fleet of *

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**CrazyMez**

Id go with a Lizard of some kind, Not the iguana or chameleon kind, which are really slow.

But a monitor Lizard would be awesome, The are strong enough to break a man in half, have a semi-venous bite and can run really fast.

Plus you could do the really cool diamond back paint job like a rattlesnake. A RATTLESNAKE!! Whats not to love!!

**sluggaslugga**

I say use mukaali

**Tek**

My vote is on flightless birds. Admittedly, OP has already mentioned the Chocobo reference, but there are some really nice bird-RR-esque models already out there and they look awesome.

The other cool idea is centipedes. I mean, good luck finding a model that isn't metal and costs the earth; or indeed converting a plastic centipede; but giant insects in the desert is not only believeable, it's too cool to pass up.

I've seen far too many Cold One RRs now, it's not funny. How about them riding desert sharks? I once read a cool comic strip about fins poking up through the sand that belonged to sharks swimming in subterranean rivers. It's silly, but it's pretty damned awesome.

**Sceleris**

Ailaros's riders appear as if they will have fully enclosed helm/rebreathers so you could could have sandworm riders (think blokes on worms from tremors/dune?).

Milliput/GS bodies, bits from tyrand sprues for circular like mouths etc?

**Ailaros**

wow, so thanks for all the ideas, everyone.

I'm feeling strong support of the lizard motif, obviously, but as mentioned, I don't want dinosaurs. I could do something like a gila monster or something (which is what I'm assuming most people are thinking of). My only reluctance to this suggestion comes from the fact that I'm not certain of my ability to GS scales. I'm trying to decide if this is the time to grow my GS skills a little bit, or if it's time to pick something simple that I can already do as I'm going to be doing 20 of these in a single go and don't want to just horribly burn out.

I'm starting to more and more shine to the idea of some random monsterey thing. For example, make it bipedal with a long neck like an ostritch, but instead of having its feet end in talons, they end in hoofs, and instead of having feathers give it fur, or something.

**Flinty**

Heh, Taun-tauns then?

**Space_Potato**

And I thought they stank on the outside...

Back on topic, if you want to make a Gila Monster type thing, then why not look into the old cold ones?

S_P

**Ailaros**

No cold ones

Because I can't quite stomach my troopers of the far future running around with lazor pistols and riding DINOSAWRS! Too childish for my tastes. Plus, it would be hella fiddly to do these, making it more likely that I'd actually just buy them, but this whole project is also being done in part so that I don't have to buy stuff. And they're taller than horses. And they've been done to death.

As for taun-tauns, yeah, sort of like that, perhaps, but not so stupid looking (so lankier and meaner, more ostrich-like perhaps).

**NickOnwezen**

Scorpions man. Scorpions are totally the wat to go for desert trooper Rough riders.

**pretre**

Don't know if the guy who made these still has the molds, but they are cool as heck:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/208422.page

Chocobos.

**mullet_steve**

for myself I have no problem with you moddeling your miniatures your way and from what you have said its not for tacticle advantage but more tacticle rebalance unfortunatly although you and possible many other find the current wh40k unbalanced there are several profesional people who designed the thing and did their best to make everything was as blanced as possible hence why you have a unit with certain points cost, options, stats, and models. and although you made a good point that the model designers did not have the tactics in mind the rules designers did have the models in mind.

but getting back on topic I'd love to see a group of lizard/snake riders preferably standing upright like surfers this will help keep the profile to what it apparently should be whilst giving the enemy smaller targets, ie a head and shoulders rather than a horses head and head and shoulders of the rider.

**Ebola0001**

My suggestion although quite an obscure reference. is the garthim, from "dark crystal" and excellent fantasy movie from my youth. i always thought the garthim were creepy as hell and would make cool mounts

they are kind of scuttling insect looking things... you really have to see the movie to understand their shape though... here is a picture i could find

**Xca|iber**

That pic doesn't really do them justice, but the idea of garthim riders is awesome. I love the Dark Crystal.

**Ailaros**

So, taking bits and pieces of what pieces I've liked so far, I've got something that looks like this:

What to do? What to change? What to do with the tail (lizard tail, dragon tail, lion tail, etc.)?

**Xca|iber**

That concept looks pretty sweet. Maybe model some sort of grimdark "horseshoes" on the hooves, but have them be more like mechanical "boots" on the feet, to protect the mount as it moves through dangerous terrain/firefights.

