Plant bits on the Genestealer models

[Hammerite]

When you are assembling your Genestealers, what do you do with the little pieces of Tyranid vegetation attatched to the rails - the little horn-like protrusions from the ground? Do you leave them on and paint them; do you paint them a different colour scheme than the rest of the model? Do you just cut them off?

I am not sure whether to leave them on, but if I do I may give them a different colour wash to the rest of the models, to set them apart from the model itself.

(Hope this isn't a frequent topic. I searched for "Genestealer sprue", but didn't see anything in the results.)

[Karmoon]

i think they used to be the old hive node bits or something.

Personally, i base 'em, paint 'em and the use them as objectives and stuffs.

[Ladon]

I think Hammerite was not talking about the 4 pieces of whatever-they-are which you get with the Genestealers sprue.
As I understood it he asked if we paint those little pieces of grass/tyranid vegetation at the feet of the stealers in the model olour-scheme or cut them off.

My painted Genestealers actually have a similar colourscheme as the bases/grass, but that is not inteded that way, because they look different than most other nids in my army, and they have the same ground pattern, too.

[Hammerite]

Yes, that is right. I'm not talking about the little blobs of tentacles attatched to the sprue. Rather, if you look at the rail attatched to the main body piece, that slots into the slotted base, on some of the models at one end there is a little spike or horn attatched to the rail that will end up looking as though it's sticking out of the ground once the model is assembled. Do you keep them or cut them off?

[Karmoon]

Originally Posted by Ladon

I think Hammerite was not talking about the 4 pieces of whatever-they-are which you get with the Genestealers sprue.
As I understood it he asked if we paint those little pieces of grass/tyranid vegetation at the feet of the stealers in the model olour-scheme or cut them off.

So you're clever,
so i'm stupid,

so what's new?

*shoots himself*

[Nagato]

Originally Posted by Ladon

As I understood it he asked if we paint those little pieces of grass/tyranid vegetation at the feet of the stealers in the model olour-scheme or cut them off.

Well then, it depends what base you want for your model. If you want a generic "in action" base you just paint the same as th mini or you just cut them off. If you want your base to look neat like the rest of your mini then you take care of this vegetation at the feet. Paint them congruous and it will make a nice show case.

[Leech]

When it comes to Tyranid plants on the Genestealers I cut off the ones that you get beside the Genestealers foot. I generally use them on the bases of deserving models that are important enough to warrant getting special hard-to-come-by things on their bases.

They are very fun in that regard, for adding a little extra character to things. As for the larger plant parts that are separate from the Genestealers themselves they I also use on bases. They can only be used on particularly large models though.

Another thing is that the little mouths at the top can be cut off and used for conversions, such as evil things with vaguely anemone like mouths.

[king88mob]

I personally don't like the "tentacles" coming out of the bases on the Genstealer models, and even more so on the Zonethrope models. I chop them off and rebase. For the Genestealers that are held on by the tentacles, i convert them to "in the air" jumping models, with a little bit of wire painted black.

I don't really see the point of that bit, and i never know what colours to paint them.

[Ladon]

Originally Posted by king88mob

... I chop them off and rebase. For the Genestealers that are held on by the tentacles, i convert them to "in the air" jumping models, with a little bit of wire painted black.
...

Do you have a picture of those in the boards gallery?
I'd really like to have a look on those.

[Leech]

Originally Posted by king88mob

the Genestealers that are held on by the tentacles, i convert them to "in the air" jumping models, with a little bit of wire painted black.

I don't really see the point of that bit, and i never know what colours to paint them.

I do like the little plant things, they add character showing that the Tyranids are screwing the planet up. However I do remove them from my Genestealers especially the jumping ones. I don't like the idea of them potentially snaping off, the conection between plant and Genestealer is weak. I use little wires too, with the exception of my first Genestealer brood.

If you want to know, painting those wee plant things is best done in two ways. First try to paint them in the colour scheme of your swarm to make it look like the plants are part of the swarm and the Hive fleet.

Second, this is the way I do it. Paint them in fairly unremarkable colours so they are present but they don't interfere with the model. The colours I use are dark browns and greens to make it look like perverted local plant life that is part Tyranid. This colour scheme is easy to enhance on larger pieces on the bases of more important models, such as my Trygon and Malanthrope.