Aesthetic for "The Shadow of the Leviathan's Coil".

Afternoon,

Since I'm about done building the Tzimisce themed Haemonculi coven - for now at least - I am looking to move onto one of the other three projects I've got lined up for this year.

After a coin flip it was decided for me that I'd begin work on my Kabal.

Now a brief background on these guys so that the Aesthetic choices make sense. It might be a little TL;DR so you can skip to the bottom where I paraphrase.

The Archon of this Kabal, who is yet to be named properly, is a little full of himself. Though that trait alone does not distinguish him from other archon or any other true kin really. He fancies himself "The Dread Devourer" on account of his voracious hunger. A hunger he feels for most things not just food or pain. Let's assume he took the last sweet meat at a banquette and offended someone. That someone decides to go out of his or her way to find some thematic justice and ends up funnelling a sizeable chunk - though perhaps not in the grand scheme of things - of Hive Fleet Leviathan into the offenders subspace realm. Before sealing the realm shut. Now I'm not sure how this would go canonically but for the purpose of this fluff the Hivemind can't function in the Webway, too much interference or something. So the Tyranids loose their collective - though not any more - marbles. It's chaos, no one is happy. But not everyone dies.

Fast forward a 'while' and the Kabal is not dead. Far from it. An ally, after not hearing from them in a couple of decades - Enter Vykos from the Haemonculi coven - decides to visit their realm and opens it up again from the outside. Just a small portal right into heart of the old palace and boy is it a mess. All of it. The palace, the survivors, their equipment...

This is where the thematic options comes in.

The Kabal have regressed to become almost tribal, riding these lobotomised, feral Tyranids as war machines because all their stuff is eaten, out of juice or both. Hellions ride Gargoyles and Reavers ride Ravagers. Raiders are freaking Harpies and Venoms are winged Hive Tyrants. Beast masters use Hormogaunts and Voidravens are also just Harpies too I guess with void mines strapped to their chest. Nothing is sacred!
They have Tyranid melee weapons strapped to the end of polls because it's all they have that'll pierce their chitin. Tyranid weapon symbiots are held - at arms length - and tortured into shooting. They wear harvested Chitin as armour because theirs got melted or eaten.
The Haemonculis glad that her ally is not a wasted resource helps them - in exchange for test subjects - better control the Tyranids they have but changes nothing else really.
OR
The Kabal are still fighting with what could be considered Eldar equipment when Sascha comes along. Decades of exposure to such a potent mutagen has caused parts of their equipment to be replaced with biological function.
Lost and purposeless devourer colonies decide to take residence in a splinter rifles. Doing what it was programmed to do eating and replacing the guns function. The once ravenous little grubs now have venomous bites after ingesting all the toxins in the gun. Bone sabres no longer telepathically linked to a creature with a brain decide to wither enough to be wield-able by the only sentient thing around. The hulls of raiders are covered in weird barnacle growths that begin to replace the hull with their own chitin which in turn repairs itself when it takes damage. Etc, etc. Old Tyranid habits die hard you know? Especially when it's the only habit you've got.
Sascha offers - as any good ally would - to help meld Tyranid technology with Eldar technology. It's a pet project that she hopes can fill her time now that she has all the time in the world, or all the time in every world to be more accurate. Who knows she might even create something better than the Wraithbone of her Craftworld cousins. Self growing bone, no psychic singing required. She'd make a mint trading that in Commorragh.
Enter Nidbone V0.1, though I might work on the name. Weapons, vehicles and armour is now at least part Tyranid organisms. Though it's made from it, it is still - at the behest of the old Archon - made to look kind at least very similar to standard True Kin equipment.

TL;DR
Tribal Dark Eldar riding Tyranids.
OR
Dark ELdar with Tyranid Organisms Haemonculied - which is totally a word - into their equipment and Vehicles. Think of it like Wraithbone 2.0 but without the Psychic.

In either aesthetic the Eldar themselves are not corrupted. Well no more than usual.

What do we think?

OR

Large Tyranids with their armour drilled into, and the insides scooped out and replaced with the workings of Venoms, Raiders, etc.
"Oh no, the mechanics of our Raider are fine, but the hull is smashed."
"Don't worry, just put it inside that Carnifex over there."

