The $25 Tervigon Project Part 2: Baby Got Back!

 Old School here with an update on the $25 Tervigon Project. Last night, I whipped out the rubber gloves and some milliput and had some fun (now that sounds nasty). Anyway, I have some pics of the upper carapce and the model as it stood, still dripping from last night's activities (nasty again), let's take a look:

Alright, as you can see, the model is still rather slimy from the water I used to smooth it out, but no biggie as we are here to talk about what has been done since last time we checked in on this nasty bug.

 I used the same Grey/ Yellow Milliput for the back carapace that I did for the main body. This time what I did was take a good look at the areas I had crushed the original foam egg into to accomidate the carapce and estimate the amount of milliput I would need to make the shell. I the rolled out my milliput on a sheet of wax paper and broke it down to the thickness I thought it would need to be and into a rough shape of how it would look on the overall model.

With that out of the way I laid the milliput carapace sections onto the model, paying special attention to leave gaps where sacs and swollen flesh will be added later. Once the basic shape of each plate was laid down, I messaged it into perfect alignment (as perfect as I could figure anyway) and then added the chimneys.

 I decided to go for the three-chimney look and added them by forming the milliput into balls roughly the mass of what I would need for each chimney, paying special attention that the balls for the symetrical chimneys were of roughly equal mass.

I then placed my balls on the beast's back (am I immature if I laughed while I typed that?), then formed them into the shape of the chimneys, referencing a carnif while doing so. After double checking that everything was in place correctly, I then wet the model and rubbed out all of the fingerprints and lines until the carapace was as smooth as an eggshell.

Once I took these pics, I noticed some imperfections and went back over some areas to get them just right, then went through and ribbed the part of the carapace that connects with the body with a dental tool to mimic the look of a carnifex. All and all, I am pretty happy so far and I can now visualize where the next step will be. Sculpting large models is very much like sculpting small models and items, you need to take it in stages so you do not wreck your own work. The next step will be to add the fleshy sacs between the plates and do the tyranid rib cage effect down one of the sides. Stay tuned for more of this model as it progresses (and for the ridiculous use of words like balls and ribbed). In case you missed the first part of this project, take a look at it here

If you are watching the blogoshpere, check out the GW site for this giant spider model under the Fantasy Advanced Orders. It runs about $60 and would make for an interesting Tervigon conversion of its own ... but it would cost $25 or be hand made (I guess there are some pros and cons there, depending on how you look at it.)