I blame Glyn.

At least partially.

After running my Death Guard for many years (but slowly building up a set of Beastmen for LatD), I decided it was time for a change for a second army, and decided Tyranids would make a nice contrast.

Digging around a bit, it turned out that I already had the start of a force, either remnants of my abortive 2nd edition force, or models picked up because they were nice:











Plus a couple of plastic 40k Gargoyles, another Trygon and a shedload of metal and plastic Rippers (originally destined for 15mm SF use).

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Then the conversions started.

On the left is a plastic Ripper, with no conversion work needed for use as a Zoanthrope, while on the right is another Ripper for use as a Biovore.






Then the first plastic 40k Gargoyle as a Harridan, with a Ripper head replacing the original, and the arms removed completely.








I also managed to snag a cheap set of Epic Gargoyles on eBay, 50 loose ones for about £5. As they look bleeping stupid when lined up on a standard base, I decided they should be flying around.

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Also tucked away were some slicey slicey boys. One of the reasons why I started Nids when they first came out in Epic!












Group shot of everything that had been assembled by this point, with Vallejo Sandy Paste on the bases:

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Then it was back to the Harridans. The plastic Ripper head on the beige one got removed for being too wide, and replaced with a FW Ripper head that was lying around. The guns are 40k Dark Eldar Splinter Rifle barrels.










I also picked up a bunch of Onslaught and DiD stuff from John, and added in a 40k Genestealer Familiar as a Broodlord. Note the Squat on the Harridan base, running as fast as his cute widdle legs will carry him!




Arranged into a Minigeddon force (using a tweaked version of the FERC Nid list), with the 15mm DiD bugs as Carnifexes with the Hive Tyrant, and the Screamer-Killers as Haruspexes with the Trygon.

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The second Trygon was unpainted, but needed serious amounts of work as the middle section had been glued in upside down, and there were very prominent mould lines all over...








Another group shot, including the Kryomek resin pieces as objective markers:




I think I lost the first Minigeddon game against Blip's Marines, but the charge of the Trygon and Haruspexes was a joy to behold - they wiped an untouched Tactical formation!

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The second batch of basing was done.




I also picked up a spire, cheap on eBay, but hadn't realised how big it would be . - it's one of the Micro Art Studio foamed resin pieces and it's huge! So scenery rather than objective marker...

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Then it was time for bigger gribblies!

40k Hormogaunts as Scythed Hierodules. As with the Harridans, the original heads have been replaced with ones from Rippers. I also swapped out the small middle limbs for more scything claws, and added some cut up Devourers over the heads to represent the bio-acid sprays.




















And a scale comparison shot:

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Then it was time to apply paint! I couldn't bear to remove the old paint job on the Tyrant, so he got masked with clingfilm and just the base undercoated. His green skin will probably be left as-is, but I'm not sure about the rest.






As the aim with this force was to make the painting easy enough that they'll actually get painted in a reasonable time, I went for white undercoat followed by a wash of Nuln Oil for undershading, to be followed with quick glazes for colour:

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And here are the test pieces. The skin is just the undercoat with Nuln Oil.

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Some Minigeddon games followed, against Resa F's Mechanicus and darkangeldentist's Dark Angels.









The Harridan caused a fair amount of damage in combat, but with only 2DC (unlike the NetEA and EpicUk versions) we realised that all the Macro attacks were the result of the corpse crash-landing on the enemy infantry after getting shot down by small arms fire...

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I then worked out a way to do some easier Biovores, basically 40k Termagant Fleshborers with legs:




And the Hierodule Prime got a plaything.

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Then it was time for more painting, including RHINO SMASH and his Slicey Bois.

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Sweet.

The ‘nids seem to have so much potential for conversions in epic.

Where are those eggs in the first post from?

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Thanks,
Troy


Once Upon a Midnight Dreary....

Looking great. Can't wait to see them across the battlefield.

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NetEA Ork + Feral Ork + Speed Freak Champion

looks really fun, good stuff

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs