Dominatrix from a Hierodule

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.

Though I created this beast, a large portion of the credit for it goes to two other folks. First, Hydra, for if he hadn't had the spore sacs initially to take a saw to an already-beautiful Forgeworld model, there never would have been the idea to create a Dominatrix from a Hierodule. I'm glad he was rewarded for his inspiration at the Canadian Golden Demons back in 2007. Next, credit needs to be paid to Ross Nickle, a dear friend of mine and paragon of moderating might over on Warpshadow under his handle Accommodator.

When I expressed my interest in taking my own stab at a Dominatrix from a Forge World Heirodule back in 2006, Ross told me to do it. When I told him I hadn't the stones to pay $200+ CDN for a pretty model like that if I was only going to tear it appart, he bought me the model and said I could build it for him on commission.



It was a hell of a job trying to imitate Hydra's approach to the model. In the end, I must say that I rushed it a bit, pushing through something that was less than perfect as Ross had been waiting a while, and I was feeling bad about not having yet produced.









Due to the rush to the finish line, the back-mounted cannon was not as done as I would have liked, and I attached the scything talons without doing much of anything to modify them. Further, I didn't have the time to take half-way decent shots of the completed model, relying on Ross to snap a few for me.






The mistakes I made by rushing were all ones that I learned from when it came time to do my second Dominatrix for Moloch. Ross, being less of a perfectionist than I and being more concerned with the actual game than the models, was perfectly happy with the model, passing it off to another friend of his for painting.

Sadly, Ross passed away suddenly in March of 2010, leaving behind a wife, daughter, and a gaping void in the online Warhammer 40K community. Where there once were huge swarms of nids including a complete collection of Armorcast Epic Tyranids, a growing Armorcast Titan Legion, and (Ross' crown jewel) the one-and-only, half-completed, Armorcast Imperator Titan Prototype, there was now only the weird kind of afterlife that only the internet can enable, wherein I still get emails from him at Warpshadow telling me I've got a new PM.

Ross Nickle/Accommodator's budding Titan Legion.


The last known location of the Armorcast Imperator Prototype? A Box in Ross' basement. The things we were going to do with that titan...

What's more, it still kind of niggles me that I didn't do better by him with that first Dominatrix, particularly when I went on to make another for Moloch and the quality of the thing jumped by leaps and bounds. I guess that's growth, though, and development and experience, and I can say I did right by Ross in the next big project we took on together: possibly the greatest project with which I've ever been involved...but more on that later.

(Here's the original thread for the Dominatrix on Warpshadow, though it's more of a tease than an actual documenting of the WIP as we waited until the beast was finished before we revealed it.)