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Looking brilliant Monkey. Kinda knew it would. Such a great idea.

You've got to be a brave or foolish man to hang on to a shape-shifting 4D road, one handed., but then, which way would you fall...

Good progress.

AARRRGGGHHHH I see the hands now these pics are more clearer

So much great stuff... the infinite loop is as perpetually boundless as your creativity . but I am particularly jealous of your spyerer servitor.

Great stuff and a real classic chaos literature feel to it.

 monkeytroll wrote:
And in other news, reports just in of new servitor-drones being worked on in the DarkForge, one example of which has been seen semi-operational....



Bit of tidying up to do, some little knick-knacks to be added, and still debating whether the four small ports will be for 'limbs' or maneuvering thrusters...

Looks awesome! I quite like a skull that actually looks like it could fly, rather than it being magic . I think the current limbs work great, and that the 4 remaining ports should just be representing thrusters.

Cam - Thanks a lot....let's just see if I can get it done intime......


Dr H - Well, technically he's floating horizontally relative to the surface he's just come off, but compared to the other possibilities well......


dog - How could you have a wild variety of entities morphing out of a road without at least one classic reaching arm?


neil - Cheers....if only I had endless time to fulfill the endless ideas Thought the servitor would be up your street I have a feeling the DarkForge will be producing several servitors of previously unknown classes....


Llama - Thanks, and pleased to hear it.


RiTides - Thank you! Well, I have nothing against 'magic' servo-skulls, but there's a limit to what they're capable of being equipped with Yeah, thrusters is how they're going to go...



Ok, bits and pieces being worked on slowly....various drone type thingummies, couple of henchmen, and putting together the figures for the road....nothing much worth showing for any of that though. So just to prove something is happening a couple of pics showing textures being applied to the road....




Need to get cracking.......

The surface is looking fantastic, very biological, almost Giger! Brilliant.

Interesting, so will the moebius loop road wind up with many different yet blended surfaces?

That is looking great Monkey the group of cabiling bursting through reminds me of Aliens so much and in good way I also like the arm grabbing out nice

Also the textured PC is a good call adds a little more to the warp aspect pulling different objects and worlds through.

Looks greaat!.

The blending of organic with the thread plates and the tubing, with things coming out of (or sinking into?) the strip really conveys the idea of going across (across I don't know what, worlds, dimensions, alternative realities, whatever, but across!) that I was hoping for when I first heard your idea

In your own words (mostly), now you just need to get cracking!

Cam - Thanks a lot! Biological, mechanical, artificial, demonic, natural...I'm hoping for a blend of all once done....fingers crossed


shaso - That's the idea...although there may be some areas that are hard transitions rather than blends...the course of chaos doesn't always run smooth


dog - Thanks! There's a bad way to be reminded of Aliens More grabbing arms to be added yet


Lt - Cheers! Yeah, I was thinking of drawings I use to do waaay back in school, that were heavily influenced by a couple of illustrations of Chaos Columns by one of the early GW artists...been tryng to find an image on the net but to no avail. They were basically a blend of flesh, metal, bone, stone, reptillian skin etc....always think of that as a touchstone for chaotic warp-spawned stuff.


Ok, so a tiny glimpse at the start of some actual characters and entities...



And some more gribbly type texturing shenanigans...




Just to prove something is still happening here.....

Prime, prime, prime!

And paint.

That's all I have to say about that.

 monkeytroll wrote:
...Biological, mechanical, artificial, demonic, natural...I'm hoping for a blend of all once done.....

May I recommend (not that you seem to need the inspiration) Giger's Biomechanical landscapes. I've been going though a lot of his work recently for obvious reasons.

Good work. Can't comment much more as a judge. Keep it up.

It just continues to get more intense with each update I am really liking the chained spawn that is a great idea have you considered cutting a Space Marine at an angle as if it is being pulled through the warp just a thought.

As to the alien remark I meant the cables looked like the background of their nest in the movie in a good way I have no idea how you are going to tackle the paint scheme though

Oh wow mate you are a wicked hand at green stuff !
And if you haven't already check out h.r giger, you will be spoilt for inspiration believe me !

Also great stuff you have here, there's nothing quite like converting stuff en mass eh ?!

