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Gits, a good example of a successor not following exactly is the Imperial Fists. Both the Crimson Fists, and the Soul Drinkers, are extremely different.

And the Black Templar as well.

I have a mark from that facepalm.
How could I forget the Templars

Brother Inushi is built! Well, sort of. In looking at the figure I realized that I forgot to put the spikey bitz on the arms and legs... will get to that tomorrow. But otherwise he's done!

What'cha think? The samurai sword is, I think, a little small for the figure but it is my best and only option at the moment. it is only painted in (fits in a hole in the hand) and as such could be removed at a later date if a suitable upgrade could be found.

I dunno, I kinda like the size of the sword, though perhaps it would be better suited with an Imperial? I always think the regular swords are just too bulky for any good reason, but this is Space Marines!!! we're dealing with here, where bigger is better. Either way, I like him, besides that his sword arm still just looks a little... unnatural... for the movement of his body. But! I do like the movement look to him, caught midstep going over the rock and firing off at something.

Whatever sword you give him, I think you'll do it right. You have so far. --Kaesar II

nice looking model there. but i have too agree on the sword arm if he tript and fell he would cut himself

Sword size looks good to me, it's just that we're all used to heroic scale stuff which distorts our perception of what's normal...

Japanese swordsmen often used a reverse grip when using their swords one handed. Have you tried it? It might put the focus more on Inushi aiming his plasma pistol (if that's what you're after of course).

Hmmm... I'm thinking too small - looks like an oversized knife - but then I like heroic scale... Is it just the photo or is that basecoat grainy?

I agree with kaeser , the midstep firing pose is great dynamic without being over the top. But yeah maybe using a straighter arm for the sword would have been good, I like the length of the sword though.

Arakasi wrote:Hmmm... I'm thinking too small - looks like an oversized knife - but then I like heroic scale... Is it just the photo or is that basecoat grainy?

It was the grainy base coat that struck me first, looks almost...bobbly...which isn't even a word The sword looks a bit too small, it wouldn't look as small if it were angled away from the marines body however. Other than that he looks great.

Imp. Monkey

Drawing a blank on a decent source of katana type swords, although I'm sure I've seen some recently.
You might keep an eye out for oop Mishima models from the old Warzone game.

Yeah... I didn't notice it before but the primer is a bit dodgy. I'll see if I can't get some better primer and touch it up. Will have to address that during the painting process.

The arm is in the position it is to make the sword "at ready" or cocked. An extended arm is useless with a sword in it. No viable attacks from that position with the exception of a weak thrust. Since only his head and arm are turned to the left I didn't think modeling the arm extended for balance was necessary. If I'd have thought of it, it would have even been more natural to model the weapon resting on his shoulder pad to conserve energy while still being ready to strike.

I actually don't mind the sword being smaller in relation to the figure as a more minimalist approach is very samurai-like. I flipped the sword upside-down to give him a reverse grip as CK suggested. *Really* like the resulting pose. Tip of the sword is off the ground, curve of the blade flows nicely with the action... great suggestion!

Gitsplitta wrote:Yeah... I didn't notice it before but the primer is a bit dodgy. I'll see if I can't get some better primer and touch it up. Will have to address that during the painting process.

The arm is in the position it is to make the sword "at ready" or cocked. An extended arm is useless with a sword in it. No viable attacks from that position with the exception of a weak thrust. Since only his head and arm are turned to the left I didn't think modeling the arm extended for balance was necessary. If I'd have thought of it, it would have even been more natural to model the weapon resting on his shoulder pad to conserve energy while still being ready to strike.

I actually don't mind the sword being smaller in relation to the figure as a more minimalist approach is very samurai-like. I flipped the sword upside-down to give him a reverse grip as CK suggested. *Really* like the resulting pose. Tip of the sword is off the ground, curve of the blade flows nicely with the action... great suggestion!

I does make the sword look bigger...nice job!
When you say the sword is "at ready" or cocked, I immediately thought "SM ballistic knife!"
sorry, had to.
but it does look good. I really like the snipers and venerable dread.

Thanks Shrike! Love you're avatar BTW... the santa hat with the explosion(?) behind it is just so wonderfully incongruous.

He still needs a bit of greenstuffing to fill gaps, etc. I mainly primed him so he'd photograph decently. I will be attempting to paint this guy with the airbrush... so the challenges continue to pile up..

Gitsplitta wrote:Thanks Shrike! Love you're avatar BTW... the santa hat with the explosion(?) behind it is just so wonderfully incongruous.

He still needs a bit of greenstuffing to fill gaps, etc. I mainly primed him so he'd photograph decently. I will be attempting to paint this guy with the airbrush... so the challenges continue to pile up..

