Attaching Tyrant Wings

[mortificator]

So I got my Balrog wings in the mail today to start working on my flying Hive Tyrant (not tournie legal, I know, but that's not why I play the game anyway). I haven't gone out and purchased the new Tyrant yet, but I have my current walking Tyrant model to comapre with and I'm trying to decide the best way to fit the wings onto the body. I'm using the 4th edition Tyrant model, by the way. The "flat" of the wings that attaches to the body is much longer than the Tyrant's body, so I'll have to trim that down obviously, but the plugs and the actual joint itself is quite large. I've seen people attach the wings to the upper arm socket of the Tyrant, but I really want to keep four sockets open in order to use talons/guns/etc (both Tyrants will be magnetized). So, has anyone had experience with attaching wing in other ways than the upper arm socket? If so, how?

[math]

One way is to extend the carapace, making it longer or wider to fix the wings to the Tyrant. A bit like my Flyfex(work in progress).
I've used balrog wings as well and trimmed the joint part right back to just the main joint getting rid of the length.

[The Custodian]

Im guessing greenstuffing around the arms could help

[mortificator]

After looking at some images from this site and a few others, I think I will end up using the upper sockets to attach the wings and repalce the legs with the second weapon slot to give the Tyrant that snake-like look that drew me to the Ravener models. So, the question now would be how to suspend the Tyrant body over the base so it appears to be in the air. I doubt a clear peg from a 40K flying base would have the strength to hold the metal body, so perhaps some sort of metal wiring. Clotheshanger wire seems too weak and bends easily. Anyone have experience with this and know what might work best?

[Thlaylie]

Mine uses the clear peg and he's awesome:

[mortificator]

Ah, thanks thlaylie. I didn't think the peg would support the Tyrant well, especially when being moved around. I assume you drilled a hole for it to fit in the tail, about how deep?

My plan now is to put the Tyrant in some sort of twisting pose to make use of the curling effect of the tail, probably with green stuff between the tail and torso so I can set it at an angle. The legs will be a smaller set of scything talons permanently bonded, with one pair of sockets on the torso magnetized to hold additional talons or a pair of converted devourer "pistols" that will represent one of the weapons per hand rather than having four. Looking at gargoyles, I'm wondering if the wings might look okay in the middle socket rather than top, but I'll decide that once the body is ready and tac them in place first before gluing so I can see.

[Thlaylie]

First cut the little tab off the top of the base stem. Then drill a hole a little bigger than the base diameter about 1/4" or more deep. Keep drilling the hole bigger until the base inserts about 1/4 inch for maximum stability. then glue the plastic base to a Monstrous Creature base for maximum maximum stability, I think the extra weight helps. I didn't glue the base into the Tyrant and can pull it out when I need to handle him for painting. I will eventually cover the base with sand and flock leaving just the clear rod showing.

[Plarz]

I'm going to eventually have to convert a flyrant also. It's exciting to see what people have done. thelaylie, yours looks very cool. Looks like it's about to land and eat grotling or something.

[ryshi]

I don't have my tyrant available for pics(he's at home and i'm in college) but i just trimmed off the whole "plug" end of the wing till all that remained was what looks like a bit of an arm? Then I took greenstuff and attached it to the back of the carapace in between the vents. I personally think it looks damned good. I've seen people use tyranid bits to cover the greenstuff(like extra armoured plating) but I just made the greenstuff look like flesh getting gradually darker till it "melds" with the carapace.

[mortificator]

I bought my new Tyrant Saturday afternoon and just finished putting it together for the most part, just some minor details to work on still, but it's maganetized and attached to a plastic flying base now. Unfortunately, my drilling skills proved to be less than good and I ended up drilling through part of the tail one one side when making the hole for the top of the flying peg. I had to superglue the peg into palce for it to hold and I'll need some touch-up work with GS on the side I destroyed, but other than covering the exposed peg in tape during painting it should come out alright all in all. I don't have a digital camera, but I'll take some shots and get them put on a CD eventually.