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so this is my first foray into a WIP thread/blog. Hopefully your feedback and discuss will help keep me motivated in the always daunting task of starting a brand new army.

As this will be my 3rd 40k army, i really wanted to make something unique that i could put a lot of time into the converting and model aspects of the hobby, as i generally only play once a month or so. My previous armies were both built and painted with an towards getting them on the table as quickly as possible.

The general background concept of this list is based on the idea that the void dragon c'tan is actually in stasis on mars and has been influencing the adeptus mechanicus. My chapter will be a marine chapter with an origin very similar to the steel confessors (iron hand geneseed propagated directly by the AM). my (as yet unnamed) chapter came into contact with the tomb of the void dragon shortly after the mars incident and as a result of their heavy use of implants and bionics, and there fervent worship of the machine god, they subsequently fell under the subtle influence of the void dragon. the end result of these manipulation was for the techmarine chapter-master to renounce the god-status of the emperor and flee mars with his entire chapter to a remote tomb-world where they continue to worship the dragon in the form of the machine god. under this influence the chapters many tech marines and servitors have created bizarre hybrids of the well known STC equipment and alien necron technology.

I currently plan for this to count as a normal marine army in game terms, but i may revise this plan once the new codex hits next month.

at any rate, enough rambling... here is my first test conversion. a heavy weapon marine that will count as either heavy bolter or possibly plasma cannon. The overall aesthetic i am looking for is a mix of the standard marine, steampunky ad-mech, and glowy-roded necron tech








Is the Gauss too beefy? the perspective is a bit fish eyed because i was too lazy to dig out my pic taking stuff, but even taking that into account, its pretty huge. i am considering shortening it some, would love feedback. also the exhaust vents, do you think the muffler type sections should be perforated, or is smooth cool? i keep fluctuating from liking it a bunch to thinking they look like weird mario pipes... all C&C welcome. thanks in advance.

the whole photo album: http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj69/count_bonchula/

I like this convesion, the gun looks great, i cant wait to see more models converted and painted. keep up the good work

Perforated pipes would look better, methinks.

Call them the Void Dragons!

Cool idea - should allow you to do some fun conversions. Thought about giving any of the marines Necron parts? Could you swap out an arm or leg (or something)? One of the Tyrannic War Ultramarine Veteran's has a bionic leg. I always thought it would be cool to have a unit of heavily banged up and subsequently repaired marines.

Will you be adding any other Necron iconography to the marines? Perhaps they would have scratched out the imperial insignia on their chest plates?

@squig_herder: thanks! i appreciate the feedback. I will probably leave the gun as-is for the time being

@minmax: void dragons is definately on the short list of names for the chapter. i think you might be right about the pipes too, i will make a new set with holes and see how they look.

@lagduf: bionics based on necron parts will be a major theme throughout the army. I know the tyrannic war marine you are talking about, and i love that model, but iirc they are pretty thoroughly festooned with ultra symbols, which are a pain to grind off.

The iconography will primarily be ad-mechy (gear-skull action), and while i dont want to remove all the imperial icons, they will be relatively uncommon.

like the idea alot

Another test model. basic tac-marine with bionic leg. turned out ok i think. there is still a little weirdness around his butt, but i am not sure what i will do about that

i need to order a bunch of stuff from warstore before i do much more on these, but once all my bits get here i have a bunch of ideas a-brewin.

These are great convesions. Keep up the posting and good work

love it

I'm going to have to check this thread out again from home, as I can't see your inserted images from work (hosting site's blocked).

I thought about suggesting "Void Dragons," but it's too... taken. KWIM? They're already callong something the Void Dragon. I wouldn't reuse it.

You could, however, tie into it by using "Void" or "Dragon" in your name. Void Angels? Dragons of Mars? Dunno...

Something else that could be cool... Use Necron transfers on the tanks & the Marines' armor. Those can be easily enough obtained all over the place.

Are you planning on using Destroyer lower bodies with marine torsos for Bikes? they could "Count As" bikes easily enough... You can use Tomb Spyder bodies for Attack Bikes... Hmm... Scout bikes could be interesting, as well...

You can cover your tanks in plasticard plates a la the Monolith.

I'd say to get ahold of all of the gauss pieces you can (Door and crystal from the monolith, etc) and incorporate them into your tanks and weaponry whenever possible. That Monolith Door would look neat in place of the double doors on top of a Rhino.

Eric

I guess you're gonna be using the tech priest and techmarine power weapons on models then. I personally think that would look quite good if you mixed for necrony bits into them.

I definately like the look of the models so far.

Oh yeah, will you be using marine, necron or chaos marine rules?

If chaos, a huge, mechanical, slightly necrony machine would make a great lookin demon pirnce.

I love that second model, with the Necron leg.

With regard to his butt area - maybe put some wires there to hide any/all weirdness?

This thread is motivating me to get off my butt and build those Cyborks i've been dreaming of.

I am also hoping to start a dark mechanicus chapter, but for use in a CSM IW army. Does anyone know what the Dark Mechanicus colour scheme is? I know the loyalists use red, and so i have been using blue as a contrast. What scheme are you planning to use?

I think this is a great Idea...In terms of your second marine...the Butt area will likely look better once you have a base coat on it.

Very cool story and conversions

This is very cool. The combining oh marines with crons is a neat concept, and you seem to be pulling it off nicely.

Hmm... You could, theoretically, use Chaos Renegades, Necrons, or Space Marines as a basis for the army type, and all three would work.

I see these in stark overtones of black and red.

Thanks for all the kind words. It is definately helping keep me motivated!

