Weapon Symbiote

I've gone a bit Tyranid/Cthulhu on the arms. I'm not an engineer and its unclear how effective tentacles are as weapon mounts.  They probably make a decent emergency defense measure in melee combat.  I suppose it doesn't matter when it comes to Chaos and anything goes really.  But the geek in me which loves world building and wants to preserve the suspension of disbelief keeps trying to figure out why tech adepts would attach mechanical tentacles to the arm socket of an Imperial Knight.

Maybe they just spontaneously grew out of the body because Tzeentch thought it would be funny.  I definitely want to give the impression that the torso contains something ghastly and organic and this helps.

The influence of Lovecraftian horror and The Hive Mind continues on the gun barrel.  I used a Forgefiend Hades Autocannon in place of the Avenger Gatling Cannon and was wondering what to do about the large socket where the weapon is supposed to be mounted.  The hole is so big I figured I could put a marble in there and pretend it was some kind of monstrous eye.  But my marbles didn't fit.  Unperturbed, I smashed a couple with a hammer and used a broken shard.  In a way it turned out better because the coloured streak of plastic in the centre was missing and so I had to hand paint an iris on the inside.  Leaving the pupil as clear glass produced fairly convincing results.

The 'shoulders' were sculpted from scratch with epoxy putty.  This was fairly time consuming and I practiced on some old models first but I quite enjoyed it.  I'm getting better with green/grey stuff and it's mostly down to the tools I use.  If you are just getting into green-stuffing then I recommend watching a series of videos on the subject by The Modern Synthesist.  It was Mr. Pink who first put me on to 'clay shapers' which are absolutely indispensable if you are going for a smooth look.  I didn't really plan it out and only wanted to bulk out the tops of the arms and attach the tentacles initially.  So I just put some ambient trance music on and went with the flow.  I added some plasticard rods and used my trusty tentacle maker to give it a more bio-mechanical look.

 The Thunderstrike Gauntlet was easier, mainly because the claws that come in a Heldrake kit make for the most excellent ready-made fingers.  I'd seen other converters use them in the past but they mainly mount the digits on the arm supplied in the original kit.  I didn't possess this bit of kit however so had to make do with a Maulerfiend forearm.  I was stoked with how it turned out and think it looks very sinister, like an elongated claw hand.  Initially I wanted to model it as a clenched fist but I'm glad I opened the hand up now.

I need to work on the head and torso next which will be tricky because the LEDs and battery have to fit inside and I want to be able to change the bulbs if they break or if the mood takes me.   I'm also going to change the paint scheme and have gone for 'Psychotic Illusions' colorshift paint which blends from green to purple (see opening picture).  I'm sure Nyarlathotep would approve.