# Dark Eldar Fleet Anchor



## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

I got a mate that is wanting me to make up a giant dark eldar barge that transports 4 raiders for his army as a sort of portable model that counts as a display board at the same time.

I drew up a rough top-down sketch of an idea I had but I'm having trouble thinking of ways to have them attach to the barge without it actually looking cheap and crap... So I'm fishing for ideas.

One idea I did have was that the archway across the top of the vehicle is actually the warp gate itself and I can model a raider half flying out of it as long as my mate is happy with it.

So please help me with any ideas or art or whatever... anything that could be of use I'd really appreciate!


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## locustgate (Dec 6, 2009)

It looks awsome. But it doesn't look dark eldar enough maybe a few burnt skeletons or skulls.


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## uriel ventures (Aug 5, 2008)

it looks really cool but i agree as above. also the idea of it basically being a moving webway portal could work it just depends on what your pal thinks


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

I would like to be able to hold up his vision when its done but I just can't see it working on an aesthetic level as it doesn't seem very dark eldar-ish to have ships hanging from other ones...


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

I've been busy. but the deadline is a little late. I have pictures of what I've done so far and am looking for ways to make it look more dark eldar... I still have to thicken up the base under the main hull area and also add some details to the main wings.


































I got some spikes from the chaos vehicle sprues that I think might look pretty cool but I dunno how I'll go bout putting them on just yet.

Anyone with ideas of what my next steps should be let me know!

I also decided that I will have sections in the hull that will fit the rod of the flying base inside and then the raiders will hover around the ship like they are floating all together as a squad.


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## STATIC (Feb 11, 2008)

The Space Pirates need nets to climb!!

I like the way it's headed so far.
It needs some more "body" up top. How to acheive that though, i have no idea. It just doesn't look real structurally sound.


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## JB Mallus (Apr 28, 2009)

Perhaps numerous extra open levels on the top side? Like a Dark Eldar cruise ship? The levels could each have a purpose: top = leaders+entertainment, middle crew, lower slave pens. Also, I would love to see more large bits that dangle off the bottom, such as stabilizers, communication/sensor arrays, huge engines, and more blades.

Here is a list of more brain-storm ideas...
Slave cages
War Altar to Slaanesh
Bilge pumps?
jacuzzi
HD-TV
Bling/disco ball/ Stayin' Alive light-up floor tiles
Alien slave band-stand
fuzzy dice? 

Keep us posted. I love the idea!

Cheers,
JB


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## Desolatemm (Feb 2, 2008)

JB Mallus said:


> Like a Dark Eldar cruise ship?











Aye! I really like the idea or like an escort looking ship. I think your heading in a good direction though omgitsduane. The base design is good, just needs the rest of the stuff! I like the multi-level idea that JB Mallus suggested. Think of a pirate ship with different areas. Or the huge ship from Waterworld. They have an engineering deck, crew deck, docking deck. Have the bottom level be like a hangar where the raider skimmers can be stored, the level above it can be the crew deck. I would put slave cages on the bottom hanging in the wind, but that would be hard since its a display board and is meant to lay flat... I think its safe to say that there would be a seperate ship of roughly the same size dedicated for transporting captives, so you could manage fluff like that and not put any prisoners on that ship... Or you could have a raider on either side that are detatched that are packed with prisoners.

I really like the idea and its inspiring my to make a display board for my Eldar

Good luck with the rest of the project!
+rep


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

JB Mallus said:


> Perhaps numerous extra open levels on the top side? Like a Dark Eldar cruise ship? The levels could each have a purpose: top = leaders+entertainment, middle crew, lower slave pens. Also, I would love to see more large bits that dangle off the bottom, such as stabilizers, communication/sensor arrays, huge engines, and more blades.


Levels? Doesn't that sound a little clumbsy for a vehicle? I always envisioned it as a smooth and sleek looking vehicle. Fly to destination -> open web portal -> win. It's not a fighting vehicle really nor is it a command ship. The slave pen Idea I wanted to have but the client said no... And I had no idea how to build it without it looking terrible and too imperial.

The one idea I did have was to maybe place some gun platforms similar to the eldar star/d-cannon (not sure if that's the right one) but with an obvious dark eldar flair.

And blades? HOW DID I FORGET THAT! 
I want to really bulk out the bottom of it a fair bit and communications stuff is a good idea.



Desolatemm said:


> Aye! I really like the idea or like an escort looking ship. I think your heading in a good direction though omgitsduane. The base design is good, just needs the rest of the stuff! I like the multi-level idea that JB Mallus suggested. Think of a pirate ship with different areas. Or the huge ship from Waterworld. They have an engineering deck, crew deck, docking deck. Have the bottom level be like a hangar where the raider skimmers can be stored, the level above it can be the crew deck. I would put slave cages on the bottom hanging in the wind, but that would be hard since its a display board and is meant to lay flat... I think its safe to say that there would be a seperate ship of roughly the same size dedicated for transporting captives, so you could manage fluff like that and not put any prisoners on that ship... Or you could have a raider on either side that are detatched that are packed with prisoners.


I am not really sold on the idea of multi levels. If you look at the pictures in the post I did just above there is a terminator in one of the photos to show the scale... this thing is not the size I don't think to be able to really make a huge cabins and crew compartments which is a shame but maybe he'll commission me for another one later on?

One idea I just had was to put a platform near the front half way up the front armour plates and have some guns poking out there.

I did manage to get some work together to make it presentable for his tournament in a few days.


