Monday, February 16, 2009

The Infernal Machine nears completion!


Well, here it is folks! My Stalk Tank is edging slowly towards completion, just a bit of work on a base and possibly some magnet action on the legs (for ease of transport) and it'll good to go!

You can seen in the picture above that I've added my screaming psyker to the picture to give you a better sense of scale, and nothing says "What the...?" better than a screaming psyker!

In the pictures below I've tried to focus in on things I've added since last time you saw this beastie.


With the four limbs to walk on finished (and detailed with rivets and spiky blades), I figured it was time to add the "praying mantis arms". They are currently pinned with paper clips and are able to move. You can see in the picture above that they can really reach out and touch someone. I also like that there's something "brain bug-ish" about this picture.


In this picture (above) you can see most of the pre-made parts I used for this build. From left to right there are a) the twin flamers from the Forge World Elysian Drop Troopers, b) a leg from a Sentinel - with the "neck" pivoting on the ball joint, c) a mutilated torso from Forge World's Chaos Renegades range, and finally d) the twin-linked Reaper cannon from the Defiler.


I thought I'd show you all a shot of the underside too (above) so that you can get a closer look at the fun gubbinz added there. In the concept art and the stories there are description of this section being a fluid-filled bubble containing a mutated servitor. For the first Stalk Tank I felt this might be too ambitious so I opted for an armored "bubble". 

The brown circles on the shot above are sensors of various size so that the mutated servitor enclosed in the beast can make sense of the battlefield. They're made from balls of brown stuff cut in half and then surrounded by a thin slice of a plastic tube (like the ones used to make the legs). I've also placed a few on the sides of the "bubble" and one on the tail section of the carapace.

In the gap between the two thorax sections has been filled with ribbed cables, the same ones as I used on the Trooper backpacks, trimmed down to fit. You can just make them out in the lower portion of the picture.


And finally, a side view of the Stalk Tank without the legs. from the tip of its flamer snouts to the end of the "excrement tubes" (the exhausts from the Defiler). It's a respectable 9 inches long and spiky. Please keep the comments PG-13 ; )

Hopefully I'll have a bit of news in the next few days regarding a Conversion Challenge my friend (and author of The Adept's Forge), Jeff Hall, has proposed regarding the new Lizardman Stegadon and the possibilities surrounding it. Keep an eye out for more news on that!

Cheers
Dave

7 comments:

  1. What's the brown stuff you used to fill the gaps? Did you green stuff the wires?
    Great details on this model, really quite creepy.
    Mike at SCW

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Mike

    The brown stuff is just that, it's like green stuff, but a brown and white mix to get, well, brown ; ) It's made by the same folks (Kneadatite) and cures to a much harder finish that greenstuff. It's great for gap filling like this as I can file it down once cured and get a sharp edge. In miniature sculpting it is typically used for armor plates and larger, flat surfaces. Green stuff is better for details or something that needs a bit of flex.

    Yep, the wires are green stuff. I think I'll do a quick "tutorial" in my next post. It's a trick I picked up from Gary Morley a few years back at Adepticon.

    Cheers
    Dave

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing model. It looks like something to come out of the most deadly Chaos machine pit! Nice work mate

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very nice piece of work. I can't wait to see it painted up!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome! It's gonna look reallllly cool painted up. Don't forget to do some light effects on those peepers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is some great stuff you are working on Dave. It's really inspired me to get started on my Dark Mechanicus troops. The idea of using the flagellant as a slave is perfect. Mind if I do the same?

    Just wondering if you've got any ideas how to model chaos pit slaves and cannon fodder in the same sort of style as the blood pact?

    Cheers, Earl

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi guys

    Thanks for the comments. I'm really happy with how the Stalk Tank is progressing, just on the right side of the creepy/goofy line ; )

    @ Earl, I took a look at your stuff and it's looking very cool. For your cannon fodder I'd be really tempted to use Cadians, trim down the detail on the breastplates, add some chainmail (or similar) hanging down over the belt, use the Cadian helmets with the eagles shaved off, add armor plates the length of their arms (either rough beaten panels like the renegades or segmented stuff like the Romans used against the Dacians). I would then add a flat-ish face plate (like the one in the second photo in this post http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/02/back-on-pact.html) and run a row or two of small spikes down the armor segments on the arms (spikes a bit smaller than on the sergeant in the same post above.

    It could also be cool to add a single cylindrical tank on their back with wires extending into their shoulders.

    Mmmm I might have to steal this idea for my Command Squad combat veterans...

    ReplyDelete