Monday, June 14, 2010

Tervigon Tutorial

I hadn't seen nearly enough Tervigons with the three capillary towers on their back and I really like to create models that look like illustrations. As works in progress would have it, things had to change a little on the fly and she isn't perfectly like the illustration and I could have kept the energy going a little better towards the end but still not bad for a first try.

This involves cutting two Carnifex kits up, one carapace gets cut with a razor saw down the inside of each side of the capillary towers and another carapace gets cut straight down the center. Clip the capillary towers from one side of the discarded capillary towers and glue them together. I have to say razor saws are fun to work with.






Dremmel three holes into the center carapace piece and grind the bases three loose capillaries so that they fit into the holes. Make sure to bore the hold for the the center capillaries so that they match aesthetically with the outside capillaries. Which is right on the tips of the joining plates.
Now it's time to get the body together so that you can measure up the covering carapaces and begin filling in the gaps. I started out test fitting the model with copious amounts of blue-tac so that the body would hold shape. The blue-tac ended up becoming part of the model and some superglue hardened it up properly.

I dry fit my covering carapaces before boring the top most capillary hole so that I could have a proper and close fit to the Thornback cover carapace. The Thornback carapace has two layers to make it look like the illustration. The under layer is assembled much like the body carapace by using two Thornback carapaces and sawing out a center piece and then sawing the second carapace in half and attaching it to the sides of the center piece. For the overlapping Thornback, saw it straight down the middle just so that you can flatten it out a little.


Be smart, unlike me and be more careful about how you cut the carapace. I made a huge mistake here and had to re-sculpt the entire left hand side of the overlapping Thornback.

This is the overall initial look at how the full model would turn out. I like Tervigons with Crushing Claws so that they can actually contribute to a battle instead of being unproductively productive but this isn't a tactics article it's a modeling tutorial. On an aesthetic appeal the Claws look very supportive and give a good knuckle dragging feel.






I tried to bore holes in the chest and create the birthing vents that you see in the illustration but I found that the area of chest that I had to work with was too small. Oh well, a minor abortion, just a little extra sculpting to do which I'm getting pretty used to at this point.








I decided that the model looked too hyper-combat looking and so I made sure to flatten out the pose before hardening the blue-tac. Also since I felt that the slim waist made it look somewhere in between combat monster and the impossible proportions of a Barbie doll combined with just needing more girth to reasonably contain enough Termagants I decided to go with a pregnant stomach look. The Termagants are birthed out of three vents on each side of the flank which makes it reasonable in my mind for so many Gants to be birthed at once.


So here is the model in a few primed pics and I hope to start working on her a bit soon so that I can post the painted pics.

I wanted to and tried to get an active birth segment to this model but couldn't manage it quiet with the energy I had left. What I do intend to do is place a slimy birth sac of adrenal gland bugs slumped on the floor near one of the vents with lots of gross liquid. I can't get a Gant head or body onto this model though without upsetting my concept of volume.

4 comments:

  1. Excellent work Joe. The claws really capture it for me. Their bulk fits very naturally with the rest of the work you've done with the carapace and the torso. Can't wait to see the basing!

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  2. It definitely looks good - Though still fall through the cracks of the world due to Jaws of the World Wolf. 40k made easy. But just think - In a month you'll have a whole new fantasy rulebook to have complaints about ;) Though I think, since there will be objective based games, your 8-turn Ogre army plans will have to be cut down.

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  3. You think that but maybe the 8 turn plans will be even more devious, over complicated and perfect for an objective based system. Actually I think I might have a hard time since MSU is going to die with the coming of 8th.

    Yep, the Tervigon is the one thing that Jaws is actually good against. Other than to laugh at someones rare misfortune otherwise. Tyranids have it bad enough as it is why do you have to bring Jaws to the table.

    Painting and basing pics will be in a little while. I have real people work on the weekends.

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  4. Excellent Job! Love this model, wishing I had one too! Can't wait to see it painted and based!

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