Dr. Ruminahui's leman russ to defiler conversion (with tyranid bits)

[sitnam]

In my head I was thinking of mutated tendrils spiraling around the barrels. I'm also terrible at greenstuff so that might be easier said then done, and honestly the build now looks great.

[Pearson73]

Wow this is really just phenomenal, hope you're feeling happy with how it´s shaping up.

 

The flail is very well done, and the arm holding the eye is fantastically creepy. All the details with the muscles and flesh around the tracks are super cool too.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Toothpick maw is the best feature although it is a great model in general. 

[Xenith]

Amazing work, getting real Konflict '47 vibes:

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for all the compliments - I'm glad that everyone seems to like my abomination.

 

About the tongue, I don't think I'll try giving it taste buds - I don't think my green stuff skills are up to that small level of detail, and in any event I don't think its necessary.  Hopefully I can pull off a tongue like look through paint alone.  And, ultimately, if I don't like it I can leave it off - its one of the few bits that I haven't yet fixed in place to permit easier painting.

 

@Brother Christopher, I'm sorry too about missing your last opportunity to give feedback before it was done.  You make a good point about the claws - they are kind of weedy (the are probably the weakest part of this build), which is particularly noticeable when, as you note, the claws in the official defiler model are probably the best (and most iconic) part of that model.   While I did consider other claws (such as Ghazguls), I dismissed them as bringing more expense than I was willing to spend on this build.  I hadn't thought of building some sort of armature around the tyranid claw (or a mechanical replacement) and am not sure how that would of worked in the space I had available for it - certainly, anything of that sort would require a repositioning of the arms and likely beefing them up (or finding a thicker replacement) so that they better matched (and looked like they could actually support) a built up claw.  So, I guess I'm willing to accept the claws I did produce as good enough for the look I want while also seeing that they could be better with different parts - and without some vision as to what the replacement might be, I'm not inclined to mess with it.

 

@Gnasher, thanks for the glowing compliments.  I wouldn't consider my modeling skills "top" though - for that you should check out Brother Christopher's plastic thunderhawk and YanntheMad's nightmare fuel (or Blackadder's titan if you want to look at truly insane levels of skill).  I think its more accurate to say they were adequate for what I set about doing, as chaos is fortunately very forgiving of not having everything strait and even - I don't think I could achieve similar results with an imperial, tau or eldar project, which require much more precision and neatness.

 

@Norman Paperman, there is still a chance that there will be no tongue, if the painted model looks better without out it.  As for the cable with the head, the other side is busy enough I think, so I'll save it for some potential future project.

 

@sitnam, thanks for "fleshing out" (pun intended) what you envisioned with the gun barrel.  That's not a bad idea, but I think the front of the thing is busy and crowded enough as it is, so I'll be leaving it be.

 

@Ace Debonair, @TheArtilleryman, @Pearson73 and @Deus_Ex_Machina, thanks for the compliments!  Glad you like it - its always interesting to hear what particular details attract different people's attention and appreciation.

 

@Xenith, yeah, they do kind of look similar - I imagine because they are both trying to follow the "crab aesthetic".  That's a cool model - love how they have also caught the soviet WW2 vibe.

 

 

I thought you guys might be interested in some of the photos I took while trying to decide on the "face" of the model, before I settled on the creepy eye-holding arm.

I've already shared pictures of the 2 rhino "face" plates, so I won't post those again, but here are some of the other things I looked at:

 

A single giant eyeball:

 

 

Multiple eyes in a chaos pattern

 

 

Multiple eyes in a more random pattern

 

 

I also tried a couple of action figure heads to try doing a 3d "melty face" effect with - the idea was to glue the face on, then green stuff it pressing its way into the armor as if trying to escape the tank.

 

The first was from some unknown action figure - found it in a field decades ago and its been in my bits box since.  It would have needed to have been cut down.

 

 

The second is from an action figure I specifically bought from the dollar store for this project - it was the smallest head I could find with an open mouth.

 

 

Here's the action figure its from:

 

 

Ultimately, I discounted both of them as options as they were really too big for the space I had - they didn't give me enough room to do the greenstuff work for the stretching armor effect I wanted.

 

Anyway, I'm happy with the choice I settled on, but thought you might want to see what I also looked at to get there.

 

The process also left me with the ability to do an anime-haired demon prince should I ever buy another model:

 

Edited June 19 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Not sure if you guys are as interested in the painting as the build, and I don't normally post pics of my WIP painting, but am painting these in case you are.

 

 

This one is kind of an overall view - done all of the flesh except the legs and from eye stalk, done the central hull except for some edge highlighting, and figured out what I'm doing on the side - the purple there at the moment is really rough and basically just for me to see if it would work (it does), it will be cleaned up and the rest of the side will be dark purple like the central hull with the same edge highlighting.

 

 

Here's a picture showing the finished bits of the central hull, including the chained chaos star (well, almost done - the edges nearest the hatch still need highlighting, which will happen after I finish the flesh.

 

 

When painting models, I often hit kind of an "uncanny valley" when blocking out the main colours where it just seems to look worse and worse to me.  This is especially the case when I am struggling with how (or whether) to do something, as I was in this case with the purple chaos star on the side.  As its the detail work that I enjoy, I got myself out of that by painting the flail - plus, the above photo shows the mouth I gave it, which I don't think is in any of my other pictures.

 

 

This isn't the best WIP picture, but here are my WIP renegade guard, showing how the dark purple armour is the connecting piece with the tank.  I see my defiler as kind of the link between these guys and my chaos space marines, with the guard tank in their dark purple and the added on elements in the lighter purple of my marines.  Not sure if the renegade force will ultimately go anywhere such that I give them any tanks of their own, but this should give me the space aesthetically if I do.

Edited Monday at 05:27 PM by Dr_Ruminahui

[Brother Christopher]

All of this is good enough for WIP photos; it gives a nice overview of the direction you're heading.

 

It's great to see this project coming along so quickly and nicely. I'm very curious how the final 'product' will turn out.