Emperors Children The Judgment on Kadeth - Dr. Ruminahui's Emperor's Children

[TrawlingCleaner]

1) Short claws, there's something a bit creepy about having long legs but short grasping hands/claws? The long claws would definitely work too!

2) Smooth with closed Hatch. For me, there's already enough spikey bits and limbs etc, I think more could make it look too busy?

3) Small spike legs gives it a bit more varience which I like a lot

 

Excellent work Dr!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks Tallarn Commander, Brother Nathan and Trawling Cleaner - glad you like my work so far!

 

Brother Nathan, I agree the ground displacement issue would be a huge issue for the front claw, but realistically even the feet on the armored legs are way too small to keep the thing from sinking into the ground - but realism only takes you so far when one wants a spider tank. 

 

Interestingly, on my informal pole in the chaos forums and my WIP thread, long crushing claw just edged out short with the same for shield versus spike leg (both 4-3) while tentacles were the run away favorite versus hatch (6-2).

 

So, based on the above I thought to combine the tentacles with the side hatch (having it partially open with the tentacles coming out the gap) only to find that I have no idea where the hatches were.  So instead, I glued on some plates from the chaos vehicle accessory sprue and will put tentacles elsewhere on the model, and I may well do the other side with no hatch and emerging tentacles.

 

 

As shown above, rather than make up my mind on the arm/leg questions (though I'm inclined to side with the majorities for both), I built the smoke stacks instead.

 

Here are some close ups:

 

 

The one on the very back is because I had a gap from how the gestation sacks joined together and decided to fill it this way.

 

Though you can't really see it, the outermost stacks on either side have little faces cut into them kind of like the mauler/forge fiend does - I'm thinking of building them up (again like the fiend does) with greenstuff to make them more visible.

Edited April 8 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Sorry for the delay on updating, but I've been plugging away on it steadily without really anything significant enough to post until this weekend, when a bunch of things all seemed to come together.

 

The bulk of the work was in greenstuffing the claw - definitely a learning process, as I haven't really done much of the sort and had the problem of squashing the work I had just done, as well as having the greenstuff loose its stickness before I got it in place making me have to mix more.  The cat certainly didn't help in that regard, wanting me to take breaks to feed or play with her while I was in the midst of sculpting.

 

Anyway, here is the finished claw attached to the model.

 

 

I took the advice from my poll to do the extended version and took the advantage to put in the the wheeled "hinge" between the two pieces, which added a technological element with some cabling as well on the top.  Other than that, it was all trim and filing in of the more tyranid details - hopefully it will look a bit neater when painted.

 

I also went by the poll and replaced the spike front leg with a shielded one - having the claw in place simply confirmed the spike was just too small and made the whole model look too front heavy,  This allowed me to make a different front shield, which I decided to do in a chaos star - I think I'll put a slanneshi symbol on the other side when I get to it.  I'm really happy with how that turned out.  Here is it and a picture of the front, showing that there is enough clearance for the underslung flamer option.  You can also see the wires that I have going through the model to which I have pinned the legs - those will be cut done and have the left legs glued to them as well when I finish that side of the model.

 

 

And here it is from the side with all the right legs in place.  As you will also see, I decided to build a mouth out of the flat portion of the flesh sack on the back, and am really happy how that turned out.  You can also see the greenstuff I did to build up the face on the smokestack some, as well as the cabling I added to the back leg to meld the organic and mechancal elements some.

 

 

The one thing I'm not as happy with is that I tried greenstuffing the tongue to make it look less like just a bit of wire.

 

 

So, any suggestions on what to to with the tongue?

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Taken a break from my defiler this past week to get models ready for Call to Arms 2024 (as I don't think I'll have my defiler build done in time).

 

First, I built the demon prince model I've partially built for a year.  Magnetized the right hand weapons incase they ever become seperate options again.

 

 

I got an airbrush last Christmas, which I think will be quite helpful in getting my old metal raptors how I want them looking - I want them metallic purple, but using the florescent purple I've used throughout my army.  Never used an airbrush before, so it will be a journey for me.  I had painted up a unit of 8 in my regular army colour (so, non-metallic purple) but never been entirely happy with them.

 

So I built all (well, almost I have 2 more that don't really fit anywhere) of my old metal raptors - I had bought 16 or so back when I first contemplated a jump pack themed night lords army back in 3.5, then picked up another 10 or so over the years through various purchases and trades.   Due to the way I acquired them, I didn't have jump pack for all of them, so replaced the missing ones with the packs from the newer raptors kit (they fit well enough with a little trimming to the area where they attach to the torso).

