Tyranid Spore Chimney Completed!

With the successful build of the Capillary Towers I quickly wanted to get the Spore Chimney painted to see if it would look as good! I wasn't disappointed.

The application of the 'slime' was quite a lengthy process! It was worth it though.

Painting the central tentacles really helped make them pop!

I went with the stripes here for the carapace markings.

The broken groundwork was left based in a dark grey as not to distract from the main chimney.

Finally a scale shot with some Termagaunts!

I'm really pleased with his piece! The only trouble now is going to be transporting it! Especially when I build a second...

The GunGrave

Tyranid Carnifex Brood Complete

The latest weapon in the arsenal of the Hive Mind - a Canifex Brood!

I've never run 'Fex's before (couldn't tell you why!) but with the dramatic points reduction in this new edition, it was hard not to - if at least to give them a go!

You saw the Crusher Fex in the last post, so here's the completed Dakka Fex with two twin linked Devourers.

This is the second Dakka Fex - although i've used Deathspitters here until i source some more Devourers (got 2 but need 2 more) Of course the weapons arms are magnetised, so weapons swaps won't be a problem!

Looking forward to giving these guys a run out!!

The GunGrave

Tyranid Capillary Tower Tutorial Mk II

So after the initial experiment making a Tyranid Capillary Tower i decided to have another go, further refining my technique.

Firstly, base your quartered polystyrene cone. This time i used a pre cut wooden disc as the base (which looks much neater!). 

To help create the effect of broken ground around the base of the tower, i glued some foam pieces around the base to assist with the effect.

Once they dry, start cutting the ridges into the back of the styrene piece. I roughly measured out the spaces to create a roughly uniform look. These will just provide a guide for when the clay is applied later on.

Once the ridges are cut in, take some air-drying clay and begin to coat the back of the tower. Make sure you coat the tower in a reasonable thickness of clay as this will help you cut details into it later.

Coat the foam at the base of the tower in clay as well to create the broken ground effect.

Once your happy with the shape of the clay, carefully cut some ridges into it, following the cuts made in the styrene foam earlier. For this i used the back of a kitchen knife.

The clay will take roughly 24hrs to dry and i recommend waiting before moving to to the next step, otherwise you'll end up putting finger marks in places you really don't want them!

Once your happy the clays dry, take some basic polyfilla (or similar). This needs to be applied to the front of the tower. I watered down the filla with water in a 50/50 mix. This obviously makes it more runny, and will hopefully give the filla a more organic look when dry. Try to cover every surface of the styrene so it doesnt melt when you spray it later on!

Give this an hour of two to dry before adding some texture to the front of the tower with some medical gauze soaked in PVA glue. At this stage you'll also need to add some 'spikes' in the front of the tower. You could use anything for this, as long as its vaguely pointy!

This is great at creating an organic feel. Make sure you stretch the gauze between different sections of the tower. Base the tower with some sand, and your build is complete!

Give it another 24hrs to let the gauze dry and get painting! I went with the same colour scheme i used for the rest of my 'Nid army, but you might want to go for something more neutral.

After painting and varnishing i added one final touch - slime! I did this using a hot glue gun, stringing the glue between different sections of the tower. Do this after varnishing, otherwise the glue would go cloudy with the vanish.

I couldn't decide whether to go with spots or stripes on the back of the towers - what do you guys think?

Scale shot with the Crusher Fex!

A close up of the 'slime'. This was really easy to achieve, i think it really makes the towers pop!

There we have it. There's another 7 Towers at different points of construction on the table at the moment, as well as the Spore Chimney which is now half painted. More on the terra-forming efforts of the Hive Mind soon...

The Gungrave

Crusher 'Fex Complete

The first of the 3 new 'Fex's are complete - the Crusher Fex got first dibs! The colour scheme from the rest of the army was easily applied, with a few extras.

The same distinctive markings run the length of the carapace:

The Crushing Claws are highlighted with some Codex Grey with an airbrush to break up the black of the carapace.

The same was done for the Crushers tusks.

The magnets held up well following painting:

I have a huge amount of Tyranid spare parts, so the Carnifex's arsenal with be varied!

The other 2 'Fex's are well on their way to completion - more on that soon.

The GunGrave

Carnifex Crush! New Additions to the Swarm!

So the other day I thought I'd beef up my 'Nid list a bit. With the drop in price for Carnifex's, it seemed like the best place to start. I managed to pick up 2 new Carnifex's for £24 each (bargain!) from my FLGS, and i had another one already which i ripped the arms and head off! I'll run the 3 as a Brood.

This is the one I had already, which I removed the arms and head off. I want to arm him with 2 Twin Linked Devourers, but I only have Deathspitters at the moment which I'll proxy for now.

This is one of the new ones armed with actual Devourers - the so called 'DakkaFex'!

To complete the Brood I've included a Crusher Fex, armed with Crushing Claws and Scything Talons. He is my tank and Fortification killer!

I took the time to magnetise the arms on all of the Fex's:

The magnets fitted perfectly into the sockets, so no work required there.

The arms required some minor alteration to get the angle right for when they're attached to the arms, but otherwise it was straight forward.

3 Fex's should be enough for my army needs, and with the ability to swap out the weapons arms, they should be all the Fex's I need! With any luck i'lll get to run them out this week and see how much havoc (and fear!) they create!

The GunGrave

Home-Made Tyranid Spore Chimney

This is an idea that's been brewing since I started building the Capillary Towers. I always loved the Tyranid Spore Chimney from Forgeworld so i had a crack at making my own to go with my 'Nid terrain.

This is the finished build! The main skeleton was a polystyrene cone quartered and based around a polystyrene ring. This was then covered in air-drying clay and shaped.This is definitely my new favourite terrain material! Dead easy to use and shape, and only 24rs to dry.  

This is the chimney itself. It was based around some random piece of pipe i had in my bits box. The inner surfaces of the towers were coated in some slightly watered down polyfilla. This made it a lot easier to apply, and gave it a less 'stony' effect (see my first attempt at a Capillary Tower)

Some extra texture was achieved by adding some medical gauze coated in watered down PVA glue. This gave it a great organic look. It also looks suitably disgusting!

I had a crazy amount of spare 'Nid bits which were useful for this piece.

I used one of GaleForce 9's Tentacle Makers to make the tentacles in the middle. I made them out of clay as well, which worked just as well as Green Stuff or Milliput.

I used the ends of Devourers to make spikes on the towers.

Some more medical gauze to add texture.

It was easy to get a smooth finish on the carapace of the towers. I also added some ridges with the back of a knife to break it up a bit.

Also some impact craters from the doomed defenders of  the planet!

The edges of the Chimney were modelled to make it look as though the Chimney had grown out of the ground. This broken earth effect will look better after its based and painted.

A scale shot with some spare Termagants. I'll be going with the same colour scheme i used for the army on the Chimney.

As an afterthought i added some spikes to the edges of the carapace. This are from some spare Trygone sprue's i had.

Finally some WIP shots. All in all this piece cost me around £10 to make!

I'm looking forward to painting this! Also look out for Capillary Towers Mk2.

The GunGrave