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The chain needs a bit of shading (possibly with a wash like nuln oil) but other than that it's looking great. May I suggest on some of you models making them less shiny. Although I can't really talk I am a big ork player after all...

just found this thread, and have read all the fluff....really interesting and enjoyable, I liked it.

Some of your colour schemes and indeed your painting, are really very good, yet others seem less so, it seems that different people have painted, but as you have gone on there is an obvious improvement for sure.

Your OSL I think you have picked the wrong colour scheme to try it on and it looks wrong to me, in fact if i am brutally honest (please dont take offense) it looks like you have slipped with your brush :(

Enjoying the WIP shots, I know how difficult it can be to get legs to work right, often you also need to reposition the foot as well to make it look natural, when i was a more able bodied person, i would strike the pose i wanted myself while looking in a mirror to understand how i wanted a models limbs to be positioned, making note of muscles and foot, hip rotation etc. Its not as easy as it looks but you seem to be getting there...trial and error and you will get it that I am sure of.

Also really liked the suggestion of adding "bionic" part replacements and external brain controls to models to fit in with your fluff, and I also really liked the addition of other races parts to models, again fitting in with this really cool concept,....I know this is time consuming but seeing how you are going with this I really think adding a fair few of these is the way to go.

Finally, how are you going to point these all up and fit them into a FOC? Or is that something you will think more about when your army is nearer to completion.

Wonderful idea, kudos!!

da waaagh orkz wrote:
The chain needs a bit of shading (possibly with a wash like nuln oil) but other than that it's looking great. May I suggest on some of you models making them less shiny. Although I can't really talk I am a big ork player after all...

Thanks da waaagh.
The chain does have a bit of shading, but it's only light.
I only use gloss on some bits and pieces here and there when I think it calls for it, most of them are matt.

BaronB3 wrote:
just found this thread, and have read all the fluff....really interesting and enjoyable, I liked it.

Some of your colour schemes and indeed your painting, are really very good, yet others seem less so, it seems that different people have painted, but as you have gone on there is an obvious improvement for sure.

Your OSL I think you have picked the wrong colour scheme to try it on and it looks wrong to me, in fact if i am brutally honest (please dont take offense) it looks like you have slipped with your brush :(

Enjoying the WIP shots, I know how difficult it can be to get legs to work right, often you also need to reposition the foot as well to make it look natural, when i was a more able bodied person, i would strike the pose i wanted myself while looking in a mirror to understand how i wanted a models limbs to be positioned, making note of muscles and foot, hip rotation etc. Its not as easy as it looks but you seem to be getting there...trial and error and you will get it that I am sure of.

Also really liked the suggestion of adding "bionic" part replacements and external brain controls to models to fit in with your fluff, and I also really liked the addition of other races parts to models, again fitting in with this really cool concept,....I know this is time consuming but seeing how you are going with this I really think adding a fair few of these is the way to go.

Finally, how are you going to point these all up and fit them into a FOC? Or is that something you will think more about when your army is nearer to completion.

Wonderful idea, kudos!!

Oh wow, hello BaronB3, thanks.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the ups and downs of the painting, I seem to be a bit hit and miss. I think that's due to pushing the limits of my painting ability and that I paint one model at a time, sometimes I reach a point and have to say "that's enough on that one" because after a while you're just making it worse. I'm well aware of some of the dodgy bits and models and they will get revisited when I have a lull in new models, some will only need a few touch-ups while others...

Yeah, no worries about the OSL, I was experimenting with that there. That's a good point, maybe a good thing to keep in mind for OSL is to pick which colours are best to show it off and which it isn't going to work with. It's not something I've sat back and thought "that's perfect" yet and is definitely something on the revisit list. More practice with OSL is required.
I usually only start a model with an idea of what I will do with it and don't really know how to reach it for that model or how it will look in the end, so a lot of the time is spent playing with the paint (going backwards and forwards) until it works (or nearly does on some of them ).

