Motivated by the movies

That city.  It needs to be flatter.

So, I wanted to talk about the recent Pacific Rim Uprising movie release and how it's influenced my hobby drive.  As you'll probably guess from my blog title, big creature features are something I'm into in a big way - if you don't want to read a madman's frothings over big ol' monsters, then look away now!

It's easy to start a big project then get distracted by the next big thing, particularly with the pace of new releases for games such as 40K and Age of Sigmar being so prolific.  As such, I have a number of projects which I have started with the best of intentions, but have ended up on the back burner because I saw something new and got distr...

I was so excited to see Pacific Rim Uprising as I was such a massive fan of the original.  Giant robots fighting giant monsters - what's not to love?!  It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it does irritate me slightly when people go to see a Kaiju / robot movie then complain that it was all pew pew lasers and fighting.  It's kind of obvious what the film is going to be about; if someone's engineered a giant robot, it's probably not for stacking shelves or starring in their own sitcom...

Now Uprising isn't without its flaws - some of the acting and writing is just about on the right side of camp and the action sequences don't have quite as much impact as the original movie did.

It does have all new Jaegers and Kaiju in it though - rather than re-treading old ground, they've gone for something a little different.  For instance, the Jaeger builders have clearly realised that shooting and stabbing works better than punching and kicking giant monsters to death!  As such, the Jaegers are armed with a plethora of new and interesting weaponry!

That said, I do feel that it loses some of the scale and charm of the original movie where the titanic mechs and monsters grappled and socked each other in the kisser at relatively slow speeds.  It added gravitas to everything they did instead of feeling like action figures hopping around the city (bloody transformers movies...).  It's not surprising given that Del Toro wanted the original to take on aspects of luchador wrestling which he enjoyed as a child.

Despite the shift from Godzilla style fist fighting, it's still very enjoyable if a bit silly in places.  But how does that tie into my hobby I hear you ask!  Well, it doesn't tie in directly, but it has spurred me on a bit with some long-standing unfinished projects involving giant robots and hideous monsters!  I tend to go through creative spurts when something captures my imagination...

GIANT ROBOT!!!

First up is my Reaver Battle Titan Ferrum Dominus of Legio Metalica.  I've been working on him on and off for a few years and Uprising has given me some impetus to get him finished!  So far, I'm particularly proud of the sculpted badge on the carapace and how nice it looks painted up.  Since the pictures below were taken, he's come along a bit further.  Expect more pictures in a future post when he's finally complete!

GIANT MONSTER!!!

Next is my Tyranid Dimachaeron.  When it was released I was completely stoked to find out that Forgeworld had produced a Knight sized Tyranid monster only to be completely underwhelmed by the actual model.  For me, it was definitely a case of good concept, poor execution.

The rule-set for the Dimi has always been really strong and I loved the concept so embarked on creating my own vision of what a Dimachaeron should be!

I looked up some other conversions on the net and took inspiration from a couple of sources (which I'm afraid I can no longer find!) and turned my attention to the Tyranid Bio-engineer's best friend; the Tyrannofex / Tervigon kit.

It's relatively low in price compared to some of the other large Tyranid kits and it has a great range of components.  I'd highly recommend it as a starting point if you attempt to build your own Dimachaeron!

This beast was Inspired partly by the spiky insectile Mantis Kaiju from the old movie 'Son of Godzilla' and the wibbly Cthulhu faced Tyranid assassins that are Lictors.

I made this beast well over a year ago now, but still haven't gotten round to painting him.  Big fighty monsters at the cinema have given me a boost to get him done though!

 



He's big. Really fekkin' big! Never gets a cover save...

Om...

...nom nom nom



At least the poor bastard is holding a grenade...

That's all from me for now!

Thanks for reading!