper blended into the rest of the sac. Now the positioning in the above picture may have looked perfect but there were some issues that became apparent so I was going to have to emply my old friend 'some slate' to get the pose correct. Essentially though all that was left at this point was a few tweaks, fix his scything talon and add on his others and the conversion was done. 

Get ready for part 3...

'nids part 3. The Tervigon Tutorial part 1.

Chronologically speaking the Tervigon was one of the last elements to join my son's hive fleet, did we ever decide it was Hive Fleet Gorgon? Only the Hive Tyrant and the still WiP Mycetic Spores spawned after it. As the 'without numbers rule' had been dropped a Tervigon was really the only way to give that same effect of continually adding to your battleforce throughout the game. Now for the same price as a Tervigon you can probably get a whole lot more Termagants than they spawn but I thought I'd give it a go.

Initially I was deeply impressed by this Tervigon on BoLs and they also had a competition that rendered up quite a lot of cool looking homebrews. So I think it became apparent that a Carnifex would make the standard chassis to build the Tervigon out of. Ideally it can use a Trygon body to represent the bigger size to store all those embryonic gribblies in but I couldn't invest in that kind of shenanigans. As it was I was still thinking of versatility and if I used a Carnifex that looked like a Tervigon, in certain circumstances my son could perhaps still play it as a Carnifex, if he wanted to.

So a conversion that was just enough to pass muster was the call of the day and as this would be my first large scale conversion then it would be 'just enough'. Firstly I needed a donor Carnifex and thankfully ebay supplied. I wasn't even trying to get one really, it was a Sunday evening, we'd had tea and I was supposed to be doing the dishes. I checked on ebay and there was a Carnifex auction finishing in the next few minutes. I think no one had bid, or if they had I snatched it for the next highest amount of £7 or £8. Of course then the sweat gets on as the timer ticks down and suddenly I had a semi-painted/built Carnifex with box, spare sprue components and only a broken scything talon for around £11 including P&P. You gotta love the way those Carnifex nidzilla armies were destroyed by the new Codex...

My idea was to follow similar examples on the net. Silver foil balls were to be the Termagant embryos, with PVA coated tissue paper for the sac and a sphincter opening in the chest/stomach area for a Termagant to be expunged from.

First things first was a base. I wanted one of the oval ones from GW but the guy in my local shop just told me to make one as he didn't have any in stock. So it was back to the old hardboard from my son's old bed that I'd used to base most of our ruins on. It's kind of a nightmare to use a craft knife on 4mm thick hardboard, especially on curves, but it's possible.

A Termagant was then hacked, tail 'docked', bent in the middle and all it's limbs repositioned. Simple chops taken out of them to make them bend better and any gaps filled with poly glue and sprue shavings which when placed with care can form replacement plastic as if it had always been there [though a bit weaker].

Throughout all of this I was using the Carnifex as guide to how the Termagant would fit in. The 'fex had it's plain front carapace plate removed, the hardest part of the conversion, and replaced with the spine carapace for the Tervigons cluster spines [or whatever]. I'd then bent the right leg outwards, so much it broke off. Some more poly glue and shavings extended the joint in the groin area. This gave me much more room for the tin foil embryos. These were all added using my hot melt glue gun and a space in the front was made for the exit sphincter.

Below you can see a rear/side view and how the sacs were positioned. I chose the armoured tail, it seemed to bulk it out a little more in keeping with the scale of the beast. You can also see his broken talon. I'd tried re-gluing it but it had snapped off again, the poly glue joins aren't always as strong as the carapace  join was. At this stage the second pair of scything talons were not in place to aid access and because they would be mounted to the base to add more support for the model and represent it supporting it's own bulk as well as reducing their chance of snapping off.

In this front view you should be able to make out the sphincter and how the Termagant  pose fits into the Tervigon. I'd debated about the central row of vents depicted in the Codex. Although I wished to add them I didn't for a number of reasons, I didn't think my modelling skills would do them justice, it would firmly indicate it was a Tervigon and reduce it's versatility to be fielded as a Carnifex and the easier the conversion the greater chance I'd actually get it done and into battle.

Part 2 coming up...

'nids part 2. The Tyranid Prime

With all the nids and the Codex that my son initially got there was no HQ model and at the time there was really only one model I could consider - a Tyranid Prime, but if I converted one of his three warriors I'd be one short of a brood, what could I do?

