Hey Santobel, thanks... glad you like it (and I also saw the Guyver similarity... though I don't know if that's what Blackhand was using for his inspiration).

My yellow...

Base color:
1. Army Painter yellow primer.
2. Sepia wash.

Blending:
3. Golden Yellow ---> Bad Moon Yellow (which isn't made any more... basically any light/bright yellow)

Like with any blending, use really thin paint so it's nearly translucent... it'll take a lot of coats as you blend upwards but the shade lines will be less obvious & it gets easier the lighter it gets (as the base gets built up underneath the lighter shades). The current dread has not been taken up beyond whatever the current light yellow is that GW is making (can remember the name) and I think it looks pretty decent, but I may blend it a little higher in the full sun areas to help give a little differentiation between the yellow and gold. I'll use the Bad moon yellow mixed with a bit of white for the edge highlights.

Gitsplitta wrote:@Yggs: Thank you for reminding me... I'd forgotten. I'll add them eventually.

Well, I won't!!

Gitsplitta wrote:
@mullet: They are a loyalist chapter that rebelled against the Imperium, then surrendered. They lost their home world & were sent on a 100 year "suicide" crusade into the maelstrom as punishment. The shattered remnants of the chapter have now returned, and they are rebuilding slowly.

Or is it they pretended to surrender, so as to act as spies & deceitful forces among the Imperium? Who can trust a whole chapter that's sided with filthy heretics, then bowed like cowards to the Emperor's might, then were sent on a suicide mission in the Maelstrom THEN lived to tell the tale? Isn't this last statement a proof of their collusion with the tainted powers that lie within the Empyrean?


[erh, on a side note : did the trick work?]

Here's a throwback from page 7 of the blog that illustrates the yellow step-by-step, without the edging step. My current blending technique is more refined than this so the transitions are smoother, but it kind of depends on the figure. The small panels in parts of the dread can be hard to do cleanly.

... and yes Yggs... it did work. Thank you!

@Santobell: Sorry forgot to answer your question. I'll use the head that's in there. I experimented with other options when I was in the build stage but didn't like how they looked.

Gitsplitta wrote:Today's offerings...

1. Finished conversion: added sling, marksman award, decided to save purity seals for later. Also decided to add spiky bitz after the fact as it's much easier to blend without them. Building the gun was fun, getting it to fit in a natural pose with the arms was not.
2. Yellow spray primer.
3. 2 layers of sepia wash.
4. First color-up (golden yellow).



5. Next lightest shade (2/3 golden & 1/3 sunburst yellow)
6. Lighter still (reverse above, then all sunburst)
7. Final product after highlighting w/ Bad Moon Yellow (do they even make this color anymore??)

So, no comment in trying to defend the "noble" ideals of your would-be loyalists?

Meh, I guess my gnarled speech failed in its attempt to crumble your demeanour... Damn Loyalists!!

I do not think they make bad moon yellow anymore, i think it is called sunburst yellow now.

Yggdrasil wrote:Or is it they pretended to surrender, so as to act as spies & deceitful forces among the Imperium? Who can trust a whole chapter that's sided with filthy heretics, then bowed like cowards to the Emperor's might, then were sent on a suicide mission in the Maelstrom THEN lived to tell the tale? Isn't this last statement a proof of their collusion with the tainted powers that lie within the Empyrean?

I had attempted to block that out... but NOOOOOOO.... you just *had* to bring it to my attention again didn't you?! Fething nurgling...

Yes, they failed to be faithful to their Emperor...
Yes, they failed to successfully rebel...
Yes, they failed to eliminate the Red Corsairs (I assume)...
and
Yes, they failed to die in the attempt...

There... you happy now?! They're as freaking pathetic as every other space marine chapter out there! You mean to tell me you actually want your 9' tall, genetically enhanced super-soldiers to be competent?! Hand an unforgiving superstitious theocracy steeped in ignorance and myth a perfect weapon and *then* where would humanity be?? The only thing that keeps the "Imperium of Man" bearable is that it's military leadership can't find it's own *ss with it's hand, allowing a smidgen of dissent and free spirit to exist around the edges!

So there you have it.... Mantis Warriors... habitual feth-ups from beyond the stars!

...

ha ha ha

Red Corsairs = win!

Mantis Warriors = fail

...

on the other hand

Gits' Mantis Warriors = win

even though:
- they're not to be trusted
- will never get their homeworld back
- and will never defeat the Red Corsairs

[vox-cast voice with forceful breathing] Oh, anger was the kind of reaction I had expected, I can see it in the way your marines are gowned with black patterns...

The dark side of the Force awaits you, Git!!!

Tonight's progress... lots of nit-picky little stuff, rivets, skulls, touching up yellow, rocks on base, purity seals, base grey for marble, cables, etc. The brown on the left arm (CCW) is just a shadow from the body due to uneven lighting.

Utterly outstanding.

Fantastic Git! Are you going to be putting some of those tall grasses on the base of your dread? I hope so.

Yes, and I'll do a little tutorial on my flocking/basing system with step-by-step shots at that time. He's actually coming into focus finally, which is pretty exciting after all this time!

Looks good as always

Cool dread! Do you plan on adding any heraldry to the shin guards or shield?

Blackhand those new heads are awesome! I like the brutal look alot.

I think the models are awesome.I cant wait to see the mantis helmets put to use.

Jealous :(

Looking extremely good! I take it this represents the final decision on the head? (You were worried about it not being a focal point previously I recall - being done in black...)

Yes... well... sort of. I plan on counter-changing the camo pattern on the black head (yellow camo pattern vs black) & see if that works. If it doesn't , I'll probably go to a white or deep gold helmet. I suppose I could even do green if it came to it, but we'll finish out the current idea before abandoning ship to something else.

Stick with the black helm on your dread... I think it looks ace, even with out the cam pattern.

White or red dould be Imperial fisty, Gold might get lost amongst the yellow, and not sure about the green.

Sometimes simplicity is best.... don't overdo it.

Good advice dantay. I'll "finish" the model as is, then everyone can chime in. If consensus really goes against the black I'll think about changing it, but my instincts said black... so I'll start by trusting them.

maybe white or grey instead of black? i don't mind the black but would like it to stand out more.

I actually love the way the shadow makes the CCW arm look. Not sure how hard it would be to replicate in paint, but may be worth a though.

Funktastic. the weapon swaps look flawless.

congrats on passing 40 pages of responces for this blog.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
also consider doing some script on on or both of the leg plates.. just a thought


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also consider doing some script on on or both of the leg plates.. just a thought

At 75,000 views I'm going to throw a party... or something.

There will be a lot of embellishment... banners, free-hand, etc., this is just the base paint job. Never fear, more to come.

A party is definately in order Gits! Any plans for when it hist 100,000 views? (possibly before the beginning of the new year)

Only 4181 views to go before the target.....

I like the latest dreadnought. Nice shading.

Let me think about it. I still hope to go to Adepticon this year so we could do something there, but that'd only be a very small number of folks... hmmm... have to some up with something that everyone can be involved in.

it would be very cool if you could set something up!! i would totally go!!

Just a little progress tonight, but still progress. Got the writing on the purity seals and the lenses done, along with a few repairs. Maybe a pic tomorrow night if I get enough done.

That paint job is looking solid. I hope I can pull off the yellows that well when I get around to the Evil Sunz in my list.

Can't wait to see the Ven dread Git.

just finished reading all 41 pages in one day and was wondering if you considered using the wings from the tau vespids for your assault marines? im picturing somethin like the sanguinary guard (i think) the jump pack with the wings between it and the body

Hey polari! I'm honored to be your first post on dakka (at least that's what your stats say). I'm not sure I know what the wings on a vespid look like. I'll have to look it up.

Thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for reading!

i think he's right. the vespid are a little locus like

I think they're too small. They look neat, but I don't think they'd be believable moving the bulk of a space marine.

Looking good Gits, keep up the good work.
how about blue bottle wings? they have a nice shape do them and it would be believable that they could move a space marines bulk if done to the correct proportions.

Greets oaktree, thanks!

"blue bottle wings"?

Not sure what they are, can you provide a pic or link?

A blue bottle is a type of fly.
http://www.harpercollege.edu/ls-hs/bio/dept/guide/gallery/flies_scorpion_flies/original/blue_bottle_fly_lucilia_sericata.jpg

Actually I knew that... thought you were referring to a type of model given the context. I was thinking more along the lines of dragonfly or grasshopper wings as I believe they are closer to a preying mantis wing. Not too dissimilar from what you're proposing, just more elongated. But I want to see what graven and Blackhand come up with before popping off too much. Don't want to stifle anyone's creativity.

Sorry about the confusion, a conversion of my friends came to mind while i was reading through your blog.

I dunno Git. I think the Vespid wings might be worth another look. The command wings at least. I think the Vespids are suppose to be pretty big, like the Kroot. So the wings might look bigger on the marines.

Also the silhouette reminds me of the chaos packpack vets.

It's a great suggestion, no worries! Once I get the ven dread done I'll be looking to finish up the sternguard squad. Be a bit yet before I'm ready to work on the vanguard so there's time to consider lots of different options.

A vespid is slightly larger then a marine i think been a while since ive seen a vespid model since i run an alien free tau army *gasp!* i know no kroot but i think it would be proportional looking at real insects it looks bout right

The Guyver had a sequel???????

looking great keep up the good work!

Don't forget, the wings won't be holding the marine up - that'll be the actual jump pack. The wings will be for guidance.

I actually happen to have a lone vespid commander on my desk at home. Came in a box of tau crap i decided to trade for a while ago.

If you like, I can pop up a comparison pic when I get home. I can even sticky-tac the wings on a marine to give ya a feel of the idea?

Sure RA, that would be great! Thanks!

Alrighty!

Side-by side comparison (gah! so orange!? stupid light >< )


and on the back of a tac marine:

wow that looks better then i thought...they do look a lil small now but they work for the vespid right?

the wings arent big enough i think, thou it looks better than i first thought

Size is a bit small , but I also kind iof feel they are a bit ragged looking, and more organic then I think of when I imagine a space marine equipment. Even the wings on a Sang guard jumppack have machined areas on them to show that they are Mechanical wings as opposed to a real feathered wing.

Noit to dump on your ideas! It could be a simple to solution to the Mantis Jump Pack Conundrum!

Problem is that these need to be believable as imperial constructs. Not alien or chaotic technology. That's one of the main foci of the mantis warriors return (at least in my version of it), that units like the vanguard and assault squads that would have taken heavy casualties during the crusade would have been re-supplied by Mars with new equipment on their return to the folds of the Imperium. Even extreme designs like the sanguine packs are based around standard Imperial tech designs... the vespid wings, cool as they are... are not.

I see a couple of problems with vespid wings.

1: They're metal.
2: A box of vespids are expensive, especially if you plan on just using the wings.
3: They're pretty bat looking. They'd be more in style for a night lords army.
4: As others have mentioned, too organic and realistic to be believed as a current imperial machine.

