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"I watched it die, convulsing in the burst of small missiles fired by the heavily armoured, more able subjects. Soulless, stupid robot, it was ripped open, shredding it’s unit m.e.AI. with shrapnel. The rest of the m.e.AI. returned fire from cover as designed, but were out of range. More of them died. A Waste of metal I thought, yet so important in war fought in the confines of the subjects’ cities. I felt no pity, just urgency to execute the mission. I noted the latest model had faired better with the less able subjects who wore painted, soft materials. “Imperial Guardsmen” they called themselves.

The Able Subjects saw me, too late. I landed in their midst, Cleaving three in two with a sweep of my blade. Such a rhythm! – flying in space, free, then crashing through ceramite of quality, warmth of the body, strong rigid body, inside; the cracking ceramite again, free in space and repeat. Fine, crimson vapour sprayed from the halves. It clotted with the dust hanging everywhere, and they were friends, the crimson liquid and the thirsty, dry sand. I saw great beauty – It inspired me. I felt four heavier missiles explode against my chest, I felt the heat of the impacts, different, I stored the experience and killed the shooter, the last of them.

m.e.AI.s formed around me, agile and as programmed, adjusting to surroundings. I changed their operating procedure. There was a vibration in the air, Morpher, the castaway, his head anyway, was staring at me, and its eyes told me it had found the mission objective. Morpher is a freak machine, a virus program, a development gone wrong, never to return home again, desperate to prove its loyalty, my most trusted warrior.

Pattern Recoil forming around me I connected, purifiers and filters, double check of a double check and I saw what it had seen. I was ashamed, but I wasn’t going to end up like him. I saw what I needed and disconnected, the information fed through all the TWAR forming the pattern. I am their commander; I am General call sign Splinter, I have chosen war as my canvas, in this life and the next.

In unison we sprung the ambush, like subsystems of a system of war. The Machine fought well. It destroyed Linebreaker, four light cannons proving too accurate, too powerful. Then we got it. The able ones inside fought to death. The battle was dull, planned, unimaginative, routine, but there would be more worthy ones. The priest died too – a pity, I wanted him with soul, not his carcass. But we got the machine soul, a primitive, feral creature. It tried to self-destruct, but Brainstorm jammed its code. There was a furious counter attack from the Able Subjects; bitterly we retreated with the objective. I traded the m.e.AI for smooth escape.

I only saw more waste on the way to extract. I could feel the sadness that would come as it did everyday away from home, reflecting the day and the ones that would follow."


learn more at :

http://www.pbase.com/migsula/mechzilla

DAKKADAKKAAAA!!!!



The Archtroni Background:

In the furthest reaches of the eastern fringe, within the endless uncharted alien space floats a void in the warp, a world made of metals, bathing in a spectre of colour, the world of Archtron.

A race of machines, known as the Archtroni, built this world and possibly others like it in ages predating man. The Archtroni are masters of cold fusion and programs beyond comprehension of other races. They are a race of Architects, Designers and Engineers, friends of the Joakero and mentors of the Ramini. Building machines and software that enables and expands their ability, the Archtroni are in essence masters of their own evolution, but an Archtroni is unable to exist without such a purpose built body of technology and the feed of energy it provides.

There have always been only a limited number of Archtroni, their numbers dwindling possibly from the very birth of the race. The future and development of the race is dependant of the betterment of their designs, of new technologies and of raw materials, of knowledge with the ultimate goal of reproduce. They are a wise, taciturn race, with a melancholic, noble character, improving as individuals, but slowly dwindling in numbers while travelling in their path towards the birth.

For the past millennia a furious war raged between the hive predators of Tyranids and the machine armies of the Archtroni. Having paid a heavy price, but observed and learned, the Archtroni eventually out fought the Tyranids. The Machines came to admire the purity of design of these biological weapons and evolved much of their Warrior Systems accordingly. Hive fleet Leviathan detoured and pushed to imperial space and as much of the space around Archtron was ravaged of all minerals and materials, the Archtroni fleets and world followed.

Archtron scanners recorded signs of species with planets unharmed by the great devourer, rich in minerals and full of machines. One young space faring race in particular was identified for referring to a godlike being, “a father of all machines” and to a planet dedicated to fabrication of machines and understanding of technology. The First consulted the Lodge and the defeat or capture of this god and his subjects became their mission. Late in the 41st Millenium, the most able TWAR (tactical war and reconnaissance) systems were dispatched to gather intelligence and study the enemy, its weapons systems and tactics.