My feeling would be making the Tyrnaids look different to just normal nids being ridden.
On the one is the tournament conceit of them looking too much like a Tyranid army.
The other is the narrative of "if their Hive Mind doesn;t work in the Webway, how does the Kabal get them to function outside of the Webway? Wouldn't the Hive Mind reassert?"

My suggestion, instead of Haemonculiing them, would be Dark Eldar machinery implanted as mind control devices, and large section scooped out of the larger beasts to make them simply shells for other Dark Eldar goodies.

Yes really like Squidmasters idea of using the DE vehicles to be part of the tyrants creatures. It would make them very interesting and unique to be an amalgamation of parts. Having seen your coven conversions I am confident you can pull this off

SC

Thank you both for the input, apologies for the late reply. Hectic weekend.

I have an old Hive Tyrand lying around. Let me see what I can do with it and see how it looks.

I'll keep it all posted.

Yeah love the idea of carved out Tyranids with various DEldar/Haemi machinery inserted in loads of modelling ideas coming from that (even though I love the tribal aspect of your first idea).

How about combine both? Tribal DEldar riding bio-mechanically altered Tyranids.

Also, the story you told in the first option brings to mind some interesting reversals with the whole 'eldar birthrate' thing.

Trapped in a pocket of the webway, I can imagine the usually fiercely K-selected eldar being forced to churn out vast numbers of clones to keep the Tyranid tide in check. As they can't rely as much on their hyper-advanced technology to give them the edge, they'd have to play the Tyranids at the numbers game.

Looking forwards to this! Might have to steal the idea myself at some point if that's ok

I have sketched out - really badly - a sort of Dark Eldar long boat.
Tyranid figurehead, tendrils and melded chitin. Flavoured with DE tech and of course the engines from the ship.
I think I will create sort of infested Eldar as well, see how they look.

I'll break out the rotary saw this evening after I do the adult human thing and go shopping for the house. Goodness life was easier when that was not my responsibility.

So. Here's what I have so far.
Obviously there is loads more to do sculpting and building wise but this is likely to be the general aesthetic.

Thoughts? Continue or bin.
I need to decide on sails and how to mount a gun. But the driver is going to be a Wrack "melted" - read greenstuffed - to the control unit. Tendrils everywhere etc.

...awesome.

Gonna have to step up my game to compete with this :S

As for a sail, you could go with the standard sail to blend in the Dark Eldar and the Tyranid parts, but perhaps mount it nearer the prow to change the profile slightly.

The other option would be to go more Tyranid and pinch the wing from a Hive Tyrant and use that...

Either way, I love this what're the bits used?

I'm glad you like it!
Don't even. Your project log and level of painting is what I'm aiming for.

The prow, that's the front...? I am not a boat person hahaha, can't even swim. But yeah the Hive tyrant wings is an idea.

I used a Raider, Venomthrope carapace for the 'driver', Zoanthrope carapace for the 'under thing' and tyrannofex casings for the side parts.

I plan to meld a wrack into the driver pod. The large spore mine to put the gun in. A zoanthrope head plate for the rest of the front. Some of the spores tentacles somewhere. I want some hormogaunt scything talons as 'ribs' for the sides. Venomthrope tentacles controlling everything and... AND a shed load of greenstuff to make it look... Organic.

Why are none of my projects cheap...

You flatter me! I keep looking at your work, grumbling and thinking 'why didn't I think of that!' really cool ideas, and fantastic execution

Yeah the prow's the front bit lord knows which side's port or starboard. I just know it from the 'Shock Prow' piece of wargear

I love the idea of using the torso as a 'pilot's seat' and having the Wrack melded into it. Sounds like exactly what a twisted Haemi would do love the idea of the scything talon ribs, and the venomthrope tentacles are a fantastic bit for the job

Looking forward to the GS work as well. It's always been something I've shied away from TBH. Never managed to get it looking right...

No, I mean the green stuff is going to be a bit of a pain but practice makes perfect and I might as well start now.

I was mistaken its the Tyrannocyte not the Tyrannofex that I used for the side parts.

Well I should have figured that, I thought the prow part was what you called a sharp wedge. But then again you don't get prows of cheese so I should have not thought that. Live and learn.