Gitsplitta wrote:Problem is that these need to be believable as imperial constructs. Not alien or chaotic technology. That's one of the main foci of the mantis warriors return (at least in my version of it), that units like the vanguard and assault squads that would have taken heavy casualties during the crusade would have been re-supplied by Mars with new equipment on their return to the folds of the Imperium. Even extreme designs like the sanguine packs are based around standard Imperial tech designs... the vespid wings, cool as they are... are not.

You may have to make them and then cast the one you like the most do you want them to be super bug-like or just and unorthodox looking wing shape? you could also just use the sanguine packs without wings at all.

Ok then, I didn't really want to show my WIP till the sang guard packs arrived but I was kinda thinking of something like this....



Instead of the segments on a normal insect wing I thought we could use use something similar to the power vanes on a power weapon to mimic them but still keep that imperial look.

Here is the two wing version on a marine, I have cut the wings down about 3-4mm as these were a bit long IMHO.
Believe it or not Manitidae have two sets of wings, one that has a full range of movement like a dragonfly and a second smaller set that is attached at the bottom end to the abdomen.





And here the marine is again with just the one wing
A lot less butterfly-like huh?



Oh and just for kick here is a pick of the Mantis Helm on the marine all by it's lonesome



So Questions..

What do we think of the Power Vanes idea?

One set of wings or two?

Is this TOO robotic? should we find more of a happy medium between an insect wing and my design?

Cheers

BLACKHAND

I like the wings.. but I don't think you'll get flybuys points on that one BH!

Was irony an accident or sheer insideousness?

Nice big wings.

Damn! I see that damn symbol all day every day and didn't even think about it, in my defence I tried to paint over it!

(For everyone not in NZ, the blue symbol on the longer wing is for "flybuys" a card that lets you collect points toward air travel...Gak, I'm even plugging it when I'm off the clock!)

Lol ironic.

Love the power vanes idea. I think the double wing looks more dragonfly than butterfly - I guess you could cut down on the width if it was confusing. When i was working on my/Gitsplitta's Stormboyz Nobz - the original idea for the wings was to mimic the Imperial Acquila - don't know if that idea helps any... Also, I'm thinking having the wings angled down might look better as well (especially if he's not actually in flight)

And keep in mind there's going to be the engine from the Sanguine pack in-between them, so they'll tie in to the SIC as well. Like those Blackhand, it's a good look. And I'm still toying with the idea of making the Vanguard true-scale, so size might not be an issue. I would think that as long as the wing tips don't touch the ground you're OK.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

*sniffle*

Look guys... it's a real Mantis Warrior. *sniff* I'm so proud!

Personally I think the smaller of the wings should be as large as you go. The biggest wing just seems to me to be too large, of course that is imo.

@Arakasi - I think on a marine though the aquila wings will just end up looking like necro scryer wings.

It will be easier to judge how big to make the wings when the jump engine arrives as I will know where the join between the wing and engine will be. As it is I mounted the end of the wing in the middle of the marine's back and in reality it will end up even further out near his shoulder and lengthen the wing even further.

Here is a pic or 2 of the mantis's wing setup I mentioned earlier, this may not be indicative of how every mantis species is formed but it is pretty funky looking


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3351/3335099444_00f8621036_o.jpg

http://pixdaus.com/pics/12569459168spb9NZ.jpg

And how sick is this guy?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3588/3352120066_a22402fba0_o.jpg

Mantis are so cool

Your 2nd link didnt work, but the first pic..... wow, looks amazing. very creepy looking.

Btw nice mantis warrior, Gits is right to be proud.

Weird they work for me :(

And how sick is this guy?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3588/3352120066_a22402fba0_o.jpg

Mantis are so cool

Wow, look at the spikes in that clawage.

@blackhandsecond link said it had expired :(

Seriously nice though

Hmmm... all the links worked OK for me. Man those are colorful and highly ornamented. All kinds of possibilities there for translation into marines.

I like the camo patterned mantis, its legs seem a bit fragile, but flippin' heck it looks like the stuff nightmares are made of. I wouldn't want to be attacked by that

I wasnt sure about the helmet with the 2 blades sweeping backwards like antennae, but now it totally makes sense.

i really like that wing concept! i would go with it

mad idea about the vespid wings. if you would mak some sort of single tube jet pack??? you get my idea??? i think it will look mechanic enough and not too chaotic.

Obviously you have your own ideas about the look over your army. I have seen this chapter before and was inspired to create a Mantis army myself. But since that thought, ive been side tracked by the new BA releases, a soul drinkers army and salamanders army. Needless to say I wont get around to the mantis at all. I had the idea of chanigng the color of the arms, because I wanted to emphasize the importance of these appendages the real arthropod. I also wanted to use the BA rules list and make them more of an assault army list, I thought it would be pretty sweet. Anyway, this was the color scheme I was toying with, your wlecome to use it if youd like. I look foward to some photos of the new army!

Actually it idea of treating the limbs differently is an interesting one Element... I'll kick it around. And more to your point, I don't in any way suggest that my interpretation of the Mantis Warriors is definitive. From the beginning people have suggested that the BA dex might be a very natural fit, and I tend to agree. One could even go the the CSM for inspiration, depending on how you interpret them and what part of their history you're shooting for. My versions is just where I see them or perhaps... where I would like to see them.

Anyway it's an intriguing idea... thanks for putting it out there!

I would even go as far as to say that the SW codex could have some interesting places for fluffy units, def the lone wolves.

maybe have "companies" for each codex, thou that would be a ton of marines. but it could lead to some interesting conversions.

I believe Git wants to make it a playable army. different codexs make that difficult. who wouldn't want to combine units from all the various codex's. all the best feature of the unique chapters..

i mean various different army lists, so all lists can be played rather than a list of various units from various armies.

such as:
2nd company uses tons of jetpacks, hence BA codex
3rd company uses more reg SM format hence SM codex
4th company is full of marines who feel awful about their past deeds and believe in cont. their crusade, maybe SW or BT.

Each company is a playable army under one rulebook, but he can choose between them.

make sense?

Ba or Csm. Yeah I think they would fit well into these. I still want to see some finished mantis arms. *I liked that concept*

It's coming Finch... but will have to wait it's turn. There's a long list of things that are more urgently needed to make the army playable then the Vanguard (though none are quite as fluffy).

I understand.

Here's progress so far... things added since last pic: lenses, rivets, purity seals, marble tablets, lots of fiddly little touchups, two-tone exhaust (subtle), all skulls done, beginning camo.

I will leave the leg plates clean for now. Am debating what to do with them. The are the best platform for the camo pattern on the whole front of the dread, but I have heard the calls for other types of ornamentation. So if anyone has a suggestion... now is the time.

OH, and he has a name... Brother Dacinneaus, or "Dace" for short.

I don't know Git, I think just keep it simple for now. I like the nickname.

Looks like you already started on the camo
I think you should go for consistency. Camo pattern ftw.

If you really want some ornaments on the shin guards I would just GS a simple Mantis warrior symbol on. Although camo would be nice, like 360 said.

Wow that last Mantis was a total new level of cool.

BH you read my mind on those wings.

The Return of the Mantis Warriors is indeed a proud and epic moment nice work guys

When and if you do camo on the dread are you going to upscale it? I worry that camo in the same size as the marines would look too busy if replicated on a big dread...you've probably already thought of it though

I thought it was upscaled. Are you going to put dread sized grass on the base?

Bit late in the game, but molding the pattern on the shinguards woulda been ace.

Totally unrelated question.... how does one add an actual link into one's signature (as opposed to the string of text I currently have)?


@WM: Molding what pattern?

Don't you do a Url link? Sage would know.

Molding the Camo pattern in. The black leafy thing.

Ah, got it. But I'd wonder if it would be a bit odd to have only one set of molded camo when the rest was just painted on. My inclination is to go with the camo pattern with the caveat that I may do a MW symbol on the right leg.

We'll see what shakes out as the project progresses.

Gitsplitta wrote:Totally unrelated question.... how does one add an actual link into one's signature (as opposed to the string of text I currently have)?


@WM: Molding what pattern?

Type a < followed by everything in brackets ( a href=""> ) put your stuff in between the "" and remove the Brackets

Beautiful work mate. I'll go out on a limb and say leave the Ven Dread now - it works as is.

I really like the dread as it is, i do agree with the K I S S principle.
If you do something with the shinguards, there will not be too much room for camo pattern...... which imho would need upscaling, however the camo on the feet is a nice nod to it MW roots and as inmygravenimage says, it works as it is.

It does look beautiful. Like everyone else I am enjoying the MW's progress and eagerly anticipate what comes next.

If you are gonna truescale the sternguard, are you gonna buy the parts or make them yourself?

Btw, i cluse copy and paste to put in my url links (url button--- paste here --- url button)

How didyou paint the marble gitsplitta? It's looking great! And I have wanted to learn how to paint marble for a while now, would be nice to get an answer, cheers.

Santobell wrote:

Gitsplitta wrote:Totally unrelated question.... how does one add an actual link into one's signature (as opposed to the string of text I currently have)?

Type a < followed by everything in brackets ( a href=""> ) put your stuff in between the "" and remove the Brackets

Erh... As for me it's just:

[url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/289929.page) http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/289929.page [/url],

with the " ) " replaced by " ] "


As for the shins : go with Camo, it's already looking so good on the feet!

I love him Git. But I do have a super minor complaint. When I first read his name plate I thought it said Dike. Then I read it again and it looked more like Dake. I still don't see Dace.

I believe Gits is using a stylised Greek C Ice, its basically a < shape. That's probably where the confusion lies.

Lennysmash wrote:I believe Gits is using a stylised Greek C Ice, its basically a < shape. That's probably where the confusion lies.

Ah! I see it now, minor complaint removed.

Ooh, nice yellow dread. Very sexy.

Boy... so many good comments...

@Santobell, dantay, Yggs: Thanks for the technical advice guys... I'll 'speriment a bit & see if I can make it work.

@Graven: Thanks my friend... it's getting close. You're right, don't want to overdo it.

@dantay: Thank you! Yeah, good point about the shin guards... wouldn't want to distract from the impact of the figure by mucking them up too much. I may have mistyped earlier... the sternguard are my salute to my beginnings in 40k and as such, are cobbled together (mostly) from the original plastic beakie marines. It's the Vanguard that I'm thinking of making truscale. If I do, I'll use the kits that Steve Smith Miniatures has been working on. They've been slow in coming but since I haven't been in a hurry I'm not very concerned about it.

@Rose_Mountainz: I used the method here... http://www.chestofcolors.com/cofc-postnuke/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=45&page=1, and did it poorly by-the-way. But... with the text over the top it worked out OK. I think it would take a lot of practice and a bigger object (like the base in the tutorial) to really get a handle on it.

@Yggs: Thank you sir!

@Ice: Thanks, and yes... it is difficult to discern the letters. I'll re-do that 'er I'm done.

@Lennysmash: You nailed it Len, thanks.

@malfred: Ah, if only my wife was so easy to please...


Allright, we'll go with the camo... that's where my inclinations were leaning but it's nice to have them confirmed by the mob. Once the camo is down I'll add a couple of flowing banners hanging off the autocannons and then the base. The end is in sight my friends...

