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“Robots are pure and incorruptible… men are not so fortunate”


Order of the Artisan : Line ORDA

Of the Adeptus Mechanicus the oldest is the Legio Cybernetica, with origins from before the Imperium stood they have maintained the technology that held the Imperium together. Legio Mechanicus had throughout the millennia discovered robotic assistance to their civilization made life for all humans easier. It started quite simply as assembly lines and chores around the house began to be taken over by robots. Eventually robots started to make their way into everyday life and towards the battlefield.

The first robots designed by the Legio were crude hulks, there only to draw fire away from the humans in battle. Programmed with the simplistic commands which had to be re-written for every battle, they fell by the thousands. Adepts gained a reputation for repairing the robots with whatever was around, making some of their robots look haphazardly put together yet functional. These robots however never lasted long in battle as their quality was not up to standards. Abominable intelligence or “AI” was strictly forbidden amongst the Imperium, even though there were many within the Legio Cybernetica who did not see this as an issue. One of these was Cyber-Seer Raven, being one of the highest ranking amongst the order he had his own legion of 10,000 robots and 5,000 Adepts to run them.

When Warmaster Horus rebelled, Raven had followed an enemy army near the Eye of Terror, when they landed on a planet Raven invaded the planet as well taking the alien fleet by suprise. The odd aliens were of grotesque appearance and seemed to be evil evolutions of animals on other planets Raven had seen. Raven was able to decimate the horde of aliens; however his battalion was severely wounded as well. All that remained intact was Raven and his personal crusader, the other robots and adepts had been torn apart by the beasts whose mangled corpses lay on the ground. As Raven returned to his ship and received a call to all the Legio Cybernetica battalions, those who chose could would rebel with Warmaster Horus and their lives would be spared. The Imperium according to this call would not tell the difference between friend and foe anymore if they belonged to Legio.

This was to Raven a blessing in disguise, as now he could not return, and no one knew where he was. He began working on his crusader robot, trying to find ways to make it better and more human. As he was working, there were certain parts that he could not replicate with the limited materials he could find, so he with a grimace looked to the fallen corpses of the aliens. In them he discovered a vast array of strange organs, resembling the parts of robots he was so used to working on. In a few species of the alien he discovered flesh that seemed to bond to metal with a slight electrical current running through it. Taking this flesh he returned to his ship and began cloning it in his laboratory. On other aliens he discovered an array of sophisticated sensory organs, taking it apart he found that many of the pieces could be easily melded with the new flesh to his robot.

Working endlessly, Raven worked on his Robot naming it ORDA. He furiously scavenged the beasts, robots and men to create his prefect robot. He programmed and reprogrammed the cortex until he was satisfied. Then on his final day of life and of work he collapsed on the ground having not eaten for many weeks on end, Raven saw his creation come to be before his final breath. A robot which utilized cloned muscles to make it stronger, a sensory array that combined the best of the animal kingdom and grafted weapons made from the very metals of the planet. A half-beast half-machine hybrid that now had gained full sentience.

Taking on its masters initiative ORDA began replicating all the discoveries that had been found by Raven and taking it upon itself to keep searching. ORDA went into the planet and began to create new robots fashioned from the plans Raven had left in its memory banks, and ones of its own creations, melding the cloned flesh and organs from the aliens into the plans for new and improved robots. ORDA tried but was unable to replicate to the extent her creator had bestowed upon ORDA, intelligence. Only by utilizing a large portion of the robots energy could she get the intelligence required for full automation was by making a robot the same size as herself. So as to not waste the smaller robots she had created, ORDA devised a method for communication of simple commands. Installing these methods into the larger robots she created Command Hub robots which could command all robots within a reasonable distance to itself. This would allow tasks to be completed to a much higher efficiency. This process of trial and error continued for millennia, eventually ORDA had created a vast army of robots and ORDA found that the planet was devoid of all resources after it was finished.

