Hive Fleet Nocturne: Tyranid Prime

So I have grit my teeth and am forcing myself to work on Nids. The point is to focus my attention on the massive model backlog I already possess in order to prevent myself from acquiring new models/armies. For example the new Custodes release is very tempting, especially those jetbike models.

So anyway I decided I needed a Tyranid Prime and sourced the head piece from a bits service. When I finally started working on the model is when I realized that the Prime model also includes extended shoulder and back armour. Rather than waiting I decided to do a delve into a rather extensive Nid bits box and came up with what you see below. I added some of the extra armour pieces to the model's back and used a ripper to represent a snapping tail.

The swords are from the Hive Tyrant kit as I wanted the Prime to have different looking swords than the warriors it leads. They are a little on the large side but mostly work. The hands are a bit large but they do not attract a lot of attention. In recognition of this though I have named this beast Lana.

Lighting for the photos sucks as I just held it under a lamp.

Legio Gryphonicus Reaver Ferrum Ira (banners)

I actually used chain to mount these banners. the hooks on the banner bars are made from the same pinning stock I used to mount Filum Sector's banners. Since Ferrum Ira had a more menacing, shooting pose I felt it would add to the model to have the banners hanging down and looking like they are being rippled by a slow breeze as the titan takes aim.

The Honour Banner hangs a little low but I am not looking forward to trying to re-hook the banner so it is staying there. I expect that it would make a persistence knocking sound as the titan moved. I had thought of a story about a previous Princeps, Devram Soluhn, who had ordered the banner raised prior to his first outing as commander of Ferrum Ira. Unfortunately a series of explosions in a promethium refinery overloaded Ferrum's void shields, meaning that the wild Macro Canon shot fired from an enemy engine encountered no resistance as it traveled straight at the titans cockpit. The entire crew was lost in that single shot, and Ferrum Ira was left as battlefield wreckage until the campaign had been won and it was retrieved and refitted. Pallox Mourve, the current Princeps, had the  banner returned to it's traditional position, fearing that the machine's spirit had been insulted by the actions of the previous Princeps. That single battle with Devram Soluhn is the only time Ferrum Ira had fallen in battle.

I have yet to change the Titan's name on the leg and put it on the scroll work on the carapace. Still this beast is table-top ready. Now will I ever get a chance to field it?
Probably not but I am happy with how my titan maniple has turned out.

Legio Gryphonicus Warhound Filum Sector (with banners)

I am holding off on the Legio banners as they are going to be more work than I want to do for the titans right now. I think I need a bit of a break from such a large project.

The banners for Filum Sector include the two Kill Banners hanging from the weapons and the Honour Banner hanging between the legs. As I had modeled the Warhound as if it is stalking forward I wanted the banners to contribute to the impression of forward movement.

Originally I was going to use fine chain to hang the banners but did not like the options I can up with to get them to hang backwards as if being blown by wind. in truth some low viscosity superglue probably could have provided a fine enough coating to hold the chains in place but I decided to go a different route. Years ago I had purchased some cheap bracelets that were essentially fine metallic springs. So I used wire stock to pin the banners in place and then slid a sheath of wire coil around this to give it a more cabled look. The Kill banners are hanging by magnets and can be easily removed for transport. The Honour Banner is glued in.

Both titans still require decals but again, I want a break from this. This was also a good excuse to try out the new lighting rig I ordered. It can be used for miniature photography too and it seems to have worked fairly well.

Legio Gryphonicus banners (redux)

First I have finally settled on a name for the Reaver based solely on the fact that there is a limit to how many b.s. Latin names I can make up. So the Reaver has been dubbed "Ferrum Ira" or iron Wrath. Short, brutal, but most importantly short. 

I decided to redo the banners as some parts of the original set looked sub-par even by my generous standards. Instead of trying to copy the banner styles from the "Doom of Mymeara" Forge World book, this time I went back to the original source material: the Adeptus Titanicus and Codex Titanicus rule books. This was the first place the War Griffons were ever represented (including several other well known legions such as the Warp Runners and the Tiger Eyes).

The colour plates from the Codex Titanicus rules expansion went over the different type of banners and their iconography. They were a lot more colourful as were the War Griffons colour scheme compared to the relatively muted scheme being used by Forge World currently. So I decided to use this basic format.

