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Hawky wrote:Your paint scheme reminds me of the Cerberus troops from Mass Effect. Did you draw your inspiration from there?

Actually no, never played Mass Effect. I didn't really have an inspiration, at first I wanted them dark, nearly black with orange, but as I suck at highlighting it felt easier to go with a lighter scheme with washes.

NotVaughan wrote:More a size comparison, but Ill never say no to a battle scene!

Nearly forgot to post the pictures, first a size comparison:



Only got old Minimarines, but this should do. Size of the Spectres/Van Saar is close to (old) Marines, some are even taller. Just got hands on a Delaque Sprue and these guys are even taller, probably close to Primaris Marines. 20 years ago I wanted to start a White Scars army.. never got past 10 Marines painted. But then I wanted to start Deathguard (ages before they became newer Miniatures).. never got past 7 Plaguemarines.

Oh and the promised "fightscene" :


Don't have a lot more old painted Stuff.. sold most of it.

And finally at least a small update, not much painted but working on it (as you might be able to see in the background):


Company Commander got a different head, I felt the "come-at-me" pose didn't work with the bare head and he looked a bit too ragged, so I went for the same masked head as for the Platoon Commander. Best painted mini in this army so far (okay, there are only 25 painted minis, but hey, still the best one at the moment)


Another Company/Platoon Commander, just liked the pose, the Banner won't have any effect in game And a bionic leg, made from some AdMech arm, helped a bit to repose the female VS.


A greyish Preview on the Heavy Weapons, went for 1 Soldier and the walking gun, with the soldiers bearing Auspexes/Remotes


Two slightly kitbashed Primaris Psykers, and their size is as mentioned really "Primaris"... Staffs are made from everything that was laying around, VS heads and Anvil Shoulderpads, plus a few bits here and there. You can't really see it in the picture but the right one is holding a "flame"/psypower in his hand, ready to throw it at the enemy. I'll try to make better pictures another time, maybe even painted. Just have to decide if I go with the general grey scheme or if I do these a bit more colourful. Suggestions are welcome!

Aaand last but not least:



Another crawler is crawling from the workstation :-) Didn't have any leftover Heavy flamers, so I used one of the HWS Heavy Bolters.


Still trying to think about the upcoming Russes.. theme is "leave no model unconverted". But maybe I should finish painting this stuff first..

Really enjoying your kitbashing rampage through the Imperium, lots of great stuff coming down the pike Thinking you'll do the Russes spidery as well? Grav-tanks maybe? Or stick with tracks?

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Really enjoying your kitbashing rampage through the Imperium, lots of great stuff coming down the pike Thinking you'll do the Russes spidery as well? Grav-tanks maybe? Or stick with tracks?

Thanks, well I would prefer the standard Russ but somehow modify it to fit the aesthetics. Maybe it's just adding some plastic card at the right parts. Spidery would work, but I have no idea how to fit the aesthetics and keep it different enough from the Hellhound/Anansi. Grav seems too advanced, Crawling Tanks aren't that far from Sentinels, Automated Guns are also existing for the Guard..But Grav was lost somewhere between Rogue Trader and Second Edition

I find using the Chimera chassis gives a better, more contemporary vibe.



Alternatively if you can wait a bit, then there is the Dreamforge flugstug kickstarting that you could add a turret to, although you did say no grav tanks.

These guys are also close to.delivering their 28mm modern styled sci fi battle tank, at which point I imagine it will.go.to.retail.

https://ns-games.com/product/uef-bulldog-main-battle-tank-28mm/

First of all, apologies for still being too stupidlazy to use a proper photobox or something similar, I really have to think about something

Nearly another month has passed, still no time to do think about the Russes (but many thanks for all advice here!). I guess I will end using standard Russes and try to personalize them a bit – got a few spare bits from Dunecrawlers and Armigers that might come in handy

A few crappy picture updates:


First of all, the second Company Commander painted. This Banner was hell to paint (especially the other side – got no pictures of it because I have to clean up some mess and add some Script) but she looks great. A bit wobbly because the Banner is too heavy but I tried to balance her with some fishing lead under the base and hidden in the rock she stands on.


Two Primaris Psykers (you can also see how tall these are.. as Mr-Stand-On-A-Box in the background is one of the tallest Van Saar Gangers (see also below on the full army shot)


Upcoming Platoon Commander 2


Heavy Weapon "Teams" – will do the same for Autocannons and Heavy Bolters while Missile Launcher can use the Tripod and Mortar .. well will be the Mortar. So easy to use the full potential of the Heavy Weapon Box


New and old Crawler, it will be fun to have a full Squad of these :-)


Full army so far – at least now I need a better camera and better light.. argh


And in the making: A command Squad. With Sniper Rifles. I got back to the initial idea of using one converted Guardsman as Vindicare, but while the Cloak looked quite good, it was too thick. He became way too bulky and I couldn't get the head fit properly, it was always off proportion. So I went for a conversion without cloak and now he felt too close to the rest of the Spectres. I ended up converting 3 more Guardsmen, used Anvil Sniper rifles and will run them as "Command squad". I don't care how useful they may be, using models I like is always more important to me than the "perfect competitive list"

Well, will update sometime in the future, probably with tanks. I need tanks, and maybe I'll start a small second force (probably Alpha Legion) just to have something different to paint and convert and explore some completely different paintig techniques..

