Rays

SUNRAYS

It was almost a year ago that we last touched on the bestiary of Nekroplanet Grob with the Wandering Hexahedron.

Today we’ll have a look at the Sunrays.

Obviously, starting point for their design were manta rays from Earth’s oceans. Like many other sea creatures they already look pretty alien, and one can imagine them gliding through air. I recall seeing big flying mantas in Vampire Hunter D : Bloodlust (great film, recommended). IMDB: link

Another identifiable influence was one of Wayne Barlowe’s illustrations for Expedition depicting a predatory alien life form. Source: waynebarlowe.com

I also ripped off trilobites for some details. I love those things, wish they were still around! The fossil image above was taken from the American Museum of Natural History WEBSITE.

There’s some snail and some elephant’s trunk in those eye stalks. The thick, wrinkled skin on the head is akin to that of a walrus, while it becomes smooth and leathery- more like a whale’s - further towards the ‘wings’.The four larger figures are converted toy mantas, while the three smaller ones were sculpted from scratch. I wanted each to represent a different species of sunray, so they vary in size, shape, and detail.

MEGA DEATH RAY

The designers of Grobnik Death Rays were inspired by Sunrays. You can grab a regular Death Ray from Ramshackle Games, but the Mega version you see before you is a toybash.

I’ve had this toy glider for years, that came in a set with cheap little action figures. It originally had small bits and pieces attached to it, but I dismantled it right after I had bought it and threw it all in the toy bits box. I’d wanted to use this toy to build a larger version of the Death Ray since then. And here we are! I patched some holes, added a skull from a Halloween decoration, guns, a sprinkle of greebling, and greenstuff cables. This is a process I’ve described before so I won’t get into detail. If you’re new here, then best have a look at these tutorials: DRONE and MACHINERY.

The Mega Death Ray was made primarily to get photographed, rather than for use in the Nekroplanet Grob skirmish game. However, I can see myself using this thing as a Horror for The Doomed if I mount it on an acrylic flyer base.

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