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

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

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

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

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

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


learn more at :

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

DAKKADAKKAAAA!!!!



The Archtroni Background:

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

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

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

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

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

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

I patiently wait for the people to complain about WYSIWYG.

Holy shnikeyes! That thing is incredible!

Giant Robot Zilla Nids??

A big :heart:  for you Migs!!

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

Is that a zoanthrope in your WIP folder?

- Salvage

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

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

*yawn*

(Kidding, of course. I loves it!)

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

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

Thanks,
Chappy P!

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

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

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

~Eric

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

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

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

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

Nidzilla

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

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

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

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

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

yup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Salvage

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

As Mechzilla as possible.

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

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

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

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

That said, I have a couple of critiques.

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

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

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

Good comments.

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

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

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

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

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

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

~Eric

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

Thanks Eric,

fantastic link!

Wanna get married?

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

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



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

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

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

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

- Salvage

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



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

Thanks for the commenst guys!

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

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

Or is it the other way round ?

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

Thanks!

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

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

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

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

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

Great stuff.

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

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

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

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

Sorry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DAKKADAKKADAKKAAA!!!

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

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



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

LMK what you think!

*minigun whine ... DAKKDAKKDAKKDAKK*

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

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

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

- Salvage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow, nice job

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

Thanks Yak,

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

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

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

I added the WIP fluff to the first post.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aside from that...AWESOME.

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

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

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

edit:  Oh and gib sketches >.>

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

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

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

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

 

 

Thanks for the comments guys,

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

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

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

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

The assault system itself is based on this kit:


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

ALSO just had a little heureka moment.

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

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

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

Yours was inspirational, not experimental

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

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

Thanks Xenite

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

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

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

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

Headless wraithlord with poor squished demonettes

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

- Salvage

Pics. The 1st one from yesterday, rest today in natural light - both far from what I wanted. But hey, this is just models and pics are never the same as seeing them IRL anyway.

The group shots are actually more accurate representations of the Lictor too. I am now 2months into the project and have finished more than 550pts! Quite happy about that as the summer's been exceedingly busy..







Let me know what you think. A little weathering will still go in after varnish. And I just touched up the base a little.

Nice work Migs. I like the sparkles on the edge of the effect. The lenses on the tentacles came out cool too. I think his eyes could use a brighter, lighter center to make them look more glowy. Oh, and the dark grey looks good. There are enough bits of it on the others to tie it all in. Good job!

Thanks mate, added diluted white to the eyes. Thanks for the heads up, I'd done it with all the rest of them but forgot here.

A hundred new views and one reply

Anyway, a new pic, after Varnish! Shows the markings properly and invludes some close ups of the "Antenna-fari "

Awesome as always. Make more!!

Money in the bank Migs, a bank fulla money!

Eyes are rock solid, and the dark grey / blue is a good choice and well executed. The cameoleon effect on his leg was at first confusing, but I see that he's matching the color on the rusted plate beneath his foot, and I think this comes out fine, so nice again there.

The group shot is fun too, gives some scale to these big baddies. The carni is HUGE and the zoanthrope is actually larger than I thought too ... which is groovy, as bigger is in fact better ;D

- Salvage

The Lictor is the first model I have to say I don't care for. The paint job is, of course, fantastic and the coversion is nice but it is the theme/pose of the model that doesn't do it for me.

Essentially, the 'bot looks way to static and top-heavy to be any kind of infiltration unit. To me it looks so top-heavy that one good gust of wind would knock the bad boy over.

I'm assuming that the fluff is he has some sort of stealth-field to hide him, but even so the upper body bulk and the static pose just scream the exact opposite of a stealthy kind of guy. Especially when compared to all the other models in the army which are very dynamically posed.

IMHO the Lictor robot (out of all of them) should be the most dynamically posed. Maybe coming out of some rubble or something. Of course this model is finished so these comments are kind of pointless, but if you're planning on making any more Lictor bots I would highly suggest you go for some sort of crouching/hiding pose.


Also, the 'robin hood' esque "hat" on the top of his head just looks really kind of silly to me for some reason.


Finally, I have to say the obligatory: "this is 1,000 times better then anything I could accomplish" so take these bits of constructive criticism with a grain of salt.



Anyway, I patiently await the next update!

To add something to yak's comment, it could be look like more a doc oc thinghy or a matrix preadetor. A robot with a lot of lexible arms and a corpse hiding a lot of mean tools to examing living creatures. I know your theme is this mecha thing but a Liktor is a highly specialised Tyranid organisim and therefor looks very different to all the other creatures. So it does no harm to break your scheme on this aspekt. Oh I like the idea of the mean tools...... tooooools.

I don't know Migs, the painting is top notch as allways, but I can not get away from the "squidhead" feel i got from the very first view of it.  And I agree with Yakface, the pose is very static, in fact it reminds me of a mech from Battletech, which is not a good thing as far as posing.  The now classic pose of a Lictor on a statue of the Emperor's champion is the look you should be going for in my opinion, a crouching chamelon with murderous intent.

Guys, thanks for the comments! No need to be apologetic of critisism, believe me I am used to it and welcome it. Keep the feedback coming, that's the main reason for sharing the stuff in such detail.

I agree with some of the comments and some are issues more related to taste. I totally understand the commentary too - for some odd reasons I really like this freak, how it looks like an arrogant instrument, ready to spring into action. (to me anyway) Don't worry, a lot fo dynamic stuff to come, no more Lictors though

Wow!

Just Wow...

Very nice stuff. I really can't add much of the way in commentary because I'm still stuck in Wow! mode.

About the only negative comment I could make would be about the lictor - but everyone else has said everything I would, so I'll just return to Wow!

I'm gonna have to agree with Yakface here. The lictor doesn't look dynamic enough. The paint job is great and I love the chameleon effect, but it just looks like it's just standing there, not really doing anything.

Just have to throw in my two cents. 

Paint - I was waiting to see what you did for the 'cloaking'.  I was very impressed with the leg and the more I looked at the paint the more I picked up as far as the intent for parts of the model.  The cloaking 'power source' on the back is very cool.  I loved the additional details you added for the transition of colors as well.  The whole color scheme screams of Metal Gear Solid to me.  All the different blues and greys you went with are perfectly suited for a stealth mode bot.  I do however wish i could have seen more of the stealth effect on more of the model.  Maybe having a wall or ruins he could have been hiding in could have shown this off more.  Solid markings and solid paint overall.

Model/pose - I agree with most of what's been posted, but I just think the model doesn't fit what people think of when they think of the role he's supposed to be filling.  The head is PERFECT.  Maybe even just changing the pose could have led people more in the direction of 'thinking' stealth, especially had more of his body been in contact with the ground and other materials (this would have led to more cloaking paint!). 

Just some thoughts. 

Good comments guys! If I ever made another one, that one would be:

a. more dynamic
b. with a full "field" effect.

It'd be cool to do one, but I really want to keep the systems themselves as clear individuals, so I wont. (like Transformers really) The AI infantry will come in bundles though And both A and B are something to bear in mind going forward with the project.

I actually don't care about the lictor being undynamic. It's the paint job on the lictor that bothers me. It's nice alright, but doesn't tie in well enough with your overall army paint scheme for my tastes. Given the varied nature of the robots in this army the only real visual cohesion you'll have will be the paint scheme. So it stands to reason that the Lictor's paint job should tie in better. The dark gray is fine, and looks nice, but needs some of the lighter gray that you feature on your other bots added to it. I can see why you'd make him mostly dark gray if you intend to make the weapons and techie looking parts that colour, but light gray accents should still be included if only for that visual cohesion.

Secondly, I think you could do more to tie him in with the Tyranid Lictor. You've hit the main Lictor visual element in replicating the conical head and feeder tendrils. The only problem is that these elements are also highly indicative of a squid. When I look at a big robot with those visual elements I think squid, or even Cthulhu, but not Lictor.

How can you make him tie in better with the Lictor imagery? Well the stealth paint camo certainly helps, but we see that on Tau suits too.

When I think Lictors I think of the following features, in the following order:
--> Big forward arched scything talons positioned over the main body and coming from the models back. Reverse articulated, the talons are poised to strike prey.
--> A monstrous Cthulhu head.
--> A pair of nasty looking claws with long talons
--> Chameleon skin

You've hit the second and fourth points. To me, the Lictor bot is kinda like the Zoanthrope bot would be if he wasn't floating on a stalk. He'd have the big head, but would be missing that other main element that screams Zoanthrope.

The first three elements I listed above have been carried through each Lictor model GW's done. I strongly believe you need to carry them through to your model too. Especially since your army is essentially an army of proxies.

I think the "lictor-bot" could benefit from two big Honkin swords or something.

I love it, but (and this isn't really a big but) you could have done more with the cloaking. Am I to believe that there are swords that come out of his wrists?

Posted By Jester on 09/09/2007 9:23 PM
I love it, but (and this isn't really a big but) you could have done more with the cloaking. Am I to believe that there are swords that come out of his wrists?

Yes, you are to believe so

Thanks for the comments gents,

It's always intriguing how differently people think about things. Some have problems with the pose, not paint, others wise versa. End of the day, I just gotta take the best bitz of advice/comments and make sure I love them myself.

Drake - I personally think he fits in very well. All the visual elements are there, just a darker shade through out. Most armies have a unit with a different paint scheme, be it demons, SM scouts, Tau stealth suits...and it just enhances the overall look imo.

Posted By migsula on 09/10/2007 2:08 AM
Drake - I personally think he fits in very well. All the visual elements are there, just a darker shade through out. Most armies have a unit with a different paint scheme, be it demons, SM scouts, Tau stealth suits...and it just enhances the overall look imo.

That's ok- like I said- it's still a fitting colour of blue.  What about the visual elements I droned on about?

Well it's good commentary as always. I take it all in as always. Maybe the perspective is a little different between us.

"Especially since your army is essentially an army of proxies." vs. Essentially a project of cool mech models that I can also use for gaming.

It's not my intention to do mech versions of Tyranids, even if some initial language maybe gave that impression. For start the TWAR only have 4 limbs. I am however drawing inspiration from them and trying to pick weapons and whatnot with WYSIWYG or atleast a very constant proxy in mind.  Inspiration, not restrictions. So I take the concept of a lictor and push it into a mech battle system on the same concept. (an advanced infiltration and information gathering unit that is lethal in hth) Some transformation will be much more radical/different. The Harridan for example is being sketched

Keep your comments coming Drake. They are very valuable to me!

PETITION

I am looking for those extra Plastic Warwalker feets!! The kit comes with 3, you need two, T.W.A.R. needs one.

Please PM or post here if you have any to spare. I can trade/paypal if need be.

Okay, mainly because of migs, I just got an account. Have been meaning to for ages, just never quiiite got there. Anyways, on to the gaming stuff!

Migs, I really enjoy looking at these big bad robots of yours, visually they are very nice. The first one (Splinter?) I wasn´t entirely sure, because it was difficult to imagine how you were going to carry the theme through in other models. But seeing more and more, I´m beginning to really see what you´re going for. Will be interesting to see the "swarm" parts of the army as well...

The only thing I might have suggested differently, is the fact that the lictor-bot has his swords "sheathed". I believe that he would look a lot more menacing, and be a lot easier to recognize if he had the swords out. But this is a tiny thing, compared to how COOL this stuff all looks. Really impressed.

There, I´m not just a forum-stalker anymore!

Hey Xan, Welocome to Dakka!

and thanks

Looks like a new forum!!

It needs a better name though! WIP stuff has the wrong connotations in my opion, as so much of stuff posted in "one off" threads also falls under that category. "Dakka Modeling Blogs" or something like that would be nice.

It'll be interesting if the split makes the "modeling" content more active or the opposite.

Posted By migsula on 09/13/2007 1:51 AM

It needs a better name though! WIP stuff has the wrong connotations in my opion, as so much of stuff posted in "one off" threads also falls under that category. "Dakka Modeling Blogs" or something like that would be nice.

