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The Brainstorm's a clever piece of work. Not sure that I'm too fussed on the overall look, but it's quite clear what it's meant to be, and nicely modelled.

The Lictor's looking promising. Actually, right now it's looking like a Transformer... which seems like an awsome idea for a robotic Lictor

Great idea insaniak! Anyone remember Barph's trick he pulled with the transforming marine bike way back when?

I love the Lictor, and the one based on a Serpent Custom (A Carnifex, perhaps?) WIP is magnificent.

Great stuff.

I had the priviledge of seeing Jakob Nielsen's minis yesterday (in ROPECON07 were we both held presentations and workshops) and was filled with inspiration...even if the urge to paint GD stuff is huge - but gaming hobby is just more fun to me...so:

I finished painting the next TWAR (gunfex with T,W and Sv upgrades), working late and starting when I woke up, a tactical firesuperiority system. Set up the photo...and AAARGH camera is in denmark for a week

So I'm Varnishing it, which is actually good as I get to finish it properly by killing shines I don't want and giving it that heavy mahinery feel and then Wednesday I'll have pics.

Nooo! You got my hopes up!  ::grumbles and sits impatiently until Wednesday::

Sorry

I've been thinking and discussing the project with friends, and since there's no official permanent blog accessible to everyone anywhere I'll share the thoughts here incase somebody likes to know more about the stuff going on with the TWAR.

I've been thinking about the Fluff and how a Archtroni Warrior looks under all that "Cybernetics" and armour, and how this relates to scaling up. With the heavy Carni I've made sure the chest/head remain roughly the same size, making it appear as the thing just has some self-locking, heavily armoured feet upgrades to better fit the battlefield role, while Splinter has bird like feet, because he can fly. 40K TWAR are pretty much Archtroni + heavy gear and upgrades, with a sense of "evolution" to battle field role, but there will be constructs "driven" by TWAR.

Brainstorm is a physically challenged Archtroni, but lethally intelligent, and the infantry, m.e.AI are just robots, soulless things, programmed to do their job.

I am trying to imagine something super heavy, and also non humanoid things. Possible something like the Star Wars 4legged walker and flyers too.

I'll wait for Apocalypse of course, but I'm spinning the ideas in my head. and might get the FW book with Nids in it.

If you were technologically very advanced and could evolve yourself for a battlefield role, what would you look like?

This is the question I am asking myself going forward and deeper into the project and design. I am fleshing out and starting to sketch. I am thinking about the "guy" in the armor and how he looks. I'm thinking about the civilians too, and will do something in between, a "doctor" TWAR atleast.

I started a fresh W&N black sketch book for this project and printed photos of the stuff on it. I'll need to share some of the sketching too at some point. I am also collecting a lot of inspiration material in it. Lots of Japanese toys and graphics and miniature pics from artists I like. I also like to look at Nature and the Tyranids and think of their structure and purpose.

There are many parallel creative processes here, even the writing helps despite myself not being a writer type. But it really helps. It's fascinating to see this project become more and more credible and fascinating design study - not just a hobby project.

and finally: The Heavy carni number uno has been named:

"Rampart" and it's an Arsenal-System. (while the dakkafexes will be Assault-Systems)

DAKKADAKKADAKKAAA!!!

Arsenal System "Rampart".
The biggest, baddest TWAR in the army list. It was a *female dog* to photograph because of the size actually.

I tried to work in a feel he's just been through a serious firefight and come up on top. Notice the smoking, still smouldering Baneblade track!



more pics @:
www.pbase.com/migsula/mechzilla

LMK what you think!

*minigun whine ... DAKKDAKKDAKKDAKK*

Totally awesome yet again Migs, and would dig a scale shot to see how big the tanker really is My one crit might be the right hand is a little odd, palm open and up, a bit of an odd gesture for a gun-toting badaft.

I like the 40k bits integrated in there, and also that his head is so similar to Splinter's. Good stuff, looking forward to more more more

Also, this is a gunfex, right? Thump cannon = barbed strangler, rotary = venom cannon?? Or devourer? I think it fits a VC not so hot, Splinter's gun is more VC-y IMO ...

- Salvage

I know, I wanted ti to look relaxed, now it looks limp. Oh well.

As fo the pose, the idea is that the thing "locks" its legs when it starts to shoot. And when it moves, it's slow, but purposeful. The legs are like little bunkers " src="http://s4.images.proboards.com/smiley.gif" /> The lower parts are HUGE! you could have spacemarines camping inside.

