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Thanks guys! Plastic spoons are very useful! I used one of them to make the curved cockpit area of my Storm-raven stand-in. But I'm afraid I'm setting aside the land crawler for now.

I signed up for Adepticon! I haven't played WH40k in many years and editions, but would love to see the household in action, and thought it could be fun. I'm not ready for the competitive scene so signed up for the 40k friendly. This means that now I need to put together a 1,500 pt army by March. I was surprised to find out that if I were to finish everything i've already started I'd have easily over 2,000pts, and it will actually be hard to fit all of my favorite models into a single army. So now I need to focus on finishing things ...

First off, I've turned my attention to the Indentured Astartes. If I want to include my dread knight stand-in (which I most certainly do), I need some Grey Knight stand-ins (thanks to the splitting of Inquisition and GK codices after I started this project), so I'm happy I was already mostly done with these guys. I've switched out a few heads and gone over them with green stuff and a final pass of rivets and extra details. And while I was at it I threw in a fancy servo-skull, encased in a multi-sensor dome.






Next up I will probably work on finishing the Navigator in the Dreadknight suit. The big question is if I bring the Land Crawler or the Drop Ship. I won't have points for both and am leaning towards the dropship — it has lots of problems but I've already spent so much time on it and I think it may make more of an impact, and fit the theme of the army better (space-bound and all), even if the land-crawler may be a better fit aesthetically. Also the dropship would be a bit cheaper and allow me to include more henchmen and fun things. In any case I think it will be satisfying to finish, paint, and base more models, and having Adpeticon as a goal will help me stay on track and not get so distracted.

Thanks. "Space jesus" is my favorite as well. His head is from the empire archer set and is really well sculpted. I'm also pretty sure Grag used the same head on his amazing Pontifex, but without the cap.

I can't stop making servo-skull things! I threw together another globe-based drone last night, and I'm very happy with it (shown here with a Beacon priest because I like how this sphere motif is working out).




It wasn't until this morning that I realized I inadvertently created a grimdark version of the new adorable soccer ball droid form the Star Wars trailer.

I've been busy with work but finally have an update.

First off, I've added hair to one of female henchmen. It was pretty fiddly but I'm happy with the result. Now as soon as I scrub the olive oil off of the greenstuff I can prime the terminators, beacon priest, 2 servo-baubles, and the 2 henchwomen.



But I've mostly been working on the Navigator in the Void Knight suit. I finally decided on an optics set up and built that as well as adding lots of details everywhere. I've also turned the cannon into a regular gun instead of a flamer — that was mostly a concession to game-play, and now that pyscannons are worth using, I'm back to my original conception of the gun. Some type of energy cannon seems much more suited for void-combat than a giant flamer anyway. Anyway, I'm almost done! Next up I will add some chunky fingers on the manipulator arm, extra gubbins on the cannon (including a big power cable), random details, lots of rivets, and I think a magnetized shoulder cannon on the manipulator arm side. I would also build a sensor-pod type thing that can replace the shoulder gun on the magnet mount when I only want one gun.

Thanks! Yes, that's a giant power-bayonet.

Thanks so much! Sheep; the gaps in the toes are intentional gaps on the original stealth suit models so I had been planning on leaving them there, but I went ahead and filled them in and they do look much better now.

I was out of town visiting family for the holidays so haven't had much time for models, and work deadlines will keep progress slow over the next few weeks, but I have managed to prime a bunch of models (and bases), so I plan to start painting very soon.

In the meantime, it's always nice to see complicated conversions brought together by primer:




Now to work out some color schemes! I have no idea how to paint the Terminators. Mustardy ochre like the armor on some of my henchmen? Rich turquoise with silver edge chipping? Orange? Plum? Flat medium grey with lots of weathering, or maybe a dirty chipped white? Too many options ...

The household musters:



It's very exciting seeing all the infantry together. I'll probably try to build another Beacon Priest (Nurgle Lord or Blightking based) to lead the close combat squad, and finish a second psyker, but this should be enough for my Adepticon army (along with the vehicles of course). I also forgot to include the partially painted 2nd Exo-suit Navigator in this tableau, and he will need a base as well.

The first set of bases I painted went through so many different colors and stages of dry brushing and washing that I've never quite been able to match them, but this newest set is pretty close. I think when I'm done I'll go back over all the bases with some dusty pigments to tie them together.