Yep, I've stood in some odd poses myself recently.
As is apparent with DA number 4, I'm not adverse to pulling them apart if it's not looking right.

Oh yes, bionics are on the way. I'm still new to Eldar models, so I'm still getting a feel for them before I start adding things. If you look back at the Tyranids, the early ones were more "standard" in their colours and additions than the later ones. There's plenty more Eldar models to come and they will get some (mad) scientist love...

I haven't put much thought into how the army will be organised, only the occasional idea here and there. The main idea is that all the squads will be as mixed as possible in terms of races, but similar roles will be grouped into each squad (Close combat, ranged etc...).
I have been playing about with BattleScribe to get an idea of what things cost relative to each other. Certain models I am already thinking of as squad leaders based on thier points etc (Tyranid warriors for example) and I'm leaning towards additional points for some things that are carrying weapons that they shouldn't be (such as the Termagant with the deathspitter).
Current army total points for those interested (including all the Eldar that haven't been built yet) is 1376... Which sounds big to me as I've seen games with limits at 500, 1000 and 1200, and I only have a fraction of the troops I am aiming for and nothing else yet (no HQ, heavy support etc...).

But (at the moment) I don't have any of the rule books or codicies (codexes, codexiess... whatever, those) so I don't know much about the rules of how armies work other than what I've seen here on DakkaDakka and alot of the rules are going over my head.
I'm not worried about it yet. a) it's easier to break all the rules when you don't know what they are, and b) I'm a long way off an army that would be useable anyway.
There are some rules I have seen that would work with my fluff. Feel no pain for example, would be perfect for an army that has been brainwashed and fitted with electronic implants. I am also aware that my army isn't going to work with any one official codex, which means I'm effectively going to have to write my own and I'll only be able to do that after reading all the other official ones (and I do intend to read them all).

It would be easy to pick and choose all the best rules and all the best models for this army but I'm not going to. I am leaning more towards an army that is intensionally weak (as it would be if it was led by a madman), the aim being to disorientate the opponent and spread as much chaos and destruction as possible. Imagine how difficult it would be to face and approach an army like this... and then imagine how difficult it would be to run an army like this... much careful planning will be needed well in advance.

I had a moment of inspiration and have knocked up this bit of fluff in celebration of page 3!
As a thank you to all those who have popped in here to have a look and to those that have commented, I give you...
The last moments of Battle brother Raymius:

Battle brother Raymius lay on his back, the battlefield was quiet now that the battle was over. Raymius thought back over what had happened, surrounded by the bodies of the fallen enemy and his battle brothers, they had fought bravely against overwhelming numbers of Tyranids. Raymius himself had slaughtered many of the vile creatures until something huge and black had come up behind him, he had reacted too slow and had paid the price for that mistake. The thing had ripped him in two, Raymius could now not even see where his legs lay, he was covered in blood and from the waist down...missing.

Raymius lay there, with the world around him coming and going to greyness, until he started to hear noises, movement, someone or something was picking over the bodies. Every now and then a strange noise, not unlike a thousand people quietly saying "wop" would float over the marine and then there would be more shuffling and rustling. Raymius opened his eyes as he heard the noise approach him, it was a Dire Avenger. Unmistakeable in it's blue armour and high helmet, the filthy Eldar scum was looting the corpses! If he had the strength, Raymius would teach the xeno a thing or two, but then he saw another figure... a marine... from the Imperial Fists! Why were they helping each other, and why would a marine stoop to looting corpses? Another shadow fell over Raymius, he could not see what it was, it bent over and placed something on his chest and then everything went black with a "wop".

As suddenly as it had gone black, it was immediately bright, strong lights positioned around a large metal-walled room, many more xeno scum were here and appeared to be stripping and sorting the equipment from the bodies. A shadow fell over Raymius and a voice said "This one's still alive, got no legs, but still moving" another voice answered "He said that he would want to see any survivors, plug him into some support and send it to Him". Raymius was dragged from the room, down a narrow corridor and into a room where he was fitted with a life support system and placed on a glav platform before being taken to meet whoever this "Him" was.