Luckily I had a near complete 1st Generation plastic Tyranid Warrior from Advanced Space Crusade. I don't know how I got the game, I'm pretty sure it was bought off one of my mates but at the time I think it was primarily for the scouts. My plan at the time was to have a load of Space Marine scouts with power shields and bolt pistols. They were relatively cheap points wise and those home made power shields looked really cool [I'll post one of them up when I get chance]. Now they're redundant but those 'nid warriors suddenly gained a new value...

I had plenty of pieces, some broken, torsos, claws, deathspitters and bone swords. However, when it came to legs I was a little lacking. I had one near complete warrior but it had a right leg attached and only another right leg. So I had to chop the right leg a bit, I built a joint to pin the leg and where the joint was on the other side I 'mauled' it a bit to look like the 'skin' texture'. I also had to split the knee cap, bend and cover in poly-glue and sprue shavings to adjust the pose, this also meant shorten the tendons. Even then the pose wasn't quite right so a handy bit of slate helped balance the model, give it a bit of weight on the base and make the pose more dynamic. Picture 3 shows where most of the second right leg was adapted to be a left leg.

The second part of the conversion wa sthe head. I wanted it to fit in with the other warriors so I took a spare tri-crested head from the warrior sprue. I carved out the mounting point, anywhere behind where the face is glued on [sorry for not having any picures of this]. I carved and carved till it fit roughly on the 'nid head. Any gaps were covered up with spare Termagant toxin sacs as extra Synapse emitters or toxin sacs. A further piece of Termagant armour was added at the back for even more 'cresty' goodness. You can see a lot of this on the close-up in picture 6.

Lastly I got some of the Warrior armour plates and put these on the shoulders to bulk him out a bit more, he is a bit too much insectoid so that adrenal gland on his abdomen also helped [I think a bit of cutting was needed to get a decent fit]. And to finish him off I managed to glue one of the 'implant' tongues. I hadn't wanted to use it because I'm convinced it'll snap off but so far it's done OK.

Overall I was really pleased with this conversion. It was one of my first since falling of fthe wagon and it reused some old and previously useless figures. The conversion bits brought it in line with the current range and most of all the sheer size of the beast when you compare it to it's bretheren really shows it as something a bit special. There's no disputing it's the PRIME! What do you think?

Meanwhile on the battlefield he's had mixed results. He's great in bringing up the WS and BS of the rest of the brood. I'd kitted them out with deathspitters and a Barbed Strangler. Without his influence their aim isn't so good, with it those deathspitters are lethal! Now I know a lot of people run warriors purely in close combat, and I may have made a mistake not doing that but I didn't want my son to have an army which didn't have anything to shoot in the shooting phase. With the Prime in tow these guys have always done alright, in fact I've wished the Primes rending claws and twin boneswords were the swords and a deathspitter. If they're getting up the field without any run moves so they can fire he's effectively doing nothing until he gets in combat [even then he hasn't performed as I'd have expected, he failed to take Abaddon's last wound once].

I could still convert the deathspitter in place of the claws... and I've a few more bits of old Tyranids left over for another conversion...



Terrain is everything - 40k outpost, that got bigger Pt 2 'the tower'

So here's part 2 of the '40k outpost, that got bigger'. Having realised the outpost on it's own took up far too much 'real estate' for no vertical space I felt I had to tackle this issue. I've always been one to use height to double up on available space.

Back in my early gaming days I made a number of walkways out of U shaped polystyrene that had protected the edges of some new wardrobe doors my parents got and part of an 'Arielator'. The Arielator was the new thing for washing powder, a netted bag that was attached to a fan shaped ring and support cradle. You put the powder inside and in with the wash and your clothes came out dandy.

Now a bit of jimmying with a screwdriver and you could separate the fan, the cradle and the bag. The fan was the perfect size to fit on top of a Pringles tin - instant cooling tower and the cradle, turned upside down was the ideal support strut for my over head walkways. Some of the walkways were travelators, back then figures only moved 4 inches and I thought passing an intelligence test would allow you to get the travelator to work, you'd move further and heavy weapons could fire and move 4 inches. Nice house rules but really it was about doubling your real estate, battlefield below and above.