Looking amazing. The walkers in particular.

If you need a super heavy in the future, then Mortian might have something useful for you

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/773550.page

Looking great!

Don't worry about a photobox, when you're just trying to document your progress.

--Brian

 Flinty wrote:
Looking amazing. The walkers in particular.

If you need a super heavy in the future, then Mortian might have something useful for you

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/773550.page

Indeed.. the Crab Tank looks amazing and would fit perfectly with minor conversion (I don't like these ornaments.. ) Let's see when it goes into sale and how much it will be. I would just be a little afraid of painting such a tank.. without airbrush it might take months to achieve clean surfaces

The army is looking really good!

I have my gripes about the new Necromunda figures but they look fantastic!

Those crawlers are still so good <3

Army is progressing nicely, sweet to see new Necro plastics in force. Great use of Delaques as weirdly tall psycker freaks

Such a great looking army, very techy looking guard! The Van Saar really fit nicely and your scheme gives a really nice aesthetic to them.

On the photo box, I personally haven’t bothered. A nice sheet of A3 paper curved up behind them makes them stand out better than on a cluttered table. It also helps block out any light coming from behind the model. I also move my painting light so it’s just above and behind my phone. Using my phone, I often find it takes hazy pics, a quick wipe of the lens with a t-shirt soon clears that up. I’m no David Bailey, but thought I’d share what I’ve found works for me.

I hope the crawler tank comes within your budget, it’d look aces in your grey/orange!

Fantastic!

Scale wise they may have been off 15 years ago but they fit into the current 40k scale really well.

Im a massive fan of the spider tanks too.

Also, I may have missed it but what parts did you use for the company commander?

 NotVaughan wrote:
Fantastic!

Scale wise they may have been off 15 years ago but they fit into the current 40k scale really well.

Im a massive fan of the spider tanks too.

Also, I may have missed it but what parts did you use for the company commander?

Which one? Hope I remember correctly, I just smashed everything together and sometimes change the parts in the process:

Male:
- Puppetswar Head
- Van Saar Torso, legs and upper arms
- Commissar Coat + crappy Green Stuff "sculpting"
- Sword + Gloves from the Scions Set
- Some Space Marine Bolter
- Anvil Industries Shoulder pads and scope

Lady:
- Statuesque Miniatures head (although the heads are nice, they look a little bit too young and beautiful compared to most other manufacturers)
- Van Saar body + legs
- Scions Power Fist + Banner
- Anvil Shoulder Pads
- I think the bionic leg is some Mechanicus arm, but I don't know which set.
- Space Marine holstered Pistol, can count as Plasma, LAser or Boltpistol

I really like these, good job!

I'm still alive and the project as well – just a lot of life happening at the moment. Vacation, busy busy business and some lack of motivation to paint. Initially I wanted to do a big update, but as the Spectres aren't progressing as "fast" as planned I'll settle with a medium update

Proceeded on the core, lots of infantry and experimented a bit with the Leman Russ Kit but ended up with keeping it mostly standard. It would be cool to have chunkier or larger Crawlers for Russes but I could only see two options that could have worked for me:
a) Using Defiler Legs with maybe a Knight Torso (so basically an upscaled version) but I don't know the sizes of both, might not work as well as I am thinking. The downside on this: Way to expensive, even if I'd just field 2-3 Russes it would probably cost more than a small army
b) Finding a 3rd party kit that fits sizewise and aesthetically – I didn't
So I went for Option c) And used the standard Russ, I just added a few bits and pieces to individualize it slightly. No good pictures yet, but will follow sometime .. this year I hope.

But I painted my Sniper Team, did a slightly better picture of the Psyker and my attempt of a light glow, added some Grunts (Group shot) and 1 Commander (Command Staff shot), I had some fun with Anvil Industry Hands (I was also thinking about a Tank Commander with 2 Heavy Metal Hands \„/ but this might be too orky):

All Stand-On-The-Box Van Saar so far, quite happy that they don't look too similar as I feel it is the most difficult VS pose for a larger army:


Group:


Command Staff:


Psyker:


Snipers:


Guardsman Ozwald, hoping the Commissar in Front of him won't turn around:



And as painting grey becomes a bit dull over time.. I started a very small side project. Because I'm already slow and thought about ways of slowing me down even more

I have all the tanks from this company, I'd be happy to take some side-by-sides for you with Chimeras and Russes. They may fit the bill for you!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geeksaw/empire-of-men-28mm-sci-fi-miniatures-collection/description

--Brian

 Briancj wrote:
I have all the tanks from this company, I'd be happy to take some side-by-sides for you with Chimeras and Russes. They may fit the bill for you!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geeksaw/empire-of-men-28mm-sci-fi-miniatures-collection/description

--Brian

Thanks, project and minis look quite nice, but: To me they don't feel more fitting than the Standard Russ. Tank looks just slightly better than a Russ and the Crawler seems to have been inspired by mammals, rather than spiders or insects (which would be what I'd prefer). In short: I'm just too specific and narrow minded with what I want

Oh, I'm totally understanding! I just figured I'd show them, JUST IN CASE, yanno?

