# Rebirth of the Hive



## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

If you didn't know, I was gone from the hobby for a while. By which I mean about two years. But after a long sleep, the time... time has come. 

I'm starting fresh. All of my old armies and models are gone or on their way out, leaving me free to commit myself wholly to this new swarm. 


I'm going all out this time, whereas before i would convert a few special models in the army, this time around I'm converting THE LOT. 

You may think I'm crazy for this, but that ship sailed years ago. BEHOLD! 










Ten termagants to start me off, each and every one reposed and converted to look more dynamic than the standard. I used the hormagaunt bodies for ease of cutting and regluing and the gargoyle fleshborers because they are more outstretched. This was a couple night's work, but if I can replicate the effort I'll have myself a decent block of troops to show for it.  

A simultaneous priority was the army leader, and for this I went with tradition and obtained a Hive Tyrant. 










The weapon selection was the standard scything talons with a lash whip and bonesword. I also added wings for increased movement and increased awesome. 

The third addition was a tervigon, one that can fulfill either HQ or troops depending on the build. Contrary to my initial boast, there is no modification on this model just yet. The reason is I haven't been able to think of anything worth adding just yet, besides which the model is suitably appearing as it is for its purpose. Maybe I'll add a crest or something later on.  











I am thinking I'll build the list to be generally a long range firepower based list, but the tyrant is and always will be at his best in close combat and support, so I didn't want to mess with that for the sake of the theme. 


For the next priority I'll probably look at expanding the gaunt brood. Any thoughts so far?


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

Serpion5 said:


> I also added wings for increased movement and increased awesome.


Ha!

I love the Termagaunts, the poses are great haha The Hive Tyrant could have something like a brood of Tyrant Guard or maybe some Warriors with him, which would help with the melee punch he could pack. But then again I don't know if the Tyrant Guard are useful or not haha

For the Tervigon have you thought about doing something with the spines and outer plates? Like make it look like this particular Tervigon has see countless wars by chipping bits off of the spines or cutting gashes or scorch marks into his outer carapace?

Great work so far!


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Looking good so far mate, nice clean work.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Magpie_Oz said:


> Looking good so far mate, nice clean work.


Thank you.  


A boring update, but an update nonetheless. 










More of the gaunts being constructed, this time I was forced to dismantle some old half finished gargoyles to scavenge the fleshborers I needed to affix to the hormagaunt bodies. There were no spare sprues to scavenge from a friend this time around. 

The bases are upside down while the zapagap holding the magnets in place dries. Every base, like before has some small scenery on it, whether just slate or parts from the resin basing kit. All of them will also be based with a sand/slate mix like the tyrant and tervigon above.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

My Tyrant Guard. 



















I despise the actual tyrant guard models, so I used Hive Guard instead and affixed Tyranid Warrior Scything Talons and Hive Tyrant Carapace plating instead. The pose is better, and I found them much easier to assemble than the normal models would have been. 










I also added a venomthrope. In order to make use of the extra lash whips elsewhere, I replaced the lower limb set with spare scything talons left over from the hormagaunt sprues I used to make my termagants. This one was an experiment, I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. I will most likely add at least one unit to the army, possibly two if I can spare the elite slot.


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

Serpion5 said:


> I despise the actual tyrant guard models, so I used Hive Guard instead and affixed Tyranid Warrior Scything Talons and Hive Tyrant Carapace plating instead. The pose is better, and I found them much easier to assemble than the normal models would have been.


Looks good haha I could hardly tell the difference in the first picture. What Hive Fleet were they going to belong to again?


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Ddraig Cymry said:


> Looks good haha I could hardly tell the difference in the first picture. What Hive Fleet were they going to belong to again?


I have yet to decide on a colour scheme, but it will probably be a custom design rather than an existing scheme.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Swarmlord.  



















In order to make it closer to the artwork, I acquired four of the normal boneswords rather than the pitiful bonesabres that the citadel kit would have us use. I swapped the blades on the two left hand arms and shifted the position on one of the right ones to have it lowered. The right leg is the normal leg, the left leg is one of the flying tyrant legs cut down to the hoof level. The crest consists of two of the bonesabre blades cut down at different points. The mandible spikes are the body spikes from the trygon kit. 

The split tail was achieved by using the spare from my earlier Hive Tyrant, on which I swapped for the flying tail tip. 

The slate was a starting point to slightly elevate him above a normal Hive Tyrant. I will add a bit more detail to his base at a later stage.


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

Have you thought about putting some corpses around his feet or anything like that?


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Ddraig Cymry said:


> Have you thought about putting some corpses around his feet or anything like that?


I usually try to avoid things like that, unless I can keep them generic.


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## revilo44 (Sep 17, 2010)

Nice work so far serpion. What else are having you having in your hive?


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

revilo44 said:


> Nice work so far serpion. What else are having you having in your hive?


My next additions will be a warrior prime and a brood of warriors. Beyond that I'm not so sure. Definitely more venomthropes and more warriors, and I'm contemplating another tervigon and another brood of gaunts as well. The tervigons are less for spawning and more for support, as the catalyst and onslaught powers are beyond useful. 

I want to avoid going overboard with the diversity of the list to prevent too much division. My chosen niche is lots of hard hitting firepower, for that I need numbers and guns. I will tinker with the supporting units as i test the army, but at the moment my main drive is the ability to put out masses of anti infantry firepower with a few monsters to lend close combat support where I need it.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

The Warrior Brood: 










I elected for Spinefists and Scything Talons. My main motivation is because I have not fielded warriors with spinefists before and I'm curious to see their effectiveness with the additional shots. The guns are twin linked, allowing for rerolls even beyond the scope of a potential supporting Hive Tyrant. The scything talons are the spares from the Hormagaunts. Mainly because I intend to use the larger ones elsewhere. :wink: 

The Tyranid Prime: 










I used Lictor legs and tail as the basis to add detail. After this I attached the Warrior's midsection and torso and built from there. The lower arms are simple spinesfists, again to test their effectiveness with additional shots and bolster the firepower of the warrior brood that this fellow will lead. The upper limbs are the normal scything talon arms with the blades removed at the base of the wrist. I replaced these with saurus warrior hands, and from their affixed one of the spare venomthrope lash whips and one of the extra bonesabres. While the sabre was a terrible modelling choice (imo) for the swarmlord itself, it makes an impressive addition to a warrior sized model. The extra carapace on its head are the spiked plates again from the Hive Tyrant kit.


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