Squidmasters Kabal of the Eternal Night

Further update, I've completed the base of the two vertical rings.



You can see here the scale of the thing from the Warrior standing at the centre. This is going to be quite, quite large.

The next thing to do is to smooth off the outer and inner edges of both rings, and then connect the two halves of each ring together with a locking component which will also house the connectors to the next ring down.
Once the smooting is done I can add some outer spikes as well.
I've already got an idea of how these are going to work, so the planning work is moving on to making the next set of rings (which need to be horizontal to these vertical rings).

Ok, having a few issues working out the enxt couple of rings, mainly in making sure they're strong enough to survive.....well, anything. The main issue is making them strong enough to hold out rings and not bend.


In the meantime, I'm asking for your help.
I'm working out the designs for the central platform, and come to four basic ideas, but I need help choosing one, so want your opinions! Its the underside I'm having thoughts on, so....

....the four options are:



Top left, the classic Asgard look. Basically the bottom would be rock, a lump of rock the platform has been built on top of, and the rings attached to.

Top right, a series of vents and tubes, similar to the new age Asgard palace or the Power Rangers Command Centre up-side-down.

Bottom left, the full on spiky. It would look nice I admit, but the concern I have is that in such a small space it would be difficult to make them look really good and spiky without seeming either blocky or squat.

Bottom right, the engine look, based on the main engine vent of the Reaver Jetbike or the Falcon Grav-Tank, a full on engine port (which would also give a good place to put a base stand....)


So, your thoughts?
Please do comment on this to help me make up my mind!

Why not the radiator look of the raider bottom? That would link it to the raider design and thus the design of the army ;-)

Interesting thought?

Anyone else?

Great project can't wait to see where it goes... as for your question I think I'd go with the Asgard look. However if your willing to go super expensive I'd go with this...





Spotted this on ebay... he's got a number of other pieces smaller towers etc... very expensive but totaly epic. Here's the link.... Dark Elf Terrain

Good luck man really looking forward to following this

These rings are kicking my arse, so I'm moving full scale onto the central platform until I can work these things out properly.

Really felt the need to get some more progress done, so I started work on an attempt at the next set of rings.

I started trying to plan it out, and based on the materials I had I decided the best thing to do would be to cut these rings into four segments. Then each piece could be attached as below.



The segments can be joined at each gap, and pinned in place with something more sturdy. A staple perhaps?

I managed to get the larger horizontal ring done, as below:





So as is, the ring is a little flimsy (the styrene I'm using is pretty much paper-thin), but from here I can start to bulk out the frame. Each extra layer I add will make the ring more solid and sturdy, and from here I can also start adding some texture and spikes.

The rings move on, though with a slight booboo.

I measured out the next horizontal ring, the one that would be between the inner vertical and the central platform. Measured out, then cut, then glued together, and realized I had made a tragic mistake. I had made a duplicate of the out ring by measuring the space between the two vertical rings.

Drats.

However this did yield some positives. By some miracle, the newly cut ring is the TINIEST fraction smaller than the other one I had already cut.

What this has left me with then is a doubled up set of ring with a tiny space I can fit things into, and this fits my original plans much better than the habberdashery I was looking at. Now, I can start getting the spikes in place on the inner side of the salightly larger ring, then fit the slightly smaller ring inside the spikes and secure the whole thing a lot better.
I may need to add a ring of metal wire at some point to add structural support, but all is good.

So, this in mind, I've started adding the spikes for the horizontal rings.



So here you can see how the spikes will look, at what plane they'll theoretically move on in a real world version.
You can see the inner side here, where the spikes are glued in place leaving enough space for more on the other side of the ring. Once these are all in place, the new slightly smaller ring will be put inside and glued in place.
I'm thinking once this is done a slight bit of thinking might be needed to bend these spikes down a tad so they curve in towards the spin direction. Otherwise, in a real world design these would clash against the outer ring. I have a plan to accomplish this involving glue and plastic.



OR I'll get bored of the whole project and wear this piece as an awesome spiky crown.

Note: a photo of this exists, but will never be made public.

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In a second thing today, another smaller project to keep me amused (on top of the three of four I seem to have going right now).

Do you remember my Vindicare?
The one modelled on an Alaitoc Ranger with a bow?
Well, I;ve always been tempted by Eldar allies, but never really wanted to throw an entire Eldar army together, but I've fallen completely in love with the Imperial Assassins (except the Eversor, who really strikes me as completely rubbish compared to the others).
So. With a Vindicare done, I thought to myself "Why not just build the whole Execution Team?"

