Doom of Malan'tai and Zoanthrope Friends (Part 2)

 

Doomy & Co.

After a recent game using the Tyranids, I recognized the need for a bit more variety in my fledgling invasion fleet.  So I decided to get on with my plan to assemble these very old 3rd edition era Zoanthropes as outlined in part one of this series.  

Pinvise blues. 

As some people might be rediscovering with the revival of Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the form of The Old World and the relaunch of a bunch of metal miniatures to support it, a lot of multipart metal miniatures require drilling and pinning. This is the technique of taking a pinvise or suitable drill to bore holes in two pieces and filling those voids with a connector, usually a brass rod or a wire, and superglue it all together.  Doing this makes the bond a lot stronger and hopefully the model won't fall apart on you later. I find the whole process to be a pain in the ass and I quickly found that I didn't miss it. But two of these models absolutely required it. 

The Doom! 

The Neurothrope,  that I like to think as my own lil' Doom Of Malan'tai came out as I had hoped. In fact I think he looks awesome. I actually thought that the 2nd edition Zoanthrope head was bigger than this but I am happy with it regardless.  Anyway, he looks cool with his buddies. 

The assembled Zoanthropes. 

At this point I kept seeing mold lines on the two 3rd edition miniatures, so before I added battlefield debris and other features for their bases I kept attempting to file down those lines. 

Primed and paint ready. 

Satisfied with those efforts I gritted up their bases. Since they're kind of a showcase sort of unit, I added the required skulls, helms, body parts and weapons to complete their look. Of course the Doom had Eldar parts since according to his bio that's his favorite snack.

These guys will now go into the queue. Some of you might know this, but I am having a surgery soon  (at the time of this writing, now set, a bit ironically, for Valentines Day) and I am preparing models to paint while I recover. Hopefully I can actually do that, but we'll see, as it will depend on how I'm feeling...

The Doom of Malan'tai and Zoanthrope Friends (Part 1)

 This is a project I have been wanting to do for many years now. The original Zoanthrope miniature from the mid-'90s was a grotesque mess that was not just displeasing to the eye, but it didn't even conform to the description as presented in the Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition Codex: Tyranids:

"Zoanthropes are perhaps the strangest of the mutant strains of  Tyranid Warrior seen amongst the swarms. Though they are  considerably larger than Tyranid Warriors their bodies are fragile and have feeble, atrophied limbs, and their heads are so huge and bloated that they look too large for their frail bodies to support. Zoanthropes appear to have been engineered to exploit the maximum psychic potential of Tyranid Warriors and even seem to use psychic energy to invigorate their wasted bodies. '*

The original Zoanthrope. 

But the illustration by John Blanche, The Swarm, contained a vision of that era's Zoanthrope that represented the description perfectly. 

A section from The Swarm by John Blanche.

Years later and the entire Tyranid army would be overhauled for the 40k's 3rd edition. And the form of the floating Zoanthrope we know and love today would first arrive in blister packs to our favorite hobby stores. He was a total rework of the original concept, as he floated around as opposed to walking..(or maybe he bounced around on his tail like Tigger?) He had the tiny atrophied limbs and massive head as detailed in the original description and it made sense that  he would float about now due to the limitations of those limbs. 

The 3rd edition era miniature.

A few years later and the Tyranids would get their 5th edition Codex which introduced a special character called the Doom of Malan'tai. The concept art made me think: what if I take that old head from the 2nd edition model and attach it to the 3rd edition body? Not only would it kind of work for The Doom, but it would kind of pay homage to that old Blanche art also. 

I had the 2nd edition model already, and I ordered the 3rd edition body from Games Workshop Mail-order (back when the bitz program was alive and well. Oh how I wish I hadn't taken it for granted back then...).  And then I sat on the idea for about, oh, 20 years. 

And now, as 9th edition has ended and 10th edition launches, I am putting together these guys with the idea that they'll just have a unique looking unit leader. Then this caught my eye:

Snippet from the 10th ed Tyranids list.

So I am going to use my Doom model as a Neurothrope (which, basically it was). Which seems like a perfect solution to me. And I ha e two of the 3rs edition era models as well to make the minimum size squad. 

Next, the construction phase...