Tyranid BFG – More ships and Design Philosophy

In my last post, I showed off the members of my Tyranid fleet that I could make with just spare bits. However, I did not have the materials to make something as big as a Hive Ship and I quickly ran out of flying bases.

To badly paraphrase Tolkien, “the fleet grew with the building.”

It’s sort of out of control because I’ve been ordering lots of bitz from ebay to shore up where I was deficient.

Now, here are the latest additions:

First, some Krakens with torpedoes.

Next, Krakens with Feeder Tentacles

I added on to one of the previous cruisers to model its torpedoes and add some antennae.

Now, for the chonky bois: Hive Ships! My first has 8 Launch bays and 8 Torpedoes. It is a bit hard to see with the grey, but the underbelly is studded with Genestealer armor plates that represent orifices from which lifeforms can launch and/or be born.

Next, this Hive Ship has nothing but Pyro Acid to make sure that I don’t immediately lose against Eldar.

There’s more to come, but before I share them, I wanted to touch on the design philosophy I am adhering to during this project:

1. All ships will be made with plastic bitz from the Games Workshop Tyranid line. No finecast (too bendy) and no pewter (too heavy). Epoxy putty sculpting is acceptable only to fix flaws in the conversion process (this is a kitbashing project, NOT a sculpting project).
2. Ships with different armaments will look noticeably different to aid in play (i.e. no using generic looking craft and using “counts as” to explain their weapon loadout)
3. Hive drones will use the Termagant or Hormagaunt bodies as a base, but all other ships will lack uniformity from class to class or type to type. This makes the fleet more visually diverse.
4. Ships must be converted in ways that do not look easy or cheap. (i.e., no pinning a Fleshborer to a flying base and calling it an escort)
5. Ships must look like they can navigate in the void. (i.e. they must have some sort of thruster looking area and ways to turn. They must look like they belong in the void.)
6. No wings. Only Eldar can sail the solar winds. Nids are nowhere near that graceful.

Using these guidelines, I hope to have a final fleet of:

• 2 Hive Ships
• 4 Cruisers
• 24 Hive Drones
• 7 Vanguard
• 16 Krakens

Note that as I acquire more bitz from low-cost auctions and/or get more flying bases that these numbers can be adjusted upwards.

Next: the last of the Tyranid fleet for now and the beginning of painting them, plus painting Primaris and updates on other projects!