Squidmasters Kabal of the Eternal Night

I had one of these when I was a kid, you put me in mind of it immediately.
I don't know about 12 rings though, that's ambitious. Might be a good start though. This one says it's out of stock but they're all over the place, especially now with the gathering winter... I'm not gonna say it.

http://www.officeplayground.com/Cosmos-Perpetual-Motion-P28.aspx

thesaltedwound wrote:

I had one of these when I was a kid, you put me in mind of it immediately.
I don't know about 12 rings though, that's ambitious. Might be a good start though. This one says it's out of stock but they're all over the place, especially now with the gathering winter... I'm not gonna say it.

http://www.officeplayground.com/Cosmos-Perpetual-Motion-P28.aspx

Aye, I had one too! But too small I'm afraid!

Anningly I've run out of a base spray, so work in on hold in painting the Vindicare.

In the meantime, I've put together a basic cardboard prototype for the Gyro-Revenant (better name yet to be decided upon).



You get the basic structure here, and its given me a chance to test out how the spinning planes will interact with each other.

Looking at the labels on each plane, A in the centre is obviously where the central platform with engines, crew and the sort will be. I have an idea at the moment to find a small LED light to serve as the base of this platform, so the whole thing can light up. As in earlier design plans, there will be a psyker of some kind strapped to a torture device at the heart of the machine, serving as main weapons array and power source.

Ring B will feature outward facing gems, acting as power conductors/projectors.

Ring C was a fiddle, because my original plans were for it to be spiky until I realized that this would conflict with ring D. my compromise then is that the spikes will face along the direction of travel instead, so sticking out from the flat surfaces rather than the edges.

Ring D will be simialr to ring B, with large gems/crystals acting as energy projectors. Yet to be confirmed, but it may also feature a few spiky armour plates spicking out in the directio of travel to offer SOME protection. If I can make these look force-fieldy, that would be awesome.

Finally ring E. The out ring will have large spikes. The ring itself will be about 10" diameter, leaving another 2" space to add spikes sticking out (The Revenenat being 12" tall). This ring will also have large gaps in it similar to the large spike/driving platform of the old style Raider.

THe joins between rings will of course be rounded sockets so that they look like movement is practical from them, however I have now come to a realization I should have noticed long before now, and that is that I will NOT be able to have thing actually able to turn once complete.
The sad fact is that at some point I WILL have to get it onto a base so that it can sit safely on a battlefield. The sensible places for that are either straight into the central platform, or have ring E slicing through the ground (and therefore holding everything up). In either case, any base would conflict with the spinning, or result in EVERYTHING, including the central platofmr , going all over the place and being damaged. So, solid and stationary with the illusion of movement it is.


A further amusing prospect dawned when I started to think of ring D's possible forcefield plates. Can realistic energy bolts/lightning be created? If so, that would look fantastic arching between the rings.
Investigations into that begin.




Otherwise, I've noticed these things:



Suncatchers. I'm on the lookout to see if I can find one thats circular and big enough. I can then slice the individual rings out and has something like that as a base to start building the rings of the Gyro-Revenant.
I'm wary of trying to cut them out myself from plastic, mainly for the accuracy involved, but if it comes to it that is plan B at the moment.

How about Ocularis Infernum as a name?
Because the idea reminds me of the mechanism from thir13en ghosts.

1/ I didn;t like that movie.
2/ I have a tendancy to think of anything named in Latin as a very Imperial thing.

Vindicare Assassin.

I just love these guys, always have.

So here's the finished Vindicare for my army.
As I got the last stages of the build, I started to think about making it spikier and more Dark Eldary, and then I thought "Why bother?!"
Something off the side, not quite fitting in, just screamed an awful lot of sense, so I went with basic Eldar. Perhaps a renegade of some kind, or an ally of convenience hunting a specific target, or an unseen shadow seeing to it that the Kabal of the Eternal Night secure a victory...

So I kept him slightly more Eldar.
Being a sniper assassin, he HAD to be Alaitoc:

Question about the blade and quiver. I'm assuming the blade doubles as a bow for what looks like arrows in the quiver. I also assume it's like the bows in LOTR where they dislodge at the center and make two daggers. Am I right?