With you Migs, on the need for a different name and on your suggestion too.  I actually wondered what'd I find under "WIP" - my guess was unpainted conversions, with painted stuff being in the main section.  "Dakka Modeling Blogs" brings up a totally different thing in my head, and a better thing too

- Salvage

Okay, okay. You win. The name of the forum has been changed.

"I don't know what it is yet"

Just a  small update - I did this on friday. It is testament to fun I have with these kits, I see a part and it makes me build it, while a paint scheme emrges in my head... I'm adding lots of cables and armoured coils and whatnot by which it floats on a 40mm base.

FW has those larger looking Tyranid Sporemine like things, what do they do???, maybe this is first of a set of those, or a comm link stratagem, or just a part/familiar like thing for a future model - time will tell. I ordered my self the Imperial Armour book with Nids and I'm almost finished detailing the assault carni (pic below).






The AI infantry is still on the list ASAP - I just need to hunt some more bitz and remind a few friends who've promised me parts. I will do a Trygon TWAR next I think!!!

The mycetic spores mostly just blow up real big -> S6 AP4 ordnance blast, I think. See Yak below, I was waaaay off on the stats.  Good for the price, but is this little doober a suicide bot???

Nifty gun detailing, but I'm still a little off on this new 'assault fex.' It's partially the head that doesn't match the army's style,partially the largely unconverted body, and partially the lamp he's supposed to be beating with :x

But I'm thinking paint will fix a lot of these problems for me

- Salvage

I hear you Boss. There will be a few "boring" footsoldiers in the mix, but I'll try my best with paint. I may still do a head swap when I get more "feet"

So a bigger spore mine. Hmmm... lets see where the thing goes with the cables and more detailing and then decide.

You should really get around to the infantry sooner rather than later simply because it would allow you to use the army immediately in games with what you've already finished.

Mycetic Spore mines (the big FW ones) are absolutely awesome for the points (35 points a piece). They also kick out D6-1 Bio-acid mines as a single cluster when they explode so you'll need to come up with 1-5 smaller bots per big mine.

That could actually be really cool if you made tiny little robot parts built into the big mine bot and then when you whip out the tiny bots after the big 'un explodes it would look like the tiny robots ejected out of the big one to form a little cluster.

Good thinking, Yak. I think the little shark-bot is kind of cute.

Sounds like a plan Yak!! I will come up with something suitable for what you describe and then do the infantry. I won't have time for games before the Xmas break, so I am building towards getting a playable army by then and then APOC ready force for summer.

Little bit overwhelmed with RL at the minute, but updates will come in a week or so!

#1 Never realized that the TWAR heads are the walker feet!
#2 Good luck with everything Migs, look forward to seeing Assaulty done sometime soonish
#3 And a trygon too?? Yowza
#4 The big spore is a bit cooler than I thought! And even cheaper!

- Salvage

Oh, I didn't notice that you got the stats wrong on the Mycetic Boss Salvage.

Until you get your IA4 book here's some rough stats for you Migs:


Its 35 points a piece and you can take 1-3 as a single FA choice.

It always Deep Stirkes (regardless of whether the mission uses DS) is S5, AP3, large marker and causes an extra D6 penetration (2D6+5 total) against vehicles. It drifts and explodes pretty much like a regular spore mine although the big difference is that they can set themselves off in their shooting phase instead of requiring a Synapse creature to detonate them.

Once they explode D6-1 Bio-Acid mines are left behind in a single cluster.


In short, they are the bomb (pun intended). Especially since with AP3 they can wipe out an entire unit of MEQs if they're all clumped together.

Mig, this is a very nice concept, I've been watching it for a while and it looks *SCHWEEEEEEEEEET* Love your work!

Thanks for the info and kind words gents!!

Small update to show were it's going after half an hour I had to spare - so very WIP. The "balls" are spore mines and will get lots of detail poking out and then independent versions on 25mm bases.

I think the cables animate the pose quite nicely and tie it in well to the Tyranid equivalent...as usual painting scheme will play a key part in establishing the volumes and areas of attention in the quite busy model.

( On the base you see some of Vallejo's sandy paste I've been using all over the TWAR bases and advertising to Scarab. )

THIS I like!

It reminds me of the matrix drones (in a good way) and I absolutely love the idea that those individual ball/cables "become" their own seperate little mines.

I have no suggestions because I think this design is pretty much perfect.

This one will be one of my favorites.  I can already tell. 

I got the same 'Oh Cool!' that I got when seeing the WIP of brainstorm ^_^. 

I can't wait to see this one and the mines finished up.

Deleted

Hey Jirga! Thanks for the positive feedback and I am really happy to see new posters join Dakka - to me that's the best possible reward for sharing my projects here. I am hoping to have the Army ready for action by the fanatic - but failing that Ropecon for sure. Welcome to Dakka!

Here's the AI bomb with a lick of paint.

Varnish finished a tad dusty, must've been too chilly outside and I think I added one spray from too far, but it juts resulted for a matter finish, didn't ruin it as sometimes with the old GW Matte. I'll even it with Testors anyway as with the others.

I had fun building/painting this. It was a very hmmm...I like this part, what should I make out of it kind of a start, but then evolved towards building something pre-defined. I will do the small bombs on individual bases and possibly another set later.

I am simply amazed how you find parts to make those counterparts.

And I was right.  This one is another favorite! ^_^

You've pulled all of the detail pieces together perfectly with the paint.  The 'eye' draws you in, and the rest of the colors keep you involved.  your bases are just awesome throughout this entire project. 

Quite sweet Migs, nice work again. Best use of that defiler flail yet. It's on a 40mm base, right?

- Salvage

Fantastic. Perfect.

If you ever don't want that model for some reason let me know cause I'll buy it.

Thanks guys,

Yess Boss, 40mm!


ps. How nice, someone systematically voted this blog that has had five stars through it's entire life down so it only has 3 now...over night. It would be great to see who felt the urge to so make my day.

I was talking to Malika at Warseer and thought I should mention a "spin off "plan I have here too.

I am also doing one human sized TWAR (so not artificial intelligense unit, but a livingmech) based on Necron Pariah, but with human "disguise". Think TWAR Bourne. He will be leading a group of mercenaries: Kroot and no-good humies with some very advanced equipment and cybernetics, but ragtag, clandestine feel.

These will be  TWAR pathfinders in away... a future GD entry or for Necromunda, with a secondary goal of tying the TWAR even more to 40k gothic.

Since I didnt know what to say to those artful creations of yours i kept quiet but i simpy have to say sumthin to that ps part. how dare anyone to vote this thread down to 3 stars. it can only be jealousy.

So now that Im at it already:

Im simply stunned when i see you work. Great colors and awesome conversions.
I didnt enjoy the Lictor that much due to the static pose, but this thing is incredible.

Ill keep watchin this thread on a regular basis!!

Sexellent. Really great, Migs. Design, pose, and color all really come together on this one.

These are pretty nice I gotta say. I really like the color scheme. I really hate Gundam, so I'm a bit biased towards anything spawned from it. I would say that they look more like "machine-tools" than like machine-organisms, if I'm to bring out some form of critique. You claim them to be mechanical creatures, rather than mechanical tools used by other creatures, which I think they fail to reflect. I'm not saying it
would be easy to portray their mechanical-organic nature, I'm just saying it's not working for me. They look like standard mechs to me, "chopped up" certainly, but not very organic. Of course we can devolve the
whole issue into what is organic and and all that. But the army works in terms of appearance, and it works well. I would have hoped for some pretty different solutions from you in regards to the fluff,
since this to me looks more like machines to be controlled than ones that work autonomously. Anyway, I cannot really see any army even managing to come close to the same jaw-drop effect as this one in a tournament
unless the onlooker hates mechs.

Cheers

I claim they are a machine race - but they are not "born" as they are now. In away they are tools, just like your hands are tools for you as a designer. There's a living, sentinent being inside the Systems , but that thing builds itself for the purpose or path in life it has chosen. (while the bomb is an AI machine, so is the zoanthrope I've decided, so soulless equipment)

The point about semantics of controlling/being controlled is valid and something I shall take into consideration more critically.

Thanks for the comments mate! Good to see you at Dakka.

I just ordered some Apocalyptic reinforcements.

Amongst them a 1/100 "Serpent Custom"!!! (my first arsenal system is based on 1/144 "Serpent Custom" This new one will be a Barbed Hierodule I think - as I want the Hierophant to have 4 legs. I need to get the sizes "roughly" right to their tyranid equivalents - the basing being most important. Is the FW big round base 100mm in diameter??

FW was late with my order for the IA 4 so it'll be another week before I am finally united with the book. Bummer...

One of the good sides with this project is the budget. 3 new Gundam kits set me back a "whopping" 45euros (compare it to 100ish euros for a single Baneblade)! The huge Gundam boom that rapidly died out in the states is to thank I think? So with the GW bitz being leftovers from years of the hobby and parts kindly donated by friends, this is by far the cheapest (and IMO coolest) of my armies.

You know, when I first looked at this, I wasn't feeling it. I like more clockwork/steam punk looks to my robots, or at least a gritty, gothic feel. I of course recognized the immense skill going into it, and was duly impressed, but I just wasn't feeling it.

The spore mine thing did it for me. A great look which was suitably alien to a human that it was believably some "other". Plus it has metal tentacles. I dig metal tentacles. I think that is what was bothering me before, keeping me from really connecting. Not the lack of metal tentacles, but that the machines looked so human, so familier. I kept thinking of "Were I to build a robot fighting suit that I would feel comfortable piloting as though it were my own skin, it would look like that." Not in such clear terms mind you, but that general idea. The lictor had sort of a clunky, iron giant meets a dalek feel which helped, but I think the models holding to a humanoid shape is the stopping point from keeping it really cool. I keep thinking there are lots of shapes better evolved for fighting than us.

Still, the mine is awesome, and even though this project isn't my thing, it is still a lovely thing to behold, and glorious to follow. Thank you for posting it.

Wehrkind, thanks for the thorough commentary. Nothing in the world is obviously everyone's cup of tea, but I remain excited with the project and am very happy to see it is somehow inspiring to so many different people.

SO getting back to London has been hectic to say the least, but finally I have all the parts I need to try a prototype of the infantry - so expect pics by sunday. I intendt to pay extra attention to basing and poses, but otherwise keep the design quite simple and based on the Necron Warrior limbs. New additions combined with the painting and a much slimmer torso/overall design should really distance it from Necron Warriors.

I also got a copy of the Apocalypse book today So lots of brainstorming for the big things going on in my head this weekend.

Long time Lurker first time poster on this thread. I just want to say that I really like what you're doing Migsula, all of the models so far have alot of unique character. I look forward to seeing the infantry.

Thanks and Welcome to Dakka! Be sure to post some of your own models too

Here’s the first prototype for the infantry. A 6pt Gaunt + fleshborer equivalent.

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

AI infantry prototype notes:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->twar visual template

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->the look of existing AI constructs, brainstorm and the mine thing

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->Gaunt stat line

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->unlike the twar themselves, I need to make dozens of these, so lots of parts and time considerations.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->A design that would allow many variations (I don’t want to make two units that look the same)

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

I also wanted it to look “cheap” and quick to fix and put together by other AI automations. I want a range of poses, but ones that look like a horde of automated things, so not a “leader type” or someone pointing for example.

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

As usual the paint job will play a crucial role in tying the thing together and I have a scheme in mind where only the torso and cap has light grey and the rest of the armour plates are dark grey, and all the joints etc. metal. A few very basic markings too of course.






Comments very welcome.

Now THAT i like.
Specially the upper body which looks quite sturdy and similar to the gundam bodies. Unlike the arms and legs of course, since on a gundam everything is thick. Pose and weapon look great as well.
The whole fig looks like a quite high-tech which ties in well with your "big" figs.

The paintjob will be interesting and important to tie it in with the rest of your army.

I like the overall head shape and the non-humaness and the fact that it ties in to Mr. Bomb. I think the integration of the head parts could be tighter, but paint will help. The gun is a little too big and not high tech looking enough. Maybe at least add a wire cable or two? Like the 'nids, I can see the weapons having some degree of integration with the bearer. Torso and joints look good.