And so, the Culexus:



Work in progress of course, but in fitting with the theme.
For the Vindicare, I went with an Alaitoc Ranger because they are the best Rangers/Pathfinders. They are the Eldar Snipers.
But Eldar don't really have the full-on anti-Psyker, so I reasoned why not a Psyker trained in dealing with other Psykers? The fluff there would work really well I thought.
So who best to do this, why not Ulthwe? They have the Farseers, in makes sense to me that ONE might be a Farseer who has specialized himself for dealing with other Psykers/Farseers.
And thats what this will be.
The legs are Eldar Guardians, and the body Shining Spear Exarch. I always thought this body would go really well as a Farseer or Autarch because of the design of the helmet - very reminiscent of the Avatar as an icon of authority.
You can see from the back I've started adding his coat, which will be a long coat wrapped around his sides as well and not simply a cloak.
The arms I've found a Swooping Hawk Exarch pointing hand (because why not) and a simple Guardians hand I've put an old Eldar Fusion Blaster barrel on the wrist off to represent the main weapon.
Work in progress, but progress is moving along nicely.
As this is coming together nicely, moving plans to other two Assassins. Its too easy I think to go Aspect, so I'm aiming for the elite of the Craftworlds. I'm thinking Saim-Hann without the bike for the Eversor, and may fall back on Biel-Tan for the Callidus if I can't come up with better.

Here we are with the main frame of the outer horizontal ring.
Spikes are added to both sides now, and we have the very basic frame. It still needs decorating with some raised areas and other textures, but the image here, with thanks to Blutack, should give a decent idea now of how this thing is going to turn out. I'm very pleased with the look at this stage, as the horizontal spikes give it a bit of meat that makes me feel better about how thing and fragile thing was probably going to look.
In terms of textures, there are going to be a few wires, or raised areas that look like it, and the odd outer armour plate on the out side of the ring. On the inner face of the horizontal ring you might be able to see a few pencilled lines. These marks were carefully placed, and will be where I eventually put a few crystals - targetting arrays for the central platform. I may just use shiny plastic beads, but part of me is also thinking of investigating cheap earrings which can stick out a little and look really shiny.
Finally, at this stage I've confirmed that the outer spikes are not perfectly positioned for spinning as they do clash with the out vertical ring. TO solve this I'm going to try to bend the spikes in a little, probably by just gluing some struts underneath to hold the bent down slightly.



Also pictured in the bottom right, my plastered thumb, the first proper injury of the project.

I'm going to rest this ring for a moment and get cracking on the texture soon, but I want to ge tthe connectors between rings sorted first so that I know where they will be and how large they'll be.
Before that though, I'm going to sortr of the edges of the vertical rings and smooth them out. I tried recently using liquid green stuff, but it wasn;t coming out as smooth as I wanted, so I'm going back to a slightly more awkward but ultimately better looking option.

This is such a cool idea. I must say as far as the central part goes I would stick with the spiky theme over anything else. Too many curves and your falling down the craftworld style and dark eldar would not use something heavy and clunky like a rock as part of there doom device! But the while concept of a gyroscopic centre is genius and I cant wait to see more if this progress!

Then more progress you shall have!

Its been a half decent couple of days for progress!

To start smooting over thee dges of the vertical rings, long plastic strips were laid over it on the side.
I had none that ran the full lenth of the outer rings outer circumfrence, so I cut them up and left the cuts in as "intentional" design features.



Once in place, these could be trimmed down by the careful application of a knife and a file to completely smooth it out.



With all four ring components smoothed out, I decided to take the next step and fully assemble the outer vertical ring.



Additional layers of plastic were simply stuck over the join between the two ring halves, and it now holds together quite well.
the outer ring is now together, at 26cm in diameter.

I've been giving this serious thought, and I think I've come to the important decision of the three steps that MUST come next:

1/ The inner horizontal ring, so that I have the basic frame for the entire structure.
2/ The joins between rings.
3/ The central platform.

These all sort of have to come together now before I can get the main strucxture together properly, as we've come to the stage where I need to see it all, and importantly need to be able to judge how to base it so that it holds itself up properly. I'm resigned that the outer ring will likely be in contact with the ground, but now is when I need to be sure so I can get the ring placements just right and so I can see exactly where I need further structural reinforcement.

Damn it.


Every time I've thought "That'll do for today, I've spurred on and done more anyway.


So, this will be the final for today, and conveniently its both a nicely rounded number (image number 20) and a good milestone in the whole build.

