Kill it!! Kill it with fire!!
Has it ever happened to you, having a unit from your codex that you absolutely love but on the other hand you hate the model that is available for it? Well thats exactly what happened to me with the Helldrake unit from the latest Chaos dex, I totally despise the Helldrake model... I know its highly detailed and really awesome kit but I don't feel the connection with the whole feeling of a chaos army... at least not in my mind!
To make a long story short (hardly since I have already been mumbling geek stuff for the past paragrapgh :P ) I have decided long ago to make my own version of the Helldrake and since my love for Papa Nurgle is always strong, the image I had in my mind was already there...
...and then all of a sudden I saw this in GW's blog one day and it blew my mind! This was exactly what I had in mind for my own Helldrake... a giant fly... that flies... and now I have the model I need for my conversion!
Next thing I knew, I was ordering an Arachnarok giant spider! The conversion was pretty straightforward. I assembled the spiders body as in the instructions and repositioned its legs to look like they are just hanging.
That was the easy part, The hard part was the engines. I decided to create a turbine kind of propellant like the Blight Drone, totally from scratch.
The model now needed something to combine its organic nature to its mechanic parts. I needed cables and a lot of them. One great and really easy way to make various shapes and sizes of cabling is with some old combs and some greenstuff. The following picture gives u an idea, just make the greenstuff in the shape of a thin "worm" and roll the teeth of the comb over it until it gets the right shape.
The finished model looks like this, I used the flying base from Dragonforge (just the clear rod actually)
I created the scenic base in the same way as the bases of my Caestus and Stormtalon, using some dry clay chunks PVA and lots of gravel. I added some bits and pieces too to make something more scenic.
Messing with my mind and my inspiration tonight were the OM... I know, something is really wrong...
To make a long story short (hardly since I have already been mumbling geek stuff for the past paragrapgh :P ) I have decided long ago to make my own version of the Helldrake and since my love for Papa Nurgle is always strong, the image I had in my mind was already there...
...and then all of a sudden I saw this in GW's blog one day and it blew my mind! This was exactly what I had in mind for my own Helldrake... a giant fly... that flies... and now I have the model I need for my conversion!
Next thing I knew, I was ordering an Arachnarok giant spider! The conversion was pretty straightforward. I assembled the spiders body as in the instructions and repositioned its legs to look like they are just hanging.
That was the easy part, The hard part was the engines. I decided to create a turbine kind of propellant like the Blight Drone, totally from scratch.
The model now needed something to combine its organic nature to its mechanic parts. I needed cables and a lot of them. One great and really easy way to make various shapes and sizes of cabling is with some old combs and some greenstuff. The following picture gives u an idea, just make the greenstuff in the shape of a thin "worm" and roll the teeth of the comb over it until it gets the right shape.
The finished model looks like this, I used the flying base from Dragonforge (just the clear rod actually)
I apologise for the poor quality of the pictures but I ran out of batteries for my big camera, being inactive for so long :P They will help you get an idea as they are recharging :P
I created the scenic base in the same way as the bases of my Caestus and Stormtalon, using some dry clay chunks PVA and lots of gravel. I added some bits and pieces too to make something more scenic.
So there you have it... I'm quite happy with this project so far! Now its time to throw some paint on it. I would really love to hear your opinions!
Messing with my mind and my inspiration tonight were the OM... I know, something is really wrong...
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I too dislike the Heldrake. Actually, i'm trying to figure out what is happening in the design studio these days. They nailed the dark apostle and aspiring champ, but the rest of the chaos release was pretty static and average. Then they did the same thing to my favorite legion the Dark Angels. Nice bits for conversions - I like the flyer, but that new speeder and those static poses of everything else?! I'm not going to lie; my eyes are wandering to other mini manufacturers.
ReplyDeleteI could rip off the new Dark Angels Speeder for hours! :P Truth is that GW's new releases are an almost 50-50 chance of being crap lately, which is sad, especially with the quality they are putting in their dexes.
ReplyDeleteWhen you told me you had a conversion of the Helldrake in mind I was really curious. To be honest I expected something more...dragonic(?). But this exceeds my expectations. I think it will be a wonderful addition to your army!!! Now lets see this baby all painted up!!!
ReplyDeleteWell I really don't like the dragon concept within the Chaos army...thats the main reason I decided to do sthg on my own!Glad you liked it! :)
ReplyDeleteMakes me wish I had one of these
ReplyDeletehaha...flakk fly catcher!! :P
ReplyDeleteGreat work so far!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dimitris!
ReplyDeleteThis is great!
ReplyDeleteHow did you make the rotors?
Thank you! The rotors were made from deodorant caps and strips of plastic sheet, and of course lots of greenstuff.
ReplyDelete