Lt - Soon, soon, soon ! I reckon I'll be priming the main build and hopefully at least some of the characters tomorrow. Plan is to paint using mainly washes and inks as I find that a lot faster and it probably gives me a chance to actually get it done in time


Dr H - Well Giger's always in the back of my mind when contemplating this sort of thing, but I deliberately avoided pulling out any of my Giger books for fear of getting too involved in recreating certain aspects - the time considerations meant I couldn't get that invested in parts of the build

If my plan to start with some paint work tomorrow comes off then I'll be needing some 'building-breaks' and there'll be more stuff for you to actually comment on outside your judge role


dog - Cheers! I briefly considered doing a 'half-marine' type thing, but as I went for 'marine-entities' coming out of the surface I figured it would be hard to show which was which....

Not sure on paint, but I reckon it'll come away from the Giger vibe with that....I'm thinking it's more likely to be a multi-hued madness affair rather than dark and slimy - although there may well be patches of dark and slimy, and those patches may well have some cabling in them


Truecrusader - Thank you and welcome. Although to be fair, there's not much skill involved with the GS work, tentacle and tube tools are my friend here, I'm just putting it in place
Yeah, big fan of Giger, he'll be sorely missed

And cheers, for me it's the chopping and building that's all the fun, don't understand these guys into putting colour on stuff


Ok, bit of work on putting the entities in place.....





And added some slightly larger tentacles...




....so that it can stand up.....






Although it's not the most interesting support mechanism I've come up with, it is perhaps the easiest, and therefore the quickest, method. And time is ticking on, so.....

Plan for tonight is to get the last few gribblies in place and hopefully add some more support tentacles so that it can be displayed at different angles - one set almost directly opposite, and if I can work it a set that will allow for it to stand in a horizontal configuration.....

This is going to end up one of the best pieces I have ever seen at this rate.

Awesome do me one favour though and complete it properly regardless of the competition deadline

I'm scared...

Perfectly valid support mechanism.

I like to think that this is what's inside my box-o-tentacles. As that is how it gets around too.

Makes sense what you say about Giger. That's partly why I suggested his biomechanical landscapes, as they are more of an overall "feeling" than a distinct item. You're doing perfectly well as you are though.

A multipode tentacled caltrop. Always standing right, no matter which way it is actually standing. What could have been more fitting?

Only problem I'm seeing with it at this time, is that it not longer qualifies either as playable terrain or even a diorama...

It is a sculpture.

And looks (scaringly) awesome.

I would love to see a Great crusade era marine standing on one of the sheet metal like parts and than a mutated chaos variety of that marine standing on the other metal plate thing.

Cam - Well, thank you sir - I'll be happy if it comes anywhere close to that sort of standard


Llama - Cheers! Well I've left enough room so that if I ever decide to go for the whole rotating-on-tentacles look I have in my head I should be able to pull it off. Although to be honest the display stand would be big enough to cause me real problems with finding it somewhere to live.....


Malika - It's fine....come in, the warp's lovely.....


Dr H - It is, my only concern is that it kind of hides the underneath section - but as stated above, to be able to display it all requires a rather sizeable base...

I like to think it's what's inside every box....at least until you open it. Schrodinger's warp....

I think the landscapes tend towards a certain sexuality/sensuality that is more fitting of a Slaaneshi landscape....and although there's elements of that I was trying for a more generalised warp manifestation....But good call nevertheless, it's Giger after all


Lt - Makes perfect sense to me (which is always a little worrying ) but unfortunately the caltrop of chaos was not to be.

It'll shift back to diorama with the figures in place

And thank you!


Bronzefists - Had something similar planned in the early stages, but it's kind of mutated since then....the touch of chaos and all that Although I hadn't considered Crusade era - that could have been fun to play with the time loop aspect of the loop.....Maybe I need to do a series......


So as mentioned above the multi-directional caltrop approach to supports didn't come to be. I couldn't get it quite right and was becoming frustrated with it...a sure sign that I'm going to go with a bodge if I carry on, so I cut my losses and have left it with just the original support tentacles. Once it's complete I may re-look at supports, but hey-ho....


So Primed it this morning, then took some random rattle-cans to it, quick overspray with white, then pretty much a tub of Agrax Earthshade roughly washed over it followed by a rough drybrush with white to make it clearer what I had to wotk with. And also making clearer that several of th areas I thought looked blended, weren't



That's it with a couple of spots of colour picked out.


