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I've always been a big fan of Necrons, ever since the first metal Necron that came free with my copy of White Dwarf (a long time ago).
And since the release of the latest range of models I've once again been drawn back to them, and when I saw the latest addition to the list,
The Tesseract Vault, I started dreaming up ideas for what i'd do if I ever got my hands on one.

Well I need not dream anymore, as I now have one, and am planning on converting it into something bigger, and a lot more dynamic than the standard kit.

One of my favorite parts on this model are the Canoptek Leach's (the bug things on the side of hull),
but they seem way to static to me, so I'm going be to cutting all eight Leach's from the hull, and converting them into separate models,
which will be crawling in, out, and around the Vault when it's finished.

The other main part to this conversion will be centered on the C'tan, who will be transformed into the the Nightbringer (big hooded creepy C'tan looks like death)
He will still be located at the center of the vault, but will be held there by a huge Necron bug (will think of better name later), which I plan to build using 3 Canoptek Wraiths,
and a Canoptek Spyder.

I will be doing a lot more to this kit, but I've yet to finalize all my idea's, so for now I'll be sticking with the main two,
and this will be a long term project, something for me to do in my spare time, so I'm sure they'll be a lot more happening with this project as it progresses.

If anyone has any questions, quires or feedback to give on this project, please comment below.

Here are a few pics of the actual kit (before I start cutting holes in it),
and I will be adding more pics and updates as I go.

I think this will be the first non standard Tesseract Vault I will have seen. Looking forwards to it!

That's one of the main reasons I wanted to do this, as I've been unable to find anyone else who's doing their own Tesseract Vault Conversion.

But It's early days, I'm sure will see plenty of conversions eventually.

I've made a start by first removing all the Canoptek Leaches from the hull, which was a little tougher than I thought it would be,
but I managed it without causing any major damage to the hull or the leaches.

I also trimmed all the energy pieces off the C'tan, as I didn't much like that part of the model, and they wouldn't of worked with what I've got planned anyway.

Next job is to clean up all the rough edges on the leaches and the hull, quite a tedious process, as it took me 20 minuets just to do one leach,
but as soon as its done I'll share the result in another update.

Very clean start, keep up that standard.

Thanks, I'll do my best .

very ambitious.. great start!

Good to see someone fiddling with one of the larger models. I shall be watching.

Can't wait to see what you come up with.

I haven't done much work on this project since my last update, but once I've taken some pics, I will post what little progress I've made so far.
In the mean time though, I can show you the collection of Necron bits that just arrived at my door,
all of which i'll be using on the Tesseract conversion.

I'm eager to see how this turns out.

looks good, plenty of plastic.

I can't wait to see what you do with the "leeches",

(subbed, goes without saying)

Thats a lot of sprue! Your plan sounds ambitious, excited to see what you create =)

That kit looks horrific to build, so many fiddly spindly bits. Those leaches look great though, looking forward to your progress

@ Ruglud: yeah I love kits like that, the fiddlier the better,
and the more little bits there are, the more options i'll have for for conversions.

That is until I drop a Necron head on the floor,
and spend the next 30 minutes looking for it .

I haven't had the chance to work much on this project yet, but here's what I've done so far.

After cutting the leaches from the hull, I cleaned them all up (which took longer than I imagined), Attached the heads and the pincers,
then started designing the legs, which have been cut from 1mm plastic card.

Each finished leg Is made from two plastic card pieces, with the cables sculpted from a mix of green stuff and milliput.
I've got 8 legs done so far, only 56 more to go.

Awesome saying in tune for this

Looking fantastic! If you keep the quality to this standard, it'll be quite an impressive piece. Do you have any ideas for paint colors yet?

@ Pekel: Thank you for the comment.
As far as paint goes, It might sound a little boring in contrast to what over people have done with Necrons, but I'm planning on a mix of light and dark metals, for the Canoptek leaches, with details picked out in black.

And for the Hull of the Tesseract Vault, a black, kind of like obsidian, with glyph's, details etc picked out in a collection of greens.

But its probably going to be a long time before any paint touches this project, which is great, as it gives me plenty of time to practice my painting (which isn't great) , and learn some new techniques.

On the subject of color, I thought I'd share these pics of my old monolith conversion,
as it shares a similar color scheme to what i'll be using on the Tesseract Vault.

I've also included a pic of my old Nightbringer, as he'll be making a return in this project,
when I convert the Tesseract vault C'tan in to my own version of the Nightbringer.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of this, subd!

Very ambitious but having seen your other work I know it'll be no trouble for you
What do you use to cut and shape the plasticard?

Looking very cool.

@ ShinyFind: I mainly just use a sharp knife to cut the plastic card, but i do use a technique where you score the plastic first, then carefully bend and snap it,
this gives you a much cleaner edge, especially when working with the thicker stuff (around 1mm).

When making curved pieces I'll use a thinner plastic card (0.5mm), wrap it around a tube or something to give it a curve,
then glue a second piece on the inside to make sure it keeps it shape.

I've divided this project up into 3 smaller projects, to help me manage it a bit easier.

one is the Tesseract Vault itself, which will form the top of a buried Necron pyramid.
Next are the Canoptek Leaches, as shown in my early post, they will be crawling in, on, and around the vault and pyramid.
Last but not least is the C'tan at the heart of the vault.

The C'tan is what I've been working on recently, converting it into the Nightbringer, as you'll see in the pics below.

I've also started building the Construct that will hold the Nightbringer in place,
I call it the Canoptek Guardian (WIP pics below)

Wow...

Really like all the stuff you have posted so far really creepy and cool

Wow, I haven't followed necrons before, but Hesse look fantastic everything of yours is truly original.

Nice work on the cloth, really really nice.

Your greenstuff work is first class HK...

This model really is going to awesome, I can feel it in my bones (either that or i've got arthritis...)

Yep i agree with what Ruglud said , this is already great , the green stuff on the ctan guy is brilliant.