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Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
Second squad shaping up well!


Thanks Don. Work has made this squad's progress a good deal slower.


Please forgive the picture quality. I was in a bit of a rush to get some photos taken before I had to quit for the day. Most of today's time was spent scouring my bits boxes for necessary components. Arms are attached for each Thunder Warrior and the proto-bolters for each one are nearly complete. Enough heads for this batch have been cleaned up and had their plumes attached. I still need to attach some necks for these guys. Progress is slow, but it's moving along.




   
Made in fi
Dipping With Wood Stain





This is a really cool project! I'm a huge fan of the Thunder Warrior lore, and kinda hopeful that GW does something with it at some point, miniatures-wise.

I'm not sure if I like those huge muzzle brakes on your bolters, but otherwise excellent models! I'm in awe of your sculpting skills!

My P&M log here on Dakka [WIP and finished work]
My blog on Wordpress [Finished work] 
   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






 mcmattila wrote:
This is a really cool project! I'm a huge fan of the Thunder Warrior lore, and kinda hopeful that GW does something with it at some point, miniatures-wise.

I'm not sure if I like those huge muzzle brakes on your bolters, but otherwise excellent models! I'm in awe of your sculpting skills!


Thank you! I would love it if GW started a Unification Wars line. So much to explore there. I know what you’re saying with the bolters. That’s my biggest hang up with these guys right now. I’m just not sure where to go with them.
   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






The project progresses. Very slowly, but progress nonetheless. I’ve finished the modeling process and now it’s time for cleanup before I toss some paint on to them.


   
Made in gb
Crushing Black Templar Crusader Pilot






London

Great production rate on these chaps - you really are convincing me that GW should do a Thunderwarrior kit

Thanks for sharing



Relapse wrote:
Baron, don't forget to talk about the SEALs and Marines you habitually beat up on 2 and 3 at a time, as you PM'd me about.
nareik wrote:
Perhaps it is a lube issue, seems obvious now.
 
   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






 IGtR= wrote:
Great production rate on these chaps - you really are convincing me that GW should do a Thunderwarrior kit

Thanks for sharing


Thanks IGtR! I’m really hoping for a Unification Wars expansion from GW.

All cleaned and primed. I’ll leave them to dry for a bit, then on to blocking in colors.



   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






Slow work lately. I’ve been trying to sneak in some time on these guys as much as I can. Still early in the process, but they’re coming along.



   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






Still working on these guys. They're almost there. This batch will bring the total up to 12. There's still a good deal of work left on them, but they're starting to fit in a bit more. I also pulled a MK IV Marine out and an Intercessor for a size comparison. They're definitely beefier than I thought they'd be. I expected them to still be smaller than a Primaris.




   
Made in ro
Nasty Nob





UK

These look awesome, I think you've done a great job capturing the theme, very distinctive.

"All their ferocity was turned outwards, against enemies of the State, foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals" - Orwell, 1984 
   
Made in ca
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






I'm not surprised that they're that much bigger. I always imagined them quite sizeable, just not as sizeable as, say, Custodes. Which I think you've captured quite well in your build. You could consider using Custodes rules to field them too, btw. Sagitarrum Guard are FW Custodes armed with only guns, they'd fit your guys to a T.

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Kruleboyz Gutrippaz 
   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






r_squared wrote:These look awesome, I think you've done a great job capturing the theme, very distinctive.


Thank you! It's time consuming, but I like how they're turning out.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:I'm not surprised that they're that much bigger. I always imagined them quite sizeable, just not as sizeable as, say, Custodes. Which I think you've captured quite well in your build. You could consider using Custodes rules to field them too, btw. Sagitarrum Guard are FW Custodes armed with only guns, they'd fit your guys to a T.


I've got some unbuilt Custodes somewhere that I could put together to compare sizes there. I don't actually play 40k very often. I barely have time to put these guys together, but this is my favorite part of the hobby anyways. If I ever had enough of these guys to put into a game, I was planning on going with Custodes rules. Their model count is small enough and they're the closest thing in 40k to Thunder Warriors in my opinion. Or rather, Thunder Warriors are closer to Custodes than Astartes. I'll have to get my hands on a Custodes codex to look through their unit types.


Once these guys are finished up, I think I'm going to try a different unit type next. This is what I've come up with so far:

- Grenadiers. 3 man unit armed with dedicated grenade launchers.
- Heavy weapons teams. 2 man teams toting around large, crew served weapons. Even considered large for Thunder Warriors.
- Special weapons teams. 3 man teams armed with volatile Dark Age technology.
- Trench/Siege/Breacher squad. Armed with melee weapons, shields, explosives, and shotguns.
- Troop transport. Big. Ugly. Lots of guns.
- The ghost of all murders. Regimental Primarch.

What other unit types do you guys think the Thunder Warriors would have?



   
Made in us
Trigger-Happy Baal Predator Pilot





Wisconsin


Wow, that is some amazing green stuff work there. Just, wow!

   
Made in gb
Crushing Black Templar Crusader Pilot






London

This latest lot are looking great!

Thanks for sharing



Relapse wrote:
Baron, don't forget to talk about the SEALs and Marines you habitually beat up on 2 and 3 at a time, as you PM'd me about.
nareik wrote:
Perhaps it is a lube issue, seems obvious now.
 
