Saturday 13 August 2016

Hive Fleet Numereji: Flying Tyrant TO-DONE!




The Marine snapped his boltgun up to fire on the approaching cultist, but something inserted itself between the synapses of his arm and bid his trigger finger to be still. The rest of his body shook with the exertion of resistance, as if the terrific musculature of his legs and back could somehow force that fatal millimetre.

The cultist spoke with a voice that was not entirely his own; ill-fitting, tonally splitting at the seams of perception.

“If you will not create forms that are suitable for The End-War, then we must take them from you and begin anew.”

“I AM BRED FOR WAR!”

The echoes of his cry were drowned out by the thunderous crack of pinions as The Tyrant landed, coiling its bladed tail around the cultist almost protectively. It dwarfed the Marine in every way, as it spoke directly into him. It flooded him with The Truth, until it ran in torrents from his eye-sockets. 


“Not this war.” 




Hi folks,

After adding a 7th glaze of Leviathan Purple to the Flying Tyrants wings, followed by a layer of 'Ardcoat, I was finally ready to assemble the beast. Even though I have been planning this project for over a year, I had no idea of how it would look put together; Blu-tack just isn't that strong! After gluing the last set of wings (the lower ones) I just sat there for a bit looking at it in my light box...




It's big. The wings are fairly heavy so I have done a lot to counterbalance the base, with weights and the Genestealer Magus figure. I like the way the tail looks like it is coiling around him; it begs the question "who's controlling who?"




Like most of my Nids, the Magus was speed-painted on Friday night, using washes and glazes for the most part. I added some Tamiya Clear Red to the bottom of his robes; whether it belongs to his enemies or his fellow cultists is debatable! I love the little genestealer at the top of the staff.





As mentioned previously the head of the Tyrant is a conversion using parts from the 3rd Ed. Red Terror figure (lower jaw), Hive Guard (head armour and boneswords for horns) and 3rd Ed. Monstrous Creature sprue (head armour). The twin twin-linked Brainleech Devourers are Devourer guns filed flat and glued to form a single cone.




I spent about an hour last night brightening up the Tyrants eyes and hard-lining black around the eye-ball itself. All I can say is that I am glad I drank less tea yesterday, it was hard enough to keep my lines precise without the added caffeine load.




The wings were the most time consuming parts of the project. Initially I laid down 5 thin glazes of Leviathan Purple before adding two layers of detail with Nuln Oil. A final glaze of Leviathan Purple brought it all back together again and the 'Ardcoat gives it a shiny, almost iridescent, look. I can live with that ;-)




Photography was all kinds of tricky because the model casts shadows all over itself. In some shots I was able to get a small light in underneath it to light different parts up, but I couldn't do that in the wide shots without showing the light source!




In terms of presence on the board, this guy is going to blow away all of my other Nids, Swarm Lord included. Hopefully, flying Hive Tyrants stay in style for another couple of years. Regardless, he was a blast to convert and to paint; well deserving of a big green stamp:



See you across the table,

M4cr0

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