After assembling the larger outer vertical ring, I went ahead and connected up the inner vertical ring too.
And seeing as the outer horizontal ring was done as well, I powered through and did the inner horizontal too.
So now we have the main structure of the four main rings complete!





The next step will be to add further texture and decoration to the horizontal rings.
I'll be focusing first on the central platform though, so I can sort out once and for all how this thing will be standing on its base.

This is looking really great so far squidmaster. I really look forward to seeing the finished article. I cannot help but admire your modelling skills. Great job sir!

Oh my word, this thread has gone NUCLEAR

I am just stunned by this terrain. More please!

Evil Space Elves wrote:

Oh my word, this thread has gone NUCLEAR

I am just stunned by this terrain. More please!

Terrain?
TERRAIN?!

This sir, is a TITAN!

So.....

Despite laying out what the next most important phases of this build need to be, I went ahead with another minor bit.

The outer spikes that will stick out of the far edge of the outermost ring.

Here were have the basics, the components of the outer spikes:



Once cut down and assembled, we get these spikes. They are layered up for extra bulk and stability, three layers total except where it thins out for the main spike at the top.
Some cleaning up was needed with green stuff when it turned out my measurements weren't spot on.



Next, the supporting clamps which will hold these main spikes to the outer ring.




This gives us eight clamps in total, four for each spike.



The design is made to look like these spikes are also part of the rings rotation and can move freely themselves.
From the final picture there, you can see one rear view where I'd have had to put some small round pieces of plastic for the last bit of bulk to make everything match up.
The main large area of the clamps, which will hold onto the outer ring, will have something else in the currently open flat area, either something resembling an Eldar lumpy-stone thing, or a simple spike.

The below image has NOT been glued in place, but is purely to show how the outer spikes will look on the outer ring.

I approve of this construction. Please continue. SO SEXY

A recent shopping trip to The Range revealed these to me:



They're cork-board pins with shiny jewel thingies on the end.
These, one thinks, are perfect for the intended "targetting crystals" that will line the inside of the horizontal rings.
In place, they'll be positioned thus:



So the crystals will face inwards towards the captive Psyker, and the pin parts will stick through the rings and come out the other side, adding some nice spikes to the overall design.

I'm going to leave them all out for now, and put these in place only after the rings are painted.

So, moving into another phase.

First up, we need a main base for the central platform. For this, I was after something circular of a good size, and found something decent.
From an old collection, I salvaged a mini-disk (for those of you who missed them, they briefly appeared and were the next big thing - and then MP3 kicked it out). I ripped apart the main case, and got at the actual disk itself, which is perfect.



Next, the wonder-material. LEGO.

A basic frame built on the underside of the disk, spaxed out so that it fits the top of a flyer base.




I can work from here on building the underside of the platform, safe in the knowledge that I've provided ample room for a base to hold this bloody thing up.

Probably use the Monstrous Creature Base instead of the mini one. (Or glue mini onto the monstrous one)

Lord_Alino wrote:

Probably use the Monstrous Creature Base instead of the mini one. (Or glue mini onto the monstrous one)

Hmm. Good point, I hadn't thought about that. Is the MC base bigger than the Flyer base?

SLight advancement on the central platform.



Styrene wrapped around the lower level and bent then cut to cut the flat bottom and curved sides.
The spaces will next be filled in. Thats one of the really great benefits of plastic this thin. Its so easy to manipulate!
The tube seen on the side is mirrored on the other side, and is where the struts to connet the next ring will go.


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And as a quick addition, I finally painted my last entry for the haemonculus Challenge, my take on the "Ridiculous Ride".

A new addition to the army.....ish.

This is the second member of my Allied force, the Eldar Assassination Team.
With an Iyanden Vindicare starting off, the second member is the Ulthwe Culexus, for now named "He Who Hunts His Own", this is a Psyker/Farseer who has trained himself to hunt other Psykers, thus I think he fits the bill quite nicely for an Ulthwe anti-Psyker.




And as a final note, a new work in progress - the third member of the team, the Eversor.
I haven't decided which Craftworld this guy will represent, but for now I'm thinking Saim-Hann.

Biel Tan surely? A member of the swordwind who's belonged to every exarch temple there is and blends all those fighting styles into one nightmarish whirlwind of rage and death?

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

Biel Tan surely? A member of the swordwind who's belonged to every exarch temple there is and blends all those fighting styles into one nightmarish whirlwind of rage and death?

Hmm. YOu have a point there.
I was going on "Wildrider" thing, but what you said makes much better sense.
Beil Tan it is!