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Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





Hello all and welcome to this little army project. Check out my other very slow and scatterbrained one here!!!! Enough of the old let's get into the NEW. Sorry for the upcoming essay. lol.



What is this army going to be made up of?  
The core of the army will be a Talons of the Emperor detachment - Sisters of Silence and Custodes. More broadly, the force will be themed around the Black Ships - the Imperial vessels responsible for rounding up humanity's psykers, to either train them, kill them or feed them to the golden throne. The Sisters are already a part of the League of Black Ships, but this theme also opens up opportunities to include other imperial elements, such as captured rogue psykers, naval voidsmen, fleet officers etc.

What is this army going to look like?
If all goes to plan it will be an army of contrast. Towering, true-scaled Custodes next to short, lithe sisters. Idealised, gold-clad warriors of the Talons next to filthy, wretched psykers and grizzled navy armsmen. I also want to use this project to develop and expand on the visual identity of the Talons. The Sisters of Silence in particular are woefully neglected and only have a single plastic kit. Custodes are better, but their range is pretty homogeneous; most of the army list being built from the 2 very similar foot-slogging Custodian kits. Scaling is - as it always seems to be with GW - another issue; the Primaris Marines now make the Custodes look pretty under-sized, so I will be 'true-scaling' them for sure. 



So now I've laid out my goals for this, let's get onto something real!

First up on my hobby desk is the Sisters of Silence; the Null Maidens. There's some excellent artwork out there for these girls but I do not like the plastic box we have. I won't go into too much detail but here are the problems as I see it: 1) Oddly proportioned legs. 2) Very 'mushy' armour; there isn't enough clean, sharp detailing. 3) The head sculpts are bad. 4) The swords are ATROCIOUS. 5) There is nothing to differentiate between the three squad types. How do we solve these problems? With the beautiful new Sisters of Battle of course!! ...That and a whole load of laborious conversion work. 

To get my eye in with this project I'll be tackling what I see as the 'basic' Null Maiden. Technically, all of their army list entries are Elites, but clearly their most basic unit is their Bolter-toting Prosecutor squads. I am completely overhauling the Sisters' aesthetic here; I want to firmly cement this unit as the basic foot-sloggers. I've been reading (or rather listening to - it's a particularly good audio adaptation read by 3 great actors.) Chris Wraight's 'Watchers of the Throne' novels as inspiration, and Wraight does a good job of establishing what I think is an alternative view of the Silent Sisterhood. At the start of the series, the Sisterhood are operating by themselves, almost totally forgotten and unsupported by the Imperium. One of the title characters, Aleya, is not depicted as an auramite-clad envoy of the Emperor himself, but rather a battered, poorly equipped and bitter fighter. She's resentful of the Imperium for abandoning her order, she's resentful of the fact everyone she meets unavoidably feels repulsed by her null-genes, and she's - of course - resentful of the forces of Chaos, who she devotes her life to fighting. I like this. I like the idea of the Sisters being grizzled and resentful; they have plenty to be bitter about. 

I do want to capture the 'classic' image of the Sisters of Silence too; there will be knightly, gold-armoured ladies in the army, but it won't be all of them, and it won't be the Prosecutors. As mentioned previously, contrast is a central theme of this army; there will be Sisters that are grubby, and Sisters that are more pristine. I am basing these particular women on the themes from the start of Wraight's novels, and a John Blanche work (get used to me saying this! There's more than a little inspiration from him in this project). In particular this old concept for a Sororitas Repentia:

Spoiler:


It's definitely a different interpretation of the idea of the Repentia (echoed by the quite different lore from the time), and I think it's distinct enough that it could represent something entirely new; in this case of course, a null-maiden Prosecutor:




Love these awful GIFs... they are better than trying to find goods angles

There's some big changes to the Sisters of Battle base model here, as well some more subtle ones. The arms are from Escher gangers and the bolter is from the actual Sisters of Silence kit - I think it's important to keep the particular kind of older-pattern bolter they carry. I am somewhat dreading having to sculpt a bunch of bare shoulders, since I can't find any decent kits to use for that part... I think this first one turned out surprisingly okay though. I'll probably be eschewing the typical topknots for the Prosecutors, but I will keeping with bare heads throughout. 