The first meeting between Raymius and The Scientist as he referred to himself, was strange to say the least. He was tall, for a normal human, thin and had messy grey hair and wild staring eyes. The Scientist wore a brightly coloured shirt (with flowers and strange trees on it) and khaki shorts with many bulging pockets with various tools and things hanging out here and there. Over these clothes The Scientist wore a white lab coat (open at the front for the moment) dirty, well used and with strange designs drawn over most of it, he would stand in front of the marine with his hands in the lab coat's pockets and stare intently at every part of what remained of Raymius.

They discussed The Scientists plans and it was clear to Raymius that he was insane. The discussion ended abruptly after The Scientist had talked about his immortality and Raymius had scorned him and preached about the Emperor, The Scientist had said he would show him what was what and had Raymius taken to another room, empty save for a small stage at one end. Raymius was positioned facing the stage.

The Scientist entered the room followed by a huge mechanical monstrosity, 10 feet tall at least, all pistons and sharp angles. The Scientist spent a great deal of time describing how he would create some new legs for Raymius using a similar pattern to that of the machine. Raymius was not interested and would rather just be killed than brainwashed and mechanised by this madman. After 2 or so hours, The Scientist then said he would show the marine something that would shake his faith in his "dead" emperor. "Heretic" thought Raymius "I'll see you die a painful death for this" he said aloud. The Scientist laughed at this for at least 10 minutes, breaking down into hysterics at least twice before saying "that is precisely why I have brought you here Raymius". While the marine was still trying to remember when this madman had discover his name, The Scientist asked "are you a god?", Raymius answered "no", "ha, but you believe your Emperor is? We shall see..." The Scientist shouted "KILL" and the machine suddenly sprouted all manner of sharp implements and blades, Raymius tensed but could not move. He was not in danger though, the machine turned upon The Scientist and proceeded to tear him to pieces, blood and flesh were spread around the room in a flurry of violence. The screams of the madman (mixed with laughter) were still ringing in the marines ears when he was dragged from the room and taken to a holding chamber by hands unseen.

It could not have been more than an hour after this that the door to the room he was in was opened and Raymius was struck dumb, he could not believe what he was looking at... The Scientist stood there, as clear as day, a huge grin on his face and not a scratch on his body.
"You see" The Scientist said, "I am truly immortal"
"What trick is this, that could not have been you in that room" Said Raymius
"Oh it was" said The Scientist

They talked and Raymius questioned The Scientist about what had happened and could only conclude that he was present in the empty room. The Scientist even described what it felt like to be torn apart.

"We are alike, you see? Both torn asunder and now both here" The Scientist said.
"I am not like you" Replied Raymius
"No, indeed not. How rude of me, here I am uninjured and you still have no legs." Said The Scientist "where is your god emperor now, to bless you with new appendages? We both know where he is, you may call it a throne but it is a coffin. Is he here to save you from damnation? No. But I am here, I will always be here...Ha Ha. I will give you new legs, better legs and you will follow me to you next death and the death beyond that, again and again"

Raymius could not find the words to describe this man.
The Scientist continued "May I call you Ray?" and without waiting for a reply "Not that it matters, you will be number 11 soon. Well, Ray when someone asks if you are a god, you say YES! Ha Ha, well I do... What would your Emperor say? Oh nothing...because he's DEAD, HA HA!"

The Scientist left Raymius to the last of his thoughts before he gets the customary brainwash. He was still laughing as the door slid shut behind him, "What is life anyway? I think I'll go and check on the next body I'll have..."

Work in Progress!
Painting is nearly done on the Exarch and I have come to a decision on what to have him standing on.
It shall be a ruined statue... that I will have to make myself. This will require some practice as I have chosen to base the statue on the Venus de Milo... Should be a piece of cake... for someone with greater sculpting skills than me... We shall see.

