The Justice Keepers - Dr. Ruminahui's heretic guardsmen

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Just a quick midweek update - its stands!

 

[Bonehead]

Now that is just straight up badass from start to finish

[bloodhound23]

It looks like it skitters, so I think we count this as a win!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

@Bonehead, glad you like it.  Its not quite done - though, I'm hoping to get it done to pledge it as part of my first vow for Call to Arms.  Lets see what the cat and my sleep can let me get done in 2 weeks!

 

@bloodhound23, it definitely does, and I definitely do as well.  It should fit right in next to my two venowcrawlers.

 

Got the second arm on, but not without dislodging the first - so if its in a slightly different position, that's why.  It looks pretty much like I hoped it would - the claw arms are a little weedy and thin, but more in a way that looks unnatural than one that makes it look like it wouldn't work, so I'm fine with that.

 

 

So, that's the end of the structural elements.  Now its all detailing, other than a touch more work involving the top hatch options, the left side heavy bolter option, and the construction of the flail weapon option.

 

In terms of detailing, I see myself faced with 2 major choices for which I would love your feedback:

 

1.   What do I do for a face?  My thought was to put one on the front right where the driver's port is (its hidden in the above picture behind the claw).  The question is what to put there.  Some options are:

 

           a) put one of the flat plates with faces on them from the chaos rhino kit.  Here are the options:

 

 

And here are pictures of them in place (note, each of these will be actually mounted a bit higher, as I will be cutting off the hinges for the hatch off the russ which will allow me to cover that area with the face plate):

 

- i) the melty face:

 

 

- ii) the demon face:

 

 

b)  a bunch of eyes

c)  another mouth; or

d) my own scratch built face - suggestions as to what it might look like appreciated.

 

Personally, I'm inclined to go the easy option of the demon face plate, which has a similar visual aesthetic to the original defiler, so creates a nice visual link there.  That said, it might not be the best fit with the rest of the model.

 

2)  What to do with the spaces between the outer and inner hull?  The big decision there is whether to put on the track guards on the top - here is a rough picture of what that might look like, though it wouldn't stick off the back like that but would instead be cut down to fit the size.  As well, I would model some spikes breaking through them like I did the legs through the hull.

 

 

And here is an older picture without it - I had taken a newer one, but it looks like I didn't upload it.

 

 

Note, this is an option where I could do different things on different sides.

 

Where there are no track covers, I intend to build up some stringy flesh connecting the mechanical elements and maybe put some eyes here and there poking up over the edge of the hull.  On the front, probably some eyes clusters on one side, and spikes on the other.  On the bottom, its going to be less detailed with just some lumpy flesh and a couple of cables hanging down.

 

So, poll time:

 

1.  What should I do for a face on the front area beside the front sponson?  Options include:

            a) i) the melty face plate

               ii) the demon face plate

            b) an eye (either a single big one like this guy or a cluster like elsewhere on the model)

            c) another mouth; or

            d) a scratchbuilt face - if this is your vote, please give suggestions as to what it might be like.

 

2. Trackguard or no trackguard?  Options:

           a) trackguards.

           b) no trackguards

           c) a trackguard on one side, but not another.

 

3.  Other suggestions you might have as to what to do with the space between the outer and inner hull (so, between the track wheels), particularly for the front of the model.

[Bonehead]

My suggestion would be

1) an eye or eyes on the driver's plate area. I think once you've gone full custom on everything else, you'll kick yourself later for not doing it here. I'd also add another horror spike mouth at the bottom of the hull if possible: the front is where you want maximum impact and I think this deserves to be a full-on slavering monster.

2) Trackguards up top. Simple easy win, spikes notwithstanding. Means you have to do less to fill the space below.

3) To the fore in between the two hull sections, have you considered just having tracks there? If they emerge from under the trackguards and then hang loose once they go past the vertical on the angle at the front, you'll suggest it was a working vehicle right up until the posession burst out of it. Plus, again, it'll cover up a lot of space leaving you less work to do filling it.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for the suggestions, @Bonehead, they were very useful.

 

This one is going to be pretty picture heavy, as there are a lot of details I'm trying to show - you've been warned.

 

Finished the bulk of greenstuffing on the hull - really, the only thing that is left in that regard is the front.  After that, just have the flail and one of the side heavy bolters and the beast is done.

 

Before I did the actual detail work, I glued some paperclips to act as a scaffolding for the greenstuff on the top - I don't want it to break off and fall into the model where it couldn't be retrieved, which I was worried of happening as its connection points to the model is otherwise only as much as I can smoosh it against the two hulls.

