Most of you will have seen my previous armies such as...


'The Grot Rebellion' and 'The Darkmakers & Their Undead legions!'‘

I’m now working on my latest project which is an army with a Mechanicus theme that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. For this project I plan to keep a log of my process for all of you guys to see. So let’s get started.

The Theme
Like all of my armies this one started with a simple conversion which was a robotic drone for the game ‘Inquisitor’ called the ‘Dragoon’ it was small fast and very hard to hit. So I built 3 more of them and my war band ended up consisting of a techpriest controlling 4 small drones, it was awesome.



After a few years most players had grown tired of Inquisitor and my ‘Dragoons’ where gathering dust. It was then the thought occurred to me: “How cool would it be to build an army for 40k based on this concept?” It was then that I decided to create a Mechanicus cult army called the ‘Zanatorians’.



The fluff behind the Zanatorians is solid they are a renegade group of techpriests who believe that mankind must evolve to a new level of evolution in order to survive the inevitable fall of the Imperium, this can only be achieved through the use of powerful technology. The Zanatorians originally claimed independence from the Imperium and settled on a small system on the outskirts of Imperial space where they founded a small highly technologically advanced civilisation. However it wasn’t long before the Imperium located them and carried out a great purge of the system.

Despite this the Zanatorians survived and now exist in secret continuing their research towards robotics and other forbidden technology. Most of them are housed in colossal sized spaceships which they call ‘Sanctuary Worlds’. The leaders of the cult are the Machine Lords often working in pairs to fulfil their overall objective.
“To save mankind from its own destruction!”

The Army

First thing was choosing the best list for the theme, at first I’d looked at Witch-Hunters: Converting the sisters into cybernetic warriors and having acts of faith represent ‘Acts of the Machine God’ overall it sounded pretty solid.

Then the Blood Angels codex was released and the idea of having the Dragoons flying round with the techpriest was excellent. However the Dragoon model was far too small to represent a space marine so it was back to the drawing board.

I then settled on using the Necron Codex, what better list for an army of robots. So it was then on to the next step, the miniatures.

The Mock Models




Going from the left...

The Machine Lord
I had a bit of trouble in thinking of a good looking miniature that looked like a Techpriest by still looked…. Necrony? Luckily I came up with this dark mysterious miniature that supports my warrior squads at the far back of the field.

The Harbingers (Immortals)
This was my favourite conversion out the lot it looked unique and was not bad considering it was made from metal.

The Dragoons (Warriors)
As I’ve mentioned this is where the idea of the Zanatorian Machine Cult came from, The Warriors were the hardest to covert they either looked too much like a heavy battle droid from star wars or something from IROBOT they just didn’t look unique so I decided to use my old Dragoon design.

The Destroyer Tank (Destroyers)
All plastic, cheap, easy to build and look fantastic!

Models that were not yet completed

The Mobile War Factory/Citadel (Monolith)
For this conversion I plan to use two Monolith bases and sandwich the parts from the Manufactorum building in between them mounting the turrets on the top half with the powerful tesla coil like weapon built in the middle. With any luck this will be one of the best models I’ve ever made.

Iron Forger (Tomb Spyders)
The idea is still up on the drawing board so far I thought of using the tomb Spyders legs and a Tau drone to create the lower body: Tau Online - Crayfish I also plan to use the Spyder’s arms problem is, what to use a torso that would fit and suit the lower torso, suggestions anyone?
Another more recent idea is to use one of the old Rogue Trader dreads seen here: http://www.solegends.com/citcat88/4104spacemarines-01.jpg as the base for the conversion replacing the arms with that of a tomb Spyder and perhaps mounting it on tracks.

DISASTER!
These were the models and I was very happy with them and ready to start construction of the army in February last year, then disaster! The bits discontinuation happened without warning and the entire project was shattered! I stopped working on the Zanatorians for a while hoping to come up with a solution that didn’t rely on metal or non gw bits. During this time however I created the Darkmakers but unlike the Grots despite being a heavily converted and well painted army they did not win an award for Best Army, this made me more deter mended to make the Mechanicus my best army yet!

That’s the end of the first part, feel free to critique my work so far. I will upload a next part in a few days.

Woo just like the matrix squids!.

I love it so far. The theme is good, nice background fluff, and the test models are killer!

The only thing I could see needing a bit of work is the Necron Lord model. I like the model you have, but I feel a few more technology-enhanced parts might help convey the presence of a leader. Seems to me any Engineer leading an army of modified cyborg constructs would be somewhat modified himself. Maybe a more human torso on some kind of mobile platform, like spider legged, or perhaps anti-grav? Just a thought.

I can see that without a reliable bits service, your construction halts. A single battlesuit head on the destroyer, OOP Necron Immortals and SM jump packs, and lord knows how many tomb spider heads for the warriors. Hopefully you have a stash of those already. I'd love to see a full army, I'm sure it'd be quite a sight on the tabletop. Best of luck, and keep us posted!

Looks pretty sweet, hope all goes well with getting all the bits for your future updates. Cant wait to see them!!!

Part 2: Back To The Drawing Board

Thanks to Games Workshop I was now back to the Drawing board on one of the most difficult conversions in the army’s theme. While the conversions for the most of the Necron units were brilliant, it was still proving very hard to convert a model to represent the Necron Warrior without it looking too much like a marine or something from IROBOT.

At first I sought to create a replacement for the Tomb Spyder head and had a model sculpted based on a 3D concept I had created...




However I later realized that it looked more like a robot build for construction and repair rather than for fighting purposes. Plus although original it was lacking in detail and I thought it best to save it for a representing a new unit in the new Necron codex (which I thought would be out Xmas last year).

Another concept for the warrior conversions came from a friend of mine on the site Deviantart who converted for me an interesting spider like robot.



I loved it as it reminded me of the ‘Tachikoma’ robots from a favourite anime series of mine called ‘Ghost In The Shell’. But then another obstacle for the project appeared which were the 5th edition rules. This caused me to ditch the spider robot because with the true line of sight rules a robot that short would be a nuisance for both me and my opponent.

None of my ideas for the warrior conversion were showing any signs of success and it was beginning to prove impossible being restricted from using non GW miniatures and metal components.

However during this time I was able to create the model that would represent the Scarabs using the BFG Dreadclaw Assault Pods from Forgeworld, which I was quite pleased with.



However I still had to come up with a conversion for the warrior!

In the next part I’ll reveal how I finally came up with a conversion to represent the Warriors.

Part Three: The Warriors Emerge

As mentioned in my pervious entries I was having trouble coming up with an interesting conversion that would represent a Necron warrior in my renegade Mechanicus army. Previous concepts were faulted due to poor availability, high and looking too much like another miniature.

I continued to search for inspiration in films, games and books. The Horus Heresy Art Books were a great help and I soon came across this piece of artwork for a Mechanicus robotic unit.


Artwork Copyrighted to GW

It was then I remembered the old knight titan models from the old epic range, they were the perfect base for converting a robotic warrior and because they were plastic they’d be easier to convert.

First thing I did was replace its weapons with a pair of Gauss Blasters both were shortened down and while one had the gun barrel attached to represent the ranged weapon the other had two Necron feet either side to create a claw like weapon, which I thought was a stroke of genius.
Another good idea was for the head, the epic knights all had a fixed head facing forwards which looked awful. I thought over whether or not to take the chance and cut it off with a model saw and replace it altogether with a head that could be posed. Then while looking through my bits box I came across an empty Cadian helmet and I placed it over the head facing down. It worked a treat! It was just lose enough to pose and had space for robotic eyes to be added which I used the space marine scout visor for and it suited the rest of the model perfectly.



Overall it didn’t look right the eyes looked goofy and the thought of having 30 of them in the same stance wasn’t going to look good at all.
Some people also noticed how it looked similar to the robot from Lost in Space which is correct; he has always been my favourite robot so he has had a lot of influence on the army’s design such as the blue metallic color scheme.