Gitsplitta wrote:@Lennysmash: You nailed it Len, thanks.

No worries, glad to see my classics degree is already paying for itself, lmao.

a peach of a mantis - http://1x.com/OEfullSize/33666-fullsize.jpg

Ah, that butterfly is going to get pwned.

weetyskemian44 wrote:a peach of a mantis - http://1x.com/OEfullSize/33666-fullsize.jpg

Bye bye flutterby lol....the mantis is gonna get you!!!

And that is why anything goes for a crest or antenna on a Mantis Helm!!!

I agree

I love that marine Black hand!

Yes the marine is excellent, when are we gonna see some paint on it?

Dread is looking awesome. Not sure if it's the completed details or the angle of the photograph, but the black head is now working for me. Great work (as always)

Well, due to a long weekend, awesome weather, three massive barbecues and the death of my external hard drive I didn't get anything done on the helmets Gits..sorry...

..If it helps I didn't any work on any of my projects done either

What I did get done this afternoon was slap a coat of paints on the Mantis test model..excuse the hachet job this made me realize how long its been since I actually painted anything!











And yes Gits, that is a roughly and hastily built mantis shoulderpad..damn thing came out looking like a transformers logo

Sweet absolutely sweet. Nice sword.

Before I foolishly posted him up with a Mantis Helm this guy was going to be a Samurai Marine, big katana with a wazikashi, had a whole layered helmet with crest idea floating around but after reading Gitsplitta's blog and seeing that there is now an asian sub theme to the Mantis Warriors I'm pretty hapy with how he looks

Ah I see now.

Beautiful Blackhand! He really looks great!

Anyone know any sources for appropriately sized japanese swords (wakizashi, kitana, nodachi?

At first I wasn't in favor of such a major change to the helmet, but the paint on it actually changed my mind. I like it. The only things I wonder about would be to play with the length of the crest (a bit shorter) or maybe different crests for different types of squads...tac, asualt ect.. oh and ....resist the urge to call them sleestak warriors. (humor)

I like the helm.. love the eye lenses. Imagine where you could go with the terminator helmet! (things that make you go Hummmm.)

I like the look and the overall effect of the helmet and sword, it turned out fantastic! In my head I only see the helmets on the your green marines, will you be using those on your camo guys as well?

Nope. The Sternguard will all be based off of the original beakie maries.... as that is consistent with my history/fluff.



Well, I trotted out a little 1000 point army yesterday for a game down at our FLGS... not really Adepticon legal but it was a good practice for how to build a viable 1000 pt list. They did well vs. a mech eldar list that managed to effectively take out both dreads in the first shooting phase. It was just sternguard, libby and scouts after that. Drew the battle which I'll take as a moral victory.

The game did point out that it's going to be very difficult to make an army that looks and feels right at only 1000 pts and has an Adepticon legal FOC. (only one of each category besides troops). This is going to take some thought and experimentation.

Looking good, nice to see more badab war stuff as I've just started making up some raptors.

That marine is awesome! I want one

Little bit of a painting update: Playing with my scouts reminded that even though I've had them for over a decade, they aren't even all fully painted. So I'm taking a short break away from my Ven Dread to at least finish their basic paint job. Nothing complex (these figs all have a very basic paint job and I'm not inclined to completely re-do them at the moment), but I'll finish painting them, touch up the cloaks and guns, drill the barrels and paint the lenses properly & finally finish flocking the bases. Since they will be a consistant part of my regular force... it seems prudent to spend a little time making them look decent, if not particularly ornate. I'll post a pic of the squads when they're complete & will probably continue working on the dread at the same time. Be nice to have both of these projects completed & off the table.

I've thought about using Lego Katanas for Marines.

That dude looks great BH. Love the Predicon logo

Well, I just ordered a couple of "weapons packs" from museum miniatures in the UK & "The War Store" sells 28mm nagi's that I can either us that way or trim down into katanas. But they're out of stock at the moment.

So we'll see how those all work. Of course these will be normally proportioned weapons... not the ridiculously large ones that GW uses... but what the heck... it's worth a shot.

The one I used was from the Sanguinary guard kit and just had part of the hand guard carved off, expensive way to get them though.

Yup, though it does look really nice!

BLACKHAND wrote:wazikashi

what? do you try too say WAKASASHI? i never heard of wazikashi might be a other name but i never heard off them. and i traine bujikan (the original samurai war techniekse). This has however gave me an idea what if the Inquisitors have a small deamon hunter attachment. you could give them mantis like wargear. you could give them a naginata as there count as power weapon. but thats my 2 cents

Well guys... I hold in my hands a whole bunch of brand new Mantis Warrior shoulder pads... *grin*. And so it begins.

Yayyyyyyyyy!

fatty wrote:

BLACKHAND wrote:wazikashi

what? do you try too say WAKASASHI? i never heard of wazikashi might be a other name but i never heard off them. and i traine bujikan (the original samurai war techniekse). This has however gave me an idea what if the Inquisitors have a small deamon hunter attachment. you could give them mantis like wargear. you could give them a naginata as there count as power weapon. but thats my 2 cents

In France, wakizashi are short blades, (and usually paired with a katana, IIRC?), I guess BH swapped the "z" and the "k"?

I suppose I should paint one up to try out the color scheme. I just bought my fist box of regular marines in 20 years yesterday so I'd have some "modern" armor to use for my troops (vanguard and such). I guess I was a bit shocked at the price normal dudes command, but I bit the bullet and paid up anyway.

Indeed, there has been a many rises in prices these last years... If guess it's the same for smokers, the increase in price won't prevent them from buying cigarettes!!!

Amen to that! *Lights up a space marine*

Looking forward to some standard MW green goodness.

dont know if its already been mentioned, i was looking through an ancient wd today, the one with the original badab article, have you thought about doing some in the tranquility campaign sniper colours? yellow with black, i could upload a pic if you havnt seen it. anyway nice plog, i like the helmets

Badass.

@Calibanite Lion: Hey there. I'm painting up my sternguard and my venerable dread as Tranquility Vets... they don't really work with the fluff as scouts any more, plus I want to stay true to the original artwork. My scouts are essentially very new recruits that were made available to the Mantis Warriors apon their return from their 100 year crusade and after losing their home world to the Space Sharks. If you look in my Mantis Warrior gallery you can see the sternguard I've built and painted so far.

I should have the prototype shoulder pad painted up this evening... so don't touch that dial!

OH man! I am excited to see new MW!

The Chapterhouse shoulder pads arrived today!!


So. Here are some shots and a few comments.

1. The castings are excellent. The only clean up is on the very bottom edge of the pads... takes 15 seconds with a flat file.
2. They look fantastic! Much better even than the photos of the greens.
3. They appear much larger than a normal pad, but that is in part due to the chain around the outside and the fact that they are a little less curved than a normal plastic pad. The lack of curve is easily remedied by wrapping the pad in a single layer of felt and gently squeezing the sides with a pair of pliers. See photos below.


L-R: pad straight out of the package, normal GW pad, pad after "crimping" and painting.


Shot comparing "crimped" pad to normal. It's slightly less open on the inside but I crimped another unpainted pad and was able to open up the inside very easily with a dremel. However in most circumstances I don't think that will be necessary.

And the money shot... (this was taken BEFORE I'd crimped this pad). However crimping the fully painted pad did not damage it at all.


Explanation of the pad colors...

Unlike the original GW design, this head is based off of a real photo of a preying mantis head, stylized a bit but without the ridiculous mandibles. Natural colored head w/ traditional red eyes. As purple is the ecclesiastical color for penitence, I used that for the field (as the MW's are trying to earn their way back to respectability after the Badab Rebellion). Also to further show their loyalty and fealty to the Emperor, their pads are edged with a golden chain, similar to those worn by medieval knights to show their fealty to their liege lord.

Looking really awesome! Love seeing a different SM chapter!

Any chance of a photo of all the Mantis together so far?

those are awesome shoulder pads i like how they are painted there.

have you thought about making other shoulder pads with other images of mantis on them? maybe a side view of one, kinda like the winged shoulder pads BA have?

@manoknok: Unfortunately the various parts are still on opposite sides of the planet (US & New Zealand). However Blackhand has sent me a shipment of helmets so as soon as I get them I'll be assembling a full Mantis Warrior. Unfortunately there aren't many actual Mantis Warriors painted as of yet... mainly because I'm waiting for parts. I have 3 dreads, 20 scouts and 4 sternguard painted (or re-painted as the case may be). I'll finish the sternguard first, then move on to other projects within the chapter.

@sageheart: Nope... paying for two sets of custom shoulder pads to be made (regular & terminator) is enough. Besides, it's a chapter badge. Heraldry should always appear in functionally the same recognizable form.

Hey Gitsplitta!

That great! I have a similar problem with stuff being in the Uk and the Philippines...

Looking forward to seeing a army photo shot when every thing is done!

that makes sense! i just thought it would be a cool thing to have for vets or Assault marines/honor guard, something hahaa.

those pads are still great, i keep lookking back at them!

Understood... and yes, it would be neat to have some other pads for special units, but I think at this point I'm more interested in some continuity. Nearly every model is going to be custom built anyway so their will be plenty of variety in the chapter. Be nice to have something consistent holding the force together thematically.

I'll try to get one of the termie pads painted tomorrow so you can see that too.

that makes sense. how many pads are you getting? do you know yet?

Yggdrasil wrote:

fatty wrote:

BLACKHAND wrote:wazikashi

what? do you try too say WAKASASHI? i never heard of wazikashi might be a other name but i never heard off them. and i traine bujikan (the original samurai war techniekse). This has however gave me an idea what if the Inquisitors have a small deamon hunter attachment. you could give them mantis like wargear. you could give them a naginata as there count as power weapon. but thats my 2 cents

In France, wakizashi are short blades, (and usually paired with a katana, IIRC?), I guess BH swapped the "z" and the "k"?

in Holland and Japan too my skaven warlord has all three weapons ie Katana , wakasahi and a tanto (knife). he holds the katana in his right paw the wakasashi in his left paw and the tanto by the tail.

back on topic.
love those shoulder pads and the pruple realy breaks up the green and yellow without disturbing them

@Sage: I have 100 normal pads and 25 termie pads. Not that my army needs that many but this way I have plenty for trades, conversions and future projects.

Wow, absolutely amazing progress. The pads are a great addition and the Dread is shocking.

Any chance of a shot of all the completed models together? Bet they look fantastic!

@ Gitsplitta Great work on the Pads, the painting lookds fantastic..

I thought you had some regular MW painted in the green, are you changing them then...

I love how you said your gonna convert each model as much as possible, im the same love making my marines my own as much as i can, so there sort of unique..

Ive just uploaded mt custom built Sternguard on my blog if you wanna check them out bud, there not painted yet but you can get a good look at the build...

Jim..

@Ifalna: I'll take a shot of everything that I consider "finished" when I get the scouts and Ven Dread finished... hopefully the next couple of days.

