Since it was the release of the new Tyranids I decided to start up a little hive fleet of my own.
A while back I picked up a Hive Tyrant and ordered him a set of Balrog wings. I decided to make some progress on this guy over the weekend. With the new codex in hand I started trying to figure out what to arm him with. I want my army to hit the lines as fast as possible and tear stuff apart so I decided on a close combat build. I just couldn't decide between all the close combat options so I went with magnets.
Since a few of the bits I will be swapping out are pewter I got some 1/4 inch magnets from Hobby Lobby. These are quite huge compare to the 1/8th magnets that I have used in the past. I think they actually measure closer to 1/2 an inch than 1/4.
Putting these magnets into the Tyrant was a PAIN. Quite literally - there was even some blood. The challenges I encountered arose from me not having the right tools for the job. I had plenty of small drill bits for the pilot and build-up holes, but the only larger drill bit I had for the final hole was the wrong kind. I was some kind of wood bit or something - it had a flat top. It would grab the model and twist it with great force. This led to some bleeding as the spinning Tyrant torso ripped through my delicate and tender skin.
After getting a pair of gloves drilling continued without further incident. Once I had all four holes drilled I glued the magnets in place. This part was a bit messy but too bad - I managed not to glue my hand to anything so everything was a success.
Here you can see the magnets in place.
Once the magnets were in it was time to prepare the limbs. I didn't want to use magnets on the arms. I have done a magnet-to-magnet connection before and it is way more work than I was wanting to do. I decided to got with screws - carpet tacks to be more precise.
I drilled a small hole in the arm, clipped the head off close to the base on the tack, and glued it in place. This gave me a nice flat surface for the arm to stick to the body.
Here you can see the model with four arms attached.
Here are all of the different arms laid out that I used.
Since I also wanted this model to have wings I had to come up with a way to affix them to the body. I originally tried magnets but didn't have any luck. I decided that I wouldn't be fielding this model very often without wings so I went ahead and made them permanent.
I sunk two studs (too big to call them pins) into the top of the carapace. I used coat hanger for these bits (the red arrow points these bits out). I then cut down the wings and drilled a hole. I glued them in place and then green-stuffed the gaps. I have just a bit more work to do on the wing gaps and this guy will be ready for priming.
