My lazy Tyranid Prime conversion, Part 1....

Before you finish painting me, can I count as a Prime if you just write "Army Leader" on my base?   All the other Hormagaunts would think I'm so cool...

Part of the challenge of putting together a glorious Hive Fleet (like the Turbo-Ants, for instance) is that you need to convert just about everything.

Now for those of us like me, who lack not only talent but also creativity, this.... isn't good.  Especially if the model in question has no concept art in the codex (everyone knows a Tervigon is just a pregnant Carnifex).

Now since I'm still under 1,000 points of Turbo-Ants, if I ever manage to play a game, it's going to be a Prime leading the carnival. So I better come up with one.  Daddy doesn't proxy.  Unless it's convenient.

So here are my goals:

1) A Prime is a warrior, so figure something out that uses a Warrior base

2) It needs to be differentiated, so somehow figure out how to bulk it up and make it look more impressive than the other warriors

3) You don't actually know what you're doing, do you?  Stop crying, you're embarrassing both of us.  Magnetize that business and at least your errors won't be irreversible.

Paddy O'Lanterns the Irish-dancing Hormy says, "Let's make some errors that are irreversible!"

So before I post what I ended up with as a model, let me point out a couple points of my process:





I'd like my Prime to have a bonesword and lashwhip, pretty much no matter what.  Never mind the instant death threat, that's useless, but power weapon + force initiative 1 is a pretty decent loadout for something with that stat line for 95 points.  I'd toss in a deathspitter too, if I'm tossing him in shooty warriors, which I probably never will.

Games Workshop does not make it easy for me, the consumer, to have a Tyranid Prime with the optimal loadout.  Never mind that there's no Prime model, I need to buy a Tyrant to get lash whips or boneswords?  And I potentially want a unit of 5 Shrikes with those?  That's hilarious!

I better figure out a way to convert that shiitake mushroom that's inexpensive, relatively quick and not soul-crushingly difficult or boring.  But that requires creativity, which I think I said I don't have...


Making a Tyranid Prime

Okay, let's start with the easy part... I want a prime with BS and LW, and also I want the Swarmlord, who has 4 boneswords.  So if I magnetize everything, I just need.... a lot of boneswords?

Well, I have lots of big scything talons from the monstrous arms kit that came with the warriors... so I'm going to make 4 boneswords out of those by cutting them in half and flipping them around.  They'll all be the same, so that takes care of the Swarmlord.

I'm also going to rob the Tyrant kit (if Santa brings it to me) of its bonesword and Lashwhip, and eventually give them to my prime.  Probably.

But in the meantime, I can convert one (hilariously oversized) bonesword out of a MC talon, to give to my prime.  But what about that lashwhip?

The internet strikes again!


I had seen a post, somewhere, of someone using the Trygon headpieces to make shields for warriors to convert to Tyrant Guard.  I thought this would be a perfect lashwhip conversion.  Let me explain:

Lashwhips reduce the opponent to init 1.... just like charging someone in cover.  I could argue that my Prime's tower shield works exactly like cover in an assault except that he can reposition it each round to maintain that initiative penalty.  Oh, and if he's assaulting something in cover?  It soaks up all those shots so that he can be on even footing with them.

Of course, that's just fluff, and I can make a counts-as lashwhip out of whatever the hell I want, according to the rules.

Pictured: Fluff.  Or a Lashwhip, if that's what I want it to be.
Also, never google image search 'fluff'.  You'll see a lot of Space Wolf beards in compromising situations.

It also really bulks up the model, like I wanted.  I'll even show you, in the next post!

UP NEXT:

More of my lazy Prime conversion!

Also:

That tequila bottle looks exactly like the bottle of olive oil in our kitchen.  This has led to mistakes of a terrible nature.