And here's a few more colours and textures appearing in a seemingly random order....




Using my cracklepaints, and plan to do some experimenting with the clear crackle. Lots of washesand inks in my future......

Even with only one way to stand up right, it still looks great.

Really coming together now.

Looked at it and thought Dali.

This is so very very unique ! it would make for an interesting boardgame - although trying to get the dice to settle might prove difficult .. Really like the colour of the cables mate.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Dr H - It is, my only concern is that it kind of hides the underneath section - but as stated above, to be able to display it all requires a rather sizeable base...

I like to think it's what's inside every box....at least until you open it. Schrodinger's warp....

The box contents are either normal or full of tentacles! You don't know until you check.

'tis a nice thought experiment, that of Schrodinger's.

I think the landscapes tend towards a certain sexuality/sensuality that is more fitting of a Slaaneshi landscape....and although there's elements of that I was trying for a more generalised warp manifestation....But good call nevertheless, it's Giger after all

Quite a few of the biomechanical landscapes have none of the sexiness that he sneaks in, in other pieces. The landscape series, for instance (without the "biomechanical"), do often have more "biological" shapes involved.

Still, keep doing what you're doing.

Lt - Thanks a lot! Well, my comment to Bronzefists has planted the seed of multiple versions, so maybe the chaos caltrop will yet be manifested


Llama - Definitely another of my influences, spent a lot of my teenage years looking at surrealists.


neil - Hmm, would it still be unique if I made a series? Zen surrealism anyone Well, if we go back to vik's idea about layering in a metal sheet for magnetic figures we have a playing surface at least.... Cheers.


Dr H - If Schrodinger had watched Urotsukidoji.....

Hmm, true, I was thinking more of the landscapes than the biomechanical landscape series

Ok, boss, will do



So, a calming little break...let's take a stroll through the darkforge.....




Servitor...or perhaps another magos...hard to tell at this stage Undecided on whether there's going to be a manipulator or a weapon on his lower right....will probably get at least one set of tools from the rear...... and cables obviously. My main concern with him at the moment is whether there'll be tracks protuding from the lower section or if he's some kind of hoverer....I tend towards the latter, but every now and again swing back to tracks....




Whereas this guy is most certainly of the tracked variety Heavy gun servitor, still requires cables, gun tidy-up and the rest of his other arm.....




And this little cutie is definitely a floater Needs some tiny tentacular mandible type things, and possibly some hanging cables....I like the sleek look he has, but you know me and cables....
Also not sure about the missile launcher...was going for two manipulators at first...then a bolter....




And no, I have no idea where I'm going with this either Was going to get a head on that rear socket type thingummy, then decided that did look too comical, but with a torso there it definitely shouts penis-gun. I was playing with some lictor claws as a kind of sensor array, but that started to look too 'niddy.



Oh...and I have a new favourite thing....

Tim Holtz clear rock candy crackle paint Oh yeah baby! Same crackle finish as the others in the range, but with a clear gloss finish. Put it over some colour, then when dried drop a bit of ink in there and watch it fill the cracks.....hmmmmmm....delicious.

Here....let me show you.....



Used it here really just to get a different effect for the head emerging from the surface, this will get colours over the top, but it shows the effect nicely.




Nice effect of veins along the cabling...and compare the cracks to the size of the tread plate...that's some fine detail you can get there....






In the first pic you can just make out the larger cracks from a coat of it over the base colours...gives a kind of raw, cracked meat effect almost....that got a wash of purple which added a lovely depth to it, great for diseased flesh, the layer of clear adds a realistic layer to it. I then put another coat over the top of that and this time went for the yellow ink....that has some uses for some putrid nurgle types I'm sure....





And over a mainly yellowish background I went back to the red ink.....again, I can see some lovely cracked oozing skin coming from this.....


And that's why it's my new favourite thing....

Once I've finished this piece (and I'm trying very hard not to cover it almost entirely in this stuff ) I think I'll dig out some ogres and minotaurs for servitorisation (yep, that is so a word )....want some large fleshy creatures to play with...

I'm out of words now. It certainly isn't nice, nor [i ]beatiful[/i], maybe astounding? In its own, strange way, it is definitively something.

And it'd be stealing the show anywhere it'd be displayed, too.

The delicious part, on the other hand, I found a bit scary...