I'm sure you did this in 5 minutes with a toothpick and a broken hand, Migs. Typical.

I patiently wait for the people to complain about WYSIWYG.

Holy shnikeyes! That thing is incredible!

Giant Robot Zilla Nids??

A big :heart:  for you Migs!!

Amazingly fantastic work, and I'm so glad the transformers bug bit you too

Is that a zoanthrope in your WIP folder?

- Salvage

(... or are ya just happy to see me ... ") )

What do you mean? That looks like YET ANOTHER biggerized marine.

*yawn*

(Kidding, of course. I loves it!)

Wow...this is just awesome!!! Do you have a size comparison between the Gundam Kits and GW's Tyranids??
I might have to borrow this idea...if you don't mind! I have a Zilla force and have been wracking my brain for
an opposing force and this is the best inspiration I have had so far.

I was thinking of either Armored Company, or Elysians, but this looks to be the best in terms of cost effectiveness
and modeling possibilities...Keep us posted!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

Um, I think that Wow covers it nicely.  Awesome job as usual.

Question:  What scale Gundam are those?  I have a few of the 1/100 scale kits and they are big.  Are those the 1/144 scale kits?

Again, well done and I can't wait to see more.

~Eric

That looks really awesome .. why the nid codex though, instead of Tau?

I used some gundam stuff for that Tau I was building a while ago

Posted By Necros on 07/12/2007 7:28 PM
That looks really awesome .. why the nid codex though, instead of Tau?

Probably because even though the Tau look anime, they don't fight anime.  Tyranid rules actually better approximate many of the anime big robots, which are HTH combat oriented.

Nidzilla

They are 1/144. The size gives them away but one of the boxes says so on the front. Really awesome idea by the way. Is that a Hive Tyrant with scything talons and a TL-devourer?

Yes, the working name is "Mechzilla" for the project.

Built on 1/144 scale Gundam, which in quality far supercedes GW(The quality and construction has to be seen/held in hand to fully appreciate the quality of design. Gotta hand it to the Japanese!), and in price is ridiculously less. I bought 5 more neat kits for 70€, including airmail and ordered 12 GW 60mm bases for 30€ with the postage. WTF! Combined with tons of GW and 1/35 ttank parts, plasticard and kneadite I can coock up pretty unique things with a theme of my own.

I am using Nids list because it simply fits perfectly! Unique robots with so many different options, very little troops for which I have a cunning idea anyway.

The thing in the wip folder is indeed a very WIP zoanthrope

yup

General "Splinter" - TWAR-Systems Commander (tyrant) - 41st Millenium

NullGravThrusters (flight), Implant Lasers (implant attacks, flesh hooks)), Void Field (warp field), twin Devastators (twin Devourers), Scitar Sword (scything Talons), Advanced Fusion System (strength, ws, init)

Posted By migsula on 07/13/2007 2:56 AM

General "Splinter" - TWAR-Systems Commander (tyrant) - 41st Millenium

NullGravThrusters (flight), Implant Lasers (implant attacks, flesh hooks)), Void Field (warp field), twin Devastators (twin Devourers), Scitar Sword (scything Talons), Advanced Fusion System (strength, ws, init)

Total Awesome, Migs.  It's liberal use of the "counts as" rule by talented gamers that keeps me in Warhammer 40k - fantasy too, but 40k lends itself so well with the way units work - at this point.  Your TWAR project is pure inspiration.

Very interested to see what else you've got cooking - fluff, model and list-wise.

- Salvage

So is gonna be all big "bugs"? Any plans for gaunts or genestealers at all? Maybe a bunch of little flying mini-robots with blades all over em for hormagaunts?

As Mechzilla as possible.

Genestealers is going to be a special mech inspired by theat spots character in Sipderman comics. He will be "morphing" in and out from warpand represented with 6 bases and some neat effect sand modelling

Then there will be some very simple and small AI fodder, the TWAR use for clearing minefields and keeping enemy infantry from slowing down the big systems. All will be designed, defined and revealed in time!

Fluff and list will be posted in a few weeks too. I have it pretty much figured, but want to tweak things a little and not reveal too much, as that to me is the general charm of 40k universe.

