To create a flying monster - my terradon log

I have decided I am not going to buy the metal terradon blisters, instead I have bought the new plastic Tyranid gargoyle kit to use as a base for my terradons.

I am working on fluff justification, and definitely plan to have full background and fluff for my whole army, but I think that will come after the majority of the models are done. In short(ish);
I haven't checked the LM book thoroughly enough to know if this guy exists there (so if anyone does know that'd be great) but in both Aztec and Mayan culture there is a feathered serpent god. Quetzalcoatl for the Aztecs, Kukulkan for Mayan. There have been various abstract depictions for their physical form, including a dodgy movie with a winged serpent.
So basically, in the history of my Temple City, there was a siege from Chaos. Now chaos knew how critically important the terradon riders were to the defence of the city in their harrasment of the siege engines and hunting the wizards, so they sought out the mountain nests of terradons nearby and eradicated them, as well as poisoning them.
Kukulkan, the flying serpent god, could not allow such a disadvantage, so he instilled his essence in a saurus spawning pool to mutate some warriors and grant the ability to take flight.

Anyway, more of that later. This is the painting forum. Lets examine the simple gargoyle.



A few changes are needed, I have marked the key areas with numbers.

1. No guns allowed! I'm a bit unsure about the whole arms actually. When I get to that part of the model, I will decide whether swapping the arm for a saurus spear arm (javelins) is better, or just doing a hand swap. I don't want to run out of spears for my saurus though, so maybe a mixture of saurus arms and skink jav hands since the skink arms will be way too short. Will probably be the hardest part to make look good.

2. Can't see heaps well on that picture... Gargoyles don't eat much! He has some hardcore ribs happening that look cool for an alien, not so for a lizard. Will need to GS them over and make the chest/belly flat more like saurus and skinks.

3. Alien head. I think all I can do here is a head swap. Waay too big for a skink head, so I will have to use a micture of saurus and TG heads. Possibly need to carve down the necks a bit so they don't look too big on the body, and redo the neck since the gargoyle has a ball and socket rather than the flat fit of the LM. Shouldn't be too bad.

4. Plate armour.. Hmmm.... Kroxigor have plates, but with scales on them. It would be impractical to carve the plates down and replace with scales. I think I will add scales to the plates. Any ideas how to sculpt scales? I'm going to try to steal some from krox/saurus with a GS mold, but would like to try something else as well.

5. These bits look cool, and with scales on the plates should fit right in.

6. Dents? Pox marks? No thanks. Should be easy enough to file those holes down and smooth the area with GS though.

7. A second positive comment. Wings look sweet! If the plates go well, I might add small crops of scales on parts of the wings. I am scared of the scales though, I think they will be difficult and frustrating.


So yeah, that is my plan! I need to dig up some LM parts and clear/finish what is already on my table before getting stuck in too much unfortunately, not enough room for them. Thoughts? Comments? Ideas?

 

Sounds like a fun task, the winged serpents are all through the lizardmen book, there is also shots of them of them behind Lord Mazumudi (sp?).

 

Yeah it would be possible. The gargoyle might be a tad too small though. It is a bit smaller than a terradon. Really, I am more interested in something a bit more unique. I enjoy converting models and making my army stand out.

Thanks Craken, I figured that might be the case.

 

Army book, pg. 16- called the coatal

When you find a fluff reason for the submachine gun he is toting let me know .

 

When I find a fluff reason for a Tyranid biomorph literally attached to his arm being shaped liked a submachine gun I will let you know.... <_<

Since the whole unit cannot have the staff of the lost sun (staff of the lost lasgun) I'm definitely getting rid of it.

 

hmmm i think that a saurus head would look really good on these models actually, might help it tie in with your army on the table as well. could just give them saurus arms with a shield and spear call the spears javelins and say there freak morphed saurus with wings that count as terradons, the terradon and skink pretty much have one profile anyway, I really cant wait to see what you do with these and the fluff that comes with them, good luck with whatever you decide on.

 

If you aren't good with GS I have one suggestion. Go to this guys channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RetributionAngel ... he has some how to's on green stuff, also this website has some other how to's... like wings and scale http://www.greenstuffsculpting.com/2010/03/tutorial-scale-mail-and-fur.html. Good luck with the project... can't wait to see the result

 

Thanks for the links Suppe, that was pretty handy!
I will try to get up some WiP shots tonight. I have some GS work done and currently waiting for it to harden before messing around further. I think I really need to get myself a proper sculpting tool before going too far though, the back edge of a knife blade is not so good with such fine work. Hardware store or art supplier I'm guessing? Volleyball tonight so will grab one tomorrow night.