Dunno about the tail. Not really very creative when it comes to that sort of thing.

**mullet_steve**

two tails to counterbalance two heads! and if your making it fury then so should be the tail, although i would love to see a tail beard hanging down the centre of the tail right to the tip

**plastictrees**

Wings removed obviously...and a little pricey for a full squad.

Non-raptory lizard mount but you can't seem to buy just the mount and again, a little spendy.

**Tek**

Ailaros wrote:So, taking bits and pieces of what pieces I've liked so far, I've got something that looks like this:

What to do? What to change? What to do with the tail (lizard tail, dragon tail, lion tail, etc.)?

I love it dude, a bipedal two-headed goat? Brilliant. Personally I'd want to see some udders hanging from that (purely for the lulz), and maybe some billy-goat beards?
I genuinely think that idea has legs (no pun intended), and would live to see you realise that in 3D.

Keep it up dude.

**Space_Potato**

I knew you didn't want cold ones, but the old-style ones were more "big lizard" rather than dinosaur.

I do like that sketch though, and I think furry.

S_P

**CrazyMez**

What about Kevin from the film UP?

**Ailaros**

yeah, what about feathers instead of a tail?

I'm not too charmed on the idea of a furry tail, although I could easily see the tail hacked off after a few inches and ended in a steel nub or something (I was thinking about doing this with the arms as well)

**Flippa**

Fafnir wrote:Aren't your guy's desert warriors?

Why not use something like an oversized gekko or roadrunner?(do do do dooo do do do dooo do do, do do do doooo doooo do do do dooo do!).

Like these?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsphotography/3191160261/lightbox/

**murdog**

Ailaros wrote:So, taking bits and pieces of what pieces I've liked so far, I've got something that looks like this:

What to do? What to change? What to do with the tail (lizard tail, dragon tail, lion tail, etc.)?

Ros, this is awesome. What about a scorpion tail, one that sweeps low and then back over the rider's head, to counterbalance both the two feet and two heads? Credit to the above post for planting scorpions in my head.

**murdog**

Or a Kangaroo tail. Just finished reading 'Kangaroos have Joeys' to my two year old daughter, and I learned they have long thick tails for balance. That kinda looks like a Kangaroo's stance...

**hershey555**

i think for your army a large lizard like the dew backs the sand troopers in starwars ride but mabe with a slimer build. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dewback

**Steve78**

you dont usually get alot of hard cloven hoofed animals in sandy deserts, so the goat bird thing looks wrong to me. (just saying)
I reckon a lizard of some kind, Monitor lizards can move pretty quickly when they want to.
But the basilisk lizard - he's so fast he can walk on water!

**Tek**

Goats, Ostriches, both work in the desert. You see those nomadic morroccan goat herders on TV sometimes.

Ailaros - stick with it, I'm excited!!

**fasterthanlight**

I have two solutions for you -

1. Lions

http://wargamesfoundry.com/historical_ranges/single_packs/animals/any/lions_king_of_the_beasts_gpr023/?sector_id=1

(sorry i can't copy image source to embed a jpg)

2. Birds

The disadvantage of the bird above (i think its called the 'Axebeak') is that it only comes in one pose, and is from Reaper, who i think just went under. However if you google 'Terror Bird 28mm' you should find some alternatives.

Hope that helps.

FTL

**Ailaros**

Steve78 wrote:But the basilisk lizard - he's so fast he can walk on water!

lol. My rough riders gain the "amphibious" special rule.

As for those lions, that's basically exactly what I was originally looking for. The problem, of course, is that I'm not sure how keen I am on spending $70 per rough rider unit.

Anyways, I've been mulling this over for while, while doing my ogryn. What my recent ogryn experience has taught me is that I'm really going to want to do something easy for this, as I'm going to have to do a lot of them.

What this means is that I'm now even more invested in things like fur or to a lesser extent feathers because they're easy, and I already know how to do them. Unless someone has a quick and dirty tutorial for doing lizard scales, I'm unfortunately going to have to just rule them out.

**Space_Potato**

How about something like this:

Clip the wings off and you've got a pretty cool horse/bird/thing.

Here's the link: http://www.mirliton.it/product_info.php?pName=hippogriff&cName=fantasy-2528mm-creatures

S_P