| 1) Here are the parts you need to make a defiler. I did not put the dreadnought parts in this photo because they were a last minute decision. I felt the front of the model would be too thin without them. I used one basilisk sprue, six ork dreadnought legs, two dreadnought arms, and parts of an old chaos rhino. |
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2) The first step in the conversion was to cut the parts free from the sprues, clean the mold lines and start to glue the parts together. I wanted the large battle cannon to appear held in place mechanically so I decided to use the braces from the basilisk to do the job. I also used the rail pieces from the basilisk sprue to make support structures between the supports. I used the polystyrene cement to make sure the plastic melted together making a strong bond. The gun worked great upside down and I fitted it on the extra rhino view plate that was left over from the rhino sprues.
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| 3) The next stage was to add the legs. They would need to be very strong to support the weight of this vehicle so I used plastic card to fill the void on the rhino. The polystyrene glue was used to make sure the plastic was well bonded. I drilled 6 holes slightly larger than the pin for the legs. "Why you ask?", Simple, I would use green stuff rather than glue to hold them in place. For extra heavy metal to plastic joints green stuff works much better than glue, creating a very strong bond. |
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| 4) At this stage I began to blend the attachment of the legs and create a fusion of the mechanical legs and the skin like sides of the model. I wanted a textured surface but something that would have some reason, not just for filling up the space. I used white putty for this stage. I have found the white putty to spread a little easier because it is slightly softer. I spread a very thin coat over the surface and began to sculpt in the cracked skin detail. Most of this would be covered later so I did not worry about the sides the legs were not attached to. I also added some guitar wire to once again help unite machine and flesh. |
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| 5) At this stage the sides were coming along and I would need to begin adding details as well as the arms. I knew they needed to attach under the conversion so I once again used the technique of using green stuff to attach the metal parts to plastic. Any green stuff that was left over would be used to create a few details. |
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| 6) Now things were beginning to come together. I added a few tendrils at the edges where the skin effect met the flat lifeless surface of the rhino. This helped ease the transition and began the finishing touches. |
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| 7) The conversion was near complete. All I needed to address were the feet, he could not march around on stubs. The model reminded me of a scorpion or crab with the pincers so I decided on pointed claw like feet. This also helped tie the mechanical aspect back into the fusion of flesh and metal. I would need to let gravity help me on this one. As I finished sculpting the feet in the shape I wanted I needed them to point forward to look more menacing, therefore I just turned him up and let gravity do all the work for me. |
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| 8) Here is the model finished, click on the image to view the gallery. |
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