Tyranid Conversion Ideas

[Mitch311]

Hey,

I love the tyranid models and have seen some of the conversion done here such as stewarts gargoyle to terradon conversions. I am thinking I am definetly going to give that a go.

But I'm looking for some other ideas:

Kroxigors and Salamanders.

For the Kroxigors, I was thinking something along the lines of genestealers with the armored cold one head and only 1 set of arms. Would probably look at making custom weapons for them as well. Or the same kind of idea using Hormagaunts stood upright. (Maybe something like the genestealer conversion linked below)

Salamander wise I was thinking of termagants with cold one heads or some such. I like the idea of armored salamanders and as they are not meant to be related to lizzy's but are just an animal found in the wild and domesticed I can get away with a bit of extravagance.

Anyone got any ideas? I am trying to stick to plastics as metals are expensive!

Oh and as a bonus for reading my text. Some conversions I found in the opposite direction. Lizzie styled tyranids. http://forums.tauonline.org/conversion/65300-tribal-tyranid-concept.html

 

[strewart]

Oooh I like those conversions, thanks for posting the link!

I think genestealers might be a bit small to be kroxigors. A kroxigor goes on a 40mm base... Unless you wanted to change the idea of kroxigor and have some unique fluff and put two stealers or more on a base? Genestealers would be fair menacing Temple Guard.

As an alternative, nid warriors would be about the right size for kroxigors and have the potential to look really cool if you did the conversion right.

For salamanders, hive guard or biovores maybe, but they are metal/resin. Again a termigant is a lot smaller than a salamander, it will look a bit dwarfed on a 40mm base. But again, and possibly even more so, a pack of 3 gaunts on one 40mm base to represent one salamander could look cool.

 

[BezZeMad]

Ifyou don't mind looking at some other al;ternatives, the Dark Eldar Clawed fiend might make a good krox.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...440170a&prodId=prod1140028a&rootCatGameStyle=

I have to agree with strewart that the genestealers and termagants are too small for krox and Salamanders respectively. Again, as strewart said a warrior might make a krox at a push.

With a little sculpting work seekers (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...t440166a&prodId=prod860014a&rootCatGameStyle=) might make pretty nice salamanders.

Hope this gives you a few ideas, looking forward to see what you come up with!

 

[Mitch311]

The warriors looks pretty cool for kroxigors.

Just for a quick side track.... Which would make better standard saurus warriors? Termagants or Hormogaunts? I'm pretty sure the one I linked were termagants. I think using a proper saurus head and standing them up they would look pretty awesome.

Either or though the third picture (the upright one) looks the coolest. HW/S + Claws. Thats a tough lizard.

Fluff wise could be an elite Lizzie City that the Old Ones Spawned at the last minute pending the chaos invasion they could sense coming. The normal lizzies had no idea they existed and these guys have been continually at war with the chaos monsters in the north? I think I would keep normal skinks. Why would the Old ones change admin staff, the mutations were given to the saurus.

Or:

I could go really out there and say this is a lizard city that fell to the chaos, but instead of the city being destroyed it's spawning pools were infected with warpstone causing mutations. Dark Lizardmen = Scary Shiz.
This could be a pretty awesome theme to run with. I'd replace the slann on his palaquin with a daemon. Or try and figure out a possessed slann or something? Interesting. I like the idea of this. Chaos Lizzies. Yum

I can see a lot of expensive conversions ahead. What to do with my 50 current saurus. Chop em up for bits I guess lol.

Will buy some termagants, hormagaunts and maybe 1 or 2 warriors on ebay in the next day or two, but will take bout 2 weeks to arrive. Make a few test runs and see what comes up.

 

[strewart]

Sounds like you have some really cool ideas, I'd love to see some of the army completed!

Are you planning to arm the models with LM weapons and possibly heads? If so, yeah termigants might be better for saurus. I only say that because hormagaunts are very dynamic and fast looking models, while saurus are quite slow and dim. Hormagaunts otherwise would look really cool. There isn't much difference between the two besides poses though, so if you want them standing up you might be better off just grabbing hormies since they will require less work I'd say.

 

[Mitch311]

I am definetly thinking, saurus arms and heads. Might skip the legs. Will have to try it out. I was thinking with the termagants, they appear to be relatively easy to stand upright like such:



(Full thread: http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153&highlight=%27Termagant+Soup%27)

I'd also like to do a slann that has been melded with some kind of bug legs or something and maybe had a chunk of warpstone fused into it's body as well. Would use the bug legs instead of his palaquin. I'm not sure.

Might swap in the odd skink arm for a tentacle or something as well.

I'm really liking the idea of the corrupted lizardmen. Going to go into one of my local stores and have a fiddle with some tyranid models IRL and see what I think.

 

[mukman12]

chaos hounds of sallies?

 

[Mitch311]

I was thinking of using flesh hounds as my salamanders but I'm slowly convincing my wife to play warhammer (playing her first game tomorrow) and she is leaning very heavily towards daemons. So those models are scrapped.

What I have been thinking for sallies is tyranid raveners without as many scythes. More gene stealer claw arms.

Gene stealers for TG. Gants/gaunts for Saurus. Warriors for kroxigor, raveners for sallies, gargoyles for terradons. Skinks as skinks. Stegs as stegs. That's bout all I need in an army lol. Oh and a slann with a big chunk of warpstone lodged in the back of his skull.

What do you guys think?

 

[Mitch311]

So I managed to pick up 6 raveners worth of bits (completely accidentally, didn't realize what I had till later) for $10. So guess what I did when I got home from work.





I shaved back a cold one head and pruned the top plate of the ravener head and smooshed them together. I need a liberal dose of green stuff to fill in the "neck", for now I have used some blue tack. I am sticking with only 4 arms which is much more WHFB. Also been working on pruning off extra spikes and stuff to try and reduce how nid it looks. Of all I ideas I have had, my Sallies are going to the most generic and nid looking of them all. Only a subbed in face really. Everything else will have arms, weps, the occasional leg etc from saurus.

What would you guys consider doing for this guy? I was thinking of fashiong a golden collar for him and maybe attaching a few skink shields or some such. Or feathers. Make him a really mutated freak.

Now remember this isn't necessarily a mutated salamander. It's just a monster the skink handlers managed to tame from in the Chaos Region that shoots flames, I just want it to tie in locks wise with the rest of the army.

Mitch

*Notes:

The thing it's tail is on is to make it stand up, it won't be there once I actually have some 40mm bases.
Yes my photography is shoddy I need to buy a lamp lol.

 

[strewart]

That thing looks cool. Those raveners are very nice models. Good work!

If you add only one thing, it should be scales. LM are all about scales on everything. Instead of those flat armour plates down its back, cover the area in scales. They are difficult to make with GS and time consuming, but the effect will be worth it.