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All I can say is, lolwut?

I'd play a game against you, but good luck getting that army to pass mustard at a tourney/non-'my garage' gaming club/store!

I like the idea, and to be fair they are quite well made and painted but I still have to ask why?

Nice terrain!

-_- Not sold on this, are you trolling to get as many people as possible to say poncey artistic stuff?
I do like them, they look cool it's just......

I guess a problem with having an original army like this is that you'll always be coming up against philistines.

link didnt work before

I don't believe it's a matter of "getting it" or not. Most of us here on dakka are artists of some sort. i think its the fact that this is also a game, along with a hobby. And an army like this wouldnt be allowed in some stores/tournaments. It would be like me bending some paperclips to look like a person and calling it a space marine, and justifying it by by calling it abstract.

But the fact that it's a tzeentch army, where half the daemons in the force are supposed to be randomly shaped blobs of form, makes this very not the same as calling a paper-clip a space marine.

I like it.

I like it...

But I get a strong 'I don't want to have to spend money on GW miniatures' vibe.

It is cool though.

What can I say but really really clever.

I will admit when I saw the first few pictures I really thought "oh dear god what is this person doing". Then I thought like i think a lot of people that are against this are thinking, that you were trying to be cheap make an army without paying for the models. Then I realised that there is no way this is your first or even second attempt at an army as its way too crazy an idea for someone who has not been into gaming for a good amount of time, so chances are you have paid your dues to the wargaming gods and spent plenty of cash over the years as we all have.

I was wondering, did the inspiration come from a random piece of melted polystyrene from a terrain project or something such as. I can sort of imagine someone doing something then noticing the deformed lump and getting the lightbulb glow over their head.

Great idea keep it up. I think the Lord/HQ controlling this army is what will pull it all together because creative/innovative it is, its still a bunch of floating cubes, it just needs that something to make sense of it all.

keep it up.

What other armies do you have out of curiosity?

I have collected over 12 GW armies, and painted over a dozen commissioned ones. I used to participate in organized events and tournaments untill i grew tired of the scene and the direction the game was being taken.

Im currently undertaking my masters in fine art and now i just play in my garage and paint stuff for fun.

I assumed right then that there was no way this was not born of experience of the hobby.

Congratulations to you and long may it continue

I like em, there weird and i think fitting of tzeentch army. They have the "WTF IS THAT" factor.

I keep wanting to paint a Modrian Iron Guard army. I don't know how many people will get the joke though.

This is inspired and utterly, wonderfully, bizarely - chaotic.

At first I was confused, now I'm right on board - this is radical, brilliant, exciting and awesome all at once.

Even taken at face value without the concepts ushered into this from McEvilley and others, it's actually really disturbing. Recall a classic episode of Tom Baker-era Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood, where the major villains are simply giant stones that move about the countryside committing acts of total destruction and murder.

I would be terrified if I were a pack of marines seeing this army coming over the horizon. It's a total freakout. Keep going, can't wait to see a finished army shot.

I think this is one of the coolest and most original ideas I've seen in ages, you truly made the cubes look like actual demonic and almost alive entities. Keep up the good work!

This:

gwaahr wrote:the larger cubes on 40mm bases are my HQ chariots, the lord of change will be blockomancer style


heres the soul grinder

This is the only reason i am not sold on them, there's something about above post that i find lacks credibility. I think they look cool and have no problem with cubes being horrors but soul grinder?!

This is the only 40k army thats has ever legitimately creeped me out....

The image in my head of an endless tide of glowing cubes, destroying everything in their path, its almost too much.

I stalked your photobucket for years man, and you've inspired at least one army of mine (faceless, tentacular Tau). It's wonderful to sort of officially see your stuff on a forum, you couldn't have chosen a more interesting army to unleash upon Dakka

But I get a strong 'I don't want to have to spend money on GW miniatures' vibe.

Not trying to flame, but IMO that's hilarious

- Salvage

Seems like something from an episode of Star Trek TOS.

Cool project, I dig the idea as long as it's just for casual play.

