OBT Forum
General BattleTech => Canon Inspired => Topic started by: Takiro on July 23, 2021, 03:09:03 PM
-
Not sure if you guys have seen this pretty picture by Plog yet done for our own marauder648 of the Clan totem animal. I really like it and wanted to link it here for everyone to see. Love to hear what you think!
(https://i.imgur.com/qRkCvJD.jpg)
The old art for the Ice Hellion species NEEDED re-doing. The poor thing looked like it was some minced beef put on a potato, rolled in hair from the floor of a barbers and then put in the mircrowave for 30 minutes. It also does not help that the fluff for it is very contradictory, some sources say its a flightless bird;
whereas this thing - https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Ice_Hellion_(species) is anything but a flightless bird and is more a therapod like dinosaur that's trying to be 'extra'. And then there's the Hellions symbol which looks more like a secretary bird, and there's also art for Ice Hellion units depicting a tusked but squat and fat quadrupedal thing with a beak and tusks. So there's zero consistency.
So with this in mind I contacted Matt Plog about doing a take on the Ice Hellion, we kept the same kinda 'raptor' esque shape (and size, the Veloceraptor of Jurrasic Park fame was only really about the size of a turkey, the Ice Hellion's 40cm tall) but instead of it running on two legs it can move as either a biped or quadruped (which is needed for running on snow and ice) as well as eliminating any raptor like killing claws on the feet. Instead we made the Ice Hellion all about the bite.
I'm sure folks have seen that vid of the Aligator Snapping Turtle biting down on a water melon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgSurkfqXuI and here its the same, I asked him to model the head somewhat after a Snapper's but the 'problem' is that in all the art, Ice Hellions have these rather pronounced tusks that would get in the way of any bite. So in the fluff write up where i've headcanon expaned on them, the Ice Hellion has a very wide gape when it bites something, and here the tusks are useful because they dig in and gouge whatever they're biting, in addition to the beak acting like some organic bolt cutters.
Add lots of floof because Hector's damn cold, cold weather adaptions like the broad, padded and furry feet to act as snow shoes (not without precident, Canadian Lynx's have something similar) and I think we're a bit closer to something that works better as an animal rather than the hair covered burger potato. Oh and he put in a bit of sexual diamorphism, the female's the one on the right and she's a bit bigger than the males.
Any feedback is most welcome!
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/fan-art/intelligence-report-from-hector-art-wip/msg1744745/#msg1744745 (https://bg.battletech.com/forums/fan-art/intelligence-report-from-hector-art-wip/msg1744745/#msg1744745)
-
Saw this on the Facebook page. Much better than original, though it seems bulkier than what I would have imagined
This is deviant art page with all the works he's had commissioned
https://www.deviantart.com/sharlin (https://www.deviantart.com/sharlin)
-
So you'd like to make it a more lithe creature? I could see that some what but the muscular nature of this fast beast gives it a degree of realism.
Thanks for the link Bradshaw, he has a lot of great stuff up there for sure!
-
Fluff says only weighs 20 kg hard to judge size with nothing to scale but thats only 45 pounds
-
Mid-sized dog, I could see it.
-
We hunt in pack!
-
Just the guy I was thinking about when I posted this - what do you think of this art? It looks good but is it consistent with your Clan's totem animal??
-
Just the guy I was thinking about when I posted this - what do you think of this art? It looks good but is it consistent with your Clan's totem animal??
I am always popping up when you think about me or when you least expect me to. Yep, I am your nightmare (and not Knightmare) :P
Different from the original art (see my signature) but better since the Ice Hellion was never that appealing to me (their tactics and the Hellion OmniMech were, now if only they had a better understanding of combined arms).
(https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/0/0e/Ice_Hellion_CBTComp.png?timestamp=20101117212206)
-
Yeah the Plog-marauder648 piece is far prettier than that canon thing!