Thursday, February 13, 2014

Just when you thought the Tyracrons were done....

"Bring me that fellow's head. I'll be taking my tea in the parlour."

In the spirit of taking my ideas back from Forge World, I decided to make a couple of nasty death machines to fill out my gleaming multi-legged horde. You'll be delighted to know that you too, can have a metal centipede for the mere price of three sets of Wraith legs and three sets of Wraith bodies (and a smattering of other bits). 


My first foray was this scuttling fellow, the rather underarmed Tomb Stalker. The real thing costs you about twice as much as the parts I found on eBay ($36 all told for the legs and bodies). I had the Necron arms, and the basis for the head plating was from a Warmachine Cryx model, although you could use anything suitably knobby enough (or, if you're feeling flush, a Spider or Wraith head). I can't imagine why FW thought a pair of infantry guns was a good idea instead of, say, the better Heat Ray, Death Ray, or a Storm Cryptek haywire thingie. And, to keep with the fluff, it needs to be able to assault from DS/reserves. (as do most Tyranids, who also don't, correct me if I'm wrong). At least the toughness is there, although they also nerfed the number of attacks from the prototype. Oh well. 


He's super bloody long. I mean really long. Plus, I ran out of legs for the back section, which is why I was forced to use Necron Warrior arms. As a result, he has this sort of lobster tail ending in a Tomb Spider claw:


While the pose is alright, he's less than as serpentine as I wanted, and I realized too late that I should've built him along a wire spine. Nonetheless, he came out so well that I ordered up parts for another one....

Despite having fewer CC attacks, he manages to come off looking like more of a close combat monster than the first one. He also has a nice steel spine courtesy of a wire coat hanger, so his pose is far more bendy-twisty:


Not to mention the excellent posture that a spine brings. I also ordered a set of Tomb Spider legs, which brought the price up to.... within $20 of the FW kit. Still cheaper than you FW, so sorry. I like mine better as well. He's brawnier, has glowy bits and nasty claws, and doesn't have those stupid looking antennae. I was less lazy with the basing, too, due to my having rediscovered a container full of skulls from my undead Skaven army build. 


Still short enough to get some cover, too, but tall enough to lay into a Leman Russ with that otherwise useless strength-test cannon. Wait a minute, the Necrons are doing something better than the Tyranids here? Put him in a list with Mad Doc Grotsnikk and you can give him a Cybork body with a 5+ inv save to go along with It Will Not Die. 

Except when someone shoots their entire army at it, It Will Die, but oh, he's one hell of a distraction. Advance him behind an Ork Boyz screen and he'll get there, alright. Hm....

Someone doesn't quite understand who's in charge here. Can you guess whom?

8 comments:

Mordian7th said...

Absolutely gorgeous, man - Fantastic kitbashing!

Myself, I think the Daleks are in for a rough time of it! :)

Mark said...

I think so too. The Daleks are big on confidence, but not common sense. ;)

Danthulhu said...

Awesome work! Was there a lot of difficulty in cutting some of the body sections of the wraiths?

Would a box of wraiths and a box of tomb spyders provide and adequate number of parts to attempt this?

Mark said...

Nope. Most of them didn't require cutting. Just some sanding and gap-filling after.

They should. By all means buy the parts from bits resellers on eBay and save yourself a chunk of change, though!

Anonymous said...

I don't suppose you could post a parts list or instructions or something? This is absolutely fantastic.. much better looking than the original IMO.

Mark said...

Well, Anon, you buy three Wraith kits, one extra set of Tomb Spider legs, and a resin Warmachine Warjack head (it makes the best head mount for the gun/head bits) and then string them together along a length of metal coat hanger twisted to whatever serpentine shape you want. You'll need to trim down the sections a bit to fit, and then fill in any visible gaps with putty or wire bits.

Then paint and inflict on the nearest unfortunate victim!

Anonymous said...

Wow, it's really that simple? The idea and execution are fantastic. I was thinking of getting the FW model but this conversion looks better IMO. Very nice, and thanks for the summary!

Mark said...

Thanks man, and you're welcome!