Posted By scarab on 10/07/2007 5:35 AM
The gun is a little too big and not high tech looking enough. Maybe at least add a wire cable or two? Like the 'nids, I can see the weapons having some degree of integration with the bearer. Torso and joints look good.

The gun is quite powerfful you know! S4 with a reroll to wound I will paint the vents so that they appear to supercharge or heat the solid, caselss ammunition it uses. The way the arms naturally position also requires some "weight" in the gun with the lack of long barrel. The second unit will have two pistols each, but I guess they'll be a little OTT in terms of size too. What can I say, I like big guns and the contrast it has with a skinny construct!

The army actually doesnt have any cables or wire really, some mechanical tentacles (which is enclosed/armoured cable really) and something to cheat levitation, but I've tried to stay away from external cables as semantically it doesn't make any sense for a system designed for war. But I understand your point and definitely hope to integrate the pistols more...just not with cables.

Thanks for the comments!

That looks pretty nice; sort of reminds me of the little robots from Iria sans topknot and tassles.
I am thinking the idea of more weapon/body integration is a good one. Hands are not needed if you never intend to put down your weapon, etc. Perhaps something with just legs and a torso with a gun built in would work. With a few metal tentacles for close combat of course

Don't let me earlier comments say that I don't think this isn't a really cool project. I was talking yesterday to some guys at the store, and I think my bitterness with humanoid aliens is more deepseated than is healthy. I suppose it started with the Star Trek "Every alien has naughty bits just like humans, so Captain Kirk can get his freak on with every random species encountered" thing, and is being agravated by the fact every alien in 40k save the tyranids is a human with different colored skin and maybe a hoof or some big teeth etc.

Anyway, I mean to say don't let what I desperately want (non-humanoid aliens) say that I don't like what you are doing. It may not be my thing exactly, but since my thing seems to be summed up as "If Kirk wants alien booty, he had better be prepared to deal with at least multiple legs and a thorax." And metal tentacles. I should get counseling, and you should rest easy that even someone who doesn't really love big mecha robots thinks this is a cool project.

Posted By Wehrkind on 10/07/2007 6:02 AM
I am thinking the idea of more weapon/body integration is a good one. Hands are not needed if you never intend to put down your weapon, etc.

.... I suppose it started with the Star Trek "Every alien has naughty bits just like humans, so Captain Kirk can get his freak on with every random species encountered" thing, and is being agravated by the fact every alien in 40k save the tyranids is a human with different colored skin and maybe a hoof or some big teeth etc.

... and you should rest easy that even someone who doesn't really love big mecha robots thinks this is a cool project.

Indeed! While I think they would have a secondary role on board the ships or something, even that might be just a case of going to armoury for an arms swap Loking at the Gaunt optios there's so much to do when I get the first 2 gaming required broods done.

Good one! I never liked Star Trek - Star Wars being the reason mainly I saw Luke and comp first and everything I've seen since have been affected by that saga I guess.

That's how I understood it the first time around, I'm very happy to hear that.

I think he'll fit in just fine ^_^.  The paint job is the real pull together for your entire army so far, and I think these won't be any different.  The chest and head are a good structural tie in though.  The addition of the bolts to the joints really helps break the model from the necron warrior mold too.  I take you'll be painting this little guy up before moving on to mass production?   

Thanks Grey.

Sadly this month is pure building as my paints are in finland, but then next month I am planning a whirlwind week of painting and then during December and January even more so, when I have a brake from school. Hopefully I have a playable army towards the end of Xmas holidays for a few games!

Looks great, but there's a bit too much Necron left in there. Maybe modifying the fingers and toes to be 4 digits or even 3 would be cool. OR maybe I just hate the idea that aliens seem to have 5 digits across the sci-fi board :p

Migsula, I again like what you've done. The infantry unit looks quite good, my only suggestion would be to add some sort of visible extra ammunition, like a magazine pouch or box. 

Just for semantics of course

To be sort of specific I think you've made good use of the necron parts; as someone who's done a Necron army* I can look at that and not think "oh it's just a modified Necron warrior". What I mean is that it looks like a unique unit.

Does that make sense?

Good luck with the rest of the squad, I now look forward to seeing more of these and then perhaps combat weapon units?

 

 

*I'd reccomend putting a length of rod through the lower legs if you can as I found that they snap fairly easily.

Mark, Makes perfect sense. Thanks. I have a friend who's saying the opposite and also plays Necron, but I believe in (hope) my painting will change that.

Good tip on the legs. Lets see what I can cook for ammunition

Just chimming in to say I like the prototype gaunt, and the decision to base it on a cron and keep the big gun in modified form. I do think more could have gone into making it less necrontyr and more TWAR unique, but I'm sure you've been cooking up new updates and all that to jump on us before we know it The head though I do like on this guy, and while the gun elements might be more integrated - paint will do this, I'd think - I like where you're headed with it.


Exalt! Very nice Wehr, sad I missed this line of conversation if it was during the big 40k game on saturday

- Salvage

Salvage: Yea you missed a fun game, though Dave's Titan was pretty much unstoppable. It vaporized 2-3 units just about every turn. I almost cried when my Repentia fell under 45 hits from 15 small blast templates. At once. Good times though.

Migs: If I could ask a favor, any chance of having some of your little robots look like spiders with a gun turret on their backs? I am thinking that something low to the ground and very stable is the ideal gun carrying mechanism, much better than us silly humans who hold our weapons 5 feet above the ground, and have nearly a foot of body to shoot above that. Swarms of small robots that are merely 3' tall, the apex of which would be the gun, would be a much more difficult to hit target, as well as more effective at moving unseen.
It would also be cool and not humanoid, and it would mean a lot to see you put something like that together, even if you hit it with a hammer shortly there after

Edit: Apparently I am still so distraught over my Repentia that I misspelled "any" and over used "pretty much". Sad state of affairs.

This is a great project, Migs, and I can really see taht you are excited about it. I dig everything that you've got going on so far.

The trooper here is pretty neat too. I agree with a couple points raised about it looking a bit too necron warrior, but I bet paint will help. Maybe a couple tiny additions here, if you don't mind the suggestions:

Maybe a simple change to the knees, like a kneepad, would help get a little more of your design elements across and make the necron body a bit more different. However, that will be a lot of greenstuffing to do over time.

Another minor greenstuffing thing would be to blend the four fingers into two fingers on each hand. Would take away that humanoid feel, wouldn't take that long, and it would help get across the mass-produced feel of the robots more - 2 fingers is cheaper and more efficent to make than 4!

Anyhow, thanks for the updates and letting us in on the creative process.

I too like the infantry bot but I feel like it really would benefit from some sort of shoulder pads to tie the design a little closer to the big mechs.

I think its just the spindly arms/legs that don't really seem to mesh with the big bulky designs of the rest of the army.

Remember, Necrons were designed to be very skeletal robots (undead in space, essentially) which is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from the Gundam robot (big for the sake of being big).

I do like some of the ideas brought up here. Shoulder pads, if you can find the bits (in mass quanity of course >.&gt could be a fast and easy way to beef them just enough to tie in better.

And the fingers idea just seems cool ^_^

Good suggestions guys!

Grimteef, good to see you man!!

Many things that I am thinking of integrating into the designs. I will keep the ai's very skinny though, as they really only have the basic stats and through out the army the stats are an important design driver. Even with the big guys, so all 3+ save guys have unenclosed metal lowerlegs, 2+ are fully enclosed and 2+ T7 have visible extra, like armoured collars etc.

I think my plan for the rest of the month is to build a whole squad of these guys with a few more challneging poses and get them primed. SO working hard towards the gaming legal army and Xmas break

Coolest... project... ever...

Really happy to see your considerable talent going to something as cool as giant freaking robots in 40k.

On to the newest m.e.AI.  I'll second the motion that I was hoping for little spiderbots with guns for gaunts.  If you'd stoop to using non-gw product you could always jack the drones from Infinity.  Seriously cool models that would fit right in.





This is exactly what i was thinking of in reading your fluff of the m.e.AI scurrying around, obeying commands and generally getting blown up, which I liked a lot btw.   8)

Keep up the good work!

Those little dudes are really cool looking ^_^. I especially like the first one.

EDIT
I'm so not feeling the quote, IMG,url etc functions of this forum.
Sorry to waste space migs.
EDIT
Cheers

I also would like to support the non-human looking foot soldiers. Your big fellas are all bipeds and making the whole army bipeds would make it look like 'nother Necron army, so to say.

Going with spider bots, tripods or little mechs would make them look differant from the average humanoid robot that wants to destroy every living thing(Which is done to death already with Terminator).

What I was going to suggest was more in the line of "Replicators" from Stargate series tough those cute 'lil robots Moz suggested looks good aswell.

Went hunting those little dudes over in the warstore...and have to say OUCH. Not cheap by any means. $27.99 for TWO?! Migs is gonna need what? 40+ of these things?

Those models *are* awesome, but if he went with 'em he wouldn't be able to play this army in a Grand Tournament. . .which I think would be a shame.

 

 

Oh, and Tragic-Legend, all those features will be chaging improving with the launch of the new software (with any luck) by the end of this month, so hang tight!

 

Wow! Thanks for the info Yak! Really curious to see the new software you boys have prepared for us

Th spider bots are a little too cute for my tastes, but there will be non pibed systems and AIs in the army - there are already actually, but more and with four legs - the Hierophant to begin with. I'll do it before Xmas because I want to. Maybe I mentioned this already? am little confused at times on what I told my buddies via email and what here.

Imagine a huge robotic 4legged "defilerish" thing with two huge arms and giant rotator Cannons, mechanical tentacles (lash whip), and a mine releasing mechanisms at the back, with toxic pattern mines floating around it on the base (also a rule). It'll include AI controlling units similar to how R2D2 is integrated to an x-wing to help step in when the TWAR is preoccupied with shooting/fighting etc.It costs 1250pts! So If I use some allies, I should soonish get to try Apocalypse with a significant TWAR flavor.

As for the AI infantry later today or tomorrow you'll get pics of the very highly detailed bases I've built for the entire squad (so 9more). The little ones' bases will get as much love as the big ones'. I'll let the bases dictate the poses as usual, and while most will be standard, I will do atleast two proper reposing of the Necron legs, which aren't the easiest to work with.

Here are the bases. As with the entire project, I am taking my time and really enjoying and detailing them. There's lots of different effects to paint on them too, and plenty of rust which sets off the cool shade of grey blue and clean metals very nicely. Next I'll glue on the legs, some of the poses now dictated to new, more dynamic poses by the basing. I'll then add some vallejo putty and my special mix of sand that consists of GW super tiny particles sand, reals sand from dust really to small stones and small rubble slate. I find the mix ideal for urban basing.

Anyway, a pic:

Only good things can come from those bases

But my real purpose in posting is to say your heirphant ideas sound SUPERB. I'm really looking forward to that, great integration of tech versions for all of those nid weapons. Fantastic stuff.

- Salvage

I gotta wonder sometimes what kits you are chopping all to hell for your bases some times >.>...

Work continues. Slowly at times, but surely none the less.

I did three custom poses of legs. With the first I cut both legs from the hip joints, with the second one just one leg but also repositioned the ankle/feet and thrid one I built really upright cutting the legs all over the place. No GS required and three new very dynamic poses...quite careful cutting though!!  I guess it's going to be easier to work our the extra variety than I thought.

I'll then detail them and take pics tomorrow...what an update that will be. 3 pairs of legs on bases...not the most exciting update I guess

I also ripped off the proto guys rifle front after being dissatisfied with it and having a chat with Chuck. The poses are ending up quite special ops-ish, which is quite cool with the skinny robot look IMO. If I can get the rifle front clicking hightech and businesslike, it should be a neat lot. I think I might buy a box of kroot and steal their rifle fronts which I adore. I want to include some Kroot in the army eventually anyway and will replace their weapons with bionics, rag tag merc sets and twar kit anyway.

