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 Bronzefists42 wrote:
....Also FW made some HH rules for Navigators on their website. Thought you might be interested.

Links please!

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/N/Navigator.pdf

Pretty meh in the power armored death fest that is HH (Oh how I love it!) but would be awesome in standard

WS:2 HQ with Instant Death template weapon that you only survive by making an Initiative check? Psychic powers that aren't technically psychic powers but make the unit count as a psyker? Cats and dogs, living together? That's a weird (and interesting) unit.

Thanks guys! Those HH Navigator rules are interesting. I like the idea of non-psychic power powers.

I've got some vehicle progress to share.

First off, I’ve added more detail to the hover chimera, including a servo-skull operated heavy bolter and a great rear hatch from the Taurox kit.




I have the Taurox kit because of my new vehicle project, a counts-as Land Raider I’m calling a Land Crawler. I recently was getting rid of a mouth-guard storage case and was inspired by the shape of it. The curves had a nice art deco feeling and it seemed about the right size for a vehicle.

First off, some inspiration material that I’ve been keeping vaguely in mind while building. I wanted to make something brutal and massive, but also with some deco style to it:


(the classic Capitol Imperialis, Starwars Sandcrwaler, Roberto Cirillo’s amazing train, HARDAC from Batman the Animated Series, the Harkonnen tram from Lynch’s Dune aka best model ever, Navigator tank, Harkonnen ship, and carry-all, all from Dune, Funiculars in Bergamo and Lisbon, and random deco people movers)

My next step was buying a Taurox. I think it’s gotten a pretty bad wrap, but actually has a lot going for it. There are some very strange design decisions, but the kind of nautical deisel-punk styling and all the details are just fantastic. So I’m chopping it up into bits and will try to do most of the detail work on this Crawler with Taurox parts to unify things.






Most everything is roughly tacked in place, and I’m afraid I need to redo the assault ramp because its looking a bit crooked. I’m still not sure how I will build out the top of the crawler (I need to build the assault cannons with enough clearance to make sense, without making the whole thing way too tall) and am debating making the top curved or sticking with angles. I also have an extra set of Taurox tracks and may do 6 total tracks; not sure yet on their arrangement. I do like the double wide sand crawler look. One question will be side hatches in front of or behind the guns. Behind makes so much more sense, but I have a feeling in front may look better. Obviously there’ still a lot do but I’m pretty happy so far! Just hope I keep the momentum up …

Damn! You just keep going from strength to strength, the direction and thought you put into every model is inspiring.

I agree with your assessment on the door placement, in front of the sponsons would look the best, though be completely impractical, but the what isn't in 40k?

Keep it up!

Cool vehicle. I'd vote for doubling the tracks, IMHO at the moment when viewed from the front the tracks look too narrow for the mass of the vehicle. Also, doors behind guns.

It's wonderful. Definitely think it needs more treads, although I'd say just one more pair, so that they are in a line. Perhaps 4 inner, 2 outer spread moving down the vehicle.

The hatch at the back of the Chimera counts as is brilliant too.

I love that you love Lynch's Dune. A train wreck of a movie that does severe injustice to the book, but great visuals.

Also the hatches definitely look better behind, I think if you lower the sponsons to be in line with the hatch it might tie in better. Although I think it's looking good as is.

If you are keen on putting the Taurox hatches to the front you could always put the regular land raider hatches behind the guns. More detail, maybe maintenance/ammo loading hatches but could also be practical escape hatches.

That looks damn good on with da Landship!

Both vehicles are coming along great, excellent choice of style and nice execution

Absolutely approve your sources too, nice aesthetics there!

As for the track arrangement, I'd go with three on each side, and maybe even one more, with a double-width for the rear assembly, if you can get a hold of a fourth set. And a curved top, too, to max out the deco look.

Cool!! I like the styling ideas a lot. ANd abig thumbs up for the Dune refs!

If you're looking for more inspiration, have a browse-through here.
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/01/category-auto-concept-cars.html
That site is filled with the weird & wonderful.

And in general I agree with my comatriots, you should really try to widen the tracks. It will go a logn wat to convey the size and mass of the vehicle. Wider tracks mean less surface pressure. Right now that thing would just sink into any ground it rolls upon.

If you manage to give the entire thing the tauros' aesthetics, it would be amazing.

I'm feeling contrarian, so I say have the entire thing balance on one tiny wheel like a freight train on a unicycle. "Because of this thing about antigravity and inertia cancellation blah blah technobabble blah blah."

Looking great so far. I really like the rounded bulkiness of the crawler.

Thanks! The Lynch Dune certainly is an acquired taste but despite all it's flaws it's still a favorite of mine. I saw it when I was 14 and it just blew my mind wide open. Such amazing art direction and design. And there really are some amazing vehicles on Dark Roasted blend, thanks!

