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I really like the originality of your designs. These models look awesome. The Navigator suits are just stunning. Great job. Subbed!

Thanks everyone!

The base models for the henchmen are mostly mixes of Empire Hand-gunners and Flagellants, futured up with bits from the Death Company box. There are also assorted parts I got from the loose bits bin at a hobby store (tomb king shields, bretonian knight helms, old empire cannon crew i think).

The Navigator suits are built largely from Death Company jump-packs (cut up to make their chests, thighs, knees, and backs) and various Death Company and Sanguinary Guard pieces, as well as some Tau Stealth suit bits (mostly just their lower-shins and tabard armor).

And now for something new! I took some photos of my WIP Dreadknight conversion/stand-in, a Navigator Elder mounted in an arceotek Void-Runner Class Knight suit. It seems the new fluff for Imperial Knights is that they are combat modified versions of ancient work machines. Similarly, this Navigator’s suit is a retrofitted and rebuilt type of ancient scout exo-armor, perhaps built for open-void recovery and construction work.

I’ve always loved japanese robots and exo armor, and part of this project is my attempt to combine them with the grim-dark baroque excess of the Imperium.

I started this model a long time ago (before the Riptide and the fantastic Imperial Knight) and have worked on it very sporadically, but over the last few weeks I've finally locked down the pose and and hope to finish soon. The flight pack is very preliminary and only tacked in place. Next up I'll build some fingers or claws for the manipulator arm, and then add lots of additional detail. I’ve been hoarding decorative Imperial bits, and also want to add rivets to tie everything together, and lots of hoses and tubes (Katsuhiro Otomo style).

Let me know if you want any more construction details or crude WIP photos.

Whoa! And I thought the mini-mechs were cool!

That thing looks really amazing!

Fantastic work dude keep us updated!

Wow. Very creative use of different bits.
I find it fascinating to see how they melt together to one entity when the paint goes on.

Please give us more of this!

Love that exo knight!

SWEET JESUS ! I cant work out if you are clinically insane or a god dam genius

I only wish all Dreadknights looked like this then I would actually buy one

You're converting/scratch-building skills is just amazing, to take all the varying bits and use them in such a way is mind blowing.

On top of this the your paint scheme is none to shabby either, I like the way you use colour but still manage to keep a muted tone that in its self is a talent.

Subbed and amazed

Amazing stuff here

These are brilliant, very original... a perfect mix between the imperial look and a more exotic-type tech. A kind of Mezo-American Imperialis.

Keep it up!!

Thanks!

Hot off the presses, the start of a third Navigator Exosuit. I sat down intending to work on the Knight or finally start on my abhumans, but ended up with this.

I'm not sure about the horizontal angle of the helmet dome — it works well with the sarcophagus but may be too much of a departure from the other suits and Knight. I just might slice it off and remount it a slight angle. And I was fully intending to add a central eye-piece and fill in the visor-like gap beneath the shoulder pad with some ornamental plastic card work, but I have to admit the open visor is growing on me. Is it too much of a departure?

I'm also thinking of upping the nobility/ceremonial feeling by adding cloth of some sort on top of the armo; robes, furs, long priestly stoles. Maybe something like pteruges? I haven't had much luck sculpting cloth so far but this might be the time to figure it out. The old Vorlon ambassador from Babylon 5 comes to mind.

Oh, I like the new chap very much - very knightly. Perhaps though some cloth and scrollwork will bring him in line with overall aesthetic. My only concern, actually, is that he might start looking like a menoth warjack. Very cool, though.

I like it, maybe make him the leader of the squad?

Yeah, I like the open-slit visor. Very medieval-meets-Mad-Max, again. Sageheart's right, why not make this one the leader?

Yes, he does seem like the leader to me as well. In 40k these 3 could be fielded as a unit of Paladins, or as 3 separate Inquisitors in terminator armor, each surrounded by their own personal staff/henchmen.

I couldn't make up my mind about the visor-slit helmet vs optics helmet, so decided to cut off the shoulder-pad and mock-up a helmet that more closely matches the other two navigator suits. I'm happy with how it looks but it would be easy enough to back to the visor as well. What does Dakka say?

The parchment is tacked there to block out what a tabard would look there. I'm thinking of trying to sculpt a long tiger-pelt tabard there.

I am jealous of your skills! You're stuff is amazing and really helps me focus my efforts into improving my modelling and thinking outside the box. Good job!

As for the visor, I liked it but think that your second re-helmeted version fits nicely in with the other two without looking too similar! Keep it up! Subbed!

Both are good, but still digging the medieval helm vibe from the original version -- I think it makes him (her?) really distinctive while still fitting in with the others.

Very nice...I'm feeling the original open visor look....I'd say that each void-suit would be an indivudual build with variations.

Sweet theme Army, keep up the work !

Fantastic ideas very nicely executed. Becoming my favorite blog here.

Dang, these are some incredible conversions! I have no idea how you come up with the designs but keep at it. That dreadknight is beyond amazing!

this is so cool. Loving this log.

Thanks everyone! I'm going to go with the open visor. I'm liking the idea of having more variation in that type of detail which is actually making me rethink the eye-piece on the Dreadknight ...

I've been busy lately but managed to get photos of another group of conversions I did a while ago — Indentured Astartes.

Space marines turn rogue for many different reasons. Perhaps the rarest are the simple deserters — their psycho-conditioning never quite took, allowing them to turn their backs on their oaths. Some rogue astartes are the last survivors of their companies or even chapters, overcome with survivor’s guilt, convinced that the fact that they lived while their brothers died is a sign of cowardice. Others turn rouge as a result of the unpredictability of warp travel — single space marines are often requisitioned by the Inquisition or even powerful rogue traders, but after completing their service, are delayed by warp storms and find their chapter has been wiped out in the intervening centuries, or are simply unable to track down the chapter fleet ships in the vast galaxy.