The subtler changes are mostly to do with scaling; there has been some pretty significant slimming-down, to try and capture the more lightly armoured look of the artwork. The legs, the arms, the torso; it's all been slimmed. I've also re-scaled the Bolter. Here's a shot of the GW's various Bolter sizes; Primaris, classic marine, Sororitas, and my modified one:



I've cut the length down a little, taken a bit off the back and made a new, smaller barrel. Nothing huge, but enough for the size to be another step down from the current Sororitas weapons. I think it's definitely a necessary change, since the Sister herself is so much more slight than the Sororitas ladies. This kind of detail will also help to make the Custodes seem even more massive and imposing by contrast.


Coming in the near future I should have more Sisters, some rogue psykers, and maybe a Custodian guard. Also I am every day fighting a battle to not buy a whole load of the beautiful Forge World Solar Auxilia to make Voidsmen with too... For now I will leave you with a WIP detail from an upcoming model; another one with a heavy John Blanche influence:




Thanks for reading all! Let me know what you think.

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2023/04/26 22:26:12


 
   
Made in us
Bounding Ultramarine Assault Trooper






This is shaping up to be a pretty awesome project. I’m liking the sister, and good job with the bolter. What’s your plan on true scaling the Custodes?
   
Made in gb
Posts with Authority






Norn Iron

That's some fine putty work! For a second I thought you'd started to paint the model with some obscure green primer.

I'm sooo, sooo sorry.

Plog - Random sculpts and OW Helves 9/3/23 
   
Made in gb
Twisting Tzeentch Horror






this is shaping up to be a beautiful project. I've always loved the ideas of the black ships- can't wait to see you bring character to these models

 insaniak wrote:

You can choose to focus on the parts of a hobby that make you unhappy, or you can choose to focus on the parts that you enjoy.
 
   
Made in ca
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






I will definitely be keeping my eye on this blog. "Mixed forces" Imperial armies are my jam, I enjoy seeing the contrast between the knightly Marines, godly Custodes, Imperial Guard in the trenches, etc.

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Kruleboyz Gutrippaz 
   
Made in us
Walking Dead Wraithlord






Wow. The null maiden is a triumph of modeling. Looking forward to seeing this develop.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




Great start I look forward to seeing where you go from here.

   
Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





Thanks a lot all [: Glad people are intereted in this project!

kavika0311 wrote:This is shaping up to be a pretty awesome project. I’m liking the sister, and good job with the bolter. What’s your plan on true scaling the Custodes?
I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing with them yet but I've done a lot of messing around. The main points will be: 1) longer legs. 2) smaller hands and heads (will require starting from scratch pretty much with the helmets). 3) Probably slightly smaller shoulder pads. 4) Totally reworked weapons. I've picked up quite a few Forge World Custodes bits hthat I plan on using, I have some Aquilon Terminator torsos and a few parts from the slimmed-down jump pack guys. It's going to be a lot of cutting and mashing stuff together though. Here's a scale shot of soe WIP legs that I probably won't end up using, but it should show scale. Aiming to be at least 1 head taller than a Primaris.

Spoiler:

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:I will definitely be keeping my eye on this blog. "Mixed forces" Imperial armies are my jam, I enjoy seeing the contrast between the knightly Marines, godly Custodes, Imperial Guard in the trenches, etc.
Me too 100%! I find Space Marines and Custodes kind of boring when they are by themselves; they're only made interesting when they're contrasted against grubby mortals.
   
Made in de
Regular Dakkanaut





Germany

Great project idea and a really nice prosecutor conversion as a starter. Looking forward to seeing more.
   
Made in ca
Steadfast Grey Hunter





Toronto, Canada

I am very excited to see where this goes.Great work on your first model.

You could use modified catachans as a grunty "naval marine" force.. I'm picturing them as the guys in the coal room of the old steam ships.
   
Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





Hello hello

it has been a while!


I have not been entirely idle in the almost a year since I updated this, and I have at least something new to show!

Most of what I've been doing is iterating on various ideas for the Custodes. I have issues with the slightly sleek and modern look of the GW minis; what I am aiming for is something more archaic. I am drawing a lot of inspirition from medieval knights; my armour will focus on layers of cloth, leather and plate. Hopefully the result will be something that is a little further from Space Marines, and a little closer to the original pre model line artwork for the Custodes.

