Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been doing a bit more work on my Stalker class rough rider counts-as. If you missed my other posts I came up with these as more appropriate for a high-tech Guard force, compared to the archaic use of actual animals! Designed to be powered go-faster suits for the chosen few who have the reflexes and balance capable of controlling the damn things

Instead of physical lances I've introduced assault launchers as the 1-shot assault punch, based on someone's aces biker riders I saw on this board somewhere

The unit is now up to 6 members of a planned full 10 man strong unit. A couple of them are without weapons until Hasslefree can get me more. The next big bits of work needed are some additional bits on the leg assist units and GSing the pants off them! (gaps in necks, arms, legs, torsos, all over in fact). I also need to pick up/order some of the new Bike bases from somewhere.

I've tried going for dynamic poses appropriate for a group of guys who have to keep moving to stay upright

Always looking for comments, criticism, etc so go mental

Starting off with a group shot, line abreast. The Assault troopers are shown with meltas, but flamers, GLs and assault launchers are also available for use.


Standard troopers (one still needing armed)


A bit of detail of the assault troopers with their special weapons. I'm really pleased with how the one of the right worked out with a real feel of hosing some unfortunate target down before landing heavily on them.


Power weapon armed Sarge and final standard trooper in the background. The Sarge has had a bit more work done on his leg-assist units than the rest of the guys, but more work still needs to be done. Lots of wire and random fiddly bits ahoy!


A bit of detail on the sergeant's leg unit. This will be added to and rolled out to the rest of the troops when I get around to it The proposed leg units will probably require copius pinning wire and Tau tank burst cannon barrels for the hydraulics and my whole supply of Guard smoke launchers for leg supports. Oh well, at least most of it should be cheap for buying additional bits (whats the point in having bits if not to use them)


Top view


Stalking line

badass! what are the feet made out off? that's the only miniatures piece i don't recognize? i think you should add some leg braces for those massive sprint boot things, maybe hav then running up the sides with a circular joint at the knee, and connecting to the chest or maybe backpack? i dunno, it just seems weird that they're just standing on those stilt things with no apparent way for them to stay on. all around... awesome idea, awesome converting, just awesome!

dingholio wrote:badass! what are the feet made out off? that's the only miniatures piece i don't recognize? i think you should add some leg braces for those massive sprint boot things, maybe hav then running up the sides with a circular joint at the knee, and connecting to the chest or maybe backpack? i dunno, it just seems weird that they're just standing on those stilt things with no apparent way for them to stay on. all around... awesome idea, awesome converting, just awesome!

Thanks

The feet are the central toe of Tau battlesuit feet connected to the larger of the two shock absorbers on the Devilfish landing gear. The fact that I can put together 10 of these guys indicates that I have far too many random bits lying around

Power assist legs are in the works. The Sarge has the first portion of it done with the hydraulics on one leg, but as you say I still need to get some leg braces sorted.

Sweet! great stuff!

Very cool idea, and carried off in a n awesome way! At first I thought they were lacking something, then I saw your note about the hydrolics on the sergeant. Perfect!

Looking great, I love the dynamic posing on these guys! Like you said yourself, the legs could do with some more worky bitz, but I love the design. Is it the pic, or did the sarge's hand suffer a bit of a mishap? When enlarging it in the gallery, it's a grey blob, which could be a plastic cement accident or some kind of sabre-like handguard .

Quite interesting indeed.

Nice, I like them but can't shake the thought that they are going to drywall a ceiling after the battle...lol

Very nice work, I like it a lot. And yeah, the leg braces will be needed alright, at the moment it looks like the universe's greatest balancing act, haha!

Keep up the good work

CommissarKhaine wrote:Looking great, I love the dynamic posing on these guys! Like you said yourself, the legs could do with some more worky bitz, but I love the design. Is it the pic, or did the sarge's hand suffer a bit of a mishap? When enlarging it in the gallery, it's a grey blob, which could be a plastic cement accident or some kind of sabre-like handguard .

Heh... actually, the Sarge is getting a helping hand from some blu-tac to keep himself armed and ready

I was planning on GSing some kind of hand guard on there, and a basket hilt sounds pretty good... I may ponder

I need to wait a while for my "chopping board thumb" syndrome to clear up first though... note to self, use sharper knives

Ah, the blunt knife, most dangerous of all . The blu-tac explains the hand, of course - here I was wondering... If you manage to do a nice basket hilt, would you be willing to put up a tutorial? It's something I'd love to do as well.

use the basket hilt off the 4th edition Metal Imperial Guard Senior Commander... the one with the monocle. He has an epic Basket hilt, and it doesn't look to difficult to recreate with greenstuff. Have you thought about using the little hydrolic bits off of the upward facing things on the drop pod as leg braces? i was looking at them and thought of your leg braces. let me know what you think!

