Tyranid Basiton

[dwez]

That's right folks, a Bastion - the logical progression from my Tyranid Aegis Defence Line. Of course if I do the Bastion then the logical next step is a Skyshield Landing Platform and then a Fortress of Redemption but lets not run before we can walk.

Occasionally I'll draw myself a little sketch of what I'm after and so my first attempt tried to match the proportions of the existing Imperial Bastion but this is going to be completely scratchbuilt. I'm all for Tyranid infested Imperial terrain but a completely scratchbuilt affair holds appeal for me because it will be unique, match my army, be a challenge and will cost me nothing [importance not in that order].



However, recently I've seen a variety of Xenos bastions that use the GW moonscape as a base and as I have a couple of spare pieces I thought they might be a potential stepping stone. So this is the revised concept sketch, however mounting the 'heavy bolters' on it's compass points will be difficult given the Chitinous towers already situated there. What I may do is make the towers sit slightly angled opposite each other that way the left and right weapon can be in the East and West positions and then the North and south guns will be asymmetrically opposite, one in the right hand Southern wall and the other in the left Northern wall. With 'sphincter doors' [as seen in Advanced Space Crusade] in the left Southern and right Northern.



Taking advice from isotope99 I went for the bigger crater so I have more room to work with. This is the skeletal beginnings. You can see the height to the roof is 150mm and then you have a 20mm wall that will go round the roof with some ridges that will add a centimetre up to the 180mm max height with the Tyranid Capillary styled towers that form the compass points.



Next up I'll be adding the cross-members and probably be cutting slots in the crater base so that I can have it glued straight to the mounting card base underneath. Then I have to decide how to fill out the gaps between the frame and how to create the Capillary Towers. More details and pics on my blog.

[splnes]

Looking great! I want to keep an eye on this. Do you have a template?

[dwez]

Looking great! I want to keep an eye on this. Do you have a template?

I wondered if it was worth sharing but I guess so. With the same base and the foam core structure it could be a starting point for any Tyranid bastion. How you then fill it out and decorate it would be up to you or you could do something similar to my project. I'll look to put it online soon.

[Chris*ta]

Looks good so far.

I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[dwez]

I've been having quite a debate with myself on the issues of this non-imperial bastion and how closely it should follow the template from the standard model. In some respect I've already gone off-piste with an oblong design instead of square/circular. This could be construed as 'modelling for advantage' as I can create a wider LoS blocking piece of terrain. Of course it's really modelling to fit the crater so I can argue the case for that, however I actually read the rules for buildings for the first time properly and discovered a Bastion is classed as a 'medium sized building' which outside of the Bastion rules could be any building measuring up to 9"x9", which is quite a footprint. My Bastion is currently measuring in at roughly 8.5"x4.5", considerably less so again I think I can contend with any debate.

The other issue is weapons and firing ports. Now the standard Bastion has an emplaced Heavy Bolter at each compass point. Much as it pains me with my design I will be following this with a bolter asymetrically placed North and South i.e. North in the left tower and south in the right tower [the one not with the door]. the East and West ones are a bit more ungainly as they will have to but alongside the Capillary tower ends. The only alternative is to this would be to have two facing North and two South but I can't justify this 'broadside' configuration given the advantages this might bring so N, S, E and W it is.

Fire points will also be an issue as they should follow the compass points two with 7 vantage points in total. However there's just no way I can design this thing for them to fit that way so I will will have four on the north facing [in the original design below I was going to have 5 but given the advantages and the fact they just won't fit the design I dropped it to 4] and two on the South facing. Ultimately every list I make that will include the Bastion will also have a 75pt alternative option that I will smiling swap out should my opponent be concerned [at which point I will happily name and shame their a$$e$ on my blog! Ha, ha!]

[dwez]

Just noticed I called this thread Tyranid Basiton instead of Bastion Oh well, you know what I mean. Further to splnes request I've added a template to my blog should you wish to try your own version and need a starting point, it's here:

[url]http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/you-asked-and-great-devourer-provides.html[/url]

Updates will be following shortly on the blog and in this thread, it's going really well, here's a little further on



And the crater base with slots to fit the template:

[The Madman]

I've done some sketches myself of a Tyranid Bastion but I've yet to get round to it. So far so good, got any ideas for what to make the walls out of?

[dwez]

I've done some sketches myself of a Tyranid Bastion but I've yet to get round to it. So far so good, got any ideas for what to make the walls out of?

It's been a voyage of discovery for me so far using a number of new materials suggested by an unlikely source and it'll be in the blog but simply I bulked out the gaps between the template core with plain old white styrene foam and bits of lemonade bottle. I then used wall tile adhesive to give a hard surface which I've covered and sculpted in DAS air drying clay but I've started adding Milliput [for durability in areas like the towers, where it'll be prone to wear and tear.

Alternatively my mate [URL="http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/moar-from-my-mate-otty-his-tyranid.html"]Otty did tissue paper mache on his Mycetic Spore[/URL].

[dwez]

The blog has been updated, here's the next progression as the body of the Bastion is filled out.





[url]http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-82-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt3.html[/url]

[dwez]

Latest update on the growth of my Tyranid Bastion using lemonade bottle plastic to fill out some more of walls and chitinous plates:



A standard Imperial Bastion can hold 15 miniatures on the roof and so can a Tyranid equivalent. However, I imagine it will be considearbly less on completion due to the sculpting but less is better given the size of the thing



The base of the lemonade bottle provided the five chitinous plates on each 'capillary tower' - fiddly to work with but cheap and cheerful.



more pics and details:

[url]http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nids-part-83-tyranid-bastion-growth-pt4.html[/url]