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…

Part of what makes this project tricky is the 3 color Ice Camo that goes on all the vehicles of this army. It starts with a white base coat, then true blue,

then the final coat is GW’s Ice Blue. So, to keep things simple, I primed white.

Then I arranged the primed pieces and laid down strips of silly putty.

The great thing about the silly putty is it molds itself into all the cracks and crevices of the model. Masking tape is great for sharp crisp lines on relatively flat, featureless surfaces, but it doesn’t work at all on tanks or models with a lot of 3D detail. The putty is perfect, because it sinks into all the cracks by itself.

I sprayed on the next coat of color.

then laid down more silly putty.

And now the final color.

The tricky part about using the silly putty is that paint never dries on it. Since the putty has a lot of moisture, it acts almost like a wet pallette. So you’ve got to be careful when removing the putty. If you smear it or roll it, you’ll end up transferring paint onto a different part of the model. I find that using only one hand to touch the putty and the other hand to hold the pieces works great; then just make sure to lift the putty straight up into the air.

All done with the base coat!

Next, I wanted to do hazard stripes on the inside of the ramps. I had already sprayed the outer edges with Ice Blue, so I used masking tape to cover that part up.

Then another layer of white was applied. Since yellow was going to be the first layer, I wanted a solid base to go under it. Spraying yellow is easier than painting yellow, but not by a whole lot.

With the yellow sprayed, I then washed the ramps in Gryphonne Sepia, and carefully applied masking tape.

Then some black paint via the airbrush…

Once the tape is removed, it looks great!

For the harnesses and the engine, it was a simple matter of spraying metallic silver, then spraying on a wash of Badab black.

I also painted metallic gold onto the eagles and the details lining the fins, and metallic silver onto the grates inside the floor.

After this, it was a pretty simple matter of highlighting and shading. I shaded with Badab Black ink and a fine brush. This shot shows the basic ink; I then went back with Ice Blue to keep the shading thin and even.

One trick I’ve found that works very well is to use colored pencils to apply the highlighting or hardlining to models. A brush is great for sharp angles, 90 degrees or more, but for more shallow angles, it’s hard to apply a thin enough line. The colored pencil does it perfectly, every time. The downside is that the colored pencil is easy to rub off, so be careful when handling the model.

Now I’ve got all the pieces painted!

I won’t lie, assembling this thing was a bitch. I found the easiest way to do it was by putting a few of the fins on, and the turbine, then attaching the other fins one piece at a time. Be patient and let glue dry between each piece, otherwise everytime you move one piece, you’ll mess up the others.

The airbrush made this a very easy project to paint. I cut out the pieces from the sprue on a Friday. primed everything Friday night, and started painting on Saturday. I was finished on Tuesday. Hopefully this helps out some other modellers, and I’ll be happy to answer questions in the comments.

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