 

 

Decided to go with trackguard on one side (with a tiny bit on the front of the other) and tracks on the other and the back on side with the guard.  Here's a picture with the tracks - wanted to make it look like the tracks were getting broken up and absorbed as the thing continued to mutate and really happy with the look,

 

 

And here's the tracks on the backside, drooping off.

 

 

And here is the side with the track guard with the spikes breaking through - also show some of the green stuffed "muscles" around the arm sockets.   It also shows how I put a ram bar on the front - I decided I didn't want a mouth up there so that fills that empty space, and helps replicate some of the look of the original defiler, which has a similar structure on the front.

 

 

Here's some eyes I added to the left side (so the side with the trackguards and without the mouth) back by the smoke stacks.

 

 

And here's the bottom - less concerned with what it looks like, but I wanted to fill the spaces between the rollers.  It also shows where I added some cabling to the middle left leg (the bottom of the photo) and hanging below the hull on the front right (top of photo).  It also shows the cabling on the rear right leg, but that isn't new.

 

 

Finally, I've built some cabling/piping for the combibolter/weapon to explain how its fired without a gunner.  Its magnetized so I can swap it between the two guns (bolter v weapon) or swap it with a plain hatch.

 

 

I've also been working on tongue and front options, but will put those in another post as there are enough photos in this one already.

Edited June 3 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

Aww yeah. This thing is going to look just super-evil in a very cool way when it's done. An absolute mostrosity.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks @Bonehead - your praise and encouragement through this project has been a big help in keeping me motivated.

 

As it turns out, I made up my mind (mostly) as to the front and the tongue and didn't need to post all the pictures of the funky options I tried as part of the decision process (I can still share those if you guys want).  Hopefully you guys like what I came up with.  So, asides from whatever Sitnam may convince me to do with the cannon (he suggested in the WIP forum that I add some fleshy bits to it) and if you guys convince me to go with the alternate tongue, the build is done. 

 

So, here's what I ended up doing on the front end.  This picture also shows the flail option I built (the whisk of doom).

 

 

Basically, I decided against the eye cluster as most of the time (except when I was fielding it with the reaper autocannon) I would already have a cluster on the other side on the front gun mount (as seen here) and I wanted to avoid that symmetry.  I still thought an eye there was a good idea, though, so I made an eye stalk with the eye being held by an arm, as I thought it would be creepy. 

 

A bunch of you also wanted a 3d melty face, which I thought was also a good idea but wasn't sure if I could really pull it off.  So I had a go at it and made the arm come out of its mouth.  Not totally happy with my work, but its probably fine with the arm sticking out in front of it and kind of obscuring it.

 

Here's a picture of the flail from the side - incidentally, the claws on the end are some of the oldest bits in my bit box, and come from my earliest conversions - they are knives from the plastic goliath models from the 1st edition necromunda box. shaved to put the main cutting edges on what was the back of the knife.

 

 

Here is the tongue that I've mostly settled on - building it out of a plastic twist tie allowed me to make it forked, something I don't think I could have pulled off effectively  if the tongue had been made of greenstuff.  There is some greenstufffing on the back to flatten out the ridge made by the metal wire inside the tie.  I'm not gluing it on until after its painted, so its position isn't finalized yet.

 

 

Here's the other option - if I were to use it, I would greenstuff the transition between the head and the cable to make it more natural.  Went with the above largely because the tie is a lot easier to position and deal with than the guitar string.  The head of the tongue is from the new demon prince kit - and the blue tac is obviously temporary.

 

 

I suppose there is also the option to go no tongue at all - anyway, let me know what you think.

 

Other than that, the final bits of the conversion were pretty minor.  I built a second eye cluster (actually, the 3rd, to replace the 2nd which went missing) as I need two if I put the reaper autocannon on it as I need one for each side sponson - don't think it warrants its own picture unless you guys want one.

 

The final change was carving the ejection port out of a heavy bolter and then flipping it onto the other side so both sponson heavy bolters (if I use that option) eject away from the hull.  Kind a real nitpicking thing, really.  Probably doesn't warrant its own photo, but you are getting one regardless.

 

 

One final picture of the defiler with all of its magnetising bits.

 

 

All that is left now (other than any last minute changes arising from you guys' suggestions) is the painting - I'll be making it my first vow for Call to Arms.

[Bonehead]

Just brilliant. A hulking great malevolent beast. Hats off to you. Best defiler I've yet seen, I think. Can't wait to see what you do with the paint scheme.

It does seem to be just you, Gnasher and me in the traitor guard trenches most of the time, but it makes it homely, somehow!

[danodan123]

This is coming along so well! I can't wait to see the final product, even simply priming it will pull it together fantasticly