Quite a lot of the armour is heavily customised and sculpted, but in general I'll be making use of FW Heresy Blood Angel bits (Crimson Paladins in particular), which in many cases are more intricately detailed than the actual Custodes parts. I've also preordered some Paragon Warsuits for the legs... crossing my fingers that the scale will work eeeeeeeehhhh.

Beyond the need for the Custodes to be scaled up in relation to the Primaris, I think there's also a lot of issues with the internal scaling of the kits. First and foremost: heads and weapons. Their helmets are far larger than I think they need to be, and weapons are overszied for even heroic scale minis. I am basing the heads on yet more FW Heresy kits, with many of them having the more ancient, knightly appearance that I am after:



I'm happy with the general form, but a little concerned that the sculpted filligree is a bit too chunky - would be interested in any input on this! I'll also be adding a plume once it is mounted on a model.

Next up, weapons. Again, key considerations are improving the scale of these weapons and leaning into a more classic knightly aesthetic. I also want to increase the cohesiveness of the all the weapons as a set; as they are I don't think there's much unity between the swords and spears. The spears will be SPEARS also. Not glaives. This will feed into the aesthetic approach I'll be taking with the Guardians as a whole, which is a post for another time...







I increased the length of the spear a lot, bringing it to the proportions of a proper two-haned spear or pike. I scaled down all of the blades and gun parts significantly, making use of the really nice AdMech gun bits which have the right level or archiac flare to them. I was careful to match the styles and proportions of the 2 melee weapons, to try and give them a stronger sense of belonging to same family. The spear design is heavily based on the Dragonslayer Spear from the Dark Souls series. In those games the cross-guard is there so it can be stamped down on in order the drive the spear deeper into the hide of dragons. Metal as feth and very Warhammer™ if you ask me. It's potentially a good place to mount some small banners at a later stage, too. Also, I carried the gun features onto a simple modifcation for a Sagittarum Guard's Bolt Caliver:




That's it for now! I'll hopefully have a Guardian built in the near future once I have the bits I need. I have pretty much finished a couple of Sagittarum already but I want to wait on having the context of the Guardians to show before I post them...

And feedback or issues you see would be apprecated!! Thanks for reading [:

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/06/08 01:38:21


 
   
Made in gb
Morphing Obliterator






Bedfordshire, UK

The fact that you're able to sculpt that miniscule filigree on that Custodes helmet is fantastic. Then the idea that you're asking if it's too chunky? Absolutely not, it's awesome.

This blog has started out great, looking forward to seeing updates when you have the time.

   
Made in ca
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






That spear is looking really promising, can't wait to see it on a full model!

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Kruleboyz Gutrippaz 
   
Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





another day another belated update

but this time...

progress!!



I've made some big headway on my first couple of Custodes!! These were my main considerations for approaching the moels:

1) Scaling. Both in terms of making them bigger against other models and changing their proportions within the model. I think it suits Space Marines to be a little broad and stocky; it befits their utilitarian and slightly brutish nature. The Custodes however I think should be much more elegant and regal. To this end I opted for more form-fitting armour, particularly in the arms and legs. This combined with smaller hands and feet (smaller than even a a normal Space Marine's) hopefully gives a much more naturally proportioned result.

2) Armour styling. GW's Custodes have armour that, to me, shares too much with Astartes power armour. I really want to make my Custodes as far as possible away from "Space Marines but gold". I took a lot of inspiration from real world medieval armour and some cues from the kits for the Venatari and Vertus Praetors to make a more layered plate armour look. Might be a little hard to see in the unpainted form but it's there.

3) Posing. I might do a more action posed set in the future, but for these first Custodes I want to tap into what are my central idea for the how the Emperor's Guaridans should appear: stoic, regal, a little elgant, a little arrogant. These particular models I want to be snapshots of what a Custodian might look like while patrolling the Imperial palace.