Happy new year everyone!

Thanks! A group of models this size is such a long-term project, it's a fun challenge to make a cohesive whole that still has a lot of variety, and seeing them lined up together really helps.

I've the started painting the metallics, black weapon casings, and the beginnings of skin tones:



Along with the painted bases this should give me a better canvas to figure out color schemes.

And here are some rough photoshop mockups, trying to figure out a color scheme for the terminators. I want them to fit in with the rest of the army but still have a bit of their own feel, and so will paint them pretty uniformly I think. Any of these look promising? They look quite garish all together but try to look past that (and imagine weathering and staining bringing everything together of course)!

Thanks everybody! Very helpful. There is no clear consensus (both here and at the ammobunker) but now I'm thinking of painting each marine with unique heraldry. The idea is that they are renegade individuals who have turned their back on their chapters, so that would make sense. I may try painting each marine with different combinations of 3 colors; greenish grey, burnt orange, and white. Some could be all one color with the other two used as accents, some more evenly divided, etc, while hopefully making sense as a group. And of course all surfaces will be suitably grimy, chipped, and dingy, with metal showing through.

Here is an early shot of Beacon Priest Gagarin. The Hasegawa Gold chrome foil was tricky to use. It took me four attempts before I got a nice smooth finish, and I had to stretch it so hard I popped the helmet off the model's body! But that was easy enough to repair.



Not bad, right? Maybe that's an impressive NMM chrome effect? Esper, enhance:


(portrait of the artist behind an iPhone with twin desk lights and paint pot)

The chrome finish really does look like a polarized spacesuit visor. It's shockingly bright and reflective in real life, and I worry a little that it doesn't fit with the simulated highlights and shadows on the rest of the miniatures, not to mention the metallic pigments. Kind of like cheating. But I think I'll keep at it and see if I can get used to it. One option is staining the foil with some ink to tone it down and tie it into the painted miniature. Maybe just a subtle hit of brown ink at the edges would do the trick.

And the grayish robe is only the start. I'll probably make it darker with blue and/or brown washes.

@Malika2: Hasegawa Gold Mirror Finish
http://www.hlj.com/product/hsgtf5/Sup

Thanks guys!

I've busy with visiting family and freelance jobs but have found some time for quick painting sessions. Forgive the rushed and poor quality photos (I'm really looking forward to Iron Sleet's promised photo tutorial!).

The golden dome is much more at home with a dark and grimy robe and white helmet:



Since taking this photo I've reattached the hose running out of the side of the helmet which should allow for a nice color accent.

And I've made a lot of progress on the marines:



I will probably add more markers and heraldic type symbols (including some in black) but I'm happy that the paint accents feel kind of like aaron beck / neil blomkamp style sci-fi in contrast to the baroque details on the models. I'm also planning on lots of weathering, and plan to do dark grayish sponge chipping in addition to my standard silver edge chipping, and of course rusty inky buildup too.

Thanks!

Gogsnik, you're right; it's so nice that gold can be both antiquated and in this case suitably hi-tech.

Epartalis: The army just counts as Inquisition with Grey Knight allies. I started the project when they were in a single codex, but luckily if I run one of the Exo Suit Navigators as a GK Librarian instead of an Inquisitor, everything works out fine.

More painting updates. First off, the Beaconite has gotten many passes of thinned washes, and is now sporting a darker, even grimier robe (good suggestion PDH). I will probably make the tube striped like the ones on many of my other models, but that may spoil the simplicity so we'll see. And you'll notice I've also started on the female henchmen. It's been a struggle working out their color schemes but I'm getting close and can now start being more definitive.




And then the marines! I weathered them (probably too heavily) and was pretty sad at first. But after working on their faces and defining more details I'm actually really happy with them, and think they're going to work out nicely.