Breaks into two throwable blades to represent the exitus pistol, perhaps?

Lord_Alino wrote:

     Question about the blade and quiver. I'm assuming the blade doubles as a bow for what looks like arrows in the quiver. I also assume it's like the bows in LOTR where they dislodge at the center and make two daggers. Am I right?

Uh......maybe?
Not really something I thought of. Just thought it looked awesome.

Squidmaster wrote:

Lord_Alino wrote:

     Question about the blade and quiver. I'm assuming the blade doubles as a bow for what looks like arrows in the quiver. I also assume it's like the bows in LOTR where they dislodge at the center and make two daggers. Am I right?

Uh......maybe?
Not really something I thought of. Just thought it looked awesome.

Oh.... CONSIDER IT! MAKE ME HAPPY!

Heh. Heh-heh-heh. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-hah! BAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plastic-Embroidery-Cross-Stitch-Hoop-Ring-4inch-10inch-/321401650029?pt=UK_Crafts_Needlework_EH&var=&hash=item4ad507fb6d

Smallest 4", largest 10"?! Its like they were made for me and my project!
Granted they might be a bit bulky to start with, but once I start adding on the thinner spikes, etc, and carve off the clips at the ops of each ring, these could work quite nicely.
Spikes on the outer ring will bulk out to the required 12" height, and the rings will give enough support to the overall structure because they're one piece.

It might mean dropping the size of the central platoform down a bit, but I think that'll work fine.
I'm currently thinking anyway or changing that from a flat platform to something more like this:

Reduced in size of course, Psyker still strapped to the central unit, but a simple walkway around the unit for the crew (and still maybe some LEDs if I can).


UPDATE: I';ve been told the larger ring (which is necessary) won;t be back in stock until the end of November, so in the meantime I might start working on the central platform seeing as I know the dimensions of the inner-most ring anyway.

Here's some fun, actual modelling work starts on the Gyro-Revenant!!



So this si the start of the central power core, fuelled by a bound and tortured Space marine Librarian.
This guy will sit at the central of the central platform, possibly with crew members poking him with either stabbing or shocky sticks.
Thus far he's fairly simple, some Space Marine parts dug out of my bits box, mounted on a plastic rod sticking out from a standard round base.
The head was from a Khorne Berzerker, fangs removed and the eyes drilled out so they can later accomodate some wires and tubes (best way to get straight to the brain!).
From the basic body (legs cut off to prevent escape during his torture) I had to make it clear he was a Librarian, so a custom Psychic Hood needed to be added. It might need a little mork at some point just to make it more decorative, but a simple pair of bent plastic strips did the jon with some very short lengths of rod for added effect. While I was at it I added some custom shoulder pads as normal Space Marine pads would have been too bigt and concealed later additions.
I've also covered the under-body mounting with a bit of aluminium foil, scrunched up and then wrapped around. This will form the base of the apparatus around the Librarian, but will mainly be covered with wires and tubes eventually.

I'm thinking I'll leave any robes off as they might get in the way of everything, but I'll likely add at least one more decorative aspect to make the fact that this is a Librarian clearer.

More to come soon.

Is there any chance that you have a dark city landscape in the making? With all those ideas and heamonculi thinking, you surely can make a wonderful terrain to probably store your army. Just a thought by the way, but if it was for me, I would design my very own landscape for my themed army.

Interesting, I'm liking this idea. What'll you do if you the librarian dies? "Oh, we've got spares."

durahamter wrote:

Is there any chance that you have a dark city landscape in the making? With all those ideas and heamonculi thinking, you surely can make a wonderful terrain to probably store your army. Just a thought by the way, but if it was for me, I would design my very own landscape for my themed army.

I've got a couple of boxes of generic terrain kicking around, a couple of Dark Eldar themed pieces, but my main problem is storage. I don't have space for a decent display board unfortunately, otherwise I'd be all over that.

Lord_Alino wrote:

Interesting, I'm liking this idea. What'll you do if you the librarian dies? "Oh, we've got spares."

I believe the correct quote from the classic Codex is: "Bring me another plaything, this one has broken."
The true measure of a master is how long he can keep the victim alive!

Ok, those frames aren;t going to do it. Further into on them makes them inappropriate.