--Brian

I might have found something.. anyone here got experience with Dust Tactics and especially their primed Tanks? The Königslothar/Königsluther seems promising..

Good models, easy to paint, okay to hack and modify, Good stuff, sliiiightly larger in scale than GW but I think for your purposes would be awesome.

Love the armigers, and everything else.

 rocksville wrote:
So, I'm working on many things.. one of them is Heavy Weapon Teams. Would you guys say this counts as Heavy Weapon Team or would you add another Soldier? I was thinking about an additional operator, but on the other hand I feel like a) I like the idea of an autonomous walking heavy weapon and b) it feels like 2 soldiers + walking gun would be too much.. I can't decide :-)

Where did you get those little legs for, on the Heavy Weapon Team? They look good.

Great conversions and painting with lots of originality. I love an army with a story and theme and it’s own feel. Very well done.

-Rids

 ph34r wrote:
Where did you get those little legs for, on the Heavy Weapon Team? They look good.

Puppetswar Cyber Infantry Legs

Still trying to find the Dust stuff somewhere.. apparently what I want is either sold out everywhere or totally overpriced ... and as they seem to move their factory it'll probably take some time until new models will be produced.. argh my typical bad luck

And I won't forget this thread.. although the process stays slow: Small update, "Russ" in the making Still a long way to go and currently hunting for some parts, but the main base is done. Need to find Sponsons (will probably use something from Puppetswar) and some bits and pieces, gap filling, refining etc. I'm quite happy with the outcome so far, as it's my first real vehicle conversion – I wouldn't count the smaller walkers because they were mostly just putting armiger torsos on onager legs, no real skill needed for that.

And I've got the parts for a second one, so as soon as I've figured out everything, I'll hopefully be able to replicate the process. Legs and Body from Dust 1947 and an Armiger Shell I cut in half for the top – helps a lot to keep a "family look" with the Hellhounds, although this guy is a lot bigger. Battle Cannon is coming from Kromlech, I'll experiment in changing the barrel to something closer to the real Battle Cannon, but maybe I just keep it. It is already so far away from a Leman Russ, that I probably don't have to care anymore as long as it looks like a big cannon.. and as I'll magnetize all weapons, I can always come back to it and build/add something else

That looks amazing. Are those sponsors starting to take shape?

A long time since I posted my last update, the army is progressing and there are quite a few things on the working table: a second Russ, a Valkyre, Basilisks, Scions/Stormtroopers, Bullgryns .. none of them official models, somehow I decided to go all in with a fully converted army. Lots of Tech heresy It's just so much more fun than doing everything by the book and following the assembling instructions.
Because of busy life and everything, the next update will probably take another couple of months, but for anyone still interested, here are some more recent pieces:

First of all the Big Boi, really proud of him, although at closer inspection the conversion is a little bit orky at some points.. but who cares? Everything is magnetized, including the tank commander, sponson weapons, stubber, main gun, the hatch can be closed (just a little piece of wire to function as hinge) and the second one is built but just halfway painted. Will convert some additional main guns (demolisher, annihilator, the plasmathing I always forget its name) and sponson weapons (Hbolters, flamers, multimeltas maybe? not sure yet what's really useful)



The extended command staff with new Company Commander, I love his head (Anvil Industry):



Priest and Psykers (2 more priests and 1 more psyker on the painting table.. you know, rule of 3. Even if nobody ever needs that many, but converting them was too much fun)



Another shot of all snipers, some of them in urgent need of touch up (didn't realize the camouflage was that bad before, I need better light @ my painting table)



And 90% of the painted stuff (because old picture):

Brilliant walker-tank, thanks for popping in to show the finished piece Love the teched af troopers combined with the brutal priest and weirdo tall psykers, awesome contrast. Will look forward to the next batch of heresy

Cool custom guard army. I really like the walker tanks.

firstly great army. it's nuts. i love it. and a avenue of inspiration for me with my own project. expect me to "loot" your ideas...because they are (cool)

secondly i am doing similar with a IG/AM force. only more official bits and no second/third party bits. here are my "sentinels" or rather sentinel, as i only took picture of the one.



if you don't want current regular sentinels, then this kitbash is relatively cheap: a kanz box, and a sentinel as well as servohauler kit will make one of these. or more if you kitbash the kanz in a way that makes sense for your force. for my own army i don't mind a bit of the rustic look ork kits/technology has. but probably will jar with your own force. in which case the kanz aren't required (i just wanted a ccw that's not a chainsaw) as the drill arm isn't really essential to the build. it stands roughly as tall as a sentinel while it's in crouching pose. bit wider due to legs.

also another idea instead of those spider legs on the hwt's, is to use necron wraith "legs" as they are similar in size/scale, and you get more of them per kit, so more bang for your buck. bonus points for necron bits is extra tech-y stuff.

i'll be checking back on this post in the future, and eagerly await more of your miniatures pictures.