I've been wanting to add symbolic markings to their armor, and thought of a new technique that I haven't seen used on miniatures before (perhaps for good reason) and figured it would be a fun experiemnt. As a graphic design student I started collecting letraset dry transfer letters and have a big stash of them that I used to use on collages and art projects but that I haven't touched in a while. They sit on a clear backing and are applied by burnishing, which transfers the pigment to the surface without any surrounding medium (like a regular miniatures transfer). So I cut out a bunch of promising symbols and letters, including some from my precious gold and white sheets (black is much more common):



Unfortunately they proved extremely difficult to apply to curved surfaces. I also think a few of the sheets had failed (most of these are probably 30-40 years old) which was frustrating. But I managed to get a couple of fun details on the armor (mostly arrows) and I think they'll blend in nicely once toned down with some matte medium and color glazes. And this technique would probably be much more useful on vehicles.




Almost there! After I finish painting these the responsible thing to do would be to finish a vehicle or robot, but I'm so happy with the way the chromed Beacon Priest is turning out I might have to build another one first ...

Thanks guys. I've been mixing colors pretty haphazardly throughout the whole project, and building things up with lots of layers of washes and glazes, so it's difficult to keep thing consistent so it's nice to hear they still look coherent.

Meph, Letraset letters are also commonly called Chartpak letters or rub-on letters and were the cheap alternative to photoset type back in the day. Long-standing art supply shops tend to have stacks of them hidden away in back corners available for low prices, but they are a dwindling resource so are probably harder to find these days. I haven't heard about printable dry transfer sheets but it looks like they exist, although are very expensive:

http://www.pulsarprofx.com/decalpro/Vertical/3_LIBRARY/3d_Other_Decal_Types/Types_of_Decals.html

I know there are ways you can print your own water slide transfers, right? It would be very fun to draw up custom symbols in illustrator and print them out, not to mention custom fonts (drawing typefaces is my other hobby) ...

Thanks everyone!

I've been very busy with real life and haven't had time to take photos until last night, but I did manage to squeeze in a few late night painting sessions, adding little touches to many different models. But a few of them are now more-or-less done, barring base cleanup and possible little tweaks when I have more time.

First off, Condottiere Jean Tsaul Giotto and the Forgotten Brethren, Indentured Astartes in service of Household Merz-Itano (names as always are subject to change):




I've always struggled with painting eyes but had some luck with Giotto; instead of painting a white eye, then adding a pupil, I instead just darkened the entire eye sockets with ink, and added two tiny dots of white on either side of an unpainted pupil. This worked much better for me.

And I've also finished Lt. Brahe and the female plasma gunner:



While painting her I realized she reminded me of my favorite rifleman (the old man), so I gave her a similar striped sleeve and color scheme (and red sleeves, thanks KrautScientist!), and now I think that they are father and daughter (with their family long in service to the household), making a second set of parent-child pairs in my warband:



(I'm better at freehand now so painted narrower chevrons but maybe the wider stripes were less busy? I'm still trying to figure out how to paint the Crusaderess' shield in a way that will look good next to the Head Novator/)

And High Beacon Priest Gagarin and the Failed Challenger are also now done:




The Failed Challenger's Aetheric Wave Condenser is now gilded with the japanese foil (this time dulled with ink) and I've added lots of gross and sad injuries to his flesh: not only are his void-chamber ports leaking all manner of fluids, but the battle-program that governs his servitorized brain gives little care to protecting his body from harm, hence the scraped knees.

And in the spirit of Iron Sleet's Invitationa (http://ironsleet.com/2015/02/01/iron-sleet-invitational-all-your-bases-are-belong-to-us/), I present a trinity on three base sizes; the navigator, the idiot, and the priest:

Thanks!

hjkfuiper: there's a pics of most of the army (in a less painted state) on the previous page. But when I get time and finish a few more models I'll definitely get some group shouts of the various units; Novator w/ his personal guard, one Navigator with close combat henchmen, and one Navigator with shooting henchmen. Stay tuned!

SisteSydney: Obviously a lot of narrative ideas come up during converting, but there is something about painting that leads me to come up more with narrative details. It sounds cheesy but I guess it's when you really bring the models to life so it kind of makes sense.

I'm unhappy with how the color scheme on the Crusaderess has been developing and keep repainting her so I've set her aside for now and started painting my second Navigator wearing a void-proof exosuit. I built this one ages ago and have been putting off deciding on a color scheme, but in the end decided to have some fun and went full on orange.