@jimmy: Well, I've had a Mantis Warrior army for over 20 years, but the paint job on the figures was very basic... just a gloss dark green with no shading or highlighting. Looked good enough on the table but nothing special. Since I've decided to rebuild the entire army, I've given or traded most of my old figures away, but I did save one original beakie tac squad for nostalgia's sake. The repainting/rebuilding has been a very slow process as I have two children also into 40k so much of time is spent helping them with their armies or painting figures for trade. The only "new" infantry I have painted are 4 sternguard (Tranquility snipers) and my one prototype in regular MW green. That plus 3 dreadnoughts are pretty much all I have to show for 45 pages worth of blog...

... boy that doesn't sound very good... I just depressed myself.

Gitsplitta wrote:@Sage: I have 100 normal pads and 25 termie pads. Not that my army needs that many but this way I have plenty for trades, conversions and future projects.

wow that's great! really gives you a ton of stuff to work with!!

@Gitsplitta i understand completely, i have two kids myself and 1 on the way and have to juggal time around..

I to only have 3 Marines completely painted with all the rest either primed or waiting to be primed, also alot of my time goes on the actual building of the models, its one of my favorite parts..

Its all about time, i accept that my force will take time to complete but it will be all the better taken the time, rather then rushing..

Jim,..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Gitsplitta i understand completely, i have two kids myself and 1 on the way and have to juggal time around..

I to only have 3 Marines completely painted with all the rest either primed or waiting to be primed, also alot of my time goes on the actual building of the models, its one of my favorite parts..

Its all about time, i accept that my force will take time to complete but it will be all the better taken the time, rather then rushing..

Jim,..

jimmy72nd wrote:I to only have 3 Marines completely painted with all the rest either primed or waiting to be primed, also alot of my time goes on the actual building of the models, its one of my favorite parts..

Funny, I used to have no desire to do any custom building at all... but then I started to build an ork army where damn near everything is converted from a pile of bits. Then I started seeing some of the work Whalemusic, Blackhand, Arakasi and many others were doing on Dakka and I got the bug. Now I wouldn't think of making a new figure "straight out of the box". Everything's got to be customized in some way or another... got to put my fingerprint on it somehow.

jimmy72nd wrote:Its all about time, i accept that my force will take time to complete but it will be all the better taken the time, rather then rushing..

True. When I decided to rebuild my Mantis Warriors... I said from the get-go that there would be no artificial deadlines & I would paint each and every figure like a character. So far I've stuck to this, but given how little time I've been able to dedicate to them, progress has been very, very slow. It does get frustrating.

Gitsplitta wrote:
True. When I decided to rebuild my Mantis Warriors... I said from the get-go that there would be no artificial deadlines & I would paint each and every figure like a character. So far I've stuck to this, but given how little time I've been able to dedicate to them, progress has been very, very slow. It does get frustrating.

Envious, I tried to do this so many times when I was actually playing the game, I always ended up giving in and getting the models to tabletop so I could use them. It will be so worth it in the end though gits, imagine the entire army completed after years of patience and work put into them. The sheer satisfaction in owning them would be worth it all

Thanks Ifalna... I'll try to keep that in mind when things get especially frustrating.

I'm also reminded that your tabletop level is better than my best painting.... but we'll leave that for now. *grin*

When I was playing the game it was 2004, and my tabletop was pretty much primer, glitter sprinkles, and some googly eyes stuck on with bluetack, so no, you are still in the lead there I might try and find some of my old chaos warriors so you can understand where I am coming from.

Gitsplitta wrote:@Ifalna: I'll take a shot of everything that I consider "finished" when I get the scouts and Ven Dread finished... hopefully the next couple of days.

@jimmy: Well, I've had a Mantis Warrior army for over 20 years, but the paint job on the figures was very basic... just a gloss dark green with no shading or highlighting. Looked good enough on the table but nothing special. Since I've decided to rebuild the entire army, I've given or traded most of my old figures away, but I did save one original beakie tac squad for nostalgia's sake. The repainting/rebuilding has been a very slow process as I have two children also into 40k so much of time is spent helping them with their armies or painting figures for trade. The only "new" infantry I have painted are 4 sternguard (Tranquility snipers) and my one prototype in regular MW green. That plus 3 dreadnoughts are pretty much all I have to show for 45 pages worth of blog...

... boy that doesn't sound very good... I just depressed myself.

Build an Airship it worked for me But seriously this is a huge undertaking, the return of the mighty (if not failing to succeed alot historically) Mantis Warriors one of my personal Fav's from RT I (also liked those Galactic Mako's the Space Sharks mind you I was 13 or something at the time ).

I get the feeling that when this is done you will look back on these 45 pages and say WOW look at all that positive feedback and support this is an awesome project. One I'm really looking forward to seeing painted and would love to contribute more to but I think BH has you covered there, so what you only a few things done for show here those things are AWESOME! be proud man but um just between you and me speed it up will you some of the Dakkites are getting restless just kidding there.

This will be one of those armies you'll be truly proud to have on your shelf and on your gaming table can't wait to see more!

Thanks for the encouragement guys... I really do appreciate it. It's not that I'm going to give up or anything... just making seemingly no progress after what... 6 months (almost exactly) gets old after a while.

On the bright side... within a week I should be able to say that I'm functionally "done" with two full squads of sniper scouts and 3 dreadnoughts... that's not a bad start. If I get the sternguard finished and an HQ painted (though my old HQ figures aren't really too bad & are usable)... I'll have something resembling an army! Luckily I have another 4 months or so before Adepticon... which should give me enough time to work at the level I want while still finishing my army in time for the fracas.

Hey Gits, I really hope my package arrives soon, can't wait to see and authentic Mantis Warrior with those slick new shoulderpads. I will get to casting again as well so that I can build up a decent amount of sergeant and captain heads for you.
I think I will end up just converting a bunch of the helmets with crests and antenna rather then trying to cast the crested ones as I don't think they will cast consistently. I will pour a new mould this week for the "insectoid" mantis helmet and the more unique helmets so I can post a few pics up....sometime soon.

Oh and I apologise for my spelling of Waza..Wakiza....wackyza...the smaller sword

I bought a WHOLE BOX of brand new tactical marines just in anticipation of combining your helmets with the Chapterhouse pads.

Problem is... what do I make? Sternguard? No, those are Mk VI. Dev's? No, those are Mk VI. Tac squad? No, that's what I'm using the marine trade models for *and* I still have my old tac squad I want to keep around. Assault or Vanguard? No, because the packs I want to use (yours, graven's & Paulson's) don't exist yet.

So... what the heck do I build? I hate to build a marine just for the hell of it & not do anything with it...

The new pad looks sweeeet!

I'm looking forward to seein some Mantis Warriors with the pads, heads and wings!
I think you could justify a squad of MW in MkVII armour, it could be the new suits of armour that have been granted to the chapter after their redemption, by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

P.S.Also, I just realised you've hit 75540 views!

Great! Party at my place! *wooo-hooo!*


Wait! I know what I'll build! I'll do Ice_Angel's marine for the swap! Since that marine is going to be immortalized in his awesome story, it would be an appropriate landing spot for the very first full Mantis Warrior!

What do you think all? Good idea?

Ifalna wrote:When I was playing the game it was 2004, and my tabletop was pretty much primer, glitter sprinkles, and some googly eyes stuck on with bluetack, so no, you are still in the lead there I might try and find some of my old chaos warriors so you can understand where I am coming from.

Oh, I so want to see glittery, googly eyed chaos freaks now

Thought I'd only missed a couple of days but still had to catch up on several pages worth of stuff Those pads look fantastic, and I say IceAngel's marine is a good starting point, let's see some fully finished mantis warriors

Gitsplitta wrote:Great! Party at my place! *wooo-hooo!*


Wait! I know what I'll build! I'll do Ice_Angel's marine for the swap! Since that marine is going to be immortalized in his awesome story, it would be an appropriate landing spot for the very first full Mantis Warrior!

What do you think all? Good idea?

HECK YEAH!

Fantastic Idea!

I can't wait to see one of your famous Mantis Warriors with the helmet and the shoulder pads and the whole sweetness in person. Any luck on some back ground on Brother Inushi?

Have been mulling it over... no great flashes of inspiration yet so I guess I'll have to do it the hard way (i.e. just "work" on it until I have something I like).
*chuckle*
I was wondering if you were going to chime in...

Gitsplitta wrote:Have been mulling it over... no great flashes of inspiration yet so I guess I'll have to do it the hard way (i.e. just "work" on it until I have something I like).
*chuckle*
I was wondering if you were going to chime in...

You know i was going to chime in. I have some ideas for you if you need any suggestions or random thoughts.

Did you want background for all the GMS marines Ice? I could stumble through something if you want. You'd have to make it not suck though.

I'd just make em Tac Sqaud dudes (and Trades), that way for larger (apoc) games or just when you wanna play something different, you have the option sitting in your lap.

whalemusic360 wrote:Did you want background for all the GMS marines Ice? I could stumble through something if you want. You'd have to make it not suck though.

only if you want to. send me a PM if you have something in mind.

Please. You can PM them to me so we don't spoil the surprise of your story line.

I think I'm too hung up over what to do with the home world issue to think clearly about another fluff line. However... a few good ideas from an outside source might be just the spark to get me going.

Nvm Im a moron

Seems like a good idea (the mantis being swapped). Go for it Gits!

you found something to do with one, now what will you do with the other 9!
maybe a honor guard?

Eventually most of these guys will end up being either Vanguard or assault marines. At least at the beginning. But I'll need other, as yet unavailable parts for those. Will also put some in the command squad...but again, that will take some time to put together.

You know Git, I think we should concentrate on just one for now and worry about the others once the first is completed. How does that sound?

lol

Ice.. maybe I was misunderstood. You get the one... I get to keep the rest! *grin* Though pretty soon you'll be able to make your own Mantis Warriors and won't have to wait for me!

i was just thinking maybe you could use the old raptor jetpacks as your wings? i think they are awesome, and you could prob use or cut off the few skulls

The Iron Torch Incident

Darius Stone, Scoutmaster of the Mantis Warriors strode purposefully though the halls of the Imperial Space Station “Iron Torch”, his brow furrowed and his mind half a sector away where his charges fought a savage beast of an ork called “The Gitsplitta”… whatever that was… and his mindless hordes in one of the endless “Waaaghs” that threatened the Imperium. At his side, Sergeant Inushi, a former pupil and now full brother in the chapter matched his pace… It was clear from the relaxed and confident facial expression that the young man failed to fully comprehend the complexity or peril inherent in their current circumstance. He was one of the brightest in the first crop of scouts that had been provided to the Mantis Warriors upon their return to Imperial Space. His physical prowess, mental acuity and fierce devotion to the Emperor made him a perfect candidate and he did not disappoint. Within the first week of training he had established himself as squad leader amongst the cadre of scouts, and when he at last became a full brother of the chapter, the fact that he was chosen to lead one of the newly constituted tactical squads surprised no one. Like most young men however, he was head strong with a tendency to shoot off his mouth with the same ease as his plasma pistol… never considering that the situation (or gun) could over-heat and cause a sudden crisis.

