Today i have decided to post a start-to-finish on my converted lictors, mainly focusing on the 1 that required the most amount of work.
As many Australians will remember (im not sure if the US guys got to see what im refering to), a few years back when the Laius Rift campaign was running, in the White Dwarf 3 part mini campaign, Laurie Goodridge was building a small 'nyd force, and converting it along the way. In those articles related to the campaign he showed a very basic shot of his lictors prior to paint and assembly, as well as a small bit on where he cut to reposition his lictors.
I followed a similar path as Laurie had done, changing along the wait to suit my needs. Where as Laurie had based his conversions around a 'tunnel rats' style force, with all the lictors crouched down as if crawling through tunnels, my force has been based around swamp terrain, where there is more room to move, but no completely stable surface to purch on. So while my lictor is still crouched over, it is still standing rather that crawling on its hands and needs.
When it came to positioning of the arms, i looked to my learnings from when i did Shinjitsu. I based the lictors scythe arms around the dual wielding of the short swords we learnt to use, ninjato i believe they were called (im sorry if i spelt that wrong sensai!). 1 of the stances had 1 sword in a guard position near head hight with the other held down either still in or out and next to the sheath, both swords being held blade facing down if you held your arms infront of you thumbs up. This is also a common pose used in pictures depicting ninjas with 2 swords, referance can be made to Azumi 1 and 2, Ruroni Kenshin (samurai x), and other such films and series...
The claw arms have been positioned in a ready to strike stance, with the arm thats drawn back being on the same side as the trailing foot, giving the impression the beast is about to lunge out from the right side of its body.The whole body has been angled to give that effect a solid foundation.
To tie the tyranids and theme together i painted the carapace in a dark shade of blue which shows as near black under lack of lighting, to better portray the sinister death from the shadows feeling that is given in there fluff. I also used metalic and pearl paints in painting the carapace, to emphasis the chamelionic ability of the creatures.
The main bulk of the body is done in multiple layers of green, each being lighter than the previous, but all layering done wet, with a final wash of blue to the body while the paint is still wet. this helped the paint to blend in together as well as mottle in some areas, also emphasising the chamelionic ability of lictors.
CnC are welcome as are any questions.
