Retro Warrior – An Old-School Tyranid Warrior Showcase

The last one of the hand-me down trio is finished. Right in time for when the real lead adventure begins…

A week ago I posted the start of my Side Quest (LINK). Here’s the last of three hand-me-down minis I got from Mr.Easters bin – a plastic “Doom of the Eldar” Warrior. Its a very refreshing ?little? project gathering up a 2nd edition Tyranid force, mainly because of the very different style minis and the colours of the era. Somehow my High Elves, although of the same years, are more of an extension of my collection and as such feel very different. (These Tyranids are by definition limited to what was available at this time.)

Painting this Warrior was a surprise in many ways. Normally there is considered to be a scale creep among GWs minis. But this guy is head taller than the current, the later, plastic warrior. I am also surprised by the amount and quality of detail. This one is covered by small scales, but there is also no loss of detail “around the silhoutte” perpendicularly to the mould – which is a nuisance with the Lord of the Rings plastics 10 years later.

I again went with the not-yet-Behemoth paint scheme (as Skss’lsslssth of Hive Fleet Antaeus, also known as Mr. Easter, quickly pointed out). Now I also had an old art work to follow from the Second edition Tyranid Codex:

The challenge here was to maintain a very vivid red, over-the-top if you wish. But a larger mini also need shading and highlighting that risk dulling the overall feel. There would neither be a Goblin Green base to help by providing a stark contrast. Looking at the pictures I am quite happy with how it turned out. Again Green and Purple shade respectively a wash helped me out. Put I applied it very conservatively. The larger smooth black carapace also helped out, especially when gloss varnished compared to the satin varnished rest of the body (except for the innards behind the bone armour). A subtile orange edge highlight on a few spots, mostly blended into the red provides highlight.

An interesting little bugger overall that still has me divided between the joy of a kid looking at a toy (which it shares undeniably much appearance with) and a scoffing shake of head of one who has seen the much more menacing and less satirical enemies mankind face 20 years later.