Yeah cheers Tom, thats prettymuch what I had in mind for 'zazzing' up the bases. I also want to include some ruined hellenistic style sculptures, just like those scibor bases, but im broke so ill be sculpting them.

Those ruined statue bases would be a great contrast. Semiotically Using faces as a point of reference to justify how weird these things are is a fanstatic move. Metaphocally a destroyed civilisation being dominated by a seemingly random force also works nicely given the context of the 40k universe.

btw have you seen what looks like a Rick Griffin inspired Tzeentch army?

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220124&highlight=eyes+tzeentch

Regards

Tom j

Wow. That's...original

I like it a lot though! It IS tzeetch!

Perkustin wrote:This:

gwaahr wrote:the larger cubes on 40mm bases are my HQ chariots, the lord of change will be blockomancer style


heres the soul grinder

This is the only reason i am not sold on them, there's something about above post that i find lacks credibility. I think they look cool and have no problem with cubes being horrors but soul grinder?!

I agree, on a larger scale, it's more difficult to get away with it, but more abstract forms might detract from the theme. Maybe incorporate something into the interior of the cube? It's already partially open, so maybe some kind of ravening maw?

One thing I really want to know is how you go about doing them, I can guess for the most part but things like to soulgrinder being open and having this molten oozing quality, although I have an idea in my head you could have done this a number of way. A good description of your methods would be great and maybe even a few pictures to better show the processes

I think it all works.

I would love to play against a force like this. I have issues with the plastic horrors and many of the other Tzneetch models. This is chaos given a solid form.

Excellent portrayal of change and madness.

lukewild1982 wrote:One thing I really want to know is how you go about doing them, I can guess for the most part but things like to soulgrinder being open and having this molten oozing quality, although I have an idea in my head you could have done this a number of way. A good description of your methods would be great and maybe even a few pictures to better show the processes

Poly Cement. Melts on contact and turns it all into a viscous goo. My guess is the two halves were introduced to each other after application, and carefully teased apart to form the threads you can see.

Interesting, I'll give you that. Executed nicely.

But i can't help but think the idea would be better suited to a book. Something like HP Lovecraft where the imagery is always vaguely hidden behind veils of horror. Sight unfortunately dispels that imagery and unknown.

Personally I think that miniatures are inherently a little more concrete, and that our hobby is a little bit less tolerant of the abstract.

Your army speaks more of laziness than cheapness to me. Although the formless blobs are nice, the execution is inherently simplistic, and the painting shows little technical skill. Your explanation of abstract art just seems like artistic snobbery to me.

Your qoute "If people dont get it i feel no obligation to provide an explanation - some people just wont. "

Leaves me with an ill taste in my mouth. Of course you will no doubt say that abstract art is not about skill or technique, but I would counter that Miniature Hobbying is about skill and technique.

I leave you with an image that I think shows the abstractness of Tzeentch, gives a slight taste of horror, and at the same time remains concrete.


By CMON user mazk7130

*Edit* its not a B&W photo

i would def fix up the bases, maybe even have a dead marine here and there, but i still am loving this.

only issue i might have is weapon layouts on things such as a soul grinder, if you can have some sort of way to have weapons on these blocks, not necessarily 40k weapons, but some sort of count as system that way i can see where the weapons are etc.

tylermenz wrote:I would counter that Miniature Hobbying is about skill and technique.

Says who?
Anyway, I would counter that OP has shown real skill and technique in this army.

It would be creepy as feth to be attacked by an army of abstract geometry. Too bad you can't make any non-euclidean shapes, eh?

I totally like the idea that a Tzeentch army would be a horde of formless blobs. It's very unsettling.

Obviously, there may be problems on the battlefield, mainly with your opponents not being able to keep track of which unit is which. Some particularly beardy players may even refuse to play against such an army (but on the other hand, the most extreme among those won't even play against overly-converted models).

Creatively, I feel like it might be "too" cubey. Like, maybe your greater daemon could be a pyramid (although, the blockomancer idea is really cool).

From past work one can tell that gwaahr is NOT lazy.

Some people will be down with it, some won't. I applaud this awesome army and concept.