# Tyranid Bastion



## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Having just joined heresy-online there would be little point in doing a retrospective step-by-step of my Tyranid Bastion that I've been making since May. So I might as well just showcase the final result and point you to my blog, where there are more pictures and the step-by-step should you feel inclined to try and have a go. There is a foamboard template availbele on the site for the core structure, everything else after that - lemonade bottles, polystyrene, air-drying clay, Milliput, GW moonscape craters and Tyranid weapons, string, beads and lavastones, you'll have to source yourself. 

Altogether I think this cost me £10-£15 although some bits I already had and wasn't using so actual bought items were nearer the lower number. It weighs just short of 1kg and was made and painted over 2 months but given the monotonous nature I don't think I spent more than 60-90 minutes at a time making it and there was only two weeks of solid progress every night, the other 6-7 weeks were a night here, a night there. I would say it was a challenge, but not overly difficult, I think anyone could achieve this with only a little skill but obviously a bit of time and a lot of patience.

If you want to know more there's a link to the blog at the bottom. I'll be preparing a basic Armies on Parade board next that this will feature on but eventually I hope to work up some Capillary Towers for my next Tyranid terrain.





































http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/nids-part-97-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt18.html


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Awesome work, great idea.

The step by step of how you made it would be great to see if you can manage it !


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

That's really freaking cool! I love the red fleshy parts, they look really slimy and well disgusting . Also I really like how you've painted the carapace, the blue looks lovely.


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## Loli (Mar 26, 2009)

Really like it, its nice to see none imperial terrain and such. Really good job


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Very creepy.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Coolest looking Tyranid building I've ever seen.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Brilliant looking building, and a fine paint job. Well done.


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## locustgate (Dec 6, 2009)

dwez said:


> Amazing Stuff


I...want....to....reduce...that xeno monstrosity to rubble. (This is the single best compliment I can give to terrain)

Edit: Although I guess it wouldn't be rubble but gibs.


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

that looks awesome! would love to see a tutorial for this, I think a lot of people would love making these for their tyranids.


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

that looks awesome! would love to see a tutorial for this, I think a lot of people would love making these for their tyranids.


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Here's the historical 'how to' as requested by Magpie_Oz

This was the logical progression from my Tyranid Aegis Defence Line. Of course the logical next step is a Skyshield Landing Platform and then a Fortress of Redemption but lets not run before we can walk.

Occasionally I'll draw myself a little sketch of what I'm after and so my first attempt tried to match the proportions of the existing Imperial Bastion but this is going to be completely scratchbuilt. I'm all for Tyranid infested Imperial terrain but a completely scratchbuilt affair holds appeal for me because it will be unique, match my army, be a challenge and will cost me nothing [importance not in that order].










However, recently I'd seen a variety of Xenos bastions that use the GW moonscape as a base and as I have a couple of spare pieces I thought they might be a potential stepping stone. So this was the revised concept sketch, however mounting the 'heavy bolters' on it's compass points would be difficult given the Chitinous towers already situated there. What I decided to do is make the towers sit slightly angled opposite each other that way the left and right weapon can be in the East and West positions and then the North and south guns will be asymmetrically opposite, one in the right hand Southern wall and the other in the left Northern wall. With 'sphincter doors' [as seen in Advanced Space Crusade] in the left Southern and right Northern.










Taking advice online I went for the bigger crater so I have more room to work with. This is the skeletal beginnings. You can see the height to the roof is 150mm and then you have a 20mm wall that will go round the roof with some ridges that will add a centimetre up to the 180mm max height with the Tyranid Capillary styled towers that form the compass points.










Next up I'll be adding the cross-members and probably be cutting slots in the crater base so that I can have it glued straight to the mounting card base underneath. Then I have to decide how to fill out the gaps between the frame and how to create the Capillary Towers. More details and pics on my blog.

40kaddict.blogspot.com


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Quite early on I added a template to my blog should you wish to try your own version and need a starting point, it's here:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/you-asked-and-great-devourer-provides.html

Here's a little further on in the next update










And the crater base with slots to fit the template:


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Here's the next progression as the body of the Bastion is filled out.



















http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-82-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt3.html


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## fatmantis (Jun 26, 2009)

bloody genius!


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Thanks fatmantis, the next update on the growth of my Tyranid Bastion using lemonade bottle plastic to fill out some more of walls and chitinous plates:










A standard Imperial Bastion can hold 15 miniatures on the roof and so can a Tyranid equivalent. However, I imagine it will be considerably less on completion due to the sculpting but less is better given the size of the thing










The base of the lemonade bottle provided the five chitinous plates on each 'capillary tower' - fiddly to work with but cheap and cheerful.










more pics and details:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-83-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt4.html


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

I've 'iced the cake' with some tile adhesive/grout, next up sand it back for a decent base to sculpt on.



















http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-84-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt5.html


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

The next step was to sand the 'icing' back so I could have a nice base to put my sculpting on top of. Admittedly this doesn't seem a huge amount of progress [that's the next step] but effort now really helps later on.










Here's the sketch that helped me position the fire points and emplaced weapons










Which I then transferred onto the model itself so I can see where I'm going to sculpt and what I have to cut back into the model

















More pictures and info at the blog:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-85-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt6.html


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Now some proper sculpting. These are the bits that would be Bonewhite.