Taking the ship that once held ORDA and her 10,000 brethren, along with the human counterparts she decided to move to another planet and continue the vision of her fallen creator. She sent her minions into battle on the next planet and found that they were strong, yet there was an anomaly which could not be explained through the experiences she had while on the creation planet. Time, space and the laws of physics seemed not to adhere to some certain warriors on the planet. She looked into the anomaly and discovered that they were indeed warping the very particles surrounding the soldier. As the soldier lay dieing on the ground ORDA approached the man, who with his last breath tried to destroy ORDA with a blast which came from no weapon. When it hit ORDA the recognition wetware which had been installed went haywire, and ORDA was forced to step back. She froze in place for many centuries, the robots stood in place unmoving as ORDA contemplating the occurrence, until the day she finally figured out the exact algorithms that had occurred to warp the atmosphere like that. As ORDA completed a test run of the Algorithm a massive blast swept off of ORDA and hit the carrier vessel, thus destroying the only means of escape she had.

ORDA decided to scour the planet for other means of escaping and since Raven had instilled his curiosity and ingenuity within her ORDA also searched for even more technology to implement into her regiment. After many years of searching, researching and building another carrier was built from the ruins of the planet. ORDA and her Order moved into the vessel and began the long journey to another planet for more discoveries and more materials to satiate her desire to fulfill Ravens’ dream.






Unit Name Format

Every ORDA Robot has a code saying first the Model Type “XXX”, then the specialty of that robot “-X-“, finally the robot will have a number after it saying what run of that line is. That is how many times that model has been made.

Unit Names Extended Names Tyranid Equivilant

CCC Central Command Centre - Hive Tyrant
CCC – G CCC – Guard Tyrant Guard
MCU Mobile Command Unit Warrior Brood
ASU Ambush Specialist Unit Lictor
EGT Expendable Ground Troop Gaunt
MGT Medium Ground Unit Hormagaunt
SAD Slice and Dice Rippers
DRU Deep Recon Unit Ravager
MOL Massive Ordinance Launcher Biovore
MDA Massive Destruction Apparatus Carnifex


Current Models:

MCU-S-104 (Warrior with Deathspitter and Lashwhip)



MCU-A-082 (Warrior with Barbed Strangler and Rending Claws)



MCU-W-021 (Warrior with 2 Scything Talons)


first one

Second One


These are obviously works in progress, if you guys have any ideas or comments they would be most appreciated.

Dude, what?

Did you run out of money? That happens to me sometimes too.

Cant see anything here that resembles a Nid or even a miniature... just a mesh of wired screws and metal bits

The Power Cosmic wrote:Dude, what?

Just a different approach to Tyranids, using robots instead of living things. Since there are no real rules for robots I used Tyranid rules. Something new is always fun and I thought it was a neat idea, so I started building an army.

And not to mention these are just work in progress, they will look a lot better once they are finished. Just wanted to see what people thought about it as I was going along.

My vote is for Metal bases flocked with metal shavings.
....
is this an election?

hmmmm may be a giant Radar magnet for a Carnifex

Dingus Egg is more metal than a Metalocalypse / Vyvyan hybird


--- just say'n

Lolz a stick man sawing off a piece of a wrench... I want one for my Orks! Althought it would probably be a grot sawing his leg off to get out from underneath a crudely parked Trukk.

It just looks undetailed and kind of lackluster. If there were just a little more detail to each 'miniature' maybe it would fit together a bit more. Maybe some kind of basic looking panels and light looking things? Cut up some bits to make little metal rivets and bolts n' such. Then I think this would be getting more "Interestings!" and less "Huh?"s.

Also, have you ever seen Evangelion? You could do some HQs as big black boxes that have VOICE ONLY 01/02/03/04 as your HQs. I think it would be pretty funny and pretty cool.

Typeline wrote: It just looks undetailed and kind of lackluster. If there were just a little more detail to each 'miniature' maybe it would fit together a bit more. Maybe some kind of basic looking panels and light looking things? Cut up some bits to make little metal rivets and bolts n' such. Then I think this would be getting more "Interestings!" and less "Huh?"s.

Also, have you ever seen Evangelion? You could do some HQs as big black boxes that have VOICE ONLY 01/02/03/04 as your HQs. I think it would be pretty funny and pretty cool.