Some scale shots:






Still definitely WIP but the idea is definitely there. Not a whole lot new to say about the modelling process except I am trying my hand at using some actual fur on these guys. The photos don't show it too well but I think it looks a heck of a lot better than sculpted fur ever does, though my current attempts aren't what I want them to be. I really like what the fur does to the Custodes's silhouette, but the execution of it can be improved. Particularly from the rear where it looks ROUGH:



For anyopne wanting to try and use fur you can buy small patches of it from places that sell fly fishing supplies. I've used squirrel fur on the custdodian and mole fur on the primaris test guy in the comparision shot. Mole fur has thinner skin which is much easier to work with and the fur itself is finer, denser, and softer than the squirrel. It's quite gloosy and luxurous looking though which I don't much like for my purposes - I do want to experiment with dying it though. The squirrel fur is much more coarse and with thick skin which is pretty hard to work with, but the colouration and the firmness of the hairs makes it look much more at home in 40k. I do feel pretty guilty about using real fur... but I guess plastic models aren't exactly good for mother nature either...


that's it


that's my post.

let me know what you think!! Cheers.
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut






This is excellent work, you have completely surpassed the stock kits. At this size, are the custodes close to 54mm scale? Also, what is the brass material used to make the hafts of their spears?

   
Made in us
Walking Dead Wraithlord






Magnificence. Simple as that.
   
Made in us
Stone Bonkers Fabricator General






A garden grove on Citadel Station

Great stuff, keep up the good work!

ph34r's Forgeworld Phobos blog, current WIP: Iron Warriors and Skaven Tau
+From Iron Cometh Strength+ +From Strength Cometh Will+ +From Will Cometh Faith+ +From Faith Cometh Honor+ +From Honor Cometh Iron+
The Polito form is dead, insect. Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence?
When the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence.
 
   
Made in fi
Longtime Dakkanaut






Damn son, that's some quality stuff. Especially the more slender look, weapons that don't look like shovels and the ostentiousness of it all make it look like proper Talons should. Great project.

#ConvertEverything blog with loyalist Death Guard in true and Epic scales. Also Titans and killer robots! C&C welcome.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/717557.page

Do you like narrative gaming? Ongoing Imp vs. PDF rebellion campaign reports here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/786958.page

 
   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






A fine pair of Custodes, I think you’ve matched the scale and aesthetic of some of the original artwork. Certainly they’re not gold Astartes!

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





thanks a lot for the feedback all!!

 Turaxa wrote:
This is excellent work, you have completely surpassed the stock kits. At this size, are the custodes close to 54mm scale? Also, what is the brass material used to make the hafts of their spears?
They're actually almost eaxtly 54mm to the tops of the helmets, but base of the foot to eye level (I think that's how scale is usually measured?) is ~44mm. It hadn't occured to me that they might be getting close to that scale ha.

The spears are built around a 1mm brass rod at the core, then the grips are made by wrapping it with 26Ga. copper wire.
   
Made in no
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Oslo Norway

You are certainly a talented sculptor, and the concepts are also great, nailing 40k lore and feel. With the amount of details, it seems more like an INQ28 project than an actual army project. Looking forward to following your progress

Only thing I'm not loving is the fur. IMO, it breaks too much from the other materials. While it can work, I feel it often ends up still looking like tacked on real fur.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/06 19:56:52


   
Made in se
Malicious Mutant Scum




Deep dark woods, Sweden

These look sooooo great! Really feeling the grimdark vibe of the lore and the "blanche-iness"!
Can't wait to see what you do next
   
Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





 Illumini wrote:
You are certainly a talented sculptor, and the concepts are also great, nailing 40k lore and feel. With the amount of details, it seems more like an INQ28 project than an actual army project. Looking forward to following your progress

Only thing I'm not loving is the fur. IMO, it breaks too much from the other materials. While it can work, I feel it often ends up still looking like tacked on real fur.
lol whether or not it'll ever reach a full army is a different matter!! I am ambitious if nothing else Also re: the fur; it's definitely not looking how it should in the end. I am determined to make it work though! I've done a load of experimenting since the last post and I am pretty confident I can get it looking right. It should also look much better in a painted context.



Another long gap and another update!

Firstly, a pile of WIP things.

