Magnets

Most of the Carnifex's components have been magnetized to allow for swapping

The Carnifex is a brilliant model with a huge range of options in the kit. If you’re the kind of 40k player who loves to mess around with different army lists, making a magnetized Carnifex might be a good idea. After all, nobody likes playing proxy models and buying multiple Carnifexes gets expensive. Simply buy rare earth magnets in several sizes. I used 1/8″ dia. x 1/32″ thick for smaller bitz and 1/4″ dia. x 1/32″ thick for the arms (bought online from kjmagnetics.com). To attach magnets a hole was drilled with a pin vise and enlarged with a hobby knife. Then the magnet was glued in place and, where it was visible, it was smoothed over with greenstuff. Using this method the head, carapace, arms, back, and tail were magnetized.

Even with a magnetized Carnifex converted parts are possible. You could build an integrated bioweapon into a magnetic carapace plate, for example. I had an extra head and the leftover tentacles from a Spore Mine, so I made a head with tendrils. Perhaps this could count as an Acid Maw or, if the tendrils sting like a jellyfish, it could count as being Tusked.

Magnetics can definitely be worth their time and, with large plastic models, aren’t at all intimidating. May be worth a look!

Inspiration

Some of the things you’ll see on my models – the clawed feet on the Devilfex, the tongue on the Sniperfex, the long legs on the leaping Warriors – were inspired by other hobbyists (particular shout out to the great members of the Tyranid forum Warpshadow!). Whenever I’m browsing Warhammer models online I save particularly inspirational pictures to a folder. Then they’re always handy when I want to refer back to that one cool idea I saw a month ago, or if I’m working on a conversion and want to browse for inspiration. Sometimes the best ideas come from art as well as models. Here’s some excellent ideas based on the old Epic/Armorcast bio-titans, for those of you extremely old Tyranid fans who may recognize them. Times change, and some people feel that the old slugs just don’t cut it any more.

Mike Fleming (Warpshadow member Snapdragon) envisioned an Exocrine-like Tyranid with a weapon so highly developed that it’s supported by its own legs and is still quite an individual creature.

Warren Beattie (Warpshadow member Vermis) updated the ancient Haruspex, a close-combat monster, to resemble a scorpion. The pincers and Spine Banks of the original are present, but the overall design is much sleeker and more ferocious. It’s easy to envision this beast tearing into a Leman Russ battle tank!

Games Workshop sometimes publishes concept artwork for their models. This art is a great way to see how ideas evolve and contains tons of ideas which – while not used on official models – can be included in your own conversions. Here’s some examples of Broodlord head concepts which you might want to borrow from. This is less than a third of the designs they considered, so there’s tons of inspiration available for those willing to look. Check out the GW website and see if you can find any artwork for your army of choice.

Other inspiration could come from your favorite animals or movie monsters. How about a “Nidzilla” army where every monstrous creature is designed after a Godzilla monster? Even more outrageous, I once did an extremely quick Photoshop to get an idea of what my favorite animal – the Giant Anteater – would look like if it were assimilated by the Tyranids. Just fool around and have fun with whatever you do.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article inspired you either to get back to work on your Tyranids or – if by some crazy quirk of nature you don’t play Tyranids – to start up an army of your own. I’m in the process of brainstorming a Tyranid-versus-Catachan ambush diorama, designing a Genestealer Cult for Necromunda, making a full set of Tyranid terrain and fighting the urge to pick up a Tyranid fleet for Battlefleet Gothic – not to mention an Epic force!

If you haven’t already, at least pick up a Carnifex. Solely for display purposes, of course. Maybe a few minor conversions. After you’ve built it you can decide where you want to go from there…

This Genestealer counts as a Space Marine in Apocalypse games.

With the advent of Apocalypse comes a whole new world of Tyranid conversion opportunities. I thought it would be fun to convert some Genestealer-like Tyranids with guns to play as counts-as Space Marines. Eventually the plan is to give them a counts-as Rhino based upon the Malefactor, an old Tyranid from the game Epic and produced for 40k by Armorcast. The Malefactor was a troop transport and it would be a great challenge to try to convert up a living beast that could carry ten Space Marine equivalents.

