Yesterday the Hive Mind briefly relented its Shadow in the Warp, in order to convey its monstrous intent when adapting the new Tyranid miniatures. Studio synaptic relays Mark and Filip are back again today, this time to explain what went into the design of some of the biggest new bioforms yet: the Norn Assimilator and Norn Emissary.
Warhammer Community: What key elements did you focus on when creating these new biomorphs?
Mark: First, we developed many ideas to lay the groundwork for these new miniatures. We pushed designs in all sorts of very extreme directions, which helped us work out what elements we could change and which core elements had to remain to define a creature as a Tyranid. Once we’d broken those rules, we knew what worked and what didn’t work.
Filip: Certain elements ended up being key. Every Tyranid has six limbs – or at least the potential for them. Sometimes they will be blended together, or they will be nubs that have no physical use, like the vestigial lumps on the Neurotyrant. Other times these limbs can be over-extended, or pushed in new directions like with the legs on the Psychophage, whose body is at the far end of what would traditionally be considered “Tyranid”.
Similarly, the heads always have five armoured segments on them, but there are lots of opportunities to diversify here by branching plates out, fusing them together, or creating large crown structures. Finally they all have spiracles on the craniums, but the depth and placement of these can alter.
Mark: We spent a lot of time defining the core textures that we felt were inherently Tyranid in nature. Some of this involved refining textures to stop areas of the miniatures from appearing too visually busy. For example, the ribcage elements have been softened a little – they still capture Shade and Contrast paint really well, but they are a little more organic and less pronounced. For the hardened elements on the Tyranids, there was a focus on creating more organic textures, which we mentioned earlier – large bridging elements that look more like growths. We also found we could add more texture to help define these plates, including splits utilising texture elements that appear similar to broken fingernails, which helps inform what the materials might be.
There are also new areas that add more believability to the miniatures – the areas around the arms and joints now feature sinewy textures that imply something more organic than the ball joints of old miniatures, which feel a bit mechanical in practice as there’s no conception of where they connect to the body. Other subtle work has been done as well – on the necks of many creatures, there are elements akin to vertebrae that suggest even more about the internal structures of these terrifying alien creatures.
Filip: The initial work laid such a strong foundation that it opened up many opportunities to revisit things like the classic art of old Tyranid bio-weapons and re-introduce them to the range. That’s how we ended up being able to bring back older weapons on the new Termagants so seamlessly.
WarCom: With all that in mind, how did you approach the Norn Emissary and Assimilator?
Mark: In almost the complete opposite direction of what we talked about yesterday, we wanted to create a brand new centrepiece miniature for the Tyranids, something to stand head and shoulders above the swarming troops and reinforce the scale of the invasion. We wanted something that fit in the same hierarchy as the Hive Tyrant and the Norn Queen – something that had to look like it could easily outmatch even a Hive Tyrant.
To keep it in that hierarchy, its silhouette matches that of the Hive Tyrant and Tyranid Warriors. It’s not a Norn Queen itself – such a creature is too valuable to be planetside – but it’s an expression of their will, distilled for the battlefield. The idea with the design was to push a lot of the shapes a bit further – it’s an aggressive creature that is 100% focused on killing for the sake of its hive fleet. We felt like a creature this size would burn hotter, so they have bigger “chimneys” on the back, which adds to the threatening silhouette.
For the Norn Emissary, we wanted to push the symbiotic element of the Tyranids to the fore again. While it has its own overgrown brain matter, there are multiple symbiotic cerebral elements embedded in its back with their own tentacles flowing backwards. These give it more motion, and perhaps act as some kind of organic signal boosters, powering synapse connections and helping it dominate foes with horrible psychic power. They also reinforce the symbiotic elements found across the rest of the new range, which you can see on the Neurogaunts and Neurotyrant, as well as the Biovore and Barbgaunts. It gives us more of an idea about how the Tyranid Hive Mind might be further adapting its hive fleets.
The Norn Assimilator is a much more aggressive expression of this biomorph, tailor-made for hunting down the biggest, baddest prey on the battlefield. It’s a true apex predator, and every surface is bristling with stabbing, puncturing elements. We decided we wanted it to be a strong melee threat, as we’d already had a lot of heavy ranged weaponry biomorphs in the Tyranids range, like the Tyrannofex and Exocrine. As a result, nearly every surface is sharp and aggressive, and extra talons and hooks have formed across its body. Its harpoon barbs and toxinjector claws make it look far more savage than the Emissary, and link back to other aggressive melee-focussed Tyranids.
While its body still has the same symbiotic elements, the head is a much smaller and classic design. We went with a bifurcated horn to set it apart from the Emissary, and added the mandible elements to convey a great sense of threat. We’d done a lot of large singular horns across the range – they’re a suggestion of how Tyranids might communicate beyond the Hive Mind synaptic network. We already know Tyranids push out dozens of spores, which could carry pheromonal messages, but how else can they communicate? Do they flash colours to signal? Are the crests a symbol of dominance?
From a functional point of view, it also helps people understand the rank importance of a Tyranid creature on the tabletop, at a glance. Both of these creatures communicate their intent immediately, encapsulating the terrifying will of the Hive Mind in physical for.
Thanks once again to Mark and Filip! All of the miniatures discussed today will be available to pre-order on Saturday alongside Codex: Tyranids.