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I see the Moles as being open enough to accept anyone who can handle themselves in a firefight, so eventually I hope to have some female guard, but at the moment I'm just trying to work out what the actual designs are going to be and making a test cast that actually works.

I'm sure its crossed your mind, but when I read that you might use mining vehicles with 'counts as' rules I thought of this...

heh... why stop with Termites when you could have actual platoon-carrying Moles... or a Company in a Hellbore

That is a very cool Termite and is exactly the sort of thing I want to put into my force eventually, thank you! I used to have loads of Termites, Moles and even the mighty Hellbore back when I played Epic guard. I'm still sorry I got rid of that...

I can see normal tank tracks and dozer blades, but I can't make out what the drill has been made from

To try and tie my guard into the miner role, I've started coming up with some concept sketches for replacing power fists with mini impact hammers instead, a bit like the Ironclad dread, so having Termites as well would be great. I do want to try and use Mole Mortars from the Vraks books as they certainly fit


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Flinty wrote:heh... why stop with Termites when you could have actual platoon-carrying Moles... or a Company in a Hellbore

Just noticed that Termites or Moles are in the Apoc book; so yay! They must be done!

You could get inspiration for this from red faction guerilla, sentinels would look awesome if like those digger things they've got.

Very original army on show,keep up the good work.Nice GS work.


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Very original army on show,keep up the good work.Nice GS work.

Sorry about the double post.

Looks and sounds good so far, it will be interesting to see a painted unit or two of these guys

SilverMK2 wrote:Looks and sounds good so far, it will be interesting to see a painted unit or two of these guys

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Very original army on show,keep up the good work.Nice GS work.

Thanks. Hopefully I'll actually have a few bodies cast this week, so I can start piecing together a few test models


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Septic wrote:You could get inspiration for this from red faction guerilla, sentinels would look awesome if like those digger things they've got.

I've not played the game, but looking at some screenshots, the mechs look very tall? I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to use for Sentinels just yet, but I'd like to keep things short and bulky, so some of the AT43 mechs are looking like better inspiration at the moment. I'll carry on having a look at Red Faction though as it's good sci-fi mining inspiration, if nothing else I do plan on replacing power swords with hammers and power fists with an impact hammer type construction

FW do a breaching drill IA-GUA-T-116 @£25.45

Miss Dee wrote:FW do a breaching drill IA-GUA-T-116 @£25.45

I do like those and will be picking up one at Games Day to fill in the role of Termite/small unit transportation. It'd be nice to create an actual Mole though as it fits with the name and may even be where they got their name from... who knows

I know you're all *desperately* waiting to see some of the Moles pieced together. Unfortunately mould attempt 2 didn't take shape too well for some unknown reason. The first half captured all the detail perfectly, but side 2 was just plain useless. I think my problem is getting the legs into the right place so they don't have overhangs, so I started a third and fourth set just for the bits I know work, such as the bodies, new head, rifle and helmet. While I waited for mould attempt 3 to set properly, I started rummaging through my bits box and pieced together my first preacher so you at least had something to look at while I faff around with rubber and resin



There's still some work to do as bits of the sculpting started to peel away at the edges overnight where it got too thin and the plastic was too smooth. I also need to put a gas mask and oxygen tank on him so he fits with the regimental theme. I think the mask is going to be hanging around his neck rather than being on him; just so people can hear him praise the Emperor's name. Future ones will probably have the speaker placed in front of their mouth as part of the gas mask, as it makes more sense. Any other suggestions for improvements to the Preacher?

Do you need any Redempionists think a preacher with a meltagun with a book of imp law or whatever or Storm Troopers?

Where is the wire going from the speaker?

And the only things I can suggest are to make the chain and the burner on the pole fall in line with gravity.

You might also want to put a couple of spot lights on the top of the book stand to light up the text... I assume it will be dark underground, so it makes sense to illuminate the wordss of the Emp

Now that I think about it, perhaps some more eagles are needed here... have you thought about having them as clasps for the robe?

And because I forgot to say it the first time: That model looks pretty damn cool.

The wire for the speaker goes down his sleeve. Tonight's task is to try and build a little comms lump on his back with cables going up the back of his head into the block over his ear. I like the light idea too. I'll try and sort something out for that as well.

You know, I'd not noticed the chain/gravity issue or lack of eagles, I blame Dr Who for distracting me. Thanks




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Miss Dee wrote:Do you need any Redempionists think a preacher with a meltagun with a book of imp law or whatever or Storm Troopers?

I think Redemptionists would make great preacher type figures for Blood Pact, with their masks and what not, but they are a little too manic looking for the Moles. Flames on your head in a closed environment wouldn't be good either

That actually brings up a background thought. If they are tunnel fighting/boarding specialists, flamers would be really useful; but if they are from a world with limited/low oxygen supplies and a sealed environment would they really have experience using flamers? I limited (in a fluff way) plasma/sniper specialists because of the closed/tight environments, so surely flamers should be rare too? You wouldn't really want to use a weapon that destroys vital resources? Or am I taking this too far? Would they simply learn to use them as part of their Guard training and be fine using these weapons away from their home world, or would prejudice remain?

They might use flamers to explode pockets of trapped gas in the mines, so I imagine that they would be in use, though perhaps limited to specialist squads.

You might want to give flamer troopers quite heavy leather/flak overalls to protect them from the explosions and heavy hoods etc...

SilverMK2 wrote:You might want to give flamer troopers quite heavy leather/flak overalls to protect them from the explosions and heavy hoods etc...

Everyone is going to be pretty bundled up anyway, but I do like the idea of bulking up flamer troops even more and limiting them to specialist squads. I now have this image of 4 flamer specialists with their Sarge carrying a little canary in a cage... Maybe an auspex built into the sleeve of each flamer troop would be a good 40K compromise.

Thanks for the cool idea. I was slowly writing out every special weapon in the list... which isn't very healthy for them

Haha! I love that idea.

You really do have to build a little bird cage being carried on the backpack/gear of one of the troopers

Shouldda kept my mouth shut. I have no idea how I'd even start creating a scale canary/cage... I'll add it onto the list of things to think about when I've got some SpareTime(TM)

Really like the modeling and background. Keep up the good work.

I look forwards to seeing these models develope.

If you have some really thin wire you might be able to do it.

Alternately, just green stuff a solid cage

Wont a meltagun be better than a flamer?

What you might also want to look into are paint shapers also known as clay shapers they are like paint brushes with silicone like tips of different sizes and shapes that do not stick to green stuff . They are great for shaping the putty you want to smaller mini scale version .

Here is a link of what they are .

http://thepaintingcorps.blogspot.com/2009/03/friday-quick-tip-whats-paint-shaper.html

slann wrote:What you might also want to look into are paint shapers also known as clay shapers

I have a small one, I just keep forgetting to use it as the handle looks like a paintbrush in my pile of tools... must remember to try it tonight as the preacher's robes need smoothing out a bit!

[edit] I tried it last night and it's brilliant for smoothing out areas. Thank you for reminding me![/edit]





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Miss Dee wrote:Won't a meltagun be better than a flamer?

Meltas are a definite, but it's always nice to have a flamer or two on hand; especially as my main opponent will be Orks

If I end up being uncertain about flamers, I could always say it's a scatter laser or large bore shotgun type affair that has an area effect that "counts as" a flamer. I might actually do the same for the plasma gun if I can think of a viable alternative...




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inquisitor_lord_slade wrote:Really like the modeling and background. Keep up the good work. I look forwards to seeing these models develope.

Thanks, it's nice to know people are reading and enjoying

Not that I should be suggesting anything given I'm likely to be on the end of it - but they could be some kind of chemical thrower "counts as" flamer? Or just add an extra oxygen feed nozzle

Chem throwers might be a good idea, given the Devil Dog chimera variant. they would certainly be all bulked up to protect them from the toxic nastiness, thanks. I get to combine to great ideas and still stick to the background. Win!