I have noticed that Humbrol paint pot lids are almost exactly the same size as a regular base (as you can see in the picture), so I can practice away to my hearts content (I have plenty of lids as you may see in the background). I even used a lid for the base of the teleport homer that you can see with one of my Terminators, although I may sculpt on an edge for this one to make it look like the usual base, if I use it as the base, if it works out, if anything else that may come up... Fingers crossed.

I may even use a bigger base if there doesn't turn out to be enough room on a small base.
This leads me to a question that I hope someone may be kind enough to answer here;
On the tabletop, is it an advantage or disadvantage to have a bigger or smaller base?
Does it matter, for this particular mini? It will only be slightly larger to make room for rubble etc... if it needs it.

I have finished sculpting Venus.

Not painted yet and I've not added the rubble and plantlife around the base yet.
I thought I'd put up stage by stage pics.


Stage one: Bare bones, well sprue. Saves on putty.


Stage 2: Basic shape. Left to set so details can be added on top of a solid base.


Stage 3: Upon adding shape to the body it ended up more upright than I was intending, which meant that the base of the neck was now off center.


Stage 4: Moved neck and started the smoothing and shaping of the form.


Stage 5: More smoothing of the shape and creating a head...
I now have a lot of respect for anyone sculpting heads.
I had 5 attempts at a head for this and picked the best looking one (this took twice as long as it did to do the whole rest of the body).
I then attached it to the body.

I used a small wedge of plastic to glue the head in place and then set about filling the gap and smoothing it all to a shape of a neck.


Stage 6: Adding hair and final details and smoothing. I'm quite pleased with the hair as it turned out to be easier than the head and was quite quick to do and made the head look better.

And finally some shots all round after a quick wash over with grey.





Thanks for looking.
And now to attaching the Exarch (to ballance on the shoulder) and painting...

Exarch is done.
I'm sure there was something else I was going to do on him, but can't think of it so calling it finished.


I was going to use a rope for the replacement of the ribbon around his leg.
I tried a piece of string I had but couldn't attach it tight enough.
So I tried to make a rope-alike from twisting some wire together but it didn't look right.
I then hit on the idea of plaiting the wires together and that looked nice, but then I couldn't get it to sit right around the leg.
So instead I used putty for the leg and attached the plaited wire to his halberd and gave it a bit of a bend to show movement.


The flag is meant to look like it's been defaced by The Scientist to match the banner on the Marine earlier.


The Shuriken pistol attached to his back is painted to look like a well-kept antique and not a run-of-the-mill normal weapon.


The statue is meant to look like it's been abandoned for so long that not only has it been overgrown but the vines and the moss are in the process of dying off and there's a little rust from where one of the arms used to attach.



Anyway, I hope you like him. Let me know what you think.

On to the next... What will be next?!

Update time!
I have been busy but I now have something to show.

First up is a pair of Guardians.

Number 4 (green) is in a hurry to get somewhere and is sporting an external electronic gizmo powered by his own suit and conveniently wired to his brain via his left nostril.
Number 3 (red) is modelling the latest in The (Mad) Scientist's solutions to long range aiming; a 3D targeting scope complete with red and green lenses...





And a couple of closer shots...


The brass detailing you can see on Number 3's catapult goes all the way underneath.

And now a sneak peak WIP shot of a soon to be Dire Avenger...


And some writing to fill a bit more of The Scientist's Story.


And some notes on the Tyranids


There is more background written but I'll try to spread it out a bit.

Up next?
And now for something completely different...

What has 2 legs to get around on, but has 2 more legs that it doesn't use?
What doesn't have arms to hold it's many weapons, but has 2 arms that it can't do without?
What doesn't require a head, but has a head that it would be useless without?

That is what's coming next...

Eldar War Walker?

Love your approach btw, nice fluff and lots of opportunity to experiment. I love most those tyranids in "natural" pattern. That's what I always thought how tyranids would have to look.