 

I have a feeling that this is gonna great! Can't wait to see some WIP pics

 

Just a couple quick thoughts...

Looking at the models... why worry about attaching any arms at all? It looks like the gargoyle wings have claws build in there still, and the GW terradon model only has legs and a tail outside of the little claws on the wings. I think you could probably just GS over the spots where its flat to help build up some bulk to the chest instead.


Also for the head - not sure how plausible this is as I haven't worked with the models, but why not use the alien head and just extend out the mouth with GS into a more beak-like form? Possibly by using the cresty thing on top of the gargoyle head.. clip it off and try to align it with the top of the mouth a bit and build around that.

I do look forward to the WIP and finished pictures when they happen.

 

Wow a beak with the terradon head is a pretty cool idea. I'll definitely give it a try since the heads are basically spare parts. Thanks!

I'm going for arms because there will be no rider, so this body must have a javelin representing. One idea I did have though was to use some of the Tyranid barbs from other kits I have lying around to have them coming out of the mouth - the creature spitting javelins. Would work well with poison, but I will have to play around and see how the arms look. Also a couple of the models are bent over so their tails could shoot 'javelin barbs'.

Would it be too strange to have a mixture of both in one unit? Reason being if a couple are spitting javelins or using tails, I can make arms holding rocks to drop or even have something squashed underneath for a couple of models to get a bit of flavour. I don't know how else these boys will handle rocks.

 

Ok I have tried a beaked terradon, I don't think it will work too well. Too much GS work over the teeth and open mouth. No pictures of that...

Do have some pictures of the body started. Ribs and holes covered.



So only one I guess. That was taken a few days ago, I am currently working on attaching a saurus head to the body. I think Nakai was right, it looks great! Might be a tiny bit small, I am needing to do a fair bit of GS work, but it should look great. Then on to the scales I guess. I am aiming for this to be a log so hopefully I will have pics of every step so people can follow easily if they want.

 

What about Temple Guard heads instead? I saw someone at a tournament had used them and they looked very impressive. Can't wait to see how these turn out.

 

Pretty cool idea, might try it my selfe when I get back to my lizzy army =)

 

This'll be interesting to follow, as I'm also experimenting with 'nid gargoyles.

I used the head crest from the tyranid heads, and attached them to the bone crest of saurus heads, it worked alright with a bit of GS.
I'm also extending the neck with a bit of sprue and a lot of GS, so far it works alright.

Do you have any fancy ideas of other decorations?
I was thinking a bit of feathers and gold bling and the like, but no good inspiration.

 

Yeah I was considering giving them long necks.. I think it would be hard to pull off though, and the model will flow a bit better if the head crest of the saurus flows directly into the back of the gargoyle.
TG head looks good, will put up pics when new batteries get in my camera..

Definitely some feathers will feature on all of them, even if the feathers are just pinned on and not part of the model as decoration. As to other stuff... I will let you know when I am finished. I don't usually plan things out too much, I just make whatever I think loks good.

 

WiP with a head finally photographed.. Expect more a bit sooner this time. I'm actually thinking the arms are going to be tough. Oh well. He isn't being very photogenic either, but I'm not really taking too much time with the photos at the moment. I will make sure final pics are nice and clear.
I have tried to give the new GS neck a bit of a wrinkly 'extra skin' look to more show that he can easily turn his head about.




Edit: Another update already!

The beast now has a head crest and chin crest.



Not too happy with the thing on his head so far... Will add scales to the flat bit and see how it looks down the track. I think I might try for more subtle work on the others.

Also, some scales!



This project is going to quite test and stretch my crappy GS skills, which is good! The left side shown I am happy with, the other side is rubbish and needs to be fixed. Scales are going to be very shallow and subtle, there isn't really a lot of room to work with. Also, should have done the largest plate before partially covering it with the head, it will be hard to reach now.

Wings and arms to follow! But i'm not touching it until the current lot of GS is dry. I have already smudged scales with my fingers and had to redo the chin crest. Maybe I should start initial work on a few of the others...

Finally, I want to marry my new sculpting tool! For those of you who, like me until now, have just been using pins and the back of scalpels for GS work, go and buy a proper sculpting tool now! Doesn't need to be GW brand, I got mine from a hardware store and I imagine art stores would sell them too.

 

I get the feeling of chaos daemons screamers or what they are called when i saw that head in place.

I am not to sure about that shin-fin but that thing on the head looks nice, altough hard to tell as the photo was a little blurry on those.

Might look good from another angle, probably looks badass when you can pick up and see the model in RL.

Really looking forward to seeing arms and scales on this one.

 

Like the model, though i find the neck a little bit short, but that's just personal taste.