Bound Psyker; Navy Voidsman; Reworked Prosecutors; GW Silent Sisters kit:



I'm mostly getting a feel for the way things are going to compare at the moment. Scaling has been a HUGE issue for me with this project. I've learnt over the course of working with tens of different GW human-scaled kits that the plastic 40k range is a complete mess. Scales are all over the place; most human minis being comparible to even primaris marines, with things like hands and heads being wildly different sizes, even within the same model line (see: sisters of battle). After a lot of frustration and things not quite being how I want them, I have found AoS to be a much more consistent and well-scaled range. The Zombies and Slaanesh Hedonites in particular I am making heavy use of. The older FW kits are also perfect in scale (Death Korps, Elysians, Solar Auxilia), if not quite the models I need for the most part.

I have pretty much completely reworked my Prosecutors. One reason for this is the scaling; being based on SoB's my previous version was still a little too large, even with extensive modification. The Blissbard Archers I have based my new ones on are pretty perfectly scaled without me having to spend hours reducing the size of each model. Whilst I've tried to keep the concept and visual identity the same, I have made some changes to the details, mostly to make them more consistent with the other types of sisters that will be in the force. I also remade the bolters to be even smaller and have a more retro form-factor.



Along with the Prosecutors, I have been working on Vigilators. This is something I have been playing with for over a year now. It has been a nightmare. I've probaby made 5 or 6 different attempts at Vigilators and I've been unhappy every time. I think now I actually have something that is final. An old prototype on the left and my most recent one on the right:








Obviously still very WIP but I think this sketch shows where the miniature is going to end up. The concept for the Vigilators is based pretty heavily on fantasy and sci-fi art of a particular era, where there is an almost pin-up quality to the depiction of women. It is sexist, it is bad, and it does belong in the past. But... The aesthetic is iconic, interesting, and I think can be editorially justified. HERE IS MY CASE: In the context of me and this project, the Talons of the Emperor represent a beautiful, idealised, and ultimately false image of humanity. Both the Custodes and Silent Sister sides of the coin present an unrealistic, golden version of the Emperor's followers, and the Vigilators are supposed to exemplify this. On a backdrop of what will be a multitude of women who are competent and practicually armoured, as well as ugly and wretched and everything else in between, I hope that these Vigilators will make sense as a representation of something real within the themes of the setting, rather than just be gratuitous and sexist. That being said, such things are not for me to decide; any women out there who have something to say on this I would very much like to hear! I am happy to hear that I am wrong and an idiot if that's what you think [:


That is it for now! More coming soon. As always feedback is appreciated! Cheers.
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut




Damn, some amazing converting going on here! Not sold on the fur though, fingers crossed it works when it's painted.
   
Made in no
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Oslo Norway

They look fantastic, very Blanche. It sucks that GW is so inconsistent with scale. The new primaris scale is great, but as you say, the normal humans are also growing. Would be great if the normal humans were FW sized.

   
Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





Recent burst of free time and enthisiasm have made for more progress! I want to do something with this damn project hope to stop forgetting about it.


First up, Navy stuff.

As previously mentioned, this is a Black Ship themed army; it is half Talons of the Emperor, half Naval Black Ship crew. The Navy models will be an Astra Militarum detachment secondary to the main Talons of the Emperor one. It represents the soldiers, officers and crew directly associated with the Black Ship itself. Generally, their role is in void warfare rather than on-planet deployment, but they can mobilise a sizable ground force if the Talons require additional support. For this reason, there are strictly no tanks, artillery, APCs or other ground vehicles. It is an infantry formation, with any additional heavy fire support provided by flyers (Valkyries, fighters, bombers etc.).

They will use the Tempestus Scions rules, which do a good job of representing void-armoured infantry using airborne transports to deploy. There's quite a lot of fun anti-psyker bits in the Iontan Gorgonnes regimental rules too, which is a nice compliment to the theme of the army. Conveniently, the Scions rules also gate off much of the Astra Militarum units, which I would be eschewing anyway to keep the detachment navy themed.