“I don’t understand why we’re here Darius, this is a waste of time!” said Inushi to the Scoutmaster.

“We are here my brother, to give a full accounting of the ork cult you found on CygnusX-328.”

“Yes, yes, I understand that!” snapped Inushi, “What I don’t understand is why we have to be here in-person. I gave a full report to the Captain and he filed it up the chain-of-command. While we waste our time in this station stuffed to overflowing with doughy, vacuous and utterly useless Imperial bureaucrats our brothers are fighting and dying without us! We are still far too few to sustain a campaign like this while key personnel are sent to satisfy the curiosity of Imperial bean counters!”

The calm and confident visage of Inushi’s countenance had now been replaced by one of fierce zeal mixed with mild disgust.

Darious answered in a calm and measured voice. “Allow me to remind you, young brother, of the reasons for our summons. The “Bug Boy” cult that you uncovered in Gitsplitta’s Bad Moon clan is unlike any other orkish entity encountered in this sector. It has used it’s contact with our chapter as a focal point for their natural ferocity and creativity. They have begun to emulate our chapter, our ways of battle, even going so far as to strip the dead of their gear or mounting raids on our supply lines and outposts for the singular purpose of equipping themselves. As a result they have become a much more effective fighting force than a typical ork mob could ever achieve. All of the ork’s natural fury and cunning combined with superior weaponry and tactics. It is nearly unprecedented in the annals of Imperial history and a cause for great concern.”

“Nearly?” asked Inushi.

“Yes, well… I remember attending an Ultramarine security briefing roughly two centuries ago while I was studying under Telion. Intelligence had come to them of an entire ork warband who dressed and were loosely organized as if they were Dark Angles. At the time the information had not be confirmed, but perhaps it was an indication that a new phase of orkish evolution has begun and the beasts have added functional mimicry to their already long list of instinctual skills.” answered Stone.

“Understood” said Inushi “but I still don’t see why they had to pull us out of the field to conduct their investigations. Everything we know is in the report. What can they possibly gain from bringing us here? Why is our report on the subject not simply accepted as fact?”

Stone stopped, spun and caught his young companion by the bicep… bringing him to a sudden and less than dignified halt. Inushi, surprised and somewhat irritated by this sudden assertion of force by his old mentor, tried to pull back… but Stone’s fist might as well have been made of ceramite, for Inushi could not dislodge himself from the Scoutmaster’s grip. When Inushi met his gaze, a feeling came over him that he hadn’t felt since he was a scout… deep respect, devotion tinged with love… and fear.

“Because, my son… we are Mantis Warriors." Said the Scoutmaster through a clenched jaw, lowering his voice so that only Inushi would hear. "Everything we do is suspect. We have been forgiven on paper but most of the Astartes who fought against us still live, and still view us as traitors to the Imperium. We were sent into the Maelstrom on crusade not to eliminate the Astral Claws but to be eliminated ourselves, so the Imperium would be rid of us without the embarrassment of a formal purge.”

“Yet you survived.” replied Inushi in a hushed tone.

“Aye, we survived.” Stone’s words were guttural… primal in their tone like the growl of a Fenris wolf. “But we are not forgiven… not by those who’s blood was spilt on the fields of Badab , not by the Imperial technocrats who gained power from our banishment, or by the single-minded members of the Inquisition who will seek any excuse to send us back into oblivion. Remember it is He whom we serve, but we must treat with “them” to survive for His service.

“Damn the Inquisition!” Inushi blurted out much too loudly… “Faithless bastards hiding in their citadels and passing judgment on faithful servants of the Emperor, all to preserve their own lust for power.”

“We’ve earned this fate boy!” Stone’s cold rebuke struck Inushi to the core. “And if you don’t learn to mind your tongue you will do yourself and our chapter irrevocable harm!”

Cowed for the moment, Inushi fell silent and contemplated his elder’s words. Stone released his grip and moved forward brusquely while Inushi fell in beside him. At length they came to a pair of ornate, arched doors nearly 10 meters high. “The excesses of the Inquisition never cease to amaze me.” muttered Stone almost unconsciously before deciding to take his own advice and keep his mouth shut.

As they approached they were met at the door by a woman with a blonde top-knot. “Are you ready for your de-briefing?” she asked.

“Aye” said Stone.

“Very well then, follow me.” she said and together the trio entered the vault-like room.

…

After many hours of what felt more like a trial than a debriefing, Stone and Inushi found themselves returning through the long corridors to the shuttle which would return them to the "The Green Menace", the Mantis Warrior frigate which had brought them. Considering what had transpired over the last several hours it had gone about as well as could be expected. With Stone to guide him, Inushi kept his temper in check and stuck to the facts, even amidst the veiled (and not so veiled) threats and innuendos of that golden-haired bitch of an inquisitor. Unfortunately Stone had been able to glean very little about what the Inquisition knew or was looking for during the debriefing, but he couldn’t help but feel that something wasn’t right. Considering how hostile an examiner the inquisitor was, there were areas of weakness in Inushi’s testimony which even Stone noted, yet they were not pursued. Whether the inquisitor wasn’t as smart as he thought, was blinded her clear hatred for the Mantis Warriors or had some other, hidden motive he could not be sure.

They finally arrived at the hanger doors. The security check point was designed to allow a single person entry or exit at one time. As was his nature, Stone led the way, anxious to be quit of the station before any other unfortunate circumstances occur. As he stepped into the bay he heard a loud hissing sound from the expulsion of gas followed by a resounding clang of metal on metal just behind him. Hidden bulkhead doors had dropped from pockets in the ceiling separating him from his young charge.

...

The bulkhead had come down impossibly fast. Even with his heightened speed and strength Inushi had no chance to get through before it closed. Inushi instinctively reacted to this threat as he would any other. He dropped and spun, kicking out from the bulkhead as he reached for his katana & plasma pistol and leaping into the center of the corridor where he could maneuver and fight. The hallway however, was empty… even the servitors had disappeared.

“Sergeant Tano Inushi of the Mantis Warriors” the inquisitor’s voice rang out from hidden speakers and echoed throughout the hallway. “You are here by charged with the crime of herasy for calling into question the will of the Emperor in the guise of criticizing the Inquistion.”

“You lie!” he cried to the walls and empty spaces.

“Play the tape.” said the disarticulated feminine voice.

From the hollow depths of the station his own words came back to damn him…“Damn the Inquisition!” “Faithless bastards hiding in their citadels and passing judgment on faithful servants of the Emperor, all to preserve their own lust for power.”

As the echoes of his foolish words reverberated through the empty hall, two large sections of hallway wall slid silently into the floor, revealing two full squads of Adeptus Sororitas bearing flamers and meltas… all leveled at the young marine.

“Submit to judgement or be purged where you stand... and your precious Scoutmaster with you.” echoed the Inquisitors voice.

-finis-

Frick. Mine is not going to be that good.

Wow, very nice Git! I liked yours better then mine. Great job adding other dakites's fluff into the story as well.

Thanks. I left a number of things unexplained as well, so you've got some lee-way to work within my story for your story if you want.

Um... I don't know how to make a link to a post (as opposed to a page), so if you want to link it to your Ice_Angel blog you'll either have to do it yourself or explain the process to me.

Nice fluff Gits.

Cool.

If you click on the tiny yellow post-it icon to the left of the date of the post, it will take you dirctly to that post. You can then copy the URL from your browser.

Damn, all this and you can write too Nice fluff Gits


edit: Hmm, thought another post would refresh the page..

thats really cool! love the fluff, well written!

That's some awesome fluff man.

Damn you Gitz! Now I want to know what happened. Did he submit or was he judged? And if he did survive can you give a detailed description of Brother Inushi. Think I have an idea for a trade when we do one for the Great Marine Swap now if no one has beet me to it yet. Bad ass fluff by the way.

End the story!
End the story!
What do we want?
THE END!
When do we want it?
NOW!

In all seriousness, that is some great fluff.

LOL! Thanks guys! Writing is very difficult for me... but if I manage to do it correctly the results are usually worth it. Usually I write these little two paragraph "scenes" to entertain the kids or add substance to my charachters... but this beast was 3 full pages on the word processor... ouch!

To answer your calls for the end of the story... it has already been written. What I need you each to do is go to THIS thread for some absolutely fantastic 40k fiction. It's the fluff behind Ice_Angel's chapter, and it is the sole reason I wrote that last piece. There are many pages of work, and the cool thing is that you will see his writing get better and better along the way. You'll note that by the time you get to the last installment, none of his regular readers are making suggestions for improvements any more... we're all just going "wow!" with each new chapter. Take the time to read Ice's story and I promise it will be a rewarding experience for you. It has certainly been a delight and inspiration for me!

All your questions will be answered there. Well... not quite all. I left some things purposefully vague so Ice has some flexibility with the character in his narrative... but you will be moved along to the next part of the saga.

I will also be building and painting up Sergeant Inushi for Ice as my half of our marine swap. I'm waiting for the first shipment of Blackhand's heads and the Japanese weapons I ordered to come in, then I'll begin the process.

Gits

I see what you mean, the stuff Ice_Angel has produced is BL standard and ive only read the first page, ill be reading the others too..

jim..

@jimmy: Hey Jim, glad you took to time to check out Ice's work!



I have a thought to run by everyone... small stuff, but it's always good to get feedback no matter how small.


The should pad turned out nicely, but I started thinking that maybe rather than painting the eyes the "standard" red, I'd do them as red gems. Thoughts? (I know, I know... I hear the cries for "paint one and let us see it"... in due time... just want to hear what people think of the idea.


I know I've himmed and hawed over the last several months about what is going to get painted when, but my path has cleared a bit and I have a pretty solid map of what's going to need to be done. Much of which you will like as they are things you have been clamoring for. Boils down to this.
- sternguard with ML's and combi-plasmas (will have the new MW pads and helmets though they will still be based on Mk VI tech otherwise.
- MW tac squad: very small... just 5 men in a box... but actual green marines!
- MW Razorback: now I know this goes against my self-imposed rules, but without it there won't be any green marines on the table. After the tourney I'll convert it back to the Inquisitional vehicle that it's supposed to be. The alternate approach, would be to make it an full Inquisitional Razorback that is "on loan" to the Mantis Warriors from the Inquisition since the Mantis Warriors have lost since their departure on crusade, their ability to manufacture new tracked vehicles. Kind of a stretch, but the Inquisitional vehicle would be a lot more interesting to make.
- MoTF

That's it for now. Hope to post a little progress on the dread later on.

Paint one and let us see it

Think it sounds good though.

Could work. Hard to tell without seeing it...

Make the Razorback MW-ey. Rules were made to be broken.

i thoughed you where supossed too bend the rules? but i am a dark eldar i dont care about your infiriour rules i think the gem eyes would look sick. the razorback could do it an if you make the 5 man tac squad a little bit like a cross between MW and grey knights (you can use the weapons like i mentioned earlier) than you can pull it off and make it look cool. or why dont you add the razorback into a allied inquisitor army (now that there book is a free download) then you hav nothing too convert or change.

greets Ian

Hey Ian, nice idea but the whole emphasis of this particular tournament is theme and feel... so while there are probably a number of ways to artificially generate and allied vehicle, it'll cost me points in the end. Considering I'm not the best general... I don't want to give up any more soft scores than I have to.

