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My pleasure Yggs! Hope I can be involved in more epic tales of daring do as time goes on.

Today's epiphany.... I am now a huge fan a Swedish metal. Yep... just today. Wow. Sabaton should be playing in the background at every 40k event.

"Sabaton"
"Tyr"
"Amon Amrath"

I also like the funny little vampire dudes in "Powerwolf" and the zombierockers in "Kataklysm". Oh... "Gloryhammer" is fun too. Granted, I don't think these are all Swedes... but they give a good showing of themselves in spite of their obvious lack of deathmetal genetics.

... and on the lighter side of life... "Vat 19", go check it out.


So, here's what to look forward to in the immediate future as far as P&M goes...


I asked a friend who is one of the upper level competitive gamers in the Madison area (and who's approach to 40k in general I just really appreciate and respect) to help me out in building a decent Mantis Warrior list using their chapter tactics and their one unique character. I didn't give him any conditions... he could build anything he wanted. The list he came up with had some amazing coincidences...

1. I won't have to buy a single figure.
2. All of the normal infantry is already painted as well as most of the extras.
3. The things I need to paint were pretty high on my to-do list anyway.

As I go along we'll experiment and play-test... Aside from having a decent MW list, the point of this little excercise is for me to get better at list-building, seeing relationships and synergies in units & becoming a better player in general. I'm so excited about this prospect I really can't express it properly.

So, here's what you can look forward to in the immediate future...

6 devastator centurions (the list doesn't call for six, but that's what I've got so I'm going to paint them all at once)
2 storm talons
1 land raider redeemer
1 lovingly crafted and painted chapter master
1 lovingly crafted and painted chief librarian Ahazhra Redth (or can be used as Tigurius if IA units aren't available)

I've already got the first box of Cents open & have been studying the parts trying to figure out how the hell I'm going to put it together. I think I'm going to do an unorthodox build, similar to how eggroll handled his Cents. We'll see.

More soon,
Gits

Oh brilliant! Im definitely looking forward to seeing you do the planes and Centurions (even though that model has no love what so ever from me). Eggroll's build does make them a little more palatable, though...

Curious to see your builds for the HQs... I love me some kitbashes and conversions

Nice to see you getting excited about it Looking forward to seeing more incoming mantisy goodness.

Eggroll's build is certainly far superior to the stock model, should be fun seeing where you go with them.

Sounds awesome! I can't wait to see you Ahazhra Redth!

Lucarikx

I'm excited to see what you do here.

Got a wonderful surprise the other day... At Adepticon I'd asked Ice Angel for one of his Tiger Claws. Any one... just something I've always wanted being that they were companions-in-arms to my Mantis Warriors. I just intended for him to toss me any old spare infantry model. What I got instead was this beautiful, TH/SS terminator... complete with NMM technique on the hammer head!



Beautifully done Ice, thank you!

That's an awesome model. Ice really nailed the NMM on the hammer head and it's made it look fantastic. The tiger striping is really funky too.





Did you notice though that he's stepping all over a rhino door? A rhino door that is a Mantis Warrior shade of green.

The only Centurion Models I accept are old Rogue Trader era Dreads, converted up.

Actually, I think that's a Sons of Medusa rhino door. It's too bright for a Mantis Warrior.

I have a little surprise in store with my centurion build. Have a good chunk of it done, hope to have something to show you by tomorrow.

Woooooow... Thats a damn nice model! Ice really outdid himself!

Totally a SoM door, btw... bright bright lime green!

Mantis Warrior Centurion #1 built... though I reserve the right to tweak and add minor bits and details without prior notice.



That crazy preying mantis helm was sculpted by BLACKHAND for me years ago. (he did a bunch of scupts & casting for me... just because he's an awesome guy!) It's too big for a normal marine and he never liked it because (in part at least), he couldn't figure out what kind of figure to use it on. Years later... GW complied by creating the perfect, over-sized figure for it!

Thanks BLACKHAND. You've waited a long time to see some of your work. Expect to see more of it as time goes on.

Oh now that is truly epic!

That looks fantastic Git's

Mantis-Centurion looks good!

Very cool - and great to see Blackhand's heads getting an outing

Seeing that mantis head on a cent makes me want to see assault versions. Because the marine arms are not actually in there, you could replace them with giant folding chainswords, mimicking the bug upon which you are based.

Just a thought...

Great idea Nev, perhaps you haven't seen my earlier vanguard conversions...

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Great idea Nev, perhaps you haven't seen my earlier vanguard conversions...

I have seen them, and was thinking about them. Just scaled up.

Not sure where you can get upsized chainswords though. The one on the ironclad is a little stubby for the job. Ork kits? Not very familiar with their range personally. You’d need eviserator scale blades, and lots of them.

And then you run into the problem that assault cents don’t look to be very good on the table mechanically. But if they look cool, much can be forgiven.

I think I'd need to scratch build them. I could do that. Have some great giant-sized chainsword blade teeth from Zinge that are just begging for such a project.

No mistaken which chapter he'll belong too!

My geeksense is tingling at the thought of a centurion with your chainswords.

Love bug head brilliant idea. And loving those reminders of those amazing chainswords.

That Termie, is fantastic, great job Ice, and lucky you.

Unfortunately you remind me that I have a box full of blooming SM to paint at somepoint too.

Did you photo shop him Gitsplitta? Or is it just the fact that everything looks better when its on Gitsplittas blog! NEAT! I'm glad you like him Git. I think its good to know that he'll be in a good home. I like the mantis centurion too. I've been keeping my eye on those things. Modified or not, I like them.

Nope, just my standard auto-adjust the contrast and sharpen. It's a fantastic figure! I just let the "Ice" shine through!

Just the standard Gits Aura making it's presence known.

ps.. Yes were are all envyious!

Looks great Gits, quite monstrous on those Centurions

You done good my friend... that helmet is going to really make them look unique and special.


OK everyone... I need your help! I'm wondering if the transition between that massive upper torso and small waist / legs might need something to help the transition. I'd like to know which look you like best.

1. No adornment.


2. Small loin cloth.


3. Centurion loin cloth / tassets.


I could do them all like whichever I choose... or I could perhaps do the sergeant in the full tassets and the scrubs in the small loin cloth. Something like that. The three look quite different so I think this is a fairly important decision.

As you can see I've already had to replace the antennae. One drop from fumble-fingered me and I broke both of the plastic antennae off at the head. These brass ones should work much better. They're bent forward not only because they look more natural, but because it decreases the chance that I'll impale myself with them.

Wow, nice. I never really liked the look of the centurions, but that mantis head really works well.

I think I like 2 best followed by 3.

Kromlech does some sweet huge chainswords. Look up their PA(post apocalyptic?) weapons on eBay that's what I am thinking of doing.

Z

Heres a link
http://bitsofwar.com/home/8-rippers.html I think he biggest sword is 2.5in at the longest.