Flora and fauna of the Catachan Jungle

As break from the bigger builds I started making smaller terrain that i could finish in one or two days to keep my motivation high. I love the mythology of the catachan jungle, part preadator part deathworld I couldnt attempt a jungle build on catachan without a nod to its most famous preadators. I checked out the wiki to see what i could build into the board https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Catachan

Brain Leaf - The brain leaf, a carnivorous plant, is actually a small tree, not particularly conspicuous on Catachan, but one that is able to attach its tendrils to the spine and brain of any animal, taking control over their body. This creature may actually be a genetic offshoot of the Tyranid Cortex Leech, a creature with similar abilities, that was cut off from the Hive Mind and went feral.

Barbed Vemongorse - Covered in alien flora bright and beguiling, Death Worlds are strange and sinister places few visit and fewer leave intact. Much of the pain, suffering and death can be attributed to the growth of barbed venomgorse. Possessed of a primal, cunning sapience, this carnivorous plant is highly adaptable, which snakes toward anything that lives, able to generate new weapon-growths and toxins throughout its life cycle while injecting debilitating neurotoxins into its victims with invariably fatal results. It is commonly found with a collection of dead animal bones, xenos skeletons, and the odd unfortunate desiccated Human corpse entangled in its sapient roots and boughs. The venom from a single one of these xenos-weeds is enough to kill most of the population of a hive city. The barbed venomgorse is defined by its mesh-like leaves, buds, and barbed flowers, and the body of the plant is a thick tangle of thorned creeper vines. It can also grow in deadly variants known as grappleweed. I piced up some actual GW catchan terrain for this although it was pretty pricey 2nd hand along with some old GW jungle terrain i had to hand

Canak Floater - The Canak floater is a bizarre and deadly plant filled with lighter-than-air gases, and it drifts across the planet with the vagaries of the wind. It has sensitive feeler tentacles which detect warmth and moisture above the normal local levels. This is usually used by the plant to uncover streams, hot springs and other sources of water, but unfortunately is also sensitive enough to detect the temperature of and moisture changes caused by Humans. When it finds such a place, the floater explodes, scattering its seed pods over a wide area. These seed pods have a diamond-hard outer casing outfitted with razor sharp edges, and will scythe through anything within range. pretty proud of this one built with christmas nuts wire and lots of glue, thorns and flock

Spiker - The spiker, another deadly plant, fires its eponymous spikes into its victims' bodies, which contain a virus that seeks to replicate the spiker's own DNA in the new host and unleash a series of mutative biochemical reactions which literally transforms the person into another spiker over time inkeeping with the natural nuts theme, i picked up some Conkers the glossy, mahogany-brown seeds of the horse chestnut tree ;) to use as the classic spiker, i wanted to lean in to the horror of the plant and had envisoned severl versions of it but time constrains led to just this version howver the floater seems like its part of the same genus

Catachan Mantrap - The Catachan mantrap is a carnivorous plant which, while having a similar name to the Venus mantrap, uses a much more aggressive hunting technique. It can move its leaves around, actively searching out prey and clamping its jaw-like leaves around its victims. A kitbash of some tzeentch floaty things and tombkings snakey things plus lots of teeth from spines of things, i attempted to copy the paint scheme of this version

Venus mantrap - The Venus mantrap is a carnivorous plant whose analogous species are common to many jungle Death Worlds across the galaxy. It resembles the much-smaller Terran Venus flytrap for which it is named, but is far larger, and unlike the flytrap, it is not stationary but is able to move its leaves to attack and consume its prey. The mantrap consists of a number of mobile leaves attached to a single immobile stem. I 3d printed these after purchasing a lovely jungle tree from https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/jungle-tree

Catachan Devil - One of the most famous deadly animals of Catachan is the Catachan Devil, a voracious insectoid predator, looking somewhat like a many-limbed Terran scorpion or centipede. They can be as long as a land train but are very bulky and slow-moving, which means that escape is possible for the unlucky Humans who confront one. I ordered a lovely model for dnd form interwebs for this but havent started the conversion yet, gonna twin it with some necromunda bits

Blood Wasps - Blood wasps are swarms of small, deadly insectoids that are known to eat their prey alive, capable of stripping them to the bone in under a solar hour.

Great Barking Toads - Great Barking Toads, although appearing benign and harmless, are literally volatile creatures: this amphibioid is easily startled, and anything it finds threatening is liable to cause it to neurologically explode in a cloud of virulent toxins which kills anything within a very wide (up to 1 kilometre) area, including the Barking Toad itself. The Barking Toad toxin is virulent enough that even respirators and sealed suits such as power armour offer no protection, and no other known substance can serve as an antidote to the searing, acidic death it brings. The Barking Toads of Catachan are known as the most toxic and dangerous creatures known to Humanity in the galaxy. There are two species of Barking Toads, based on their sizes, the Lesser Barking Toad and the Greater Barking Toad. I picked both greater and lesser of these species , love how greater is like the worst thing ever.. i leant into the environement for these during the build specificlaly for the under side of the walkways , i though a bunch of alien frog/toad spawn would look very gross. i also picked up some modles for the sanlkes of catachan although one does appear on the tree i purchased i thought it needed friends like .. Snake Analogues - There are many types of reptiloid serpent analogues on Catachan, including the Flying Swamp Mamba, the Coiling Death Cobra and the Catachan Black Viper, and all are deadly to most living beings. Some possess toxins so powerful that they can kill in under 30 heartbeats

there are still more bits hidden on the boards themsleves like grapplevines, tangle weed and sucker trees, quagmires, spitting cacti and plenty of spore bombs , but i think this is more than enough to keep any players lowkey occupied with surviving rather than fighting an enemy , just as any visit toi death world should , let alone 40k deadliest planet.

Catachan jungle board wips

"A few WIPs from the jungle board build. For this board, I wanted to get dense foliage but have the board be playable. I also wanted scatter as opposed to one huge diorama board. So the compromise was multiple small, medium, to large individual pieces. That way I could concentrate on each narrative diorama piece one at a time so as to not get overwhelmed by it all. I initially wanted to cover a 4x4 area, but this increased to 4x6 due to the amount of scatter I had at hand. I had decided to make each scatter piece navigable as opposed to just line of sight blocking, which many jungle boards seem to do. Therefore, each scatter piece had multiple entrances and exits, although these were mostly obscured with the foliage by the end of the process. I really wanted to get the overgrown, disorienting feeling of a mass of jungle but still be able to move miniatures around. With that in mind, I tried to make the foliage overhang each board edge so when two boards were pushed close, they would make a natural path in between. This increased the amount of possible variations.