Not done yet (lots of details, cleanup, and chipping and weathering to go) but I'm happy so far. I present:

Cousin Otam and Cousin Giraud, Navigators of House Merz-Itano


Navis Aethertwister Otam Junet Merz-Itano and her retainers: House Magister Mr. Gilyam, House Guardians Rauthus and son, five Cultists of the Holy Countenance, and chem-mendicant N7RH-530

Thanks guys!

Halone; that hovertank is great. That same guy (Luca Zamparolli / Kallamity) builds some amazing mecha, and his stuff was part of what inspired me do my own scratchbuilding: http://www.kallamity.com

The army is getting there! I plan to paint like a madman all weekend and hope that will be enough to get things mostly finished.

I've been spending many late nights over the past week adding final details to the grav-craft, dropship, and void-knight. I can't believe how much work it takes to make scratch-built vehicles! You'd think building and designing the basic structure would be the hard part, but it's actually finishing them that is the challenge. I kept thinking I was done and then seeing another gap to fill or another surface to be detailed. I will probably take a break from large models for a while after this.! Still, the results are very satisfying, and should make nice counterpoints to the human-size figures.

Last night I put the finishing touches on the dropship and should have photos to share tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to prime all 3 models tonight and won't ruin them with bad spraying.

And I also want to mention that a while back Curtis of Ramshackle Games was kind enough to send me a box of his wonderful vehicle gubbins! They are really great and a big help to scratch-building. All the parts were well cast and easy to clean up. I've used some of the vents and various bits on the grav-craft (most notably the front exhaust grates), and a lot more of them on the dropship. I think they will really be ideal for scenery making where the industrial chunkiness and rivets will look great -- just glue a few hatches, exhausts, and engine parts to any old household junk and you've got a ready made research station. I’ve got an old art deco style light-fixture that is begging for that treatment.

OK, photos!

First off, here is Viscountess Mori Fosscobb Merz-Itano, aka Gradmother Mori:





Grandmother Mori pilots a treasured family heirloom, one of the few remaining Voidrunner pattern Knights. Mechano-archivists believe they were originally ad hoc creations from the Age of the Strife; open-void shipyard construction exo-suits that were converted to fight in open space, walking the hulls of frigates and acting as mobile point defense units to deter boarding actions and fighter craft, as well as using their powerful rocket thrusters to leap from ship to ship, gliding beneath void-shields and tearing open enemy hulls.

Mori's Knightsuit has been rebuilt over the ages and bears many of the hallmark household motifs. The suit is armed with a power-claw capable of piercing the thickest hulls, a variable directed energy cannon (that draws power from the suit's main reactor), and an optional multiple missile launcher (not pictured here unfortunately! You'll see it soon enough). These homing missile are laced with spent fuel from warp-drives, and glimmer with a signature aetheric glow that allows Mori to psychically guide them with her Warpeye so that they can strike precise weak-points. (aka a gatling psilencer in 40k) When not in use, the shoulder hardpoint is used to mount a variable sensor pod, seen in these photos.

And now the Kirin class grav-craft. The Kirin is a rare pattern of STC vehicle that is not widely produced due to difficult manufacturing protocols and need for constant repair and maintenance, and has been deemed not worth the expense by most forgeworlds. House Merz-Itano uses a variety of craft for ground-transport, and this Kirin is the personal transport of Cousin Giraud and his Huntsmen.





The Kirin's most noteworthy feature are the two large forward-mounted grav-pontoons. Each pontoon contains a line of repulsor rings, that both generate the craft's ground effect suspensor field, and when fired in the proper rhythms, forward thrust as well. The left and right pontoon can be fired at different rates, allowing for pivoting and turning just like a tracked vehicle. Towards the rear of the craft conventional thrusters provide additional stabilization control.

This Kirin is crewed by a single thrall pilot, while the turret Heavy Bolter is controlled by an integrated servo-skull (fashioned from the skull and brain of the previous pilot, carrying on a long tradition).



