WIP: Tyranid Carnifex brood pt2

The struggle to salvage the worst GW kit ever continues.

Last week's WIP detailed my early labor with the "new" Carnifex brood box. Disappointment that the models were not updated sprues quickly turned to discouragement as the kit refused to assemble properly at a basic level.

I set about pinning the legs that would not join properly. I drilled out the corresponding parts, and placed a styrene post in the leg to aid the joint. Thankfully, it solved the problem beautifully.

Having fixed the legs, I dry fit the upper torso to the leg assembly to discover that the basic pose of the model was extremely hunched over. While this is animalistic looking, it makes the model appear small compared to more recent monstrous creatures.

I snipped the post from the ball joint on the leg assembly, but it did little to improve the model's stance.

I noticed that the vertibre on the leg assembly were hitting the inner carapace of the torso, so I snipped them off as indicated in the photo below.

Once the peg and offending spines were removed, I was able to pose the model in a more upright position, as shown below. It's not as raised as I'd like it to be, as the torso carapace strikes the top of the leg carapace now, but without major resculpting, this is as good as it's going to get.

I want the fexes to be kitted the same way for gameplay, but have some visual variance to show the hive's diversity. I used the spine cluster carapace on one, and the smooth carapace on the other, but added several of the included spikes from the kit to enhance the smooth carapace, and give it a unique look. I also added spikes to the head and tail.

For gameplay purposes, I'll equip both fexes with two sets of twin-linked devourers with brain leech worms. (commonly referred to as "dakkafexes".) But, because I do not have the bits to equip each with four devourer arms, I've decided to create custom devourer arms that represent the extra firepower, but allow for scything talons to be added in the forward shoulders - purely for looks.

The default devourer arms are pathetic. The single devourer on the end of a spindly little arm looks completely undersized, and totally fails to capture the strength of the weapon, or the creature. Inspired by threads on DAKKA DAKKA, and The Tyranid Hive, I took the crushing claws included in the kit, along with several devourers from some old gaunt sprues.

I then trimmed down the parts to look like this.

Once the parts were trimmed, I joined the devourers together along the sides, into a tri-formation. This was a bit tricky, as the joining sections only made contact at the very points.

After a few frustrating attempts, I was able to connect the parts. I then drilled the arms and placed a styrene peg in each.

Once the peg was in place, I fit the devourers over the pegs and glued the entire assembly together. You can see how they attach to the post in the image below.

With the parts in place, and the glue set, I filled in the open areas with greenstuff, sculpting in the flesh and sinews, to complete the arm.

When the first stage is cured, I'll add some venom tubes in the exposed sockets.

It's taken some serious hacking and sculpting, but I think I'm making the best of an outdated kit. With any luck, they'll come together in the end.

-trip