The roator cannon is a VC. It's such a cool gun and I have three of the parts and three in the list so it should be clear enough. I slightly disagree and think the converted Eldar missile launcher on the other hand is quite a perfect machine version of a devourer.

I try to work on a porto of a trooper ASAP to really show scale. The base is 60mm and should give some pointers.

Thanks for the comments. Helps to keep going. Dakka is lazy these days, people mostly just view and don't say a thing and sometimes the other, much more active forums feel more useful and motivating.

I'll second the 'hand looks weird' comment. I'd suggest just flipping it over, so the back of the hand is where the palm is now.

Otherwise, excellent work once again. The glowy bit on the end of the tank track is a particularly gorgeous touch.

You sir, have done an amazing job yet again.  This group is really starting to come together.  I surfed your pbase a bit and saw some of the WIP shots of this guy and the lictor, I must say, He really cleaned up, or dirtied up, nicely.  And with all the great battle damage painted on these guys it's making me want to go in more and more on my marines and go nuts too.  Maybe not to the same extent as you've done here, but at least steal some of it ^_-. 

As for the creative process for the army, it really sounds like an amazing journey from scratch to finished products.  And I'm really interested in seeing your sketch work for these guys as well. 

Top notch paint as always.  Have to agree on the hand though.  Just seems a bit out of place.

Wow, nice job

I think his shrimpy head is awesome, and the hand is okay, IMO - its like he's flexing it.

Posted By migsula on 08/16/2007 12:40 PM
I know, I wanted ti to look relaxed, now it looks limp. Oh well.


Thanks for the comments. Helps to keep going. Dakka is lazy these days, people mostly just view and don't say a thing and sometimes the other, much more active forums feel more useful and motivating.

Sometimes it is hard to give comments/criticisms when the work is just so good. You feel kind of like a dolt saying: "fantastic job!" over and over again.

Also, once the new forum is up and running I'll make sure that threads like this get some nice front-page billing to get you some good feedback.

Anyway, I'll say: "fantastic job!" and if I try to find something to give constructive criticism on it would be this:

The first big mech you made (the HT) has rather smallish legs and a big torso but now your Carnifex has big mighty legs and a relatively tiny torso. Was this an intentional choice and are you going to make the rest of the army roughly the same way (the Carnifexes with big legs/small torsos while the HTs have smaller legs/bigger torsos)? If not are you concerned that the two different body styles will look a little disjointed when the whole army is together on the table?

As for the open-palm, I only think it looks a bit wierd from the angle shown in this particular picture. When I browsed the other pics on your Pbase account I felt that the hand (and the pose) worked very well.

When it comes to the painting, I really can't say anything besides "fantastic job!" again. I like the very 'realistic' approach you've taken when painting this army in that you haven't over-highlighted the edge of every panel. Most of the highlighting appears very subtle and the battle damage is top notch.

 

I think I can safely say that this will be one Godzilla army that opponents won't mind losing to!

 

Thanks Yak,

Think of the race as masters of their own evolution (I'll post the fluff soon). They would design themselves for a specific purpose, and in the case of TWAR, for War As I said the idea is that this thing "locks" its legs when it starts to shoot. SO the heavy carnis will be like this, the assault carnis purposefully moving and the HTs and other High I stuff very dynamic. Splinter's legs are modelled like those of a Bird! Because he has flight.

At the same time I wan't to keep the head and most of torsos relaitvely same size as there they need less changes for their role. The Archtroni inside is a skinny, somewhat organic looking thing of which I am sketching too.

As for commenting, I think it's the same for everyone, even worse actually if you don't have a "name" at dakka. The numbers of views in relation to number of posts are quite big/low compared to other places. It'll be interesting to see how we can adress that and get the modeling forum more active, I'll certainly do my best to provide modelling and have been trying to make my friends contribute more of their neat models and blogs too. You should definitely check Warsee project logs for reference!

I added the WIP fluff to the first post.

BTW - it seems I can't edit the topic of my thread? This could be useful in the future as I could add a little info about each update and date.

They look very militaristic and I think your painting style is perfect for models such as these. You've done a great job. I don't particularly like the head but it's such a minor complaint I won't bother. What I'd like to know is how they fit the 40K universe? They don't look like GW models at all (which of course they aren't) so at tabletops they might be completely off place (put one next to a SM Dreadnought and you see what I mean), but what about the background material? Are they robots or is someone piloting them, and if yes then who? Little 13 year old asian boys and girls?

