Squidmasters Kabal of the Eternal Night

Re: The most recent addition, the work in progress of the Beil Tan Eversor, I've decided this model won;t be the Eversor after all. As it nears completetion, it looks a little to Dark rather than Craftworld, so I think I'll be finishing it and using it as a Haemonculus instead.
A new model will be chosen as the base for the Eversor, and will be built closer to the Craftworld aesthetic.

An important update on the next stage of the Revenant.
I'm now working on the joining struts between rings. THe first is about done, from the central platform the first horizontal ring.



As you can see, what I've done is gotten some metal rods and bunched them together, the group adding more strength to help hold the rings out. These are held together at both ends by hollow plastic tubes. The bolts seen in the picture here will go on the outer side of the struts, adding more texture and a bit more strength to the connection.

Here's a view of the strut actually connected to the ring (not glued yet, I'm thinking I'll need to paint the rings seperately before glueing everything together).
You can also see a bit of the space filling on the central platform.



To add to the struts, I've started adding the texturing to the horizontal rings. For the inner side of the rings, I've decided to go for raised Dark Eldar runes. I think they'll add to the "screw-you-Psyker" machinery feel of the overall structure.



And here's a quick shot of the central platform, work in progress central Psyker, connected up to the first ring with raised runes.



Next step is of course the next set of connecting struts and to finish the raised runes on the inner side of the outer horizontal ring.

Ladies and Gents, a big one.

First of all, building on the last update, the inner runes for the outer horizontal ring.
They're all done here, and I also had to put the tagretting crystal in place so I could get the positions right, so thought I'd leave them in for the picture so you can how they all look together.



The next step is the linking modules.
Shown below, on the left, is the ball joint I'll be using for most of the links on the horizontal ring ends.
On the right, I've attached all the clamps for the vertical ring ends of the modules.



Here you can see how they fit together, the ball joint fitting nicely into a small grove I've drilled into the outer side of the clamps. This will give me some mobility when I fully assemble the whole thing, and some leeway with positioning (though they will unfortunately have to be glued in place at some point).



Another bolt here, this time a different design for the inner side of the inner horizontal ring. This is where the metal bars from the central platform will fit into place.



And finally, something sen-fecking-sational.



I really feel we're near the end here people.
The connecting modules are ready, meaning the whole thing COULD be assembled at any point.
One or two slight issues have arisen at this point (as I expected they would).
The first is some give in the outer horizontal ring. As everything goes together, its become clear to me that some elements of constructing the ring have caused areas to be less flexible than others, meaning its not coming out perfectly rounded. It makes the ring look at bit rough and unstable, and I really think this needs fixing. If I can, I'm going to add some reliefs to the outer side of the ring in a much tought material than the plastic, and hope that this helps it retain a better rounded shape.
The second issue is slightly less head-room on the central platform than I would have liked. I think I might have liked the central platform to be larger, but at the same time I don't think less rings would be as effective. I'm happy as is, but slightly wishing I'd gone for a Phantom instead (whether its rules legal or not for Dark Eldar) just for the added size.

Anyway. We're at a stage where its very clear what is needed to finish:
1/ Centre ring - Decor, Librarian and Crew.
2/ Both horizontal rings - relief on the outer side in a strong material, possibly metal if not too heavy.
3/ Paint.
4/ Assemble (after painting, so itsa easier to get at inner sides).

We're really, really close here guys. I can feel it in my latest victim's bones...............

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As a final note, can anyone think of a way to make effective looking lightning?
I think it would look quite good streaking out from the Librarian, but also as something else linking the various rings and helping it all stay together.

I've loved watching this develop.

But I will be honest I couldn't really envisage it in my head fully from all the part photos I'd seen.

That last picture is just WOW though.

I would love to see that opposite me on the table. Though I in no way envy you having to transport it!!!

Can't wait to see it painted up as your army centre piece Squid!

Absolutely outstanding! You have fantastic inspiration, and a lot of ingenuity to see it through. Can't wait to see it finished and painted!

The latest parts of the build have really highlighted a flaw in an earlier part of the build, and unfortunately its something that needs attention before I finally paint and assemble.



