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KrautScientist: Ironically, about 3/4 of these "hero(s) of a thousand battles" were slaughtered by plasma cannons and zombies Friday. An ignoble end to a Company of heroes.

deadmeat85: Yeah, once I realized this thing is about as well armored as an ork truck, I decided a stripped down HMMWV would work better. Plus more dudes can hang out of the back! Up-armors are a tight fit for even 3 dismounts, much less 10. And yeah, the Taurox can take a "Taurox Missile Launcher" - it's basically a cyclone missile launcher.

Thanks for the comments - I'll have finished pics of all these guys up soon enough. I finished painting B.A. Baracus and putting the van back together last night!

Dan

Thanks to some unpleasant weather in the South today, work was closed. Go mother nature.

Consequently, I was able to get a bit of work done on everybody's favorite underdogs - the Catachan 187th.

First up is the finished taurox. At 50 points, it'll get a team of hardened Catachan boys where they need to go in a hurry - with B.A. behind the wheel they get to re-roll dangerous terrain checks of course - and they'll even look good doing it. While not truly an Imperial Taurox, the EMC (emporer's motor company) series van is both reliable and low-visibility.





Next up is the first completed taurox prime. The 187th Crisis Response Force (CRF) boys don't rate the high-end taurox models the Scions get, but the regimental commander has found a workable substitute in an ancient military service vehicle still popular on Catachan for both its reliability and the uncomfortable ride it provides its owners -the Joint, universal, non-standard kill-em-all vehicle (JUNK-V). They go about anywhere, and with a much lower center of gravity, are actually a bit better in rough terrain than the taller Taurox Prime. The depicted vehicle includes C-wire for the establishment of hasty tangle-wire and a 20' assault ladder for building entry.




And finally, here is S/O team 66, a recce team out of D Co (mobility Company). After extensive field testing, they regiment has found that nothing the Imperium can put together works as well for jungle reconnaissance as a good old fashioned dinosaur. The D Co boys have gotten pretty proficient at breaking the appropriate local fauna and using them to provide mobility and a bit of fire support. The team depicted here is equipped with missile launchers and a few extra days of supply for extended ops.








Well that's all today. I've got a bunch of heavy weapon teams on the work bench. The boys are going to have a lot of sand bags to fill this weekend!

Dan

I finished up a bit of work on the boys this weekend. The final JUNK-V is finished (this one with a mini-gun!) and I put together a size comparison shot to show that one the turret weapon is removed, the 187th's Taruox models are actually Valkyrie transportable - eat it storm troopers.

Here are the pics. As you can see one of the troopers is leaning out of the truck to pull security while his gunner grabs a smoke.







Finally, I've got some WIP shots of the looted tyranids. The painmek hasn't been idle! His stuff is just on the back burner. There's still a lot to knock out on these guys.


More to follow!

Dan

Love the looted 'nids!

Nice dino-riders

The EMC van turned out great, and so did the JUNK-Vs.

And good to see the pain-meks are still at it.

The pain-meks are back in "da shop" this week, and they've been busy.

First up, here's a group shot of 20 looted termagants. After some thought, I decided the boss is going to keep them in line with a runtherd. In the end, a termagant out of synapse (that instinctively lurks no less) isn't much different than a grot with an exoskeleton, and that's right up old skabby's (a skarboy turned runtherd) alley. With his trusty squig-hide whip and a few friendly skull thumpsl, he'll keep the little gitz moving the right way. I may even work a few grot models into the herd.


Next up is Gabby Smashgob. He lost his battlewagon to a charging carnifex, and it made him so angry he smashed the bug's head in with an old bit of tie-rod. Da Boss was so impressed with his work, that he used the remnants to fix him up with a new ride. Sure the new wagon smells a bit in the sun, and she sticks sometimes when shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear, but when she gets stuck in she makes a fearsome mess of things. Da Boss even outfitted her with a set of 'uge exhausts to make sure everyone knows she's coming!