By the way I have tried the other way round, paint revell models in acrylic paint. Was not satisfied... While I love it for richly detailed figurines, for models of 1:200 scale and smaller, where shading and highlighting often looks simply wrong, I will stick to enamel, I guess.

 Hruotland wrote:
Eldar War Walker?

Love your approach btw, nice fluff and lots of opportunity to experiment. I love most those tyranids in "natural" pattern. That's what I always thought how tyranids would have to look.

By the way I have tried the other way round, paint revell models in acrylic paint. Was not satisfied... While I love it for richly detailed figurines, for models of 1:200 scale and smaller, where shading and highlighting often looks simply wrong, I will stick to enamel, I guess.

Correct! Give yourself a pat on the back.

Thank you. Indeed the "natural" colour schemes do give a greater realism to the very alien look of the models. But I couldn't help trying out some crazy colours.

Interesting. As I've said I have never used acrylic paints, so I can't compare.
These models are the first I've tried with shading and dirt and battle damage (although I've not done much yet, there is much more planned). All the Revell and Airfix kits I've done before have all looked like they are straight from the factory or a good cleaning, no dirt, no shading, just clean and crisp (it was always more about the building then the painting).

Work in progress update.

The pose is set for the War walker.





I went for running as it's a bit more exciting than just standing. Something I noticed while building this was that in the pictures I used for inspiration for this pose the modellers didn't do what I have done here; which is to position the leg on the ground underneath the main mass of the walker and keep the body flat and level. Maybe it's the angle of the pictures, but I've not seen a picture of a war walker with the legs positioned like this and this is how I believe it is meant to be (there's a ball and socket joint at the "waist" and ankle for a reason).

The paint on it at the moment is just going to be the underlying colour of the wraithbone as I am intending to do some weathering on it.
I have been experimenting...

Two sticks of sprue. One painted metal (with a little rust) and the other painted bone.
Then one half of each coated with varnish (left) and the other hairspray (right) As I've heard of this technique and thought I'd have a look.
Each end has been attacked with sticky-tape and the middle with a ball of aluminium foil.
There appears to be little difference between varnish and hairspray and for large areas it is obviously easier to use hairspray, but it's nice to know.
The aluminium foil however doesn't do alot (or at least as much as I was hoping for). Does anyone have any good ideas for making small scratches with a technique like this?

And finally, a tale of recruitment...




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yeah, and this is just the bare bones of the war walker (get it? bare bones).
The (Mad) Scientist has a few little additions planned for it...

More wip of the war walker.

The weapon systems are installed... Mad Scientist stylee...
Imagine, if you will, the music you should hear while looking at this could be something like Rimsky-Korsakov - A Night on the Bare Mountain.


Some of you may notice the subtle differences between this and the standard layout of a war walker.


Here you can see a typical Scatter Laser (or "Laser") and a Missile launcher.


And on this side, you can see an Extended-Range Bright Lance and a Heavy Bolter.

I was also thinking of adding some kind of Mine layer type system to the rear of the walker, but I think it would probably be too much I'll save that for something else (I still don't know how I would make one).
And I was thinking of adding a scratch-built spotlight under the cockpit. will see how it turns out first...

Obviously painting is not finished, this is just the basic underlying layers.

And a bit more reading


Feel free to let me know what you think of any of the models or fluff from throughout my blog, I'm happy to discuss ideas etc...

Haven't looked at this for a while now but your stuff is looking great as usual . My god that statue that the eldar was standing one looks AWESOME! Glad to see that you have started to stick the bionics (and other modifications) on those models, they will have a lot more character.The extra fluff is terrific; very entertaining.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks da waaagh, good to hear you like it.