Just read the new fluff... MOAR!!!

Damn, Git. How could you leave us hanging like that. ;~P Awesome fluff.

red gems would be great!

I will need a santiy break, so I'll work on painting it tonight... might be late but I'll see what I can do.

oke yah i hear ou on the front of not the bestt general. have a big tournament in about 4 weeks. still need to buy a lot of new Dark Eldar

Ifalna wrote:When I was playing the game it was 2004, and my tabletop was pretty much primer, glitter sprinkles, and some googly eyes stuck on with bluetack, so no, you are still in the lead there I might try and find some of my old chaos warriors so you can understand where I am coming from.

They are like, the best standard I could do at the time. Both would have taken hours. Days. Eons. That skink took me at least 5 hours. The elfs eyes !Ahahah. Painting skin? Single layer elf flesh over black. No problem. Terrified of finding what my actual tabletop was like back then D: Red gems as the eyes on the mantis heads sound like a really nice additional feature, especially as the mantis warriors seem to have very few "glass effect" areas bar their eyes, so it would be a nice contrast. You should try it out for sure, would not be hard to paintover if you disliked it

Ifalna wrote:

Ifalna wrote:When I was playing the game it was 2004, and my tabletop was pretty much primer, glitter sprinkles, and some googly eyes stuck on with bluetack, so no, you are still in the lead there I might try and find some of my old chaos warriors so you can understand where I am coming from.

They are like, the best standard I could do at the time. Both would have taken hours. Days. Eons. That skink took me at least 5 hours. The elfs eyes !Ahahah. Painting skin? Single layer elf flesh over black. No problem. Terrified of finding what my actual tabletop was like back then D: Red gems as the eyes on the mantis heads sound like a really nice additional feature, especially as the mantis warriors seem to have very few "glass effect" areas bar their eyes, so it would be a nice contrast. You should try it out for sure, would not be hard to paintover if you disliked it

Listen to Ifalna do the red gems.

Ifalna I especially like the yellow frog... and if we are comparing our early gaming tables mine was the floor space between my bed and my TV cabinet with battle field objectives marked out by bleach bottles and coke cans, with lego blocks as proxy everythings so you all beat me

Here's the new Mantis Terminator pad with gem-effect eyes. Did not gloss them yet as it makes photogrophy difficult... still the photo didn't turn out as nice as the actual pad looks in RL.

Oh, and season's greetings from the boys!

You Shall Not Pass! Or my (Dog.Cat.Skunk) will eat you...

LOL! Everyone calls him a skunk! Tail is wrong, colors are reversed (our skunks are black with white stripes on back). He's supposed to be a husky.

I have a pic of Thing 1 with his staff and sword held aloft like Galdalf in that scene... he really looks the "you shall not pass!" part! Pretty amazing considering there's a 10-year old in there.

too bad he wasnt a skunk. can you imagine the fire ball you get if he spraid on the balrog 0_o. you shall not pass! ok skunky gas them

Gits I hate to be the one to say it, but it appears Gandalf has broken into your household and polymorphed your child. I am so sorry.

Gem eyes look great, will be fun to see them actually on a marine for comparison, but I don't think they will look anything but good. /thumbsup

Ifalna wrote:Gits I hate to be the one to say it, but it appears Gandalf has broken into your household and polymorphed your child. I am so sorry.

lol, you're mixing your Fandoms there Ifalna... ^_^

Iffy: Luckily Galdalf has assured me the effect is only temporary and he will be right-as-rain again in the morning. Though the need to consume an inordinate amount of candy for a while may be an after-effect.

The gem eyes turned out OK. They never seem to photograph quite right. Have about 5 shades of red blending from black to orange/red & highlights of white tinted w/ orange, then a spot of pure skull white. "Course you don't see all that in the photo... but it's there. Had a devil of a time getting a decent photo of something as small as a pad. Single figure, no problem... pad, big problem (must have taken 20 shots with different set-ups & lighting variations.

Here's a pic of the pad on it's own with a bit more size & detail (zoomable). I still need to gloss the eyes... didn't want to for the photo as it makes them hard to photograph.



I found the terminator pads to be of the same fine quality as the regular shoulder pads. Very little clean-up required, good depth on the details, easy to paint. Again slightly "flatter" than their GW counterparts, but easy to fix with a piece of felt and a pair of pliers. I'd never commissioned custom pieces before, but to be totally honest... they turned out far better than I had hoped and I'm completely satisfied with them. They'll be a great addition to my army!

HAHA! that gandalf outfit is awesome!

Great pad, lovely job. Also, cute kids, but lack of 40k themed costume most disappointing...

On the subject of tanks: I hit a similar concern. Have you considered using pre-heresy versions only, either through ebuy or chapterhouse/fw conversion kits? Then the aesthetic would be appropriate to the very old school feel of your MW.

@Ifalna: Thanks for posting those pics of your early figures... those are still darn good. I remember the very first D&D figure I painted... an old hydra, tiny by 40k standards... about the size of a space marine in height. Kind of a glossy brown with red mouth parts and white teeth. It looked like I'd dipped it in house paint! Ugh. I remember back in the early days of my painting, doing the old 25mm Ral Partha elves (which I loved... big Tolkien fan) and because I didn't like the look of any of the metal paints at the time (we're talking 30+ years ago), I'd hand prime the figure with a brush, leaving all the metal it's natural color... kind of a mat-gray (mail, weapons, plate, etc.) then only paint the primed parts. Those figures remain some of my all time favorites as so much careful detail and "love" went into them... but I had no concepts of advanced techniques. I "figured out" washing and dry-brushing on my own, but would only use a dilute black paint for the wash... I hadn't "figured out" that I could dilute other colors & then do the wash for some reason.

@Rose: Thank you sir! I'll pass on your comment, I'm sure he'll appreciate it.

@graven: Thanks my friend. Yeah... funny that it's never a big priority, but to be honest doing anything besides a guardsmen would be really difficult and is likely to be met with a "parental veto" simply on the amount of work it would take... especially since the missus is the primary costume designer and builder. And if they wanted to be guardsmen... I'd have to hurt them.

I like the Gem eyes better

Yeah, me too. Will be doing them all that way from now on.

Gem eyes looking good there Gits, think they're the way to go.

Iffy - I was hoping for some glitter and googly eyes Still a damn sight better than my early attempts.

Gitsplitta wrote:
@graven: Thanks my friend. Yeah... funny that it's never a big priority, but to be honest doing anything besides a guardsmen would be really difficult and is likely to be met with a "parental veto" simply on the amount of work it would take... especially since the missus is the primary costume designer and builder. And if they wanted to be guardsmen... I'd have to hurt them.

Love the part about hurting them. My nephew wanted to be a gretchen for halloween. Reason bieng its the first and only model he has and he comes over here and paints for hours trying to make it look great and so he told his parents thats what he wanted and my sister gave me a very long lecture about how she doesnt want her son running around looking like a little imp with a big gun lol.

Oh but a grot would be a GREAT costume! Just call it a gobblin and you'll get a whole different reatction (you can add the gun at the last minute).

Hey Gits, with regards to your query about using blue washes on red paint (from arakasi's blog). The WD you need to look at is WD365 (may 2010 issue). Or atleast it is that 1 in the UK.

The article is about painting a black orc big boss on a boar.

I have been away for a week, but loving the progress that has been made.

And the costumes are great, can't wait till i can take my little nipper Ben out trick or treating.

Hey people, I sat down today to start work on a MW termie heads...and go totally sidetracked with the jumppack wings

So here are the V2 wings with the single engine jumpapack











So thats my take on Mantis Warrior Jumppack wings/steering vanes....What do you all think?

Wow Blackhand, very nice..very clean and simple, i like it. I like the fact that they seem multi-poseable, which lends itself greatly to conversion work, such as folded away when landed, spread open in flight etc.

As a fluffy rule thingy, would they also count as a combat shield? (5+ invulnerable save in close combat). Could imagine the MW spinning around in combat using the edges to lop off limbs or weapons clattering off of them as the MW is defending himself.

Just curious, or would that mess with having a legal army for adepticon?

Ooooops my bad its a 6+ invulnerable save ...... was just curious because the samurai on horseback often wore silk shrouds/ garments when riding into battle. Apparently it billowed like a sail around their back as they went..... the whole idea behind it (and it really worked!!!!) was that any arrows launched at them would get entangled in the silks and fall away leaving the rider unharmed. They tested it recently and not a single arrow caused harm to the horse rider.... thats why i thought of the combat shield thingy, plus you can still use 2 weapons if you wanted..

I like the framework here. I can see how it will balance the organic style with the grimdark aesthetic. I'll do my take on this once I get a sang guard pack off mr gits!

Nice work on the wings Blackhand...

Two questions/thoughts:

- How are they in relation to where the shoulder pads would be? I run in to cases all the time where depending on the pose of the arms the shoulder pads interfere with the backpack or jump pack. My MW pads are also bigger than normal due to the chain around the outside edge. I'd better send you a couple ASAP so you can take that into account.

- Have you considered adding shorter, slightly more rounded wings underneath those like on a real mantis. They wouldn't need to be poseable & in my mind would act more as stabilizers than anything else. I wouldn't make them any longer than the flare (or cuff) of the back of the shin guard. They don't even need to go all the way to the main wing pivot... they could join back into the sides of the pack.

A smaller set would look good too, just got to be careful it doesn't start to look too heavy and cumbersome as that single engine does look kinda big.... or maybe its just because the MW isnt fully built.

wow love the termi pads they look amazing the purple contrasts the bright green beautifully

@Ifalna great painting on your part too espceially the chameleon skink


Automatically Appended Next Post:
like the wings blackhand and the smaller wing set as stabilizers would look great

dantay_xv wrote:Hey Gits, with regards to your query about using blue washes on red paint (from arakasi's blog). The WD you need to look at is WD365 (may 2010 issue). Or atleast it is that 1 in the UK.

The article is about painting a black orc big boss on a boar.

I have been away for a week, but loving the progress that has been made.

And the costumes are great, can't wait till i can take my little nipper Ben out trick or treating.

Hey dantay, sorry... forgot to answer you. Thanks for the reference... I'll be sure to look that one up. How was your Halloween? We had back-to-back parties for the kids and then I took them trick-or-treating. We had a very full weekend! (and a lot of fun)

The wings attach to the underside of the backpack's secondary engines and should have a fair amount clearance between the shoulder and the wing. I will make up a full warrior with arms on so that we can see if they fit together.

Another set of sub-wings are definitely in the offing, I will have a go at them next.

I have to say Gits that I may be a bit slack and not recast the engine. The part is not particularly complicated but I certainly can't add anything to the design and recasting it when you will only need at most ten or so seems a slight waste, what do you think? Were they expensive to get hold of?

Another thought is the fact that the wings are one sided and will be cast that way, what do you all think about glueing two of the cast wings together so there is detail on both sides? The only downside I see is that it will be reasonably thick, no thicker than the sanguinary guard wings though.

