Modelling and Painting Your Technopods



Technopods are not very difficult at all to model and paint, but they can easily become a grand project including lots of conversions. This, of course, should only be undertaken by an experienced modeller. The tips below offer a beginner's look at the Technopods, as well as advanced suggestions and special projects.


Starting Off

To begin with, you could simply use existing models from your collection, as most Technopods are based on units from other armies. Players of nearly any army will have a good range of units to select from. A strictly Tyranid player will be at a disadvantage as only your Genestealers will prove useful. Other players will find that with a few additions, any collection can become a Technopod army!


Advanced Techniques

Of course, some players are not satisfied with using generic models in their armies and will want to model their own Technopods. This is actually quite simple to do. For Tech-Humans, you can use Servitors, Necromundan Spyre Hunters, or even Imperial Guard units painted up properly. For Tech-Eldar or Tech-Orks and others, you can use just about any appropriate model in the range by painting it up to look like a Technopod.

Painting a model to make it look like a Technopod is a rather simple task. Just paint the model as you normally would, with a few changes. The skin tone should be much paler than normal, and there should be some scarring and old wounds showing. A few tiny black lines can represent wires running around the body, and a metallic arm or leg can represent bionics. Painting the eyes with a blank expression, or even no pupils can add to the zombie-like effect.

Modelling a Technopod is a more effective way of getting the bio-mechanical look essential to the army. By adding small wires and bionic arms, legs and eyes, you can really add an engineered look to the model. A few extra armour plates or metallic edges can really make the model an effective piece. One thing that really looks interesting is chopping off the model's hand and gluing a gun or close combat weapon directly to the arm.

Another effective visual device is modelling wounds and damage. On one of my Technopods, I drilled a few bullet holes into the armor plating. When I later painted the model I darkened the surrounding armor and made the hole black, with a dried blood trail leading out. On the same model, I chopped a chunk out of the skull and painted it to show the bone of the skull and dried blood underneath. It really looks like this guy was ripped up in battle! (To top it off, the model I used was Marneus Calgar from the Ultramarine line. This was obviously a very important member of a Space Marine Chapter!)

Vehicles should have a damaged look. Hull patches and bullet holes littering the surface can achieve this quite well. (For more ideas about battle-scarred vehicles, see the Gorka Morka rulebooks or articles in White Dwarf)


Special Projects

There are a few Technopod units that may require special attention. One of them is the Overmind Focal Point. I see this as similar to a Dreadnaught, but with some major differences. It would have the legs and arms of a Dread, but the center area of the model would be replaced with a clear cylinder that contains a shattered body. The body would be just the torso and head, and maybe half of an arm. This would be suspended in a fluid of some kind and conncted to the rest of the machine by wires.

I have not yet constructed my own Focal point, but I have given it some consideration. I am currently thinking of using a clear gelatin or similar substance to make the fluid in the cylinder. The rest of the model will be rather simple to construct as I plan on making it out of a Space Marine Dreadnaught. If you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me. I may post the good ones here for others to try.


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