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I'm liking the latest model, really has an emerald feel to it if that makes any sense.

I think you're on the right track , and I have to agree that MW need a yellowish green, can't help you thought, not that good of a painter =(

Gitsplitta wrote: using gretar's advice.

Is it wierd that I got a slight satisfaction twist in my hip when reading that?

Anyways.. The newsest one looks really good, I think you should go with that one, has a sort of emerald shine to it

Newest one seems to be the best MW test model.

I really like the way that it turned out! way better than it was before.

Ladies and Gentleman... meet Brother Six,




I'll tell ya more about 'im later... but for now, I'll let the pic stand & just see how you like him. He is yellower in-person. I'm not sure why my camera isn't processing that correctly. Shame that.

Edit: changed the photo to one that's got a little better depth-of-field.

Yes, yes, yes! That's definatley a great green!

Munch Munch! wrote:Yes, yes, yes! That's definatley a great green!

True. true

Yup that's a great green.

btw my own digital camera seems to enhance blues. maybe its just an oddity of the detector.

hmmm is the image deleted? Dakka might be freaking out on me

I like it very much i probably couldn´t have painted it like that.
Well done.

Nope, sorry. That was me. I re-took the photo's so that I had a bit better depth-of-field and it took me longer to get them loaded up than I thought.

What I did was add two additional layers of blended highlights and some edging, detail painting and some very judicious use of badab black wash in certain recesses to accent the shadows. After all that I decided it was a shame to have the very first of my reborn MWs relegated to the storage box... so I gave him a weapon upgrade, some purity seals, thought up a story for him and assigned him to my command squad. Much more fitting.

I say 2

Great paint job on the first model, it's obviously not the easiest and quickest scheme, well done!

I know this is off topic and may have been covered, but have you thought about a mantis inspired dread?

I can imagine a dread loaded out with an asymetric close combat arm shaped like a mantis claw, perhaps the whole dread could be lighter and leaner than usual with overlapping insectoid armour plates.

sorry your blog always gets me thinking!

Man, those Rogue Trader era Astartes are so full of character and awesomeness..

I love the knife in the ground (which I had nothing to do with... these were just old, used mini's I got from a friend). I can just imagine a marine, anticipating the fight... carving the top of the ground with his combat knife, subconsciously imagining doing the same thing to an enemy.

As to the dreads... I've given it a little thought. There have been some great suggestions put forth already, but I'm not sure I'm up to the modeling task yet. I'd planned on doing "mantis arms" for my assault troops, and I have a good idea how I'm going to do it for them... but a convincing mantis dread would take a ton of highly skilled scratch-building.

Well, give me some time anyway. I can honestly say that 'ol #6 there is the most demanding marine figure I've ever painted... for whatever that's worth.

very nice. Good Job. You still need to make lines on the purity symbols, to make it look as if there is writing on there.

Really starting to shape up, and the Mantis warriors are looking pretty cool.

One question, if I may, how are you going to go about applying the chapter badge, painting it, or are you going to attempt to make decals of some kind?

You guys don't ask for much, do ya? Writing on the purity seals... sheesh! Do you know how bloody small those things are??!

As far as the chapter badge goes (I knew someone would ask), I tried the hand painted thing last time around and it was a real pain... trying to get them all the same size, color proportion... no thanks. I (think I) have someone working on making a badge for me that I can shrink down and turn into decals. Failing that... I'll do the artwork myself.

One other thing... if you guys look at the original drawings of the MW's (first post), they had these weird yellow trapezoidal shapes on their helmets. I tried that too in the old days... didn't work for about the same reasons the hand-painted badges didn't. I would be willing to do a yellow strip down the center of the helm... which was a very common decorative pattern in the "old days" of 40k.

Thoughts?

Gitsplitta wrote:You guys don't ask for much, do ya? Writing on the purity seals... sheesh! (grin) Do you know how bloody small those things are??!

http://www.discountart.com/store/media/Sakura-Image-Micron.gif

I use a similar product but from another company. Works like a charm, and really isn't all that expensive

Nr,6 looks awesome!

Just for fun...

Found one of my old MWs in roughly the same pose. Guess old dogs can be taught new tricks...

Gitsplitta wrote: I'd planned on doing "mantis arms" for my assault troops, and I have a good idea how I'm going to do it for them.

For this, have you thought of using hormaguant arms?

I thought about doing something along those lines, but decided that having things that looked distinctly alien or mutated was NOT consistent with the chapter history as we had hammered it out earlier in the blog. I'm certain I can use chainswords for normal assault squads and power swords for the Vanguard to construct mantis arm looking weapons that will be clearly technological in nature, this not leaving the "taint" of heresy on the user and once again exemplifying the Mantis Warrior's advanced engineering skills.

OH, and I just realized I forgot the blades on the arms and legs of the new guy!! I'll work on that.




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Well, I thought I was about blogged out for the day... then something happened I just have to share.

So like... a couple of months ago I bought some praying mantis egg cases for our garden. Mainly because I was going to need some models for the helmets I wanted to build and nothing would be a better model for me to sculpt than the real deal. Besides, I've always thought praying mantids were cool. So you get the egg cases in a little paper bag that you put near a window out of direct light, and wait for them to hatch. Well apparently... today, they hatched... hundreds of them... and many are now taking up residence in my living room as there was a hole in the bag!

This has got to be a good omen. On the day I paint the first Mantis Warrior figure, hundreds of their namesakes come into the world and dozens are running around my house. Makes me feel good about the upcoming book. So to Mr. Goto I say... "Bring it on man! Let's drag this long forgotten chapter out of it's dusty backwater and make them famous together!" "Wooooo-hooooooo !!!"

I feel like Slim Pickin's riding the a-bomb in "Dr. Strangelove"...

Haha, the Emperor provides!! Surely the Mantis Warriors will return to the Imperium and deliver righteous death upon their foes with fervor none before have seen...anyway, I think Marine 6 looks fantastic, usually don't like the old models but yours has some major character

Finished the "limb blades" or "appendage ornamentation"... whatever. Jagged parts to mimic preying mantis limb bits. Took 2 chainswords. My assault squad will take 6 chainswords per guy! Start saving them up kiddies... I'll need all I can get.

very nice but there has GOT to be a better/cheaper way to make them than chainswords, I just cant think of one.

I really like the comparison picture from the 90s, it's interesting how much more the old minis can be made to pop.

StubbyGB wrote:very nice but there has GOT to be a better/cheaper way to make them than chainswords, I just cant think of one.

Cutting them out of plasticard perhaps? I can't see them well enough to determine the feasibility...

Definitely cut them from plasticard,

My original suggestion to use chainswords was to keep a strip of the "sword" part of the weapon with the teeth still attached to create the effect of the teeth still being able to move and work like a chainsword would only attached to the forearm.

If you are going to glue them on in a static way It will be far simpler to cut them from plasticard, and cheaper!

For the assault marines the chainswords will be mounted underneath the arms as blackhand suggests... but for the normal guys it's just the teeth that are used in order to mimic the limb ornamentation of a real preying mantis. I'll get some appropriately sized plasticard strips and see what I can come up with.