I immediately went about improving the robot’s eyes and legs. The eyes were easy as I replaced the goofy scout visor with the tip of a Tau rifle, which I placed it on vertically instead of horizontally to appear less human that the other one.
The legs however were a challenge, at first I thought about making them hover with some wires hanging beneath them. But in the end it proved too difficult to model successfully, especially since I’d have to do it 30 times. I then decided to go with the simple solution of replacing the top part of the legs with that of the Necron warriors. I used green stuff to model wires on the back to help improve it a bit. By doing this I would be able to pose the legs slightly so not every robot would be in the same pose. I also replaced the bolter scope on the shoulder with a part leftover from the titan’s original weaponry.

The end result was a fantastic and original miniature that I’m very proud of. The Iron Guard Robot was born



However I did have two main problems with the final model: 1. The model was very short so I had to buy some resin bases to increase their height to avoid them being overshadowed by guardsmen. 2. Epic Knights are very expensive to get a hold of, overall I believe I’ve spend £60 getting 32 of them off eBay but in the end I’ll have a truly unique looking army so it will be worth it.

Although I don’t have time to construct the full army at the moment due to university work, I’m currently working on improving the army’s overall appearance. This includes improving my painting skills and making big changes to the Destroyer and Lord model, all of which you’ll see in the next part.

HELL YES! Your Zanatorians are looking super friggin sweet! Im going to watch this one like a hawk.

Subscribed

That is a completely AWESOME idea for an army. so far it looks and sounds cooler than the necrons, and is just overall beastly.

Part Four: Improvements
With the modeling part working out well I decided to focus on improving my painting skills as I did not want the army’s quality to be brought down due to poor painting. I started by posting some images of the ‘Iron Guard’ robot on two painting forums and asking how it could be improved, someone suggested that I lighten up the bases to help the models stand out more. I’ve done this and it has really helped, I’ve also started using a bit of blending which I’ve never used before on the solid areas such as the blue areas. You’ll see an improved version later.

While improving my painting I went back to redo the Machine Lord model as you can see from the first post he was to be honest very dull and boring so I brightened his robes up, changed a few bits such as his head and added the model I originally planned to use for my Warriors on to the base. Much better don’t you think?



I’m currently working on a plastic conversion to represent a Necron Immortal as well as experimenting with an earlier concept, both of which you’ll see in my next post.

Im subscribed...
Interesting conversions.

man these are awesome!

Part Five: The Mobile Fortress

This will hopefully be the centre piece of my army so I don’t want to rush it, but I would like to get some feedback on the conversion concept which is why I put together these photos of a rough build of the model.



I’ve provided detailed descriptions of each of the parts.

The Main Body: The main hull of the Mobile Fortress is parts from a city of death set sandwiched between two monolith bases, each attached to a sheet of plastic card to support the overall structure (however I could not include the lower part in the rough build) using plastic card to fill up the gaps.

The Turrets: I’ll be placing the 4 turrets from the monolith set inside tank hatches. I’m thinking of adding features such as wires coming out the back of the turrets, a targeter on the top and even magnetising them so that they can be moved round.

The Main Weapon: The biggest problem with this conversion is thinking of what to represent that massive crystal and it’s ablites with. My ideas have included…
Tesla Weapon (Seen in photo): It was created using a Eldar weapon and although it looks the part I’m still exploring other options.
Missile Launcher: First time I thought of this idea I considered using this IG missile tank turret as my main weapon: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/manttank.htm But since all other units were fitted with energy weapons it didn’t fit it.
Radar Dome: This was my favourite as I feel it would look very natural on the model, as for the monolith’s ordnance I could say it was calling in a bombardment.

I really would like some feedback on this model especially for the Mobile Fortress’ main weapon?

sweet what rules set are you going to use?

Look what I just found



Do you think that will work for my monolith's main weapon? True it may bit a big but if I remove that large spire and replace it with something a little shorter or perhaps a sphere it should work?

Maybe shorten one of those large spires. Dont get rid of it altogether tho. Those things are cool and should work if done right.

Do it!

By the way, your fluff is awesome. Good to see that you put so much thought into the overall theme and look of your army. Thatll give it a very unique appearence.

I've been watching this thread, and I must say its cool.

How about this concept for the main weapon? I've still got the hull from a Babylon 5 station miniature which I've now cannibalized for parts. It can be shortened and I'll place a proper ball on the top instead of a lump of blue tac add a few more details such as wires and you can understand what it will look like?

That looks cool. It looks like a radio antenna to me though, or maybe like a van de graff generator.

Part Six: The Elite

I'll get back to the Monolith/Mobile Fortress at a later date. Some of you may remember my Harbinger model featured in part 1 that was to represent an Immortal but due to GW bits discontinuation I was unable to construct more of them. However because of this I was forced to create an even better model.



I was struggling to come up with a way of creating a new model to represent the Immortal. Then luckily I came across someone else who had also converted a Mechanicus army online using the plastic Epic Knights, it was a terminator army and he had used the terminator arms and tau stealth suit legs on the main torso of the knight. This had made them look a lot more tougher so I decided to try this out.
It came out perfectly, I then cut out the lower part of the arm and replaced it with the main part of the Gauss weapon attaching the cable to the bottom of the gun. It took me a while to find a suitable barrel for the weapon to represent it’s increased strength, I eventually chose to use the small part of a Tau gun drone as I could imagine it spinning round before firing.
When it came to the head at first I tried to put four eyes on it instead of two but that proved too difficult to manage so I settled for a large one to make it look more menacing.
I still have doubts about the paint scheme though, I choose to paint the parts of the model white because I felt it would make it stand out from the basic warriors and make it look more elite. However white is a pain to paint well and I’m not sure whether to paint in dark grey instead?

As always you feedback is very important into the development of this army.

That’s enough for the moment, in my next post I’ll be asking for your opinion on which is the best model for representing my Scarabs ‘The Interceptors’ or a new robot that I’ve recently converted?

I've been experimenting with lists that show off all the models while still keeping it effective, any feedback would be must appreciated on this matter as it’s hard to make a good Necron army in 5th edition at the moment…

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/229814.page

wow those improvements are superb! Your army is really looking like a nice robo army. Im enjoying reading and watching this take form

Stunning work. Keep us posted.

i'm all but done with mechanicum and i love your models. the only thing i have is that their too necron and not chaos.

regular mechanicum beleive that becoming entirely mechanicul will commune with the omissiaha s/p.

dark mechanicum are covered with chaos emblems and lavishly overdone spikes and "weapons that are designed to cause as much pain as they are to kill"

wash-away wrote:i'm all but done with mechanicum and i love your models. the only thing i have is that their too necron and not chaos.

regular mechanicum beleive that becoming entirely mechanicul will commune with the omissiaha s/p.

dark mechanicum are covered with chaos emblems and lavishly overdone spikes and "weapons that are designed to cause as much pain as they are to kill"

To be honest I wanted to avoid making the army appear like a loyal or renegade mechancius cult as both those themes have been done several times. I wanted to go with a new and original look that matched the smooth appearance of the robots that inspired the army such as the Lost In Space Robot.

A player from my club has a converted loyal mechanicus army using witch hunters which I plan to fight when the army is completed and make a battle report about it.

Part Seven: The Little Things
When I was struggling to come up with a suitable (and cheap) model to represent a Necron Warrior a friend of mine suggested a spider like robot concept seen in part 2.

I loved it as it reminded me of the ‘Tachikoma’ robots from a favourite anime series of mine called ‘Ghost In The Shell’. But then another obstacle for the project appeared which were the 5th edition rules. This caused me to ditch the spider robot because with the true line of sight rules a robot that short would be a nuisance for both me and my opponent. Until now.