I'll get back to the fluff later, always like to read a bit of fluff, but multi-tasking atm War-walkers coming on, although I was slightly disappointed to see an eldar driving it...come on, you can get a bit more chaotic than that

A 'gaunt with a cybernetic head transplant complete with positronic brain would have been ace sitting in the cockpit...

 monkeytroll wrote:
I'll get back to the fluff later, always like to read a bit of fluff, but multi-tasking atm War-walkers coming on, although I was slightly disappointed to see an eldar driving it...come on, you can get a bit more chaotic than that

A 'gaunt with a cybernetic head transplant complete with positronic brain would have been ace sitting in the cockpit...

K.

True, I think the main reason it ended up as an Eldar in the drivers seat was that that's what was moulded sitting in the seat, had it been seat and body separate (as with all the models I have ever built before) I may have had that idea. But didn't think of it as it wasn't an obvious option. Now though, I will keep that in mind... Ooo, I know where I can do that...

Thanks MT.

Update! The War Walker is finished. Have a look and tell me what you think.


As I mentioned earlier, I went with an "unusual" weapon loadout.
Each weapon will function as it would normally with a few minor exceptions;
The Heavy bolter is a heavy bolter and will do what any heavy bolter does.
The Scatter Laser will do everything a Scatter laser should.
The missile launcher I think will behave just like an Eldar missile launcher.
The Extended-range bright lance will behave just like any bright lance but with a "significantly" increased range (I'm thinking an inch, after all I've made the weapon about an inch longer).
However, I appreciate that a war walker is traditionally only given 2 weapons (usually 2 scatter lasers from what I've read) and so as to not make this one unfair I have an excuse lined up; Due to the tricky attachments that were required to link human technology to the wraithbone technology of the Eldar there is an issue that means only two of the four weapons can fire at any one time (in any combination).


As good a time to mention the base as any. I decided to add to the base that came with it for a couple of reasons: 1) Every war walker comes with this base and so in the interest of being different I changed it a little and 2) I couldn't really tell what the thing laying in the middle of the base was and how it should be painted so decided to make it a mound of grass.


Back end, nuff said


Here you can see the heavy bolter in all it's glory. The peeling paint was a happy accident as I originally painted it matt scarlet over the metal base coat and decided that it needed more so used a clear coat red that I recently picked up and on this side (only) it started to peel off a bit. A little sticky tape action and it looked like this. Good thing I didn't want it looking shiny and new.


And this picture is just to highlight a few other bits and pieces.
Down the left hand side you can see examples of something I thought most 40k vehicles seem to be missing, Warning labels, yes thrills, excitement and war, but you can't have all that without health and safety...
So there's warnings about the air intakes, next to the cockpit (although that could be pilot info or some such), under the scatter laser (danger laser hazard), and all over the missile pod (info and warnings) and also underneath the walkers body and rear of cockpit (bottom right of picture).
In the middle you can see a clearer view of the mud and weathering to the legs. and the base.
Top right you have a close up of what I've replaced the windscreen with, a holographic HUD printed on a piece of OHP acetate. Could be better, but I like it.
and below that more examples of the paint chipping.

And finally, as I haven't mentioned it yet, the paint scheme is my interpretation of what a brainwached Eldar might consider as camoflage, think dazzle camoflage rather than "you can't see me" camoflage.

And now some more exerpts from The (Mad) Scientists private journal.


Happy Christmas, hope you enjoy.

Happy New Year.

Some Work in progress for you this time.

I'm not a huge fan of the look of the typical Shuriken Catapult, side on it's fine. It's just from above or below, the wide bit (where the accelerators are) just looks too wide and then you think "how can you carry or store these weapons in that shape?" you can't use a sling as they don't sit next to the body easily
Anyway, enough moaning. I do however, like the look of the Shuriken Cannon especially with the belt-feed in the top. But how can a single man/space-elf carry such a large weapon into battle? I hear (maybe a few of) you cry... it's only vehicle mounted (although I have found out recently there are eldar corsairs who do carry the heavy weapons)...