Superheavies

The Tyranid Trygon appears in an Apocalypse datasheet, but the Forge World model carries a hefty pricetag. Old Alien toys make a great basis for Tyranid conversions – this Trygon was made from an enlarged Carnifex and the tail from a Snake Alien toy by Hasbro.

This Tyranid flyer counts as an Ork Fighta-Bomma

Superheavies can also be taken from other armies and converted for Tyranid use. Imagine the lumbering monstrous equivalent of a Warhound Titan or a huge scuttling Tyranid Baneblade. To the left is my idea of a Tyranid counts-as Ork Fighta-Bomma.

Note that, while clearly not a Fighta-Bomma, WYSIWYG is still observed as best it can be. The four Big Shootas are represented by four large organic guns on the creature’s shoulders, chest and mouth. The turret-mounted twin-linked Big Shootas are carried by a living turret-beast clinging to the larger animal’s back. The Burna-Bomms are made from acid Spore Mines and the payload of Bomms supposedly drops from the Spore Cyst carapace on the belly.

Genestealer Cults

Tyranids also have great fluff background about working in Genestealer Cults. While representing this in a standard Tyranid army would require extensive counts-as, it’s easy to do in Apocalypse. Simply find an Imperial Guard player to ally with (or use/start your own collection!) and stick some Tyranid banners on the tanks. The tank below has magnets allowing it to play either as a normal tank, fly Tyranid banners, or mount Orky-looking scrap armor.

A genestealer masquerading as a combat servitor.

If you’re really into it, you can convert models specifically for these situations. The infantryman above can play in an Apocalypse battle as an Inquisitor and as such can take a retinue of eccentric models. The Genestealer conversion from earlier can play as a Veteran Guardsman with a meltagun and this fellow to the right can work nicely as a Combat Servitor.

To go with my Eldar army is the following model, which plays using Elrad Ulthran’s rules to represent the potency of an Eldar Farseer amplified by the power of the Hive Mind. A shaved-down Genestealer head with pointy Eldar ears makes him look distinctly like an alien hybrid and the extra arm further betrays his Genestealer heritage.

The sky really is the limit for Apocalypse, and it’s much more fun to play when interesting models and alliances with a story behind them are present. Definitely take the time to figure out who your most common allies are and see if you can find a way to make the fluff work. The models shown here represent the Tyranids controlling their ally through Genestealer Cults, but it could just as easily work the other way. What if a Hive Tyrant was fitted with a mind-control device by a member of the Ordo Xenos or was possessed by a Daemon from the Warp? With access to the most powerful Synapse creature the rest of the swarm could be brought to follow the orders of the other army.

Stratagems and Objectives

Cityfight presented Stratagems which confer bonuses to armies that take them. Many of these – like Power Generator, Ammo Dump, and Medicae Facility – would be relatively straightforward for other armies to represent. But what would a Tyranid Power Generator look like? Because that Stratagem increases the chances that a weapon will hurt a target I based it off the Tyranid Toxin Sacs. The Ammo Dump is designed like a giant Devourer hive, since many Tyranid weapons work by firing smaller organisms. Presumably both of these Stratagems work be secreting some sort of hormone that alters the biology of Tyranids nearby. For Medicae Facility I took the Hive Node from Battle for Macragge and mounted it on a base. I can’t imagine Tyranids healing each other, so I just figured that for every Gaunt wounded there’s a 50% chance that a new one will crawl up out of this hole.

In Cityfight some missions call for armies to plant flags in captured buildings. It’s hard to envision a brood of Gaunts carrying a banner along with them, so instead I converted up some markers to serve as flags. The idea is that these creatures cling tick-like to a larger Tyranid and fall off when an objective is seized, sending out a psychic signal to let the lead Synapse know that the building is under control. Making them was a simple matter of gluing three bitz together – if you want to replicate something, it’s best to use as many standard bitz as possible.

