Sunday 24 February 2019

Mecha-Drider


Well, it looks like Slaanesh crashed the party and decided zhe liked the look of of our pointy eared friends more than the Necrons.  The model reminds me of Drukhari more than anything else now.  I probably shouldn't have swapped in the Splinter pistol but it just seemed like a natural choice at the time.  I spent ages turning the right handed Archon grip into a left handed Witch Elf grip and changing it back would have been difficult and potentially disastrous. I think she would prefer a sleek pistol to a blocky Stubcarbine anyway.


Initially I painted the legs black but they looked so much like stockings and suspenders that I dubbed the model 'Lady Marmalade'.   Further experiments with silvering of the metal reduced the high-camp, burlesque effect somewhat and I changed her name to 'Ungoliant' (and subsequently changed it back again).  She's not quite the primordial incarnation of darkness depicted in Tolkien lore but I want her to be "Beautiful and terrible as the night" rather than "Mocha chocolata ya-ya" (As an aside, why Christina gets top billing is beyond me.  I prefer the heart-stopping curves of Pink and Lil' Kim)


Someone on Facebook commented that the model needed ''less Necronic techno-magic bullshit' which annoyed me at first but I could see that he had a point and more Chaos imagery was needed.  So I re-carved the etched circles on the wraith plates into chaos stars.  This looked horrible and I tried burning them in with a hot pin.  It was impossible for me to get clean lines so I cheated by painting them all rusty.  I'm definitely improving with Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust which is a relief.  I added a bit of Agrax and Fire Dragon Blight for more contrast.


The skin was hardest part because I'm a messy painter by nature and don't airbrush as a rule.  I also didn't paint it in sub assemblies (apart from the base) and some of the crevices were maddening to reach.


Constant re-touching makes the paint go blotchy and textured which is the opposite of the smooth effect I was going for.  But I managed to blend Mordian Blue, Thunderhawk blue, Fenrisian Grey and Ulthuan Grey into something approximating Drow flesh in the end.

Space Marine shown for scale (and because he needs love too)

As for what the model is...  I have no idea.  If I ever get round to building that Dark Mechanicum army I'd probably run it as some sort of character.  Maybe a Datasmith.  She's way too small to be anything beefy and too costly (in real money and time) to spam as battle servitors.  I've been thinking that I would like to turn some Kastelan Robots into Mars Attacks! robots and they'd need a datasmith (I think).  Maybe I should come out of the closet and start a Deldar army.


Maybe, as Asslessman points out, I should just model and paint for fun sometimes.  Or maybe Yvraine angered the goddess Lolth, who ordered the Dark Mechanicum to turn her into a Mecha-Drider as a punishment.  How about that for non-canonical heresy?


19 comments:

  1. Damn! She looks amazing painted! Excellent work, dude.

    She's about the right size for a Tech Priest Dominus, which would give her a centerpiece role while still benefiting from Character protection. She could work as a Datasmith, too, but she's a bit big for that. The official Models for those are basically human-sized. You don't strictly *need* a Datasmith for Kastelans anymore, but if you don't have a Datasmith, you can't change their Battle Protocols.

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    1. Thanks Westrider, I took a few risks with this one paint-wise so I'm glad it turned out well. I want to build/use the actual Tech Priest model I have at some point which made me think of Datasmith but I could probably get away with it in a tournament. When you're rocking along below mid table obscurity, you find that people rarely give a shit about base sizes or counts as.

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    2. Truth. Rule of Cool is pretty much everything when you're not in the running for a big prize anymore.

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  2. Man, now that those legs are also skin coloured they really creep me out! The finished piece really comes together.

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    1. Cheers Xar. I'm glad it creeped out (no offence!)

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  3. That’s awesome, I love the rusty Chaos stars inscribed on the thorax and the very odd shaped knickers shel’ll need haha. I think the only ‘Necron-y’ bit is the Gauss Cannon nozzle on the rear, maybe adding a couple of rusty arrow heads or some more hot pin inscribing would solve that? But only if it bothers you? I think you’ve captured the alluring Slannesh feel well.

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    1. I find her current levels of corruption acceptable. Whatever it is, its definitely heresy! Thanks Siph.

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  4. Holy crap, that is freakin' sweeeeeeet! Love how she turned out, bud - Great work!

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    1. Thanks Mordian, I knew you'd appreciate the darker side of the Imperium.

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  5. That is one fine looking model.
    I'm definitely getting more of a Dark Mech Slaanesh vibe rather than a Drukhari feel....although she'd fit right in with the Haemonculi now that I think about it.
    Whatever you use her for, she still looks lush....Great work!

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    1. Thanks man! Now that I've gotten in touch with my Aeldari side, I may have to explore the finer points.

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  6. Tech Priest Dominus if you go towards it being a mechanicus army or a Dark Magos (has a soul burner pistol) if you do a chaos army? Whatever you count it as anyway it will look great.

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    1. Does that mean I can use her as the guardsman in your Wrath and Glory campaign? Just kidding!

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    2. No but I might use her as a final boss, do you think your guardsman could take her?

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    3. By the Emperor's will, yes! My faith is my shield.

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  7. You did an amazing job on the flesh for her/it! Gives a good deathly pallor that's still radiating a menacing vitality!

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    1. Deathly pallor is the new black! Cheers Cheef.

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