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## piemaster (Oct 9, 2009)

This looks good. How about some sort of rib-cage thing-a-majig? Like three on each side and there is some sort of gun nest up top? Then you get some depth and a place to have a weapon mount.
Like this project. I'll watch it to see how you go. Oh, and have some rep.


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## CaptainLoken (May 13, 2009)

Thats looking good there pal. +rep for sure


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

Wow, quite a lot of work to be had here. I am going to move this to Project Logs as it seems like you will be updating this quite a bit more.


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## hugor1 (May 6, 2008)

have you tried huge spikes, like as some1 said a few posts back, making a sorta ribcage effect? plonk em down the middle from front end to the pilot for a more filling effect(mabie as a walkway for infantary?) looking sweet though, when its more or less finished ill be dishing some rep


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

piemaster said:


> This looks good. How about some sort of rib-cage thing-a-majig? Like three on each side and there is some sort of gun nest up top? Then you get some depth and a place to have a weapon mount.
> Like this project. I'll watch it to see how you go. Oh, and have some rep.


I do like the idea of a rib cage... but maybe less organic and more mechanical... something along the lines of H.R. Giger would fit brilliantly and I may have to do some research on his art to get a good idea of how to replicate it.

I will be adding another, perhaps larger gun platform to the top near the the "pilot" or perhaps one slung under the vehicle similar to the guns used on the big bombers in the old days of war.



hugor1 said:


> have you tried huge spikes, like as some1 said a few posts back, making a sorta ribcage effect? plonk em down the middle from front end to the pilot for a more filling effect(mabie as a walkway for infantary?) looking sweet though, when its more or less finished ill be dishing some rep


I may need to make up some plans that involve a ribcage seems to be a recurring theme through the suggestions. I may "integrate" the pilot into the webway spire in a similar way to an astromincan (if that's right?) and the raised area around him maybe I'll make some rails so that the troops don't just swing overboard if the vehicle turns sharply. Also a way for troops to quickly get back on the ship after dismount. I was thinking chains weighed down with skulls at the bottom or a single chain with skulls instead of knots for them to use.

I think a big problem is that I made that whole forward section too wide and didn't accomidate for that when I initially sketched it up as it was supposed to be rather sleek.

I will be sketching up some ideas and running through things in my head as to how to fill up that space but at the moment I don't have any solid ideas/designs.

I got around to making the gun platforms... more of a prototype though as I'd want the finished ones to look more DE and perhaps have that layered effect I used on the front plating.
















SPIKES!








It may not be that easy to see but I bulked up the bottom by using another layer of foamcore. I think there still needs more work done here and I was thinking of making some anti grav thrusters using lines of foamcore and wiring it up to look... useful.


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## piemaster (Oct 9, 2009)

The turrets look good. What ideas do you have for painting this baby? I'll follow this one to see what's in stall.


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## Salio (Mar 29, 2009)

This is looking great. Your scratchbuilding skills are superb and you obviously spent a long time on this. Keep up the amazing work. I can't wait to see it finished!


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

For painting? It wont really me up to me as I think it might be good to get my mate to paint it... I have no experience in DE styles but I could probably think of a few things to try but doubt that I'd wanna paint it after having made it too..

Thanks for the kind words guys!

I got a few small ideas out that I just wanna throw up here before I set it in stone.









at the back is the sort of ribcage effect. I might have it go around most of the pilot, the thing I'm worried about is how exactly to make them look like bones? should I just use plasticard rods and give them a rough organic texture using putty?

The grey bits are spikes/blades tied to the bones to make it look more harsh. I also put a small rail further up in the dark grey that I think helps bulk up the middle without anything serious. I also have 2 ladder designs there, the first is a chain weighed down by a skull that may or may not have actual rungs to climb up and the second uses skulls with spikes on the side as rungs to climb up... I'm thinking of making maybe 2 of these max...

Anyone have any input?


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

get hold of one of those kids dinosaur/big mammal 3d jig-saws?

Nick a rib cage off of one of those?

Failing that, Tooth picks? Already rough in texture due to being made of wood, could just make it look filed into points? Stick heads on them?

Ah, so many ideas, head could go bang.


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## piemaster (Oct 9, 2009)

When I said a rib-cage I thought of it being cold and metal. Kind of like surgical metal - you know easy to clean from all the blood. I thought plasticard sheet cut into shape would be good, but an organic cage might be cool too. Hey its your build man.


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## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

Spectacular concept and moving in the right direction. I agree with the master of pie. Ribcage kind of concept but metal blade type construction. I hope that makes sense.


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

What if I made it out of thin-ish plasticard in the shapes of some wicked blades?


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

Here is a test of what I think might make a very interesting cockpit for the dark eldar.










Just a few small blades, made from cardboard first to test and I believe it came out well. I will probably add quite a few more of varying lengths around the piloting section of the ship as well as I've been thinking that perhaps the area just in front of the "pilot" there could be 2 more sub-pilots or a hard-ass squad of veterans to defend the ship itself?

I went through some dark eldar FAQ's and I need to add scythes to the bottom of the ship to cut people up, way more chains with hooks on them, and tons and tons of skulls!

The task at hand ey?


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

looking awesome i just feel it needs to be more three demensional. not sure how though.


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

Neither... but with the turrets all up and when its carrying 4 raiders on its hull... I think its gunna look pretty every dimensional


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## piemaster (Oct 9, 2009)

Hey, that's lookin' pretty sweet. I'd rep you but I apparently have to spread the love a bit more before I can. Like the blades you got goin'.


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