This is a fun project, and I've got a big bits box full of ideas to work with, so expect plenty more to come. I'm thinking about running the hormagaunts with a boar-mounted runt herd and mixing a few squigs in. Grots are to termagants as squigs are to hormagaunts?

Any other wild ideas out there?

Dan

Gabby Smashgob is a work of art what art I have no idea but never the less, it actually looks like something an ork would do really cool conversion

Maybe the first really awesome "looted Tyranid" I've seen so far -- very cool! The best part has to be the use of the Ork Waaghbika mudgard

I appreciate it Lone Dirty - I was trying to think like an ork mekboy when I started assembling her.

Thanks Kraut - I figured since the mek bashed the fex's head in, he'd need some sort of "protekshun" to keep an uppity marine from doing the same thing!

I finished my test scheme models - I've always got to knock a solid character out first to inspire me to paint the rest of the army. Here are the first few:

First up, a Deff Skull runtherd:



Next up is one of his gaunts (gitz?)



And finally, the man himself, the master of disaster, the lootiest looter of them all, Sir Izzac Looten the Pain Mek boss and swarmlord of "'ive Fleet Orkus".



As you can see, I'm shooting for a pretty bright pallet. I picked blue, because as everyone knows, blue nids are the easiest to loot. I'll post a photo that's not quite so washed out soon - the colors aren't quite as vibrant in this pic.

Next up, I'm going to get the first 20 gaunts painted (chore time).

Let me know what you think,

Dan

Well, after a bit of a hiatus, I've got a few updates to post.

Most of the work in the last few weeks has been on the looted nids - these guys are a blast to work on - but I also managed to get a rockin' hellbrute finished up.

Here are the nids:

First up, the finished photos of Gabby Gobsmash.



Next up, a few WIP shots of a looted trygon.


As you can see, he's only been base coated and washed - there is still plenty of work to do on him. You can't see the driver in these shots, but he's buried under the huge iron gob.

Da Boss looted this guy a bit differently than Gabby's Carnifex. After witnessing the subterranean destructive potential of the Trygon in action, da boss decided to set a trap and loot one for himself. An old trukk, a mob of grotz and a bomb squig dressed as a ham sandwich later, Sir Issac Lootin had his hands on a headless trygon body - and a nob with a tooth ache, a bone saw and some hefty sedatives ensured he "found" a volunteer to have his head grafted to the thing. Sure ole skabby can't scratch his hind bits as easily, but he came to terms with his new life style pretty after he ate his third or forth imperial bastion.

Next, I've got the WIP shots of the second Carnifex. Da Boss was a bit more aggressive with this one.




Dork McGork always considered himself an ork's ork. After all, he punted grots, stomped humies, and flailed away with his choppa as well as anyone. All that changed at the 3rd battle of knob's knob, when he saw a full-speed carnifex smash a whole mob of kans without slowing down. Dork was hooked. Forgetting his choppa entirely, he scrambled around the battlefield after the monster for the rest of the day like a fat kid chasing a nomadic ice cream bar over a homicidal obstacle course. When the big beastie finally met its fate after stumbling into the business end of a stompa's mega-blasta, Dork was crushed. He sat on the dead 'fex disconsolately making "poop poop" noises for the hours until da boss saw the mess and had an epiphany. "What does 'fexes do best?" he thought. "an' how can I make 'em do it 'arder?" he wondered. An old deff rolla later, he had his answer.

Now Dork McGork and his steam powered veloco-fex are inseparable. The big guy doesn't have much in the way of acceleration, but once he get's moving, he hurts things good.

Finally, I got a chance to put together one of the new(ish) hellbrute kits. What a treat! I'm continuously impressed with GW's new stuff. It's not cheap, but it is great to work with.

Being one of my World Eaters, he's giving the universal sign for Rock as he prepares to administer a dose of pain and suffering to his foes.





That was a big update - but now I'm back to even keel.

Let me know what you think! I'm always happy to turn your good ideas into my awesome models!