Unfortunately my GW and Warstore orders didnt arrive today, so I wont be getting much else done this weekend. Although I have been grinding out decorative bases for this army while waiting.

@magickalmemories: You are right at the same spot I am regarding naming... i keep going round and round trying to decide. Since I dont know what my chapter will be called yet, I am not sure what i will do for symbols. I havent dont much GS work, but i will probably try to do some mechanicus symbols in places. I do like the necron rune transfers and have a ton of the transfer sheets lying around still so might consider using them.

I probably wont make marine destroyers, but i have been thinking about doing my bikes as jetbikes and making them necrony with some destroyer/tomb spider parts

I like your idea about using the necron portal on a rhino. I was actually thinking of doing something similar but putting the portal on the front end of a land raider instead of the normal assault ramp.

@mekboy: yes, there will be a lot of techpriest type power weapons, but they will be more like hybids off the gear-axe and staff of light or warscythe, with green rods added and whatnot.

@arkion & blinky: i am currently thinking grey and red (think reviler and mechanicus colors). I am undecided if the metal bits should be a silver or a bronze type base color still and if there should be a clear color distinction between normal imperium type tech and the cron bits

Another update:

I just got my GW order, which included some various nice bits for this project, but the majority of the parts i am waiting for are in my warstore order that UPS is taking forever to deliver.

In the meantime I worked up a vet sargeant type fellow with a plasma pistol and a homegrown power weapon. the PW is pretty plain right now, but i wanted it to have a workmanlike quality... look more like a tool than a purpose-made weapon. Still it might need some cables or ornamentation or somesuch. feedback needed!

Oh I really like the last one! The spine piece fits nicely with the marine.

that last one is awesome i love how part of his face is replaced with a necron skull and the spine but the axe i dont know its not very necrony try like a war staff

Another Update... I am so motivated!

My warstore order finally came in and i finished up the first tac squad. then i took tons of pics... let me know how you feel (sorry about pic quality its super cloudy today, so we had to go ghetto style and use the flash)

The whole squad:


The first half (mostly guys you have seen before):


The second half, this group sporting a flamer:


And now some individual marines from the new batch:

A couple pics of flamer dude. I wanted these guys to be ad mechy, and those tech priests are crazy for their red robes, so some of my marines will be too:



This guys uses some iron warriors parts. the IW chests have awesome gear patterns around the neck and dont have any specific chaosy iconography. Obviously i did away with the horns on this head though:


This one is based on the (new?) 1 piece marines that come in the new $8 3-pack. Tough to work with and going forward I probably will pay a bit more for combat squad boxes or full tac squad boxes:


Another robe wearing fellow. Based on a DA vet, with necron arm:


The first marine with perforated smokestack. I have mixed feelings about it and imagining doing it for a whole army makes me kind of sad. This guy is also styling in his IW chest:



As always, feedback and CC is totally welcome. If you think something is out of place or dont like something I would love to hear it. All the comments and encouragement have definately been a factor in keeping me motivated to bang out marines each night. Also, feedback on the basing would be cool. I am trying to get more scenic with basing and some feedback or recommendations from the Dakka community could be super helpfull as i know there are some armies here with sick urban refuse type bases (the bases on migs I-munda gang come to mind).

Very nice. I'm not a fan of the necron arms. They are far to spindly and thin for me. Maybe add a shoulder pad or the upper arm of a marine? I quite like how you did the foot of the $8 3-pack marine.

yeah, a shoulder pad would definitely help the cloaked marine. Other than that, I like em alot

These are very nice. Agreed on the necron arms though. Hope to see more!

Nice Work Bonch, I love the power weapon, and the flamer guy. BTW, I do have a power fist or two that you can have

@brado, eldra, dread: thanks for the kind words. I am considering a should pad for these, my concern is that a regular SM shoulder pad will cover nearly the entire arm. I want them to look distinct from normal 'whole' SMs, but the shoulder does look a little thin. i may experiment a bit with something along the lines of a necron should pad, or like a kroot style pad on that arm. obscure the shoulder joint, but not cover the entire arm.

@marco: thanks, I will grab those from you next time I am up in a couple weeks.

Update:
It has been a very busy week or so for me, so progress has slowed significantly. I have, however, managed to get a little painting done on these guys, and wanted to share.

I actually painted the entire squad in a sort of ad-mech red power armor scheme, but the next day the color looked funny to me, and with the bronzish bits they were kind of khorny, so they all got stripped, and i restarted. Here are the first two basically finished.

I went with a neutral grey scheme for the armor, bronze metallics and green powery bits to go with the necron rods. The guys with robes will have ad-mech red robes over the same scheme, but they are just base coated now.

I am a medoicre painter at best, although i do want to improve. This army really represents my first attempts at doing real highlighting. My other armies are basically base coat, wash, some details and done. very decent tabletop quality, but simple when you get close. I think these are better, but obviously arent to the same level as some of the sick minis that get painted by the dakka folks. Definately hit me with some tips/tricks (would especially like to hear from grey_death, as his army is a similar scheme and looks amazing).

The sarg fellow. He needs dullcoat, but his head isnt done, so i am waiting for that. My first real attempt at power weapon stuff. the colors dont transition as smoothly as i would like, so may go back and try to even them out some.




Here is the gauss cannon arm, heavy weapon fellow. He came out a bit better, but there are some blotchy areas that i need to work on in the future.





as always I am eager for feedback, critique and recommendations.

Excellent. No criticism on the paintjob from me!

this is a pretty damn cool thread, great original idea

Definitely agree with TheThing - Original ideas can be pretty hard to come by. Come of these will be going in my inspiration folder.
Great colour scheme too.