Sunday, March 28, 2010

Tyracron Update: Harpies!



Two Harpies for the Tyracron army. I thought of calling them Banshees, but the nomenclature would confuse people further as to what army I was playing (the Void Dragon!) For some reason these two took longer to kick out than usual, but I'm pleased with the result. Somehow I thought they'd be less coppery, but the paint scheme  just worked out that way.  At the last minute I also decided to  leave the forelegs and wings unglued. They're on some pretty long/thick pins anyway, so I can disassemble them for packing, and the sockets hold them rather snugly, to boot. I thought about magnetizing them, but after some experimenting the weight was distributed such that they'd rotate downwards out of position, without fail. 




Most people would say those gaping openings on the destroyer skirts are hover-thrusters, although the truth is on the Harpy they function more as intakes, to allow greater airflow over his heat exchangers. The "wings" are field radiators, allowing him to pitch and pivot in midair like a wasp. Pinning also has the extra perk of making them posable, so I can swing the talons up into attack position (as above), or back for some cruising; 




Harpies Zero-One and Zero-Two aren't completely identical; I only had one plastic Wraithlord head and prices were to high to justify another, so I used an oblong airplane fuselage part, plasticard, and some green stuff instead. Tyranids are suppose to have biomorphs to suit their needs anyway, right? Zero-One's thorax is also different, too:




The jet fuselages I used from the thorax were at the waaaay bottom of a box of Gundam and other plastics, and this one was missing a bit on the bottom. Luckily this Carnifex tail end fits nicely. I figured the thorax was more for storing its load of Spore Mines; although for Necrons they'd be what? Floating skulls surrounded by ghost-fire, most probably. Zero-Two doesn't have this spiny biomorph ( I only had one of the 'Fex bits; these were all from a bits lot) which makes him more aerodynamic, I suppose:




From the heavy hydraulics on those wings, this monster probably uses them as forelegs when it lands, balancing on his forward four limbs. Really, I should've put longer limbs in the back, since insects commonly use those to push themselves along. (the middle two are for shifting weight forward and balance, and the forward ones for sensing)  The Warmachine talons (glued, not pinned) worked much better in the back, adding to the hunched- over look I wanted.  I think the arrangement gives it a more aggressive forward posture. It probably spends most of its operational life floating around anyway.


How's the army shaping up? Well, as you can see, from the usual suspects: 




That poor fellow on the far right is a vintage Mk I Necron trooper. I scored a big lot of them when I was first building my Necron army, and refitted most with new Warrior heads so they'd blend in. Now they'll have wimpy Termagaunt stats and no WBB...




But there will be swarms of them (providing my Tervigon generation rolls work out). For the record, I decided to frame my initial buildout around Stelek (of YTTH fame)'s Peekaboo list, which is comprised of :


Two Hive Tyrants with Heavy Venom Cannons
Four Zoanthropes in two teams of two, in Mycetic Spores
Deathleaper
Two Tervigons
Two Harpies
Twenty Gaunts (two squads of ten) 
Two Mawlocs


Or, if you want to use the Tyracron names:


Two Tomb Tyrants with Heavy Gauss Cannons
Four Zoancrons, in two teams of two, in Mycetic Crypts
Deathleaper
Two Tervicrons
Two Banshees
Twenty Necron Warriors
Two Void Serpents


How's that for sticking with a theme? 


So moving forward, next on my build list are the Tervigons (Tervicrons) and Hive (Tomb) Tyrants. Trygon/Mawloc bits are scarce on eBay right now, and I need to sell some more items to raise building funds anyway. Other monsters I want to make are Tyrannofexes (I love the stat line and weapons loadouts) and the essential Hive Guard  (guns that need no LoS? Yes please!) but I'll shoot for completing one army list and supplementing more monsters for other lists later. 


My thoughts on the Tervicrons are for a spider-like creature with an immense gate generator for a thorax. The Necrons don't come from larvae, but rather gate in en masse from their tombs. While I would've loved to make some sort of giant transport beast, the randomness of Gaunt generation means there's a semi-infinite amount you could make, with fortunate rolling. So, rather then them unfolding from a rack like Battle Droids (although that would be cool) the Tervicron opens a gate directly back to the tombs and out they walk, ready to fight. If I knew more about wiring light-up bits, I'd make cool light-up gate generators...

12 comments:

Sytus said...

Really nice Harpie-I mean, uh, yeah, Harpies.

Really, though, I am loving this whole "Tyracron" thing you have here.
I particularly like the name "Void Serpent" for the Mawlocs.
-Sytus

zealot said...

Looking fantastic!

Mark said...

Thanks dudes! I'm really getting into the army, and as long as I don't get sidetracked by other projects (like the Storm Raven) hopefully I'll keep this one rolling along.

Space Hulk Enthusiast said...

That's a gorgeous conversion.

SandWyrm said...

Fantastic Looking!

Dethtron said...

wow, the harpies look like your best tyracrons yet. nicely done.

Anonymous said...

This army is positively inspiring - great work!

Mark said...

@Prof Eldritch: Thanks! I'm having second thoughts about the Harpy bases, though. After using them in battle a couple of times, I might move them to ovals.

Josh said...

Beautiful beautiful! Just incredible!!

Dude said...

Hey. Love the conversions. I was just wondering what you used for the bodies of the harpies?

Dude said...

Hey. Love the conversions, a really interesting idea. I was just wondering what you used for the bodies of the harpies?

Mark said...

@Dude: the bodies are Carnifex torsos with the "shield" of a Destroyer body welded on there, and the thorax is a small scale model plane fuselage. (I figure it also makes a nice "tomb" for the Tomb Scythe).

If I ever make 3 more for a Cron Air list, I plan to use the huge talon from a Triarch Stalker for a more scythe-looking thorax. I'd probably sub out Stalker legs for the WM ones as well.