Extreme Proteus!

[OldOneEye]

Picked up an Extreme Carnivean (abbreviated to EC) at Lock and Load for the express purpose of making it into Proteus. I never liked the way the Proteus model hung off the front of the base, but the upright pose of the EC fixes those problems (instead, its giant claws hang off the sides of the base where they cause fewer problems :P )

The Proteus kit is basically a new head for the plastic Legion heavy. The top of the head of the EC is sculpted into the body, so a simple headswap was out of the question (scale problems notwithstanding.) Since the underside of the EC's head was basically hollow, though, I decided to cut the bony parts off the top of the Proteus head and shave it down until it fit into the EC's head cavity. With that done the conversion would be essentially complete.

Here's what I have done to this point. I finally got the Proteus head pared down enough to get it to fit in. After some gap-filling with green stuff and some minor cosmetic work, the head is in!



It still overhangs the base a bit, but the tentacles are hanging down instead of projecting out and the height of the model makes a difference as well.



Other side.



Closer look at the work. I made the discs at the back of the jaw larger so they'd look better with the larger EC head. Added a scale to the underside of the neck to hide some gap-filling. The corner plate on the head that I've greenstuffed on was originally on the model, but I clipped it off to get the head in. I probably could have left it and worked around it, but no biggie to put it back on.



Other side. I think the amount of space between the nose of the EC head and the tentacles bothers me. I'll probably do some work tomorrow to make it look like it all attaches a bit more.

Tomorrow I finish assembling the body (a lot of today was spent drilling pin holes.) I plan to put a crest on top of the EC's head like the one Proteus has; aside from that, I'm wondering if I want to add some little tentacles here and there on the body. There are some good places to put those on the backs of the hands and such; I know the regular Proteus model only has face tentacles, but I think adding a few on the body would make it look more... protean? I'd appreciate some thoughts on that.

I'll upload pictures as I finish assembly and (hopefully!) get it painted. Thanks for looking!

[HellecticMojo]

nice. really fits absolonia thematically, and glad to see that it's actually playable as a model too.

[Blue Claw]

Awesome! I like it soooooo much better.

[Borkdabasher]

thats awesome, great job.

[Jack Hammer]

My friend needs a Proteus, and I really think she needs to aim to try this for herself. It looks awesome.

[PG_Chris Cuevas]

Fabulous. Hope you keep this post updated.

[Raktra]

(In a positive tone) This is the most GRUESOME model I have ever seen. Well done.

[OldOneEye]

So... More tentacles: yea or nay?

I'm talking about little ones here and there around the body. A couple on the backs of its forelegs, a few sticking out of the body. Stuff like that.

[LichLordVexing]

I'd say nay. The model looks incredible already! More tentacles would probably detract from the model overall due to it already being incredibly busy all over. However, if you need inspiration, there are no better subjects than...

[Wishing]

Looks amazing, I can't wait to see it finished!

[NavyGodzilla]

I say more tenticales. Really shoot for that creepy Lovecraft vibe.

[OldOneEye]

Okay, time for more pictures!









So, primary assembly is complete. I made a few little tentacles last night, let them cure overnight, and attached them to the model today. I'm surprised at how well they went on the model considering that I made them blind. Nothing too drastic-- just a couple of little wispy ones to break up the outline of the model a little bit. Part of me wants to add more, but for the most part I think it's enough. I don't want to overdo it with the tentacles.

At this point I'm pretty much ready to prime and paint. I think I'll do a bit more gap-filling before then, but the vast majority of the work is complete.

[Rez]

Thats awesome.

[Adurot]

I'd try to fix that floating nose thing he's got going still. Maybe make mOre tenticles to fill in that gap.

[Selestine]

I think that looks amazing! The tentacles that you've added give it that Proteus feel without going overboard at all -- I wouldn't add any more were it my model. I am really looking forward to seeing this painted.

[OldOneEye]

I'd try to fix that floating nose thing he's got going still. Maybe make mOre tenticles to fill in that gap.

Yeah, that still bugs me. I've thought about either tentacles or just kinda filling the space with... gums... webbing... stuff. Some kind of fleshy bits to "attach" the tentacle part to the roof of the mouth. Maybe a mix-- tissue with some tentacles coming out.

[OldOneEye]

As it turns out, the gap in the head bugged me enough to keep me from going to bed. Here's what I've done to fix it.





I've rolled out some more tentacles which I'll glue into the sockets tomorrow. Not only does that fill the space that was in the head, but I think it makes the mouth tentacles look a bit better as it will break up the clump of tentacles a bit.

[Cronix]

Wow, amazing extreme Proteus. Cannot wait to see it with paint.

[Adurot]

You'd mentioned trying to mimic Proteous's crest. Is that still on the table?

[OldOneEye]

You'd mentioned trying to mimic Proteous's crest. Is that still on the table?

That's tomorrow's project if I can find the sheet styrene I have laying around here...

I'm going to do a little putty work on it and add some of the runic-looking engravings that are on a lot of the bony plates.

[Defenstrator]

That looks good. I was worried you were going to go overboard with the additional tentacles, but keeping them small and poking out from the flesh looks good.

Also, sooner or later I am going to flatter you by totally ripping this off.

[TheConstantWay]

That is disgusting.

Which is to say, you're doin' it right.

[Washburn]

I like this, great use of the Extreme sculpt.

[PG_69Lazarus]

Looks really cool. I want one like that.

[Mod_Plarzoid]

This thread is relevant to my interests.

[MEdwards]

This is some awesome looking work and I may need to try this when I get my hands on an extreme Carnivean.

[OldOneEye]

That's tomorrow's project if I can find the sheet styrene I have laying around here...

It was driving me crazy last night that I couldn't remember the name of that stuff.

One night of sleep later and I wake up and go, "Oh. It's plasticard."

A well-rested gamer is a more intelligent gamer. Back to work after I take care of some real-world responsibilities.

[BLUTAXT]

That looks freakin awsome. Nice work on the detail and all the small tentacles.

[The_Villain]

Sweeeeeet!!!!

[Adurot]

A well-rested gamer is a more intelligent gamer.

My tournament record would indicate otherwise.

[PG_Pszito]

This thread is relevant to my interests.

+1

;-)

keep it growin'

[PG_Devilsquid]

Fantastic job!

[Jonovex]

That. is. Fantastic!

[Flak Maniak]

Those little tentacles disgust me to my core. They look just downright wrong. In other words, I love them. Excellent job.

(And this is coming from someone who always thinks Nurglitch armies aren't disgusting enough.)

[Tianaris]

Looking forward to see it painted! Brilliant idea and great execution so far!!!

[bStyker]

I'd settle for a Primed pic, but would love to see it painted in its full glory (gory?)

Looks amazing.

[Alzer]

Nicely done. It's almost like the Extreme Carni was made so you could turn it into Proteus.

I'll be waiting impatiently to see how the paint job turns out.

[PG_aterdaeus]

This is fantastic. Now I actually want an extreme Carni.

[Therat]

Looks great, looking forward to seeing it painted up!

[Uratoh]

none of these pics work for me ;-;