All the models so far were coming out well but I was beginning to have my doubts about the Interceptors models: They were a pain to paint to a good standard and some Forgeworld stuff have the worst mould lines ever, which on a model this small is a problem. This made me reluctant to use them. Then I remember Wordbearer’s spider design. So I sat down with some bits and a new robot emerged:



‘The Steel Scorpion!’ Overall it looked fantastic and was kind of cute due to its small size; however I could only fit two to a base.
The way it works in regards to the scarab’s jet bike movement is it’s ability to jump great distances making it very agile allowing it to get where it’s needed quickly. Kind of like these robots but without the webbing: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EQrIQ3E8-HM&feature=related

Overall these robots will represent my Scarabs now, as for the Interceptors they’ll be used for decorative purposes only.

I’m all set to begin construction of the army in May.
However I’ve been play testing some army lists using my local store Necrons so I know exactly what I need to build, problem is it’s becoming clear that I may need a C’tan in my Necron army (most likely a deceiver) so right now I’m coming up with concepts on how to portray a c’tan using this army’s theme.

1st off id like to say this is an awesome army theme and ive enjoyed every post of it

2nd your interceptor conversion is wonderful and i agree that they very much do represent the Tachikoma's from ghost in the shell

3rd subscribed and i cant wait to see what youll come up wit next!
-ST

they look very scary.

I’m currently having doubts about the project at the moment, the conversions all look fantastic but the Necron codex is one of the hardest codexs next to the guard to use with the 5th edition. And while the guard are about to be fixed up so they work better with the 5th edition rules the Necron’s will not be fixed till mid 2010. Do I really want to make an army that will struggle to win games against competitive opponents and tournament players (who I mostly face) for such a large space of time?

So far I’ve considered creating a 2nd army using a difference codex that will feature the Iron Guard conversions by creating them so they can swap out arms between ones armed with gauss blasters and ones armed with Boltguns. Certain codexs come with nice benefits with a few examples listed below…

Witch Hunters: Acts Of Faith representing Acts of the machine god and the machine god avatar will make a good model for representing the living saint.
Space Marines: I maybe able to use the destroyers as attack bikes plus design scouts as a sort of backup military force for the Zanatorians.
Chaos: Sadly I’ve already converted a Death Guard force for my undead theme so I can’t use them for the Iron Guard. Although the chaos list has things such as defilers, deamon princes and obliterators that may fit the theme well.

I’m in serious doubt here guys should I grit my teeth and stay with the Necron codex or should I consider a backup list and if so which force?

arnt necrons being updated in 2009 ?

Always a fan of your work. I will be very interested to see what you come up with for a c'tan. The possibilities on that would be mind blowing. I really hope you make a diverse army with lots of different types of units, as opposed to spaming your warriors and what not. Keep posting please!

Everything looks great. could i get a close up on the lords new head?

secondly, high five! ghost in the shell is my fav too! too bad they discontinued the series.

Part Seven: The Big Things

Apart from the C’tan there is one unit that is effective in pushing infrantry back in close combat and smashing up vehicles and that is the Tomb Spyder.

So far I’ve had only two ideas on what I could use to convert this mechanicial monster, the 1st was to use the large Inquisitor Tyrus model from the Inquisitor range and convert it into a large robot but I felt that wouldn’t work.

The 2nd was a lot more interesting which was to get a hold of 1 or maybe 2 of the old rogue trader dreadnoughts and use them as Tomb Spyders.



It would be a simple conversion to replace the arms with that of a Tomb Spyder and perhaps experiment a bit with the legs, they seem the best suited model to represent such a unit and still blend in well with the rest of the army. But before I begin my hunt I would like you opinion on using such a classic model in my army?

Reminds me heavily of the Matrix with the squid robots.

The dred on the left would suit your army with only minor conversions but i doubt these things will be easy to find...

I've been very impressed with your modeling skills and this army is starting to shape up very nicely.

Would the Techmarine's servo harness be a possibility for your Tomb Spiders?

Put the harness on a "bigger" version of one of your steel scorpion? or converting a Talos?

The old dreadnoughts look liek they would fit in well. that, or you could create something out of plasticard and bitz.

Well ive really enjoyed your armies but something here doesnt scream mechanicus to me its more like Advanced necron tech i dont know might just be me.Well it looks good non the less

Following up from da-chaos-orks statement, mabe some gear-cog check design on the bottom rim of the lords cloak?

I'm now currently working on an army list that I can use that features most of my conversions, feel free to check it out and give me some feedback on it:
ZANATORIAN MACHINE CULT 1500PT ARMY LIST

Iron Guard Improvements & Alterations

I've been improving my painting skills and I decided to update the old model with a brighter base and some blending highlights to really improve the quality of the model.



I hope to repeat this level of quality with all my models.

The othe "necrony wepon looked better

shok and awr

Yea Ive heard more then a few times the necrons are getting a new dex towards the end of the year.

A 2nd Army: Different Codex, Same Models

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts I’m worried about how my army may perform using the Necron codex so I’ve decided to create a 2nd army that could be made by switching the robots weapons around.

I will still use the Necron list but only for friendly games when it gets down to being competitive like tournaments I will use this second army. The 2nd army will be a death guard force with 6 obliterators and some lash princes, mainly because 1. It involves very little models and 2. I’ve always wanted a cheesy list of my own to use and since this is my favourite conversion theme I’d thought I use them for it.


(Bolter Armed Mock Model 1)

Of course this means a bit of conversion and while the development of the bolter weapons and conversion ideas for the obliterators seem to be going well. I’m at a lost on how to convert transport vehicles that match the Iron Guard’s appearance?

Any suggestions on a transport conversion?

Some kind of platform. With legs.

where do you get the knights?

One basic trick to make any imperial STC vehicle look more "iron" is to model metal strips with lots of bolts along all edges of the vehicle, like your iron guard robot has. You can even make small cog-crenelations along the edges.

If you want to be more creative, start with a defiler and create a bigger body or, as Darksword suggests, make a platform on it.

And you are an amazingly creative and skilled modeler.

Wow, nice project! Although it could go with a fair deal more cogwheels and such... And I liekd the first incarnation of your lord more. Good luck on the next bits!

Boltgun Improvements

The current boltgun was too thin to use on the model so I instead tried using a storm bolter but that look very good, luckily I have a good amount of old ork bolters so I tried using on of them on the robot replacing the large magazine for the current Boltguns. The result is a vast improvement on the last weapon.



But to be honest I still much prefer using the Necron codex for these guys, I just hope I’m not forced to resort to using another codex for them in ‘plan B’.

They look cool, I think I liked the look of the previous bolter though.

Per Harry on Warseer -- who's one of the best sources out there -- they haven't even started on Necrons, which probably means two years from now IF they started work on them today. He was pretty emphatic about Necrons not being in the pipeline anytime soon.

gorgon wrote:Per Harry on Warseer -- who's one of the best sources out there -- they haven't even started on Necrons, which probably means two years from now IF they started work on them today. He was pretty emphatic about Necrons not being in the pipeline anytime soon.

Yeah that whats got me worried, I would love to keep them as Necrons but for them to be stuck as they are at the moment for that long, I just dunno at the moment should I do more that simple weapon swapping and completely change it to suit another codex?

I'm going to the Grand Tournament finals this weekend to look at the armies, I can only hope that I will find the answer there.

Proiteus wrote:Boltgun Improvements

The current boltgun was too thin to use on the model so I instead tried using a storm bolter but that look very good, luckily I have a good amount of old ork bolters so I tried using on of them on the robot replacing the large magazine for the current Boltguns. The result is a vast improvement on the last weapon.



But to be honest I still much prefer using the Necron codex for these guys, I just hope I’m not forced to resort to using another codex for them in ‘plan B’.

