Something stirs in the darkness...

[frankendoodle65]

I'm going to show my age here, I got into Warhammer back in third edition and my first hobby love was the Tyranids. The artwork in that old codex was fantastic, proper old GW grim dark at its best, and the front cover was just sublime. 

 

So here we are at the dawn of a new edition and the big Tyranid range refresh, and here I am looking back 20 years! 

I wanted a paint scheme that's quick and easy but looks good, dark and menacing. And it's been staring me in the face for 20 years on that old codex cover! So here we go!

 

First test scheme model; 

 

 

Yep, I like that. But what if... 

 

 

Second test 'stealer on the left here. Managed to get a better blend between the red and black, and I've gone for a slightly less intense black which I think has a more natural feel to it. I preferred the slightly more fleshy red on the first guy but I think I'm getting somewhere with this scheme now. 

 

 

So what's next? I'm currently working on a Tyranid Prime and a Hive Tyrant, I'll get pictures of them up soon enough. But digging through boxes I found a Harpy conversion I did back when that kit first came out (7 years ago? 8?) - I was a bit underwhelmed at first, it's basically a flying Carnifex. I do however love the FW Harridan so that got me thinking and out came the putty... 

 

 

let's call it a Harpidan shall we? I always had an issue with the big clear plastic flying stand, that's why I never got around to painting this. But it's 2023 now and I found a 3D printed Spore Tower on Etsy, problem solved! 

No idea how to scale the paint scheme up to such a big critter so I might need to do a few more test minis first... 

 

Let me know what you think!

 

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by frankendoodle65

[Brother Nathan]

Love the paintjobs. Very 3rd ed. And that conversion is great! Will be watching closely.

[ZeroWolf]

Fantastic work on those genestealers, I wouldn't have the patience to do that with the red on the face  look forward to seeing the big bugs painted up in this scheme!

[frankendoodle65]

Thanks for the comments guys! 

 

@Brother nathan 3rd edition will always hold a special kind of magic for me, I'm glad that's coming across in the minis! 

 

@ZeroWolf thanks! The paint scheme is actually deceptively simple, I'm still refining it but it's basically drybrushing, washes, contrast and sponge stippling. I reckon when I get it completely figured out I could paint a brood of 'stealers or 'gaunts in an evening. 

 

I think I mentioned in the previous post I've been working on a Tyranid Prime and a Hive tyrant.

The Prime is a fairly elaborate conversion with warrior and ravener parts combined with some older metal bits and plenty of putty. 

I managed to get an old FW Hive Tyrant for a great price on eBay (it was caked in horrid enamel paint that was a nightmare to strip though!) - all I've done to it is repositioning the legs and I sculpted some additional armour on the shins. It's just held together with poster tack at the moment but I quite like the Swarmlord Bone Sabers on it! 

 

 

@KrautScientist I know you're not a Xenos kinda guy, but is this enough of a "traditional" conversion for you? 

Edited April 11, 2023 by frankendoodle65

[Xenith]

Nice! I like the 2nd ed style hooves! 

[Pearson73]

That's a lovely scheme. Huge fan of the flying beast too, the sculpted plates give it a real brutish look. The Prime has a cracking pose with a good sense of motion.

[ZeroWolf]

Nice conversion  work! The Prime especially.

[frankendoodle65]

Thanks guys, hopefully I'll get the Prime and/or Hive tyrant painted over the next few days, I'm excited to see how the paint scheme works on bigger guys. 

 

I've spent today playing with a genestealer patriarch/broodlord which I've had since the Deathwatch Overkill box. It's pose was weird so I got a little choppy... Then I realised it just wasn't going to work so ended up sculpting an entirely new body for it. There's still a ton of work to do but it's starting to look like something! 

 

It's a looong time since I've done much of this sort of sculpting so the ribs are a little wonky, but I can live with that.

Most Genesteallers have a pretty plain armour plate for the groin instead of the usual Tyranid ribs - I thought that would look a bit bland here so tried sculpting some less defined ribs, as though they've fused together into one boney plate.

 

And here we are with the arms and pose roughed in, I'll need to find or sculpt a big hand, but that blob sort of gives the idea anyway. 

 

 

This is the artwork I'm trying to recreate, it was an early concept piece by Roberto Cirillo during the development of the 4th edition codex. I've not got the pose quite right but I think I'm close enough. 

 

[Brother Nathan]

llokds great, good work so far on the doubling  big arm. the head makes me think back til... 4/5 when broodlords could buy feeder tenticals and were amazing(iirc they gave any unit with a model within 3 inches rerolls) its sad the lack of options currently available to broodlords currently. the other drawing on theat diagram i particularly like... broodlord with whips sounds amazing to me...  may steal... great work anyway keep it up. may inspire me to finish my diama

[Pearson73]

The sculpting is really impressive mate!  Such a cool piece of art to draw inspiration from, I can't wait to see him progress.

[Evil Eye]

Excellent stuff so far! I absolutely love the 3E Tyranid Codex (it got me into 40K, in 5th edition no less!) so that colour scheme is wonderful to see. And I love the conversions! Glad to see I'm not the only one who's thought of doing the FW Tyrant into a Swarmlord. Granted, mine is a bit more outlandishly converted and uses a less than legitimate copy as the base, but anyway.

[frankendoodle65]

Thanks guys! 