BLACKHAND wrote:The wings attach to the underside of the backpack's secondary engines and should have a fair amount clearance between the shoulder and the wing. I will make up a full warrior with arms on so that we can see if they fit together.

Another set of sub-wings are definitely in the offing, I will have a go at them next.

I have to say Gits that I may be a bit slack and not recast the engine. The part is not particularly complicated but I certainly can't add anything to the design and recasting it when you will only need at most ten or so seems a slight waste, what do you think? Were they expensive to get hold of?

Another thought is the fact that the wings are one sided and will be cast that way, what do you all think about glueing two of the cast wings together so there is detail on both sides? The only downside I see is that it will be reasonably thick, no thicker than the sanguinary guard wings though.

No need to re-cast the engine... you have more important (Skaven) things (Sabre Lions) to do. Leave the wings as thin as you can, extra detail would be easy enough to reproduce with plasticard and add to the other side of the wings. As you have already mentioned, I'll only need 20-some anyway (figure a few extra for characters).

now if there was a way to have the wings somewhat transparent......

There is a way Polari...it just takes over 36 hours to cure the doming resin

I was planning on sending Gits the moulds for the wings after I had cast a few (20?) sets for him in resin so maybe he can have a look at casting clear wings

ah ok did not know that curious to how it would look now haha

I have doming resin, so if given a wing "scaffold" could cover the clear parts on my own (hopefully).


I think clear wings are one of those things you'd want to work into a metal mold eventually... I'd be afraid that resin would be too prone to breakage given day to day use.

Come to think of it, I could get out my carving tools and soap stone blocks & experiment with soap stone casting. I think getting the wing "frame" or scaffold to cast would be tough (metal would cool and freeze before filling the mold, however if I gave the wing a thin layer of solid metal in-between the frame elements, the pewter might stay liquid long enough to get a full wing. Then I just go back in with my jeweler's saw and cut out the in-between parts. Simple.

yeah...*simple*

Well, theoretically simple, straight-forward at least. I've pulled off much more complex molds in soap stone including 3-D locking molds and they turned out just fine. Half the trick is designing things so the mold fills completely and freezes correctly.

Nice thing about the lattice-work that supports an insect's wing is that the structure is perfect for supporting casting. All those downward pointing, interconnecting struts will serve to help the metal flow and fill the whole mold before the metal cools to the freezing point, though I suspect I'll have to torch the mold pretty well before it's hot enough to make a good cast.

love those wings to death!

the wings are pretty bad ass

Pseudo update:

Have actually been quite busy working on stuff "behind-the-scenes"... strategizing for Adepticon and trying to figure out how I'm going to make an army that looks like it walked out of a time portal to 1990. I hope to pick up the work on my Venerable dread tonight and with luck... finish the camo pattern. Which will pretty much leave him finished sans banners and extra danglies... and basing of course.

As far as my Adepticon boggles go, I have two primary issues...

1. I need to make some RT-era sternguard figures with combi-plasmas. Of course there were no such thing as combi-plasmas in that era so I'm going to have to make it up as I go. I have plenty of old RT-era beakies to experiment with but the real trick is getting the skinny little umbra pattern bolt guns (which I never liked) to mesh with a plasma gun in a convincing fashion. This is complicated by the fact that the old plasma guns were freaking huge. At this point, I just can't see using a RT-era plasma in combination with the umbra (original) bolt gun as the plasma has about 4 times the mass of the bolters & would result in just a stupid looking weapon. I do have some of the Chapterhosue combiweapons though that are set up so that the extra weapon sections can be magnetized (so you can adjust that component on a model game to game). They are fairly small and understated to begin with (which I like... even for my 5th edition army) and I think with a bit of additional work I might be able to combine the two into a credible weapon. Will post my WIP when I get to that point for C&C.

2. Second issue is that I need to make an RT era MoTF with Conn Beamer. Now I have a couple of the RT conn beamers which are shoulder mounted & look vaguely like a plasma cannon. Not a very interesting weapon, but they are historically correct. Of course as with the sternguard, there was no such thing as a MoTF at the time, so I can either modify a regular tech marine or build one from scratch. I had planned on building one from scratch... but I think I've found an original tech marine figure that could be modified to suit my purposes... and the old RT tech marine figures were actually very ornate and pretty sweet, so if I can convert one of those babies it would be a very nice compliment to the rest of my force.

My thoughts on the over-all design as are follows: Either mount the weapon from the shoulder as originally designed or modify it to an under-slung position... though I'm leaning toward the shoulder mount as it is the original, intended configuration. Now when you get the conn beamer you give up the power claw/arm thingies that the tech would normally get... however it seems to me that in reality you wouldn't actually lose the arms, it's just they they get re-purposed to support the massive gun rather than being available for assault. So my idea is to make a couple of doc-oc like flexible arms (which always made a heck-uv-a-lot more sense to me than the goofy things the tech marines usually have which look orky rather than Imperial), but have them extended straight backwards and down to the ground to support the recoil of the massive gun (like modern day artillery battery supports). That keeps the appearance of the tech marine with his extended and integrated mechanical augmentations which still making it clear that the extra appendages are not available for use in assault as they have a dedicated recoil-suppression role. Since I have a whole 40mm base to work with (standard size for a MoTF), it also gives me better basing options and a chance to "play" with the pose. I may also beef up the gun to give it appropriate mass, again reinforcing the visual need for the support struts/arms.

Thoughts?

Is there any chance of seeing an example for the master of the forge please?

Off the cuff, what about mounting it like the heavy weapons that the lootaz use?

Have you considered gettig hold of Azraels combi plasma and making copies??? I know its not RT but it might work

The extra arms used as anchors would look great and would make alot of sense considering the power of the conv beam....just got the picture of the MoTF in a crouched position with the beam over his shoulder firing with the other arms bracing....maybe the feet on the thunderfire or a broadside can be used for the ends of the bracing arms?

dantay_xv wrote:Is there any chance of seeing an example for the master of the forge please?

At the moment he exists only in my head.

Off the cuff, what about mounting it like the heavy weapons that the lootaz use?

I could, but I don't know that it would be necessary... might just be needless complication.

Have you considered gettig hold of Azraels combi plasma and making copies??? I know its not RT but it might work

Not familiar with it. Do you have a link or something?

polari wrote:The extra arms used as anchors would look great and would make alot of sense considering the power of the conv beam....just got the picture of the MoTF in a crouched position with the beam over his shoulder firing with the other arms bracing....maybe the feet on the thunderfire or a broadside can be used for the ends of the bracing arms?

That's a good suggestion, but in looking carefully at the figure I think they're way too big to be appropriate. Keep in mind that the RT era marines were much smaller than the current regular marines... the current MoTF is even bigger than that.

I used the arm with the combi plasma on one of my wolf guard, will take a pic and send it to you

Thanks dantay!

No worries Its a pity GW stopped letting you buy components from the catalogues, now you have to buy the whole model... Azrael is the Chapter master of the Dark Angels

Hoping to get some pics up tonight, a bit ashamed at the lack of progress over the week.

I am doing a new project..... Wolf Lord with obscenely big spear riding on an attack bike lol!!

That one. His arm, gun and shoulder pad are all one piece. You can pick up the whole model very inexpensive like on the eBay. Hes got a cool backpack too.

All 40k weapons are obscenely big... methinkst the designers at GW all have tiny willies!

The parking lot is full of Hummers and Vipers

Ah ok havent been gaming that long to see much of the old rogue trader stuff lol besides the land raider crisis suit feet maybe? though they arent flat like the broadside feet...

I have at least 3 if not 4 of the Doc Ock arms from a old 54mm figure I used in a conversion, I will take a pic of them for you and if they suit I can send them to you

Meh, I can build my own I think... though I do appreciate the suggestions. I have plenty of good cabling and I can scratch build the "hands" out of plastic stock and GS.


Ninja'd!!!


Hey Blackhand, I'd be really interested in seeing that.

No worries

If the weapons are oversized what does that say bout nid players running the godzilla lists

Lol, you could mount the magazine side-on and undersling the plasmagun/pistol..... like a mega sten gun

How about using a plasma pistol in conjuction to the umbra bolter, possibly side-mounted?

edit: just realised I hadn't mentioned those wings. Good job on those, not sold on the idea of transparent ones though, for some reason I think that would look more chaotic, not sure why that is though.

maybe do an IG heavy weapon thing, where it is on a tri-pod with a bunch of techno stuff and cords for the techpriest to use to control the power of the weapon. That seems very old style to me.

I thought of that... looking closely at pics of the figures I'm not entirely sold on the concept. We'll see when the build starts to happen and I get a better handle on scale and dimension.


Meanwhile... as promised. Painting on the dread is effectively complete. Next are the banners and what-not as well as painting the camo on the CCW arm. It's a pretty large image compared to my usual so you can zoom and and find all the flaws if you want.

They look amazing!

I must ask tho, sorry if I seem like a noob, but Ive never heard of mantis warriors in the 12 years of gaming Ive had. Are they your own creation or are they actuall GW fluff bearers?

Theyre really cool like but I dont understand them lol.

Newt-Of-Death wrote:They look amazing!

I must ask tho, sorry if I seem like a noob, but Ive never heard of mantis warriors in the 12 years of gaming Ive had. Are they your own creation or are they actuall GW fluff bearers?

Theyre really cool like but I dont understand them lol.

You need to go back 20+ years to the original boxed set and Rogue Trader rule book to find them... but they're there! Look at the very first post to see the original artwork.

Looks good. The engine cover has some vents that are still yellow, not sure if you had planed on making em black or not. Looks very good though, I really like the TLAC arms.

Good catch, I'll take care of those. Thanks WM.

Thanks Git, you painted yellow camo on the helmet!!

It looks fanstastic!!!!

Here are those dok ock tenacles I was talking about



You are welcome to them


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And here is the new secondary wing prototype









As you can see the wings fit fine with shoulderpads on, sweet!

The model looks amazing BH...those arms look a bit big if they are goin on a RT model dont they? i havent seen the RT model though so i may be wrong

I was thinking Gits can cut them down to the length he needs, they are pewter so they should be easy to cut up.

Couple o' thoughts:

1) Love the Ven Dread! Top.

2) Combi-plasmas: side-by-side does have a nice aesthetic and logic to it - it's how I've done my combi-meltas. Alternatively, what about the necromunda plasma pistol front attachment (look at my techmarine)? It's small enough - and RT enough - to fit in with an umbra, methinks. I've not built up the back section on mine so you get a fair sense of the size. I'm 90% I've got a spare one in the old bits box.

3) MotF/Con beamer: I've definitely seen out on the interweb a crouching classic techmarine (toolbox left hand/pistol right, clawed hand shoulder pad) with the right arm replace by a con beamer over the shoulder, tilted right up so the muzzle is almost verticle. Looked ace.

Hey Graven I'm going to ruin your day and say I think you might have sent me the necromunda plasma pistol attachment in your bits box of awesomeness...that said I will make sure of it and if Gits wants those tentacles then I will throw it in with them

[facepalm]

LOL! You guys are too funny!