Hmm... the Guard commander hilt is a bit pansy and sabre-like. I was thinking more 17th century claymore style

The drop pod flap control hydraulics are moulded onto the model and look a bit hard to extract. I'm happy to knock up my own ones to make sure they look long enough. Nothing worse than a hydraulic ram with a stroke thats too short.... probably

One of these? This thread is getting juicier and juicier...

Keep up the awesome work

S_P

you're right about the hydraulic lifts being molded to the model, but they are super simple, i'll bet you could greenstuff some hydraulic lifts really easy. On the Sgt. model, what is his leg brace attached too? i can't really see it too well. Have you thought about maybe some sort of waist harness that attaches to the backpack and the boots? as maybe like a centerpoint? I like the saber look for swords on the guard. IG seem loosely based on our own modern military to me, and as a military veteran myself, i can say that sabers are still used in the military today and have a rich history and tradition behind their use in the military, and i like carrying that over to my IG, but to each his own. The claymore hilt will look just as good, it really just comes down to personal preference. Can't wait to see some update pics!

Awesome models, but I have to agree that the legs need some work most notably some straps or something to keep the soldier in place,
Hm, stalker class i was half expecting anoraks and radiation poisioning

@ Space_potato - Thats more of a 2-hander. I was thinking something more like the ones linked here.

@Dingholio - I've got a bunch of Tau stuff lying around unused and the burst cannon barrels are pretty good for hydraulics as indicated below. The Sarge's backpack does have extended hip joints that will be rolled out to the rest of the squad in the next stage. I will be tidying them up with GS.

@ Psycho_Mantis - I was thiking about some kind of GS harness, but I'm not sure if I can pull it off consistently enough We shall see

Anyway, not much of an update, but hopefully a taster of my plans for world domin... I mean leg braces that I can chop up from readily available bits

There is some blu-tac as a place holder for GS when I get some more time to work on them.

That link is a veeerrry purty basket hilt. It's niceitude makes up for the fact is not a 97 foot long claymore that cuts through anything and everything.

S_P

if you use greenstuff and make the straps look like leather straps, with metal ring joints or whatever, then the consistency wouldn't be an issue and it would honestly look a little more Imperial Guard-esque, give it some thought. thanks for the new pics, much better angles

I'm not sold on the positioning of that backpack, it looks too high and forward. I keep thinking the poor guardsman is about to fall flat on his face and get squished.

The leg hydraulics look good, the model just seems very top heavy.

@ Morgrim - The model is a bit top heavy, but there isn't much I can do about it now without re-doing the whole lot (which I don't want to). However this is the futuar and therefore it can be made good by saying that the back pack is full of gyroscopes and suspensor kit to make it more usable by the "rider"

Also I rather like the idea that the suit is being driven by the Guardsman, rather than something he is wearing, as such.

They're Tau feet right?

All kinds of joy for this sar...

On the Claymore point, there's two different blade weapons with the name, the medieval greatsword and the 17th & 18th century basket-hilted broadsword.

As for your RR's, I've always liked the idea of doing something similar, as in modelling troops on auto-stilts in some form to give them speed. Ever since I saw people running about on those boots at 30kph. Although in my head, they had carapace armour, dog-head helmets (like anubis warriors in The Mummy 2) and a mechadendrite tail for balance and fighting.

I'm now going to have a look at *all* the rest of your P&M threads. Salutations!

For the harness you could try some very thin plasticard as straps. around the 0,25mm whould be best but that thing is hard to come by and anyting ip tp the 1mm thickness whould make for convincing belts.
just an idea.

@Scar - The feet comprise toes from Crisis Suits and the suspension from Tau landing gear, so yes the feet are largely Tau

Rather than jumping straight in to the harness issue I have been starting at the bottom with the planned foot mods. Currently working on GS armoured booties to protect the ickle guardsmen's cute toesie woesies... ahem.. or alternatively foot supports to prevent the poor saps from falling off their auto-stilts (thanks Cap'n Roderick, sir ).

Most of the GS filling has now been done, just waiting for the feet to harden before filling in the gaps on the boots. May also include a cross-strap to the boots at this point.

The feet are coming along superbly!!!

You could put a little gyroscope under the backpack between the leg hydraulics. It would look a little more balanced and fill out the model more. Also it gives it a reason why it is unbalanced.

Hurrah, I have the Dan Abnett touch of buzzword spreading!

I look forward to the next update with eager glee

And onto the next incremental update:

Finished the feet and I think the bulking up has helped balance the model a bit more. I have the leg assist units finished fro the Sarge, again helping balance the model a bit. Stuff left to do includes GSing some kind of fabric/rubber cover over the knee and hip joints where the pin is showing. Then its onto whomping up leg assist units for the rest of the guys

(Also quite pleased with the GS aquila on the basket hilt. Wings are a bit flat, but I'll fix that for next time )

Very nice indeed!