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I decided this morning while I was eyeballing a couple of the projects I have undertaken that I needed to do something. See, I keep pouring money into the hobby, and while I am ending up with a decent looking Ork army for my efforts, it's still not too kind on my wallet. I've never made a model just to sell before - I generally end up getting attached to the silly things after I do a bit of work on them! Still, I'm wondering if maybe going into the project with the sole aim of later selling it might not be a bad approach.

In any event, I poked around through the bits and pieces I have on-hand and came up with a reasonably good parts list to create a Necron Pylon. I have the plastic frame from an old, broken motion sculpture from a few years back...



And a decent number of leftover parts from a Monolith kit. I started taking some of the bits from the top of the monolith and plasticarding them shut so that they would look more like the parts on Forgeworld's Necron Pylon.





It's not a perfect job, but it didn't have to be. I simply plated both of the three-pronged parts shut - it only took about an hour and a half or so, which isn't bad, considering.

The I mixed up some Apoxie-Sculpt. This stuff is a two part putty that can be spread on really thin and smooth. I covered the surfaces I had just made in them in an attempt to even out any bumps or lower spots. I let it harden and then sanded it down a little bit and generally cleaned the parts up. Apoxiesculpt looks semi-transparent when it is very thin, which is why some of the areas in the next few pictures look uncovered, but I assure you that the inside of the fins is completely smooth.









As you can tell, I mounted the fins onto the body of the pylon and then fit the crystal-holder into the middle. I added some of the gauss weapon nozzles from a monolith to the tips just to give it a bit more presence. Pretty much everything on the model is pinned together so that whenever I end up selling the model I'll be able to ship it without any fears.

The pylon is mostly undetailed at the moment. I'm going to be adding a fair amount of detail in when I find myself with some free time to kill. In the mean time, I have been brainstorming the base a little bit and I thought I might ask for some feedback.

This is the bottom of a monolith:



I'm a bit apprehensive to building the 'feet' of the pylon right now in a style similar to that of the Forgeworld version simply because I don't really feel like making 4 or 6 of the same curved part - it's a pain in the ass. I was thinking of maybe using this as a base instead.



Here you can see the pylon sitting atop the monolith part. I'm very strongly considering cutting about half an inch away from around the bottom so that the base of the conical part is narrow enough to fit inside the center 'ring' on the monolith's part - this would also allow the model to turn while the base remains stationary. I'm not sure if I want to go ahead and do it, though... some feedback on the idea in general would be appreciated.

Very good start on this Jam.

I dont see any problems with you seeling this for a decent amount of money. Considering all the details you usually put into your work, somebody will rip this right out of your hands!
And if you ask me, do go ahead and make the base different. That base is obviously necron-style so i dont see a problem with it at all. Otherwise there is not a whole lot to say other than youre off to a good start and I´m looking forward to seeing more!!

Orks to Crons? Im disappointed and cant support this.

As he said, tis for money which will probably be turned into Orkzes, so let the man do his work

Looking good so far. Been concidering making myself one as well. The one thing I'd really have done differently so far is mount the crescent on top of the base, and not into the side of it, so you get more of the moon shape and aim ability that you see on the Forge World one.

@Aduro
I don't think he had much of a choice. The main piece looks as if it was a one piece construct & he's working with what he had.
Also, it looks as if it might be metal... which would be quite a pain.
that being said, I like it as-is. I think making it DIFFERENT than the FW version will be better in the end

@Ein... Cut the base. Your instinct is correct. It WILL look better down on the base, where it could be made to rotate (or where you could insert a motor to MAKE it rotate)!

LOL

Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:@Aduro
I don't think he had much of a choice. The main piece looks as if it was a one piece construct & he's working with what he had.

Yes, this exactly. I tried detaching the crescent, but it wouldn't come free. It's actually all plastic, though, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort to break the thing when it looked reasonable as it is.

@Ein... Cut the base. Your instinct is correct. It WILL look better down on the base, where it could be made to rotate (or where you could insert a motor to MAKE it rotate)!

Motors, eh? I was thinking lights - lights in the green necron crystal and lights venting out of the ports on the sides.

I'm not going to get a chance to work on this more until around Thursday or Friday because of school, but I am going to make it a point to cut the base down a bit. I think something different that the Forgeworld model might be refreshing, like you said.

Yeah, rotating on the base (motorized or un-) would be a big plus for usability on the gaming table.

Can't wait to see how this turns out.

so can this actually be used in a game?

Yea, it is one of the two or three Necron Datasheets in the Apoc book. Basically a big gun, a really big gun, on a block of living metal. Doesn't move, but it can deep strike on the board. Kind of neat, though I prefer the look of the pylons from DoW, though to be far that game was my first real look at Necrons, so it pretty much set my expectations.

Great idea though Ein!

What are the Pylons in DoW? I've seen Obelisks and Gause Turrets, but no Pylons so far.

Aduro wrote:What are the Pylons in DoW? I've seen Obelisks and Gause Turrets, but no Pylons so far.

There's a screenshot of a pylon a little more than halfway down the page here:
http://dawnofwar.filefront.com/news/Tabletop_Roundup_mod_Article_4;35698

And this is the forgeworld one:
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dnecron%2Bpylon%26fr%3Dyfp-t-501%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=650&h=753&imgurl=www.forgeworld.co.uk%2FNecrons%2Fpylon7.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forgeworld.co.uk%2Fpylon.htm&size=27.5kB&name=pylon7.jpg&p=necron+pylon&type=jpeg&no=7&tt=24&oid=c8b12a6ac65795d8&ei=UTF-8

I can't say it's the nicest looking mini I've ever seen, but since the official model is one of the most boring things ever produced by FW, I'd say it stacks up pretty well.

Definitely cut the base to fit, IMO. The cone already dominates the mini too much; reducing it will help.

tegeus-Cromis wrote:the official model is one of the most boring things ever produced by FW

I dunno, I rather like the FW Pylon myself. They've done alot worse IMHO

Looking really nice, so far so good!
Also, I quite like that its (atleast at this point) very simple conversionwise, and yet captures the feel nicely!
Ive painted a necron army to a friend, along with a forgeworld pylon and honestly think that the model itself wasnt that more complex detailwise.
...okay, maybe a little more detail - but im pretty sure we will see cool detailing on this bad boy soon enough!

btw, heres the 1 I painted waaay back when it was released : http://www.puolenkuunpelit.com/tieto/galleria/GW/Butchery2/Pylon.jpg