Dan

Brilliant stuff here Kryptmann truly b*ggered up his gambit didn't he

Those looted nids >.< I love the voloco-fex ;O

I don't know what I like more the conversions or the fluff I can actually see Dork all depressed sitting upon the corpse going "poop poop"

These are amazing conversions and you have got the balance down perfectly between the organics and Mekory

I love Roller Veloco-Fex that is just ingenious your paint work is spot on and glad you went for the blue nids brings back the good old days

I look forward to the next update " LETS ROCK "

All looking very cool. But the prize of the bunch is definitely the veloco-fex, great stuff

The Helbrute doing the horns wins absolute best everything forever. That is all.

Llamahead: you're not kidding. They give those radical inquisitors an awfully long leash. I think when ye olde veloco-fex smashes its third or fourth golden throne into necro-deital rubble he'll probably have some explaining to do.

lone dirty, soul, monkey: thanks for the comments - I'm glad you like them. My kids love the wind and the willows, and although it was indubitably unintentional, Mr. Toad was written to be a bit of a speed freak I think.

Kraut - I don't think the World Eaters would have it any other way! My boys are still uncomfortable with the heavy metal overlap between Slaanesh and Khorne though. It makes them feel strange about themselves. Fire, skulls, AND tight leather ass-less pants? What do we do?

Here are a few more guys I finished today - a mob of termagants this time:




The plan is to mix grots and termagants together in giant mobs corralled into battle by the runtherdz.

Dirt-neck couldn't help but grunt and shake his head at the sorry sight his eyes took in as he surveyed the less-than-stellar mob of bugs and grots foraging before him. "Da Boss knowz best" he thought to himself, "or at least he'll krump you good if you sayz he don't" his brain replied. This was a rare bit of sound advice, ork brains being what they were, and Dirt-neck filed it away carefully in the rubbish heap of his memory where it was promptly lost forever. Still, he wasn't sure 'erdin' bugz wuz natural. Sure they were weedy like grots, and they definitely reacted about the same to shootin' (by hidin' in the nearest hole until it was over, the weedy gitz), but they didn't smell natural at all, and after that one time the snotties rigged da drops to explode, Dirt-neck tended to trust his nose. The sluggish wanderings of his inner monologue were interrupted by a fight off to his left. A scrawny pair of grots were trying to steal one of the bugs legs - "it aint fair he gets four to walk wiff an we only gots two!" the squeaky turds asserted. The bug hissed something meaningless in reply. The jury of Dirt-neck's inner judicial system quickly convened under a pair of sloping, knitted brows, and in a few seconds returned a verdict. With a toothy smile, he made his pronouncement "You lot is all guilty of bein weedy an' dumb, an I'm goin' to sort you out proper!" The rest of the trial was resolved quickly with a liberal application of the ole' grot prodder, and as the lot wandered off muttering (or hissing) to themselves about the problems of modern justice. Dirt Neck smiled broadly. "Maybe this is gonna work out fine after all" he thought.

Ork fluff is fun to churn out - it's definitely one of my favorite aspects of the 40k universe.

More to follow,

Dan

I really like your take on the looted bugs, and the fluff you write up is spot on. High Fives all around.

I shifted gears a bit - an old WIP project caught my eye a few days ago, and I felt inspired to pick him up again.

It's such an enormous and time consuming WIP that he's evolved a bit from my original concept. Rather than strictly representing Krakenrock the Black, forefather of all the dragon ogres, he'll also serve as a Khornish archdaemon lord of the mightiest mightiness for my World Eaters and daemons.

I haven't put together any fluff for him yet, but here are a few WIP shots with chuckles the hellbrute thrown in for scale:









As you can see, he's a big lad. It's weird painting something this large, as I've had to work through him in layers. There's still an entire layer of bits that haven't been added, but he's pretty much got to be completely painted before I attach them, or it'll look screwy.

Anyway, more to come - I'm working through the big push to finish the big lug.

Dan

Ummm......big.

Also...very nice.

But mainly big.