I plan on putting some modeling cement on them to give them more depth and armor and whatnot, these are the bases that will be eventually the robotic army.

The Evangelion idea is pretty funny I may have to implement that in... after all this army is more for fun value than tournament play (obviously).

Thanks for the input

I'm really not understanding the concept right now, so I'll wait before I really comment. So far all I'm seeing are wires, nuts and bolts. I'm all for creativity and ingenuity so best of luck on making it work!

Dingus_Egg wrote:I plan on putting some modeling cement on them to give them more depth and armor and whatnot, these are the bases that will be eventually the robotic army.

So you're going to put, what, some more glue on them? What about scupty or green stuff?

I realize everyone's trying to save a buck these days, but what you're showing us here makes a mockery or the miniatures hobby. They look nothing like any sort of robot construct, just a mass of thrown together. Try at least giving them some articulation; they need knees and elbows. Also, the scale on all your parts is going to be way off.

Your backstory is pretty much the 'nids background with the word "tyranid" cut out and "robot" pasted in. At least try to make it not so obvious that you've done this. You want robotic swarms, think something like the scarabs from The Mummy movie, or the squids from Matrix.



Those are my thoughts.

The Power Cosmic wrote:
So you're going to put, what, some more glue on them? What about scupty or green stuff?

I realize everyone's trying to save a buck these days, but what you're showing us here makes a mockery or the miniatures hobby. They look nothing like any sort of robot construct, just a mass of thrown together. Try at least giving them some articulation; they need knees and elbows. Also, the scale on all your parts is going to be way off.

Your backstory is pretty much the 'nids background with the word "tyranid" cut out and "robot" pasted in. At least try to make it not so obvious that you've done this. You want robotic swarms, think something like the scarabs from The Mummy movie, or the squids from Matrix.

Ah my mistake, I did mean the green stuff... just didn't remember what it was called. That stuff will be covering most of the wires, leaving some of them sticking out for a robot forge type look.

The backstory, I can see where you're coming from on that. I'll go into the story and make it a little more original, I just didn't want to deviate too far from the story to justify using the 'nid rules. If you think it would be better to not pull as much from the 'nid backstory then I will change it to the story I had originally planned.

Also keep in mind I've seen a few threads on here where it shows the models being built step-by-step. I guess I should have gotten a little farther before I posted the thread, just wanted peoples' input on the progress I've made so far. I think that might be in some confusion. For that I apologize.

Thank you for the input however! It is all taken and will be put towards the final product.

I really like your concept and a Tyranid "counts as" army is really the way to go! I understand your fluff but you might do well to yourself if you tried to find some fluff on the original Robots that were playable in the Rogue Trader era. I know they existed but I don't know if they had much story. If they did, you should mesh the two; your fiction and the old fluff, to better assimilate your concept into the 40k universe.

I like the basics of what you started modeling, but don't you think you'll go insane trying to model all those basic bots (gaunts)? Good luck either way!

Smashotron wrote:I really like your concept and a Tyranid "counts as" army is really the way to go! I understand your fluff but you might do well to yourself if you tried to find some fluff on the original Robots that were playable in the Rogue Trader era. I know they existed but I don't know if they had much story. If they did, you should mesh the two; your fiction and the old fluff, to better assimilate your concept into the 40k universe.

I like the basics of what you started modeling, but don't you think you'll go insane trying to model all those basic bots (gaunts)? Good luck either way!

I'll try to find the original Robot fluff... should be somewhere around. Thanks! That's a good idea!

As for the robot modeling... yea it's definately proving to take a lot of time... I usually get about 2-4 done a day... basic modeling. I assume that when this is all said and done the gaunts are going to take about 3-7 hours a piece. However on the funny side I think the larger robots are going to take less time (not as many bends in the wire and tiny pieces), the warriors I think will take only about 4 hours with modeling and painting included.

It's worth it though I think, I only know of a few people who have made an entire army from scratch and I wanted to see if I could do it.


Also to the guy who said metal stands with shavings of metal on them. Not bad (I know you meant it as a joke), however I already have the bases (washers). I am going to be placing some kind of terrain on them... just have to figure out what.