Thoughts?

Thoughts on including Kroot in the army?

I don't personally care for it. You've created a cool little idea here of an all robot army and I think you should stick to it. Including Kroot, even if they are roboticized, just wouldn't fit IMHO.

Yes, that's the opposite argument. The other one being that having a rag tag mercenary team with 40k "faces" led by a very advanced TWAR hunter system, will tie the army more to 40k universe and provide nice reference to what I have done with it. Both views have merit.

What ever I decide in the end it's WAY OFF from happening, next summer the earliest, I just want the barrels.

Ok, I suppose I will trade polypodial infantry for a multilegged monstrosity. But only because I love you Migs, and only just this once. Particularly since the very image is making my eyes jiggle.

Perhaps a good way to go for the shooty AI cannon fodder is to make the guns a little larger, so that it looks more like the rest of the body is designed to move the gun, rather than the gun giving the body extra function. I might have said something similar... been away for a bit.

Ok, a sit rep so you guys know what's happening this month:

I did another standing upright pose, so now I have 10 member squad with 4 seriously reworked sets of legs and am using the bases to create illusion of slight difference in some of the rest. I may do some different arm setups too, and a few seriously damaged looking AIs.

The plan is to finish all ten legs, fully detailed by the weekend and sort out the gun and take a pic to show progress and get opinions on the new gun. Then it's building the guns, cutting+sculpting the torsos, building the heads, putting them all together and detailing (so joint screws) and I should have all 10 finished this month. " src="http://s3.images.proboards.com/smiley.gif" /> Ironic how laborious they are in comparison to the big guys...partly it's the psychology of repetition that makes it feel so. I'll save the other 10 infantry for Xmas break.

Next month:
I'm already have the concept outlined above and I am "mind converting" and sketching a Hierophant so guess that might come next... (though the second arsenal system is also high on the desire to build list, because I have good ideas for him.) Luckily in the recent WD there's a picture of Phil Kelly's Nids that shows how huge the Hierophant is, and I should do something similarly impressive. I think I will use the Defile kit as a chassis and use aluminium tube to lenghten the legs I use and then it's serious Gundam kitbashing and plasticard. As you know, a 1/100 scale Custom Serpent will "donate" for this. So the thing will have two huge rotator cannons - as the stats imply and serious hth tentacles + everything I mentioned before.

New gun - "perfect" now and I have a nice dark grey scheme for it, with some key parts picked up glossy steel and the "charger" parts glowing blue




And 4 new poses of legs Radically changes the Necrony feel IMO, what do you think? . and these were easy and fun to do...just careful and accurate work required, but then isn't that the second name of this hobby.

pics aren't workin man.

I just right clicked and selected Open In New Window and went to the site.

I like this gun much better Migs, though the old design certainly wasn't bad either. I could see them both in the army used to represent different Tyranid weapons should you wish that.

One thing you may want to consider - take those spinal colums 'bumps' (can't think of the proper name for them) and shave them off. Right now, they really read as Exposed Necron Spinal Column, and just removing those little spinal phalanges (or whatever) would streamline the design some, giving them more of that mass-produced look that you want, and take a little more away from the Necron Warrior model comparison.

Posted By grey_death on 10/19/2007 8:53 AM
pics aren't workin man.

I tried drag n drop to the editor and they were visible to me, so I posted, but did it the tested way now and they should work

Posted By GrimTeef on 10/19/2007 9:01 AM


One thing you may want to consider - take those spinal colums 'bumps' (can't think of the proper name for them) and shave them off. Right now, they really read as Exposed Necron Spinal Column, and just removing those little spinal phalanges (or whatever) would streamline the design some, giving them more of that mass-produced look that you want, and take a little more away from the Necron Warrior model comparison.

I'm worried that'd make them look rigid/completely no flexible and undetailed. But I will paint them dark grey instead of metallic, so that should help.

Good to see you around Teef! Share some of your own stuff again good man

The gun is delicious now, very nice and actually quite reminiscent of the fleshborer. Nice work, as usual!

- Salvage

I like the new gun and legs very well too. I think they will end up looking pretty good after they are painted to really seperate from the "Hi, I am a monochrome space skeleton" thing that Necrons have going on. (At least most of those I have seen. I keep hearing rumors of fantastically painted Necrons, but have yet to really see them.)

Today's update is a little different. I've been working extratime on my projects, twar included. I have begun formulating the plan and presentation for bringing this project into the design academia and moving beyond the "Mechzilla" initial idea.

Eventually I'll share the whole presentation with you guys using fileexchange server or "TWAR" specific website, but untill then I will share the "moodboards" for the three character types and some additional ones too. Moodboards are used to visually set the mood for the work to follow, visually, but often psychologically, metaphorically etc.

The first one is of course of the warrior, A collection of pictures I used as an inspiration and guideline when I started, alongise of Transformers material that I'll include a clip of in the presentation. These board are purely for my own use and to communicate the ambition to others. I will do the Doctor and Artist boards too and share them at some point. For the Warrior I've used two art pics copyright of and by wonderfully talented "Goodbrush", a pic of 3d art train that has a lovely scheme, my own PSD rework of Gundam box art, digital camo, real night combat pic from Iraq and last but not the least the Apache - the ultimate war tool - and very crucial inspiration for the feel I want for the warrior's armour and equipment.

As for the AI infantry squad, work continues, but it's surprisingly accuracy and time consuming. For the record the squad includes 160! tiny rivets that need to be exactly in the middle of small joints shaved flat. But I should have them done on schedule ie. by the end of month.

Posted By migsula on 10/22/2007 11:04 AM
As for the AI infantry squad, work continues, but it's surprisingly accuracy and time consuming. For the record the squad includes 160! tiny rivets that need to be exactly in the middle of small joints shaved flat. But I should have them done on schedule ie. by the end of month.

When you finally succumb to the insanity of doing this, can you write it in your will that I get the Inquisitor diorama that you did?

Moodboards huh?  I didn't go to some fancy-schmany art school like you did  to learn that, but that's a keen idea.  I guess it's like my inspiration folders for coloring or drawing. 

As far as the smaller warriors go, I kinda thought that simpler was better for them since they would look more mass-produced, but I do see the problem that may arise.

Good luck staying on track...  I still want that Inquisitor though...

Posted By GrimTeef on 10/22/2007 12:36 PM

When you finally succumb to the insanity of doing this, can you write it in your will that I get the Inquisitor diorama that you did?

Hah! It's at my Granny's place, like all of my non wip or T.W.A.R models. She has become so fond of them that I don't think I'll ever get them back now. I also keep all of my medals/statues/the demon/ Best army awards etc. there and my Granny looks after them and show's the minis and the awards off to her friends and tells the most repeated stories of my childhood "heroics" I am sure .

A question.

What's the 1/? scale of GW stuff??

they are 28mm, right? (realistically more like 30mm though), but what does that translate to? 1/40ish??

Migs,

The problem with using an actual scale with GW figures is apparent when you put 'correct' scaled items with them. They will look small because of the over sized nature of the heads and hands on GW figures (and the fact that the bodies are usually about 5 heads tall doesn't help any.)

From what I have seen, if you are talking about weapons and accessories, 1/35 to 1/32 scale will work.  Vehicles I am not certain about but it seems that those will be too big and you will want closer to 1/40-ish. 

Hopefully someone who knows more about it can give you better help.

~Eric

Hi Eric,

I'm just curious, I cherry pick the suitable parts and kti and scale them up and down anyway so that's not a problem. Just that I'd like to know

Migs,

Well, it must be said that the cherry-picking is working well for you so far.

If I manage to find any kind of coherent information about scales (with relation to wargaming figures) I will certainly pass it along to you.

~Eric

Today I glued another set of 36 small rivets on the legs and will start work on the torsos. I am running out of time to get the lot finished for the DWAC deadline...but it's not that I've been slacking off, just overloaded with projects - the "TWAR" presentation among them.

Yesterday I finally got me a Wacom Intuous3, A5wide. Drool...guess what I have been doing all weekend.

Anyway - This is to show you what I have in mind for the doctor.

Once again, Wikipedia comes to the rescue, telling you all you ever need to know about miniature scales: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_figure_%28gaming%29

Cheers,

with all things considered - and there doesn't seem to be exact scale - 1/60 seems like the right scale judging from that.

Exciting news as the project is taking off to previously unimaginable directions and hopefully levels.

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Our school has just gotten two of those digital 3d sculpting tools that GW also uses these days. The RCA Rapidform staff was trained by the same chaps who trained GW sculptors. I am flabbergasted by the possibilities and they are excited about my project as a testing ground. I got to try the tool today – it is amazingly easy to use and will get it for me for several days when I need it.

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For example, I can digitally scan say General Splinter, and sculpt/repose a new meaner version and print the parts. It’s more likely I will use the tool to sculpt some parts for the doctor and especially the artist from scratch, print them, carefully had finish them and then add more parts and detail from kitbashing. I can also make black and white bitmaps, of intricate detail and the program makes it 3d for me…say chainmail as an example…or fur even. SO I don’t have to sculpt it all myself.

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With these new developments in mind I would like to share the schedule for the rest of the year.

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<h1>November</h1>

Is about learning and diving into these new technologies, and finishing up the AI squad that has been hit with more interesting developments. I will keep you posted on the process – it may be quite interesting to see, despite not being modelling in the traditional sense. It will give you a peek in to what GW does too in away.

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There won’t be anything finished this month.

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<h1>December</h1>

Is painting frenzy from finland. I will paint the Ais, make some more, the Assault Fex and build and paint the Hierophant. More if I can cram it. I should have a gaming legal army too and hopefully to test it too.

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2008

will see the full development of the Doctor and Artist and the new Warrior stuff for June deadline. Then by September I will have 3000pts of TWAR finished! (remember the Hierophant is 1250pts alone though )

That is dead sexy my friend. Dead sexy. I am terribly jealous!!

Is the fabricator one of those that uses the epoxy/warm liquid goo bath and lasers to create the solid peice, or does it use something new? (I am assuming putting down layers of paper is no longer the standard like when I was a lad.)

There are several different machines and output ranging from nylon to rubber-silicone and to titanium But yes, it's dust or thin thread burned to solid shapes as the uploaded 3d gemoetry directs it.

<- Jealous.

Oh and I got rather bored today during class...soooo...



From the name you can figure out the intent ^_-...was fun to sketch in the top margin in between notes...

Hehee I have been sketching/3Ding  so much my arm hurts. I'm so loving my wacom I should share some too.

Finnaly i got the time to devour such big yet so tasty thread.

First congrats for taking a step further in builting your own stuff just for the pleasure of it. It's these kind of projects, done with such care and love that I admire the most.

There are so many things i want to say about your project that i will divide in small topics to make reading a bit easier (specially since english is not my language)

What do I like the most:

- The Night-Creeper because from all the models so far its the one that takes me more to "migsula's imaginary" The concept its so fresh that I cant say its anime or steampunk or 40k... in a word? Its original and its migsula's.

- The way you choose not to be limited to a brand kits... You just hunt for the best looking bitz everywere.

- Painting, basing and modelling are top class.

What do i like less:

- Some models are just to close to anime concepts and ideas.

- Most models are anthropomorphic.

- I think you are still a bit stuck to what they are fluff, rules and concept wise (look in my sugestions*)

What i dont like at all

- The part you say these guys beat up Tyranids hehehe ( its all good mate i like it all)

My sugestions ( feel free to ignore them ^_^ )

- I would love that you would break free from some limits, forget a bit the fluff, the zilla rules and weapons and go wild with your creativity... I see your a anime fan ( check out  the oldschool mechs), what I'm trying to say is that you are probably just scratching what you can achieve.

- Forget human features and try to think like a machine hehe ( theres a world of shapes and utensils that you can ispire your next mechmonsters)

Ok I think I covered a bit of all i have in mind, hope I was clear enough... Personally this is the antithesis of my vision of nids, I avoid machines above all and I'm a organic purist... but you builted such nice models its hard for me to resist them.

Awesome work mate.