The Household's gun-thralls and hired armsmen, like most of the galaxy's common-folk, are deeply superstitious, and have built a shrine at the back of the craft. Dedicated to the machine spirit of the Kirin, the shrine holds assorted offerings and precious totems. It has been placed next to the craft's rear main hatch so that armsmen may touch the shrine and whisper a prayer every time they embark and disembark the craft, thanking the machine spirit for protecting them one more time. (when painting this area I want to make the surface polished smooth by years of hands -- there's a tree in the Alhambra palace that has been polished by countless touches in a similar way)

---

If all goes well you should be seeing painted versions of these 3 vehicles by early next week. Right now I am thinking of painting the dropship a pale green (somewhere on the icecream continuum between pistachio and mint, but I'm not sure where) or a more classic star-wars light grey, and the Knight a mix of white and dark greenish grey. The Kirin will either be a weathered turquoise like the Novator's throne and armor, or a rusty mustard/ochre like some of the armor the armsmen wear. I liked the idea of the ochre because it seems a bit less fancy and would be a good contrast with a lot of the greenish infantry, but I know i can nail the turqoise color and it would allow for more contrast with orangey rust and shadows. Hmm . . .

Thanks!

Kencotter; very good point. I may try to add some string wrapped around the totems.

Today was apparently the first day of spring in Chicago so it was warm enough to spray prime in the backyard without fear of that horrible furry finish. Luckily the primer went on great and I didn't ruin everything.

It's crazy how much primer unifies a conversion, and scratch-built models are no different. I fear I went overboard with the detailing and I don't have enough flat expanses to both balance out the composition and give me room for paint details, but probably better to have too much detail than too little.

I primed with grey followed by a zenithal white spray, which I probably applied way too heavily. But the grey still shows a bit and adds a some subtle depth which should help with the painting.



And now, Dropship Pentiment, in freshly primed glory. I've done a lot of work on this since last sharing it and I think it's really helped. Things are still wonky and not in proper alignment but I think the detail helps distract from that. One of my goals was to try to meld some disparate aesthetics: classic star wars style kit bashing, the crystalline asymmetrical forms of Lebbeus Woods, a touch of Art Deco / Dieselpunk brutal grace, and of course the requisite baroquely gothic grim darkness.







Also, Legatho was kind enough to run an interview with me on his blog:
http://legatho-s-warehouse.blogspot.fr/2015/03/on-weird-way.html

If you haven't seen it yet he's got other interesting interviews with some of the forum favorites.

Thanks guys!

The gothic arches are from an orange juice bottle:

https://www.theeasymarket.com/image/cache/data/grocery/0004850030922-500x500.jpg

Surprisingly gothic for a big friendly orange juice company identity. They'd be great for scenery; just mix with pac pipes for gothic infrastructure.

Thanks so much everyone. The praise is much appreciated! I can't believe how many hours I spent on these vehicles. And how difficult it is to paint them!

Things are not going great so far I'm afraid. I really wish I had had enough time to get an airbrush and elarn how to use it, or at least get into oil weathering. I've got my techniques down for normal size miniatures but the surface tension and evaporation dynamics and everything are just so different on these bigatures that I've got to relearn how my paints and inks work. And I keep changing my mind on color schemes, which isn't a bit deal with a small model, but very time consuming at this scale!

I'll just take solace in the fact that I generally hate the way my paintjobs look until I'm almost done with them and tell myself that layers of failed washes and messy filters and color changes will only add to the painterly, weather look I'm going for

Lonedirtydog: the curved head-dome is built from the curved shoulder armor of the original Dreadknight kit, connected with a series of semicircular plastic card ribs that I covered in a very thin bent plastic card sheet. Lots of gap filling with squeeze-tube modelling putty and tons of sanding did the rest:

http://s1370.photobucket.com/user/weirdingway1/media/knightearly3b_zpsooxfbjvs.jpg.html

http://s1370.photobucket.com/user/weirdingway1/media/knightearly4_zpsh2ehczty.jpg.html


Automatically Appended Next Post:
... and here is the Kirin in a more-or-less finished state, barring detail work. Sorry about the bad photos! In real life the color is somewhere between the two shots (and is brighter than I intended, but will certainly pop on the table):




I've spent the most time on it and it's worked out the best although I may have gone too far with the grime. I may unify and desaturate everything a bit with a glaze or two of grey.

Thanks guys!

I've been adding some soap and lahmian medium to the washes and using distilled water which seems to help some, but I still get the occasional ring. My washes are pretty old and I don't remember them doing this before so that may be part of the problem. In any case I think I'll just go back and paint/dab in some turqoise to turn the blotchiest ares into streaks as suggested.