Anyway back to the tower. A lot of it was thought of on the fly. Of course I started with a template in Illustrator. I had the dimensions for the outpost and the reinforcement cladding so I could match the decoration and try to fit it roughly the space available but as the model had also been 'adjusted' in construction things didn't always line up. As you can see the roof side wall template was way off. luckily a dry fit showed this wouldn't be right before I cut it down to size, 'remember measure twice cut once'. I think the template has been fixed but just in case ensure you only trim down the cladding once you've checked it'll fit. Also the buttresses have 5mm nicks cut into the inside to support the roof and I may have trimmed them down a bit so there was more space available.  I don't think those changes are on the template but it's not too hard to shave 4 or 5 mils off.

Once I had it constructed, elastic bands and pins really help hold the structure together while the PVA dries, I placed it in the outpost so I could work it's footprint out. As you can see the outpost entrance bulkheads got in the way so a bit of snipping with scissors allowed the tower buttresses to lock into the bulkheads which not only makes it quite secure it prevents any nonsensical gaps between tower and outpost. In actual fact that view in the 5th picture I think works the best.

Anyway plans for the tower are here. Any issues or questions if you decide to give it a go let me know.

 

Being a pushy Dad...

If you've been reading thus far you may well understand that my addiction has, in part, been renewed by my Son's interest in 40k. Despite my suggestions to go for Space Marines he went with Tyranids, so I let him have his head with it. Somewhere along the line I thought/insisted I was supposed to be painting them. With a horde army the very thought my son would be painting all these miniatures by himself never crossed my mind and certainly not at those prices!

Perhaps you see the fundamental flaw with this scenario. I am actually removing one of the key aspects that make 40k fun, the very aspects that captivated me as a child. That's not to say I haven't encouraged him to paint figures. We've spent a good few sessions sat painting. I would ask for his help with putting on basecoats, he'd put on 80% of the colour and then I'd come along and neaten all the edges and catch any missed bits on the remaining 20%. When you're doing 12 Termagants at a time this can be dull and I understood this so I'd have a selection of High Elves from my old WFB days for him to paint as he saw fit.

I enjoyed this, his efforts really helped speed things along and I know it became tedious after a bit but the spare figures for him to do as he wished, to learn the skills was the perfect solution or not. Because there is still a chasm between his interest in the hobby and mine. My wife has asked how I would have felt if my Dad had painted all my figures as a child. I honestly believe I'd have been happy. I know I'd have loved for him to pass on the skills to paint if he had them but I know that this fails every time with my son. If anyone knows what it is like to try and teach their child to swim, or ride a bike it's much the same. Tears and tantrums, no amount of listening or trust and frustraion all around.

Suffice to say much of the year I've struggled to find out truly what it is that inspires my son about 40k, I still think it is partially down to being competitive with his cousin. I've asked him if me painting the figures is a problem, in which case I'd stop and he could do them, but he said he was fine with it but would like to paint some for himself [which is what I thought we were doing but clearly my judgement has been 'clouded' on this from day 1]. I've tried to get him to generate his own army lists which was like drawing teeth and when asked if he wants to go to GW 'dunno' is the usual response and to game at home has frequently been a flat 'no'!

So I'm now at a stage where I was thinking of asking him what next for his 'nids, let him lead the decision making We've a healthy hive-fleet, anything new is just frosting - a new Brood Lord, some Hive or Tyrant guards maybe those Warriors to do some Shrikes or at the least a few more Termagants just in case the Tervigon gets broody... or whatever random creature floated his boat. Maybe he'd even help me with some terrain...

Now my wife was talking about Christmas and I kind of suggested she ask him if he wanted anything from GW. I nip downstairs to do the dishes and by the time I come back up he's gone to bed and she's had a chat. It seems he would like some GW stuff only he wants to 'discover it all for himself', bottom line he wants to get a few Eldar and paint them up for himself and I'm to keep out of it!

Of course I'm immediately thinking he couldn't have chosen a more difficult force to paint but that's his choice. Where that leaves the 'nids I've no idea but it's clearly an important lesson for all gaming dads.

Dark Angels genesis vol 3.

