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With my true scale project on hold I need something to bide my time and get rid of all the extra time I have on my hands, but I'm split and can't decide which direction I want to go in.

Dark Mechanicus:

If I go this direction I want to use some of the Iron Brotherhood range, converting some into Obliterators and other cool things. For troops I was going to be using Dark Angel Veteran robed bodies+tetacles and stuff however I can't decide whether I want them to be "clean" or have LOTS of tentacles and stuff showing that they turned when Horus did. I'm just not quite sure how Chaos Backpacks+chaos arms,regular SM heads, shoulder pads and bodies would look together and on top of that if I went the "clean route" how a Defiler would work itself in. I just want to create fluidity throughout the army and keep a major theme going throughout, and was considering making them more fanatical and "religious" based in the machine god because CSM arms with robed bodies would look I think almost crusade like. On top of this, I'd be taking the Iron Brotherhood "spider" chimeras to keep the walker theme going with my Defiler.

Regular:

If I went down this path I'd be using the GK rules, and probably not Dark Angels robed bodies and instead use the Pig Iron Studios head bits to give it a more "unique" feel. I would be using normal rhinos and stuff, however I don't really want an all "count-as" army and I'd be using the GK codex so I'd have to find ways of making all of the weapons so they didn't look like psychic/daemon fighting weapons.




These are two mock paint schemes I came up with pretty quickly, let me know what you guys think. Currently I'm leaning towards Dark Mechanicus, but I just can't get my head around how to model them so there's a consistency in the army. Please feel free to vote and any ideas/suggestions are very appreciated.

I suggest mocking up one of each & then putting it up for a vote... or not depending on how you like your own results!

Did a second mock-up of what I'm sort of going for with the Chaos Machine-Cult. Like they're zealous worshippers. I like both color schemes, however I don't know how it would be to integrate chaos bits with normal marines. I've done it once before and didn't really like the results, so it's still up for the vote. Any tips/suggestions or ideas are very much appreciated!

I like the dark mechanicus. My only concern is that often robed marines... cool as they should be... rarely translate well onto the tabletop. I don't know why. I don't understand it myself... but I am usually underwhelmed by the robed marines I see.

Your pic looks sweet though...

You thinking like a cog with an 8-pointed star within it for the symbol?

Something like that, and I know what you're saying. The only robed marines I've seen done really well are Word Bearer's and that's because you can cover EVERYTHING with religious script and it looks good. I'm not really sure if I want to go with robed bodies yet, but they seem appealing as I've never done them. My main concern really is finding that balance to where every model's an individual yet you can tell they all belong together, mainly if I should keep everything SM and not introduce chaos bits, but have there be mutations and stuff?. I've tried mixing SM/CSM parts once in a biker army and although the idea was cool it just came out wonky. I had an idea of making the champion of each sort of represent the chaos god it was supposed to be played as. (Could cut the bunny ears off a berserker head and give that squad all chain axes and say they're berserkers while keeping with the theme). And I think that's pretty cool, but I can't seem to get my head around making them with robed bodies and heavily introducing chaos into the force.. just doesn't seem to work.

Well, you could do the robes, or perhaps parts of the robes, in mathematical or mechanical symbols... Perhaps make each robe with a thick white border at the base with symbols going around, each set different for each trooper, or with different color text, etc. It'll be a tricky bit to balance everything out. Adding chaos mutations can easily overwhelm a figure. Perhaps if you kept it subtle... tendrils leading into mechanical / bionic limbs for example. It would seem to me that excessive mutation would be antithetical to the mechanicus mind set, but I guess there isn't a big leap from a bunch of mechanicus "alterations" and a chaos mutation... Might be fun to experiment with anyway.

That's what I was thinking of doing, is a sort of in-between army, those subtle armies if done right are definitely the best, they're just hard to make come out right. And I do like your idea of the mathematical symbols. I was thinking of something like this:




Sort of stealing the Skitarii color scheme, but with black instead of red robes? I think it could turn out quite good with subtle mutations and such throughout the force, worshipping a false machine god that's really Slaanesh or something so I could also integrate that into the cogs. (Pun intended, however poor it may be)

I like it Marzooky.... I think you're on to something good here.

Stumbled upon those.. not sure if they would suit better than the fully robed bodies. My original idea was to use robed/partially robed figures, replacing the DA chest plates with the Mechanicus ones from LRs, however with these I could emulate and do some GSing of cogs and stuff on the chest plates I have already.




Also going to use these guys as rhinos.. should fit right in with the Defiler and creep crawly goodness.

Ideas about the legs would be helpful, could be used to great effect if done right I think.

Love the counts as rhino. The legs give a great mechanicum feel to the mobile part of your army.

Likes the counts as Rhino, where did you find it.

http://www.microartstudio.com/

Under the "Shop" section.

Edit: Reviewed the legs compared to the DA legs and still not sure what to use.

Pros of DA legs/chest combo:

-Easy conversions/sculpts
-Fully robed may be more fluffy

Cons of DA legs/chest combo:

-Everyone looks the same
-Everyone recognizes the DA robed marines

Probably over-thinking it, but hell is in the details.

Not sure which way to tell you.... like those robed legs though... and they would be different.

I think robed legs it is.. cheaper too because I already have chest pieces. Now I just need to find suitable heads for them, that fit the chaos-y feel.



I've seen GMM studios use these quite well.

Or, I could cut the bunny ears off of Khorne helmets:

How are you at greenstuffing? You might try GSing some hoods on the marines so it looks like the robes continue as an undergarment below the chest plate.

I'm alright, not the best by far. I've never tried sculpting hoods, I could attempt it though at least on a few models.

Might be worth a shot. I really like your concept though. Could be a real show-piece when you're finished.

I think I'm going with the bunny helmets:



And those legs from MAS, I think together they will make a cool "machine zealot" look. (obviously I'm shaving off the ears) And maybe some free sculpting of robes would be appropriate.

LOL! bunny helmets...

Sounds good, looking forward to watching your progress!

Thanks for your help Gits, currently trying my hand at a sculpting robes/hoods. I'll post up pics later

Can't wait!!

:-)

You might try sculpting a hood down too (i.e. not on the head). Just for grins... but it might be a little easier "sell" than one sculpted over the helmet.