"Photos Of The Little Fighting Bugs In District 9? Sculpts?" Topic

You know the ones I mean. Not the prawns.

They were the long-legged, turkey-sized critters that looked like they were within a cockfighting pen. They had some sort of scorpion tail, if I recall correctly.

A) Do you guys know of any photos, screenshots or sketches anywhere?

B) Have any of you tried to make them with wire or something else? If so, got pics?

Thanks,

Dan

Did it look like water beetle larvae?

Or mosquito larvae?

Dan

Did you mean these guys?

Ta daaaaaa :)

*****

How cool are these District 9 variant alien designs?

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The only Weta reference I could find was via an email accounting of the art crew calling them

Whip-Tail Lobsters

Those are very cool.

We need some of those in miniature!!!

15mm and 25mm/28mm, if you please.

If the spike was a flexible manipulator I would like to see it as an intelligent alien race :)

Those spindly legs…woof…a mold maker and caster's nightmare.

Wow!!! Thanks so much, 28mmMan.

Awesome pics.

With legs as thin as theirs, you really wouldn't have to sculpt much detail on anything except a little on the body, don't you think?

I wonder what it would look like if I took 8 thin wires, maybe 1 inch long, and twisted them, leaving 8 legs about 1/4 inch long, then covered the body with a thin layer of putty.

Dan

Are you thinking one off's or for casting?

Ok you are considering a sane project and are making one off's…how about 4 wires bent into M's to make the 8 legs?

Didn't work. I tried 8 separate wires and also your suggestion.

I'm either using wire that's too brittle or the wrong pliers. By the second twist I was left with nothing but a bunch of tiny pieces of wire.

Back to the drawing board, I guess.

Dan
PS. By the way, not for casting. Just wanted to see if I could make 6 or so. I was hoping to make them no taller than a 15mm human.

Find tiny plastic spiders/ants…chop off extra bits…build up off that…you could make a 100 in about the same time to make 10.

Cheap

Easy

Brilliant.

Cut off the abdomens and make new (and longer) abdomens positioned vertically. With the ants the heads may need to go too.

That should do it, I think!

Dan

Someone make a body, and a spikey tail, and we can cut spring-steel wire for the legs to glue underneath.

Very strong, and resilient material, even in very thin wire.

Yea, the ants and spiders might work, if you can glue stuff to them.

Indeed…the spiders would work nicely.

Super glue the belly down to the base and it will shorten the spider body.

Fun times…and should be cheap Halloween spiders around somewhere…or the internet is your friend.

I have a couple 1:1 scale projects coming up…I may do a series of creatures to compliment these…sealed in specimen jars :)

28mmMan,

By the way, what keywords did you use to find those D9 bug photos?

Dan

Mooohhahahahhahhaaa

(mouth moving out of phase to my speech)

My…Google Fu…is…much stronger than yours…hahaha…(mouth continues to move as if still speaking)

Your…hmh hmhm hm…skills…are (thumps chest and laughs…but the actual laughter is out of synch)…ahahhaa ha…like a (film skipped a frame or two due to poor VHS copy quality)

…I see…(stroking beard and smiling approvingly)…all right I will…tell you…

(film melts under the projection lamp heat)

I'm certainly losing my touch.

But I'm glad to see that the niche is being filled by such humble individuals! :)

Dan

Well I knew Weta did the work…I knew they had produced an art book…so I started with

Google

"art of district 9"

images

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*****

When you can pluck the stone from my hand…

Sweet! Well done, my man.

Dan

:)

Dan you will forever hold the rank of Sith TMP Thread Necromancer!

Together we can destroy the Emperor and bring a new age of justice to the galaxy!

"Sith TMP Thread Necromancer"

Hmm. I like that!

Dan
P.S. By the way, would a plastic cricket (or grasshopper) leg work for the body of the D9 critter (if glued directly on top of the plastic leg section of the ants/spiders)?

I would not.

But…the back leg if properly spiky could be added to make the whip weapon.

I would use the spider bits for the base, insert a wire for the body, putty build off that.

Now if we could just breed these to be bigger and more aggressive, then we could have pit fights with them….

(FYI, it's a Sea-Monkey ;-)

Ok, has anyone suceeded in constructing their own version of those District 9 fighting bugs?

What did you use? How did you make them? Got pics?

Dan

If the goal is about 15-20mm high, you may have to settle for the impression of legs instead of actual legs. The final tail segment is also going to be a problem.

The posture with the head very low to the ground may actually help with the legs.

You may have already seen these in which case forgive the threadomancy.

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OMG!!! Had not seen those at all. Thanks so so much for the post!

Dan

Those scuttlers are indeed awesome…would be great for dungeoncrawls as well as sci-fi.