Apocalypse calls for armies to fight over objectives. It was hard to think of a Tyranid objective, but seeing a broken walnut shell while outside inspired me. The loss of a young new breed of Synapse creature would certainly be worth fighting over, both for Tyranids and for enemies.

Tyranid terrain pieces also make good objectives. These large Brood Nest entrances, when completed, could serve as objectives and simple terrain or could be given special rules. Perhaps units can enter one and exit the other, or perhaps they disgorge random Gaunt broods, or perhaps the enemy objective is to get a unit in contact with one so they can chuck a melta bomb down. The pieces themselves are made from an old toy dinosaur egg, cheap Model Magic clay, and pink insulation foam.

Tyranids commonly create digestion pools when they’re taking over a planet, and a digestion pool makes a great terrain centerpiece. This one is made from scooped-out insulation foam and ringed with the tentacles of an old toy octopus. After painting the depression in the middle can be filled with resin water effect or – if you’re stingy – with dries-clear white glue.

Reinventing the Devilfex

The Devilfex's gun sat around for a while before being used for anything.

My Devilfex plays very differently from my Sniperfex. It’s very mobile, constantly on the move to find and eliminate different targets with its powerful bioweapons. I decided once again to have a back-mounted cannon, this one made from four connected Devourers. This would accurately represent the two sets of twin-linked Devourers. With that idea in place the weapon was roughly converted from spare bits. The more of your model is made from bitz the better, for several reasons. It reduces the amount of sculpting you have to do, ensures the products will stay close to the established Tyranid look, and makes overall assembly and test-fitting much easier. Tyranids have enough organic shapes that with a bit of hacking you can find an appropriate piece for almost any situation. After construction, the weapon then sat in my bitz box for a good many months before I got around to buying a Carnifex to go with it. Sometimes it’s good to vent your inspiration while it’s there; plus, then you’ve got the thing sitting and serving as further incentive to get back to the project before you forget about it.

To embody the idea of mobility I decided to give the Carnifex long legs and a straight tail, with grasping clawed feet to give good running traction. I had seen other Tyranid conversions with tiny vestigial hands or talons used to serve as fillers for empty arm slots, so I decided to make my Carnifex with tiny two-fingered arms. See where this Carnifex revamp is heading?

The same strategy as before was used – the bitz were chopped up and pinned or glued into place before anything really permanent was done. Once the arrangement was satisfactory the greenstuff was laid down. Note the second arm slot was filled with tiny arms bearing sacs, probably producing hormones to accelerate the growth of the weapon’s ammunition. No opponent would mistake either of these arm slots for main weapons – it’s quite clear that the gun on the back is what they need to worry about.

The Devilfex before paint

To get an extra-wide roaring mouth a Bio-Plasma head was used with the biomorph cut out and a small tongue sculpted in place. The small hands came from a Genestealer and the second arm slots took the head-sacs of Spore Mines. To add to the illusion of speed, the Carnifex was given a single row of back vents instead of the usual two rows. The idea was that this would lend an effect almost of a racing stripe or a sleek shark fin. This Carnifex would also serve as an Elite-slot Carnifex in larger games, so having less vents could designate it as being a bit weaker and using less energy than a full Heavy Support Carnifex. A metal bit from my collection resembled a smaller vent and was added to the head to carry the effect there. Though all Carnifex are front-heavy, I added a counterweight to the tail to offset the look a little bit. After painting the model was done. Here it is compared to a standard Carnifex, showing how the posture change resembles that seen in the old Tyrannosaurus artwork compared to the newer artwork.

The Devilfex next to an ordinary Carnifex

Other Inspiration

Tyranids are known for absorbing DNA from foes, so why not reflect this in your models? My main opponents are Tau, Orks, and Space Marines. The following Carnifex were converted to reflect traits from host races – but mostly as a reason to utilize older models! In this way I get to indulge in a bit of nostalgia, get converting, and have a little lighthearted jab at an opponent all in one.

