Like seriously, I have an essay due tomorrow, that I already have an extension on, that I need to rewrite the entirety of... because, while I did print it out before my computer died, I managed to loose that copy, and the edited draft that my teacher and I had worked on together... However! Because that is certain to be a truly long and arduous task, seeing as I need to re-create my first draft before I can edit it and turn it into my second draft... I find myself here, getting ready to tell you all about another unit in my army! Woot! (+10 points for procrastination)
So, Crypt Ghouls.... for the longest time I couldn't stand them, the models I mean. Something about the way that they were painted by the Games Workshop staff just... *shudder* not a pretty sight...
I've gone through many different phases about how to make these guys actually fit into the army, considered just replacing them with other units, but to no avail. I had almost forgotten about them, when, while reading an article on the Games Workshop website, a brilliant idea struck! It was something random about painting Tyranids... but it brought up an interesting point: Every unit in the Tyranid army is armor-plated. Normally they're painted to look like growths of bone, or some kind of chitinous shell, but I though, why couldn't they be painted like actual armor? What's to stop me from sticking a piece like this:
From a Tyranid Hormagaunt, into the arm soccet of a Ghoul, giving him a biotic arm? Or an arm that looks like the hand has been replaced with a blade, with metal plates fused directly onto the muscle? With this idea in mind, my brand new concept for my Crypt Ghouls was born!
I then set about designing the machinery that would make this guy work...
The most important thing to note about these guys is that they retain almost all of the muscle, skin, and bones they had when they were alive. All that the machinery does is generate a charge, which is then wired directly into the parts of the brain related into motor functions. There's a perfectly good neurosystem in there, why not utilize it?
This spark is basically achieved by a warpstone-powered boiler being inserted into the chest cavity, and running a wire directly from it, to the brain in question. Considering the fact that, while they are in possession of rather sophisticated (for the theoretical time period) pieces of equipment, Ghouls are still a Core unit, the equivalent of foot soldiers, I imagine the boiler would be run on pieces of warpstone not fit for other machinery. If the zombies are the wast receptacle for used water, the Ghouls are receptacles for used Warpstone. When a piece of warpstone cracks or breaks and is no longer the flawless crystalline shape needed to power the more advanced pieces of equipment, it would be shattered, crushed, and used to power the boilers of the ghouls.
One tube, the input tube, would run from the throat of the Ghoul to the boiler chamber, nestled in its empty hip bones. This would be connected to two water tanks. The water would rush in through a series of restricting valves, wash over the warpstone, boil and rise up a vent at the top of the dome. This vent leads to a turbine, which powers a small generator, which is connected by a small wire to the skull of the ghoul. The steam then travels back to the water tanks through a series of tubes, where it condenses and the process starts all over again. Essentially, before a battle, necromancers will take damaged or discarded warpstone and crush it. This is then shoved down the throats of Ghouls, powering them.
While the ghoul is technically dead, it does not rot or decay. After it died, its body was preserved in a formaldehyde-like substance. It's muscles are further prevented from decaying bu being continually exposed to the dark energies inherent in warpstone. The 'system of tubes' that the steam must travel to before returning to the water chambers is actually the ghouls disused circulatory system, with the pressure of the steam forcing it through it's veins.
Any excess steam is released through the vents in the Ghouls back, which will be modeled from small tubes, and the skin around the tubes will be modeled from green stuff.
So, Crypt Ghouls.... for the longest time I couldn't stand them, the models I mean. Something about the way that they were painted by the Games Workshop staff just... *shudder* not a pretty sight...
I've gone through many different phases about how to make these guys actually fit into the army, considered just replacing them with other units, but to no avail. I had almost forgotten about them, when, while reading an article on the Games Workshop website, a brilliant idea struck! It was something random about painting Tyranids... but it brought up an interesting point: Every unit in the Tyranid army is armor-plated. Normally they're painted to look like growths of bone, or some kind of chitinous shell, but I though, why couldn't they be painted like actual armor? What's to stop me from sticking a piece like this:
Beasts still made of flesh, but with their entire internal structure replaced with machinery! The pinnacle of a technology-crazed vampire experimenting on lowly villagers and corpses to create something not quite alive or dead, actually more like a machine with human flesh as part of it's components. Think that episode of Dr Who with Madame de Pompadour, and the way the ship used found 'components'.
I then set about designing the machinery that would make this guy work... The most important thing to note about these guys is that they retain almost all of the muscle, skin, and bones they had when they were alive. All that the machinery does is generate a charge, which is then wired directly into the parts of the brain related into motor functions. There's a perfectly good neurosystem in there, why not utilize it?
This spark is basically achieved by a warpstone-powered boiler being inserted into the chest cavity, and running a wire directly from it, to the brain in question. Considering the fact that, while they are in possession of rather sophisticated (for the theoretical time period) pieces of equipment, Ghouls are still a Core unit, the equivalent of foot soldiers, I imagine the boiler would be run on pieces of warpstone not fit for other machinery. If the zombies are the wast receptacle for used water, the Ghouls are receptacles for used Warpstone. When a piece of warpstone cracks or breaks and is no longer the flawless crystalline shape needed to power the more advanced pieces of equipment, it would be shattered, crushed, and used to power the boilers of the ghouls.
One tube, the input tube, would run from the throat of the Ghoul to the boiler chamber, nestled in its empty hip bones. This would be connected to two water tanks. The water would rush in through a series of restricting valves, wash over the warpstone, boil and rise up a vent at the top of the dome. This vent leads to a turbine, which powers a small generator, which is connected by a small wire to the skull of the ghoul. The steam then travels back to the water tanks through a series of tubes, where it condenses and the process starts all over again. Essentially, before a battle, necromancers will take damaged or discarded warpstone and crush it. This is then shoved down the throats of Ghouls, powering them.While the ghoul is technically dead, it does not rot or decay. After it died, its body was preserved in a formaldehyde-like substance. It's muscles are further prevented from decaying bu being continually exposed to the dark energies inherent in warpstone. The 'system of tubes' that the steam must travel to before returning to the water chambers is actually the ghouls disused circulatory system, with the pressure of the steam forcing it through it's veins.
Any excess steam is released through the vents in the Ghouls back, which will be modeled from small tubes, and the skin around the tubes will be modeled from green stuff.
