Wednesday 25 May 2022

ARACHNAPHOBES LOOK AWAY

 Greetings from a Galaxy far, far away Mr Star Wars here, but you can call me Star Wars guy ( You need to read Keith's latest round up to get this) here is my next entry for Monster May(hem) and will probably be my last entry for this year, but more on that later. This creature was the first I started this year but took the longest to finish, mostly due to all the work needed on all 6 legs, so what is it you say ? Well it's a Krykna, which is a six legged spider, this is what wookieepedia has to say :

Krykna were predatory, non-sentientspider-like creatures native to Atollon. They were resistant to blaster bolts and highly sensitive to negative emotions, making them extremely difficult to tame with the Force. They were repelled by the signal emitted by sensor beacons.

These spiders were seen in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, but were based off the Ralph McQuarrie painting that he did for Dagobah for "The Empire Strikes Back" more recently the same painting inspired the ice spiders in the series " The Mandalorian" which were a lot closer to the original art, I have included the 3 reference pictures below for you to see after the model.

So why my last entry, as I normally try to squeeze in one right in the closing minutes, well I shall be away from my computer from Sunday for 8 days, so will have to catch up with all your lovely blogs then, and what will I be doing, I shall reveal all on my return, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

26 comments:

  1. Great work on bring that creature to life and love the background info. I didn't realize the creature in the Mandalorian had some history to it! Sounds like they delved pretty deep for the series.

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    1. Thank you Faust, it was a lot more work than I anticipated, but worth it in the end. As Dave Filoni, and Jon Favreau are huge fans, they try to include creatures and races that haven't had much air time and develop them up within the series, you'll find most are from the Star Wars universe already, but they do occasionally throw in some completely new stuff, like the Sand Ape, and Sand Bat.

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  2. As an arachnophobe that's going to haunt my dreams tonight LOL! Excellent sculpting and painting, Dave, it looks the part and did you sculpt each of those legs individually? If so I bet you're happy it only has six instead of eight :-)

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    1. Thank you Matt, sorry about the unpleasant dreams ! LOL Yes every leg was made from four separate pieces of plastic rod pinned together, then greenstuffed to make the knuckle joints, and yes was super glad there was only six ! LOL

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  3. Excellent job! Looks straight out of the episode. That was a fun episode too.

    Safe and fun travels to you! 😀

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    1. Thank you Stewart, it was a great episode, especially for fun quotes, Like Zeb's " anything more than two legs is just Excessive ! LOL

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  4. Wonderful stuff, Dave, absolutely wonderful. Lovely sculpting. and a cracking paint-job too. Your usual attention to detail has really paid off with this model, imho. Good luck with your endeavour whatever it may be over the next 8 days.

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    1. Thank you Simon, The central body was pretty quick to do, and only took a couple of days to sculpt, but the legs were a pain ! LOL It's nice and light as I made the core from foam, and the legs are plastic rod, and thanks

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  5. Lovely bit of sculpting (well more that a bit tbh 😁) wasn't sure to begin with if it was one of yours or a commercial model (that's a compliment by the way, make the most of it I don't give many! 😉).The thinness of the legs, especially the lower portions, looks like it could be a right pain in the bum to get to support the weight on the body! smashing painting too.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger, and thank you for the compliment, the weight on the whole piece is very light using the foam core to start with and only really thin green stuff to cover it, so the plastic rod holds up easily, plus the angle of the legs also help support it well, the painting was a bit different from my normal style, but felt it matched the original better.

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  6. Great to see the hoby continues to amaze and astound m, this 'spider' being no exception. It's a really wonderful critter with a kind of upside down body - fascinationg and well bought to life . Intrigued by uou 'break' too.

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    1. Thank you Joe, good to see your feeling better and the strength enough to start traversing the blogosphere again. As Rebels is one of my favourite series, I just had to have one of these I could have gone down the route of painting up one of my alien spiders in the colours, but wouldn't have been 100 % accurate you can see them here https://wargamesterrainworkshop.co.uk/?product_cat=alien-fauna there is a couple of spiders on Earth that have their abdomen on their back, so can see where the artist got the inspiration from. The break should be good, and will hopefully have plenty of pictures to show when I get back.

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  7. Eeeek! That's scary as hell! Well done! You really nailed this one, this is one of your best jobs, I love it.

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    1. Thank you Suber, if you don't like spiders I guess it could be terrifying, was very pleased with the end result, and was pretty damn close to the source material

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  8. Very nice. A good thing they figured out that signal beacon thing. I wonder how good old-fashioned projectile weapons would do if aimed with a glad heart? :)

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    1. Thank you Ann, indeed without the signal beacons they would have been overrun, it would have been cool if the spiders attacked the Imperials on the way to the base during the siege. I would just say aim for the eyes, all 8 of them to be sure ! LOL

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  9. I remember the original McQuarrie art well and truthfully, I did not like the Mandalorian episode with these spiders at all but its still really awesome to see your version of them. Your sculpting skills never fail to amaze! Enjoy your break and we will look forward to finding out what you were up to when you return!

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    1. Thank you Jeff, it was a strange episode indeed. Been wanting to do one for a while, but all the knuckle joints kept putting me off ! LOL Will do, and the stories I could tell ! LOL

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  10. Great (disgusting!) job on putting that *thjing* together, mate. Hope the time away from the PC is a fun one rather than one of the alternatives!

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    1. Thank you Azazel, knocked the legs off a couple of times in the early stages, but thankfully all secure now ! LOL The trip should be a pleasurable one.

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  11. Splendid looking scifi spider type!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain, out of all the Star Wars spider types this one made the most sense to me as I have a lot of the Rebels miniatures so could game with it.

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  12. John@justneedsvarnish29 May 2022 at 10:43

    Brilliant model, Dave! :-) Yet again, reinforces my desire to go back and watch Rebels!

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    1. Thank you John, I should have shares in Star Wars at this rate ! LOL As you know one of my favourite series.

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  13. Not a bad bit of sculpting, there, Mr. Star Wars. (This from a guy who has trouble sculpting a ball.) Fantastic work! When you have other sculptors (Roger) wondering how you did things, you know you're good. Take a bow, man!
    Everything you've done this year has been truly awesome, Dave. Thanks so much for your participation and for really showing what you can accomplish!

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    1. Thank you Keith, sorry for my late reply back from my travels but currently struggling with no internet ! LOL as always it has been an honour to be a part of your challenge, and I’ve had a great time and got a few more models to add to the games.
      Cheers Dave

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