Krootifex

When I decided to use my old 3^rd Edition Carnifex as a Kroot-inspired beast, my first question was what to equip it with. I thought about the role that Kroot play in a Tau army – typically hiding in cover with their rifles and emerging to initiate assaults against foes. So I settled on a Venom Cannon (plus Enhanced Senses) and Scything Talons. The most obvious conversions are on the head, since that’s where the eye should usually be drawn on a model. A Kroot-like lower jaw was added with greenstuff and the quills were made from Flesh Hooks, ensuring that the final product looked suitably ‘Niddy. For Enhanced Senses I originally planned on sculpting an organic scope onto the Venom Cannon, but then found that Kroot guns don’t have scopes. No problem! A bit of fluff research showed that Kroot quills contain sensory apparatus, so I had in fact already modeled the Enhanced Senses when I added the quills. The gun was slimmed down to mimic the thin Kroot guns and a spike was added to the tip to further evoke the imagery. It was then converted to be held more like a normal rifle (though I made sure to keep an ammo tube present) and four fingers were put on the left hand, as Kroot have only four fingers. Vestigial toes were added beside the hooves, since Kroot have toed feet, and the secondary Scything Talons were kept small since the unwilling DNA donor only has one set of arms. One would imagine the Carnifex stabs just as much with its spiked rifle barrel, as the Kroot tend to do. Overall, the model is distinctly Tyranid but takes so many cues from the Kroot that its origin is immediately evident.

Orkifex

This conversion was inspired because the Screamer-Killer model oozed nostalgia, but the face didn’t fit in with the current Tyranid range. What to do with a slightly off, giant, bellowing green alien whose only purpose is to charge into close combat? Show off its Orky heritage, of course! Legs were reposed to lend a dynamic stance over the ruins of a tank in an opponent’s color scheme, and the face was sculpted over with greenstuff to make it sufficiently Orky. In addition, the upper arms looked a bit weedy and so received some bulking out in the bicep region. The end result looks a bit silly and may not be to everyone’s tastes, but my Ork opponent and I like to field it with biomorphs such as “WAAAAAGH” (Bio-Plasma) and “Orky body odor” (Toxic Miasma). In games with most opponents it would simply be a Carnifex with two Scything Talons.

Brutefex

The Carnifex dubbed “Brutefex” arose not out of possession of an older model, but from possession of an abundance of Carnifex bitz. Seemed like a waste to have spare legs from a Trygon conversion and tons of spare heads and arms and carapaces from other kits. So some Fimo clay was bought, which is a bake-able clay that hardens into a nice easily-cut and filed consistency. A simple body and tail were baked, and a carapace was done in two steps (sculpt basic shape, bake, add ridges, bake). This would be the Marine-DNA Carnifex. Walking upright, heavily armored, rounded shoulders, and a nice mix of CC ability and shooting. The upright stance and melded arms lend this Carnifex the most humanoid appearance of them all. In order to make the root even more clear some sort of Marine trophy will inevitably be part of the final composition. This model is currently in progress, but you can see where the end result is headed!

Cross-Strains

Like the Sniperfex, which was inspired by the Biovore, not all Tyranid conversions have to draw inspiration from other races. With my Leaping-Rending Warriors, for example, the Warriors are presented as being hybridized with Genestealers. Genestealer Acid Maw heads are painted just like my Toxin Sacs (no confusion – Warriors can’t take Acid Maw!), implying that the extra CC punch might come from poisoned bites.

By extending the legs, these warriors look like they're leaping into battle.

To show the leaping, models have extended lower legs. Look at most fast animals in the real world and you’ll see their legs are similar. The feet have also been enlarged, as they would need to absorb the shock from landing and keep the Tyranid from sinking into soft ground. For a zoology major like myself it’s the little details like this that make Tyranids so much fun to design. It’s easy to envision Deathspitter-armed Warriors hunched over with guns sprouting from their backs like Biovores or Winged Warriors with crested heads, atrophied legs and bladed tails like Gargoyles.