A few rogue marines use their incredible abilities to set themselves up as petty tyrants, even ruling entire back-water planets. But space marines are psycho-conditioned and indoctrinated from childhood to do two things; kill, and follow orders, and are much more likely to end up as bodyguards and mercenaries. A space marine is powerful on his own, but needs artisans and technicians to repair and maintain his power armor, and adjust his biochemical implants. Although some Inquisitors may employ rogue space marines, most are highly suspicious of them, and would much sooner destroy them as heretics and traitors. The universe is a dangerous place for a single rogue space marine. So most rogue marines look for protection and employment from powerful forces that can protect them from Inquisitorial persecution while still giving them purpose and support.

Such is the nature of this small band of forgotten brethren, Indentured Astartes who have sworn their fealty to the Navigator Household **************. They do not reveal their origins or how they ended up alienated from their chapters, but whatever horrors they have put behind them, they now happily fight and kill for their new masters. In addition to protection they are handsomely rewarded with all manner of riches, and are given a much higher amount of personal freedom than any true Imperial Space Marine. And most importantly, they are equipped with customized suits of Terminator armor, fashioned by the household artisans from all manner of different armor pieces (relics, salvage, experimental prototypes alike) acquired over the centuries.

I always wanted to include a unit of rogue spare marines in this army, but wasn’t sure how to handle it. I love the baroque ornamentation and grim-dark medievaless of the current era of space marines, but also have fond memories of the more brutal Rogue Trader era marines. The types who were reprogrammed convicts, wrote KILL on their power gloves, and gathered in seedy cantinas. So I wanted to try to reference both ends of the marine spectrum. After seeing so many different ways of making incredible true-scale power armor, regular power armor marines didn’t seem like an option, but real true-scaling seemed daunting.

And then last Christmas my brother gave me a squad of the Deathwing terminators from Dark Vengeance, and I knew what to do. I’ve never really liked terminator armor — I just can’t get over the crazy proportions, with the shoulders higher than the head. The new grey knights are a bit better, but still have incredibly widely spaced legs. Instead of making true-scale power armor from my terminator parts, I decided to make these reproportioned Terminators. They are sort of halfway between true scale power armor and true terminator armor, so I suppose they could be fielded as either power armor grey knights or terminator ones, who luckily have the same equipment.

These aren’t quite done — I still need to use some greenstuff to sculpt necks and position the heads, and do a little cleanup. It may not make for the best results, but sometimes I like converting without using greenstuff — it’s much easier to start and stop without worrying about wasting putty. I also remember an ancient WD article that showcased John Blanche’s amazing chaos space marine conversions (one of the first times they showed his personal gaming conversions I think). He explained that he preferred to fill gaps with bits than with putty, and I’ve taken that attitude to heart. Why sculpt a seamless transition when you can disguise it with a skull or a scroll? Although I think Blanch in that period also filled gaps with sculpted fur patches, which always looks so cool ...

I like both models and background. If entire Chapters can turn to Chaos, why can't individual Marines go AWOL and end up as mercs?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

weirdingway wrote:
Since then I've come up with a more interesting idea for death cultists — Abhuman Murder Cultists, who believe that their mutations are signs of sin, that can only be redeemed by killing in the name of the Emperor. So this cultist will probably end up as the base-line human overseer of a band of varied abhumans.....

We have rules for these now. I wrote up some Penitent Abhumans of various types, along with a bunch of Frateris Militia stuff; special rules include "Assisted Martyrdom," which means the rest of your army disdains you enough to shoot through your body if you're in the way...... Comments welcome.

I've been working a lot on my scratch-built dropship, but it's slow going and not ready to show yet. Soon, I hope!

In the meantime, after creating the newest Navigator Exo-Suit with the open visor helm, I've been thinking I may have been over dogmatically applying the single central eye motif. I want everything to fit together but don't want to overdo the system. So I've been thinking about giving the dreadknight a new helmet/optics design that can sit along side both the cyclops and the visor style exo-suits.

I had been doing some crude photoshop mockups of possible color schemes, so I used one of those and put together these rough alternate optics. I like how these are a bit more sinister than the previous single eye. The triangle is nicely symbolic of the navigator's third eye, the multiple eye one reminds me of an old diving suit, and there's just something appealing about the vertical line arrangements too. What do you guys think?

The three vertical in the lower half, and the multiple versions both do it for me....

'Pilot, your titan is ready'

scheme and model remind me of titan fall, thats not a bad thing though, it looks awesome.

I actually like the triangle one, though it does look a bit nurgle, maybe make the top most one bigger, or change its shape to a star or something?

I was going to say the exact same thing about the Titanfall reference, Sheep!

I like how you seems to have quite the varied colour palette, but it all ties together because of how muted and soft the highlights and shading are. That's sublime.

My favourite henchman is the elderly bearded gentlemen with one striped sleeve and the other armoured up. :

Thanks! I actually built most of the Knight last summer before I had ever seen any Titanfall designs. But I will take it as a compliment because I love what I've seen of Titanfall. I don't have a video game system but I was so blown away by the promo videos that I was very tempted to buy one just to play it!

Great blog mate , i love the navigators / legio cybernetica theme , the triangle eyes is my fave of your test batch .

gotta sya the exo suits reminded me of titan fall a little bit - no bad thing mind ! i like the classic sci fi aspect of early robots in the imperium.

Why have I not seen this thread before?!!? Truly inspirational stuff here, thank you for sharing, subbed and exalted.