[WIP] Custom Myrmidons - Prototype

[paradogmatic]

Hey all -- I've been finding myself unsatisfied with the traditional Myrmidons -- in particular the Heavies. I was digging around in some old parts I had and decided to try a scratchbuild on top of my previously built Hydra.

Keep in mind that this is preliminary and I'm not yet sure what to do about a 'head' -- though to be honest the current 'front' looks like it can at least see. Head on top might work but I'm thinking perhaps a more traditional Warjack looking underneath mount.







I have enough parts to make another -- though likely I'll use this as a reference once I like it enough to try out some recasting of the addon parts. I only attached them lightly in order to make them easily removable for now.

It still needs some putty and filling to make things fit better but the basic shape is there.

Ignore shoulders etc for now -- that'll be later.

[mathieu]

What did you use for the front as it is now? I do think it makes a proper head, and gives a much better look to the model.

[CodeRed97]

Scary awesome. Finish painting that bad boy please.

[KaalTheWanderer]

Thats gorgeous. Mind filling us in on what parts you used?

[c4rdninj4]

It looks pretty cool as is. A paint job might be able to bring out more of a "head" look from the front piece.

[Jaster]

Yeah I wouldn't add a thing more to that, looks ready to prep for painting to me . . .

[paradogmatic]

What did you use for the front as it is now? I do think it makes a proper head, and gives a much better look to the model.

The parts used thus far are some pieces of an old Gundam action figure I had laying about ( Gundam Fix Figuration Gerbera Tetra ). Now that I've decided I like the direction I do have to do something about not having enough parts for all my Heavies.

My plan is to make my first attempts at casting resin parts. Should be an adventure. I need to purchase some supplies but I also need to do a couple things in order to have parts ready to cast.

I started on a spare heavy Torso w/ my second set of parts :





I've filled in the underneath with greenstuff ( with oil between the greenstuff and the Myrmidon body ). This should give me a good basis to create a properly fitting part. Once this greenstuff dries I'll take it off and carefully fill in the rest of the underside, fitting it as I go in order to create a 'solid' part for either half. Following that I'll probably add a bit of detail and move forward with my recasting effort on my new parts.

The goal is that these parts should fit onto any/all Heavy torsos so I can produce more in the future.

From a fluff perspective I'm thinking of one small change. The rear compartment which is open right now ( with the exhausts in the prototype Hydra and just some greenstuff for now on the other ). I think I may close it in and sculpt it as a solid part. The intention here is that this will actually represent a divergence from a traditional Myrmidon. Instead of being controlled by a Cortex, my Heavies will be ridden / driven by Iosian pilots in the raised rear ****pit. For a while it will just be fluff but I would like to do one model with an open ****pit at some point to show this. I'm not entirely sure about this idea yet -- I do like the look of the open back .. but I'm going to experiment with it.

[TimVanBoening]

Very interesting conversion!!


I'm interested to see what you do for a head, if you plan on just painting the eye looking parts. I think it gives an interesting look.


You have my consent, proceed!

[Assariel]

Looks really awesome. Kinda has some eldar-feel to it imo.
But I like it more than the original!

[KeiAsaki]

The head looks slightly Eldarish on the body, but I can see why you'd use it. It seems to make it look more... complete, rather than the standard heads for them. Do you have plans for alteration for the other Myrmidons, or are you sticking to the same head for them all?

[Raven Abaddon]

I thought it's gonna be some crappy stuff. But boy what you've done here is pretty awesome. It's slick and seem to go with the theme set by the official myrmidons.

Great stuffs.

[mathieu]

The parts used thus far are some pieces of an old Gundam action figure I had laying about ( Gundam Fix Figuration Gerbera Tetra ). Now that I've decided I like the direction I do have to do something about not having enough parts for all my Heavies.

Very cool. It's only fitting that adding anime pieces to an anime inspired model would work so well. It streamlines the model very nicely. Good luck with the casting process.

[Capsfan34]

Very Interesting they kinda look like some kinda mech. But at least your getting a good use out of Gundum parts.

[HellecticMojo]

reminds me of this thing.

sweet.

"Captain, I'm detecting a huge amount of win."

[paradogmatic]

reminds me of this thing.

sweet.

"Captain, I'm detecting a huge amount of win."

Hah I hadn't even thought of Eureka 7 -- one of my favourite shows

Nice catch..

[paradogmatic]

The head looks slightly Eldarish on the body, but I can see why you'd use it. It seems to make it look more... complete, rather than the standard heads for them. Do you have plans for alteration for the other Myrmidons, or are you sticking to the same head for them all?

I'm pretty sure I'll differentiate each heavy type with a different headcrest .. just not sure how I'll do those yet .. was thinking something way over the top compared to the duck heads..

[Flack Jack]

Pretty cool. the carapace is perfect for the "smoke stacks"

[paradogmatic]

A new update for this afternoon -- been playing around w/ how to fill up the space. I plan on likely making it solid. The question for me is do I make it like a big Arcankial drive system, or make it look more like someone could be piloting it from within.

For now I have these :





The space in the middle at the rear will be greenstuffed in and then I was looking at mounting the smokestacks more vertically on the sides there to retain some of the original design elements.

I wanted to try it with my arms and shoulders on so I took my partially built Phoenix and put on the new parts. This also proved that they fit another torso as its not the same one I was working on before. They slid right on quite neatly.