As far as the model is concerned it is possible to just glue it on, but I want my models to have some realism in their unrealism.
So The (Mad) Scientist has come up with a solution to what could be the problems that would arise if a mind-washed space-elf was to carry such a large weapon.
The problems I could see were;
Weight - it's a large gun and not meant for someone to carry. True, it's made of wraithbone as so may or may not be as heavy as something made of plas-steel or whatever metal but it probably is still quite heavy and unwieldy. Solution, some form of bionic strength-enhancing exoskeleton.

You can see here the exoskeleton added to the legs and the flexable power / support tubes from the hips to the backpack. You may also be able to see some of the construction of the backpack.

Control / firing the weapon - If it's just been ripped of a vehicle it's not likely to have such useful things as triggers and handles for someone to use. Solution, add useful things.

Here you can see the Shuriken Cannon partly constructed. There has been the control piece added to the rear and a large box-shape added to the bottom/sides of the cannon (this is for the ammo processing, see below) and the makings of a recoil supressor (wasn't sure if one would be needed but thought I'd add one anyway).

Ammo - Vehicles have plenty of room for ammo storage. True I could have used the Cannon with the plasticrystal ammo-block attached, but I prefer the look of the ammo belt and thought It needed some extra storage. Solution, I could have made a belt of ammo like on the cannon and linked that to a backpack... But that's not mad scientist enough so The Scientist has invented a two component solution that when mixed in the correct way form the crystal that is used as ammo.

This shows you views of the tubing and wires required to attach man/space-elf to machine to ammo solution tanks to weapon. Also there are pressure gauges for the tanks, side handle for his left hand and attachment from that to the exoskeleton, connections from the recoil suppressor to the control mechanism, and a few other attachments to hold things together.

And here he is with a friend


Next up is a bit of tidying and then painting.

Hell yeah! Those are awesome bionics you got there mate. Cannot wait to see them painted. Keep it up.

da waaagh orkz wrote:
Hell yeah! Those are awesome bionics you got there mate. Cannot wait to see them painted. Keep it up.

Thanks again da waaagh. He's coming along. Got a few little touches left on him and then his friend to paint and then bases and done.

DONE!

May I introduce Guardians 5 and 6.

Although for some reason I always manage to have the lowest number on the right...
Starting with Number 5 (on the right), he was aquired from Ulthwé craftworld as you may be able to tell.

He has been in the "employ" of The Scientist for quite some time and is part of an ongoing experiment as explained here:

So Number 5 has been modelled to show that he's slightly more than a usual Guardian, such as upgraded kit (An Avenger catapult and targeter) and a skirt-like thing (which is grubby as he's had it a while).


He's also been given one of The Scientist's patented Signal Boosters.
I re-posed his legs to give him a more relaxed look as well.

Number 6 on the other hand...

Has been given a Shuriken Cannon, as I expained earlier.
Above you can see the recoil suppressor.


Here you may be able to see something I'm going to add to all army members, that's their number (you may just see it on his leg). I refer to all the models I've made by number so I can keep track of who is/has what for army building purposes, so that's going to be clearer from now on. I aim to always add it to the left leg (you may have seen it on number 5's knee) and if not probably the head.


Here you can see the tanks and their respective dials etc...


and here a bit of rust...just coz.




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In other news, I have acquired copies of many of the codices and some rule books.
Most (if not all) are out of date, but they do explain alot:
a) I now know what all those letters and their number mean! BS1 = bad, BS10 = rediculous etc...
b) I have a feel for how the game actually works and,
c) I know what sort of rules there are,

and so...
I can start to actually form some kind of Codex:The (Mad) Scientist's Army
Hence really needing to know who is who and so adding numbers on the models and not just under the base.

This will take quite a while to do as it won't be complete until I have the main bulk of the army's troops at least (that's some of each race) and won't be finalised until I get round to buying the most up to date rule books and codices.

Oh, and d) I see that my army is not as wild wrt the rules as I had envisioned... must try harder.

And Finally some more of The Scientist's private journal

In answer to the question; What do rippers do when not eating biomass?