Plan B.

Where can I get something to accurately cut circular shapes up to 10" in diameter?
A super large compass is needed here.....

Ok, the material hunt is failing, because obviously my standards are too high - so custom it is!
I'm hoping that multiple layers of thin plastic/styrene sheets will be strong enough, but at the very least they WILL be light and easier to design in custom shapes/
Looking at a few compass cutters now. Hopefully when next paid I can get cracking and order in some more thin styrene sheets.


The plan though, is as follow:



This is the final design for the vertical rings, being the second and furthest from the centre.
Each will be built in three layers as shown above. In the middle of each, a completely flat plastic ring about 1.5-2" wide, with a total diameter of 10" for the outer ring. Exact meadurement for inner ring yet to be fully decided.
Out from these will be a later or decorative mesh. If I can find something thats not a simply net that might be nice, but if not I'm happy with mesh for extra texture (I'm trying to find something similar to the flooring on the Raiders, but no luck so far - happy with simpler if I have to).
The outer layer on each side will be the same as the middle layer, except that it will have large pattern holes cut into it so the mesh beneath is visible.
Five layers in total for two of the rings.
The edges of each will then be smooted in, either with a plastic strip around each of a liquid Green Stuff to fill any gaps.

Additional layers of small detail such as extra spikes and the linking nodes that connect to other rings will be added later.

The outmost ring will then have added spikes on the outer edge as shown at the bottom of the lower part of the picture above. The spikes shown here aren't necessarily representative, but you get the idea.

Because of how light and possibly fragile this will make each ring layer, I;ve resolved that a base will have to hold the entire unit up from the central platform.
A concern has crossed my mind that the weight of out rings might weigh heavily and start bending the inner rings supporting them, so I'm trying to see if I can get a very solid layer for the mesh.
Some adjustment might need to be made to the design based on that.

Materials sourced and ordered. Gyro-Revenant project underway.

One thing still to find, I need a large sheet, perhaps a stencil sheet or something, ideally to match the floors of Raiders:

To elaborate on the opening image, I finally got the materials through - the thing plastic and the compass cutter for cutting perfect circles.
I marked out the dimensions, and got cutting, after having to convert my measdurements into cm.



So we've got now the main base of the flat rings, shown here with a Warrior for a sense of scale.
As per the original design, we've got the core part of the rings and the outer layer border. Next I need to decide for good what is going into the middle textured layer, and I should have that later today.

So I think it might be clear from the last image that I'm building the flat rings in halves.
This is partly to make them easier to work with, but also so I can strengthen the connecting points between rings (helping the entire thing stand up. I'm considering having strong magents hold the rings together so that I can easily dismantle the entire thing for tranport.

I am also REALLY glad at this point that I've gone the from scratch route on the rings rather than the earlier plan of buying something alrerady the right size and shape. Its left me ther ability to customize a lot more and I'm very pleased so far.



So, based on the previous image, I tokk the two thickest rings which formed the base of the rings themselves, and they've had the next layer added - a wire mesh.



The mesh comes from some frying pan spit-shields, purchased at my local Poundland.
The plastic rings were stuck down, and the nesh was easily cut with scissors to match the same shape.
The mesh was added on both sides of the ring, as the look will need to be identical on both sides.

I then started added some decoration...



There is more than enough plastic kicking around here after cutting out the rings components, so a few spikes were added here for inner textures.
I then added the tinner parts shown in the previous post's image for the outer border.



So what you see on this angle is one finished flat ring as it will appear on the finished model!
This is the inner of the flat rings, and still needs some smooting at the edges (as the outer ring will too).

Next update should be when all flat ring segments are at this stage.

SO glad I went the from scratch route here.


I'm also somewhat pleased with the coincidence that this projects started a new page of the thread! Made it easier to find.....

Loving the floor decorations, you've got the aesthetic very similar to the raider floors which looks fantastic.

I presume that was the intention?

I'm glad you went with custom also, I think it will show of your vision and prodigious modelling talents much more keenly.

Looking forward to more.

That was the intention, though those are not floors! They are the outer spinning rings of this gyroscopic Revenant!

Today, in a tragic turn of events, i ran out of glue.