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Straight from the festering foundries that lurk in the crypts of Schlöss Svartmetall, here's how to make a biomechanical power claw for a Nurgle Dreadnought. For the purposes of this tutorial I'll be doing this on the close-combat-weapon arm of an old Forge World Death Guard Dreadnought, but this technique could equally be applied to just about any Dreadnought arm.
So; first off, you need a Dreadnought arm that's cut down to the 'elbow':
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Then you need something, basically a lump of plastic, to serve as the core of the new claw. In this case I'm using a trimmed-down surplus Spawn head purely because it's roughly the right size and shape, but anything will do; sprue, plastic card, whatever. Drill four holes a millimetre or two from the end of this piece, spaced equally around the circumference, to act as roots for each blade; then glue in segments of armature wire, bent forwards to give the right angle to the final blades:
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Now add the blades themselves. I've used spines from the Spawn sprue, cut to the same length in this case (although you could obviously use differing lengths if that's the look you're after):
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I've gone for four equally-spaced blades, but again the choice is up to you; five, seven, whatever. You could also try things like the claw blades from the Possessed sprue, Tyranid claws, sword blades, or whatever; go with whatever your sense of aesthetics says works.
To add to the biomechanical look, once the claw is attached to the arm add some lengths of guitar string to the assembly:
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Now it's time to start bulking up the body of the claw with green stuff:
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I've gone for a smooth, fat-teardrop-like overall profile, but again the choice is up to you. Do this in stages so it's easier to keep control over the final shape, so try to avoid adding green stuff in pieces that are too big.
As I said, keep bulking it up in layers so you can control how the 'flesh' builds up across the whole claw. I added some small teeth to go in between the main blades, so the claw resembles the mouth of some kind of horrible arachnid-y creature. Or something.
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As you add to the layers of flesh around the core, check with the arm assembly as a whole against the body of the Dreadnought itself to make sure the dimensions are staying as you want them to be:
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Now to add the final layers of skin over the bulk of the flesh:
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And here's the finished claw attached to the body of the Dreadnought:
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As always, I hope this helped on the ideas-and-inspiration front. More corrupted constructions to follow....
_____
So; first off, you need a Dreadnought arm that's cut down to the 'elbow':
Then you need something, basically a lump of plastic, to serve as the core of the new claw. In this case I'm using a trimmed-down surplus Spawn head purely because it's roughly the right size and shape, but anything will do; sprue, plastic card, whatever. Drill four holes a millimetre or two from the end of this piece, spaced equally around the circumference, to act as roots for each blade; then glue in segments of armature wire, bent forwards to give the right angle to the final blades:
Now add the blades themselves. I've used spines from the Spawn sprue, cut to the same length in this case (although you could obviously use differing lengths if that's the look you're after):
I've gone for four equally-spaced blades, but again the choice is up to you; five, seven, whatever. You could also try things like the claw blades from the Possessed sprue, Tyranid claws, sword blades, or whatever; go with whatever your sense of aesthetics says works.
To add to the biomechanical look, once the claw is attached to the arm add some lengths of guitar string to the assembly:
Now it's time to start bulking up the body of the claw with green stuff:
I've gone for a smooth, fat-teardrop-like overall profile, but again the choice is up to you. Do this in stages so it's easier to keep control over the final shape, so try to avoid adding green stuff in pieces that are too big.
As I said, keep bulking it up in layers so you can control how the 'flesh' builds up across the whole claw. I added some small teeth to go in between the main blades, so the claw resembles the mouth of some kind of horrible arachnid-y creature. Or something.
As you add to the layers of flesh around the core, check with the arm assembly as a whole against the body of the Dreadnought itself to make sure the dimensions are staying as you want them to be:
Now to add the final layers of skin over the bulk of the flesh:
And here's the finished claw attached to the body of the Dreadnought:
As always, I hope this helped on the ideas-and-inspiration front. More corrupted constructions to follow....
_____