It's from the 90's comedy "Hot shots! Part deux" (mainly a spoof of rambo, but make fun of terminator, star wars, wizard of oz, ect.). Watch it. It is hilarious. If you like stupid comedies like monty python films and the marx brother's films, you'll love this. The santa hat's just using MS paint for the seasonal avatar thing.
Anyway, keep us up to date!

I agree the sword looks better in its new position - and that it also reduces/removes the size issue too.

From a tourney perspective that's up to the organisers, most disallow them as the books are expensive and not all players will have experience of the lists/units; or even the ability to counter things like flyers. But... the passage in the books that says you need permission to use the rules is long gone.

Anyway. That's well off topic

The sword position in the second image looks better.

Hey endtrans... thanks. Since I'm not very well traveled as a 40k player I have to keep reminding myself that my local experience might not be "the" 40k experience... I appreciate your clarifications. And your comments are perfectly relevant to the blog, so please feel free.

The White Scar thing (modified a bit) may fit well into what I've come up with (or the other way around, however you see it). I have been carefully hoarding about 15 of the RT era imperial jet bikes that I intend to use as scout bike squads (they're just too small for regular marines) and I already have 5 land speeders... They all fit into my army fluff-wise (hit-and-run, jet engine or anti-grav powered so they can drop down from the sky to attack) so that might be a not to the White Scar origin of the chapter. Even all of my foot sloggers (dreads and infantry) can be deployed in a "lightening strike"... so I think this remains true to a White Scar origin... even though it's been modified by millenia and foundings and intermediate chapters.

Also at the point that I'm modeling them, the chapter has returned from 100 years of "exile" on crusade in hostile territory... which at least in my mind would have accelerated the differentiation of the chapter (militarily at least, not from a genetic perspective of course), so the fact that they are different than an all-bike army but still retain an archaic, bike-like element works for me.

But, I've never pretended to be a Space Marine scholar so what works for me is more a matter of logic and what I like as opposed to what GW has actually laid out as history.

You don't have to delve that much into the White Scars domain to my mind...

Actually, your already existing theme of lightning strikes and orbital assault seems like a more than valid choice for a chapter than is (now) supposed to be of White Scars origin / heirdom / legacy.

And, yes, the sword looks much better downwards.

love the model, the downwards sword is best.

I'm with Yggdrasil in that I don't think the link to the White Scars is actually a problem as it does fit so neatly into your background. It's not as if you're making them some hardcore siege masters or a tank heavy mobile fortress.

Besides which. Would you prefer proper fluff from Forgeworld or even more from C.S Goto?*

As far as the White Scar background goes, they are organised into a more tribal structure, with some renaming of units, and they specialise in hit and run tactics as well as using a lot of attack bikes. They also dislike entombing fallen warriors in dreadnoughts.

As the Mantis warriors aren't a direct founding from the White Scars (at least that's what the teaser image seems to imply), you can safely say that as a crusading chapter (one without a home planet) they would have to adapt to new circumstances and start variants on the hit and run tactics; using stealth and drop pod assaults instead of fast moving biker attacks.

Very little seems to be known about their direct founding chapter, other than their colours (yellow) and their logo of a flaming sword.



* HINT. It's not Goto.

Yeah... I've read Goto.

I'll take Forge World ANY day.

End was right bout them not being directly founded from the scars the mauraders are/were a mostly CC jump infantry chapter if i remember correctly (read it somehwere) only thing i could find though is what their armour looked like which was all yellow and chapter symbol was a sword with a flaming blade...anyways as long as your guys can ambush your good fluff-wise lol

In addition, I don't think we know for how long do the Mantis Warriors exist, but probably for a long time (the first to say "Since the RT era!" gets a free ).

If they were founded a few millennia ago, they've had plenty of time to change everything, in opposition to a chapter that was founded in the end of the 41st millenium.

As the Mantis Warriors now seem to come from the Marauders, who in turn came from the White Scars, they can be huge leaps between those distant parent-chapters...

Only Ultrasmurfs stick closely to their parent chapter AFAIK, there are plenty of examples of successor chapters steering a different course then their parent chapter.

I flipped the sword upside-down to give him a reverse grip as CK suggested. *Really* like the resulting pose. Tip of the sword is off the ground, curve of the blade flows nicely with the action...

I like the sword better in this position as well. It's also fits nicely with the pistol, since it allows for a much more close-in style of fighting then the regular point-up way of holding a sword. Still, this is probably taking stuff a bit too far - the facts that it looks good matters the most

great suggestion!

You're welcome, I'm glad I can add something usfeul to the conversation instead of just 'ooh!' and 'aah'

ooh!
aah!

Inushi ftw!

Definitely like the sword better in the downward position!

really great mini - I vote for upwards

I am going to have to vote for down. Either way you do it Git, he will be using it both ways in the story!