Anyway, the 40K universe is a big place and the only limit is your imagination, so once again my compliments on a job well done.

It was an interesting read. What I'd like to know is who created these NBE's? The C'tan created the Necrons from the biological race of Necrontyr. Did something similar happen here?

I like the Rampart alot. It looks AWESOME and totally epitomizes the look you are going for.

The Zoanthrope....has a foot for a butt. I can't get past that in my head, and General Splinter's legs are too short and clunky.

Aside from that...AWESOME.

- Maybe you could add like a big hulking backpack full of ammo or something to the Rampart, that might help to make him appear bigger, more ponderous and imposing.

awesome read.  Makes me want to model one myself >_<. 

You sir, are an inspiration of what modeling can become ^_^!

edit:  Oh and gib sketches >.>

Posted By migsula on 08/17/2007 12:18 AM
I added the WIP fluff to the first post.

BTW - it seems I can't edit the topic of my thread? This could be useful in the future as I could add a little info about each update and date.

With the current software only mods can alter the title of a thread once it has been posted. Go ahead and PM me or another mod with the change you'd like and we'll take care of it for you.

The new software will, of course, allow users to modify their thread titles.

 

 

Thanks for the comments guys,

A Carnifex looks equally different next to a SM thread . In time I'm sure the link/fittingness to GW stuff will be revealed. I want to do something fresh and unique, but am of course concentrating on the 40k Gothic landscape for its fitting delivery. I think I'll start prototyping the AI foot soldiers which will go a long way in tying TWAR to other 40k armies in terms of size and army feel. Ofcourse the folks I play with are quite a bit more "artistic" and the armies much crazier than you usually see anyway.

Yak - it's ok. Thanks anyway.  I'll wait for the new forum for topic updating. All I had in mind was adding dates for new updates so people know when to look.

I have started an "army challenge" with a bunch of friends. so now there's a deadline each month and by next June I should have an entire army, plus some stratagems and other visuals I am hoping some of my friends will start Dakka Blogs too as some really cool projects are in the making.

I did a base for the first assault-system lastnight. It's mainly just tarmac and I intend to paint some yellow and white roadmarking on it, but also there's a little ruin and a lamp-post there, the TWAR has torn in two and is using the top part as a makeshift hammer. This allows a lot of cool detailing, wires repositioned to emphasise swing/gravity, shattered glass possibly, totally different metals to what TWAR have etc.

The assault system itself is based on this kit:


It will have a 4point attachment of devourer/eldarmissilelaunchers in the shoulder area and shorter legs, with bottom part "open" like on Splinter to communicate the 3+ save. The saves will be nicely WYSIWYG as the Lictor has its legs entirely "open" and much lighter arm armour too.

ALSO just had a little heureka moment.

I've been thinking about/wanting to do some civilian Archoni, but haven't really found away for them to be useful in the army, but then I remembered cityfight stratagems!!

As I want to atleast do an Archoni Doctor and an Artist, they will be medifacility and sacred ground stratagems respectively, small dioramas on 60mm bases " src="http://s3.images.proboards.com/smiley.gif" /> This way I get to game with them - and they will really flesh out the race/background and allow more imaginative concepts than just warriors. In tournaments they can act as target counters.

Looking forward to seeing how you do the road markings.  My cityfight street was somewhat experimental.  I think my biggest issue with it was making the rubble and small rocks on it still look like rubble and rocks, instead of just part of the marking.  All I used was a drybrush and hoped for the best. 

Yours was inspirational, not experimental

I don't use DB atall when I paint my bases on white. That's one of the benefits with white prime. Just diluted paints and washes. I also left the road area clear of debris, just the tarmac texture. Lets see how it goes.

Sick Migs, sick. I have been looking for a good source of model kits online, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks Xenite

I got my Gundam from Tokyo and  from: http://www.tisinc99.com/ in States - Pretty good deals and very fast with fair overseas postage.

I've been slightly sidetracked with doing more Crescent Guard Marines, of which you can see a blog here too but the Lictor is now getting paint! I settled for a darker grey scheme with "cloacking field effects".

I gave him a set of retractable blades instead of swords/weapons. You can also see the WIP assault carni in the background.

I'm intrigued by the 'cloaking field effects'...

Headless wraithlord with poor squished demonettes

Quite groovy lictor, love how the head turned out. Curious about the 'assault fex' if he's the white very gundam-y thing behind the lictor ...

- Salvage