This is more of a mock up of filling in the space to make a '****pit' where an Iosian ( or more in a sinister twist, a trapped soulless ) pilots the Myrmidon to remove the reliance in the Cortex, stolen from the humans.. ( DIRTY HUMAN TECHNOLOGY )

[Flack Jack]

Personally I would go one of two ways with this. First I might remove the plates from the back so that it simply had a protective canopy over the stacks. This would in theory eliminate most of the negative space. Otherwise I would go for the fill in method, and maybe try to sculpt some interesting angles into it. The generator thing in the first pick looks really cool but I would say it sticks out too far.

[KaalTheWanderer]

I'm so damn impressed. Going to stea...er...borrow your idea.

[Mr.B]

IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE,... IT'S A ****IN' SPACESHIP!!!
it really does look cool. great work

[Almightyfoon]

Excellent use of Zeon designs. Char would be proud.

[paradogmatic]

Hail Zeon!

To be honest -- the parts I'm using are from one of my favourite designs anyhow .. Brother to the Kämpfer, my absolute favourite

Got something cooking to get the shoulders into the same vein -- not done yet. I also pulled the 'generator' closer into the body, reducing the length somewhat -- thanks for the input on that one Flack Jack. It had been bothering me but I didn't quite have my finger on it. I'll post pics a bit later once I finish more work.

[paradogmatic]

Pics as promised

Here you can see the upper part -- more filled in but not done yet -- generator closer to the body. First crack at a 'tail-flap' -- just playing with the shape there and carrying over the curves ( also the Zeon angle as some may recognize )





Here we have the beginnings of the shoulders -- this is still very preliminary. The part I've greyed out below ( excepting my fingers ) will be trimmed down to create a more normal shoulder profile :

[Zaqir]

Stop putzing around with your damn retribution and work on my Khador stuff or I will break that 2 game winning streak you have on me.

In all seriousness I think the look is bad ***. Not sure if I personally like the tail flap but I do perhaps see a few of the Myrmidons having maybe some fins and other things going on.

[Joroth]

Just when you thought the original shoulder pads were massive enough, this guy goes and makes them BIGGER!! Hurry up and get finished, I want to see this mamba jamba painted up

Very very cool work so far

[paradogmatic]

Heh -- the shoulder pads are very much a maybe right now -- they do come off as /too/ big to me in a way. I've honestly been a fan of the 'no shoulder' look for the most part. Good news is I got my starter kit for casting today so I should start finalizing a few parts and trying out a recast.

PS -- My Myrmidon's are jealous of Vlad

[Almightyfoon]

The Pheonix is coming along nicely, but if at all possible, could you put up a shot of that nomad? I like the shield on it and I'd like to get a better look at it.

[paradogmatic]

The Pheonix is coming along nicely, but if at all possible, could you put up a shot of that nomad? I like the shield on it and I'd like to get a better look at it.

I'll have to put one up later -- not on my OS w/ the FTP program I use for uploads. Just to clarify though -- its a shield from a Bokur that I fit onto the buckler.

[Exeter]

Looks pretty awesome. The first picture reminded me of gundam...then I scroll down and it is gundam! It looks great. I cant wait to see the final products!

[Flack Jack]

Its looking good, and I am in suspense for the other changes to come.

[hauntingexperience]

...oh my god. You made me actually consider purchasing the new faction because of this!!! They (in my opinion at least) look like they would fit in the IK world a lot better than the current ones. Steam powered win!

Are those parts easy to come by btw?

[Haight]

I love the phoenix holding the sword in two hands! that is a great idea. I will probably snatch that idea and do it to my second phoenix. Very cool!


-- Haight

[infamousd]

ITS... ITS A GUNDAM!!!! -line goes statc as a small explosion is heard elsewhere-

[paradogmatic]

Hey folks -- time for an update -- in the last week I've been cleaning up the parts for the Torso a bit more and received my casting supplies; and I gave recasting the part a shot.

To be honest it came out better than I expected for a first try -- they're a bit hard to see because of the pure white but the detail is all there -- some cleanup to do but that's not unexpected.

[captainspud]

What are you using for the mold and casting material? And where'd you order them from? I've been on the lookout for good casting stuff for ages, but everything I've tried has sucked...

[paradogmatic]

Since it was my first time I picked up the starter kit from Smooth-On. In my reading stuff from Smooth-On is a bit more expensive, but its also very good. To be honest I cut some corners and rushed a bit because I was excited and it all came out fine.

http://www.smooth-on.com/index.php?cPath=4_1217

That's the kit I used -- lots of people carry Smooth-On online, but I had trouble locating it locally. Was worth the order though..

[paradogmatic]

Since it was my first time I picked up the starter kit from Smooth-On. In my reading stuff from Smooth-On is a bit more expensive, but its also very good. To be honest I cut some corners and rushed a bit because I was excited and it all came out fine.

http://www.smooth-on.com/index.php?cPath=4_1217

That's the kit I used -- lots of people carry Smooth-On online, but I had trouble locating it locally. Was worth the order though..

It has been a little while since I posted --

Well -- I wasn't satisfied with the first run at addon parts for my Myrmidon -- I didn't like losing the action potential of having a head on there, but putting one up top ended up looking stupid; so I took one of my moulded body pieces and made this -- it needs a LOT of greenstuff love still, smoothing out connections etc -- this is mostly blocking out the shape.

I'm far more satisfied with it and I'm happy I got the head underslung like I'd originally considered.. depending on the Myrmidon type it'll have a different beard, and the big pods on the back will have different attachments -- the arc nodes on the Phoenix and still playing w/ the other two but probably the 'arcane exhausts' from the regular Myrmidon model.

[halbard100]

Cool change, I like what you're doing with the Phoenix's blade.

Random side question, but how are you doing the castings of your additional parts. It's something I'd like to try out but don't really know where to start.

[I Has Bones]

I'm following this until the bittersweet end.