 

So, I built 3 squads of 5 - 2 with 2x plasma, and 1 with 2x melta.  All the champions have plasma pistols and power fists.  Turns out I only have 4 or 5 of each special weapon, so with no interest in giving them flamers, that's basically the loadout I had to give them.  My painted squad is currently one melta and one flamer, but I'll be swapping the flamer for another melta after I finish these guys.

 

 

I also built 4 plasma pistols to swap out with special weapons in squads should I want to field them that way.  One of them is on a model from my painted squad.

 

 

Here's a picture of just the champions - including the one from my painted squad, who I had previously magnetized, so he's the only one with the full range of weapon options.  I'm happy that although they are all the same base models, I was able to give them each of different power fist (and I am fielding the original lightning claws as fists now, as look look more like fists than they do the other accursed weapons) and slightly different poses.  The ones whose flying "stands" (the smoke/flames coming out of their foot) broke have gotten tactical terrain - I'm pretty happy how I was able to keep their height relatively consitent between the models. 

 

 

And here are all 4 of the raptors that have the newer jump packs - I actually really like the look.

 

 

Finally, despite them being massively top heavy, I was able to keep them relatively stable by giving the larger modern base size with a metal washer glued to the bottom,  This involved trimming down the slot at the bottom of the models to fit inside the inner hole of the washer, cutting a matching slot in the base to match, then putting greenstuff on the bottom to keep them at the desired angle and to help keep the model attached to the base.  Here is what the bottom of their bases looks like.

 

 

If I like my new paint job, I intend to strip my painted squad and do them to match.  As a note, since it current has 8 models, that gives enough extras to swap out 2 of the champions and field 2 squads of 10.  That said, not sure I'd ever want to field 20 raptors.

[Volgon]

Excited to see the Raptors painted up! I am really not a fan of the "new" sculpts (they look poorly proportioned and goofy to me).

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, @Volgon - I don't really mind the plastic raptor sculpts, but the old metal ones certainly have a much better sense of movement to them - they actually look like they are zipping a flying around, rather than doing this wierd flailing run.

 

But asides from Volgon, I know metal raptors aren't why you are here - you want more crab tank wierdness.  And I have just what you ordered!

 

@Bonehead in the heretic guard forum gave me some good suggestions about the tongue in that it needs to be wider, which got me thinking about the best way to get that effect - I decided on using a plastic twist tie from electronics, which should be about the right breadth (broadness?).  I went to the bag in the kitchen drawer where my wife keeps such things and found a couple of promissing candidates - I may even glue them together if I want it to be thicker.  It won't be "wide" coming out of the mouth, though, as I'll need to orient the "width" going up and down instead to fit through the teeth.  Still, I think it might well work.

 

I have some other ideas in my head that might work - one of them if going for a more technological look and using guitar string, though I'm not sure if it will be flexible enough.  Anyway, I'll play around with it in the future.

 

While I'm working that over in my head, I've started on the other side and I'm eager to get it to the stage where it is a free-standing model.

 

Here is the poor tortured side skirt with all the mangling done to it to allow the limbs to protrude.

 

 

Here it is on the model (not glued yet, that will happen after I attach the legs), with the sponson, side hatch and escaping tentacle (an extra I didn't use from the Chaos Possesseds kit).  So, for those who voted in favour of side tentacles, here you go!  Unlike on the other side, with all the bending I couldn't get the sponson on quite straight, but luckily given the nature of the model that doesn't really matter. 

 

 

Next step is finishing the legs and claw arm - here are the 3 legs with their shields cut - next up is heating the shields to curve them slightly, and cutting and gluing on the trim.

 

Edited May 13 by Dr_Ruminahui

[TrawlingCleaner]

Great work all round Dr! I'm a big fan of the old Raptor sculpts and you've kept them in great knick too!

Looking forward to seeing the Defiler

[Volgon]

That tank certain looks like it's been through the grinder! Really creative, don't think it's something I've seen before.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, @TrawlingCleaner and @Volgon.

 

Long weekend here, thanks to Queen Victoria, so posting on a Tuesday this week.  This past weekend was leg day at the deflier gym:

 

 

Haven't tested whether it will stand properly without the box in support - that moment of truth will be tonight.  The back 2 leg shields are just like the other side, the front one has a slanneshi symbol - isn't quite as eye catching as the chaos star on the other side, but slanneshi symbols are hard, especially in the weird shaped space I had.

 

So, only one major structural element left, that being the left claw.  Think I can bang that out in the coming week which puts me in the home stretch - asides from building the flail, magnetizing the combi-bolter/weapon and maybe doing some work on the left sponson heavy bolter, its all detail work from there.

[ShotgunFacelift]

Its going to be like a baby deer standing for the first time......

 

be sure to get video of its first steps ;)

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Didn't get a video, but I did get a picture - its stands!  It seems to be pretty stable too, so any wobbly fawn-ness is behind it.