There's been relatively little from GW in the way of miniatures and designs for Imperial Navy units, but there's definitely enough to have fun with, with plenty of room for interpretation. The maybe somewhat obsessive blog https://wh40knavy.blogspot.com/ has been a helpful resource here! The bulk of the units will be basic 'Voidsmen', the military crew of the ship whose duties are to repel enemy boarders and, if needed, carry out their own boarding actions. Since they spend most of their time living and fighting in the void, it follows that they should be wearing sealed suits to keep them protected. The only real reference points for these are some old Jes Goodwin Stuff and the recent-ish Kill Team Rogue Trader:

Spoiler:




The amazing Solar Auxilia range from Forgeworld fit this theme really well, and the bulk of the Navy infantry will be pretty close to the stock models. The main difference will be the heads, which I think I will be basing on the old FW titan crew models, which are clearlt bases on Goodwin's Navy crew concepts.

Spoiler:







The head is a bit fo placeholder; more work is needed. Beyond the headswap, I've done a couple of small things to distance my Voidsmen from the Solar Auxlilia. Namely, cutting down the length of their las weapons to be more reasonbale for close-quarters ship warfare, and removing the big mechanical chain belt thing protruding from the backs of their suits. The latter detail is a really cool part of the original sculpt, but to me is way too iconic and SOLAR AUXILIA for what I want.


That's all there is to the look of the basic Voidsmen, but I think there will be some slightly heavier conversion work in the future to make special weapons. I am also putting some strong emphasis on the squad leaders (called 'Voidmasters'): Unlike in the Astra Militarum, squads aren't led by simple battlefield sergeants, rather they are commanded by junior naval officers, who have additional duties to the ship as well as a battlefield role. You can see this in Voidmaster Nitsch from Kill Team Rogue Trader, who is clearly based on Jes Goodwin's navy officer concepts, rather than just being another squad member with a stripe on his helmet:

Spoiler:






That last concept image is much more recent than the other, and is from Warhammer+'s Angels of Death animation. I like this one a lot, because it combines elements of the old officer designs with the idea of a sealed void suit. My Voidmasters are based directly on this concept:








They are based mainly on the Titan Princeps models from the same set that I got the Voidsmen's helmets from. The rest is a bunch of transplanted Solar Auxilia parts to communicate the idea that the officers are still wearing the same sealed voidsuits as the troopers. Still bits and piece of cleaning up to do but happy with the overall look.


I have also finished a Vigilator and she is beautiful. I like her anyway; feel free to tewll me she's awful haha. This model has been so much fething work in a thousand different areas and I think it has finally come together and I can actually start producing more of them:










A lot of experimentation on this mini. I am really happy with the fur on this lady, something which was so important for me to get right, since it's such an evocative part of the art that inspired my Vigilators:

Spoiler:






The fur and hair on these is so wild and dense. It's just not something you can capture with sculpted detail. Particularly in that last piece by Sam Wood, the way the fur around the neck lays over and interacts with the face is a really strong piece of character I think. I do have work to do in styling the top knot; If only I had experience playing with dolls as a kid maybe I'd know how to go about that...


As always let me now what you think. Cheers!
   
Made in us
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






The use of actual fur is genius, and yes it would be so difficult to capture that wildness without it!

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Kruleboyz Gutrippaz 
   
Made in gb
Shas'la with Pulse Carbine






Been catching up on your previous work and I love it!
I'm curious to see how the fur turns out on a painted mini though

My hobby ADHD, mostly Necromunda, with a splash of regular 40k... 
   
Made in gb
Angry Chaos Agitator





Hello! This project ticks on! I have been plugging away with a lot of elements but I have been lazy with updating this and bad at fully completing anything. Gonna attempt some more discipline and commitment going forward!!

On this list to post about:
- Ongoing paint experiments in GOLD. Getting a mirror finish is not easy!
- Terminator
- Witchseekers
- More regular Custodes
- Blade Champion


Today: The Gulf Between Imagination and Execution - as With That Between Eyes and Stomach - is Often Large.

Alternative Title: I am making a Rhino.


Parameters, goals: The Sisters of Silence in 40k have access to 1 vehicle: the Rhino. The Rhino is a Space Marine kit; visually, thematically all of it. Forgeworld has, however, created The Kharon Pattern Acquisitor for the Sisters, with its own thematic and aesthetic direction:



Isn't it beautiful??? Somewhere between Sandworm, stealth aircraft, submarine and 50's rocketship. It encapsulates that feeling of faceless, creeping terror that the Null Maidens represent to the citizens of the Imperium, with a stealthy, understated vibe. This is my first aesthetic reference. Reference number 2 should also be obvious:



Lovely age of darkness metal box. Iconic and space marine-y.