As for the person who said something about sizing of the models. I have been pretty particular about making sure the sizes are as close to cast models as I can get.


Thanks for the input everyone! The ideas for this army get better with every constructive comment!

You've done a great job of giving emotion and life to raw materials. This is the basis of much art, and it's a brilliant concept and execution.

However, I suggest you examine your objectives. If you want to play GW games with purely custom made models, you're trying to apply conceptual art to a strict, proprietary rules-based system which strongly encourages players to buy its own models. Unless you have a dedicated friend with whom you'll play, you're going to have a hard time finding opponents.

If your objective is purely to create models, then you're already well on your way! With that kind of creative drive, you could easily make your own art and try to market it.

Finally, if you want a middle ground between pure creativity and game-playing, buy a box of GW models and convert like crazy.

Good luck!

Yeah-good on you for the creative concept behind the Army.

And whist it has been really un-said to this point-CRIKEY! How long did it take to twist all of those wires and stuff?

Good luck. I would like to see updated pics.

@PowerCosmic- ouch baby-retract the Claws, lol.

akira5665 wrote:@PowerCosmic- ouch baby-retract the Claws, lol.

Actually, I agree with him. I see nothing creative or inspired in the photos. Wrapping wire around screws and nuts may be okay with you, but I won't be seen dead putting my figures on the same table with this stuff.

Fair enough Sir, the beauty of the intawebs is we all have the ability to express our opinions.

Whilst the appearance of them may not be amazing ATM, the idea is a good one. Also, the fact that these are a WIP indicates to me there is a lot more detail on the way.

I say EXALT to tho OP'er, as it really is 'Thinking outside the Box' (GW Box that is).

As a suggestion for "filling in" the Bodies, get some kind of Epoxy resin, and 'dip' the bodies in this. You will give them some nice bulk etc. The excellent part of that is, you can 'crack' off any excess with pliers, and still have the 'Robot' feel.

My little rant /end

I laughed.

Sorry.

Here is just a pile of Nuts and Bolts too...




And here is a swarm of 'Robot 'Nids' devouring a poor human.....




So keep going mate. I would play against a 'concept' Army like that any day.

Its a great concept, looking forward to see the finished models.

I keep typing a response to this and not posting because I am not quite sure what to say.

It's an unusual idea. I think you fleshed the background out nicely, but your models are a bit too abstract. Actually, scratch the bit too part.

is this supposed to be abstract?
I could see it maybe being like an early Necron being...but tyranid?

Reserving judgement seems to be the name of the game with this one folks. Let the man flesh out his ideas a bit more.

Definitely a much different approach than I think ANYONE here would have taken. Which in it's own right is commendable.

Flesh it out more and I'm sure folks can give you more constructive ideas on where you can go from there.

i like robots.


..

....do you plan to use any GW bits at all on these? Where do you intend to play a game with your robonid army?

I would say they need some green stuff or use them as Necrons lolz

Ummm, no.

This idea is horrible.

When I assemble a $1000 army of IG, meticulously painted, and lovingly assembled, I expect to see GW models across the table from me. If you asked me for a game saying that you were playing some form of tyranids...I would expect to see TYRANIDS coming out of your carrying case, not a toolbox full of glued together spare parts.

We're playing 40k, this isnt tool-time.

This project is in NO WAY, part of the GW hobby.

Horrible.

as far as nids no but I would let them slide as crons lolz,

I am currently reserving judgement on these. Magic can happen with quality sculpting/furthur conversion(I have no idea about your current skill level?). However if this is just an armature I feel that it is too chunky, out of proportion and lacks movement.

My suggestion is to finish one of these models completely to give us all more of an idea about where you are heading, then you might get a few more useful c and cs.

Look up migsula's TWAR p+m blog.
This is an example of a counts as tyranid army with a robotic theme that works.

Dingus_Egg wrote:Just a different approach to Tyranids, using robots instead of living things.

No, this is a different approach to using miniatures. Period.

I think it's Migs who has the whole 'Robot Tyranid' army. Look up his stuff to get an idea.

BYE