Thanks mate! good comments. So many threads to pick up for interesting discussion. Would be great to see IRL eventually and have our two totally different takes on tyranids meet too.

One of the key reason I'm doing a doctor and an artist is that I can move totally free of rules and wysiwyg and what not. Also thus far the rules have been more of a guideline and inspiration than restrictions to creativity - that is how it has felt to me at least.

I am actually very uneducated about Anime - but really like them - so that has been a factor in the look so far, but as I am coming more familiar I am also pushing to my own directions. I basically want them most to be bipedal though, but there will be exceptions.

This - like all work human beings produce is also testament to how closely tied even the most creative work is to existing parameters - creativity is organising these things in a new way, about coming up with ideas, and then innovating the ideas so that you end up making the most out of your ideas. Design combines these two. For me I've made a few fresh ideas and then honed them to meet my liking - which is affected by the cultural baggage I carry. Star Wars look has been a huge influence in everything I've done visually since the age of 4 or so, then GW gothic, some product design stuff, a few movies purely in terms of cinematography - like children of men...many different sources.

It's this whole concept of "thinking out of the box". Can you really truly do that? And if you can, don't you still need to drag one of your feet in the box to bridge the cap to the audience. I also try and maintain some authorship on the reception of my work.

I do love truly alien and different creatures and concepts, such as those in some of Abnett's books - like the 5 dimension things in Eisenhorn series. But I am also a "coolness" whore and want "Wow, *fudge*in aye, nice idea" rather than "gak, what is that, never seen anything like it".

For all of these reasons this hobby and dakkadakka in particular has been a huge springboard for my personal development as a "creator" of things, an artist, designer...what ever one wants to call it.


So happy to have you back at dakka

Now, puting both our Tyranids on same battle field would be something really special, since i think they represent both sides of the coin. I agree with you mate, we would be talking about concepts and ideas for nids for a eternity if we meet one day. Also I believe that our takes on them are closer than it looks at first sight.

Everyone has its own baggage, as you say, and we assimilate all kinds of info and tendencies everyday and we dont even notice... what makes some concepts better than others is when your own design( that is just a rearranjed puzzle of other designs) can push some triggers on your target memories. I totally agree that you should keep one foot inside the box even if i would love to see your doctor and artist totally wild concepts.

One thing that i ussually do on my daily work is crazy brainstormings, so sometimes i drag that into my hobby... Theres a big risk that sooner or later my sculpting work will end up on, as you say "gak, what is that, never seen anything like it"... and people will hate it, hehehe wich is ok with me since my target is myself really ^_^ Even if my path is not to do something that no one identifies im taking that risk more and more.

A bit of my baggage is surrealism, dali, giger, brom, bisley, frezzato, movies like starwars& aliens, da vinci, anime, comics, animation and my daily work...etc

I love your choices and style mate so i totally respect your take at anthropomorphic mechzillas, I just wanted to motivate you to explore my personal tastes little bit further hehehe... oh i almost forgot check out conceptart.org community for cool ideas.

Keep it up

 

 

 

Posted By NAVARRO on 11/02/2007 2:30 AM

... and people will hate it, hehehe wich is ok with me since my target is myself really ^_^

 

 

Same for me. Earlier I was hell bent on pleasing others and hoping people would love my models, but now I just do stuff I really like myself. You can't please everyone anyway. Ofcourse it is extremely nice bonus when people like the work too.

Been extremely busy with School work and wife, but I've begun working on the Hierophant. (thanks for the legs gurk!). I am building the legs from defiler kit, but seriously extending and beefing them up. After thrusday I should have a few days to spend more time on the bugger and other TWAR things.

This brings me to a question. Does anyone have a FW Hierophant?? How large is the base roughly and how tall is it all together? I have a reference pic from WD, and it really looks huge, but exact measures would be handy.

It doesn't come with a base (I don't own one or I'd give you the exact dimensions of the model).

Ok thanks Yak,

If I suitably lenghten and then beef up the defiler legs and use a 1/100 scale gundam to do the upper body and weapons, I should be ok for the hierophant? I do wan't to base mine. The large base allows for brilliant narrative and detail.

Do the Imperial Titans come with baes? if so how large?

Posted By migsula on 11/08/2007 4:32 AM
Ok thanks Yak,

If I suitably lenghten and then beef up the defiler legs and use a 1/100 scale gundam to do the upper body and weapons, I should be ok for the hierophant? I do wan't to base mine. The large base allows for brilliant narrative and detail.

Do the Imperial Titans come with baes? if so how large?

According to the FW website, Hierophants are 10 inches (255 mm) tall. They also have some pretty good reference pictures on page 3 of the Hierophant gallery:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/hierop3.htm

The first picture shows some Tau warriors on the base. . .considering each model's base is just about 1 inch big I'd say the Hierophant is more than a foot long and wide. I have seen several Hierophants in person and this sounds about right.

 

As for Imperial Titans, they do not come standard with any bases (but you can see from the scale picture of the Warhound vs. the Hierophant on that same page an example of a base that someone made for their Warhound).

 

 

 

The pic with a warhound is very useful. I've seen those quite a few times. It really is a big bugger - no doubt about that.

Some links with phant pictures.

http://uk.games-workshop.com/apocalypse/collecting-troops/4/

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400003.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400325.jpg

The one of PhilKelly's is the one in WD - but this is bigger and digital - so much handier for me. Mine will be very different volumes wise, but I wan't it to look as, if not more, formidable.

Thanks Navarro.

So I've been hobbyfrontdead because of real life, but have managed to produce some really good real world work so at least not having a life hasn't gone to waste.

I'm reunited with my paints this coming weekend, so give me few days and you see something new and fully finished December should be good overall, so stay tuned and sorry for the delay.

So, finally the blog is moving again - I am with my paints and have a few hours here and there.

Here's the Ai-trooper Prototype. 20 or so to go then. There's another pic just for size comparison.






LMK what you think. I ordered some new, my first, Series 7 brushes, as the hair of the ones I've used for the past 5 or so years are too long for the kind of fast/painterly style I paint with these days. The metal also wear out brushes faster.

looks great just like the rest.. what is he supposed to be, a termagant?

My brushes wear out a lot too, I just buy cheaper ones at art stores.. I paint kind of quick too and even the good brushes got torn up after almost the same amt of time. I have a couple of good fine detail ones, the rest are more generic and not a problem to replace

Thanks Necros,

Yes, he's a Termagaunt, 10 of these in the making, and then 10 twopistols troopers, Spinegaunts

I think quality of brushes is very important. Gives such a huge advantage. I keep very good care of mine, always wash them with soap after a paint session and a few times during, so the ones I don't use for metallics last 2 or 3 years. I use Raphael Matre Kolinsky ones. But have been searching for shorter hair ones like I mentioned.

I like 'em. He fits right it with the big guys and you were totally right that once he was painted any hint of a Necron origin has pretty much vanished in my eyes.

I'm very interested to see what pistols you use.


I really need to start using better brushes. If and when you try out these new brushes let me know if they're worth it and where I can pick them up (if you don't mind).

That looks brilliant. I actually like it more than your big guys! Simple and very characterful. They'll look wonderful en masse.

Thanks gents! I'm really glad you like it. I'm happy it came out so TWAR and un Necrony - also to you. Compared to a Necron warrior, it's much more upright and half the torso diameter.

Yak - sure thing, should get them next week.

I like em. The paint (as always) has really tied everything together.

Some quick thoughts:

You have used more of the dark grey/blue on this guy, I love the color, but I would personally have used it in more of a secondary fashion. The way it's used here is making it more and more of a primary color element in the army. Especially when you've got 20 of the little bugga's running about. I understand the need/want to tie in the lictor with these guys though so it does make sense, but they seem to fit in less with their larger, less stealthy friends. My thoughts to tie them better to the main elements of the army would be to put more of the larger armor in the lighter grey, to include the head. The way it's used now feels like a 50/50 scheme, and really is even more imbalanced with only the upper body in the light grey.

The grey you've used for the weapon has me wondering if this color will be used in more of the future bots you build as well, as it's the first time we've seen it on your creations. I love the color. Is this color going to be for AI weaponry? As it doesn't seem their weapons are actually part of them as in the larger bots. I like the blue, and from other discussions understand the reasoning behind it (if the weapon fires, it makes perfect sense).

I love the base work here as with all of your figures for the army. You should expect me to be raiding my bits box for basing mats on my next one off/project (see: Not the Grey Death Legion). The different earth tones work very well and the solid rim ties it all off nicely. It looks like it's a simple series of washes for the effect over a white basecoat. The effect is great.

All told, you've really broken the necron mold very well, and the piece is extremely effective. 20 of these bugga's plodding around on the battlefield will be a sight. Especially with those HUGE bad boys behind them (btw, I didn't realize how large they really were until the comparison shot x.x).

Thanks Grey. I am trying hard to distance them from the big guys actually. So that they would look like "mindless" tools, rather than small versions of big guys. I have started to build rules on the differentiation between the Archtroni and their "robots", the colour and design of the eye and the eye lense a key factor. The Lictor is breaking/messing those some with it's round eye lenses...which really bothers me...

Mainly I want the "Brainstorm" system and the AItroops to look a coherent lot, able to act independetly so that the brainstorm unit is a command link to the Big guys. WIll happen in escalation a lot.

The grey on the weapon is the colour I use to do the markings on the dark grey areas, but there it looks slightly lighter ofcourse, because it's surrounded with the very dark grey. I decided to test it and liked it too, so it will be used more to spice things up. (lol, what does it tell about me that I introduce another grey to spice things up, maybe my Handle should be Grey Death too )

You are correct on the basing technique. I've looked at real landscape from urban, wartorn areas and then decided to emulate that feel and look as accurately as possible, rather than stick to how basing is supposed to be painted. Some people will like it some dislike it strongly, but obviously I do what I like and think suits this best.

Dead sexy, as usual. I have to admit, I didn't believe you could pull those off even with great paint, but I was mistaken. They really do look like their own little entity instead of a Necron knockoff. I would probably have never guessed where they came from without intense scrutiny if I didn't know.

You get a 9 of 10, docked a point for lack of tentacles.

PS. I am really interested in your new brush finds too. My old reliable is starting to get a little frazzled, and since I am not as careful with brushes as I should be, I need a good source of tools.

Got my series 7 brushes today - looking VERY good, perfect point, and much shorter length hair that is nice a springy and still very soft. I hope to give them a go this weekend. A review will follow.

I slurged on some series 7 brushes myself quite a while ago. I baby them, but they've lasted a good long time and would certainly recommend them on.

Your AI really doesn't feel very Necron-esque at all, Migs, great job. A whole unit of them will be very impressive to see.

Thanks Teef!

I begun working on the Doctor "TWAR" yesterday. He'll be much more organic in feel and using parts from this kit, but heavily converted, with scratchbuilt, sort of integrating operating table to the doc itself, and get two or three AI nurses to help him do surgery...I am playing with the thought of modeling the patient too, a badly wounded/exposed Archonite. The doc and stuff will get a cream/lightgreen scheme, with some gold and silver and some metal/pearl like (car paint like finishes) or so I hope.



keep your eye on the wip Gallery for updates. I'll post a proper update here when he and the staff are ready for prime.

I've also begun working on the second Heavy Carni This one will be quite different to the first, but the collar, and to be built powerpack will be tie ins. It will get even bigger legs (from a new kit I am getting for Xmas) that will house small jets, to rep a "parachuting" mechanism...or "mycetic spores". The base will be very industrial in feel, so I am adding mesh etc. and mainly metallics and warnings chevrons paintjob. I will try something different in the paint too, new weathering tricks and a slightly different scheme.

Looks like you already have quite a few of the little uns halfway done.
I'm looking forward to seeing the pics of the carni.

This second heavy carni sounds cool. Are the legs going to be bigger in the sense that they have more mass or that they are going to be longer too? The earlier one seems long enough. It would be fun if you got to look even heavier. The land beneath his feet could have gave in because of his weight and so on.