I stayed up way too late last night painting the dropship and I'm finally happy with it. I ended up going in a a colorful Chris Foss direction. Tonight I get to do the fun stuff and add sponge chipping, rust buildup, oil streaking, engine soot, and orbital reentry burning, which should really bring everything together.

Thanks guys!

I got a lot more done last night and managed to take a few quick shots this morning on the kitchen table. The dropship is more or less finished except for a final pass of rusty staining that will go mostly on the underside.





And I'm finally happy with the Voidknight! The base color has changed a lot and has a really nice richness and lustre to it in person. It started as a pale turquoise and I've tinted it down with brown washes and red and orange glazes. Next up will be some dark orange stripes and accents (I'm thinking of making the hip plates orange), shading the white, and lost of small details.

Thanks! The kitbashed scale models used in scifi movies of the 70s and 80s were my inspiration for the ship so I'm glad it shows.

Stormwall: yes, it counts as a twin linked multi-melta, so a multi-multimelta indeed! It's actually the exhaust and engine pieces from the Dreadknight kit.

I ended up adding a lot of finishing touches to the walker (and some more rust to the flyer) late the night before Adepticon. The tournament was a lot of fun! My first opponent was a very nice guy with a beautiful Badmoon Ork army who happens to live in a neighboring town and also happened to recognize my name from the WH40K mailing list I posted to back in the mid to late 90s! I think the household may be launching an incursion into Orkish territory at some point.

I'm afraid I was too over-whelmed trying to remember weapon profiles to take any good game photos. I have to say the scale of contemporary 40k is insane; such tiny tables crammed with way too many models moving way too quickly.

I'll try to do a proper photo shoot later this week and share the completed household army (I don't think this will be the entire household; I still have too many ideas to explore ... first off perhaps a giant vertical transport rocket tower and then a nurgle lord Beacon Priests with mirrored a helm and maybe something inspired by the classic Rogue Trader landspeeder / flying couch), but for now, here's some quick shots of Viscountess Mori Fosscobb Merz-Itano. I used some of the great tips on shooting with an iphone from Iron Sleet.





I realized I never posted finished shots of the second exo suit, the Maid of Orleans type crusader (Maid of Aurelius I suppose), and the servo-spheres:

Thanks! I'm afraid I haven't touched the crawler, although I'd like to. I'm starting to wonder if I should give it hover pontoons like on the Kirin ...

No new modeling but I have a few more photos to share.

While building and painting the dropship I made sure to give the underside equal care because I thought it could double as terrain, either representing a crashed ship or just a big hunk of underhive machinery.




And while I had the camera out I had some fun with magnets. Turns out I can manage a crude version of Thistle's glorious walking shrine:



Or a simple gun robot:



And Greg of Feedyournerd posted a bunch of photos of one of my Adepticon games! He was very nice and helped us out with rules help because we were both a bit rusty (me especially), and also took tons of great photos (scroll down for the battle shots):

http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/a-dreadpticon-2015-da-shiny-bitz-4-da-boss-moar-orky-photos

Thanks so much guys! Pre-cgi movie models and concept art were obviously a big inspiration for the dropship.

I really want to take a full army shot but so far haven't been able to get a good photo set up for more than a unit at a time. I will definitely try again soon but I have to say I'm a bit distracted by the new Skitarii kits and lots of new ideas I want to try out! It's overwhelming having so many new bits to work with.

I did find another set of photos from Adepticon:

http://www.spikeybitsblog.com/2015/03/flight-of-the-navigators-armies-on-parade.html

This was my first tournament so I didn't really understand importance of the display base. Next to all the fancy terrain filled bases I felt like I had shown up for a formal event in jeans and a sweatshirt. That white board they're haphazardly set out on (and the convention lighting) certainly isn't ideal!

Stormwall: Please let me know if you make a Navigator suit! I'd love to see it. There used to be a good video (in Japanese) showing someone applying the gold film on a mecha kit but I can't find it anywhere. The scale is a bit different but this looks surprisingly similar! Basically you cut off a piece of film, remove it from the backing, and then stretch it over the thing you are covering, pressing down to get it to stick and stretching farther than you'd think it could go — this stuff is very stretchy and wraps around detail better when fully stretched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WE-mb71LRw
http://www.hlj.com/product/hsgtf5/Sup

pantherlegionnaire: I tried larger fingers, and claws, but kept coming back to the diver suit hand. I think of most of the damge being done by the club-like hand itself (and surrounding power field) with the fingers only really used for manipulation. Maybe they close up in a tiny pyramid-shaped fist before punches?

youidiotkid: I'd love to see what you end up doing with the genestealer cult. Such a great opportunity for modeling. When getting back into 40k I was torn between a genestealer cult and this navigator idea and I still am tempted to do a cult one day. I've got some unorthodox ideas (and lots of sketches) that I think would be very fun but I'm afraid they'd be too thematically and visually close to the Navigators so for now I'll stick with the single project. I think ...

