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Amazing dread and snipers. Keep it up!

@SLion: I can return beakies or beakie parts for you whenever you need them, no worries. Conversely you can do a build and trade like Styro and I are doing, that way you just use your own materials to build and paint a fully completed model to trade.

@WM: Starting a separate thread might not be a bad idea. I don't mind the discussion on my thread at all, but I suspect this may get a life of it's own and need it's own space... question is where... in the swap shop? Should ask a mod. I volunteer...... YOU ...to work on the project!

@GatheringStorm: Thanks for taking the time to plow through the whole blog. I'm glad you spoke up. Welcome and please feel free to chime in whenever you've got something to add.

When this thread started I did a lot of research into the Badab Wars and actually went out, purchased, and read all of the current books with Mantis Warriors in them. I really enjoyed some of the fluff on the Space Sharks and some of the other chapters. If you're creating traitor unit or just a unit from the 4 chapters, I'd love to contribute. I don't even need to trade anything, I just like the idea.

Gee, thanks. I'll start on it tonite, Ive got the late shift at work.

I work night shift and have just finished reading every page of this blog! and i love it, I myself enjoy rarely used chapters and was contemplating MW but decided to do some Exorcists instead :-) but now I think i might research and find some more strange chapters to use as your models are great and have inspired me to do another SM army, it's time to shelve the kroot mercs for a while. please keep up the great work and i'll be following closely

Git-- nope. I can make do. I rather see you work out the current direction with your mantis warriors using them.

On another note. Years ago I stated collecting mini's for a project called the " The Company of the Dead " In brief this was a SM army made up of marines of any chapter. The catch was that they had all been slain and reanimated by some science/technology. The intent was to play it using current SM rules. Very much an art project , but allowed me to paint other cool chapters colors, do some conversions/battle damage and use figures from all different era's.
As I don't want to hijack git' s thread - ping me privately if you want to hear more.





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now onto more serious projects.. when do we git to see the WIP on the ven. dread?

@nerdfest09: Glad you took the time, welcome! It's a beast isn't it? It's nice that something in all those pages lit a fire under you... I'm sure if you approach your project with passion and dedication, you'll inspire others as well.

@Solar_lion: When I cycle back to it. It'll be the next dread I do after I repaint this one (the LC dread). The Venerable needs a bit of work yet... not entirely satisfied with the assault drill arm fit on the body. Shouldn't be a major project, just a minor adjustment. I'll begin work on the LC dread tonight so we can get this show on the road... I just ran outta gas last night (think I went to be before the kids did).

I hate gettin' old...

I got the Marine swap PM Blog up and goin, so make sure you post your pics in there for any of them being traded!
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/305404.page

Cool, will check it out!

dude mantsis warriors are so awesome

Indeed.

Asherian Command wrote:dude mantsis warriors are so awesome

lolz, that is so true!

@asherian & iron spectre: Thank you both, I am quite fond of them too!

Well, we're having a night of heavy weather and the satellite Internet is already toast. However the phone still works so at least I can make a report. I did indeed start the dread project tonight by assembling the CCW that I wanted. The FW claw. It looks a little on the small side when compaired with the las cannons... But ifi I dress it up a bit with banners & scrolls it should be just fine.

Pics when I can...

GS

Edit: Storm has passed (for now). CCW arm is assembled, primed and washed. Means the real paintin' can commence tomorrow! Yippie! Even magnetized the storm bolter so's I can swap it out for a heavy flamer if the whim strikes me...



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Further update...

After giving it some thought, I've decided to flip around the CCWs on the two dreads. I was going to put the assault drill on the Venerable (i.e. tranquility sniper dread), but it dawned on the that the claws from the FW clawed arm are very reminiscent of the blades on the T-snipers arms and guns & might be a better visual fit with the Venerable dread... so I'll strip the green off the claw arm and prime and wash the assault drill tonight to go on the LC dread. That is... if we have any electricity by then... tree took out the power lines on the street some time last night.

are you using different magnets on the Dread or multiples?

Well, these dread arms still have the posts and sockets (unlike the autocannons) so I don't have the magnetize the actual arms, I'm just magnetizing the guns under the CCW. 1/16" rare earth magnet seem to have plenty of holding power.




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Progress for the night:

Exchanged the CCW arms of both dreadnoughts.

First, the regular dread, now with the assault drill and a magnetized heavy flamer. I also had to sneak magnets into the CCW arm and the post on the dread because the earlier work on the arm for the venerable dread had rendered it unable to stay on the post without help. Still kept the post on the dread in-tact though, so I can switch out the assault drill with a non-magnetized arm if I want to. I will eventually get a magnetized storm bolter to fit into the spot under the arml, just didn't have time tonight. I used a very old school heavy flamer... think it was originally supposed to fit flush up against the hull of some vehicle, but with a little bit of trimming I think it works rather nicely under the drill.


Then, the venerable with claw arm... with magnetized storm bolter. As above, will eventually get a heavy flamer rigged for that spot.

*pssst thats not how the storm bolter is supposed to go one a FW dred*

Its a shame a beaky helmet can't fit in the venerable's head slot.

whalemusic360 wrote:*pssst thats not how the storm bolter is supposed to go one a FW dred*

Oh I see.... close to the body. Well, my way it's easier to swap it out for the heavy flamer *and* that arm is a little thin looking when compared with the rest of the model, so the weapon mount helps flesh it out a bit.

I'm surprised neither of you mentioned the old heavy flamer conversion... I thought that was pretty slick.

I lurve that hf conversion, not to sound like I'm just jumping on the battle/band wagon.

It does look quite good in there, I just hate the old style flamer. Looks like some sort of crazy blaster gun *pew pew*

Looks good! You should do dome space sharks too, just for fun

Those are looking really good...
And as to the space marine exchange program, i think its really cool, and i might be tempted to join...

So your doing working pistons for the drop pod ramp/doors?

Yep, going to have the doors split at the bend, have the bottom part go down like the ramp it's supposed to be, but the upper part will rise straight up, that way when I field them they can stay on the table because the stupid hatch doors won't be getting in everyone's way... should have a very small footprint.

I actually kinda like the "footprint" of a drop pod. Even though I ignore the doors and even leave a few up sometimes, I like that it comes in a BAM big friggin thing in the table

I agree, but at least around here nobody ever models them open, or half the time even models them fully (they just put out the doorless skeleton) because the doors are such an impediment to gaming. So my plan is to have the ramps come down as you would expect, then the rest of the door swings up out of the way. I'll probably just pin them in place initially, but eventually I'd like to include a piston on each door for the sake of completeness.

Got the basics of the re-paint on the dread done. Next, the extras and details...

Is that reverse highlighting? Darker at the edges and lighter in the middle of the plates?

Sweet , i love this chapter its hardly ever seen done right .

Arakasi wrote:Is that reverse highlighting? Darker at the edges and lighter in the middle of the plates?

Yes, and don't ask my why I did it that way... I have no idea, but they're all done like that. On the bigger plates though, there is a fine light line along the edge. They don't look quite right if the angles of the plates are dark too, so I do a bit of edge highlighting which seem's to pull everything together.


Thanks slann, I hope I continue to do it right... that's the plan anyway...


I has an interesting idea for my Vanguard model that I'm going to make for Styro in trade for the cool, Boondock Saints inspired objective marker that he's making me. I want to do one of my "mantis armed" Vanguard assault marines delivering a flying bushido kick, one leg and mantis sword extended, the other pulled back in the ready position... waiting to strike. It'll involve a lot of cutting and pasting of plastic parts and some fancy basing... but I think I can do it. I'll probably put the WIP over on the blog for his piece so people can see them develop together.