Making More Mycetic Spores

Since I have a massive amount of models awaiting staining, I figure I might as well paint up any other models that need it, so I only have to get my hands dirty once.  With five completed mycetic spores, and a box full of components to make some more, why not round it out to an even number?

Well, that was the original intent.  I didn’t go back and reference how many I had originally done, so I made three more pods, figuring I’d round it out to an even eight mycetic spores.  Sure, that’s more than I’d likely ever use (outside of Apocalypse, I guess), but it’s a nice even number.  While that might be true, it turns out that I’d originally painted five pods, I’d actually made up six, and left one half-finished.  So, with the original six, plus my three new pods, that brings the total to an even 9.

Well, sort of.

These really don’t take too long to make, and take relatively few materials.  To be precise, they consist of:

• Some barnacles (courtesy of eBay) –
• Various Tyranid bits (for these three, I used ‘stealers, but in previous versions I used rippers and hormagaunts)
• Hot glue (for the slime), and obviously a means of heating it.  I opted for a traditional hot glue gun, but if you’re cheap, you could opt for the Mr. Miagi hand friction method–but I’d advise against that.
• Super glue – This might not be strictly necessary.  I used this to hold the tyranids in place before I squirted the hot glue into the holes.  I’d be willing to bet that you could squirt the glue first, and then shove the bits in while it was still maluable.
• Some corrogated cardboard (for the base)
• Filler for the cardboard – I opted for spackle.  If you used balsa wood for the base, you could skip this ingredient altogether though.

If you’re interested in detailed instructions as to how I make these things, you can find them in my original post on making mycetic spores.  You can also see finished examples of the spores at that link (scroll to the bottom and click on the thumbnails), in case you’re impatient and don’t want to wait a few weeks to see the results of these particular pods.

So anywho, where was I?  Oh yeah, originally I had only purchased enough barnacles to create six spores, but fell in love with them, so I purchased some more.  I guess I went a little overboard though, because after cobbling together three more, I have enough parts left over to make about half a dozen more.  I just can’t justify putting in the effort to make fifteen pods though, when I know I’ll never use anywhere near that many (again, except in an Apoc game–but considering  I have two hierophants, when will I have that many spare points laying around?).

Sure, I may be jaded, but I think these are the best mycetic spores you’ll find anywhere on the internet. While there are some nifty conversions, the ones based upon the concept of a single giant egg (ex. the Nerf Footballs) look too much like rejects from the little shop o’ horrors.  These barnacles just scream egg sacs to me.  Granted, they don’t make much sense for the monstrous creatures, but I don’t know that I’d use ’em for MC’s… and besides, they’re pretty!

So, that’s my take on that.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to paint these things!   If you’d like some more pics, click the thumbnails below or, like I said earlier, you could always check out my tutorial on making mycetic spores.

Thanks for dropping by!