You too can create a spore pod for a fraction of the cost that you would think!
Materials:
"Poof" Brand Football, Jumbo Size (Walmart = $4)
Hot Glue sticks (Walmart = 100 mini sticks for $3)
Jumbo Paperclips and Toothpicks (Walmart, about a dollar)
Total: 8 dollars for 2 spores, 2 dollars per spore after that as long as you have the glue and paper clips.
STEP 1: Cut the football in half.
STEP 2: Peel back petals
STEP 3: Use Jumbo Clips and Hot Glue to support the Petals
STEP 4: Add gooeyness and tentacles with Hot Glue, and spikes with Toothpicks
STEP 5: Base, Prime, and Paint!
I am not finished painting this, as you can see, but I am desperately trying to get people to get away from those lousy Plasma Hatcher toys that they have been using as pods. I hate those things. They are not representative of a spore pod at all, in my opinion. This method provides a gooey, organic looking pod at a fraction of the cost. I hope this provides you guys a decent alternative to pre-bought or sub-par spore pods for your tyranids.
Until next time,
--FP135
I'd be worried about the paint chipping off the soft petals easily, but otherwise this looks pretty reasonable. I definitely don't understand why everybody's modeling intact pods, when it seems pretty clear that the things basically explode on impact, like this models.
ReplyDeleteLooks great! Maybe I can get my friend Russell to make some so we can finally stop using soda bottles...
ReplyDeleteI like that they look like the plant from "Little Shop of Horrors."
ReplyDeleteThey're certainly an improved alternative to the masses of plastic pods out there. I've a take on these myself, but I'm too lazy to make a blog post about them. They don't work as well for MC's as your pods, but I'm quite fond of them for smaller units.
Hopefully I can inspire myself to get off my duff and create the post sometime this week.
"I'd be worried about the paint chipping off the soft petals easily" - If this is happening, perhaps you could try dying the petals? As far as I can see, its just sponge...plus if you painted over the dyed sponge, and it chipped, it would just add to the effect of gooey biomass!
ReplyDeleteIf you use a quality primer, then you won't find the paint chipping. The foam kind of soaks up the paint, effectively dying it. If you are having issues, try watering down PVA glue and using that to harden the surface you want to paint. That should take care of it.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of nothing so much as the facehugger pods from Aliens.
ReplyDeleteI like that, and it's cheap. They'll just want for some extra TLC in transit, but that's not a huge deal.
Any chance to see the painted result?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I donated it to my local gaming store (which has mysteriously moved and disappeared) so I never got to photograph the finished pod. I may make another in the future, but I have not been playing 40k lately.
ReplyDelete