I got lost in the woods with the Norn Queen this week, which has meant that it has been a slower week when it comes to modeling projects, so I thought I'd post the following blast from the past. Back in 2009, when I tried to coordinate the first, full-scale Warpshadow table build while entertaining Germans, wrapping up my full-time job, and preparing to head to Japan for two years, we took on the task of recreating the battle at Tyran (it was for this project that Tom Box and I took a run at modernizing the Screamer Killer).
Tyran was the first official encounter between the Imperium and the eponymously named "Tyranids". It is the oldest of bits of Tyranid fluff, and it was the kind of thing a board full of Tyranid players wanted to do right when it came to creating a table to portray it. However, I was the project manager, and with all the aforementioned distractions going on, I feel like I never really managed to do the table build justice. I was stressed right up until the day, and though I'm sure folks had a good time and the table went alright, I was left focusing on what we missed out on, rather than what we accomplished.
Anyway. The Infestation of Casavant Prime it wasn't, but I guess I should revel in the fact that we did manage to coordinate Tyranid modelers from all over the globe to get it done. At Games Day Toronto 2009, the Canadian MiniWargaming.com dudes rolled on by to film the table and to interview me, and here's how it came out.
NOTE: In the caption below the video, it identifies the Nids in the video as belonging to my army. This is very much not the case (particularly since some of Moloch's Lictors and Hormagaunts were in there), and once the project was over, I wound up shipping the majority of the nids back to their respective creators.
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Showing posts with label Tables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tables. Show all posts
Friday, April 27, 2012
Saturday, May 14, 2011
The Screamer Killer rides again
To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.
The classic Jes Goodwin pewter Carnifex/Screamer Killer has always inspired me. When they look at it these days, most people see an oddly constipated-looking beast intent on giving someone a big hug with those curvy arms of his. However, when I look at the thing, I see the model that first got me into Tyranids specifically, and Warhammer 40K in general, back in the mists of second edition. It also reminds me of the black-and-white sketch that greeted me when I first opened the Tyranid codex all those years ago:
Though I love the pewter Screamer-Killer, and I still field them to this day (well, on the few occasions when I actually play), I’ve always felt that there was so much more potential in that sketch than the rudimentary casting processes GW used to use could ever truly capture.
The classic Jes Goodwin pewter Carnifex/Screamer Killer has always inspired me. When they look at it these days, most people see an oddly constipated-looking beast intent on giving someone a big hug with those curvy arms of his. However, when I look at the thing, I see the model that first got me into Tyranids specifically, and Warhammer 40K in general, back in the mists of second edition. It also reminds me of the black-and-white sketch that greeted me when I first opened the Tyranid codex all those years ago:
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| From Plastic Screamer Killer |
Though I love the pewter Screamer-Killer, and I still field them to this day (well, on the few occasions when I actually play), I’ve always felt that there was so much more potential in that sketch than the rudimentary casting processes GW used to use could ever truly capture.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The Infestation of Casavant Prime
To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.
With my budding work on Tyranid Scenery from scratch coming along, I was asked by some friends in Toronto to breathe some Tyranid life into their table build for Games Day Toronto 2008. These guys had been bringing original tables to Games Day for a couple of years, and the previous year their extensive trenchwork table had been beaten out by a PC speaker and a smoke machine. This year they were determined to bring the pain to their long-time table nemeses.
The meat and bones of the table were actually constructed by the original build team and took the form of a cityscape with a canal running down the center, and me, Accommodator, and our creative ilk were given free reign to add some flare to the cityscape by transforming it into one that was in the beginning stages of a full-blown Tyranid infestation. I jumped at the opportunity to have a focus for my until-now-largely-aimless Tyranid scenery building.
With my budding work on Tyranid Scenery from scratch coming along, I was asked by some friends in Toronto to breathe some Tyranid life into their table build for Games Day Toronto 2008. These guys had been bringing original tables to Games Day for a couple of years, and the previous year their extensive trenchwork table had been beaten out by a PC speaker and a smoke machine. This year they were determined to bring the pain to their long-time table nemeses.
The meat and bones of the table were actually constructed by the original build team and took the form of a cityscape with a canal running down the center, and me, Accommodator, and our creative ilk were given free reign to add some flare to the cityscape by transforming it into one that was in the beginning stages of a full-blown Tyranid infestation. I jumped at the opportunity to have a focus for my until-now-largely-aimless Tyranid scenery building.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Mycetic Spores
One of the biggest chips out of my shoulder when it comes to Tyranid design is the way that the concept for Mycetic Spores/Tyranid Drop Pods has been mailed-in ever since it first came about with the Tyranid Seeding Swarm list back in White Dwarf and Chapter Approved 2004. Bitchy or not, I have never seen a model for a mycetic spore that I could love, and that's mostly because they all wind up looking like the same, bloated, rugby-ball-/coconut-inspired Tyranid fleshbags. Space Marines get these sexy, tapered drop pods that open up like flowers of death upon impact. Tyranids get exploding fleshbags.
Not. Cool.
It was with this niggling annoyance in mind that I set out to come up with an aerodynamic, lithe, distinctly Tyranid-looking design for a mycetic spore.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Tyranid Atmospheric Procressors
To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.
These Tyranid terrain items were conceived 'round about the same time that I was working on the Tyranid barricades I detailed previously. I wanted to find a way of not just making Tyranid scenery but also a means of representing the diverse structures and creatures that may be present on a world that was being Tyranoformed/gutted for its natural resources. One idea I had (largely inspired by the shape and material of the plastic orange containers) was for balloon- or blister-like growths on the surface that would process the air in the atmosphere. They would expand to fill themselves with nice clean air, but when they contracted they would spew out a toxic, infectious fume teeming with microscopic Tyranid phage organisms.
These Tyranid terrain items were conceived 'round about the same time that I was working on the Tyranid barricades I detailed previously. I wanted to find a way of not just making Tyranid scenery but also a means of representing the diverse structures and creatures that may be present on a world that was being Tyranoformed/gutted for its natural resources. One idea I had (largely inspired by the shape and material of the plastic orange containers) was for balloon- or blister-like growths on the surface that would process the air in the atmosphere. They would expand to fill themselves with nice clean air, but when they contracted they would spew out a toxic, infectious fume teeming with microscopic Tyranid phage organisms.
Tyranid Barricades
To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.
Well, repurposing walnuts, coral, and lotus seed pods is all well and good for some quick-and-dirty Tyranid terrain, but I've never been much of one for quick-and-dirty as far as modelling is concerned. So I listened to that little voice that every 40K player has inside his/her head: the one that looks at the foam packaging that your new monitor came in and thinks "that would make a pretty bad-ass piece of scenery." Except, I followed this voice a little further down the rabbit hole than most do, seeing a fantastic-piece-of-Tyranid-scenery-to-be in this:
Well, repurposing walnuts, coral, and lotus seed pods is all well and good for some quick-and-dirty Tyranid terrain, but I've never been much of one for quick-and-dirty as far as modelling is concerned. So I listened to that little voice that every 40K player has inside his/her head: the one that looks at the foam packaging that your new monitor came in and thinks "that would make a pretty bad-ass piece of scenery." Except, I followed this voice a little further down the rabbit hole than most do, seeing a fantastic-piece-of-Tyranid-scenery-to-be in this:
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