This is the outer horizontal ring.
You can probably see a few cracks have been appearing in it. The ring's design, and I think maybe its size, have made it very inflexible. The trouble however is it wasn't in a perfectly round shape to begin with, and I hoped it would have flexibility to be able to fit into its place when the final assembly came.
Unfortunately this hasn't been the case. The multi-layer design has given the ring strength, but made it more brittle. Additionally, the spikes made a few small areas where it was stronger than in other places, and also a lot less flexible. This resulted in flat areas, conflicting curves and all sorts of other problems which means this ring just isn't sitting into its properly rounded shape.

As a result, I;ve found only one corse of action.
I need to completely rebuild the outer horizonatal ring, and find a way to enforce the correct curve on it without damaging the whole ring again. What I'll likely need to do is get some strong metal rods and bend them to the right curve, and then line the entire ring with them. This should help a great deal.
I'll also have to reduce the side spikes in size a bit so that their connections top the ring don't create problems areas as they are now.
Hopefully this shouldn't all be too difficult seeing as I have the experience of this and the inner ring to fall back on, and shouldn't take too long once strong enough metal bars and a way to bend them just right.

Sad face, but a learning experience.

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Big projects like this always have hiccups, and I'm surprised nothing more serious hasn;t come along before now. Things like this can make a person think "Bugger, time to give up because of the road block", but perseverence makes things better. I could try to just inflict the metal bars on the exixting ring and try to cover over the already damaged areas, but I don't think this is the right thing to do. Far better to redo the entire ring snd make it completely right. That way the whole build is far better because its not a simple mess of patches.
Onward, to redoing stuff!

In ana dditional note, the next build will be Incubi.
Its something I like using, but I've been stuck on the very old models as I'm not a big fan of the current ones. Some unique ones of my own are needed then.
I've decided on the components, and will be acquiring them in the next couple of weeks. Updates as they happen.

Fantastic work, Squidmaster, this is a very complex project. Can't wait to see it all together and painted!

Re: your problems with the ring, how are you bending it? I always use steam to help slowly bend things into curves and other shapes. It helps lessen the stress and allows a more even bend, especially if you can do it over another surface.

Gobsmakked wrote:

Fantastic work, Squidmaster, this is a very complex project.  Can't wait to see it all together and painted!

Re: your problems with the ring, how are you bending it?  I always use steam to help slowly bend things into curves and other shapes.  It helps lessen the stress and allows a more even bend, especially if you can do it over another surface.

The plastic I'm using is incredibly thin, somewhere between paper and cardboard thin, so it has material flex.

So, to briefly explain the problem I had with the outer horizontal ring:



You can see hear how it was built. I started with a single thin plastic ring. The spikes were made out separately and stuck to the inner side, and then another solid ring was add on the inside.
The problem this made is more or less laid out in the picture above. The red/blue line shows where the spikes were joined. At the actual join points( blue) the ring became thicker and stronger, but in the areas where there is no spike connection (red) the join was weaker. What this caused was areas that would bend easier than others. The stronger points would hold better than the weaker points, so when it was put in place as a circular ring, the weaker points were bending against stronger points, and causing structral problems. It was more fragile, and so cracks started to form.

So, steps taken to solve.



As before, three layers of plastiuc to make it strong enough to hold.
The difference this time is that instead of having separate spikes causing stronger and weaker points, the middle layer is one solid block with the spikes build in. This way I get what I wanted, but it doesn;t cause the cracking issue.

I'll get this all assembled sometime over the next couple of days.



As another note, I picked up a Kabalite Warrior box recently, so I can look to finishing off the central platform and adding the crew.

We can rebuild it! We have the technology!



The ring looks a little warped here, but thats a natural occurance that happened to the smaller ring too. Once firmly in place, the vertical rings will hold it in a more circular shape.

And the interior runes and ports for holding onto the other rings have been added too.



I also decided to add an extra layer, a ring of plastic rod around the other edge of each horizontal ring. This adds definition and stability, whilst also neating up any uneven edges.



So.

This brings us to one inescapeable fact.

THE RINGS ARE FINISHED!

All thats left now is to finish the central platform and crew, and I already have all the parts I'll need for that.

Smiley faces.

Smiley faces all around.

THe central platform had a bit more work today.

I decided to keep the underside somewhat simple, and came up with this:





So this is the basic level of the lower platform underside. I went for a few raised areas, and some gridline layers to resemble the Raider/Ravager undersides.