The new Bolter looks very "Iron". Matches the model pretty well in my opinion.

Final Decision On The Codex Issue

I’ve finally come to a decision on what codex I should for the theme, now I’ve had a lot of people suggesting that I ditch the Necron codex and adopt a more effective one for my Mechanicus army.
Now I thought long and hard about it and decided that I would still build my Necron army but at the same time build another more effective army along side it to use until the Necrons get a re-release.

I was going to choose a small lash list from the chaos codex, but then a better solution appeared. The Deamon Codex seems the perfect choice for my 2nd list as most of the robots I’ve built to represent Necron units can easily represent the Tzeentch daemons as well without having to edit anything on them…

Machine Avatar: Keeper Of Secrets Or Fateweaver
Dragoons: Flamers
Iron Guard: Horrors
Steel Scorpions: Nurglings
Tomb Spyders: Deamon Princes
And I’ve got an interesting conversion idea for Screamers.

I will still use the Necron list from time to time but till the new codex comes out this codex will do perfectly.

The Zanatorian Golem

The Rogue Trader Dread and Spyder came through the post today and I decided to assemble it and get an idea on what it would look like when it was completed.



It's a simple conversion: replace the arms with that of a Tomb Spyder however I felt I had to cover up the ball joints with crusader shoulder pads (I'll have 2 soon). I feel it will fit right in with the rest of the force when it is completed but for now I'm looking for feedback on it and if any improvement can be made?

Daemon's to me make a lot more sense than Death Guard for this army. They'll also be something a bit different. For the Golem I feel another set of arms might help to make them look scarier maybe 1 carrying a gun. Possibly using some of the old ork 'eavy weapons? The shoulders do need some bulking up your right. Possibly Plasticard shoulder pads like the basic guys. This army is a great concept excellently executed. I like it.

The Zanatorian Golem Part 2

The 2nd Rogue Trader Dreadnought came through the post today and since he was unpainted I immediately snapped the arms of the previous dread and placed them on him.



He’s a bit taller than the 1st dread which makes him look even meaner and tougher plus his the arm sockets were a bit higher making the arms look a lot better. Now I looking to get a another dreadnought the same height to replace the shorter dread.

Hopefully I know someone with 2 Rogue Trader Dreads and with luck I maybe able to persuade him to trade it for one of his taller models.

Proiteus wrote:

Lol the old dreds, Had forgotten what they looked like

Tank Busters

While most of my Mechanicus models can effectively represent both Necron and Deamon units there are some deamon units that require me to convert new robots for them. 1 Of these is the Screamer an awesome tank buster unit for any all Tzeentch army.

After a night of experimental modeling I created a sweet little conversion which I can easily be made from left over bits from the Dragoon and Destroyer conversions. It works by flying close to a tank before unleashing a powerful electro magnetic wave that can either disrupt the systems (shaken or stunned) or overall load the vehicle’s systems completely (destroyed), course this means it’s useless against infantry which is exactly how the screamer is.



There are still parts of it that are imperfect such as the arms and inside of the wings and I hope to have those areas improved later this week.

I’m also trying to figure out a robot to represent ‘The Changeling’ whether it will be a psyker’s brain implanted into a robot or an ancient piece of tech that focuses on feeding info directly into the targets brain to create illusions I’ve yet to choose?

Psychic Tech

The Changeling is a must in any all Tzeentch army, for 5pts it allows me to force an enemy unit to target a friendly unit so they can either stand around confused or pass a leadership to try and see through the illusion if not they shoot everything they can at the chosen friendly unit.

Such an ability would certainly require a robot that has some level of psychic power I thought of two options 1. A psyker’s brain implanted into a robot or 2. An ancient piece of tech that focuses on feeding info directly into the targets brain to create illusions. I decided to choose both and created the Zanatorian Mastermind.



The legs were the biggest issue but I finally got it sorted, what do you think?

That mastermind prototype is really cool.

Disruptor MK 2

Someone pointed out the other day that the spine on the Disruptor screamed Necron so I decided to replace it with the destroyer’s gunner arm.



It's a vast improvement from the first model with the spine as it makes the model really look like it projects some sort of wave.

Didn't think it 'screamed' necron THAT much but to each his or her own.

Nice conversions, especially liking the master mind model

Heralds Of The Machine God?

Most Deamon vets are recommending I use Heralds Of Tzeentch in my army and I can see they have a lot of firepower and can be very fast on a chariot.

The only problem is coming up with a robotic model to represent one of them on foot or worst yet a chariot, so far the only things I can think of are two very old ideas from way back in the army’s first months of development.


Herald On Foot (replace weapon with something a bit more suitable) and on the right a herald on chariot but need to think of something to represent the extra attacks on his profile?

Anyone got any ideas for conversions?

Let the chariot be pulled by heavily modified servitors or some kind of mechanical beast-of-burden.

Hey man, good work! I love the "prototypes".

Should move this to P&M blogs, so I'd spot it

The prototypes looks like the t-wars ( typo? )
in another dakka thread.

My thoughts on the Chariot Herald:
I'm not into the backwards Destroyer body. I've always thought conversions like that looked a little silly. I recommend having him standing on the body like some kind of hoverboard.
Of course, that doesn't really scream "Mechanicus"...Maybe you could have the lower half of the Herlad's body like the Mastermind's legs. Cables connecting to the board, long enough to keep him raised above the platform to tell they are two seperate entities.
Or you could combine both ideas. Have him standing on the Destroyer platform with cables flaring out of his spine and skull into the machine?

Harbinger Of The Machine God

Last night I came up with an idea for a model that could represent a Herald on a chariot, I give you the ‘Zanatorian Harbinger’



A chariot has some 5 wounds and 4 attacks so I’m thinking about modeling some ‘Steel Scorpions’ onto the base, as for it’s speed it scuttles real fast and can jump real high which also good for it’s furious charge rule.

What do you think? It’s only a rough conversion at the moment so I'm looking for any suggestions regarding it's weapons (especially since it can fire at two different targets) and ways to improve it?

I'm gonna try placing a terminator body on top of it with the defiler part as it's head, this will give me more space for mounting a set of bigger guns on the side.

Still unsure of what to use for the weapons, any ideas? (perhaps a non GW part?)

Another idea I had for the Chariot was to use the tomb spyder's main body and convert a large floating robot that housed a swarm of small Interceptor bots (see earlier entries) the ‘carrier’ would have the main gun and the interceptors would fire at the 2nd target?

That harbringer looks fantastic; I have no advice on how to improve because I think it's perfect like it is. I think the hardest thing about using necron bits is they make everything look necron right away! But the harbringer is subtle enough to take that appearance away so big thumbs up for that.
I also like the direction you went with the mastermind; my only advice would be to remove the halo on the servo skull and maybe add a bit more wiring. I feel like more skulls with more wiring would add a really nice flavor to the army, whether its dark in a chaosy sort of way or not...it certainly seems twisted.

All in all great army so far, this one takes the cake IMHO of your armies to date. Keep it up!

EDIT: in response to your query, I'd say that I would maybe steer away from using the tomb spyder body and go with something like the terminator torso to beef it up to hold bigger weapons. As far as weapons go, you could maybe mount some dreadnought-sized weapons or maybe convert some ork-imperial hybrids that would look exceptional (I'm thinking along the lines of those "count-as" boltguns you were using for the old knight titans).

I'd be tempted to put on something to represent it's attacks in Close Combat possibly more Tomb Spyder Claws. Or possibly just spikes of some descriptions on the legs. I don't think it wants to be bulked out much myself.

Individual Steel Scorpions?

Something’s been troubling me recently and it’s whether or not I should mount my Steel Scorpions on individual bases and use them as Daemonettes?



