Monday, January 25, 2021

Tyranid Lictor – Golden Demon UK 40K Monster Gold, 1999

 


In my mind I have a vision of a piece of GW artwork from the late 90s – a Catachan Jungle Fighter in a body of water, with a Lictor rising above him.

Whether this piece of art actually exists, or it’s what I envisaged when I started this project, I don’t know… but that was the plan: a diorama involving a Lictor, a Guardsman and some water.  I never got further than hollowing out a wooden plinth and completing the Lictor.

I know I tried to recreate the Lictor from a piece of art; it’s either the one in my mind, or this one by Mark Gibbons:


Still, it’s not far off.  The original Lictor model looked like this:

 


 For me the original model doesn’t quite click, I think due to the head and the position of the claw arms at the back.  It does still form the base for the conversion with some bending of limbs, addition of lots of spikes and other claws and some quite extensive sculpting with Milliput, especially the head.  A lot of pin points went into this (as well as into my hand!) and plenty of ‘niddy gribbly bitz from GW Mail Order.  Back in the day GW would provide individual model components through Mail Order and it was superb, sorely missed.  Now they like you to buy the whole set just for a specific head or weapon (but there are plenty of good bitz sellers online).

 

 This was a pain to paint, literally!  It’s metal, was fully built before painting so is fairly heavy and has lots of pointy bits.  I think most of my best models have had some blood in the process for similar reasons (or slipping with the scalpel), but I don’t suggest you try; Khorne has no influence over your brushwork.

A very simple, limited, earthly set of colours with a natural pink spot colour.  I wanted this beast to appear as if he had been camouflaged, so he was painted with similar colours to the ones I used on the base.  The claws and spikes were painted up to a natural ivory white to stand out and make it look even more dangerous.


The base harked back to the original idea, with the Guardsman who had just been dispatched by the Lictor, slightly hidden among the reeds with just the odd limb and his rifle poking out.  Little details like the helmet strap make a difference, while things like the positioning of the wounds tell the story.

It’s just as well I never went for the whole diorama, at the time I created water by layering gloss paint… a lengthy, painstaking process, but it allowed me to give it some shape as well, like the poisonous drool from the mouth tentacles.

  


 

 The wooden tree root in the water was made from a piece of wire with superglue soaked tissue paper wrapped round it and shaped.  It sets really hard but can be shaped as it dries, you could use an accelerator to set it harder, quicker.  There is a Lizard in there too… he had no idea the Lictor was there, otherwise he’d have scarpered. This base also used the toothbrush bristle grass mentioned previously.


 

 And to my surprise a lucky gold!! This year was the one I remember properly meeting my chum and long time friendly rival Mark Lifton – he picked up a bronze in the same category with a great Ork Warboss.


Check out the other winners here:  http://demonwinner.free.fr/uk/1999/golden_demon_winner.php?categorie=2#1st

 

Thanks for reading... thoughts, tips, questions and comments are welcomed :)

8 comments:

  1. Hugely insightful and really interesting to read the process of creating such fantastic models. I'd love to see WIP pics of the unpainted figures too, but I guess that might be too much to ask if you didn't take any at the time ;)

    I've loved reading the posts to date, and can't wait to see more (your Mordheim chaos warband led by the skull-masked priestess was always a particular favourite of mine!).

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  2. Thank so much! Sadly back then cameras were not so accessible back then - the nearest one I had when I created this was in a photo booth a mile away... these days I do often take WIP photos. I don't think I'll be taking the Dettol to this one to show the build :@

    I'll see if I can get photos of the warband soon. CB

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  3. I remember the GW mail order lists. I had so much stuff circled to buy. You used to be able to pick up loads of bits and bobs back in the day. I agree the original was too static and didnt have enough motion. Lictors where deadly predators and needed to look as such. Great job. Now im waiting to see the halfling blood bowl team ������ - Dan

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    1. Thanks Dan! The only trouble with the old GW Mail Order was knowing when to stop... all those useful little bitz for 'one day'...
      I'm waiting to see the Halfling Blood Bowl team too! The Nurgle team has pushed in front :@

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  4. This is great - I remember looking at the image of this in White Dwarf in 1999, being blown away, and staring at it trying to figure out the conversion and wishing there was better pictures of it..well, we only had to wait over 20 years! I always like the lictor model but there was something never quite right about it, and with this brilliant conversion you have fixed all of its issues. I am now following your blog and looking forward to seeing more of your works from the past and hopefully from the future too!

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  5. Thanks so much - you should have asked if you wanted more photos!

    I look forward to getting more photos up... I have some ideas of what to do next ;)

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  6. Finally, clear photos of this beauty! This model is what got me into 40K- I saw it on the GW website first, followed by a friend's 3E Tyranid Codex (in 5th edition. Long story.) and my impressionable young mind was absolutely blown away by how cool and atmospheric it was, and I thought "I need to make things like that!". I always found the tentacles in particular wonderfully grotesque. So thank you so much for posting this!

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  7. Thanks so much for the comment Peter - it's humbling to know that this inspired you so much! I'm so happy you like it :)

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