The I went ahead and glued the central "power core" to the top side. And started on the crew, the first of whm is seen here, leering over his victim......



Keeping it simple again, two members of crew.



And this is where we come to a startling realization.




Its done.







Its built.






All of the components are done and ready!
Holy beejeebus its actually ready!


All that remains is paint and assemble this sucker!

Get it done! I'm very interested to see how this comes together

Undercoating is happening RIGHT NOW.

Also on the table:
New Incubi, based on Wood Elf Rangers.
Another Chronos

Early stages:
Corpsethief, five new Tali
A Knight, for a friend.

So. Proof painting has really begun.




As an extra addition, there was a work in progress I added recently who started life as one of my assassins, but was too Dark Eldary, so I decided to go for Haemonculus instead.
HOWEVER with recent releases, I've decided it works really well as a Harlequin instead, probably as a Shadowseer.
And thus have I painted it:




I am INCREDIBLY please with myself with the diamond pattern. Incredibly.

Dark Elf Corsair legs, Eldar Guardian front torso (with upper vents (?) cut off, Dark Eldar Warrior back and head, old Reaver rider arms. THe claw is sutom, the lantern.......I forget where the lantern is from.
The general theming comes from a traveller of the Webway, the lantern being a guiding light for lost wanderers.
I toyed with the name "Houser of the Light" (Lighthouse), in the idea that she is a guide through the twisting tunnels of the webway - specifically those near Commoragh. She can guide you in, around or away from, but not necessarily the one you choose.

A couple of work in progress from the smaller stuff I've been using as distraction during the Revenant build.

First is a recent entry, my new Incubi. I'm a big fan of the older style models, but I've been aware for some time that I needed to do something to update my own ones. They were the only model in my army without some kind of customization, and this was an issue I couldn't allow.
So, I decided to use the Wood Elf Wildwood Rangers as the base, mainly because I quite like the look of their massive swords, and they look quite good as Klaives.
Here's one of them.



There's a few very minor alterations on here, but nothing over the top as I think they work quite well already. I've added a few small pieces of armour, you can just about see the shoulder blades here, to make the aesthetic a bit closer to Dark Eldar. I've also shaved off or filled in the majority of the Wood Elves icons, and sculpted in new faces inside the hoods. I;ve tried my best to come close to the old Incubi face plate inside the hoods, though there is a bit of variation which as unavoidable.


As a second addition, if you've seen elsewhere in this log I tend to make my Pain Engines based on particualr races. I have an Eldar engine made from a War Walker, and a Tyranid using various Tyranid parts and the old metal Talos body.
Here's the third to that set, the Ork, build using Ghazguls arms and faw, the Daemon Prince's body and a healthy amount of plasticard and green stuff.



Its a little tempting to get hold of a Crisis Suit and start work on the Tau one, but that means buying something Tau and actually having to touch it.......


Revenant has been under and base coated.
Next step - shading.

Those diamonds are very crisp! Good job!

Revenant: central platform and two inner rings done and assembled. Creq and two outer rings remain. FInishing line in sight.

I am now entertaining suggestions for names for this monstrosity.

Yeah, the diamonds are awesome. Nice work.

A small note.





IT IS DONE.


(Just crew left to paint - pictures once they're onboard)

Here's a brief tease.


A while back I posted some images of the "outer spikes", which looked like this:




Well, as a brief tease, here they are in place and fully assembled:



Crew are all that remains to do, and once they are painted and in place, full images and a couple of essays on the build will be up.

I may be trying to pad this out to get the final images up on the top of page 10.
Its a bit fun to realise that the above "in-place" image is actually image number 53 of this build.

And there I've decided on part three of the essays I'm planning. "Remembering the Build, aka What I Would Do Different" and "On Large Builds" will now be joined by "Considering You're A Cheapass, How Much Did This Build Cost Anyway?!"

THOUGHTS ON THIS BUILD, BY WAY OF A BRIEF RETROSPECTIVE

I had so much fun with this build, and am so incredibly pleased with the results.