OneManNoodles: I definitely want to return to the Crawler! After diligently finishing models for so long I'm indulging myself in starting new things (like a retro rocket ship that could function as a bastion or a piece of terrain, or the new admec stuff). The bases have been painted in a few different ways. The earliest ones were the most complicated because I first painted them rusty red, then drybrushed and washed them to ochre, then pushed them to the current ashy grey beige color (something like blasted war-torn moon was my goal). Each subsequent batch has gotten simpler. Now I spray them grey, dust with white from above, then wash with a color mixed from cheap tube acrylics and some leftover house paint sample pots (Benjamin Moore French buttercream and English chamois or somethign like that). Then a few passes of lighter dryrbushes, haphazard washes with a very thin mix of half bronze / half silver paint, some very thin brown ink washes, and then if needed some glazey washes of the highlight color made with acrylic medium. That light wash flattens out the shading and gives a nice powdery, realistic feel. But I think I may go back and add some weathering powder to all the bases to add a bit more variation and realism.

SisterSydney: no brass rod in the wings but they are surprisingly sturdy! Weld enough plastic tubes, triangles, and boxes together with copious plastic glue and you get a pretty solid model.

I ran the army as Inquisition with a Grey Knight Nemesis detachment (Novator as Karamazov, Exosuited Navigators as Inquisitors or Librarians in Terminator armor, etc).

I've been messing around with the new Skitarii infantry kit. I'm not sure where I'm going with it yet. For a while I've been thinking about adding a small Mechanicus element to my household; somebody has to be taking care of their technology, and I like the idea of a rogue Genetor trading his services (creating servitors, caring for the Novator’s ideosyncratic medical needs, perhaps researching means of weaponizing the navigator gene) in exchange for access to the household’s unique genetic code. But if I ever get to it I don't think any Mechanicus elements will look like standard Skitarii, and would probably lean heavily on body horror motifs.

So what do with these wonderful Skitarii troops? They are beautiful models but a bit challenging to convert. They are smaller than most other human models, closer in scale to fantasy archers and witch elves than fantasy flagellants or Scions and Cadians. And the way the cloaks are sculpted to match specific pairs of legs makes simple upper-body / lower body swaps very challenging.

I don't normally share such early WIPs but I thought it could be helpful for other people planning their Skitarii based projects.

First off, I've used one of the amazing radium carbines on the Scout conversion I started a while ago. The gun is so cool looking and the bionic arms are perfect for this survivor of the Tyrannic Wars. The Tyranids took most of his species as well two arms, a leg, and an eye. Some greenstuff and then techy bits taken from the Skitarii backpacks should finish him off nicely.



You can also see two early experiments with up-scaling the Skitarii so they can be mixed with other bits, and work better in combination with my other henchmen, mostly made from flagellants and empire hand gunners. I've sliced their upper bodies in half and widened them, and added spacers at the wastes and below the knees. This will require greenstuff rebuilding but that’s a good chance to give them some type of new breastplate, while keeping the great chest details. Which BTW are very similar to the old Confrontation tech ganger torsos, for anybody working on Confrontation revivals. If I use these as regular household henchmen I will probably greenstuff boots over their bionic feet. I was going to swap them for regular human feet but they are so nicely posed that I think it will actually be simpler to greenstuff them.



And here you can see one of the Vanguard helmets on top of a crusader conversion I made a while ago. It uses a Blood Angel torso and Empire archer legs with Cadian boots and Flagellant arms. I love the combination but feel like the Vanguard head is just too tiny and narrow in this context. The hooded heads fit much better with Marine torsos FYI.

