Epic-Scale Tyranid Hierophant, But It's Big

Over Thanksgiving break, I was invited to play a "Tanksgiving" 40k event at my FLGS, where folks were encouraged to bring their massive war machines and the largest creatures to duke it out in an immense 5000 point game. Since I'm primarily interested in Tyranids, I only have a random, small selection of what could be considered "Tanks" - A Predator tank and a Thousand-sons conversion of a Dreadnought. I had a blast, but definitely wished I could have brought something larger to bear, and also in the flavor of Xenos. Since then, I've picked up a Winged Hive Tyrant, but I've always gazed at envy at the Forge World Tyranid Heirophant. 

So of course I made one!

Here's the creature (mostly) finished, more on that later.

Keen-eyed xenos lovers might notice it's a fair bit bulkier than the forge world one, and it's a bit differently shaped! I've always felt the Forge World offering was overly slim and spindly for a massive war-beast. Possibly more biologically reasonable, perhaps, but it's the Scout titan to this one's Warbringer. I was strongly inspired by the Epic Scale Heirophant, and modeled this in that image.

Making it has been a month long journey, and it's not quite over yet. So here's how I went about doing it!

I began by making digital tracings of all of the metal parts in the Heirophant kit from pictures (Thanks CCM!). I printed these out on multiple sheets of paper, then traced and cut those onto cardboard. I thought that would be sturdy enough on it's own, but it seemed to flimsy for the forelegs, so I reinforced those with some wooden cooking skewers. 

Once a solid pair of legs had been constructed, I began building up the... Thorax? Torso? The middle part. I had originally intended to only make it from cardboard too, then covering it in Paper Mache, but I switched to foamboard insulation. It just felt better and more solid, while being lighter-weight. I carved this into a rough C-shape, following my trusty guides. At this point, I felt like the templates were far too small, but I pressed on.

 I proceeded with similar techniques for the back legs, and continued layering on foam to bulk the body up where needed. I focused on the forelegs a lot, since they're a very prominent feature of the Epic Scale model. Once finished with the rough shape, I applied Paper Mache to the whole model. Halfway through, I realized I'd forgotten the head, and scrambled to make a blank from foam quickly, and stick it on.

I left that to dry overnight and came back to an extremely glue-smelling basement. But! It was hardened and ready to work with. I had to figure out how to get the repeating armor panels on the legs and back on there, and I knew sculpting them directly was both probably a waste of material, a ton of weight, and also going to end up very uneven and imprecise. What I settled on was cutting out a few different template panels, then hot gluing them at regular intervals at an angle. I ended up snipping small lengths of leftover sprue to glue in as spacers, too.

After that, I stuffed the undersides full of a weird air dry clay, "Model Magic". It's this foamy, almost like it's been whipped PVA based clay. It's really light, dries pretty tough (with a little flex) and fills space wonderfully. Once that was stuffed in all the cracks, I then spread a very thin layer of ordinary air dry clay over it and the panels, then sculpted onto them. I used silicon tools to engrave lines running along the panels, dotting occasionally with a ball-point tool. This is almost all of the weight of the critter, so I tried as hard as possible to keep the layers thin but sculpt-able. At some point, I also added face plates and a Triceratops-like crest. I also used some texture rollers to attempt skin textures on the non-panelled flesh, which I think was partially successful. I had high hopes of sculpting the underside a detailed ribcage, but I was getting sick of sculpting and just glooped lines of hot glue. It sorta works, but it's not my best work.

That took a while to dry, so I set to work making the Dire bio-cannon and Titanic scything talons. I had intended to make them mechanical, to match the rest of my Tyranid army, which are all done up to look partly mechanical. But I pivoted, and instead wanted this one to look more like the original Epic scale model. You can see a first pass at that arm on the left of the image. At some point, I also fabricated Lashwhip tentacles from armature wire, a tongue from green stuff, and mandibles from cardboard and more sculpted clay.

Finally, I mixed 50/50 Mod-podge and black craft paint to create poor folks' primer! Then slopped that all over to seal the entire piece. This is of course after letting everything get absolutely bone dry, I didn't want any clay moisture left in there causing cracks. Well, they still happened anyway, but oh well. 

From there... painting, painting, and more painting. I started off with (not pictured) a blue carapace, red underside color scheme akin to the Behemoth Hive Fleet colors, but then switched after seeing some really old Tyranid warriors in 'Eavy Metal style.

I'm still working on the colors to get them right - I think a brighter red and more yellow in the white is needed - but this is a solid first pass. 

You might notice that it has... not all of it's weapons. Since I pivoted away from mechanical weapons, I still have to fabricate, paint, and attach them at the base of the skull - A complete and utter shame. I figure, much like the Epic scale model, I'll point them upward (As the Norn-queen intended), and then I'll post some more pics. But until then, the mighty Bio-titan has only little battle-stubs.

I was hoping I'd been the first to attempt this, but since this is the internet of course others have tried. I really admire Wurfelwiese's 3D print - I'd call it definitely more accurate to the original Epic scale model, and they are just killing it with the bright paint colors. I also dug up, but could not find the source of, this old box-art or magazine picture of a full-size Heirophant model. I absolutely love it, and also goodness is it a chonky boy. I think it was the practice to (at least partly) make larger models from wood back then, so I suspect that's what we're seeing. If any folks know the origins of this image, I'd be excited to hear!

And so... thanks for reading my ramble! I intend to write and post more Tyranid and other mini adventures on here, so check back in occasionally. I've got a backlog of existing things I'm going to try and post for now. Thanks! 

- Miss Captain Bear