Working out the track arrangement is definitely going to be key; I'm leaning towards two double tracks at the front and rear but that may leave too much open space in the middle. The simplest solution is ditching the tracks and making it another hover vehicle! But I've got two sets of taurox tracks so I'm going to try to make them work.

In the meantime I've built an extension for the top of the hull. I was tempted to go the easy route and make it boxy, but instead built a curved structure using a plastic spoon divided into four quarters, and then built out with struts traced from the shapes of the spoon sections:

(there you can also see some extremely rough track tests)

I then wrapped very thin plastic card over the top. This was quite fiddly and didn't end up perfect, but with some putty and lots of sanding I think it will look great, especially when hidden behind bits and rivets!

i really like the staggered tracks on the front i think if yo uflipt it for the back onesaswell it would look cool

Reminds me of an old steam lorry (link 1, link 2, link 3). Perhaps some kind of engine unit with wheels/treads at the back as with the vehicle in the link 3 might work? You could use the double front tracks and it would turn from the rear axle, like forklift truck.

Spoons for the curved plastic top? Brilliant touch, and stored for future use, for sure.

I'd still think the three track line (with a double width set in the third line at the back) might work, two doubles - front and back - will not look bad at all either!

Coming along well!

Love all of this.
Subbed

Thanks guys! Plastic spoons are very useful! I used one of them to make the curved cockpit area of my Storm-raven stand-in. But I'm afraid I'm setting aside the land crawler for now.

I signed up for Adepticon! I haven't played WH40k in many years and editions, but would love to see the household in action, and thought it could be fun. I'm not ready for the competitive scene so signed up for the 40k friendly. This means that now I need to put together a 1,500 pt army by March. I was surprised to find out that if I were to finish everything i've already started I'd have easily over 2,000pts, and it will actually be hard to fit all of my favorite models into a single army. So now I need to focus on finishing things ...

First off, I've turned my attention to the Indentured Astartes. If I want to include my dread knight stand-in (which I most certainly do), I need some Grey Knight stand-ins (thanks to the splitting of Inquisition and GK codices after I started this project), so I'm happy I was already mostly done with these guys. I've switched out a few heads and gone over them with green stuff and a final pass of rivets and extra details. And while I was at it I threw in a fancy servo-skull, encased in a multi-sensor dome.






Next up I will probably work on finishing the Navigator in the Dreadknight suit. The big question is if I bring the Land Crawler or the Drop Ship. I won't have points for both and am leaning towards the dropship — it has lots of problems but I've already spent so much time on it and I think it may make more of an impact, and fit the theme of the army better (space-bound and all), even if the land-crawler may be a better fit aesthetically. Also the dropship would be a bit cheaper and allow me to include more henchmen and fun things. In any case I think it will be satisfying to finish, paint, and base more models, and having Adpeticon as a goal will help me stay on track and not get so distracted.

I especially love Space Jesus -- the one with the iron halo and power axe.

 SisterSydney wrote:
I especially love Space Jesus -- the one with the iron halo and power axe.

I SHALL WELEASE BWIAN!

Thanks. "Space jesus" is my favorite as well. His head is from the empire archer set and is really well sculpted. I'm also pretty sure Grag used the same head on his amazing Pontifex, but without the cap.

I can't stop making servo-skull things! I threw together another globe-based drone last night, and I'm very happy with it (shown here with a Beacon priest because I like how this sphere motif is working out).




It wasn't until this morning that I realized I inadvertently created a grimdark version of the new adorable soccer ball droid form the Star Wars trailer.

Well, there are also the Evil floating ball droids from the prequels (which got CGI'd into the original Star Wars as well).

I've been busy with work but finally have an update.

First off, I've added hair to one of female henchmen. It was pretty fiddly but I'm happy with the result. Now as soon as I scrub the olive oil off of the greenstuff I can prime the terminators, beacon priest, 2 servo-baubles, and the 2 henchwomen.



But I've mostly been working on the Navigator in the Void Knight suit. I finally decided on an optics set up and built that as well as adding lots of details everywhere. I've also turned the cannon into a regular gun instead of a flamer — that was mostly a concession to game-play, and now that pyscannons are worth using, I'm back to my original conception of the gun. Some type of energy cannon seems much more suited for void-combat than a giant flamer anyway. Anyway, I'm almost done! Next up I will add some chunky fingers on the manipulator arm, extra gubbins on the cannon (including a big power cable), random details, lots of rivets, and I think a magnetized shoulder cannon on the manipulator arm side. I would also build a sensor-pod type thing that can replace the shoulder gun on the magnet mount when I only want one gun.

More really awesome work since the last time I read through the thread

Does the walker have a giant .... knife-thing? Ouch.

Very cool as usual.

Thanks! Yes, that's a giant power-bayonet.

Great model, mate! The complete blog is such a great source of inspiration! Thanks for sharing this awesome stuff