Sculpting and Kitbashing an Artillery Biovore

I've been recently out of crafting action for a bit due to low spoon count, but I'm in a better spot now and I'm excited to show off my Biovore! I've been considering getting one for a while, because I like the battlefield role of artillery it provides, but Mr. James Workshop keeps jacking up prices and what's better than free*? So I grabbed some oven-bake clay and some (literal) spoons and got to sculpting while my partner and I watched robocop for some reason.

 I started with a chunk of clay, and began sculpting it onto the back of a small teaspoon. This was going to be the leg "claw", and I wanted it to have a gentle curved back to it. I often sculpt on the back of spoons for this reason, and because they can go into the oven with the oven-bake clay. Once that was finished and hardened, I glued it to a Tyranid arm bit I had laying around, and added detail with leftover sprue.

Once that was finished, I wrinkled up a teardrop of aluminum foil and covered it in a thin sheet of clay to make the body. Then I added another layer to the top to make the under-carapace the Biovore has. I wasn't very detailed with any of this, just adding vague gestures at the Tyranid ribcage and shell. It was going to be surrounded by 6 legs and covered with another carapace and gun, so I figured it wasn't going to be the focus of the piece. 

It should be noted, I just grabbed whatever clay was around, and so the colors are wild on this puppy for now. It's the classic "model looks terrible right up until it's primed" move.

Once the leg was finished, I cast it in blue stuff and started making copies. I made seven total, hoping that there'd only be one egregiously bad cast, which luckily turned out to be the case. As I was working on these, I reflected on the *ahem* distinct quality of the casts and was reminded of this diagram I've seen before about production of things. The oven bake clay has a blobbiness to it that makes it not cast as detailed as other materials, but it's wicked cheap at the crafting store, and also I can press-cast six of these in as many minutes, making them very fast, putting them firmly in the (Fast/Cheap) side. I've cast using greenstuff (Good but neither fast nor cheap) and plaster (Cheap but not fast nor good), so I consider this an upgrade.

 Blathering about business bullshit aside, here's the results. Similar to the ripper swarms, there was a lot of flashing (though less, I'm getting better) that had to be cleaned up, and I picked a weird seam for the mold that ran right down the middle of the detailed claw bit. I think maybe I could have done that better, I ended up having to carve and cut details back into the parts. Anyway.

Finally, I began sculpting the second layer of the carapace on the back of a much larger spoon. I knew this was going to be the attention-grabbing part of the model, so I went all-in on the sculpt, making sure to add details and complicated shapes, as well as making sure it fit the body piece.

From there, I assembled the guy, gluing the legs onto the body (after sorting them by quality, I tried to put his best legs at the front). Then, came the carapace on top. I also took time to fabricate an artillery cannon from bits I had, and spruced up a creature's head with some leftover tyranid claws to look similar to the Biovore. Then I gave it a zenithal prime, and that's where it's at! I haven't gotten to painting it yet, I'm at a bit of a roadblock since I can't find the correct color purple anymore for my Tyrant Mechanicus. But yeah.

Anyway, thanks for reading, more kitbashing and sculpts to come!

- Miss Captain Bear