02564, Giant Scarab Beetle

[Metalchaos]

I like Monsters and since I couldn’t find much painted version of Bob Olley’s 02564 Giant Scarab Beetle on the forum or the Internet, I decided to not only paint one, but also convert it so it will be very original.

 

You’ll see on the first photo, I want to make it like it's flying or at least taking off. To do that, I filled the bottom part inner body with green stuff and sculpted the abdomen and metathorax. I cutted the top part shell to form the "elytra" forewings.

 

As for the hind wings, I first wanted to make them using transparent plastic sheets. But, since the material I found was too thin and very easy to scratch, I choose to use P02744B Cichastuc Wings.

 

[Nocturne]

Looking good so far, I'd like to see how this one goes.

[Metalchaos]

I cleaned the wings and formed them so they will fit right behind the elytra.

Then, to get a preview at the final result, I used adhesive putty to hold the wings in place.

I’ll paint the four parts separately before assembling them so I’ll be able to reach for all the details.

 

[Baphomet69]

If you were feeling adventurous, you could make molds of the wings and cast them in clear resin...

 

:)

[chaosscorpion]

When you first started this thread I thought of a wire frame work for the wings dipped in a clear resin or I saw a post that worked for windows using a pva glue. Looks interesting so far. I am now thinking about modifing a couple of figs along with starting up my paint table again.

[Metalchaos]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Clear resin would be a nice idea but I don’t really feel comfortable working with this material. Moreover, since I intend to sell this mini afterward, I don’t want to reproduce Cichastuc’s wings in resin and get into copyright violation. I’ll simply use Reaper parts to make it fully authentic.

 

While I was looking for inspiration, I also liked Froggy the Great idea who used plastic knives for its Clockwork Dragonfly Automaton wings.

 

 

[MonkeySloth]

That's an impressive mod you've got going. I really don't care for bugs at all, nasty things, but I get enthralled by your WIP threads.

[Metalchaos]

I didn't have much time to paint or to work on my WIP lately.

I've only drawn two sketches of a base that I think could be nice for the Giant Scarab to fly from.

A stone platform would also make a nice base, I'm just not sure yet of what I'll end up choosing.

 

 

[chaosscorpion]

The wings are nicely placed. The sketch for the base looks good, I am looking forward to watching this WIP progress.

[Metalchaos]

Okay, since the diorama category has to contain more than one figure to enter the Monsters contest, I chose to add some Imps to my project. I had these three 02197, Blood Imps sculpted by Rene Perez who were just ready for Giant Scarab hunting.

 

To make the story more realistic, one of the Imps has to be killed during battle. So, I modified the one with two swords so that he looks like the casualty. Sound like a possible scenario, no?

 

The challenge now is to put all this action on a 2 inches (50mm) square base.

 

[chaosscorpion]

Metalchaos is the base tile metal?

[Metalchaos]

Metalchaos is the base tile metal?

 

Not quite, actually it's a 6mm thick aluminum plate that was cut with a shear.

[Metalchaos]

Today, I drilled a hole in the tree trunk to pass a rigid wire through it. In fact, I used a hanger as a pin so the support will be very strong. The scarab is not that heavy, but I want the diorama to be solid. I still need to add some more branches on the tree to accommodate the giant insect legs.

 

 

 

[Metalchaos]

I added a set of branch to support the back legs of the scarab and I disposed the Imps on the base to see if I’ll have enough room to fit them all in. The two last pictures show the scarab upside down but it won't display like this.

 

 

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

Awesome!