Size (Bounding Box, assembled, standing): Approx 77.94mm x 118.43mm x 36.82mm
(Tank stance) 73.2mm x 28.2mm x 27.3mm
Transforms from grav tank to walking mode. (Open the carapace, fold out the head, tilt up the tail, replace the flight mode legs (locking turret) with the standing legs and tilt the turret stand to level as necessesary).
Fair warning: the Narya Melan in particular is right on the bleeding edge of what can be accomplished at this scale. The price of it actually being able to transform is that is is significantly more fiddly to assemble.
The legs are designed for ball-and socket joints that do not require glueing. (And thus are posable). Note that the fit is quite stiff, despite being the same tolerances as the larger Ghyla-Heelene legs (and you may have to use moderate force, be careful) to get the legs in. Contrary to my regular policy, from hinsight, I recommend you DO NOT paint the ball or the side of the socket more than a basecoat. You may wish to assemble these before painting. (Do paint the carapace posts and holes and the ball-and-socket turret post, since they will need all the friction they can get.) The forelegs can be glued into their sockets if desired; however, do not glue one (or possible both) of the rear legs or you will not be able to add or remove the flight mode legs because of the locking turret torso. (Note that the armour blocks on the legs are on the inside, because they form bottom and sides of the armoured box in flight mode when rotated.)
Placement of the head and tail in their sockets is best done by utilising a cup of hot water (out of the kettle or tea urn and not quite boiling) and dipping the body in for several seconds. This makes it pliable enough to get the head and tail into the sockets.
(Otherwise, you will probaly find that the socket has to bent be bent open with needlenose pliers to squeeze those sections in and bending back. )
Note that the fit can be a bit variable for unknown reasons. (In one test instance, it was fine, the other was a little loose.) I recommend you do this BEFORE painting, otherwise, you may have to damage the paintwork. (I do *not* recommend trying to take them in and out).
(On the FDM and resin prototype, I actually put those parts in before spraying undercoating and base coating.) As with the legs, if once you have the head in if it is loose, add additional paint.
The Narya-Melan ("Nar-ya mee-lan") are the most divergent of the three configurations observed so far. Rather than a vaguely-spider-like body plan, the Narya-Melan look more insectoid, somewhere between dragonfly and grasshopper – and beetle, when armoured.
The Narya-Melan are larger than the Ghyla-Heelene, but have shorter legs, which places their heads about a half-head-height below the Ghyla-Heelenes. Interestingly, this places their limbs and viewpoint much closer to the Ghyla-Heelene's proportions. This suggests there is at least one more configuration, since both of the larger configurations are too small to use the middle set of control panels seen in the explored civilian station.
Despite their large size, however, the Narya-Melan seem to be lighter overall; even in the full armour, they only seem to weigh about as much as the Ghyla-Heelenes, and even then the bulk of the weight appears to be from the armour itself. They appear, despite their size, to be largely an aerial configuration.
When shorn of the armour, the multiple vectored thrust engines can be seen; one set just above the legs, two smaller ones along the body (one obscured by the larger engines in the illustration) and three sets on their tail. These appear, however, to be primarily for thrust, or at best to help with lift when encumbered, and the Narya-Heelenes appear to have integral anti-grav drives.
When in flight, the legs are curled up beneath the body, folding back along themselves and tilted up at an angle, keeping them out of the way. Notably, the Narya-Melan have dimorphic legs. The forelimbs have feet which are very similar – though smaller – than the legs of the Ghyla-Heelenes.
The small dome at the rear of the body appears to serve as the mounting point for weapons or other equipment, though unlike the similar circular sockets in the other two configurations, it is designed as the mounting for ball-and-socket joints.
The Narya-Melan's armour consists of a bulky upper unit, which fits over the main body. This forms a carapace, like the shell of a beetle, which covers their tail and rear body. A short stack on the anterior dome serves to mount a turret. The legs have additional armour plates added, such that when the legs folded up, the plate form an armoured box around the legs. This would leave some gaps, especially around the front and back, but these are covered by a flexible metal skin which appears to inflate from the armour.
When all is closed up, this makes the Narya-Melan into something closer to a conventional grav-tank. The carapace prevents them from true flight in this stance, confining them to performance closer to a low-grav engine, but the armour plating makes them much less vulnerable to attack.Even with their armour, the underside is not completely covered and they are slightly more vulnerable than many proper grav tanks from the underside.
The Narya-Melan's armour has six fixed light plasma-pulse guns, three either side of the hull. These appear to be identical to those that the Ghyla-Heelenes have. The armour has two point-defence missile bulbs either side of the head (which adds somewhat the dragonfly-like silhouette). These appear to be much the same as the bulbs used on the Aayla-pattern Doolahne 00 turrets and appear to use identical munitions.
The Narya-Melans observed have almost all used the Milya-pattern Doolahne 00 turret, with only a few seen using the Yylya-pattern. The Milya-pattern turret uses a kinetic accelerator cannon. This weapon is similar to a railgun, but
unlike a railgun proper, the kinetic accelerator is designed to fire a wider variety of munitions. Two light point-defence particle beams similar to those on the Aalya-pattern turret are mounted on the sides of the turret. The turret sports two coaxial missile launchers, each of which carries four Quoolych 10 missiles.
Finally, the turret also supplies additional shield generators and power, raising the Narya-Melan's armour shields from a Penetration Resistance from 60 to 65% and the Barrier strength from 36 to 39.
Product Information:
Range: Yrgynela
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