VITAL STATISTICS		click to enlarge
Game System:	Warhammer 40,000
Army:	Tyranids
Type:	Gaunts
Build Time:	1 hour (per brood of 8)
Dok's Rivit Rating:

COMPONENTS LIST Code Component Qty • 99380106002 Plastic Tyranids Termagant Sprue 2 • 9947010603402 Tyranid Lictor Flesh Hooks 8   Buy Complete Kit   ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS Code Component Qty • 99380106001  Plastic Tyranids Hormagaunt Sprue 2 • 99380106003 Plastic Tyranids Bio-morph Sprue 3 • 99380106004 Plastic Tyranids Monstrous Arms Sprue 8

TOOLBOX • Knife • Files • Polystyrene cement

DESCRIPTION

Phil Kelly Games Developer

Following the success of the Tyranids Bio-weapons article, found in Chapter Approved, we decided to get Phil Kelly to explain how he created his bio-mutations. We've added them to Convershun Klinic so that we might all include them in our Tyranid swarms.

Phil: The conversions for this model were as simple as I could realistically make them – I was on a really tight deadline for a game in which I wanted to try the bio-weapons out, and I wanted something that could easily be reproduced time and time again for anyone who wanted to put together a whole squad of Weapon-Gaunts.

The spike rifle Gaunt was made by clipping off a set of plastic flesh hooks from the Tyranid Warriors frame and trimming off the part that fits flush to the Tyranid Warrior’s chest so that I had a few loose barbed spikes (we suggest, as a cheaper alternative, you use the individual metal flesh hooks taken from the Lictor). I took a normal Termagant equipped with a fleshborer, assembled in the usual way. The barbed spikes were then glued carefully to the front of the fleshborer, using a couple of bits of Blu-tack at the hurty end of the spikes to make sure they actually glued in the position I wanted to achieve. Just for a bit of variety I cut down the ‘magazine’ of the fleshborer, trimmed most of it away and glued it back on – it has different ammunition after all. One paint job later and I had a vicious-looking spike rifle.

The strangleweb Weapon-Gaunt was only a little more complex. I started with a Hormagaunt body assembled in the usual way, but instead of giving him scything talons I equipped him with a devourer, cutting off the triangular barrel section of the devourer and filing it back to the chitinous plates on top. The barrel was then replaced by snipping off the end of a venom cannon – just behind where the barrel flares – and gluing it to the stump of the devourer. You might want to file down the devourer stump until it is roughly the same dimensions as your venom cannon barrel end. Notice how the ridged vanes marry up from the different weapons – this should help you get it into position.

As an optional finishing touch, you might want to cut off another chitinous plate from the end of a spare fleshborer barrel, or plate taken from the Bio-morph sprue, and glue it to the top of the venom cannon section. I found this ties the two weapon pieces together nicely. After you’ve painted them up you can get on with the serious business of strangling and skewering. And what could be more fun than that?

Note: The quantities shown above will supply you with enough components to build a brood of eight Termagants with spike rifles. The components listed in the Additional Suggestions will provide sufficient parts to build eight Gaunts with Hormagaunt bodies, equipped with stranglewebs.

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