Mycetic Spore #2: Ravening Horde...

Further to my first Mycetic Spore: Xzandrate made the following comment

xzandrate 6 days ago

I like that alot.

My only complaint, as it is with alot of sports, is there isn't enough representation of impact, or demonstration of how it slowed descent(yes I'm waiting for the big dandelion seed spore).

I'm thinking that the trygon bases may work best, with the spore on one end, and a small impact trail on the rest.

This is exactly what I love about blogging and the feedback it generates. When I read this, something in brain went 'ping'. His comments were exactly right. I'm not too bothered about making the 'impact' too realistic ... but a Trygon base ... pure genius. That would allow a little 'crash and drag' to add to the drama!

From this, my latest Mycetic Spore was born. To confirm ... This was built from bits, a 50p tennis ball sized polystyrene ball and some plastic-card (£1.05 for A4) ... so total cost (about £2! for a S6 monstrous creature drop pod!) - joy!

Carnifex and Genestealer Mycetic spores ... (like they will ever have a carni or stealers in them?!?)

Design Concept...

With my first spore I wanted to give the impression that it had impacted almost vertically and that the Carnifex was 'shakily' slicing his way out... I was very limited by the size of the base ... and therefore could do little to 'implant' the spore into its surroundings. Thus the spore actually looks more like it managed a drop pod landing ... which is highly unconvincing!

Unlike the first Spore I wanted this one to have more dynamism to it's impact. The Trygon base is definitely the way to go here and immediately makes the model more appealing. Gaming wise I can see the 'big base' as being more of a problem, as it will collect more firepower ... but so what?

Front view of the 'exploding' stealers. Note that I sacrificed and old and new stealer to the cause ... nothing like a retrospective!

The first thing I did was to slice of the bottom of the ball to bury it in it's trench. I then used the leftover polystyrene to build up the displaced materials behind it. To further to idea of 'momentum' I kept to a single 'crack' and modelled a series of genestealers bursting from the hole.

Why genestealers ... well they capture the attention don't they? In addition, the new codex funnels these guys towards a more small unit or commando role. This means that large horde of stealers are a thing of the past ... and the chance to actually field my 28 stealers outside APOC games was minimal. Perfect sacrifices!

Rear shot showing the trench ... built of polystyrene and cork 'rocks'.

I decided against the 'fronds' of the first spore as I wanted a more 'immediate' effect ... like this spore was still sliding to a halt as the stealers emerged. The 'scoring' was all done by experimenting with polystyrene cement (plastic glue), superglue and PVA (for the 'hardened' bits) ... see the post for my First Spore for more detail on how to get this look!

What do you think? Comments welcome (as usual!)