Looking at the finished form as I try to work out how to transport the damn thing, I am incredibly satisfied with how it stands, and how it looks alongside the army. Its a monster, and I love it.
The look is unique and manages to fit in with Dark Eldar whilst not looking like anything else in the range. When I really consider it, I think it puts me more in mind of the wargear than the vehicles - as an utterly crazy construct an Archon has demanded from his artificers. Even if it lasts only the once, its designed as a wtf moment for the enemy. I can easily picture a cold, desolate world, Guardsman shuddering on the wall, then slowly looking into the horizon towards distant screams, and then this mother rushes out the clouds, spinning away and unleashing psychic death. It probably really is a single use item - one battle only - easily going to fall and be wasted, but enough for an Archon who just wants a good laugh and has the resources to make it happen.
I suppose in the long-run, its a clown car. Vect has come to witness a raid, and the Archon wants to impress, so he throws some utter ridiculous entertainment in the form of this monster.

In terms of the build itself, this clearly has to come into the grounds of a prototype. There is pretty much no chance I'm going to build a second. If something terrible were to happen to this thing, I doubt it'll ever be replaced by a duplicate. As such, I can happily hold up my hands and say there are flaws in the build. Its not perfect. Like any good life-partner it has its quirks, but don't let that make you think I'm unhappy. I' love it. I am SOOOOO happy.
I can look at it though and see what I would do differently.
The central platform could do with some serious alterations if I ever did revisit. It would probably work better if the platform were dipped to provide more head room. If I'd make that a cup, and lifted the connecting struts up a bit, it would have made more head room for the crew and filled in the inner ring a bit more.
The rings I think look fantastic, but a strengthening effort would have helped the whole effort. If the middle layer of each ring had been metal, it would have provided strength without adding to the bulk, and also made it easier to make each ring keep their shape. This would have been especially useful in the horizontal rings. Metal bent to an exactly rounded shape would have made them stronger and kept the shapes spot on.
A similar addition of metal around the edges of the vertical rings might have made it easier to smooth out the edges.
I think generally the additions of more metal might have helped strength and smoothness.

As a final note, something I may still add. I've tried investigation but not yet found a way to make decent looking lightning. If you look at the central Librarian, you might be able to see a few small sticks coming out of his eyes. The intention here is that represents energy coming out of him during the torture, and what I'd really like is to have something similar arching throughout the entire structure. It would add stability by connecting everything together, and also I think really add to the cool factor of the look.

Oh, and of course I wish anti-grav technology existed so I could have the thing hover and work in mechanics to make the rings spin.

ON THE TOTAL COST OF THIS PROJECT

I'll admit, I'm a cheap ass.
One of the prerequisities of my early plans was that this Titan AT THE VERY LEAST come in way under the price pf the actual Forgeworld model. At the time I started the build that really was a personal concern (money, blah blah), so coming to a decent busdget was important.

For your benefit, a brief estimation of the total cost, based on cost of materials used:

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Majority of main structure:
10x 0.23mm A4 Plastic sheets
1x £4.99
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqJ,!iIE5diLhvuOBOgD0Pms7Q~~_103.JPG?set_id=8800005007

Evergreen 0.035mm Plastic Rods
1x £3.70
http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/m8GolCUasOiRJwSilD0pxYQ.jpg

Evergreen 0.6mm Plastic Tube
1x £2.00
http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/pict/291352664327_1.jpg

Albion Alloys 0.1mm Nickel Rod
1x 4.73
http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/pict/351150591637_6.jpg

The Range 16 Clear Jewel Push Pins
1x £1.00
http://media.therange.co.uk/pws/client/images/catalogue/products/804796/medium/804796.jpg

Mesh Splatter Guard
1x £1.50
http://www.wilko.com/content/ebiz/wilkinsonplus/invt/0817440/0817440_m.jpg

2x Kabalite Warriors
Box set (£18) /5 = £4.00 (ish)
http://www.games-workshop.com/resources/catalog/product/230x238/99120112007_KabaliteWarriorsNEW01.jpg

1x Space Marine
Box set (£25) /10 = £2.50
http://www.games-workshop.com/resources/catalog/product/230x238/99120101103_TacticalSquadNEW01.jpg

1x Games Workshop Flying Base
£6.15
http://www.games-workshop.com/resources/catalog/product/230x238/99229999104_FlyingStemBase.jpg

Grab bag of nuts and bolts from Wilkinsons
£1.99



Total cost = £32.56 GBP
(roughly $48 US)

Sooooo.................




...............any comments?