May 5, 2010

W40K: Tyranids Mycetic Spores Part 1

Games Workshop©

Since Games Workshop doe not yet make a Mycetic Spore for the Tyranid army, like everyone else who is playing with these, we had to come up with our own ideas for what to use. I really hope that GW will release a plastic model soon. I am not one who "converts" and I try to stay away from that option as much as possible, but the only way to really run Zoanthrope's to be effective is to drop them in Mycetic Spores.

Until this morning (a comment from Sean on another post) I had completely forgotten that Armorcast makes a Spore. If I would have remembered this last week, I would have just purchased two of these for now. But since I did not remember, I started to make my own.

1. I started with a standard Styrofoam egg from 'Hobby Lobby' for $3.99 (Hobby Lobby offers 40% coupons online off a single item, the wife and I each paid for one seperatley, I was being cheap), a standard blank DVD (to be used for the base) and a couple of Genestealer bits that were on the sprue that I would use as a topper.

2. I then sliced the bottom of the egg and the top of the egg and proceeded to glue the egg to the DVD and I also glued on the Genestealer topper. For now I just used standard white glue.

3. Once the white glue was dry, I then used a 'low temp' glue gun and placed some glue around the base of the egg where it meets the DVD and I also placed some glue over the egg in various locations just to add some texture.

4. I then mixed up some water, white glue, various 'Woodland Scenics' flock and some static grass to create a water down paste. I proceeded to brush on the 'paste' all over the eggs. The purpose of this paste was to create some texture on the eggs so when I applied my 'dip' the egg would not have 'flat' surfaces. I was very generous on applying the paste. I wanted to make sure that glue was applied all over to protect the Styrofoam.

5. I let the paste dry overnight and then proceeded to basecoat the egg. I was hoping to use my 'Khaki' spray paint on the egg, since I was not sure if there was enough glue covering the egg, I decided to hand brush the paint all over the egg. Spray Paint will start to 'eat away' at Styrofoam if you do not coat the Styrofoam fully. I did not have enough GW Khaki so I used "Delta" 'Tan' as my basecoat. This was the closest color I had to Khaki and once the dip was applied I knew the color would be close. Once again I was very generous on the basecoat and made sure to fully coat the egg.

6. I again let the basecoat dry overnight, and this morning I brushed on my "dip". I will also let this dry all day and then I can work on finishing the base of the model and applying a matte coat. I hope there is enough paint and dip on the model to protect it from when I spray the matte coat. We shall see.

Here are a few of my work in progress pictures. Tomorrow I should have some pictures of the finished Mycetic Spores.