Old Models

Not every old model has to be converted like the Carnifexes to find a role in your army. It’s fine to have a unit of old Hormagaunts running beside the new ones, representing different breeds even if games-wise they’re identical. Perhaps, however, different models can indicate different rules. The three editions of Biovores might each carry different types of Spore Mines, or perhaps the different Zoanthropes have different psychic powers. My personal fluff justification stems from the story of my Hive Fleet as being a relatively small and highly-evolved bunch of Tyranids. I have an old metal Warrior leading each of my units of modern-looking Warriors.

The real

Why would there possibly be mixed appearances within a single brood? The explanation is that these extra-anthropomorphic creatures are more advanced than the others in their brood and act almost as sergeants, providing synapse control which is more tactically developed than that of the average Warrior. Similarly the real “leader” of my swarm is the little old anthropomorphic Tyrant, posed as if surveying the battlefield from atop an outcrop behind his Tyrant Guards while his more bestial winged (4^th edition) brother flaps about and destroys tanks.

The Lictor's original paintjob

In this way the characterful old sculpts make use of their contrast to the more animalistic current models. There’s tons of different ways to integrate these old models into your army, and the most important thing to remember is that they still look great when given a modern coat of paint and perhaps some minor conversions to match your newer models. Take the old Lictor, for example. Can you honestly imagine this wacky thing being taken seriously all the way in the far future of 5^th edition?

Shaving off the protruding lower jaw, the launching Flesh Hooks, and the large knee spikes leaves you with these. Even without any conversion, the models would look great. Take your classics out and give it a shot! They deserve the love.

The old lictors after some conversion and a fresh coat of paint

Come back next week for Apocalypse conversion and Genestealer cults!

Proxied Slann. Not to be confused with a proxied Slaanesh (dildo).

Necrons are cool because they actually some with parts for twice as many soldiers as you’d initially expect.

Oh my god that is too many drop pods. It is silly to have that many drop pods.

Tyranids are an enormously fun army to collect and play. I’ve been a fan of them since back when the newest Warriors were pewter, and Tyranids were always my primary draw to the Warhammer 40,000 universe. In my mind, then, there’s only one thing better than a Tyranid model – and that thing is a converted Tyranid model!

This article shows how Tyranid players can go about converting models, using their old models along with their new ones, and using Apocalypse to go all-out with what the Hive Mind has to offer. While at some points the article may seem as much a photo gallery as a text document, the goal is to show how much the Tyranid army has to offer in every aspect of the game. The same principle applies to any army, however; the hobby doesn’t have to stop at your 2,000 point army list. From expansions to Warhammer 40,000, terrain, specialist games… if you really love the army you’re playing, the possibilities are endless. As you read this article try to think of ways that the general ideas for customization could be applied to your own race.

Hopefully you’ll be inspired to whip out the knife and greenstuff or throw down some old classics you thought might look outdated on the battlefield. For the Great Devourer!

Basic Techniques

When converting Tyranids there’s some tricks that really help. The most important ones, especially when converting from non-Tyranid bitz, are sculpting joins and musculature in the carapace. Before working with greenstuff, I recommend everyone get something like the following tool:

The putty knife is an essential tool for conversions.

It can be found in both Games Workshop and Gale Force Nine sculpting kits, and I’m sure you could either improvise something like it or find a similar item in a craft shop. It has both a flat scalpel-like end and a smooth, rounded end. This is practically the only tool I use when working with greenstuff and it is invaluable.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Tyranids are covered in segmented carapace, much like insects. They have the presumably softer carapace that covers most of their bodies and acts as skin and then a harder carapace (sometimes called chitin) which armors their head, back, and other regions. If you are converting a non-Tyranid limb to fit on a Tyranid it is essential that you carry these features over. Here I show how to add simple features to a Balrog wing so that it fits in with the Tyranid model that will receive it. This may seem basic, but it has been asked about before!