Well, first off, the painting and modelling work is ace! It looks like something from one of the hardcore Gunpla magazines.

That said, I have a couple of critiques.

1) The upper body, head and arms are ace, but the lower body looks alot more thrown together and has less aesthetic focus. The bare frame legs really look out of place and clunky compared to the streamlined armored upper torso. (This is also because I can see the mobile suit design lost in there I guess) I know you were probably trying to shorten the legs because the 1/144 scale kits are still tall in comparison to TMC's.

2) The eldar wraithsword and the EML tips just don't seem to fit in all that well with the smooth angular lines of the rest of the mecha. Also, the boxy missile launcher housing looks more like something an ork would use, rather than a high tech mecha. I would at least remove the round power supply and runes off of the wraithsword, and it would probably be less obvious what it was.

Aside from that, great model and great paint and weathering effects.

Good comments.

I'm not going to go into great length explaning the design. I totally understand what you are saying, but.

Anime style is very alien to me, and I am cooking up something that pleases me that is a combination of things. I'm studying masters in design products at the Royal College of Art and work in mobile phone and other tech related product and system design. I bring some of that baggage to everything I do - yet I want to something very different with the crude, gothic canvas of 40k, more millenium falcon than episode 1 chrome kit or product design of today. (infact I want to do something very different with product design too, but that is another story). Wait for some time and you should see very clear, robust aesthetics and a theme, though some reckognisable parts may still bother you (for me the gundam kits forexample are very fresh new area, so I have no fixed locker for them in my head)

The eldar missile launchers were chosen because of their resemblance to devourers, The abrams is a blocky beast and has a round gun Round , even eldarish things will be a recurring theme in weapons. I like how warmachines are "undesigned" and aesthetically crude - like the Apache - there is something very beautiful in its ugliness.

This is a project that I am looking forward to following! Keep cranking Migster.

Hey Migs, you might want to check out this guy's site:
www.fichtenfoo.com/index.html

He has done tons of custom Gundam stuff.  Great site for inspiration in general, but I thought it might be of particular interest to you on this project.

~Eric

I agree with using the nid codex, it can also be used to make a very workable ork army too. various Ork tanx dredz 'n' kanz (carnifex), a few well'ard Ork boyz ( warriors), Ork warboss with mega armour nobz (tyrant and guard), termagrots, snotling swarms (rippers), ork warbikes (raveners), lobberz (biovores - use snotling suicide bombers as spore mines), madboy and minderz (each team together acts as a zoanthrope). All in all you get a killer list out of stuff, but you dont get many infantry orks, unless you consider them a form of ungraded termagant.

Thanks Eric,

fantastic link!

Wanna get married?

Here's the next Mech finished. An Information- and Psychological Warfare-System "Brainstorm"

I'm quite pleased with the light effect afterall and the paintjob in general, but the pics were little problematic pre-varnish as some glazing is glossy and takes wierd reflections. With hindsight I'd done the light effect slightly differently, as it was the first time I really tried it. Not sure if it affects the result, but it would've been faster...but next time.



I've also begun work on the "Lictor" -system. Which will be an extra challenge because it needs to be much smaller than the rest and fit a 40mm base like Brainstorm. Notice the extensive interplanetary and shorter range comm systems and the overall lighter armour.

Migs, This is quite possibly the coolest and most original idea I've seen in years.  Top notch paint and awesome modeling. 

Very cool Migs, yet again. I think the light effect works well enough, but the light itself looks a bit weak - just a yellow disc? I guess it shouldn't be a gem per se, but it seems so empty as is ...

The lictor looks promising, and happy to see the project storm along

- Salvage

Hold the bloody phone: When did the 'nids get Mobile Suits?! Has Gav been trapped in the Tardis, where he is being ravaged by sallow-skinned Victorian era steampunk milkmaids, leaving Jerv to run the Monkey House alone???



I've had a smile on my face ever since I saw the light effect on the drone. Its just brilliant. You have my vote for king of Finland, or failing that, EU president.

Thanks for the commenst guys!

More finished stuff coming up soon and the wip gallery gets regular updates

That is really some solid out-of-the-box thinking here, Migs.

Or is it the other way round ?

As usual you found a painting style to really match the subject. I am curious as to what comes next and would really like to host the gang.

Thanks!

That'd be awesome!!! I'll email you