They will be shorter, but even more stockier - so seriously massive I'll show them when we paint again.

The idea on the base is really good! I'll see if I can pull it off somehow.

Looks like you're making nice progress Migs. Please post more detail about the rapid prototyping stuff. There's a mechanical engineer sitting here frothing at the mouth. (and his name is Marcus )

Drake_Marcus wrote:Looks like you're making nice progress Migs. Please post more detail about the rapid prototyping stuff. There's a mechanical engineer sitting here frothing at the mouth. (and his name is Marcus )

I should post some stuff a friend did. He has this plugin for rhino that calculates gears for you and he printed them for a tuning mechanism. Amazingly easy and works!

BIG PETITION FOR WARWALKER FEET!!
I have a new, massive Carnifex ready apart from the head. I need some more warwalker feet! A few people were kind enough to offer me some, but then the packages never arrived :( This the only really "weird/rare"part I need repeatedly, but 3 come for each WW, so people should have extras lying about. I can pay for them.

I've also done a set of 3 bases, one 60 and two 40mm for the Doctor Twar and his two helpers/tools. Avery hightech, mechanical looking floor grid/sections that should reinforce their identity. I am still finding myself a little stuck with the direction of the doctor, whether it's a emergency type of thing that goes to the patient or a surgeon in his own environment. I am leaning towards the latter.

I'll post pics after a few more sessions of work.

Some wip pics of the doctor bases and Ai-assistants. As soon as I find suitable wire and can finish the detailing, I will paint these. The scheme will be white/yellow/green/gold, but with lowsaturated palette. I am quite happy with the bases particularly, the AIs will take some more work and the paint to really show what I am after and how the structure makes sense through the materials/colors.





I've also almost built the heavy carni - so please if anyone has WW feet!!!

Migs, your work is a great inspiration. Keep it up!!

Looking good mate. I was on my net browsing and found a very handy tool for plastic carving, people that model plains etc use this for carving lines on fuselages wich gives a lot of freedom on carving details on plastic surfaces,you probably know it already but if not google the word "Plastic scriber".
I'm going to get one

Just an update to not hold your breath for updates. My life has been completely highjacked by my studies and work, so the TWAR are very mch in the backburner for the time being. I have not lost interest, it is simply impossible to fit in my schedule at the moment. I intend to finish all the Doctor things during my Easter brake, then have a nother break before fully getting my life back in June

So untill Easter and sorry for the delay - the second half of 2008 will be TWARtastic

well, I really want to see how the rest turns out, unfortunatly, my second half of 2008 will be dominated by a plumber and a hedgehog beating the cr** out of eacht other

There are a lot of amazing things to be said about this project.

+ You kept it GW-oriented for tournament legality purposes.
+ You merged two areas of sci-fi that fit so nicely together it makes people legitimately jealous.
+ You've got crazy skills at this kinda thing.

I guess I'm seconding things that've already been said. But maaaaaaaaaan, what a project!

Thanks for your kind words. I'm quite happy how well it has been received. As usual though, the main finnish hobby forum concentrated on arguing that I should use dreadnought rules and I got a fraction of replies that other army blogs did...so the appreciation has been truly down to dakka and warseer.

I really hope to finish this lot to tournament ready size and then go show it to the locals live

Is it wrong to ask that the Dr. robot have a groin mounted thermometer? Doesn't even have to be rectal, just in general.

It bugs me that when I try and make models from twigs, berries and tree bark, they only attract raccoons. Yours seem to transform directly to gold, perhaps by some use of a philosopher's stone?

Sure thing!

With graduation looming and having shown the models as one of six projects in my final exam, I am soon back on the project and quite excited to finally work on the ideas that have been cooking in my head for quite some time.

Watch this space - July will belong to the TWAR Systems a playable army just in time for fifth!

I know the feeling of hobby being completly overun by life mate I will be watching for the updates.

It's been so hectic and stressful that I completely forgot the feeling of doing this project - and why it got to such a speedy and promising start. I'm really glad though that it was quick to rediscover and at that state positive comments are very very welcome. It is good to know the interest is still out there.

Now I am looking at the stuff I had planned, 6 legged Mecha Titans with floating mind fields around them, and droptroop AI (gargoyles), and morphing robot, and super heavy drop attack arsenal system and... and am thinking how did I ever stop... fething school...

Even my tutors were really excited about the notion of self-controlled machine evolution as a project.

So here's where we are and what is planned next.

The plan is to get a 1500pts legal force ASAP, then go crazy for Apocalype things, before returning to expand the first force. I'm going to concentrate on the warriors, and drop the doctor/artist nonsense for now, so this actually means I have two more "Zoanthropes" (used to be medical AIs) ready for painting. Coupled with the two carnis, it really is about finishing the troops ASAP to get gaming.

Stuff painted or very close to getting painted:
Tyrant
Lictor
Dakkafex
Gunfex
Gunfex
3 Zoanthropes

so that's 1000ish pts.
first squad of 10 Ai infantry is also half way assembled.


The AI infantry type one being so bloody difficult to make, I might do a squad of genestealers as the second choice instead? They could also be built on Necron Warriors, but uparmoring and CCW weaponizing them instead of the time consuming stripping and resculpting. They are aso more expensive pts wise, and additional bonus.

Originall I intended to do a morpher thing to rep the genestealer squad, but the introduction of mansized swarm AI really seems to work and tie the army to 40k, so I am tempted to have atleast two squads. Originally I had two squads plus the morpher guy, but now reconsidering to have two different squads for the initial army. Hopefully I will be working on the project for years to come - and then the new Necron Plastics will bring a lot of options for more and new AI types.

I am now MA RCA and there will be some hobby time and balance in my life again!

A Decision is reached - after finally getting the parallel routes of 5th ed excitment in check, I'm settled and equally excited about concentrating just on the TWAR. I do need a proper target - so 6th of August when I am back from holidays in the sun, I shall have a gaming legal TWAR army ready to kick butt!!!

Plan of action:

Wednesday 9th: prime two new Zoanthropes, one of them needs an attachment to the base too.
Thursday 10th: Start painting the two and finish + varnish by monday! Post pics at dakka
.
Monday 14th: continue assembling the 9 Ai infantry, finish by Friday
Friday 18th: start assembling Morpher, try and push him to 8 or even 10 parts) Post pics at dakka.
Sunday 20th: prime and then pack the infantry, morpher and the primed "dakkafex" who still needs a name.

Two weeks of relaxed painting in the evenings at portugal, just all the base colors, and washes and markings. Weathering and finetuning can be done in finland.

6th of August, finish what little detail is left and start gaming!!! Post plenty of quality pics at dakka

I will have TWAR systems equivalent of:

Uber flying Tyrant 227pts
Lictor 80pts
Dakkafex 113pts
10 Termagaunts 70pts?
10 Genestealers with e.c. 200pts
3 Zoanthropes circa 130pts
Uber Shootyfex 218pts

I will then have a game legal force of 1038 pts!!! Who fancies a game on 9th of August??

Yessssssssssssssssssssss! Overjoyed to have you back on your TWAR at long last.

That's a nice solid schedule, good luck with it. Look forward to pics Aug 6

- Salvage

Hooray! I'm stoked that you're back onto this project Migsula. It's been nothing but exceptional so far, and we all want to see more!

OOooh me! Me! We can play at my house!

I really look forward to the pics too. As I previously stated, I really wasn't feeling the TWAR when you started, not being a mecha fan per se, but the project has really sucked me in, and I really look forward to seeing where it goes!

Personally, I am hoping it goes in the "gargantuan creature with metal tentacle limbs", but in general it is cool.

I saw these today on tgn and thought of this project.

http://www.rackham.fr/newsletter/cry_online/img97/COG2.jpg

I have to say I've lurked the hell outta thread since it's inception, and have never ONCE been disappointed when you've updated it. Keep up the good work.

Here it starts again.

I am back home! And just primed the two new Zoeys. Priming these is such a joy, as I am using so much different coloured crap to build these that after prime the whole design comes together and I start seeing how I will enhance it with paint. Now, I would have enough parts to make the design of the 3 much more uniform...as these are Ai's it might even be fitting, but so much of this project and it's fun is the building individual designs part. It's almost like an ork army, only much more suitable for my scandinavian core I threw in the AI trooper for scale.

Here's the TWAR group shot. Missing is a Heavy Arsenal system 2, a Deep Strike model that is about 85% assembled.

Progress - a weird thing to put into context - I've spent hours and hours on end on a uit of AI infantry, that is all of 60pts worth in pts Yet so important to get that gaming legal force. I am also very pleased of the overall concept for these guys, the distancing from the Necron warrior and the new poses I've managed to pull out.

What makes them so laborious is the careful carving off and cleaning. So much so that it is simple not viable for an army project. The next squad will have to be about up armoring the necron warrior kit, ie. genestealers, or finding a totally new torso to use. I'm ending up spending more time on 10 of these than 20 biggerised Space Marines

Anyway - Here's where I am at today. You can see the assembled heads waiting at the front together with the clips for the guns. The AIs are sculpted and finished ready to receive the heads. Arms still need cleaning, cutting and joint riveting. Tomorrow I should have a proper hobby day, which I'll spend mostly painting. The Ai squad is nicely ahead of schedule though.

All comments most welcome!

Just finished painting the new Psychological Warfare AIs. I still need to do some chalk weathering on the bases and then varnish the new duo.

Here be pics:







I'm so excited to feel the army growing again.

I specifically checked this forum hoping for a TWAR update, and I got one! Monday is looking up...

I really dig how the "Zoes" are all different but have primary distinguishing characteristics so that they can't be confused for anything else. Great job.

As always, the painting and weathering are top notch and really put the illusion of reality and scale on your pieces.

Outstanding. As GrimTeef notes, they really do look like "Zoenthropes" -- in a very distinctive T.W.A.R.ish sense.
And the combination of mech-clean-slick with the realistic weathering really works nicely.

They look like they want to suck my brains....

Was NOT expecting that when I opened the thread!

They look great! You have some of the most realistic weathering I've seen out there. Something I'm definitely going to mimic as I move forward with my new army projects ^_-.

I really don't have much in the way of crit for these guys. I dig em completely.

Fav details: Weathering Smudges.

^Agreed.

Best weathering I've seen out

Nice, realistic, stylish conversions as well.

~sA

Thanks guys!

I've drawn quite a bit of inspiration from so called "realistic modeling" circles and a finnish modeler Miika Bergdahl, whose won quite a few vehicle demons, but he mainly does jawdropping starwars and submarine models. He never uses metal for scratching for example - a single great tip to nice weathering.

However my "secret" to weathering is my own mixes of wash though. I use paint and ink (both together!), future and water and use different washes to deepen the recesses and a different one to float on flat surfaces to smudge and deepen the base color. I use these smudges partly as guide to then apply the scratching. I also look a lot into real reference where ever I go, but artistic license is always required to make it tick in this scale. I just got the new GW washes and tried them out, but immediately went back to my own. I can see the GW washes as great, fast way of shading cloth and skin though.

I also use a little TAMYA weathering tools for soot and rust, and also pure diluted paint to build rust.

Anyone got any Warwalker feet?

I had a monster hobby day yesterday - not only finishing the Zoeyes, but also finishing the second Arsenal System - the head (ie. warwalker feet part missing). I was very optimistic that I'd have no trouble getting that part as three comes for every warwalker and a few people even promised me theirs, yet I've received none and the part has proved very elusive. I would REALLY appreciate any and all warwalker feet you have extra, and I'll pay for them and the postage.

Next Up, warwalker feet permitting, I'll varnish the big beast, then finish the AI infantry and go about sorting out the "genestealer" system. If I get the Arsenal system done too, I am ahead of schedule, which is a great thing, since I am thinking of taking part in a tournament to be held at Ropecon (huge RPG convention annually in Helsinki). I won't have 1500pts done, but who says you can't go with a 1000 or 1250 as it might be

There was an interesting discussion about TWAR relationship to AIs and fith ed at Warseer, so I thought I post my comment here too. It adds to the definition of TWAR as a concept.