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Oooookay. Some more updates. The rubber *still* hasn't completely set; keep your fingers crossed that it's set by tonight as I'm desperate to see if it's good enough to do a test cast. There's also a new body and head for you to see. I forgot to take a picture before making the mould. Doh!

Anyway. As I couldn't play with the mould, I carried on with the Preacher, cleaning him up a little and fixing the bits pointed out yesterday such as the gravity defying chains/censor and the lack of cables and eagles. I think he's pretty much done now, so he can cure for a while.



As he's drying, I started piecing together a test psyker. Like everyone else, I'm using the flagellants as the base, but I intend to go at him with the green stuff tonight so he's not showing off unnecessary flesh. You can at least imagine the pose, even if the body isn't even started yet



And finally, an early version of the new head, minus helmet. Cunningly the helmet has been sculpted separately (and very very carefuly) so that it will just drop on top of the head without any cutting. That's the theory anyway. I have a feeling that it may be too thin to cast... we shall see. There's no scarf on the heads either. I've decided that these can be added on later to make each one different, if they even have them at all. The aim is to make each one an individual with different scarves, helmet attachments etc.



The newer version of this head is in the drying moulds at the moment. The only real difference is that the seam in the top of the head has been covered up and the back of the hat has been taken all the way down so it looks like it's a hood coming out from under their coats.

Looking awesome as always. I am looking forward to how your casting turns out when you finally get a mould to work. Oh, and dicing these guys up one we both have playable forces!

The casting is going slowly, unfortunately. The moulds look to have recorded all the detail, but the resin casts don't seem to be picking up all the details; plus there's a fair bit of flash. The Internets seems to think I need to put talc into the moulds to capture more detail; I think I also need to clamp the moulds tighter to prevent flash forming. On the plus side, there aren't any bubbles appearing, so I must be doing something right

Not sure what I'll do if I can't get the mould to work... I've wasted a lot of resin and mould rubber so far. It'd be a shame to give up now, but it is becoming tempting to just green stuff the whole lot. Speaking of... the weekend was rather busy, so I didn't manage to get any further with the psyker yet, though I did start piecing together my army leader from a few bits and bobs that were kicking around.

To make the tabletop look more interesting, the Company HQ is going to be a Rogue Trader and his retinue, with platoon HQs, Techpriest and priests being agents for an Inquisitor (not sure how heretical he's going to be yet) that is traveling with the RT. The guard units can then be from different planets the RT/Inquisitor have "recruited" from. This gives me the chance to come up with a number of different unit designs to cope with things the Junos wouldn't have, such as drop troops.

To top it all off, I think it'd be kind of fun to try and create DH/RT stats and background for (at least) the HQ units and their ship as well. Who says I make life complicated for myself?! I just like the idea of it all having a life of it's own and a reason for having lots of character. It also gives me something I can do towards the project during quiet moments in work.

Last week I found a copy of the Horus Heresy artwork book for £6; dear god there's a lot of inspiration in there. I can see why there are lots of PH projects kicking around... it's just a shame that most of the guard pictures look exactly like existing regiments, even if the names are different. It does, however, make me want to add a unit of pre-heresy, true scale Thousand Sons into the retinue at some point though. Now to work out how to win the lottery so I can concentrate on it...

One day you'll actually get a painting update. One day

Liking these guys, you needs more Humphry Davy lamps on their heads though!

Also, your sketch of the helmet on page 1 instantly reminded me of the Sontarans from Dr Who.

Now you mention it, they do a bit!

At least they aren't going to have potatoes for heads... though that would speed up the sculpting somewhat

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Liking these guys, you needs more Humphry Davy lamps on their heads though!

They are all quite marvelous. Have spent hours skimming dakka today. May GS myself into a more interesting shape tonight.