Daboarders How To's: Winged Rippers, Sky Slasher Conversion

Heya guys and gals,

Been a little while since my last turtorial. And I'm going to change tack here a little, the last few of my have been on Chaosesque techniques, this one isn't, its for the Tyranid players out there.

So, I've always found the most interesting thing about the nids to be the truly horrific methods of warfare they use. Such as clouds of toxic spores and micro organisms that dissolve/eat their way through organic matter, to the floating doom that is the Spore Mine. But one thing I have always felt is probably the most terrifying thing to face in the Tyranid swarm is the seething carpet of teeth and claws that is the Ripper Swarms.
Its like in video games when you pick up the shotgun/flamer, you usually now it means theres a horde of critters around the corner that are going to swarm you.

Well whats worse than a mass of wriggling mouths....Flying ones of course.

Now FW does some fantastic winged rippers, and they really are nice and not very expensive, but most Tyranid players already have swarms of the ankle-biters and don't have to much interest in buying more. What follows is my guide on how to make our ground based Rippers into the airborn kind. The tutorial might ne a little rough as this is the first time I have tried this moethod, but I will tweek and update the How To as I get some more practice in.

Modifying your Ripper

1) The first thing you need to do is modify the body of the ripper to accomidate the wings. Remove the forelimbs and section as seen in the picture below.
nb: You can also take the "ground" area around the base of the tail away if you intend to post your rippers in the air.
Attachment 10170

2) Then fill the gap with greenstuff
Attachment 10171Attachment 10172

3) Taking the tip of a toothpick and a sharp knife, carve down the tip to the following shape
Attachment 10173

4) Using this shape, press the tip into the greenstuff to replicate the exoskeletion seen in other tyranids as shown below. (Think of it like doing a dotted line)
NB: leave a rounded area behind the jaw, this is where our new forelimbs will go later.
Attachment 10174Attachment 10176

Making the Wings

5) First thing I did here was to make a quick sketch of the wing shape I was after, so that I had the size and shape correct.
Attachment 10177

6) Then take a piece of clear plastic and create a layer of greenstuff on the materiel (ensure that the thickness is reasonably even). Use water (or your lubricant of choice) to ensure that the green stuff does not excessively stick to the underlying layer of plastic, this will be important later.
Attachment 10178

7) Move the greenstuff over the sketch and using an edge tool cut the greenstuff to shape, do not try and replicate the curves, they will be created later, instead leave those sections straight edged.
Attachment 10179

8) VERY gently, using your edge tool, press into the greenstuff to create grooves where the limb segments will be. You do not want to press to hard as you do not want to either cut the greenstuff or cause it to stick to hard to the underlying plastic.
Attachment 10180

To be continued in next post...

9) Taking the modified toothpick from the previous steps, slide the tip gently under the folds of the wing and lift it up form the plastic, the aim is to stretch the greenstuff into a bent shape. Do not lift up the "limb" segments.
Attachment 10181Attachment 10182
NB: For the outside segments you want to raise the trailing edge, for the inside segment however you should raise the leading edge.

10) After allowing the greenstuff to completely dry you can lift the= wings off the surface. This image shows the undersides of a pair of wings. You will note the scratched appearance on the right wing, the greenstuff I was using had stuck to the plastic and once taken off there was some "flash" near the limb segments. I cut this away with a sharp knife leaving the wing membrane intact.
Attachment 10183

Putting the pieces together

11) Use super glue to glue the wings in place on your modified Ripper. Place the leading edge behind the limb gap as seen in the second image.
Attachment 10184Attachment 10185

12) Take a very long, very thing string of greenstuff.
Attachment 10186

13) Cut the greenstuff into a length and place this into one of the middle 3 grooves in the topside of the wing, gently prod the edges of the string with your toothpick to mold it into the wing.
Attachment 10187

14) Repeat this for the other 5 middle grooves.
Attachment 10188

15) Make a short roll of greenstuff about twice as thick as the as the last string.
Attachment 10189

16) Place this in the hole for the fore limbs and attach it to the leading edge of the wing.
Attachment 10190

To be continued...

17) Take your edge tool and gently carve a groove about mid way along the forelimb.
Attachment 10191

18) Repeat this on the other side. Then take another long thin piece of greenstuff string (step 12) and place it along the outside edge of the wings.
Attachment 10192

19) Allow the grenstuff to dry, then flip the wings over and repeat steps 12-14 for the underside of the limb segments.
Attachment 10193

Congratulations, Now repeat this a Flip tonne to obtain your own swarm.

I will add some demonstration pictures to this thread as I finish some other Sky-Slashers and create bases

EDIT: And guys and gals, Please, seriously leave a comment if you like this.

Awesome job, those wings look great :)

cheers mate, as I said, its a little rough due to first time syndrome, but yeah I like it. Only problem is the time to do each wing.

Could you not make a master then cast from it? Or just it as a mould and squeeze the green stuff into shape?

Though I suppose that way you end up with a lot of identical ones so you loose the individualism of each wings.

On a more general note, it makes me think I should try and do stuff with some green stuff.

I have decided not to make a master for a few reasons.

1) I'd only cast the wings, as the idea is to use the rippers i have (otherwise they just pile up)

2) The wings are pretty thin and I think you would only get around 3 or so masters per wing before the greenstuff master is damaged. Furthermore each mold mad off the master would loose a lot of detail after 4-5 casts, so you would only get a 4-5 bases out of each master (assuming 3 rippers per base)

3) Given that the Greenstuff is very thin it dries very quickly, with a little practice I reckon I can punch out 2-3 membranes in a few hours and have them dry and ready for the limbs in a few hours more. its a very simple technique and I've found that even after only the 3rd pair I amd getting very fast at this.

Basically I'm at the point where I dont think a master would be much worth the effort really.

Oh no, I didn't think it was, espcially as you say, given the thin-ness of the wings.

For those who are interested, here is the progress on my first base.

Attachment 10254Attachment 10255

It was easy to get the wings to sit in different positions just by altering the bend in the segment of membrane which joins the body.

Now I just have to do the limbs and then I will paint this up.