And I'm also considering running them as Beaconite Guards for my Novator; the Dome helmets work OK with the up-scaled Skitarii bodies, and all the tubes and ports give it a great space suit feel:



So many options ... and I haven't really gotten started with the Dragoon/Ironstrider box yet.

Thanks guys!

I think I spoke too soon about the scale of the kits being what makes converting a challenge. They're not really that small, just delicate, with more realistic proportions than a lot of other kits (small hands in particular). What was holding me up was the cloaks. They are obviously very cool, and pretty much what everyone has been waiting for forever (plastic greatcoat guard like Jes Goodwin's old ashwaste trooper sketch), and they are ingeniously engineered. But they get in the way of converting!

So I chopped the cloaks off of a bunch of torsos and had a lot of fun playing around last night. I think I will be able to use the cloaks on other figures with enough greenstuff to blend them together.

First off, if you want a more ragged Skitarii (closer to the Blanche end of the Goodwin-Blanche continuum), I think flagellant legs work surprisingly well!



Swap out the feet for bionic ones and you're good to go.

But I was excited about how much the chests of the Skitarii reminded me of Confrontation tech gangers and decided to bash together some Tech Gangers of mine own. I figure I can use them if I ever want to play Necromunda (counts-as Van Saar) and they can be a fun new unit of hired mercenaries for my Household, or serve in the retinue of any Mechanicus group I may build in the future.

I got a little carried away thinking about things while working on them and came up with some fluff for tying them into my project and inadvertently making me want to play a version of Necromunda in the bowels of an Imperial battleship (Confrontation meets space hulk basically):





Very rough but I haven't had this much fun in a while, converting with no clear plan and stumbling across fun things. They will get a lot of greenstuff straps and webbing, and tons of pouches. The guy on the right needs the most work, perhaps a waste spacer, and will definitely get a gasmask or a visor or both. Still not sure if they will get fancy Skitarii guns or bolt pistols and knives. I will probably make one the leader with the pointing bionic hand from the Skitarii and he should really then have a combiweapon in the other arm like the classic Confrontation Tech Leader.

Oh and I'm very proud of my newest spliced head on the guy with the cyclops-visor. I love that cyberpunk visor but could never get past his enormous chin. So I chopped up my favorite flagellant head (the one in the stocks) and that did the trick. The top half of his face survived and will get a bionic lower half soon enough ...

Thanks!

I've gotten some more work done on the tech gang, including some preliminary arms and a new addition, a female ganger. I'm really happy with the pose on the hacker and the old man; I want these guys to feel more like cyberpunk sneaks than front-line soldiers.

OK, I've gotten some more work done on the tech gang, including some preliminary arms and a new addition, a female ganger. I'm really happy with the pose on the hacker and the old man; I want these guys to feel more like cyberpunk sneaks than front-line soldiers.



I've got two potential heads for the female model; a daemonette head (which I think would need greenstuff work around the eyes to humanize it) or the grizzled flagellant head for a Blanche-style Crone:



Which head do you guys prefer? Both would be painted with stubbled close-shaved heads. The flagellant head may be a bit big, but I will be at least partially covering her torso with greenstuff, which could bulk her up. She probably won't get a full armored chest-plate but some type of utilitarian shirt with straps and pouches on top, and a big armored shoulder on one side.

Thanks! Yeah I think I'll give the daemonette head a try and use the flagellant one for someone else.

Don't worry, the axe is only a placeholder. Something more techy and yet brutal is called for.

Not a bad idea. I had been thinking they'd be bald like the Confrontation Techs but maybe punkier haircuts would be more fun. As long as I have room for skull implants. Maybe a version of the Irish Glib, which could feel both modern and punky as well as medieval and kind of like a half-tonsure: http://irisharchaeology.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/durer_Irish_warriors.jpg

I did lots of greenstuff work on the tech gang last night but unfortunately my phone died before I could get any pictures. I'm very happy with how they're looking, and I finally managed to incorporate some retro diamond quilting, something I'm unreasonably excited about. I'll get photos tonight.

But in the meantime I finally got some shots of the entire Household! It was tough photographing such a big group and I seem to have forgotten to take a detail of Otam and her murder pack of Abhuman cultists. And I really need to paint the final details on the two combat drones. Seeing the army as a whole I wish I had more yellow/orange/ochre elements so I'm thinking the tech gang will skew in that direction.