They play 40k of course...
and using the latest codices and rule book.








All (roughly) to scale.
Only a bit of fun mind, quick and dirty.

I love peices like that, it's awesome!

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
I love peices like that, it's awesome!

Thanks ExNN. I was going to have them eating the base and a paintbrush, but then I had a better idea.

That is sweet, cool piece doc....

 monkeytroll wrote:


That is sweet, cool piece doc....

Thanks MT. Good to see you are still about, was only wondering the other day where you had disappeared to.

OK. I read the fluff. All of it. I've seen the pics. All of them. I have to say that this is chaos. It really is chaos. Its fantastic. Well done. Now I'm going to lay down in a dark room.......keep up the good work. Good fluff makes great armies. Cool.

 Ciaphas wrote:
OK. I read the fluff. All of it. I've seen the pics. All of them. I have to say that this is chaos. It really is chaos. Its fantastic. Well done. Now I'm going to lay down in a dark room.......keep up the good work. Good fluff makes great armies. Cool.

If you did it all in one go, I salute you. Good to have you on board.

There will be more pics and fluff to come as things get completed and will hopefully only get more chaotic... Have a nice lie down.

and Thanks, glad you enjoyed it all.

Update time! Two completed Dire Avengers for you today.


Here is Dire Avenger number 1 (left) and number 2 (right).
In keeping with my "all models WILL be different colours but I will stick to official fluff" rule, number 1 is actually a blue/purple and number 2 is obviously light blue, to differentiate them from the previous dire avengers 4 (standard blue appearance) and 6 ( darker blue, standing on the statue). Which means I only have two more different blues to come up with for this box...

New to these models (as I do try to do something new each time) that you can see here, is the first try at 3 colour gems on number 1 and some freehanding on number 2's skirt-thing and I tried some sponge for a bit of different foliage on his base. Also you'll notice the tube attaching the fleshborer to number 2's body, this will be explained later. Oh Edit: also I tried blending the colour on all of number 1's armour plates.


Here you can see their designatory numbers on their legs and a sword I made for number 1. I was going to give the knife that comes in the box to number 1 but in the end decided to give it to number 2 as I didn't see the point in giving a single targetter to someone with two guns and then there was less point in giving a targetter to number 1 and so I decided to give him a second sword. The sword is meant to be a (Mad) Scientist copy and so I didn't try to replicate the tricky hand guard of the eldar sword that number 1 is actually holding.


Here you can see the fleshborer that number 2 is "holding". This is an experiment by The Scientist in grafting alien bodies together, hence the change in the upper arm from the flesh of the eldar body to the chitin of the tyranid arm and the addition of a couple of tubes for biocompatibility and sustenance of the weapon. The reason I ended up using this arm was that I wanted to do this pose with the pair of pistols from the eldar box, but those two arms are useless for chopping up and repositioning as the arms are very straight, the guns are directly opposite the elbows and the guns extend just beyond the elbow, so a cut and bend just won't work. You may as well use another arm, so I did.

I decided to keep the colour scheme consistent between the arms so the two guns are both black with blue bits. Adding more colours, I thought, would have just made him look a mess and with the blue, red and green together with the black and white and silver/gold bits it was getting a bit much on one little chap. I think there is enough colour on him without going too far (tell me if you agree or disagree) and that's why his gems are also green and not another colour.


On the topic of arms, I wanted to try for the tai chi pose that was discussed earlier with Monkeytroll but with the shoulder pads and the arm it really wasn't possible unless I wanted him to be picking his own ear with the sword point. So I went for the across the body pose which still meant cutting the arm at the elbow and wrist.

Also, on colour, number 1 ended up with an orange mohawk and number 2 with the green as I was thinking of giving number 1 a striped orange/green but thought that would have been a bit much on him (again, agree/disagree?).

Two sec's and I'll go find the fluff to round this update off...



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The (Mad) Scientist's personal journal: