Here is my latest scratch built CD warmachine. Some of you will have seen this already from the Hand of Hashut forum.
It doesn’t have any ammunition :o The idea is that 1 of the CD crew will be sculpted to be reading from books on daemons. As they read the gyroscope begins to turn, faster and faster, then when the gunner pulls a lever a tear in reality opens up in the middle of the gyro. From this tear a beam of daemonic energy goes shooting out, which then possesses and mutates anything it touches.
In the middle of the big star part, and further down the barrell there are focusing things. These were basically supposed to be like on a camera, they open for a second or two then shut again. The gunner crew has a chance to modify how far it shoots by adjusting these. The barrell is designed to be very open so that the daemonic energy does not bind itself unnessarily to it.
There is still a lot of work to do, I’ve done a bit since those photos were taken:
- I’ve chopped a ring off to shorten the barrell, and done some cogs to go down in the base.
- I’ve mounted it on a 50mm base, which has a mechanical leg in each corner (with pistons and an adjusting valve)
- I need to build some housing off the back to try and balance the whole thing out visually. This will have the back of a Dwarf cannon on there somehow, for binding shells.
- I need to sculpt runes all over the gyro circles, both sides.
- I will attach some of the miner blast charges to it in places. Because of the fluff I’ve written the CD have a massive tear to the Realm of Chaos under Daemon’s Stump. So they need a way to stop this machine in a hurry if something goes wrong…
- Because it will be too perplexing for people otherwise, I need to sculpt the daemonic blast shooting out, and the tear itself :sick That will be very, very hard to do well. A real challenge… Painting it will be even harder
- Lastly I need to finish the crew and do a larger scenic base.
Crew 1 = Reading from book on stand. This one has already be done, converted from my Brotherhood green.
Crew 2 = Handling a shell (artillery) at the back of the warmachine. He’s basically syphoning off the daemonic energy whilst its there. Waste not want not ;). I’ve done about half this one.
Crew 3 = Holds the Miners plunger, which will be wired into all the blasting charges by some wire I’ve twisted together. Not started yet, but it will be converted from one of the many failed Dwarf greens I have lying around.
Wow. Brilliant idea and so far, perfect execution. I definietly agree with the idea of putting something on the back. Would it be wise to make something opening a tear into the Chaos Realm explode? Only thing I’m wondering Make sure you take pictures before adding the tear. I’m thinking for the tear, try to sculpt your typically thought of insanity/sanity realm tear either behind, in or encompassing the gyroscope. Then, for the beam, a sort of flamethrower effect, but channelled (like a fire geyser?) and maybe have a horror limb sticking out of the tear and some daemon-faces pokeing out of the flames or being directed forwards and stuff. As for paintscheme? Blackened purples fading through to pinks with tiny hints of orange at the very pinkest parts… Has it got its own rules or does it use death rocket ones?
I can’t remember where my latest idea came from, but the idea of using a gyroscope to open a hole to the Realm of Chaos I had ages ago. To show the development of the idea;
I originally planned this to be a ‘standard’ warmachine, then the rules for it changed to include move and shoot, so the art changed to something portable. As I was close to finishing the rules pdf I changed it back to a standard warmachine (no need for Move and shoot IMO), so I went back to the old concepts.
Yes, its the Soul Reaper from the pdf. In games though I will use it as a Death Rocket.
My Iron Bull was going well, but fell behind other CD related projects (like core troops ;)) Fear not though, I plan to get the new jugger for my Taurus which will be 1000% cooler than what I would have done.
@Hashuts Blessing
The way you’ve described it is pretty much how I planned to sculpt and paint it. I’ll take some photos before adding all the daemonic energy stuff, so we can decide whether its needed.
The idea to have it blow up is because people in the know (Sorcerers of most races) would begin to suspect the CD a lot more if there were loads of tears into the Realm of Chaos all over the place after they leave. Added to that, if they did create loads of holes it would bring about the end of the world faster… I think I’ll also have a blasting charge on each crew member. Better to die than risk exposing the CD secrets. I’ve got the crew as Stubborn, but perhaps I need something to reflect this if all the crew die?
Having done some work on this last night, I’ve added the cannon bit on the back, and some energy gathering spikes. They are basically like big horns attached at the back that curve over the gyro. I’m thinking of adding some resistors onto the gubbins at the back as they’ll look fairly useful, but not too technical.
When I design anything like this I try and think what do I need to make to get this to happen? Working the way round it is then the hard part to conceptualise.
The loading part for the shells at the back is a classic example. I could have just done it where the crew load them in by hand. The problem though is that if the warmachine were at its lowest elevation the hatch to put them in is too high, and added to that the DZ would want to handle daemonic bound shells as little as possible. So thinking of the way ammo is loaded on the stompas on Matrix Revolutions I watched that bit. So that will be a time consuming project in itself, it will also need a sliding shelf to get the shell in/ out somehow.
Its a cool concept and very different to most people’s approaches to siege engines I think. It will look very striking on the battlefield. It reminds me of the Lizardman “Engine of the Gods” but that is only because of the gyroscope.
I would agree with the “daemonic stuff”, though. As it stands it looks very technology based - like a mass accelerator/gauss gun; something more out of science fiction than fantasy. Bringing up the daemon factor and trying to illustrate how it works would, I think, lessen the SF feel.
The crew will not be mutated, but the Skaven slave will!
@GRNDL
I will need to think about this very soon. I can’t assemble it properly until its painted, so if I’m going to do it firing I need to decide.
Funny you should mention the Gauss gun… It’s what I plan to arm my Blunderbuss champion with
You can see a bit more work in these pictures. I made a nice scenic base for it, but unusually for me I’ve attempted to tell a story here.
The Soul Reaper is mounted on a 50mm base, around which is a circle (the green part). This I will paint white, as ash/ salt, to represent a ‘holy’ circle dug to help prevent daemons escaping all over the place. The powerful blast of energy the machine fires would be strong enough (that’s my excuse for not thinking how it would fire over it ;), doh!).
The crew with the plunger will have the blast charges wired in, the other one will be reading from a book on that stand. Not sure yet which model to use for the back one, but he will be holding a shell ready to go into the back.
The trolley for lifting shells up and down was quite tricky to make, and I still need to figure out how to do the top part (depends on whether the machine is firing or not). I should have based and painted under it BEFORE sticking it down. Lesson learnt.
The skaven slave was going to be part of my entry for Golden Hat IV, but I ran out of time. Another interesting detail is dwarf parts on the base; a shield and pick. Perhaps showing they were trying to stop the machine…
LEFT TO DO:
- Finish the base.
- Convert the 3rd crew
- Do a load of work on the circle part of the base (under the gyro), Needs cogs around the inside of the top, cleaning up of the chaos star thing, and a simple pattern sculpted on the outside.
- Sculpt runes on gyro rings, both sides.
- Do something to the long horns on the top. Not sure what yet.
- Add a back panel between the gyro and the cannon, add load of machine gubbins.
- Most importantly decide whether the machine will be firing or not. It could be very hard to do convincingly, and would be hard to paint.
Make sure you take pictures before adding the tear. I’m thinking for the tear, try to sculpt your typically thought of insanity/sanity realm tear either behind, in or encompassing the gyroscope. Then, for the beam, a sort of flamethrower effect, but channelled (like a fire geyser?) and maybe have a horror limb sticking out of the tear and some daemon-faces pokeing out of the flames or being directed forwards and stuff. As for paintscheme? Blackened purples fading through to pinks with tiny hints of orange at the very pinkest parts… Has it got its own rules or does it use death rocket ones?