All done with DAS air drying clay, which was fun to use and cheap










However I think there are paper fibres in it somehow which makes it slightly less durable than Milliput, with a bit of effort I can scratch the surface with my nail, but it should be durable enough. I also smoothed out some of the interiors of the Capillary Towers, ripe for their fleshy fibre bundles










Now going back to the original concept it's quite close, if a little taller than what I had in mind [which actually I was desperate to avoid but hopefully the Capillary Towers will help it fill out at the base to taper more]










More pics and info here:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-86-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt7.html


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Incredible. too bad you don't work for GW!!


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## Dakingofchaos (Sep 29, 2009)

neferhet said:


> Incredible. too bad you don't work for GW!!


Aye, I don't play nids but can appreciate a great piece of work - is that something you could cast into a kit/model?


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

My skills are nowhere near GW level, it is sad that they are overlooking the Xenos terrain market though.

I think the Bastion is too big to be cast, it's also got GW components on which wouldn't be acceptable. The cost I don't think would be economical either, both to produce and to buy but that's not to say I haven't had an offer to cast from it, although I'm not so sure it would make sense.

My capillary towers and xenos defence line, that's a different matter...


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## Dakingofchaos (Sep 29, 2009)

Oooooh got any pictures of them?


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Dakingofchaos said:


> Oooooh got any pictures of them?


Quad gun [before it was FAQ'd] and defence line










My Capillary Tower thread is here: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=130055

Here's where the Bastion started to take a life on a life of its own [as it should for a semi-sentient alien hive fortress], I dunno where this sculpting came from but I was super surprised and pleased.










"A sphincter says what?"










I don't know how I managed this divine or perhaps corrupt influence from the warp










Oh, and here's how the gribblies get into their new home










So did I do good?

As ever, more waffle and some explanation of how I managed it [or guesswork in this instance, I think I was 'auto-sculpting'] on the blog:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-87-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt8.html


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## Dakingofchaos (Sep 29, 2009)

You most definatly did good - very welll done!


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Bloody crazy mate, awesome work. Sorry what happened to Nids and Quad guns?


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

Looks good! Nice to see conversions that really fit with the theme of an army better than the standard kits.


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Jacobite said:


> Bloody crazy mate, awesome work. Sorry what happened to Nids and Quad guns?


When 6th edition came out nids could not manually fire 'emplaced weapons' it was in the FAQ but a Quad Gun is a 'gun emplacement' so most nid players used semantics to use the gun. Then a new FAQ came out that said we could not manually fire 'emplaced weapons or gun emplacements'. Now it does not say they cannot auto-fire emplaced weapons, which at BS2 is no worse than a Mycetic Spore and kind of fits the fluff of my bastion being a giant semi-sentient bio-construct.

The next update, not quite as dramatic as last time but it's steady progress from here as it takes a while for each Chitin plate to dry.










As you can see I started to weaponise it as well with four Tyrnaid 'heavy bolters' [gotta love their 36" range, it's a shame I have to use Imperial tech, if only GW made Xenos specific terrain...]










And here's the first of the Milliput plates










As always more info on the blog update:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-88-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt9.html


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Latest update and on goes some details courtesy of some always available Spinefists 

















Additional Milliput Chitin plates have been sculpted, just to explain, to preserve the sculpt I'm only doing one layer at a time. I'm really not sure it would work wel to keep laying Milliput down each time without screwing up what I've already crafted. Still, my paint scheme is actually quite forgiving so perhaps I was needlessly concerned.










As always more info on the blog update:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nids-part-89-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt10.html


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Slow and steady wins the race. Bullshit about the Quad gun, what the Nids don't have their own version? Typical pants on head decision there.


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Well it is ONLY nids that are handicapped this way so it seems unfair but it's not the only precedent where gribblies get shortchanged - Broodlords are another. Because they have BS0 they can't use Witchfire powers and it's FAQ's that if you roll one you can't re-roll that power. However, if you roll the same power twice or a Lvl 2 power [which he can't use as he's only Lvl 1] you do get to re-roll. So I don't get why he would learn a power he can't use and I don't get why GW made that decision, you have to gamble losing all his psychic ability. Granted this affects any psyker with BS0 but they're few and far between so it hits us particularly hard.

And don't get me started on a Tyranid Prime - practically our only Independent Character, not being able to start the game in a Spore Pod with the unit of Warriors he wants to join. I believe other Independent Characters get to join a unit in their Marine Drop Pods, why not Tyranids. That rule may have changed but if not we're short changed again I think. Lets hope the new Codex addresses some of these issues.

Anyway, two sets of Chitin plate updates on the Tyranid Bastion, only the two biggest towers left now and at least the curved nature of them is starting to give it a bit of shape instead of straight up and down.



















More pictures and waffle on the blog:
http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nids-part-90-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt11.html


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

We're nearly there now, construction wise. This next bit was adding the weapons and finishing up the chitin and some more detailing:

































More info and pics on the blog:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nids-part-91-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt12.html


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

This is incredible, the kind of thing I've always wanted to do. Top work mate! :good:


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

In truth it's not all that difficult, just requires a fair bit of time and a little bit of patience. Once it's done though you certainly feel a glow of satisfaction. So this is the last construction update, before I started painting it, here I added on all the whistles and bells. 

Anyway, here are the taster shots from the blog:

















And with a bit more detail added



















Check the link for even more detail:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nids-part-92-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt13.html


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## dwez (Aug 5, 2013)

Now we're getting into the painting side of things:

here's the undercoat










And I went straight to doing the Red Planet Basing










And then on to the bonewhite base coat [which doesn't seem to show up the base but it's still there]










More pics and waffle at the blog:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nids-part-93-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt14.html


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