It’s just the daemon list I’m using with them lack any real combat troops and Daemonettes seem the best suited as their toughness isn’t greater than the Iron Guard robots (Horrors) and the weaker save can be resembled by the bot’s smaller size.
I had thought of using them as Nurglings but… well Nurglings are rubbish for what I’m after which is objectives grabbers and an effective close quarter unit. Also the Daemonettes have the speed and agility that suits the steel scorpion more.

What do you guys think should I use them individually as Daemonettes or keep them as they are and use them as Nurglings?

I think they would work well as daemonettes; they look quick and deadly with a thrust of that tail blade. Their size and construction looks like it could warrant a very fast little critter. My only real advice would be making the spiders a little less necron-like, but if you like them just like that then I have no issues. Daemonettes would work great, especially if you're trying to get better CC punch

Harbinger looks great!

Harbinger Development Part 2

I’ve been working on the Harbinger model and have made a few adjustments to it. First off I’ve replaced the tomb Spyder gun with an old titan weapon that looks a lot better, and I’ve added a small cannon on the bottom plus a few extra touch ups.



I’ve also featured some Steel Scorpions in the photo which will be added to the base, but if they overcrowd it I’ll take them off. I’ll take the legs off soon and file down the green stuff and cover it up with some thin armoured plates on the top of the legs.

However this is only one of the designs for this model that I’m considering, the other is to have a upper body of a robot instead of the defiler head so it looks like the Reaper cyborgs from C&C: http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/64/others/reaper.gif

I'd be very grateful for any feedback regarding this bot?

Looks a bit static for my money.

Excellent blog overall though Proiteus - I especially like the anti-tank drone. Reminds me of a boarding craft from Halo.

I think that updated harbringer looks great; you hit it right on the money. I don't think any other changes are really necessary, though I can understand why you might want to make some more adjustments to give it more of a "chariot" feel. Still, I give it a big

Have you decided what the steel scorpions will count as?

Updates & Squad Identities

There have been several updates regarding earlier posts…

Individual Steel Scorpions: I’m going to count them as Nurgling Swarms because their size makes them easier for my opponent to remember what they represent. Plus they look cool in pairs.

Harbinger Alternative Design & Speed The Harbinger will keep it’s current appearance as someone pointed out to me that the 2nd concept doesn’t fit in well with the rest of the army. It also reminded me of something I learned when developing the Iron Guard robot which is I should avoid making the robots look human.
Someone also asked how can I justify the Harbinger’s Jetbike movement. Simple it’s a fast moving walker that can jump due to it’s powerful legs, similar to this unit from Red Alert 3: http://www.commandandconquer.com/portal/site/redalert/template.MAXIMIZE/factions_en/?javax.portlet.tpst=887f789b1e9f05362087dce7b100cda0_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_887f789b1e9f05362087dce7b100cda0_viewID=proxy_view_secondary&javax.portlet.prp_887f789b1e9f05362087dce7b100cda0_wcproxyurl=http%253A%252F%252Flocalhost%253A8080%252FSiteAssets%252Ffactions%252FSickle.html&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Now my only problem is coming up with a way to make the robots differ from each other for the purposes of being able to identify different squads, without ruining the model’s appearance.



Any suggestions? So far I’ve thought of a different shoulder mount or second weapon but this doesn’t help the Scorpions or Dragoons. Plus I’m not at all good at painting symbols and transfers are out of the question altogether!

Iron Guard Weapons?

Right now I’m debating on giving the Iron Guard robots another ranged weapon to replace the claw that is on the current model. This is mainly due to the fact my Iron Guard are representing Horrors who fire assault 3 weapons, and the weapon just doesn’t look the type to fire that many shots. So I made some adjustments to the bolter arm from my pervious weapon alteration.



It came out better than I thought the only change I’d try to make is to swap the wire round on the right arm to the outside to make the robots design symmetrical, which can be easily done.

But as always the final decision on the matter we’ll be based on what you guys think?

Just to let you guys who are interested in this project know that now my final year dissertation is finished and I'm able to finally start work on the project again.

I'm currently workin on the painting up the bases for the army, since I'm waiting on parts to arrive, how about you guys tell me which one you'll like to see completed first out of the last few models I've made and I'll painted up the one in highest demand?

So which would you like to see painted first: the Mastermind, Disruptor, Golem Or Harbinger?

Zanatorian Golem

Well I'm finally back on track with the creation of the machine cult, I'll start building the big robots first and then the smaller squads before mass producing the Iron Guard robots. But first off we'll look at the Golem.



As you can see from the Iron Guard robot the golem is very big, which makes it perfect for representing a Necron Tomb Spyder or Deamon Prince.

I did make a small adjustment to the dread model which was to add a visor using green stuff to replace those eyes which ruined the robotic look of the model: http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/077/0/b/Zanatorian_Golem_Unpainted_by_Proiteus.jpg

I'm quite pleased with how its turned out, but as always you views are very important. Next up will be the Mastermind and Harbinger.

Zanatorian Constructor

Some of you may remember my first attempts to replace my first Necron Warrior conversion following the GW bitz discontinuation: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/228258.page#537180

However I soon realized that it looked more like a robot build for construction and repair rather than for fighting purposes.
Plus although original it was lacking in detail compare to the later Iron Guard conversion so I decided to put it by and save it for a representing something else.

But recently while working on the 'Harbinger' model I decided to make one as an objective model replacing the gauss blasters with small tools and upon seeing the final model I'm tempted to make a full set of 5?



What do you think? Should I make a full set of 5 for my objective bases or just keep the one?

Definitely they'd be great for that! Also unlike many objectives I can understand why your opponent would want them! The remodelled basic robot looks good. What are you planning for Flamers and the Bolt of Change?

Look really cool, especially the harbringer. keep it up

over and out avach

Zanatorian Harbinger Tank

Well here it is the Harbinger tank the model that we'll represent a chariot of tzeentch (jetbike with heavy anti tank and infrantry weapons that is able to shoot two different targets in the same turn)



Of course it will only be used in games of 1750 which I rarely play or replace the 320pt Lord Of Change in smaller games.

Yet there is still some work to do both this model and the Golems need to be pinned and I'm still unsure about the main weapon?

Nice modeling, Harbringer's my favorite model so far. Also think that the toppled column on the base is a really nice touch.

Keep up the good work!

those are totally sweet.....

the mastermind is so cool , if that were a GW model, id buy it.

This is a wonderful thread. I'm really digging the clean pictures, and especially the editing to make everything seem very professional and clear. A+ from me, and I hope that you keep on going!

Your most successful pieces, as with most conversions are the ones which the parts used to create them are hard to recognize without further scruttiny. The guy in the backwards destroyer body is just that, and I think your army would look and benefit better one things are hard to place, thats where stand in armies really shine. If someone were to see him, they might get anoyed having it confused with a necron lord with destroyer body, and then would further confuse the whole army... Something to think about...

Mastermind

With the completition of the Mastermind Robot thats all the different types of robotic units done for my Deamon based army, now I'm ready to move on to producing whole squads.



The Changeling is a must in any all Tzeentch army, for 5pts it allows me to force an enemy unit to target a friendly unit so they can either stand around confused or pass a leadership to try and see through the illusion if not they shoot everything they can at the chosen friendly unit.

Such an ability would certainly require a robot that has some level of psychic power I thought of two options 1. A psyker’s brain implanted into a robot or 2. An ancient piece of tech that focuses on feeding info directly into the targets brain to create illusions. I decided to choose both and created the Zanatorian Mastermind. I did think of using a sphere instead of a skull but I feel that would be over using that idea as it is already being used of the Scorpions and Disruptors.

Just think of it as a robotic Zoanthrope, regarding the paint scheme I went with Dark colours with a small amount of blue to blend it in with the army.

Awesome stuff. This army is one of the best I've seen.

