swarm-sculpture

I wanted to make a war machine using a rhinoceros beetle Dynastinae as my source design.
As with every project I have ever done, from idea to the end result, everything evolves and changes.

But first some pictures of the finished piece.

I painted the eyes with acrylic paint,

The sculpture is 400 mm long 180 mm high.

On the end sits the rear gunner, in the middle is the Controlling Queen and in the front is the beetle beast.

The rear gunner and the Queen both have Neutrino Cannons, capable of penetrating any known armor.

The controlling Queen can manipulate the Swarm War machine with the two controllers and at the same time use her Neutrino cannon with devastating effect.
Her platform has the god beetle repousséd into the copper.

The rear gunner has two spitting snakes that can also guide his cannon and will strike at any enemy that come too close to thier master.

The two spitting snakes are also used in close combat and protect the Beetle Beast

The Beetle Beast works in conjunction with the Queen and the Spitting Snakes to devastating effect.

The snakes are also allied to the eves, and are thus able to see through the entire radio magnetic spectrum, from infra red to gamma rays.

A close up of the copper mantra that guides all the war spirits of the Swarm species.

First I made this body out of 1 mm brass.

Then I made some fold out wings. These wings fold back and fit into the body.

Then I made some covers for the wings that fold down when the wings are recessed.

This was the first head that I designed.

Then I designed some legs in paper first.

Then I cut the profiles out in 1 mm material.

This was the original idea. Was starting to dislike this direction,
because I could see that fitting guns and snakes and stuff was going to look awkward.

I soldered sides onto the cutouts and turned them into hollow stock.

I made a new body because I didn't like the old one.
This one was made out of 3 mm stock material.

Then I attached the legs and added a 1 mm base onto the body.
The brass plate is covered with paper at the moment.

Then I made a new head. Looking at it I knew that even with more work the direction I was going was a no go, so I discarded it.

So I threw the head away and made the cannon shroud first.

I added a bottom to the shroud. I'm OK with the direction I am going now.

Making the front legs.

Soldering them together.

Soldered closed and filed flat.
Now to make the section that joins the legs to the body.

Turning the cannon barrel .

I made two snake heads that support the barrel

I made a couple of models for the eyes and I decided on these for now.

This was the first version of the platform that was inside the body.
A copper cut out that was soldered onto the plate.

Then I decided to do some repoussé on copper because U didn't like the the first platform.

This was my first attempt.
It sucked.

My second attempt was the one I used.

I bought some eyes from a guy on Etsy just to see what it would look like.
Meh

So then I painted them with acrylic paint.

I think they stick inward too much.

I started to build a battle computer.
I want it to have four eyes looking north south east and west.

So I made some glass cabochons and coloured some paper behind it to see what the would look like.

I stuck them in to see if it was visually pleasing. It was not.

I also attached some visual feeds to the battle computer.

Then I faceted some glass into an eight sided shape for the eye lens.

I also decided to make a Beetle Beast that would also help the battle computer in times of engagement with the enemy. I started with a piece of 20 mm brass stock.
I carve it out with tungsten carbide burrs.

Then I added some steel teeth and brass horns. The little cup with a screw on screws into the head and I will set sandawana emeralds into them later.

This is how the Beetle Beast is mounted on the machine.

Then I got tired of the barrel trough that I had made and I remade it into a twisted bar chassis for the swarm module.

This looked much more elegant to me.

Here are all the different versions of the platform I made.

The Spider.
I discarded the battle computer and went for a mobile entity that would control the swarm module. I start with some silver stock.

The basic design laid out.

Soldered it onto a 1 mm plate of silver.

Cut it out and made some front horns.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas et metus.

Then I made some legs out of 2 mm stock plate, soldered them in place and started on the arms.

I also carve these directly out of metal.

These hands will fit around the control stick of the machine.

I wanted the body to be made out of lapis lazuli, because I like the colour.
So I sawed a piece of some material I had.

Like this.

Carved it into a basic shape and drilled a hole through it.

I use my Drill Straight machine with a diamond tip to drill through it.
The water in the cup is for cooling and swarf removal.
A most handy machine that I invented.

The Lapis is held in place with a screw that goes through the body as well.

Then I enlarged the hole to fit a 6 mm placer for the meantime.
I also started carving some detail in the body.

The head was made out of laminated onyx, red jasper, sugilite and onyx.
As it turned out, I ground the bottom layer on onyx away, because the overall block was too thick.

Here I am drilling the holes in the head.

As with the abdomen, the head will be held in place with a gem screw.

Here the arms are soldered into place.

Busy building the tail.

Fitting the spider on the unfinished platform.

Then I made a bunch of gem nuts that will have zircons set into them.

Fitting the spider with the old platform still fitted.

Just messing around with different stone to see where more holes must be drill into the stone.

I drilled some more holes into the lapis lazuli and set some emeralds into it.

I polished the stones and messed around with different collets.
I also made some 18ct yellow gold “vanes” on the side of the body that are held in place with the zircon gem nuts.

You can see one of the hands holding the control stick in the back ground.

This is the center collet before it was finished off.

I made another similar collet for the head and then, in the rear collet I set a laminated amethyst/aquamarine that I had faceted some years ago.
Also the front collet was set with a pretty chrome tourmaline that I had faceted some years ago as well.

Then I took the spider apart and blackened the body.
I forgot to include the reflector tail and the front spike in the photograph.

Anyway, here is the completed spider.

The Rear Gunner. The swarm machine has a rear gunner as well. I start with two brass domes that are soldered to a copper ring. As before, I carve directly into the metal.

Fitting him to the rear gun platform.

This is his basic shape. The eyes must still be made.

Here is the completed dude.

He parks off on the rear platform like this, protecting the Swarm War Machine from rear and side enemy attack during battle.

Then I made some steel claws for the rear and middle legs.

Like this.

Then I got tired of the eyes I had made previously and remade them like this.

I added bigger 30 mm diameter circles that will contain the eyes.

This time I made the eyes out of silver, instead of aluminium.

I think they look better, more bug like.
I will later use acrylic paints and paint realistic eyes into them.

Then I clad a part of the front with copper and started making some snakes, because I like snakes.

Now I take everything apart and polish and rouge it.
I like polished things, and if I decide to make it mat, it is easier to go from polish to mat than from mat to polish.

After rouge, I dip the pieces into a stabilizing lacquer and the carefully reassemble it.

The last thing I did was to use my acrylic paints and paint some blue eyes.
I made some clear cabochons to cover the eyes like a lens, but they kind of hid the blue so I discarded them.

Bang!

The Queen has an experimental laminated stone on to of her thorax.
It is an Amethyst and an Aquamarine and the method I used can be found on this web site here.