Prickly 'n Bristly

Preliminary studies for what I'm tentatively calling "Echinosuits" or "Megacanthid mecha"--spiky powered armor designed for fighting Fleas, Chimerapes, Alternasaurs, Jovian Plankton, or other such extraterrestrial monstrosiites.

The top three were done first and were sketches for the Blue Crab Suit (q.v. thomastapir.deviantart.com/art… ).
4 and 5 are based on the eurypterid "sea scorpion" Mixopterus. The right upper arm spikes were omitted for clarity on 5 (they are fixed, static structures, not retractable spines).
I didn't really nail the vibe I wanted in terms of aesthetic styling until 6--that's the first one that really has the savage, imposing look I'm going for, rather than "NASA meets blackberry bramble." 7 was done after a scanning electron micrograph and represents an attempt to give bristly arthropodian setae to a machine...Those could be poison spines, pressure sensors, sample probes, radio aerials, or whatever.

These are all really rough, crappy sketches, but I like the idea and want to do more with it. Will Scrap very soon.