Tyranid ordnance (BfG)

I really like the tiny Battlefleet Gothic ordnance miniatures, & with no official Tyranid ordnance being available, I made my own markers.  My flagship will be a massive carrier capable of launching 10 markers in a turn.  There is no upper limit to the number of Tyranid ordnance markers that can be in play, & the 'Nids also have the option of taking markers as part of the fleet points limit, so I will need lots of these.  I used the small Warhammer bases, which are the same size as the card counters from the BfG box.  I don't like the look of the tall stems on GW studio fleet ordnance strips however, as I think they distract from the fighters & bombers themselves - & with durability also in mind, I trimmed peg sections from the top of spare flight stems to sit the ordance pieces on.

Below are my Tyranid fighter analogs, which are simply venom sacs from the 'Gaunt sprues (they reminded me of Yuuzhan Vong Coralskippers from the Star Wars NJO era).  Like my bio-ships, I gave them a gloss varnish for a gribbly carapace look:

For my assault boat analogs, I cut the top sections from 'Gaunt spinefists, envisaging these as giant armoured ramming creatures carrying broods of Tyranid nasties into prey vessels:

Tyranid assault hiveship (BfG)

Moving on to the big stuff, this is my first completed Tyranid hiveship.  In an effort towards frugality I continued to try & use up every piece on the 'Nid sprues, so decided that I would have two main types of hiveship.  I have an extra-large carrier hiveship in progress, based on the Carnifex body & tail with various modifications.  I'd also like to make a pyro-acid-heavy one of these to add some long-range firepower to the fleet.  However, various carapace & weapon options come with the Carnifex (& Warrior sprues), so I for each Carnifex-based hiveship I should be able to get two slightly smaller ones similar to this:

Although mounted on a battleship base, these hiveships are more on a par with the battlecruisers & grand cruisers in other fleets, & follow my cruiser layout from the previous post, but with the Warrior torso turned on it's back, & a spare Carnifex main-plate as the dorsal armour bulk of the bio-ship.  I have used the plain shell section here as the one with open glands lends itself well to my carrier & the spiky one suggests 'boarding torpedoes' to me...  For my first hiveship, I just had to go with the ridiculous massive claws/feeder tentacles option, & make it an insane all-out assault creature that looks a lot nastier than it's actual effectiveness in-game.

Tyranid cruiser (BfG)

Here is my first Tyranid cruiser analog, species: Pyromaw.  I constructed this using a 'Nid Warrior body, with devourer muzzles sculpted base-to-base for the prow pyro-acid battery, & biomorphs for the broadside acid glands.  The front boarding torpedo launchers are Termagaunt spinefists.  I decided this model was tapering too thin towards the aft, so I carved-up Warrior thighs to create a pair of biological 'engine' or thruster equivalents.  Finally I added the hook to the tail using a 'Gaunt claw.

My future Tyranid cruisers will follow this same basic pattern, with different bio-weapon configurations.  I plan to build another Pyromaw to boost the medium-range firepower (unfortunately the only long-range is from pyro-acid-armed hiveships) of my Hivefleet, then get to work on an assault variant cruiser...

Tyranid kraken (BfG)

Following on from my lesser Tyranid escort bio-ships, here are some of the kraken that I have built using W40K 'Nid pieces.  As these heavier escorts lack spore cloud 'shields', but benefit from extremely durable carapace & powerful regenerative abilities (ie. always count as on Brace for Impact orders, without the penalties), I painted them with orange instead of yellow, to mark them out more on the tabletop (I had bees in mind rather than wasps).  Below are my favourites - Hailburners with nasty (for an escort analog) Firepower 6 pyro-acid batteries!  These were made using Termaga(u)nt bodies with the limbs carved away, + plating & devourer muzzles for the 'prow' batteries.  The lower-most Hailburner has battle-damage to it's carapace.

Next is the kraken species (sub-species?) that I have dubbed Terrorcisor.  Again these use Termagaunt bodies & bits of plating, each with 3 Hormagaunt scythes to make up the massive claws.  Like the vanguard drones with feeder tentacles, these can be destructive if they can get into contact with enemy ships, but I have found that my kraken become priority targets in most battles that I have played...

I have also built a brood of boarding torpedo-armed kraken using Hormagaunt bodies & spinefist 'muzzles', to be most economical in maximising the number of ships I can build using all the pieces from the sprues.  Although the BfG Armada supplement mentions that kraken can vary greatly in size & form, I think it would look better to remodel these with the bulkier Termagaunt bodies, to match the other kraken above.

Tyranid vanguard drones (BfG)

Here are my scratchbuilt vanguard drones for Battlefleet Gothic, again pieced-together from W40K Tyranid sprues.  These bio-ships more closely follow the role of the fast frigates & destroyers in more conventional fleets, so I wanted them to look sleeker & speedier than my diminuitive escort drones.  First are the vanguard drones with feeder tentacles (species: Geneseeder), constructed from Tyranid Warrior head shields, flesh-hooks, & Hormagaunt scythes.  I envisage these as scouting ahead, seeding worlds (& the occasional space hulk) with Genestealers, Lictors, Lurkers & other 'Nid infiltration organisms, many years before the  arrival of the main Hive Fleet.  The barbed tendrils flick out at high speed to penetrate the hulls of prey vessels, injecting broods of terrifying killer xenos.  Within a Hive Fleet Geneseeders act as swift & deadly assault vessels.  Their feeder tentacles combined with the effects of their spore clouds & close-range boarding make them surprisingly dangerous (if they survive long enough to reach the enemy).

Next are my vanguard drones with pyro-acid glands.  I made them from Hormagaunt bodies, with the front & rear limbs carved away (I left the central pair of claws to lend a 'drifting' look to the models), & biomorphs added to the 'prow' to represent pyro-acid-spewing glands.  I have used these same biomorphs as broadside pyro-acid batteries on my Tyranid cruisers.  These are quite lightly armed compared to the frigates of other races, so I tend to use them in large swarms.  In vanguard activities, these Scaldcasters support the Geneseeders with their ranged weaponry capability.  As part of a Hive Fleet they can react fast to the changing nature of a space engagement, moving to support other more dangerous bio-ships as required.

Tyranid escort drones (BfG)

If I had to pick a single favourite miniatures game, Battlefleet Gothic would probably be it.  I collect several fleets - Tau Empire, Orks, Blood Angels & Tyranids (plus a few ships from other races/factions).  Tyranids are the fleet I have been working on most recently.  I was never a big fan of Games Workshop's 'Nid vessels however, & I was inspired by an Italian wargamer's (sorry I forget his name!) photos featured in the Warp Rift netzine to scratchbuild my own terrifying xenos bio-ships, using pieces from the W40K 'Nid sprues.  Even before I saw his wasp-like colour scheme, I had always planned to use yellow/black if I ever began collecting Tyranids, but the gribbly alien ferocity of his brilliant models sealed the deal for me - I needed yet another fleet!

I began by making a prototype Tyranid escort drone with feeder tentacles (I have dubbed this species Voidravener) using 'Gaunt heads & tails. This was soon joined by two more.  Originally I planned these to float through the void trailing their tentacles behind as I thought this looked better, but seeing as they need their weapons up-front, & the dorsal armour plating overlaps in the opposite direction, the 'prows' are on the left here.  As slow protectors which stick close to the mighty hiveships, I wanted my escort drones to be diminuitive compared to the other bio-ships I would be crafting, & I was pleased with the results...