Doing banners I now prefer to cheat i.e. us a photocopy or printout of the desired banner and paint that in. This sounds a lot easier than it actually is as there is a lot of fine detail and I usually lack the patience to do these properly. For mine I actually had to construct icons like the Legio "T" and princeps badges so while I did use the pictures of the original banners I also did replace some detail with my own. In truth this way is a simple way to throw together a banner and is equivalent to using transfers to decorate a banner.

The banners are arranged into 3 types:

Weapon kill banners hang from the weapon (no surprise). I used a mixture of colours to represent the heraldry of the individual moderati. The Apocalypse launcher on the Reaver is going to be a bit harder as there really is no way to hang a typical kill banner. I may mark kills on the side of the launcher or design a different banner.

The Legio Order banner is usually flown from a carapace hardpoint. The Legio symbol is nearest the flag pole with the eagle of the Divisio Militaris in the corner. The Imperial aquila is also in black against a yellow background marking the titan's dedication to the Legio Militaris and by extension, the Imperium. For the Reaver's Order banner I also included the Heresy Banner campaign badge earned by the titan during the heresy. It shows a griffon's claw savaging an eye of chaos icon and is given to titans in the order who have faced traitor engines in battle. Usually this is flown as a separate banner but i decided to incorporate it into the Ferrum Ira's Order banner instead in order to make it stand out compared to Filum Sector.

The Honour banner is hung between the titan's legs and incorporates the princeps' rank badge on the banner and displays kill markings for the princeps while piloting this titan. The Ferrum Ira's princeps is a "princeps seniores" as represented by the 12 lug nuts arranged around the badge and the whilte feathers on the legio icon (which have still not been painted in).

The princeps of Filum Sector is more junior and thus currently has the 4 lug nuts earned upon elevation to princeps and awarding of their own command of a battle titan.

The kill markings are as follows. Chaos stars unsurprisingly represent traitor engines; the diamonds represent Eldar titans; the triangles represent ork titans; and the circles represent unknown war engines. And I have just realized that I have to paint over the Chaos kill markings on Filum Sector's Legio banner as this titan does not have the Heresy banner included. Alternatively I can leave the kill markings and just use Ferrum Ira's Legio banner on Filum Sector. Again because of the Apocalypse launcher, mounting a banner on the top of the Reaver is going to look weird. So I was already considering having the Legio banner on Filum Sector only so this may be the easier solution.

Below I included shots of the banners as print outs and the painted versions (except the Honour banners, they are just the print outs). Still not the fine job I would prefer but see my above comment about my patience and the lack of it. I have started the mountings for the banners and will put up shots when they are completed. There is a shot of the magnet housing pieces that I carved and used (from plastic tubing). They will all be magnetized as I only want two kill banners per titan and they have to interchange with all of the weapon options.

Legio Gryphonicus Reaver (more shots)

Just a few more shots of the Reaver from different angles and showing all of the painted weapon systems for it. I am really disappointed that you can not equip the Volcano canon on the carapace mount in the Reaver's rule book entry.

I have not done any decal work yet and have to plan out the banners for this titan. I will probably complete these as well as a set for the Warhound as I wanted to rework some parts of those. I have yet to settle on a  a name for this titan that I like. Currently it is "Furore Imperatoris" which is most likely a shitty online translation for "Fury of the Emperor" but I find this name too generic and boring.

Both titans will have honour banners hanging between their legs and kill banners for the weapons. I am debating if I also want to add the Legio banners on to the carapaces of the titans. These may look neat but I will have to plan those out, especially the Reaver as it may have to be mounted either on or behind the Apocalypse launcher.

I was also playing with the idea of making a bas relief set of legio icons and casting them up to use instead of decals in some areas. To this end I managed to track down griffon head bits from the AoS GW line and may use these as the griffon heads in the icons. Still thinking about it though.

Anyway here is the Reaver ready for table top use at the very least.

Legio Gryphonicus Reaver

Been more than a year since the last update. My apologies. In short work has had some rather serious issues that have upended everything really. By June things should be more or less back to normal.

This Christmas break I started painting the Reaver and dedicated about 6 weeks in total getting it to this point which is essentially table top quality. I still have the banners and decals to do but I need a break from working on this model.

For anyone who cares, this was all brush work as with the Warhound. I tried painting in other details  on the flat parts and some of it works for me (on the twin engine cowlings at the back-top of the carapace) and some doesn't (on the yellow "gorget" under the head). But there is good, then there is good enough. Nice to see you again "Good Enough". You always make things easier.

All painting used GW paints and some Vallejo metallics. I will do a better photo shoot of the model once I glue in some of the missiles in the launcher.