Monday, 10 March 2025

Oldschool "Epic" Tyranid Trygon

I thought it would be cool to play a big game (approx. 3,500 pts.) with the Retro-Nids this summer. However, I still have to paint some of the medium-sized crawlers and one or two larger monsters are still missing. 

I've fantasised about a Trygon for a while now - in the classic style! They exist for Epic 40,000, but unlike some other Epic monsters, there was no miniature of them from Armorcast. I came across a picture of a raw model from Armorcast on the Modern Synthesist blog, but it didn't go into series production: 

http://www.modernsynthesist.com/2012/02/tyranid-archive-armorcast-tyranids-and.html

However, the community has not been idle and there are print files for some of the old monsters. I was also able to find some of the Trygon! 

https://cults3d.com/en/users/CaitSidhe/3d-models

For me, however, there was a catch - the mouth. It just looks strange and doesn't fit in with the other minis. I have no idea whether this is the case with the Epic models. In any case, the raw model from Armorcast suggests a normal mouth. 

I have only very modest 3D modelling skills and I don't get on at all with Blender, for example. To make some progress here, I took the mouth part of a ripper and used it to roughly replace the beak in the original file. I would bend the rest with modelling clay.


I'm quite happy with the result and after a little more sanding I can apply the primer.



Sunday, 23 February 2025

Iron Warriors - Daemon Prince

The Iron Warriors needed a leader and so I decided on a Daemon Prince. Such a monstrous, winged creature will hopefully strike fear into my opponents.



Monday, 17 February 2025

Iron Warriors - Castellan Rhinos

I was planning to use two Rhinos as mobile transports for my Iron Warriors. I initially wanted to use normal Rhinos and convert them. I was about to buy two second-hand Rhinos but then changed my mind. On the one hand, it would cost dozens of euros. On the other hand, it would mean a lot of work.

Whilst researching alternatives, I came across the Castellan Rhinos from the Iron Warriors, which I had not heard of before. I even found some nice files to make these transporters a printed reality. It is breathtaking to see what is possible to make even with a cheap FDM printer. Apart from the smoke launchers and the hatch with the bolter, nothing is original.