   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






First, I'd like to apologize for the potato grade photographs. I use my phone to take pictures and the camera is busted, it can no longer shift it's plane of focus. I'll get a new phone one day, but I'm a pretty cheap bastard.
Second, I realize now that I never updated this blog with the last squad of Thunder Warriors that I finished painting. I'll be sure to remedy that soon.
Until then, I've got some updates. With the last batch, I now have twelve base level Thunder Warriors and wanted to try a few different things before going back to them. I came up with a list of units that I wanted to work towards a little while back.

- Grenadiers. 3 man unit armed with dedicated grenade launchers.
- Heavy weapons teams. 2 man teams toting around large, crew served weapons. Even considered large for Thunder Warriors.
- Special weapons teams. 3 man teams armed with volatile Dark Age technology.
- Trench/Siege/Breacher squad. Armed with melee weapons, shields, explosives, and shotguns.
- Troop transport. Big. Ugly. Lots of guns.
- The ghost of all murders. Regimental Primarch.


I settled on making the Grenadier squad. I built their grenade launchers out of an old Eisenkern Stormtrooper mortar system. I hacked it down to a shorter length, added sights, attached the back end of a bolter for fire controls, and carved the bipod attaching point into a type of range indicator. It's a bit difficult to tell from the pictures but I created a grenade bandolier to wrap around thier waists. I decided to go with full faced helmets due to the volatility of their weapon system and attached back banners to them so that battlefield commanders could easily identify the location of these systems. The Grenadier unit leader has an even taller banner for unit identification.






After cranking those guys out, I decided to try my hand at the Trench/Siege/Breacher squad. During that process it evolved into me making a for of "Veteran" squad instead. I'd like the Siege Squad to be more uniform than what I made these guys out to be, similar to the uniformity of the Grenadier squad.




First up is the veteran squad leader. He's carrying around dual axes and has a transverse crest and lion head pauldron to mark him out.







Veteran 2 is made out of a Death Guard body that I've de-Nurgled. This big boy is carrying around an axe and an early storm bolter.







Veteran 3 is toting a large hammer and a shield.







Veteran 4 has a sword and shield, and I decided to work some furs onto this one as well.







Veteran 5 has dual proto-lightening claws. I chopped down a plasma gun and cabling for a power source and added some extra bits to the back of the claws to act as the power bleed off. Maybe they're plasma claws...







As usual, after taking photos I've identified quite a few mold lines that need to be cleaned. I'm also going to go back and add the chainmail to the back of their legs before I begin the actual painting process.
After I finished these guys, I got to thinking about where to go next. While re-listening to Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, I was reminded that Custodes accompanied Thunder Warriors in pretty much every fight. I've decided to add a small Custodes and Silent Sisterhood contingent to my Thunder Warriors. Looking into it, the Sisters of Silence weren't officially founded yet, but there were psychic null maidens already being employed by the Emperor and Custodes during the Unification Wars. So I'm going to go with a more rugged band of Custodes and the experimental formation of Anathema Psychana.

The Custodes are going to be less ornate and be kitted out for a more involved battlefield role than their 40k counterparts. I've also come across the challenge of everything they have being adorned with the double headed eagle. Since Mars has not been incorporated yet, I now have to find ways to reshape all of their iconography and adornments to have only a single eagle head.








That's what I've got going so far. Any comments or critiques are more than welcome. Any ideas you have floating around are definitely welcome. I love that this project allows me to bash together nearly anything I want and it's easily justifiable because of how chaotic the Unification Wars were.
   
Made in nl
Regular Dakkanaut






I think they look great. My only criticism would be that some of the heads (especially the cadian heads) are a bit to small for the bodies. This makes them look a little bit weird.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/01/04 17:44:50


 
   
Made in au
Ragin' Ork Dreadnought






Albany, Australia

Awesome work. Glad you have identified the mold lines that need to be cleaned, as this is my only concern (oh, and the lack of drilled barrel on the Custodes...)

   
Made in us
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






I don't mind the smaller heads actually. It emphasizes how distorted their bodies are, an early version of what would become the Space Marines.

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Kruleboyz Gutrippaz 
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut




I gotta say, I love the grenadiers and definitely-not-nurgle guy with the big axe!
   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






DoctorDanny wrote:I think they look great. My only criticism would be that some of the heads (especially the cadian heads) are a bit to small for the bodies. This makes them look a little bit weird.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:I don't mind the smaller heads actually. It emphasizes how distorted their bodies are, an early version of what would become the Space Marines.


I actually started off hating those heads, but they eventually grew on me. Likely because of exactly what Gwyn is talking about. The absurdity of the era created these ridiculously proportioned monstrosities.


Arakasi wrote:Awesome work. Glad you have identified the mold lines that need to be cleaned, as this is my only concern (oh, and the lack of drilled barrel on the Custodes...)


Every. Single. Time. I think I'm good, take some photos, and there they are.

Boringstuff wrote:I gotta say, I love the grenadiers and definitely-not-nurgle guy with the big axe!


Thank you! I'm happy with how the grenadiers turned out. The weapons aren't really sustainable for me though, due to the bits used for them.



Thanks for the feedback guys. This is a long running project of mine that I keep coming back to. I've got a million ideas just floating around in my head and I'm slowly collecting kits and bits just to bash into this project. At this point I'm actually hoping that GW doesn't start a Unifications Wars game for a good while longer. On the other hand, their models would be significantly better than mine. lol.
   
 
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