The way I see it, there are two reasons for the existence of the AI troops:
1. to give numbers as you say
2. to enable TWAR fight in the confines of human cities and habitation, where smaller creatures are used to "tunnel rat" enemy out of hiding and to keep ground.

With different war fronts, different AIs will be created too - just like different TWAR designs will emerge.

5th ed will be slightly problematic, but you still win if you kill everything + TWAR forces like this are never meant for holding ground.

I see the TWAR host form as a machine too, just a living, morphing "core" that stores it's sentient ability (intelligence far superseding humans) and requires the designed battleform around it (for life support, energy, mobility..). Without access to materials: metals and ceramics etc. the Race cannot live, and despite their hugely advanced tech, they've lost the ability to reproduce new "cores", ie. new Archtroni/TWAR...the hunt for this knowledge ultimately drives the entire species.

Nearly there! (priming that is, as painting these is a joy) Only barrels and arm joint rivets to add.

I urgently need you extra warwalker feet! (each kit comes with three and you need two)

I pay 5 usd per feet + postage! (paypal)

I'll try to see if I can get at my unbuilt War Walkers tonight when I get home. I have three of them, I think. I have no idea how I'm going to assemble them yet... Does the actual foot type from the kit matter? I thought there were ones that kind of had 'relaxed' or slack toes that were to be used for raised feet...

Anyhow, I'll get them out tonight. I bet I can spare the three, and I will ask a couple other eldar playing friends if they have any spares.

There are two "standing" legs and one "pointing" per sprue. For me it doesn't matter, for a unit of 3 I myself used one of the pointing ones to really differentiate between poses and to get variation.

LMK and thanks in advance!!

PM sent, get back to me when you can.

The squad of AI infantry is in basic colors and the assault system (dakka fex) too. Grim Teef saved my ass with enough WW feet for the whole army, including APOC things, so things are moving along nicely - WOOHOOO!

It's still a stretch to get the army gaming legal for the 3 game tournament 8th of August, but I am sure I will think of something. In anycase I will go with a 1200 or so pts army to a tournament of 1500pts, which should be an experience I should maybe take the Crescent Guard, but I soooo want to start playing with TWAR.

AI infantry squad fully finished! pics from Finland. Tomorrow's the last day of the holiday, so the assault system wasn't finished, but 10 ai + 3 more Jade Vessel minis were and I am quite happy as it has been a fairly relaxing time, lots of good food and sun and swimming.

I'll see if there's an opportunity for a miracle model+paint session to get gaming legal for Ropecon, or plan B, in which case I think I'll paint some Marines.

But TWAR is getting close to gaming! Two Carnies in painting stage/readiness + a clear idea for the Stealers, a morphing tentacle assault system dedicated to Wehr and Boss S And now WW feet to move forward.

So after a 3 12+hours days of painting, the TWAR went to war for the first time Ropecon, which is the biggest gaming con in Nothern Europe had a 3 game 40k tournament yesterday.

It was quite something! and totally worth it. I had 3 very exciting games, two absolutely great and one totally decent opponent, finished with 2 ties and a narrow win, with only 1400pts (so a dakkafex short) and two major rookie mistakes. Now I am super excited of the potential and the changes. Without Number really rocks for two of the three new missions!

5th is fluid! A really really improved edition! and People loved TWAR and were introducing them to their friends like some mysterious folklore they are party to from dakka etc. The robots are huge, but when you think how much damage a T7 W5 and Sv2 Arsenal System can soak, it should be the biggest thing out there

Game one v. Chaos
Made a HUUUGE rookie mistake in placing my target almost to the opposite corner of the opponents - it seem tyranids fight united or die spread out. Managed to tie as objectives were one to one, but really I "lost" it before the game even started with placing the objetive. I also had real trouble with stopping his rhinos.

Game Two v Tyranids.
4 markers, and I had only two scoring troop units...so it was gooing to be an uphill struggle. But now TWAR adapted, having analysed the first mission and fighting an enemy they know, they formed into a "headgehog pattern system" and fought valiantly - but alas I could only get two objectives, so also a tie. It actually ended 1-1 as I missed the win by 1" too short run on the last turn.

Game Three v. Chaos Demons
Kill points. Goddam, the nasty ass things dropped down and smoked my walking tyrant before I could say fire, having "missed" my first turn. Really really interestng army the demons are! Lots is dependant on the availability rolls of course, but they do have potential!! And look fun to play. In the end TWAR fought resolutely, the system adapting to enemy patterns and managed a narrow win with 8-7 kill points. Eternal Warriors totally took me off guard. A Dakkafex looked to swat some Nurgling, but spent the whole gaming hacking them apart.



My list is so far from optimised, but has tons of potential there with minimum additions and tweaks. Now I build the missing Fex, which might even be a cheapo attack fex, even if the dakka fex really is golden concept, I see ways of making my army my army. I also had two Zoeys with scream and scream on the second tyrant! And two fearless opponents!!, so that will change...better to just blast them to bitz and have more synapse.

I think 4 troop choises with just 8 gaunts and without number might be my final choise! All I want of them is to take objectives and be easy to conceal and cost as little as possible.

Lictor and General Splinter were a deadly duo, wrecking apart Demon Princes, Carnifexes etc. I made a plan for Splinters assaults and then when the lictor came available bounced and used the feeder tendrils to max.

I absolutely loved how the army plays, and even though the robots really are huge compared to much of GW stuff, they somehow really fit in and the stats are pretty massive anyway. The little guys tie them in well.

PICTURES when I've recharged.

this army is so far beyond awesome that I dont even have a word to properly describe it!

Here's circa 1300pts of TWAR and several new additions! Huzzah! I hope it's been worth your wait!














all the rest of the pics can be seen here:

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


LMK what you think.

Next up is a "screamer killer" fex - inspired by a Dwarf Daemon Slayer, he'll have a roaring mouth revealing a plasmacannon system and two huge axes and the build is very squat. After that - it's just more troops and more troops

i hope youre kidding because this is simply mind blowing. i dont even know where to start commenting on these things. simply a ridiculously cool concept with some of the best modelling and painting around.

my favorite must be salvo. his ginormous legs look a bit awkward at first, but i like the guy.

very very inspiring work migs.

Holy hell Migs, it's so good to see the lot all together at last. And 2 new TWAR too, delicious! You're really kicking ass even harder than usual on this project man. The little AI I note are nice in scale, make the big dudes even bigger looking.

- Salvage

Flachzange wrote:i hope youre kidding because this is simply mind blowing. i dont even know where to start commenting on these things. simply a ridiculously cool concept with some of the best modelling and painting around.

my favorite must be salvo. his ginormous legs look a bit awkward at first, but i like the guy.

very very inspiring work migs.

Thanks. I'm sort of not kidding, much as I've gotten good comments, I also get a lot of really odd reactions! I only scored half of the painting points in the tournament for example. Granted, I had a Kroot Squad standing in as TermaGaunts, but they were nicely painted too and everything in the army is a stand in!

Salvo's idea is that he's a deepstriking system, the outer legs which have openings revealing landing thrusters, "peel" off after landing Suggesting also that all TWAR can have such mission specific upgrades.

Thanks Boss! It's been a year of very productive, if sporadic bursts - but now I can add stuff when I want and round up the army for a long future of gaming fun. This ought to be my third "eternity" project alongside the Imperium/inquisition arm and the Crescent Guard I've been working on for years.

migsula wrote:I only scored half of the painting points in the tournament for example. Granted, I had a Kroot Squad standing in as TermaGaunts, but they were nicely painted too and everything in the army is a stand in!

This is something I was talking to mkerr from BoLS about recently down in Austin. He has a revilers army that looks really great (painted by another local), and was wondering what chapter I was going with for my marines (See: GDL ^_-). He said that it really doesn't get the painting scores it deserves from tournies. And that grey just really doesn't seem to pull in the big scores compared to gaudy and OTT armies that have a lot of 'pop'.

Do you think that it's envy? Or just inability to appreciate nicely painted stuff that doesn't scream look here??

But you'd sort of think the TWAR has some "pop". The explanation from the organisers was that I had stand in Kroot - I can accept that, even if it is kinda ironic given how the whole army is a stand in and selected the kroot as mercs and the most logical fluff ally to TWAR. Next time TWAR go to war they will bring only AIs.

I don't know about the role of envy in painting scores, I saw a lot of armies there on the day, and the prize for best painted overall, it seemed, went to a very well-deserving recipient.

It could be you got penalised for the kroot just because they don't thematically jive with the overall tone of the army, not necessarily because they're being used as stand-ins for something else.

Agamemnon2 wrote:the prize for best painted overall, it seemed, went to a very well-deserving recipient.

Why didn't you come and say hello?

I'm absolutely sure it did - I never said anything contrary or to do with best painted, I haven't even seen the army that got it, just wondered why I got such low scores, and the referees already described the reasons like I said.

Ditching half the points for a thematic discord is pretty harsh to me, but out of a curiosity perspective more than anything else. I've had my fair share of interesting scores and comments in finnish tournament/forum circles about things, particularly after the GD - what ever the motivation - to warrant a few questions.

Could've been I was too tired. The Con always takes a lot out of me. Some parts of the experience are a blur. The Sunday morning Apocalypse game was also pretty much pandemonium

I cannot with good conscience agree with the decision of the judges or their stated reasoning for it, certainly.

Hmmmmm........

This is some really great work. But the big guys (minus the floaty dudes) look like gundams with some 40k bits added on. They are brilliant but seem out of place in comparison to your other work. If these guys were on a playing table I think i would admire them and then ask what game you were playing.

Personally, I like your foot soldiers the best... simple, dynamic, different but not out of place in the 40k universe.

Of the big guys I think the round floaty guy is the best.

ender502

I think they're all tremendous.

But above all, they all scream at me "I'M GOING TO EAT SOME BABIES!!" ... Which is most important in Monstrous Terms.

Hoorah!

~sA

Splendid work mate. Truly an unique looking army.

ender502 wrote:Hmmmmm........

This is some really great work. But the big guys (minus the floaty dudes) look like gundams with some 40k bits added on. They are brilliant but seem out of place in comparison to your other work. If these guys were on a playing table I think i would admire them and then ask what game you were playing.

Personally, I like your foot soldiers the best... simple, dynamic, different but not out of place in the 40k universe.

Thanks

I can totally understand your point - in Finland these kits are almost completely unknown and I've had very little exposure to them before a trip to japan in 06 - so for me (and the gaming audience) they are a very welcome breath of fresh air and without prior baggage, look no more out of place than TAU first did. I'm immensely happy to have a weird, unique army anyway

The foot soldiers also tie in the big ones to 40k in my opinion.

I've never seen an army with good weathering or battle damage perform exceptionally well in painting scores. Best painted usually goes to the army that looks fresh off the dealer-lot with the brightest complimentary colors that has the best technical blending and shading skills - and a good display board.

You've got the technical skills down and displayed nicely, I just think it's not what they are looking for.

I do personally think that more GW bits on some of the bigger guys would help out. The thing that I believe would help the most would be to rework some of the angles on the legs/chest/arms to be more GW styled. Some of the Gundam models use a lot of soft acute angles wheras GW either goes for completely rounded or hard angles on most things.

The first TWAR with the sword actually looks very GW to me for this reason. To contrast, the most recent heavy with the 2 dual shoulder launchers looks very foreign because of the angles (I think).

Excellent paintjob and fun army. I am still 100% jealous that I didn't do this myself first. Even though I wouldn't have done it justice.

migsula wrote: they are a very welcome breath of fresh air and without prior baggage, look no more out of place than TAU first did. I'm immensely happy to have a weird, unique army anyway

That is enough of a reason to do them... x2! They certainly are unique and you are lavishing your usual level of insanely good painting on these guys.

I hadn't considered that a lot of your home town audience doesn't know about gundams...I have a friend that makes them compulsively.

Keep up the great work on all your projects! I for one find them a source of inspiration.... and a fertile field for stealing ideas!

