Ancient Rylanor - Part I

 

Why put weapons inside the fist?

After a couple of weeks away, I've not returned to the multitude of in-progress models, but instead decided to try and assemble another Contemptor. I had the notion of using it to try and experiment with poses, but actually it became too difficult if the pieces weren't firmly held together. Instead I just kind of went with the flow to see what would happen, and this is what I ended up with.

It wasn't the most pleasant assembly experience in the world. I've had worse, but a few key points stuck out:

• Carving out flash and mistakes was an absolute pain.
• Some of the pieces don't quite align as nicely as they should.
• The torso was hitting the "hips" and needed some putty to lift it slightly.
• The pelvis joints need to swivel quite high if there's to be a slightly wider stance.

At one point I'd finally had enough of all cutting and carving and decided to go at it with a Dremel. Doing this outside, wearing a respirator, gloves, and properly cleaning afterwards should mitigate any health risks, and the absolute time saving was astounding. It's just so much easier using a Dremel to reach and drill out specific areas. I'm definitely using this again in future, it saves so much time and effort.

I ended up using Milliput in a few key areas to plug some holes, fill some gaps, add some rocks to the base, that sort of thing. I also used it inside the torso to lift it up very slightly. It's not much, but it allows the torso to clear the legs and give a more interesting pose.

The original idea was to have the assault cannon being pointed somewhere and firing, but when I put together the other arm I liked the idea more of pointing at some infantry or perhaps a bunker slight and sending forth a gout of flame. It makes no real sense to put the barrel of a weapon inside a power fist like that of course, so I would imagine the barrel and retract into the arm and shield of some kind would slide into place. It does look cool though. At any rate, with that decided on then it seemed natural to let the assault cannon angle downwards slightly while attention is momentarily elsewhere.

On the subject of the assault cannon, that was not pleasant to assemble, and even now it's not entirely as lined up as I would like. It's not going to be very noticeable, so I'll leave it alone, but in future I would actually consider trying to use the plastic kit instead for that. The resin body (and legs) are amazing, but the weapons might be better in plastic.

The head is not yet glued in place, and the same for the "fist" of the power fist. I'm leaving both of those to later just for ease of painting, but otherwise everything else is ready.

And why Rylanor? That's simple really. I didn't want to paint this up as a Blood Angels Contemptor simply because I have enough of those set aside (four in total) and so I needed to decide on a different Legion. I debated about much of it until I realised that with the eagle symbol it really does naturally fit with Emperor's Children, and from there it's only natural to paint the model as that most famous of their dreadnoughts: Ancient Rylanor.

I'm actually thinking to now leave this model for a little while, or perhaps just do some initial airbrush coats, and instead switching to assembling more Contemptors. No particular reason other than I'm on a bit of a roll and may as well try continue with that. Guess I'll see how I go.

-- silly painter.