Monday 4 March 2013

Tyranid Spore Pod

Having a think of what can i do next for my Mr E Models venture of making things to sell, i decided again to go for the Warhammer market and in this case the 40K line. Tyranids are Games Workshops take on the beasties from "Alien/Aliens" and there's a pretty diverse range of figures and kits being produced now. One thing that's written about but not available though is the method by which they invade planets. Other races use Drop Pods, which fall from orbit and, making landfall, open up to let the troops out. The Tyranids are no different, except their Pods are organic, a sort of spore. As i say, there's no model available, so thought i'd make one for anyone who wants one. Basis for it is this Easter egg money box (good time of year to be making this methinks), which was only £1.99 from the el cheapo shop. First thing to do was mark out where the door should be. I'm having it as a three part door - the upper half opens in two halves normally, while the lower half folds down for a ramp so the passenger can exit. Then its cut the doors out, fill the interior with plastic bags to give me something to sculpt on to, then on with the exterior. I'm doing a section at a time, working from the top down and waiting for each section to go hard before moving on. I'm keeping the exterior pretty featureless as its got to be tough to get through an atmosphere, so i'm making it almost as a nut, giving a pitted, rough look by simply rolling a ball of bacofoil over the finished clay. I'm making holes every so often as i go down, into which will be some barbs - no real reason, just to break up the shape a bit. The interior is just a mass of clay shapes, the basis for the icky stuff to come.

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