Could you post som epics of your imperial guard figs? The ones with the COD looking bases. I haven't seen those in a month of sundays and was thinking about some camo schemes...

ender502

Thanks - yes, the mot frequent question at the tournament was "which kits are using you to build these??"

I still have some of my guard at pbase, but when the new dex hits and if the rumored plastic storm troopers become reality, I'll definitely add some. The guard are real "speed paints" though. 10 in 4 hours or so.

[EDIT]: Found the pictures of your guard! Holy bludgeoning burlocks of Brasil, they're good.

Is it a trade secret, or how do you do the balaclavas?

Thanks.

~sA

smiling Assassin wrote:[EDIT]: Found the pictures of your guard! Holy bludgeoning burlocks of Brasil, they're good.

Is it a trade secret, or how do you do the balaclavas?

Thanks.

~sA

I shave the head and then melt the mouth and nose slightly with plastic glue, then it's just paint Simple really.

Ahh! Thanks

I thought it was something to do with blurring with glue. Accidental discovery?

~sA

I hadn't seen the new boys yet, and they are really nice. I particularly love the one holding part of a lamp post, hopefully with the intent to beat someone with it.

I don't really know what to tell you about paint scores. I think you have some of the best painted models I have ever seen, but then they don't really fit the "typical" GW style. Then again, they fit the really fancy French style which looks so nice, so I don't know what to make of it.

Any chance of mechnical squid rippers?

Wehrkind wrote: I particularly love the one holding part of a lamp post, hopefully with the intent to beat someone with it.

...

Any chance of mechnical squid rippers?

Most definitely!!

Chances for all sorts of weirdness, including mechanical tentacles

Thanks mate!

this is one of the most inflental project logs i've seen.i saw another one awhile back that also uses the bug codex but was based olong the lines of a khorne dread army i'm going to do the same but based on an iron warrior dread army led by lord beroruss from dead sky black sun

I'm building the twin Axe TWAR this week. Got a real bad hit to my thigh yesterday in practice so no bball for the rest of the week. This is a quick window before the Marines stuff.

I've built two huge custom axes and most of the head that looks wickedly Slaaneshi/DoomSireny. I also found away to build the twin pistol AIs fast on reversed TAU drones, so that they fit the look of my army very well, and clear room for cooler infantry after wards. I'll try to push through them by Xmas, so I have fully TWAR and tourny legal force that is very optimisd to my playing style. I'm desperate to get more games in to my schedule. I absolutely love how this army plays...and the list I had was far from optimised, and now it is - just right for my playing style too.

First thing I thought when you mentioned twin pistols were Cogs from AT43. I don't think they fit right with your project though.

Looking forward to the new guys.

Agree about Cogs.

Lets see if I can get the Screamer Killer TWAR finished by sunday

simply put, very awesome thread.

Truly, truly original, and just when I thought it had all been done!

I've been fiddling with some mech ideas myself recently, and have found this artist to be really inspiring. He has a book on robot design which is well worth reading. If you have time, check out this link:
http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/panzerfluch.html

Hope it helps, if only a little.
Great work, especially when painted so well.



All the best.

Anti-Mag wrote:Truly, truly original, and just when I thought it had all been done!

I've been fiddling with some mech ideas myself recently, and have found this artist to be really inspiring. He has a book on robot design which is well worth reading. If you have time, check out this link:
http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/panzerfluch.html

Hope it helps, if only a little.
Great work, especially when painted so well.



All the best.

I just dug through that link. Really great designs and well thought out descriptions. Awesome awesome stuff. I really liked the OGUS. Very good source of inspiration for, well, any project!

I know; that book alone got me thinking about Adeptus Mechanicus forces. He's done well in sticking with ww2 backgrounds too; they're all pretty believable.

I got the book in paperback simply because I'm a artist (of a kind) in my spare time, but I was pleased to see that it could influence this hobby too. It's not too expensive; I'm sure that you could find it on Amazon quite easily (it's on general release here in England). Definitely worth a read.

Man - so GOOD to see all the TWAR awesomeness going on here! I love the level of realism you have going with the weathering and the way the bases look like real rubble. Nice!

Thanks guys! And AntiMag, thanks for the link, very nice work!!! I'm very much doing the same, just using models as my medium. I want to do a few digital paintings on the subject matter at some point, but am struggling to find the time. I draw/do 3d quite a bit as part of my work process, so the hobby stuff stays very modeling related

No worries; anything that inspires fellow humans is fine by me! We're all in it together in the end

Had some games on sunday with my little brother. 1st 4 objects game, then Kill points, both with Pitched Battle deployment. We switched armies in between, which was as insightful as playing against your army always is. For game one I gave a thorough introduction to both armies and explained the different tactical options and deployment in particular.

Ofcourse I forgot to bring my camera, but Iphone came to a rscue of sorts:



and few more:

http://www.pbase.com/migsula/finishedtwar&page=3

Storm Jackals!!! Yay!!

Gib Moar SJ's!

Maybe I'll just start my own SJ army >.>...I do have a bunch of AoBR stuff sitting around...

grey_death wrote:Storm Jackals!!! Yay!!

Gib Moar SJ's!

Maybe I'll just start my own SJ army >.>...I do have a bunch of AoBR stuff sitting around...

I think I remember those. Wasn´t there a thread on those in the older dakka days? Sumthin like 2 versions back?

BTT: I love how the TWAR look on the board. You actually have to look closely because they blend into the terrain so well. Awesome stuff.

Yes, like everything I've done, it was featured at good old dakka, back in the day when it was so active that a single Tau crisis team might get over 60 replies. I painted the core of the army in 14 very painful days.

I'll be bugging you for a color rundown elsewhere ^_-....

What are those Tau drones doing in the picture?

The cat with the dual missle lanchers on each shoulder is my favourite.

He looks like the commander supervising his minions.

What youve done is totally amazing. but I have a crit that noone else seemed to mention.

The termagaunt guys seem to have flash light heads. I know its not a big deal, but the lenses seem to big to me.. anyways keep modelling your stuff is always interesting.

nice work
awesome...

Over the last couple of days I have been reading through this blog and there is only one thing to say:
A M A Z I N G ! !

You are the reason I joined up to Dakka and I look forward to many more awesome pieces of work.
Also the work you did on the Crescent Guard SMs is just perfect' I love true-scale marines and yours are not over the top like some peoples but are beautiful and the battle damaged is cool as well.

Keep it up!

Reaver

P.S. Sorry to move away from the work on this thread but could tell me how you did those marines or point me to a few sources. Much obliged.

Thank you good man.

I have a blog about the Crescent Guard here some where, but a more active one should still exist in Warseer.

Hmm, so what can we expect next?

Honestly? A prolonged brake as I enjoy =I=munda campaign No2, with the Legion project, but then come a tournament to attend, a flurry of activity to finish painting the converted and primed Screamer Killer and a race to do 3x8 spinegaunt equivalents. They will be a cross between TWAR and Tau Gun Drones in concept (only viable solution as I then want to really enjoy adding wackier troops, particularly if new necron plastics are released.

Ok - the positive rumors about spring/easter tournaments are starting to circulate and it's time to rearm the production line.

I'm hoping to paint the Screamer Killer finally, then tackle troops next month and finally come up with a nice design for some tyrant guard

And hopefully get some 40k in.

Fantastic army you got there migs. Totally worth the wait

Very original and amazing.

Even if they do look like tau and transformer offspring.

In the good way.

Thanks guys - I now have a deadline tournament that I can work towards and hope to finally produce a full, 1750pts army with the exact units I want

so, the list:

1500 Pts - Tyranids Roster - TWAR-Systems 00110100111010100001

"Splinter" (1#, 233 Pts)
1 Hive Tyrant @ 233 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 In; Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Flesh Hooks; Implant Attack; Toxic Miasma; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Winged; Scything Talons (x1); Twin-linked Devourer (x1); Synapse Creature; The Horror; Warp Field

"Mercury" (1#, 194 Pts)
1 Hive Tyrant @ 194 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Flesh Hooks; Implant Attack; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Twin-linked Devourer (x1); Venom Cannon; Synapse Creature; The Horror

"NightCreeper" (1#, 80 Pts)
1 Lictor @ 80 Pts
Feeder Tendrils; Flesh Hooks; Rending Claws; Scything Talons

"BeeSwat" (1#, 113 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 113 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Twin-linked Devourer (x2)

"DevilSlayer" (1#, 113 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 113 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Bio-plasma; Scything Talons (x2)

1st Ai Infantry (typeRR) (10#, 90 Pts)
10 Gaunt Brood @ 90 Pts
Fleshborer; Without Number

2nd Ai Infantry (typeP) (8#, 40 Pts)
8 Gaunt Brood @ 40 Pts
Spinefists

3rd Ai Infantry (typeP) (8#, 40 Pts)
8 Gaunt Brood @ 40 Pts
Spinefists

4th Ai Infantry (typeP) (8#, 40 Pts)
8 Gaunt Brood @ 40 Pts
Spinefists

"Rampart" (1#, 212 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 212 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Bonded Exoskeleton; Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Reinforced Chitin; Barbed Strangler; Venom Cannon

"Salvo" (1#, 212 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 212 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Bonded Exoskeleton; Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Reinforced Chitin; Barbed Strangler; Venom Cannon

PIW-Ai (2) (2#, 130 Pts)
2 Zoanthrope @ 130 Pts
Toxic Miasma; Synapse Creature; Warp Blast; Warp Field

Total Roster Cost: 1497


to add for 250pts vould be:

65pts one more Zoanthrope, which are handy little buggers.

126pts for 6 armoured + tendril "Stealers"

and 12pts to play with.

All three SpineGaunt equivalent squads are to build and paint too. Not as much to build as I first worried, but still, I need to find solutions I can multiply fast for the "Gaunts". Pros for this list is that I like how it plays, the army is so genuinely unique and "mine" and could mess with the best of them... provided I get enough practise games.


hmmmm

Love to see those Spinegaunts. I really like these models they're abso-bloody-lutely fabulous and completely utter genius. I especially like the eyes especially the AI's large lamp heads.

Wow, this is going to be really cool!

When are you ever gonna start on that Apocalypse Bio Titan machine huh?

Painters block overcome, courtesy of paint-session with my little brother. The Screamer Killer's scheme, with much more of the flat blue, is shaping up nicely. I'll use more the blue in the future for sure. Should get the SK finished this week, with a few more sessions with Pete, so expect pics in a week or so.

Then on to rest of the infantry... which is more of an building than painting effort. Who knows - in theory, doable for Easter and the two upcoming tournaments. It's just super hectic at work.

I absolutely dream of getting this army fully done for playing. It's been a herculean effort and until it's fully done to tournaments the feeling of achievement isn't quite there

Malika2 wrote:

When are you ever gonna start on that Apocalypse Bio Titan machine huh?

One day, one day! No but seriously, I do have the bitz and do really want to make it. So after finishing this stuff for the tourny, and with the Legion all ready for campaign, I see a very genuine window for Apocalypse TWAR style

Here's a WIP shot of the Screamer Killer.



After playing with MIG pigments on some test basing, I'll add a finishing layer of MIG on all the TWAR after the new stuff is done and varnished - with these pigments the earth looks exactly like real, dusty, war torn, earth

another session with lil bro today. Almost there.

I really like the use of your accessory color in a more dramatic way on this one.

As to the MIG pigments, I'm dying to get my hands on them and give them a go. I just need to find a source and a project worthy enough ^_^.

Thanks Aaron,

The blue "warpaint" color (even if in TWAR's case the application is rather precise) here marks him out as something of a Dwarf Slayer type of character (overall tht was the inspiration for him, twin axes and shortened legs etc.) and it's a nice variety. When I get around making Tyrant guard, I will use even more blue Unless I decide they would be highly developed AI instead of TWAR that is.

Yes, the blue really does make him stand out in a unique way. Looks great! Good stuff all around. I love the whole "screamer"/ honkin huge horn for a mough thing.

The blue looks great, a unique scheme in this army but not out of place at all! Not so sure about his mouth piece, got some other views of him?