Excommunicate Traitoris wrote:Awesome stuff. This army is one of the best I've seen.

Thanks

The Avatar: Work In Progress

Well here is a quick preview of the Avatar Of The Machine God an ancient and powerful machine that will be leading the Zanatorian robotic army. He'll be representing a Lord Of Change.



All that remained to be done is his wings and adding a blade weapon to his arm. After that he'll be painted and ready for deployment!

Def diggin that LoC dude, very awesome, will be a great centerpiece...

Mechanicus army, as you can see I've made a few touch ups such as wings and a weapon.

I decided to go with a 60mm base over the 40mm for purposes of it representing the Lord of Change and eventually the base crew to be very cinematic.



Special thanks to a friend of mine who instructed and assisted me in the modeling of the green stuff on the model.

Sadly it won’t be painted till the start of the summer holidays as I’m taking part in a program held by GW to paint an army in the 6 weeks holiday. At the end it will be entered it into a tournament at Warhammer World where armies will be judged and awarded for theme, conversion and paint job. So it’s just the thing for this army’s first public appearance. Luckily I’ve only got to create at least 1250pts in the 6 weeks so I can still get 1 of each type of unit done before then out of the 2000pts to display on the thread.

those are some pretty awesome wings on the avatar. Where are those from?

Soviet Yam wrote:those are some pretty awesome wings on the avatar. Where are those from?

Those are the mechanical wings from Micro Art Studio, a Polish company.

Nice choice, Proiteus, and a well executed addition (in progress) to your cool army!

I've been seeing these minis dotted about all over the place so it's good to finally be able to offer my praise to the creator themselves. You've really captured the essence of the army incredibly well and I love that you are ressurecting old ideas with new touches.

Yup, wings are a nice addition.

Construction Complete: Steel Scorpions

First squad of the army to be completed are the Zanatorian Steel Scorpions, they'll be represents Scarabs for necrons and nurglings for Daemons. Overall it worked out well each of them are pinned onto the base and apart from the two pirched on the wall and rock (top left and right) that look a little dodgy they've come out brilliantly. Aren't they cute!



Also I've signed up for a GW army builder program during the 6 weeks, which means I'll be painting the army over the summer holidays which mean in the last week my army will be entered into a tournament with awards for things like best painted, converted, theme, etc.

Luckily I'm building an addtional 500pts for games of 2000 which means I can still build one squad of each unit for you guys to see and when the summer holidays begin I finish up the remaining 1500pts.

Next upload will be a completed Iron Guard squad.

That LoC is great! What did you use for the main body?

The Avatar of the Machine God is amazing, really loving your work, keep it up!

Love the tochicammas! How did you make their tails/stingers?

Scarecr0w14 wrote:Love the tochicammas! How did you make their tails/stingers?

Thats the part that always catches people out, its a necron warriors waist

I'm currently working on some of my Iron Guard robots and I'm curious to know what you think of the two done so far?

Nice

ABH

Construction Complete: Iron Guard Squad

Well the army is finally taking shape and the first Iron Guard squad is finally completed the first Iron Guard squad that will represent either necron warriors or pink horrors.



As you can see I've added a lot more movement to them than the original model, I've also went with the two blasters instead of the claw.
But I feel they need a few more touch ups before I can think of them as completed.

Sadly though thats all I can do now till summer holidays begin without exceeding 500pts, so now all that I'll be doing is the building and converting the models ready for painting later this month and also creating the background comic for them.

Nice

Final Touch Ups

I've was a bit worried about the Iron Guard robots so I ran them by a friend of mine and he suggested I ditch the grey colour on the cables for blue and they've worked brilliantlly!



Now all thats left is to complete the remaining 32 when the summer holidays starts and divide them up into squads and mark them using different types of shoulder mounted equipment.

Nice progress. The Avatar is SOOOO cool!

Yeah, the blue accents work very effectively. Nice to see more of this army emerge.

I still love the vibe this army gives off. I can almost hear it humming in the icy dark. Eerie...

Keep up the good work

Wow incredible work Sir.

The Zanatorian's Darker Units?

I noticed a problem with my daemon army the other day which was I have no real unit that can get stuck in and hold an objective, the Iron Guard (horrors) certainly can't do it.

So I need to replace one of the four Iron Guard squads with a close quarters unit. At first I thought of converting Bloodletters into some sort of alien mercenaries that the machine cult had hired, but that seemed out of character I then came across these lovely miniatures.



Their perfect for representing Plaguebearers all I need to do is replace the barrel of the gun on the right arm with a blade and paint it to look like it’s been covered with poison. Plus their appearance links them quite nicely to the Avatar model. So I will certainly be building a unit of 8 of them this summer.

However there is a problem. This army’s first appearance will be at a GW event judging armies that have been painted over the summer; the question is will I be able to use them without getting in trouble for using non GW models. True I can act like their heavily converted from Empire flagellants but there’s always the risk they could be recognized.

Do you think I can use them? If not I need to either build and paint another 8 Iron Guard this summer or only have 3 scoring units?

GW will not let you use another manufacturers product it must be 75% GW to qualify.

Always adhere to the Pirate Code!

Fu*k em

Cadaver wrote:That LoC is great! What did you use for the main body?

If I'm correct, its made from Sauron the Necromancer miniature for Lord of the Rings.

sonofruss wrote:GW will not let you use another manufacturers product it must be 75% GW to qualify.

So say that they're some oldschool Tech Priests? A lot of the Redshirts around these days are certainly dense enough to believe it

Progress

I've had a few people ask for a photo of all the units together and here it is, with the exception of the Avatar who will be uploaded this coming weekend.



It's amazing to see how far this project has developed since the original collection from when I started work on this army in January 2008 and at last it will be hitting the boards at the end of August.

This army nearly has me pitching a tent in my jeans. Bravo. I love the one servitor that looks like a Geth. Has a really suitably advanced look to it!

Avatar Of The Machine God Unleashed!

Well at long last the ulitmate weapon of the Zanatorians: The Avatar is completed and ready to be unleashed against the foes of the machine cult! He'll of course be representing a Lord Of Change for the Daemons and Nightbringer for Necrons. He's one of my best models to date, he's an excellent centre piece for the army.



Special thanks to a friend of mine who instructed and assisted me in the modeling of the green stuff on the model. I've learnt a lot of new skills when making this model another being painting black robes.

Now he is off to GW Lincoln tommorrow to be displayed in the cabinet with the rest of the generals for the summer army painting contest.

That's awesome

my god, i love the avatar, how did you get the cloak kinda thing? like, how did you do the conversion? and i think the next step is an awesome melee model, kinda like, general grievous, but with power blades whizzing everywhere and more armour, or more ninja like, all small and stealthy but devastating in cc

Edward089 wrote:my god, i love the avatar, how did you get the cloak kinda thing? like, how did you do the conversion? and i think the next step is an awesome melee model, kinda like, general grievous, but with power blades whizzing everywhere and more armour, or more ninja like, all small and stealthy but devastating in cc

The base is the Sauron Necromancer model and a bit of greenstuff, funny enough you sure mention that cause I'm thinking of converting a Inquisitor scale Eversor assassin to a 2nd avatar with wires and a massive blade with the same wings.

Very nice work sir...

very cool indeed, maybe make the wings more blade like? kind of continuing the theme of cc insanity

Squad Markings & Plaguebearers?

I need to come up with a conversion to represent Plaguebearers in my Daemon army as I need to include a objective grabbing unit, I had thought of using the Micro Art techpriests but it doesn't feel right. That and I like to be able to use the army in GWs store which I can't do with those models.

So if anyone could share ideas on robotic conversions what I could use for plaguebearers it be a great help?

Also I've found some excellent squad marking for my units that will be added when all the miniatures are painted, see the attachment.

These just got better, and better, and better!

