Friday, July 16, 2010

Tyracron Update: The Wrathful Poltergeist, Zoanthrope


This one was a bit of a pain. 


For some reason whilst in the early stages of building them out I was fighting with what they were becoming, and trying to go in a different direction with the designs. At one point they resembled a cross between a Moai and Slave I, and at another flying squids. All the while I think I was consciously avoiding the "floating cranium" design and going for more of the "flying head cannon" idea. Anyway, as usual, once I got over that it was all downhill. 




There are only four for now, although I anticipate getting a lot of mileage out of their warp-blasting abilities and add more over time. For now, these is all I had parts for, so these are all there are. Two squads of two and either a Doom of Malantai or Deathleaper should fill out those Elites slots nicely, don't you think? Until 40k follows Fantasy down the "25% of this/15% of that" hole, which strikes me as being a stupid way to do things. Who computes out the percentages of their lists? Well, Fantasy players do, now. 




Thank goodness for the fantastic (and cheap) sampler pack of power cables from Dragon Forge. They make lovely tendrils among other things, and are easily bent and twisted, something metal will always have over plastic as a medium. Unfortunately, they also break, so after twisting them together, I had to glue them at certain points to keep the tentacle cluster structural. The Necron torso front clicks right into the Destroyer hull bottom (with some trimming on the hull). The spinal cord is a bit brittle, so I had to drill all the way up to the main section to insert the rod. He's not coming off there. 




The whole thing went together rather tenuously, but once glued became like a rock. I liked the use of glowy nubs on the Tervigon so much I used them again here on the Zoan's huge cerebellum. Their massive craniums are white, of course, because they're synapse creatures. I bent the tentacle masses back to give a sense of motion, and would have put a similar mass on the bottom of the spine if there was room. I toyed with the idea of putting the rod between the back and the particle collection vents so I could do just that, butit did bad things to the silhouette, so I didn't. What? Oh, you thought they were hover-engines, didn't you? Well, no, sorry. Just like Harpy, Zoanthrope needs to constantly suck up subatomic particles to power up his brain-gun and other power-hungry systems. 




Luckily I had the undercarriages of more Destroyer hulls, thanks to the Harpies, so I could give the Zoans the extra-long brains they deserved. This does make any future mass-production more complicated, however, but I don't foresee needing that many more. Nine Zoans would just be too overkill, wouldn't it? I ordered a small pack of scenic bases along with the power cords, and this was my chance to use them. If only Dragonforge cranked out 60mm ones for IG gunnery teams. What? They do? Well, then...




Not much to look at from the rear. If you're seeing this view, either you're very sneaky or he's done blasting the shit out of you with his giant turbocharged brain. The vents in back link visually to the original Zoan model quite well. I was thinking of going with the wings/spine route, but found this fit the Necron aesthetic better instead. 


Now if only someone would buy some stuff from my ebay auctions so I could build Tyrannofexes.... or Trygons. I still haven't decided. 

9 comments:

Mordian7th said...

Absolutely gorgeous work, as usual! As far as the percentage-based army lists, that's how it used to be back in the 2nd edition days (to a certain extent), and we've dabbled with that in recent times with 40k. It actually works out fairly well, we went with no more than 25% of the points in HQ, Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support, and at least 25% must be Troops. It's a little different, but was a fun alternate army list build...

In any case, fantastic stuff - can't wait to see what's next!

MasterDarksol said...

Brilliant! I love this idea. Not sure how a giant head gun would have worked/looked, but intrigued none-the-less.

Max said...

Lovely as always sir.

BLACKHAND said...

Awesome work bud, though I really shouldn't keep watching this blog...I have the disturbing urge to buy a ton of necron and nid kits and convert up a bunch of tyracron and my fiance would probably end my life :)

Chumbalaya said...

Man, those are sweet. Keep it up.

An Enemy said...

If you need another necron destroyer lord torso I'm interested in trading for stuff I can use for my Space Wolves.

Tears of Envy said...

I really love the colour scheme you have chosen. I think the use of the white brings a kind of plastic, manufactured look which sets off all the other oily metals. Awesome!

Mark said...

@Mordian7th: The switch was a bit of a shock, but I must admit, now that I've sat down and actually did the percentage build a few times, it's growing on me.

@Blackhand: Show her my blog. Once she sees how great they'll look, she'll love you more. Or, yeah, kill you, but it's worth a shot.

@An Enemy: I... would really have to go through my SM bits to see what I have that you'd want? Shoot me an email with your shopping list and I'll see what I have. My bits stock is a little... eclectic right now

@ Tears: Thanks! I was debating whether to do the entire head white or just the little scarab bit at the end, but after I finished the test model, I had to do the rest of them the same way.

L Witha Z said...

Fantastic as always! Though Zoans give me nightmares, these are still beautiful. And I hear you on the percentages thing with WHF, when I heard that I threw up in my mouth a little.