Saturday 18 January 2014

Swarmlord = base deco

On new years day, I finished my swarmlord base decoration effort. Some touches could still be done, but I wanted to get the model in place and at least a bit highlighted. I bought the Hive Tyrant / Swarmlord kit because it looked to be just the right size to fit nicely on the wraithknight base. At the time when I picked the swarmlord as base decoration, I didn't actually know that he's the tyrant's superior. I picked him since his weapons/arms fit into the space nicer and because I wanted to build a flying hive tyrant with the other bits. The different models share a common thorax, but I managed to make do. ;-] Anyway, here the swarmlord lies. I used a hot air gun to soften the plastic of his tail, legs, tongue and arm joints to make him look a bit slack. I'm ok with him not being a pile of goo - considering he's got a carapace and loads of armor, he wouldn't be a pancake anyway.
The swarmlord's legs extend just over the base edge, which considering the size of the wraithknight and it's base shouldn't be a problem.
Considering that the wraithknight isn't a real monsterous creature - since it cannot hold a candle to a moster like the swarmlord, tyrant or dreadknight - it would be ludicrous to claim the swarmlord as a melee kill. That's why I made a sizeable hole into the swarmlords chest and had green goo flow out of it. A ranged kill it is. Mind you, that was before the new tyranid codex dropped and Iron Arm was no longer available and T6 is the ceiling for the swarmlord now - vs the S10 AP2 guns of the wraithknight. ;-]
The swarmlord could benefit from some more love. The seam between the separately painted lower leg halves bothers me, but not as much as it did before going over the knight once more. Ah well! Once I got my whole Iyanden force painted, I might go and put more time into this model.