@Yggs: Yes I did, turned out just fine... thank you!

@Blackhand: Those are perfect! And so is the jump pack. My son says "That's awesome!"

@Graven: 1) Thanks! 2) I'm open to suggestion, I'll have to look at your gallery and remind myself what you've done. 3) That's the one I had in mind. The figure I saw wasn't crouching, but I can cut him off at the waist and give him the crouching devastator legs, (I've done this for my sternguard and it looks just fine).

Wow Gitz superb painting on that camo, really like the reversed camo on the helmet nicely done.

@blackhand those mantis wings look awesome really work well with the single boost packs..

Jim..

Thanks Jim... I'm narrowing in on the end. Couple more days and it should be good to go!

Awesome Job on the Ven Dread, Git!

That dread is awesome.

Love the tranquility campaign colours, great dread.

@Moltar, Ed & C Lion: Thank you very much! I suspect that's some of my best work... Every major project seem's to get a little bit better... blending gets smoother, etc. I better get used to that patter as I have a lot of it to do... though nothing quite as grand as the Ven. Just marines and drop pods from this point on.

i wanted to take drop pods for my deathwing, alas only teleport for deathwing assault :(

Like the look of the double wings BH, and Gits, that dread is quality Beautiful job in the way it all pulls together.

I think the winged guy should be leaning forward a bit. Kind of like he's getting ready to flap away...

Words cannot descripe how awsome that jump pack is. Great work.

just becaus i cant submit an empty post. my moment of silence for that piece of awsomeness

......................

oke thats enough silence for me

Gits that is wonderful. You really have mastered your chosen yellow, it nearly glows. Keeping the colour scheme as just black and yellow with only a small amount of additional colour on the details was a great choice, keeping all the colour as primary's even more so More impressed with every bit of new work you put up.

@Ifalna: Thanks Ifalna, I appreciate the kind words and feedback from an artist's perspective. Doing all of my Tranquility Campaign figures has been this weird combination of art and discipline. In a way I'm limited in what I can do by my decision to stay true to the original RT artwork.



At the same time however, I have to interpret the design onto forms that are new and come up with some way to make things "pop" visually. Of course black and yellow contrast nicely, so it's not a particularly hard job... still it took some experimentation. I think that's where my "reverse highlighting" technique came in. It's not really reverse highlighting... but I brighten the color at the center of the plates and shade it to the edges. So what you get is kind of a glow effect for each plate, rather than a sunlight-implied lightening of the plates as a true highlight (though in shaded areas I do this technique to a much lesser degree). There is edge highlighting on the metal parts (gold and steel) but I decided not to confuse the shading on the plates, and luckily since most of them are trimmed in gold, it wasn't really an issue.


For the group:

The next step I had planned was to have banners (really just very large scrolls) hanging from the bottoms of the autocannons, sort of like this...



Since I've used this particular banner already, I was planning on making the banners for this figure out of GS... actually have one done already though it wasn't really sized to fit, so I may do up a new one. Anyway, it leads me to a couple of questions...

1. How do you guys like the idea of these large banners hanging off the guns? I really like the ones on my other dreads, but with everything that's going on in the figure already, will they be a distraction? I figure as this is a venerable dread... it might well have litanies or whatever on the guns to inspire the marines around it... but I don't want to sink the figure in extras if it stands alone as-is.

2. As you can see from the previous photo, I used a red backing on the banner to compliment the green of my standard dread. Any ideas what would be a good color to go with the yellow? Black again, or something else?


I will probably make the banners anyway & then decide whether to use them or not, but I am interested in everyone's opinion before I begin.

Thanks,
Gits

Whilst I like the idea, I agree that it could possible distract; perhaps hang them from below the ammo barrel instead? As for the banners, maybe a sky or foliage camo, so it sorta blends in thematically?

"Boss, is dat a big flag over dere?"
"Nope ya stupid grot, it's a tree."
"Boss.. boss... it's gettin' closer..."

LOL... or perhaps like...

"Boss, is dat a big flag over dere on dat giant yellow humie kan?"
"No you stupid grot, it's a tree on da giant yellow humie kan."

To some degree I'm not worried about any "real" camo as for these guys, the field of Tranquility were left behind centuries ago. The camo, which in most imaginable combat situations would scream "shoot me now!", is worn as a badge of honor for those that served in that campaign, not because it's actually going to hide them (quite the opposite).

Pink, then. Seriously. Sense of an alien sky camo...

inmygravenimage wrote:Pink, then. Seriously. Sense of an alien sky camo...

Thank you graven, I'll take that into consideration.


Now for God's sake will SOMEONE please make another suggestion!

Nope. Pink. Do it.

I don't even *own* pink paint...

I'd go for red backing again, red yellow and black are a good combo.

If you are gonna have stuff hanging from the gun barrels, the parchment with red edging, however i think it would look more like the dread was waving a surrender flag if you put them there, especially if you pointed the gun barrels up the way in any fashion.

Maybe like a loin cloth, or use lots of purity seals or long thong parchments... like the old preheresy oaths of moment things

Or if you really want to add something to the gun barrel, a chain of skulls from its more famous kills

if your doing the marine swap gitsplitta id like to get a marine next weekend and do one up in tranquility armour if your interested? id just like to paint one and it would be a shame to have it sat on a shelf?

Hey Dantay... good point about the banners, though that's a problem with any hanging banner on a movable platform. The big banners on my other dreads look fine though, so it may not be as big an issue as we think. I'll have to think about that in any case. I have been considering a loin cloth... maybe I'll start with that and work my way up from there.

@CL: I would be happy to do that, but I'm so far backed up in my trades that I can't in good conscience accept any more at this point. I'm such a slow painter that it just takes me forever to get anything done.


OH, one more thing... Anyone have a good idea for a non-standard searchlight? One didn't come with the kit and I was thinking of something special for him.

The ironclad comes with a cool SL.

Looking at the bits merchants... it's exactly the same as the normal search light, unless they're mis-labeling (but I see the same light from 4 different sellers).

Maybe the ven dread kit then?

Yep, that's the one... I'll see if I can snag one of those... Thanks WM!

How about the sentinel one with the smoke launchers attached?

And have you thought about maybe pink for the banner backs?

Or a pink SL even!

I'll see if I've used my Ven Dreads Light (I never put them on the dread). If I didnt its yours.

Laugh while you can monkey boys... you guys are asking for it....


Thanks WM, appreciate it.

Green but dusty or dark so it doesn't shout out but is simply there lighter than dark angels but darker jade

Gitsplitta thanks to your amazing Blog, i've finally convinced myself to start my own.
Thanks for all the work...

Serouisly though I hope mine is as have as good as this is.

Any tips for making a unigue a DIY chapter?

Thanks, Dragonfire

@Santobell: I was thinking in that direction... my standard Mantis Warrior green is pretty close to what you describe, and it would help die the dread in with the rest of the chapter.

@dragonfire: Thank you sir for your kind words, they are much appreciated. I had a lot of help and encouragement from a lot of dakkaites to get my blog to this stage... I'm sure you'll get plenty as well. Just be open to people's suggestions and criticism and you'll find that people are very giving of their time and expertise if they thing it's appreciated.

As far as a new chapter goes, I have the following pieces of advice, do them in order, though #1 and #2 could be flipped.

#1) Look thought all the marine codeci and pick the one you think would be the most fun to play or is the most interesting... this will give you the basic layout and "feel" for your army so you'll know what units to work on.

#2) Find something that you are passionate about in your life (anything, music, a particular story... even if it's really not a 40k story, a favorite passtime, season, painting, whatever) and find a way to translate that into giving your marine chapter that extra special character that will make it stand apart. It will also help keep you passionate and motivated about working on your army which is really important as the models start to drag on forever and ever... and ever....

#3) Once you know your army's layout, specialties and the kind of vibe & rough back-story you'll have... THEN you can start thinking about an appropriate color scheme for them. Remember you're going to be doing a hell of a lot of it, so make sure that you like it and that it's easily repeatable.

That's it... the extent of my accumulated wisdom.

Gitsplitta wrote:That's it... the extent of my accumulated wisdom.

Which is some fantastic nuggets of wisdom! In three simple steps Git just laid out the formula for creating a great chapter, because without the one and the two, the three is almost irrelevant.

wow git that has too be the most straight forward but best guide too mrine armies. on a other note congrats with your 50thest page of this blog

Pink isnt that odd a colour for camouflage, i am sure i read somewhere that in WW2 the british long range desert troops (the desert rats) actually painted some of their vehicles a dusky pink as it blended well with the desert and skyline.

However i do think that red would be a better colour to use for backing and small details..... anyone remember the Jordan race cars in F1, esp. the one with the wasp/bug head design? Was mainly black and yellow with white text and tiny touches of red.

I think this is 1 of thwe designs http://www.design1s.com/dream-car-f1-jordan-vector

Well, the Adepticon list got a play-test last night. Lost everything except the ven dread by turn 5 (and it was damaged) and only did one wound and one weapon destroyed to my opponent. Not good. He had a chaos marine army. Stuck a squad of plague marines and an uber-character in a land raider, drove right across the board and the uber-character by himself proceeded to destroy one unit a turn until the end the game (and the LR blew up the other dread). I could do nothing to stop the LR, shot at it over and over and did nothing save knock a gun off. The rest of his army (lesser demons) didn't show up until turns 4 & 5 but he didn't need them.

So that list has be completely scrapped and another has been formulated in it's place. This list is much more robust... unfortunately it means that I can use only 1 figure that I already have painted (the ven dread), everything else has to be built from scratch.

*sigh*

In spite of the I did have a great time playing. My opponent is one of the best generals at our FLGS and I've never had the opportunity to play him before. So if you're going to get your a** handed to you it might as well be by the best! Most importantly I learned a lot about the list... which was the whole point of the game. That, plus advice from my opponent after the game was the spark I used to write up the new, still Mantis Warrior but much better list. The up-side is that the play style of this new list is much closer to the style I use for my "modern" Mantis Warrior Penitent army... so it should be familiar & easy to use.

The up-side for you the reader... is that you'll get to see a bunch of stuff get built and painted that you may not be expecting, and get to see me explore some new techniques (assuming the air brush ever arrives).



@dantay: I could see a dusky rose/pink as a legit camo color, but in combination with bright yellow I think it would look horrid.

Car looks nice though.

Lol, i was just trying to point out to the others, that pink isn't such a dumb idea as they seemed to be revelling in it (unless you are going to go for tentacle pink.... which is perfect for those slaaneshi lovers lol).

Yes i definitely would not mix pink and yellow unless its pastels or carebear marines and the car was just an example of how something like a touch of red or another colour could really enhance things (they did a snakes head version where the fangs were on the strut to the front wing.

Another idea would be a nice dark green as it goes nice with gold/ deep gold yellow or black. Plus it could tie it in with your other dreads.

I am gutted thayt your army got hammered by the csm, its not ana rmy i have ever played against.... i bet the feel no pain was a b***h to deal with.

As for me i beat my friends DE 9 kill points to 8 woohaaa!!