Can't call that a miniature anymore do you?
But damn it is a nice sculpt and you gave it a lovely coat of paint o:

soulcow - Yes, I suppose it does stretch the definition of the word miniature.

Well, after a good long while, the Arch-daemon lord is finished. Without further ado:








And one final shot for scale:


He took 2 packs of green-stuff, a good portion of my odds-and-ends chaos bits, an unbelievable amount of warpstone bronze paint, and a couple of dead brushes, but he's finished. If you zoom around the first pic a bit, you can see the various bits of detail work. Apocalyptic gaming will never be the same!

I'll post again with fluff and such later - this guy's worn me out.

Dan

Oh, wow!

That is quite the model. (And it definately pushes the word 'miniature')
Congrats on finishing it. The detail is great, and its definately a testament to your perseverance

Alright, so I'm moving on to a few (physically) smaller projects.

After seeing KrautScientist's centurion-based obliterator conversions, I decided to attempt a few of my own.









The ogre gut plates were inspired, so I shamelessly stole the idea. I also had a bunch of extra ogre arms, so I decided my Khorne oblits would have big meaty arms (like Trogdor). The rest of the conversions were pretty straight forward.

In spite of the hate the centurion models get, I think they make great oblits. They're massive, ponderous looking, and armored. In short, they look the part of 2 wound demonic terminators.

Next up they're getting painted. My thanks again to Krautscientist for the inspiration!

Dan

Glad to have inspired you! Those Obliterators are looking great! The Helbrute parts seem to work absolutely perfectly with the Centurion kit. In fact, I really wish I'd had those at my disposal when building my own kitbashed Oblitz...

Anyway, fantastic work, as always!

In a rare burst of inspired, focused, hobby activity, I finished up the obliterators today.

I guess I already said it once, but it bears repeating: I love the centurion-born obliterator conversions. They look exactly like I think oblits should look, and they dwarf the standard mutilator and oblit sculpts. Here are the finished shots:









And you're right about the hellbrute bits Kraut. The extra bits were how I rationalized spending the extra dough on the actual hellbrute kit, rather than buying a DV brute on ebay. The extra weapons are really wonderful chaos versions of their imperial equivalents.

Hope you enjoy,

Dan

Very nice

It does seem the only feasible use for the centurion kits is as the basis of some conversion, the stock models are grim-ugly. The hellbrute weapons work really well in this context, giving off that mutating weapon vibe the oblits need.

Yeah, I'm not sure the armor-within-armor thing works too well - It sees like a very inefficient design, but it does make the models incredibly bulky, which suits obliterators pretty nicely.

Amazing work, love the devastator conversions.

Thanks to a week of vacation time, I've gotten a good bit of work done.

So far, the looted nids have gotten most of the love.

First up, here are the finished photos of Dork McGork and his Veloco-fex:





Next up, I've got the WIP shots of the most famous fighta' ace in the Octavius sector - Kaptain Killa' Killfasta'. After dozens of of dogfights with the tyranid beasties, a conundrum started lurking about in the cobwebby depths of Da Kaptain's brain. How come the nid flyin' monsta's can charge in an' crump stuff without crashin? He knew from first hand experience that the ork fighta's and bomma's couldn't pull off a similar feat. He'd tried a few times, and all he'd ended up with was a dead grot gunner, a wrecked plane, and a mouthful of busted teef. That, and it inevitably took a good deal of "convincin" to get the meks to build him another bird. How could he, he wondered, fly around and blast stuff but still get stuck in? Thinking not being his strong suit, the Kaptain decided to solve the problem in the orkiest way he could - by making the grots do it. It took a long weekend, 13 smooshed grots, 416 rivets, a dead hive crone, 3 crashed deffkoptas, and a whole keg of squig beer, but in the end he had what he wanted:







He hadn't named her yet, but after the first test run, Da Kaptain knew it was love at first flight.

Any great ideas for her name?

Dan

Really like the looted hive crone.

As for a name how about a Screema Bomma.

Also were the orks on Beast of War weekend Edition show yours? They had some great looted Orks. Starts at 3:40.