As for ideas of robotic plaguebearers... maybe some nice converted Servitors will do the job??

Great work!

Cheers,

Jack.

I'd suggest mayber converting some of those plague skaven into maybe hunch backed servitors. You could cut out the face and give them eyes similar to that one red Hal type eye. If you had needle like injection tubes sticking out of their sleeves it could count as the toxins they inject in combat.

Excellent stuff. It's things like this that make the hobby so interesting

I'm with the others; cloaked, hunchback servitors with some kind of toxic goop, or rusty blades maybe?

I've also come up with an alternative model to represent Plaguebearers in my Daemon army as I need to include a objective grabbing unit, I had thought of using the Micro Art techpriests but it doesn't feel right in this army, since everything else is converted. Plus they'll be no problem using them in GW stores.

Basically the model will look similar to this guy but hooded. 1st off green stuff a torned and weathered cloak over a Dark Angel body with some sort of vent on the back and add long robed sleves. At the end of the right arm will be a blade painted to look like its drenched in poison and the left arm will have a robotic hand (either the fist from the old necron immortal or the open hand from the destroyer model)



Problem is coming up with a head for the model that can have a hood put over it, I'm thinking of using the bare space marine head with the breather.

I could come up with an alternative model that suits the rest of the army's appearance as someone did point out that robes on a robot are stupid (with the exception of the avatar) but I only have 2 weeks. So I've decided to look at this unit as more of cyborg warriors that have allied with the Zanatorians rather than being a robotic unit, what do you think?

Zanatorian Robowraiths?

First things first the name ‘Robowraith’ is only a nickname, they soon be given a proper title so feel free to suggest a name for them as I’ll be running a poll tomorrow on my Deviantart page to decide upon what to call them.



I’m very grateful to the person who came up with this conversion idea and helped me create the cloaks for them, sadly I couldn’t come up with a suitable model to represent the plaguebearers that would fit in with the rest of the army myself. So he assembled a mock up miniature and showed it to me, hes now working on his own mechanicus army.

The robots themselves are made from a very durable material which makes them hard to damage and if you look closely at the blade you can see the poison I painted on it using the purple wash. They’ll represent plaguebearers and flayed ones.

I’m now working on a ninth model for my 1750pt army a long with a ratling objective marker called sergeant Baggins lol.

With the final model completed I have put together a small reference sheet for my opponent to avoid any confusion about the models in general.

Those look great!
I love evil flying cloaks.

wow great work all around, and love the conversions. Look forward to seeing more.

Interesting mix of bitz. All the disparate ranges blend together well.

The RoboWraith is stellar! I like the way you've managed to get these conversions into a list as well.

Zanatorian Deathstalkers

Here the full squad of what are now known as the ‘Zanatorian Deathstalker robots’ and one of my best converted squads in the army.



So much so I’m considering making another Zanatorian army based on these darker looking units? But will see how the current army does first?

I think the reference sheet is a great idea, it will probably make more opponents be willing the play you since they don't have to keep asking 'what was this again?'

I like the concept of the deathstalker , however towards the ending of the torso where the wires start flowing out , i think it would look alot better if it doesnt come out so abruptly . ( looks like its just cleanly severed torso )

They could use a tad more color imo. Either on the face or on the blades.

Anung Un Rama wrote:They could use a tad more color imo. Either on the face or on the blades.

see on that I would have to disagree with you as I think for mechanicus they are the perfect color.

Anung Un Rama wrote:They could use a tad more color imo. Either on the face or on the blades.

If it were me, I would have glowed-up the blades myself (scorpion green ftw), so since plaguers don't have power weapons perhaps solid alloy is the way to go ... The hoses on the 'cron torso itself (the "guts" part) might be a place to put in a little muted color, though frankly they do look pretty spooky as is.

Overall though, amazing project Proiteus, I'm really impressed with everything you've got going on

- Salvage

Zanatorian Update



THEY WON BEST PRIZE AT THE SUMMER WAR TOURNAMENT AT WARHAMMER WORLD! AS WELL AS COMING 2ND PLACE JUST A FEW PTS BEHIND THE WINNER

It was a great day, allowing me to test the army's performance and see how people reacted to it. Everyone loved the army and best of all no one had a problem with the 'counts as' rule that the army is built around. Most importantly the judges for Open War which is the tournament this army was built for loved the models and couldn't wait to see them appear in their tournament.

The Games
The army's performance was excellent! I had made some changes to the original list. 1st off was I had downgraded the Lord Of Change to a winged daemon prince as all I was after was a nasty combat unit to defend my fragile units from close combat and the LOC wasn’t built for that, it also freed up an extra 110pts. The next change was shifting the icons from the horror squads because the conversions looked awful to the chariot and plaguebearers allowing me to have one icon on offense and have another zipping round the board at 12 inches a turn allowing me to spread out my forces better.

In the first round I wiped out a whole Eldar army with the exception of the Avatar which I avoided altogether. The Robot of the round had to be the flamers who annihilated 9 striking scorpions upon deep striking in the first turn and held up the champion and avatar for 2 turns with their inv saves.

Second round I was up against some orks which I thought was going to be interesting as I my army’s weapons will cut down orks easy but if they get into combat with me it could turn nasty. But once again the army shined losing only 1 squad of horrors to a 30 boy dog pile on an objective I was holding I managed to wipe out the entire ork army. Robots of the round this time was the Deathstalkers (Plaguebearers) who put up a fantastic fight against a large mob of storm boyz and Zagstruk for 3 turns before I threw in a prince to finish up.

Now in the 3rd round I fought against an army led by the raven guard special character and it quite scary to see 10 assault terminators fleeting across the board towards my lines. First off I threw my flamers at them and only killed 1 terminator the captain broke off and charged them while the terminators continued towards my lines. He was later cut down by a shot from the chariot when he failed his fleet roll and was left in the open. The rest of his army wasn’t the problem and the deathstalkers and avatar were already closing in on his objective, whilst the horrors were shooting down any marines that go close to mine.
I was eventually able to slow the terminators down with the Nurglings who kept them back for 2 turns and even killed 2 of them allowing me to bring my princes around to cut down their enemy squad.

A very successful first day for the Zanatorian Machine Cult!

Now all that is left is squad markings and 2 flamers 2 horrors and 1 plaguebearer to bolster up the ranks for 1750pt game plus the Ratling Frodo objective.

Objectives

Well the project is almost completed; hopefully next week I’ll upload a selection of photographs of the miniature in action on the tabletop.

But for now I have constructed a themed set of objective markers.



For Seize Ground missions you've got the two pieces of ancient tech and for Capture and Control you have the Machine Lord himself, overseeing his creations in action. I've also made a small tower from bits when I was bored one evening. (Can anyone name the RTS game it’s clearly inspired by?)

ow that you've seen the themed objective markers I thought I'd show you my Neutral objectives that are designed to look like something most races would fight over.



As you can see they're a lot of cool stuff, I'm tempted to create a whole set for the crystal objective and make some crystals on 25mm bases.

But my favourite has to be the Inquisitor.



I have a grot army with imperial wargear, sorcerers who reanimate their enemy’s corpses to serve them and a renegade machine cult. And yet I’ve never faced an Inquisitor on the board.

So I decided to create an Inquisitor objective marker for Capture and control missions for opponents with Imperial armies to use. He is also an excellent opposing objective for the Zanatorian Machine Lord objective.

Squad Markings & Codex Cover

All armies need squad markings in tournaments to allow my opponent to figure out which squad is which, like yesterday during a game where 4 monstrous creatures and a broodlord was closing in on some surving Iron Guard bots, nasty story.

Anyway some of you may remember my original post about squad markings: Squad Markings

Well here they are ancient autobot squad markings.



Also although this model was one of the first models to be created it was later edited to make look more suited for representing a Tzeentch Flamer as opposed to the Necron Immortal that it was going to represent originally.