First a simple little sausage of greenstuff is rolled and placed where the join is to be (figure 1). Then, using the rounded end of the tool, the sausage is smoothed into the surrounding skin while the middle retains a ridge. Water is used to keep the tool from sticking (figure 2). If there is too much greenstuff, flatten it out and use the scalpel end of the tool to cut away the excess. Lastly, take the scalpel end and cut down the thickest part of the smeared sausage. Roll the tool out a tiny bit on either side to widen the gap and get a little ridge on either side (figure 3).

Making exposed muscle, as seen on Tyranid limbs, is slightly more complicated but still very simple. Take a ball or sausage of greenstuff and smooth it out as described earlier. Then use the scalpel-end and cut a diamond or oval with pointed ends into the greenstuff (figure 4).

After that, use the tool to make a series of small marks. When these are done you can use the smooth end of the tool to gently round out the corners on the long sides of the diamonds (figure 5).

Here’s a section of limb that uses both a carapace gap and a vent:

Other important Tyranid features are ridges and spiracles (small breathing holes on the head and at the base of the tail). The round end of the tool can be pressed into greenstuff to make regular depressions, easily giving ridges like the official models. Spiracle can be made by making and blending in a sausage, as said earlier, and then poking holes in the sausage. Slowly move the tool around and outward, widening the hole and making a round ridge around it. Here’s a section of model that uses both of these techniques:

All of those should prove extremely useful when working on conversions and trying to keep them “Niddy”. Even more important when sticking true to the established image is the six limb rule. All the Tyranids in the current range (excepting Spore Mines) have six limbs. When adding wings to a model, consider their evolutionary origin. Are they derived from hands, like the Balrog wings? Stick them in an arm slot. Are they derived from armor, like insect wings? Then it’s okay to mount them on the back in addition to the six limbs. Of course Tyranids are infinitely mutable and it’s possible some would have more or less limbs, but it’s considered taboo among many Tyranid converters. If you choose to violate the rule be aware of the fact that it is a large step away from Games Workshop’s established Tyranid imagery and may very well turn a number of people off your conversion. But the choice is ultimately up to you, and if you think it looks cool then go for it!

Extensive Conversions

With those simple techniques you can do a lot with Tyranid models. Tyranids are probably the army with the most extensive conversion possibilities (maybe with the exception of Chaos). Tyranid WYSIWYG is extremely flexible, since things like Enhanced Senses can have any number of appearances. Antennae, extra eyes, organic gun scopes, radar dishes, and elaborate horns are only a few of the ways this biomorph has been portrayed. Why, then, stick with the stock models? Many Tyranid generals go all-out when designing their armies, and every unit has potential for extreme customization. In addition to being fun for you, these models are usually of great interest and envy to opponents (as long as any potential WYSIWYG problems are cleared up in advance!).

If you’ve had the benefit of playing a unit before, think about how it’s used game-wise. I often played an extended carapace, enhanced senses, Barbed Strangler and Venom Cannon Carnifex (often called a Sniperfex) and an enhanced-senses twin-linked Devourer Carnifex (typically known as a Devilfex or Dakkafex). When I went about repainting my army I decided that these models needed a bit of love to denote their veteran status and important contributions to many battlefield victories. If certain purestrain configurations were so successful, certainly the Tyranids would continue evolving them towards perfection, right? Here’s how I went about showing these strains evolving past the standard Carnifex template – don’t consider them conversion tutorials but rather walkthroughs on the thought process behind their design. Take your own model and see where your imagination goes with it.

Reinventing the Sniperfex

In games the Sniperfex typically deploys in cover with good fire lanes and remains relatively stationary, occasionally lumbering out to gain LOS to a certain target. My original model was built from a secondhand pre-assembled Carnifex and I simply tacked on the weapons in the standard fashion.

