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I'm not a big fan of the Ghost Ark's flying rib cage aesthetic. Conceptually I like the idea of necron vehicles being mistaken as monuments for aeons before becoming active again so I'm working on a scratch build based upon the monolith, which I feel embodies this concept.

Here's what my initial design is so far, as shown from the front and side. Overall I feel like it resembles an Egyptian Mastaba which matches the aesthetic I'm going for.



When making scratchbuilt vehicles, for game playing purposes, I try to get the final model to be close to the dimensions of the commercially available vehicle so if anyone who has a ghost ark could let me know its length, width, and height I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

A little bit of an update.

Since I'm updating my Necrons I wanted to model a replacement for the green rod with something resembling lightning.

Here's my first attempt.





I'm not totally happy with the paint job but I wanted to get some opinions, so I'd welcome comments.

I think some source lighting on the gun and around the eyes might help.

That actually looks very cool. You're correct though, a bit of source lighting would help, especially underneath the lightning on the barrel.

Interesting, I'll be sure to follow.

that's a really cool idea, though it seems a bit... exposed? I'm not up an all the necron fluff, but it seems like all that energy would be running through a conduit of some sort rather than just through the open air. I'm not sure this would work, but maybe wrap what you've got in a clear tube of some sort?

From a logical perspective you are right.

40K operates by the Rule of Cool, though.

I am more worried that the wires will be vulnerable to finger damage on the table top.

I would have drilled out a clear rod and had the wires flowing through that, as a compromise.

I don't think your Ghost Ark is going to work, the monolith's way, way bigger than the ark - I'd say forget the Ark's dimensions and just go for your design, no matter the size

I considered going with a clear tube and having the wires going through it, but the issue is size of the hole. The green rods are 3/16" thick, so I looked for 3/16"-1/4" thick tubes. While those exist, the thickness of the walls leaves only a 1/16"- 1/8" hole, which wouldn't leave me a lot of room to work with and if I don't get enough separation of the individual wires it really loses the lightning look. Ultimately I decided to leave it exposed and I kind of like the idea of the lightning jumping between two nodes and that it could be used in CC as well. I'm going to try source lighting to sell the glow of the lightning, but we'll see.

Fortunately the lightning is pretty durable. It's made using 6 individual strands of steel wool held together at the ends with green stuff which is then inserted into drilled holes in the gun.It's probable more durable than a lot of the smaller plastic bits.

My Ghost Ark design is currently 5.5" x 9", which I believe is the approximate size, but that's really only based on scale images I found online. It's actually not based upon the monolith's size, just the aesthetic.

I attempted some source lighting around the eyes and gun barrel. It's my first attempt at this effect so please be kind


I'm considering doing some source lighting along the chest as well (from the guns power cell), but I'm undecided.

I must say, that looks a lot better with some OSL

I think you've done a pretty fair job of it, though you need a smidge of glow on the front edge of whatever that bit that sticks up from the body of the gun is (the sight post?). the eyes aren't working for me. seems like you'd want to just highlight the inner edges of the eye sockets and not have the glow spilling out of them to form a bandit mask like that.

I like it, very well done and it's awesome that you took the risk of throwing away those tubes.

Very nice idea! much better than just green tubes the OSL really adds to it.

Thanks for all the comments. I was pretty happy with the result, especially the OSL which I've always been intimidated by.

I think you've done a pretty fair job of it, though you need a smidge of glow on the front edge of whatever that bit that sticks up from the body of the gun is (the sight post?). the eyes aren't working for me. seems like you'd want to just highlight the inner edges of the eye sockets and not have the glow spilling out of them to form a bandit mask like that.

I completely get what you're saying on the sight post. I actually should probably get a little on the barrel there as well since it would be exposed to light as well. With the eyes I knew as soon as I put the base dark green I had gone to far. The way I do the metal is a little involved though so I didn't have a chance to clean it up. Maybe to save time I should just name him Hal Jordan and paint a green ring on his right hand