Old school plastic Space Marine veteran! This was my third foray into Dark Angels colours.This was the figure supplied by my local Toymaster for a painting competition. At the time this was my best blending techniques, still wish the armour was blacker, but I'd be happy if all my figures looked like this. I have to say the dark skintones, from the Deathwing back story was the best I've ever done. These skintones will hopefully crop up when my new Dark Angels are done, with the green tones of my first attempts with the quality of my third.

Incidentally in my age group only three entered so I though I had a good chance [there were 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes up for grabs]. Because there were only 3 entries they dropped third prize! Although they announced there'd be an overall winner so having not placed anywhere in my age group I spent the entire time convinced I'd won... 13 years on it still fraks me off!

Now before I painted the Space Marine I assumed that the competition was completely open and had painted this Bloodthirster of Khorne. I've absolutely no idea where I got him from. I never collected Chaos but somehow I ended up with him. Sadly I don't think the picture does him justice and after all this time he was a bit battered but I certainly felt he was one of my better painted figures in '96/'97. Of course that kind of lined edge highlightinf is currently 'en vogue' for all your Dark Eldar needs. Anyway the wee fella got shipped off to France earlier this year thru ebay. Glad he's getting a new home, I doubt I'll regret that sale down the line.
 

Terrain is everything - 'nid reclamation pool or digestion pit.

For my birthday this year I got given some GW vouchers. My good friend 'Big Pete', was the person who introduced me to the games of Games Workshop back in the day, until then I'd only been interested in Citadel Miniatures. He had Blood Bowl, and I wanted Blood Bowl, though I wasn't keen to field the Middenheim Marauders like he did. He got Rogue Trader and eventually so did I.

I think he was even the first person to have the first Epic Space marine game, whilst i'd opted for Adeptus Titanicus. As time went on my 'dealer' dropped out of the gaming, I think I ended up buying a lot of his stuff, Reaver titans, a load of epic Land Raiders. I suppose it's hard when you don't have a support group of other kids locally who do game and Big Pete lived a few miles away which may as well be a galxy in kids terms.

Anyway he got me some vouchers and I'd ummed and ahhed about what to get with them. In the end I got a number of things, some assault jump packs having ebayed some original lead ones way back when, some washes, a space marine biker and the moonscape. Now I'd looked at making my own craters, it seemed pretty straightforward in some tutorials but with all the other terrain I was working on I just wanted something done, so I went with them. Despite having seen GW's original crater pieces from 20 years ago, thin vac-formed objects that were dirt cheap but about as bland and featureless as the latest X-Factor winner.

These were considerably better quality and with a mounting card base and sharp sand applied they look really neat and far more durable than their forefathers. I'd stumbled across a White Dwarf article on how to convert one into a Tyranid reclamation pool so I thought I'd give it a go, my son does have 'nids afterall.

The first bit was tentacles. The tutorial suggested wire, but I wanted a more organic War of the Worlds spreading weed so I sued string, unwound and soaked in PVA wooden stirrers and pins helped separate the strands and thread them through all the handy cracks moulded in the moonscape.

Next up is the pool, a mix of PVA and talc forms the base with an assortment of balls to rpresent bubbles. I had some paper ones, beads from necklaces and christmas decorations but my 'inspired' idea was silver ball cake decorations and 100's and 1000's. Loads for cheap... WRONG! the little bleeders melted in the moisture in the PVA. OKK they left some nice 'popped' bubble impressions but it's not the effect I was after.

Next step was the painting. The usual undercoat of black household and craft paint mixed with PVA glue and a small amount of plaster as an ideal base for the Red Oxide spray paint. Further shading and highlights were added, note my initial plan to go purple on the weed... what was I thinking?

Here's some highlights on the pool itself, not sure if it works convincingly.

Lastly, I was desperate to get a depth to the pool, I looked around for some form of resin that would n't break the bank and came up with the VerniDas varnish which was only a couple of quid from my local art store. It still shrinks when dry so I may have to apply a couple of coats, hopefully it won't react with itself like some do. I also finished all the weed/tentacle highlights.

The conclusion to this story was that my son and I had been going to GW in Southport for a few months and the Online team were visiting to take pictures. I took along the digestion pool and his Tervigon to be photographed and obviously the 'following a White Dwarf tutorial' factor was enough of a draw to mean they used it on the website, woohoo! You can see the final highlights on the weed, some blending on the red planet sand and the glossy VerniDas in their picture.