There were 2 small changes to that were made to the model. The first alteration was the jumpback exhaust made from the Baneblade flamer tip as the Tzeentch Flamer has jumpback movement, this inspired the 2nd change which was replacing the small Epic Knight feet with Sentinel toes since it would require a large feet to make a stable landing.

You can see here for original for comparison: Original Model
Also I decided to call them Flamers because that’s what they are.


Also with the army nearly completed at 1750pts and with 2 weeks to go before the Open War tournament aka judgement day, I'm getting in as much practice as possible for it. I've also had someone create a codex cover for them as well. Check it out...



Created by Tim Divar, some of you may have seen his works in the Firebase Warseer mag.

The next and final post will be a report on how the army preformed at Open War on the 31st october. Hope it's good news.

The objective markers are excellent!

They are a source of inspiration and kick in the backside for me to get to work and build some for myself to battle for instead of the usual empty bases.

Proiteus, thsi army has truly come together in an amazing way. Awe inspiring, so full of style and completely original. I dont know if we would ever get to play, with the you know, atlantic ocean in the way, but I would absolutely LOVE to play this army with my DOOM nids. Good luck with the final touches!

Love the Zanatorian Deathstalkers.
What did you use for the swords and the heads?

Everything is looking pretty sexy.

Sanctjud wrote:Love the Zanatorian Deathstalkers.
What did you use for the swords and the heads?

Everything is looking pretty sexy.

It's amazing how I can get no comments for most posts then have a flood of comments, anyway the heads are basically necron warrior heads looking up, the swords are from the old skeleton warrior sprue.

Oh and if you like the objectives you'll love this...

BONUS STUFF: SAVING RATLING PRIVATE BAGGINS

Most of you would have seen The Zanatorian Deathstalkers

These guys have earned the nickname robowraith and since I had 9 of them I couldn't help but make this comedy objective marker entitled 'Saving Ratling Private Baggins'



I tried to make a sniper rifle to go on the base but all of them were too big in comparson to mr frodo. Instead I stuck a guard backpack, grenade and army knife on the base, as well as give mr baggins a band & berret which is resting on the tree stumb.

Anyway it's good for a laugh. All that leaves now is a few touch ups and putting the fluff on paper.

That's a nice one, where is Strider with his heavy bolter when you need him?

Wouldn't he (strider) have a flame thrower? He did use a torch against the ringwraiths. It all looks great. I especially like the Avatar.

SoG

Wish someone would make me a codex cover....



I second the "objective marker sweetness" comment also

The Machine Cult's Background

Of course this army has a large background and since I was unable to create a comic based around it, I decided to have some artwork made that would have a small description of the Zanatorians above it; similar to a page from a codex.



The Zanatorian Machine Cult

Devout followers of the Machine God and once loyal supporters to the Imperium of Man - have taken on a role unfitting of any loyal servant. Freed from the shackles forced upon them by the Treaty of Mars, the Zanatorians have looked beyond what the Imperium dictates to pioneer new and forbidden technologies; one of which is their armies of sentient machines that are all connected by a mind impulse unit to a Machine Lord; the ruling caste of the Zanatorian Machine Cult.

It is because of this that the Zanatorians are regarded as heretics and were nearly hunted to annihilation by the Inquisition; the Zanatorians have boldly taken on the task of protecting an ungrateful galactic empire. With such a daunting task ahead of them they choose to specialize in hit and run tactics to avoid conflicting with Imperial forces, often emerging from the shadows to defend a besieged world before vanishing without a trace.

The Zanatorian Machine Cult is viewed in many ways by different people some call them heretics who are out to disrupt the stability of the Imperium, whilst others believe they are guardians of humanity.

With such a daunting task ahead of them, the methodically inhuman nature of the Machine Cult may be exactly what the realm of Man needs to help defend itself against those who would wish to destroy it.

----

The artwork does seem to have trouble portraying what I wanted as it seems focused on the marines rather than the avatar and it doesn't really look like their fighting, but I only gave the artist one week so I don't reallly mind it does the job of surving as an interesting page background for the fluff.

I've found quite a few of your models on dA during my random warhammer model searches. It is good to see the lot collected here with the fluff.

You have some really fantastic models and ideas. Your use of bits is impressive, as is the design and manufacture of all the different units to fit into the FOC.

Very impressive.

Love the Avatar, good use of components as well. Now I'm wondering how to have something similar in my own Ad Mech force... hmmmm.... off to look through the codex.

Keep up the good work.

Absolutely fantastic! I've whatched this project for a long time, you have enormous patience and great skill...

PanzerSmurf wrote:Absolutely fantastic! I've whatched this project for a long time, you have enormous patience and great skill...

Most of my armies have been 2 or 3 year projects.

Well it was judgement day today and I was really hoping that this army would win best army, I could come last in the tournament. All that mattered was the ‘Best Army Award’

Sadly I didn’t win best army, I was so disappointed… Then it was announced that there was an award for best converted army called ‘The Big Mek Award’ AND I WON IT!



AND THAT’S NOT ALL OF IT.

After the judging at lunch time I found a card on my table underneath on of the miniatures, GW is interested in displaying the Zanatorian Machine Cult in the Miniatures Hall at Warhammer World.

Which is fantastic, so somewhere in the future they will be on display at Warhammer World!

I’m so glad that this army has worked at so well, thanks for all your feedback guys I’ll let you know what army project I’m working on next soon. But the Zanatorian project is completed now and won’t see any more work done to it until the Necron codex is out.

-- Project Complete --

it brings a tear to my eye....

great models a real inspiration to us all. love the robowraiths!

Congratulations! I' ve watched this army since the beggining and the results are simply stunning... Proof of great talent, patience and determination..

Oh god, not against Orks, just please no.

Much respect to your skills and enthusiasm. You have done an awesome job and really deserved this recognition! It's good to see it's conclusion and apex. Congratulations!

Well done! And well deserved! Congratulations.

Congratulations. They look really awesome. Well done all around.

Thank you for all your comments.

Well done mate,

I really liked your army concepts from the start,and even more so now, now that they are finished.
Looking forward to your next project.

All the best
Wolf

A truly deserved win!

Congratulations for the award and start working on a new project soon, I can't wait to see more stuff from you.

Congratulations on winning the award! Believe me, you couldn't lose with such a great army.! Got anything else planned?

HOW did that not win best army?!

I like the necron creature conversions! Keep going

amazingly beautiful models and congrats on both the warhammer world and the honor of the display as well as your award it's always great to see ones hard work get noticed.

It probably didn't win best army cause it had a converted army award and you usually cant win 2 trophy's at an event , so someone may have had more painting points and this had more conversion points .

Well done, well deserved award......

Warhammer World Display Dates
Just to let you guys know both my Mechanicus Army and Grots will be on display at the Miniatures Hall at Warhammer World between the 16th Of January & 14th Of March, just in case you wanted to see this army in person.



Adam Calver - Rebel Grots vs Chaos Daemons - 16th January - 14th March
Highly converted and with some very unique ideas behind them, both of Adam's armies are worth spending time looking over and here are displayed fighting one another. His 'counts as' Chaos Daemon army is like no other around and sure to inspire fertile imaginations.

Once again hope you found the log interesting and look forward to your feedback on future projects?

Congrats on the Mek Award and the GW recognition.

It's always nice to see a beautiful army get recognized and displayed by GW. Hope to see more awesome models soon, this army was amazing!

really cool to represent the scarabs with the scorpion model. May be a little "cute" but I'm sure that only helps deceive the enemy

You deserved that award! I read through the entire thread (well, more like skimmed it and looked at the pretty pictures) and your army is amazing!

2 years! That is some impressive threadomancy! OP, if you ever come back, pm me or another Mod and we will unlock it for you - MT11