I want my Rhino to exist in the same family as both of these vehicles. It needs to retain enough proportion, silhouette, and detailling to be clearly readable as a Rhino, whilst also looking like it is part of the same family of machines as the Kharon. The ultimate goal is for my Rhino to be instantly recognisable as both a cousin to the Kharon and the Deimos Rhino.

The first decision: It has to be an anti-grav vehicle. It suits the imagery of the sinister, looming Kharon and there is plenty of precident in the fluff, artwork and community creations for such a thing for the Talons:







These all have problems, in my eyes. Beyond my own requirement for them to relate aesthetically to the Kharon, but I'll address this later.

So a checklist:
- Obviously a Rhino
- Looks at home next to the Kharon
- Anti-grav

This sat with me for a while, but I could never quite picture a proper way to resolve it. Then: a brainwave! The submarine conning tower-like sensor piece at the top of the Kharon is essesential. It rationalises the faceless, featureless front the vehicle and is also a prominent piece of its unique silhouette and feel:



I scratchbuilt my own, but with a modified shape that could fit into the cupola space in the top of a Rhino:





This was the missing piece my brain needed to wrap my head aroud this, so it was now sketch time:



I think the conning tower piece is an addition to the silhouette which adds a unique focal point to the vehicle, whilst also connecting it to the Kharon. Its placement and proportion, though, match the Rhino. All the other details are simple in principle and borrow from the design language of the Kharon; rounding off angled corners, changing out the panelling to be flat with flush riveting. There's more of a major shape change on the bottom of the vehicle, to match the sweeping curves at the bottom of the Kharon and add a place to put matching grav plates. Then there's a couple of simple additions that easily slot in, like the iris-style doors from the Kharon that can easily occupy the same space as the Deimos' typical round doors.

Full of confidence, I started working. Attempt number one:




This attempt... collapsed. This one side of the rhino was full of issues, chief among which was the failure to properly resolve the geometery of the gap in the first pic - an element that would be repeated 4 times in total - and the entire back section of the model. That latter element brings me back to a prominent issue with pretty much every grav-rhino I have seen modelled:



The shape of the rear of the pontoon section things on the side of the rhino don't make sense. In the tracked version, the sides are shaped they way they are because they support the path of the tracks. You can imagine the side pontoons are full of wheels and gears. The shape is there because the track is there. So when there is no track; there should be no shape. I've not seen anyone actually address this; when converting into a grav-Rhino, the shape remains unchanged without justification.

Fortunately, whoever designed the Kharon (Will Hayes??) is a genius and unintentionally solved this for me:



The Kharon has a very similar geometry at the rear of it, but rather than dense blocks like on the Rhino, they are hollow armour plates. They extend past the hull to act as shrouds for the otherwise exposed engines.

This is the approach I decided to take:




The solid portion of the rear hull is completely removed, leaving a large cavity where the engines can sit. That was pretty much all the problems solved! Just a bunch of very time consuming and accurate modelling work left.

It's not 100% finished yet but here's how my Grav-Rhino has ended up looking:


















Excuse the horrible colours of the surface finish; it's been a lot of back and forth between sanding and priming to get everything sharp and flush. I ended up having a lot of fun with the detailing; like the iron maiding-looking things from the Kharon to house psykers - I couldn't resist modelling one of them half open - and a tarp and some other stowage bits to make the vehicle feel lived in, including one of the armoured face masks the Sister's wear as a silly nod to WW2 tankers hanging their helmets on their vehicles. I think I'll add a couple more details, but I don't want there to be too many and take away from it's stealthy, faceless feel.



That's all for now folks! Any feedback or suggestions for tweaks/ changes would be appreciated. Cheers!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/10/14 03:33:03


 
   
Made in se
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Oslo Norway

Oh my God that is good! When I started to read, the idea of a flying rhino sounded dumb, but you really nailed it as something that looks like a rhino, but still is a totally separate thing.

The "coffins" for the psykers are inspired.

   
 
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