Chilopoda Dolichopterus

Over at The Wargames Website they are running a "make your own alien fauna" competition for all the sponsoring members.

 Thinking to myself, I can do that me! I decided to have a go. 

Here's my entry for the competition, sculpted in a 50/50 mix off greenstuff/milliput over a wire and beads armature.

I present you with the Chilopoda Dolichopterus

A species of mega fauna native to the basalt cliffs in the jungles of the planet of Kessel D-93.

It's many legs end in feet that look like a cross between that of a camel and the suckers of an octopus allowing it to easily scale even the sheerest cliff faces where it grazes on the algea which grow there. The downward facing mouth of the creature is optimised for scraping off not only the algea but also the topmost layer of rock which is crushed and digested in its seven stomachs.

Although they are strictly herbivorous these creatures can be dangerous as they are very territorial and care must be taken when aproaching them. While it's mouth is too over specialised be used to attack its many legs are equipped with razor sharp bone tips at the joints which can easily rip the flesh of an attacking preadator or trespasser.

The carapace of these magnificent animals is highly prised by the local tribes of Avians who also call the cliffs their homes and who use it to craft both armor and jewelry. There are rumors of  tribes that have succesfully domesticated them and even use them as warmounts but these have not yet been substantiated.

Like so many of the mega fauna on Kessel D-93 the Chilopoda Dolichopterus continues to grow for it's entire life. What makes this species unique is that, unlike all the other specimens observed so far, it not only grows bigger but also longer, growing an extra segment and a pair of leggs about every two Kesselian years( about four and a half earth years). As the young are born with four legs one can thus easily determine a specimens age by simply counting the extra pairs of legs.

And now some pictures supplied to us by that indomitable explorer and big game hunter sir Timothy.

We would like to remind our gentle readers that sir Timothy is a trained professional and we pray, that should you ever be so lucky as to take your own safari to Kessel D-93, you do not attempt to copy this feat of daring do.

As usual, should you have any more questions about these wonderous creatures, feel free to write us in the comments.

Yours truly,

Stroezie.

Return to the Jungles of Kessel-D93

I needed a little bit of a break from my red martians so I decided to finally finish my alien jungle board.
I made four stands of alien foliage so I could change my alien savannah into more of a true jungle.

Here's the stands in my lightbox

And here they are on the board

With a bit of luck I should be getting a copy of Horizon Wars for christmass and then we'll be able to set this little scene in motion.

Cheers,

Stroezie.

Motivational post ;-))

Thought I'd post some pictures of what I'm working on at the moment and hopefully shame myself into finishing them before I start on anything else.

First up a new tree for my alien jungle. 

(idea stolen from some pictures I saw in Legion4's photobucket )

Made out of hotglue over a floralwire frame, I need to make at least 4 or 5 more of these on large bases surounded by a number of the previous plants to bulk out my jungle terrain and give more of a dense overgrown look to the board.

Next a "martian flier" inspired airship/skiff patrol craft, the main component is a milkcarton lid.( the figures are place holders, just to check how it looks)

All in all I'm pretty pleased with how this turmed out, I'm going to build at least 2 more of these and then start thinking about building something similar but 2 to 3 sizes larger.

And another project I just started, a junglecrawl tile set inspired by the old GW game Lost Patrol

Going to have to plant a lot of tiny trees ;-)

Some of the tiles feature natural hazards, like the two swamp tiles above, the next picture is an experiment to see if I could make something resembling a giant venus flytrap to put on some of the other hazard tiles. (more hazard ideas are always welcome)

I need to make enough of them to fill up a goodly portion of 2 tiles.

Thats it so far,

Stroezie out.

now...                        ....."GET TO THA CHOPPA!!!"

Kessel-D93 jungle survival 1 Oh 1

As this is going to be a sword and planet adventure I wanted something that looked alien but also something that would look like it could grow on an earth like planet.

As much as possible I tried to take my inspiration from the stranger things found in nature here on earth, you'd be surprised how many weird and wonderfully alien looking things grow here :-)

Pfc Buckley  will give you a tour of everything we know of the jungle on Kessel-D93

Here you see a selection of the various trees that are regularily encountered in the jungle

The plants on Kessel-D93 contain high levels of phycobilins in their chloroplasts giving them red, orange and yellow colors.

They were made from aquarium plants, floral wire, tooth picks, clump foliage and a number of different beads.

There is no real grass analogue on Kessel-D93 the closest thing is a sort of red moss witch can grow in huge patches, yet strangely never under any of the trees.

This is the first test piece for the hills I plan on building.

They are inspired by the devil's causeway in Ireland and are made up out of  hexagon shaped basalt columns formed by volcanic activity.

Construction was really simple I just hotglued different lengths of pencil cut offs to a base and filled up the interior with more hotglue and sand.

One of the really cool things in the Rogue Planet rules is the ability to attack your opponent with the local flora and fauna so I needed to build me some agressive plantlife.

I decided that my aggresive plants would mimic the other trees in the jungle as camouflage to lure their prey closer.

The first one here is known as the Hangman tree, I don't think this needs much of an explanation ;-)

The Spiker is another agressive species of carnivorous tree which hunts its victims by shooting them with its poisonous spines.

Apart from the dangerous plantlife there is also the locale wildlife to contend with

These are Drillworm  nests from Angel Barracks. I've had these in the painting cue for quite some time, I decided to move them up as they are just about perfect for something like this.

Of course AB's Razor hounds had to make an appearance to.

And, as on any planet, there's always the chance of encountering some wild space bugs ;-)

The small ones are from GZG the larger ones from Rebel minis

And here's how it all ties together

I'm thinking of building a few bigger stand of trees to fill up the board a little more to really get that dense jungle atmosphere. At the moment it feels more like the savannah, althoug that might be an interesting setting too , I'll have to think on that.... 

Thats all for now, I hope you enjoyed our little jaunt through the lovely forrests of Kessel-D93.

See you next time,

Stroezie.