 

@Brother nathan I think the 5th edition codex is the most recent one I own, so I'm still living in blissful ignorance about rules changes... Broodlords totally get feeder tendrils in my hive! 

 

@Pearson73thanks buddy, always a pleasure to have you around. There's a lot of cool Tyranid art that never really got translated into mini form, this has always been one of my favourites though! 

 

@Evil Eye or is it OcculusMalus?  Thanks for the kind words! Honestly I have my doubts about the legitimacy of that hive tyrant, the resin feels a little softer than I'd expect from FW but that could just be a side effect of the paint stripper I used? Anyway I've always LOVED that mini so I wanted to keep converting to an absolute minimum. 

 

 

Quick update on the broodlord:

 

I had to cut him in half at the waist to improve the pose, I suspect I might need to cut the neck and tweak the angle of the head too. I've added collar bones and started tidying up the big arm, I'm loving where this guy is going! 

 

 

I've also been painting the prime. I made a few tweaks to the talons since the last post and I'm much happier with them now. 

I wonder if he's a bit too blue, and I think I'm going to add some red to his knees but otherwise I'm really pleased with him. 

[ZeroWolf]

I'd say he came out really well. Though I do agree that he does need a touch of the red on his lower half.

 

How were you thinking of basing these? Apologies if you've already said.

[Xenith]

Nice and gribbly scheme, and the sculpting is sublime. I'd also totally forgot FW did a Hive Tyrant way back when. 

[frankendoodle65]

@ZeroWolf thanks! I'm not really sure on the basing, it's generally the least interesting thing for me but it's a necessary evil... The FW Hive Tyrant has an attached resin base with rubbly muddy sandy sort of textures so I'll probably just try to recreate something similar and paint it in a lighter beige brown sort of colour. Not very exciting, sorry! 

 

@Xenith thanks! Little 13 year old Frankendoodle spent many long hours admiring the Hive Tyrant on FW's website back in 2004 or so, but the idea of a £50 resin version of a £20 metal miniature was totally crackers to whoever was in charge of my pocket money back then! Then as soon as I had a bit more cash at my disposal they went and discontinued it!

[frankendoodle65]

Tyranid Prime is done! Maybe... I'm still figuring out the paint scheme so I might make some tweaks later. I've added some red to his legs since the last photos and I'm trying to up my basing game. Let me know what you think!

 

[ZeroWolf]

Love it, I think the red you've added helps it a lot.

[frankendoodle65]

Thanks! It's really hard figuring out the balance of colours with these guys, don't want to overdo the red! I probably should have started with a brood of termagants, then some warriors before moving onto anything important... Ah well, that's not my style! 

[ZeroWolf]

I can actually see logic in doing the opposite as you can now scale the scheme down for the humbler critters  How's the Tryant coming along?

[frankendoodle65]

Haha thanks, it's actually mainly because A. I was excited to paint some fun monsters  B. I don't seem to have any gaunts and I don't want to buy a load when new ones are just around the corner! And C. I have some Genesteallers but my god those mold lines! I'll do them one day... Maybe! 

 

Tyrant's going well, thanks! In fact he's not too far off being finished, here's a quick shot: 

 

 

For some reason the red comes out a bit over saturated when I upload to the forum, it looks fine everywhere else... Weird.

Edited April 17, 2023 by frankendoodle65

[ZeroWolf]

Those swords...

 

I get what you're saying with the genestealers, I was hoping they may have been part of the range refresh but I'm less certain with the amount nids are getting besides them. I had a lot of fun with them back in 3rd/4th. Rending was delightful 

[Brother Nathan]

Tyrant looks fantastic! Do you have a normal tyrant for scale as the fw ones are the only ones i dont have? The gs stuff work is fantastic. As for the prime the only things i can see is it possibly the black rending claws? Near dissapear compared to the talons. 

[frankendoodle65]

@ZeroWolfI live in hope, the Deathwatch Overkill purestrains are so beautiful, I really want a full kit with that design. Though people have been saying similar since space hulk!! 

 

@Brother nathan thanks! Sorry I don't have a regular hive tyrant to compare, but I think this guy is a similar height to the modern kit but a much lighter build, he's got spindly legs for sure! 

Re. The rending claws on the prime, your criticism is one of my favourite features, shows how subjective these things are! I feel like any potential victim will be focused on the big, bright stabby claws and never see the smaller claws coming. Or from an artistic perspective, I feel Tyranids can be a bit visually busy so I'm trying to simplify things and draw focus to key areas. It's a hard balance and I'm still figuring it out, and as I say it's totally subjective so I appreciate your thoughts on it! 

 

 

The Hive Tyrant/ Swarmlord is done! 

 

 

 

and a family photo of what I've done so far: 

 

 

I'm struggling to get the colours right in the photos, and for some reason they all look a little oversaturated when I upload to the forum. The first and last photos are closest to reality! 

[frankendoodle65]

I've not updated the broodlord for a while, so here's a few quick shots:

 

This was a few days ago, pretty much got the fist sorted here.

 

And tonight, I've sculpted his back and tail so the end is finally sort of in sight. Ish.

 

I might carve down and resculpt a few ribs as he's a little barrel chested, and I think the legs need beefing up a little. 

[ZeroWolf]

Looks like he skipped leg day  You've done fantastic work so far, I'm loving the transition on the armour plates.