The original Sniperfex

The first step was to brainstorm what I wanted to do with my revamp. How would the creature evolve to reflect its battlefield role? Because we already have a dedicated artillery beast – the Biovore – that was the obvious place to look for inspiration. After back-mounted cannons were assured, the problem of what to do with the open arm slots arose. I am extremely careful to observe the six-limb rule at all times, and I settled upon a set of ammo-feeding tubes for one set of arms. Originally I wanted to make a set of strong front arms to support the creature, but to quicken the process I settled on scything talons. The first problem with this is that the creature’s weight might push the blades into the ground. To offset this I added a tail grasper (using an old Warrior hand) to presumably grab nearby terrain for stabilization. The other problem is WYSIWYG. I try to follow this as strictly as possible, but I felt the creature’s design made it quite clear that these would not be wieldy in combat. To be sure I consulted my main opponent and ensured that this was fine with him. Like any good opponent, he said of course.

Since the creature usually lurks in cover, I decided to stick an enormous eye on the gun. The eye sockets, then, would have optic nerves feeding back into the carapace and presumably running up to connect to the eye on the cannons. Being mounted on top of the raised weapons would allow it to act as a biological periscope. The eyeless head would then be covered in larger headplates, counting as extended carapace.

Fitting the Sniperfex

After having the main ideas set out the next step was to do a rough fitting. At this point in the converting process I typically hack up all the appropriate bitz, fool around with configurations, and use tiny amounts of Krazy Glue to hold them in place. On the left you can see the result of this fit.

Once the configuration is set, greenstuff is used to secure the parts by gap filling. Next the details are sculpted on top. For this conversion I drew from existing Tyranid aesthetics. The top-rear of the gun has ridges and an eye-design that mimic the Biovore, which was the inspiration for the conversion. The base of the tubes that connect to the Venom Cannon resemble the base of the actual Venom Cannon ammo feed tube. Little details like this, drawn from other models in the range, help keep the conversions consistent with the overall army’s aesthetics.

The Sniperfex assembled

The picture on the right shows the model right before paint. One of the most important things to do is make sure the greenstuffed parts blend into the actual bits as smoothly as possible. I am not amazing with greenstuff – I sometimes get fingerprints and my work is typically far from smooth. My secret to getting it decent? After the greenstuff is hard you can take a knife to your patchy areas. Slice off any major bumps with the blade until it looks tolerably flat. Then run the blade in a scraping motion down the patch, blade facing away from the direction of the scraping, just as if you were removing mold lines. Fine-grain sandpaper will also do the trick. This helps join greenstuffed areas to bitz and smooths over any inconsistencies like fingerprints. When priming and painting, give these areas especially heavy coats. Some details are better left obscured!

Here’s the final model:

Tune in next week as we show off more Tyranid conversions, including the Devilfex and Brutefex!

Total cost: ~$5.00

Materials:

• Plastic cup
• Plastic lining (e.g. garbage bag)
• Plaster (preferably something stronger than plaster of paris)
• Water

Instructions:

This terrain piece is easiest to make for those of you already making plaster casts for other projects. Chances are, you’re going to have some extra plaster at the end. Rather than letting it go to waste, pour the remaining plaster into a small puddle on some plastic lining. Wait for this to harden, and repeat. This will produce the “layered” effect shown. As the plaster hardens in each layer, some of it will drip or ooze down over lower layers. After a couple dozen repetitions, you’ll have a fully-formed “slag tree” ready for painting!

Depending on how much extra plaster you have, you may want to work on two or even three slag trees at a time. If you’re not making plaster casts while doing this, you could make an entire forest in a weekend.

Pictures:

Today we’re starting a new feature (one that will probably last all of 2-3 iterations): Cheap Terrain. Theoretically, this will be a series of articles about cheap (and relatively easy) terrain that YOU TOO can make in your spare time. It’s fun and easy!!! With that out of the way, let’s get on with our first article: Ridiculously easy Tau barricades.

Total cost: $4.00-$7.00

Materials:

• Puzzle ball bank (available from here)

Instructions:

Disassemble the puzzle ball, and reassemble bits of it as shown below. Each individual ball makes one large barricade and two small ones, with two pieces identical to the roof of the large barricade left over. Put a coat of paint on top and add decals to taste.

Pictures: