|
|
The Monolith combines the properties
of transport craft, armoured destroyer and Necron power icon. Its
ponderous form floats across the battlefield, its crystal core pulsing
with sickly energy, powerful beams of gauss lightning whipping from
its weapon mounts. The frontal section is capable of opening a dark
portal and transporting Necrons to the battlefield to cause fresh
havoc. In this article, Adrian Wood interviews the team who brought
this lethal weapon to the battlefield.
ADI: The Monolith kit is one of the most eagerly awaited of the
Necrons miniatures. Although reminiscent of the Land Raider in sheer
size, the Monolith breaks the rules for making models of vehicles
in Warhammer 40,000. I got together with Tim Adcock and discussed
how he and the rest of the Citadel Design team created this monstrous
Necrons construct.
Jes Goodwin, Andy Chambers and Tim Adcock began by setting out
the whole premise of a Necrons ‘Warbarque’ or ‘War
Altar’ in the Necrons army. They proposed a complete rethink
of the whole idea of a Necrons battle tank/troop transporter and
what it represented on the battlefield. It was also important how
it interrelated with the rest of the Necrons models. The plastic
Necrons models had already been designed by Colin Grayson and Jes.
Various members of the Citadel Design team pitched into making the
metal models for the range.
|
Jes and Tim went back to the drawing board and decided that
the Warbarque was not to be just another science fiction tank.
The Warbarque became ‘a statement of intent’ as
Tim calls it: a model that was not only an important feature
of the Necrons army from a gaming perspective, but showed
the architecture of the Necrons, ancient and malevolent. The
Warbarque was as much a piece of terrain as it was a fighting
vehicle, but not a tank in the traditional sense of the word,
with a turret. Both Jes and Tim wanted to move far away from
the image of the Warbarque as a glorified tank.
After the Necrons Warbarque, Jes drew more versions of the
‘Deathbarque’ or ‘War Altar’, as he began
to call the model.
However, after some test models were made, Andy, Jes and
Tim felt they were going in the wrong direction for the project
so Jes then sketched out his ‘Monolith’ design,
which became the basis for the final model. You can see how
much the new Monolith, as it was now called, harked back to
Jes’ very first design for the Warbarque. It was now
up to Tim to start building the model.
You can see all the concepts for the ‘Warbarque/Monolith’,
as well as all Jes’ design concepts for the Necrons,
by clicking on the images to the right. As you go through
them you can start to see how the complete collection of design
concepts related to each other to create a cohesive army look
and how the Monolith took shape.
|
|
Click
here to follow the design and construction of the Monolith from
mock-up to completed vehicle:
Click
Here to check out more of Jes
Goodwin's Necron design concepts.
|
