The Experior Hosts

[Siyanis]

Updates, Termie with plasma cannon is all blacklit up, and I think the copper is fresh US penny shimmery. I LIVE NEAR A MINT

I'll get a picture up later, hopefully with swordy captain. The effect I have in mind for the blade (i've never done one 'turned on' before) is pretty significant. I should do concept art, but it's pretty straightforward.

Also, I figure I should utilize the capacity, so to speak. The next project is sniper scouts. These young brothers are in a different sort of education path entirely. They are guided by my Tellion and (I make no promises) but I've been considering using an arbites captain, or something like that. Who knows. Those poor arbites just sit there. For over a decade, they're like basecoated relics.

So, serious education, a sort of 'extended but direct path' and they have their own Land Speeder Storm. I think it's dark, and covered in a camo net cover or a scalloped and armored top. It's -obviously- got extra communication antenna and fiddley bits.

Since I've been caught up in the 'Moooonscape' thing, though, does anybody have any thoughts on 'stealth grey', or does putting those two words together bring to mind anything that might help me make a smart plan?

Skedoosh

[Siyanis]

Overnight progress. Got enough done of the Heavy Plasma Termie that I could give him a lick of glue and stitch him together.

Also, now that this is complete, I can finally do THIS, which I've been waiting for since the concept first got approved upstairs:

Also, you can see where I was going with the plasma ball earlier, with regards to the sergeant's blade.

[Grizzly_bear]

These are different (in a good way) love the PC conversion for the contemptor. How hard was that for you to do that?

[Siyanis]

it was a challenge! The tubes had to be removed, re-sized, and fitted back in. If it hadn't been for the concept art to set the project goal, I'm sure it would have been messier. I'm sure I have a high res of the final plastic-and-resin build.

[Siyanis]

Work continued on the termies last night. I didn't want to be all lead-fingers with a few days break from painting so I cut my teeth on a chaplain's base tones. It got out of hand, but I kept justifying it with thoughts like 'well he should fit in with the look of the army' and 'copper is cool.' and 'he needs some blacklight GLO to be truly inspiring.'

As I sit down right now, he looks like this (and the brushes are heating up):

If anything springs to mind, lemme know. Back in a bit.

[Siyanis]

High Chaplain Nikola, along side 8th squad 1st Company, are finalizing their debriefing now. Though not the only data of moment in their charge, Our forgemasters express solumn proud wonder at news of a particular discovery:

Thought lost nearly two centuries ago in battles with Necron that history records was mutually genocidal for all parties both of flesh and of machine. Unintended concequences of a mechano-biological plague mingling with a cracked bio-containment atmo dome and it's contents resulted in a nearly thousand-square kilometer restricted dead zone where marine and metal marionette alike were consumed and rendered down into ash.

It is to the personal detriment of the soul who braved these restricted plague zones half-decade prior that his confession (a story of epic exploration through wilderness and scenes of death seeking a sign of the God Emperor's eternal vigil) inspired months of torture for breaching sacred fields of restriction. We can now look beyond his failure and so dwell upon his success. He reported that, amongst a grey, lifeless field he walked upon an oasis of green. Verdant life protected from the bio-mechanical nanites by an exposed Dreadnought reactor core. Mud boils slowly around it's broken sarcophagus. Viscous muck that, despite all logic, perfectly cools the chain-reacting pile powering the old warrior.

Beside the walker's shell is a tank, commander slumped lifeless in the turret. Reports (from servitors fleeing the final moments of the battle 200 years ago) note that it was Brother Braem, noble Dreadnought, who closed in on the crippled 'Patterson' class Predator 'Death's Door' to even odds against a swarm of flaying Necrons on approach. As a destructor beam tore into the guts of the venerable tank right through Bream's arm servo, the flaying Necrons were seen melting into the loam.

Scuttling between the two hulks is a servo-skull fused with bits from the wreckage. It has an integrated storm bolter which it keeps pointed sharply at any interlopers while dendrites carefully maintain the electric cords leading from tank to walker core. Umbilicals, no doubt, so that both proud beasts may power their remaining weapons.

This grainy vox image has roused the chapter's recovery elements. We suspect that band-casting hardware on both machines were damaged and radiation from the core distorted orbital monitors. Hence, a two century vigil over a field of waste in the Emperor's name.

Our brave pilgrim reported that he knew at once two things that High Chaplain Nikola has now confirmed directly;

Brother Braem lives, and the Holy Machine spirit of 'Death's Door' continues to serve. We can extend the love of Our Father by delivering these noble warriors back to the war they crave. Extraction and repairs will be extensive endeavors and our techmarines have prepared our most blessed of armament bays.

[Siyanis]

I've had some significant progress on 1st Company, 8th Squad. They have returned. Though purification is an ongoing process and vigilance must be favored, we see no initial evidence of taint and so the 8th is now free to return to their company, and the Host at-large.

Master of the 8th, Lord of the Moss Marsh Hives. Argo Antlia

High Reclusiarch O'ol Nikola.

8th Squad, returning to the armories and engineering cogitators for refit.

(Lots more to do here to get these kids 'done' but I thought it'd be great to put up a progress pic to keep my motivation topped up. Lemme know what you think so far!)

[Ch@oZ]

Wow, i really like the contemptor's pistol. Also- the plasma ball effect is an amazing idea.

[eetdestroyer]

Beautiful \m/

[Siyanis]

The Patterson Pattern Predator has been successfully salvaged. The chassis and alignment materials were graciously undamaged. New port-side sponson complete. We had some struggles building appropriate turret seats but the results show promise: Turret-mounted lazcannons are already being drawn from our armories to be made available as required.

Progress:

In other Chapter-relevant news, Strike Cruiser Cuniculus returned with satisfying haste. Their task, duly completed, was the successful registration of our Codex data with the High Lords and aquire fresh Astartes guidance writ large. Beyond this aquisition was the return of 7th company's Devastator Centurion suits. Now bearing citations of purity and anointed in blessed oils, 7th Company can now represent the bulwark with even more ferocity. Livery is being re-applied to the sacred vehicles directly.

We'd expected to hear of a greater gathering of chapter dignitaries but were surprised to encounter only an envoy from the Salamanders chapter. A short and solemn exchange was noted between our expeditionary caravans. Contact was met with one of the iconoclastic renegade marine cruisers, but they broke for the safety of a warp rift with haste.

(the new Centurion kit is just -amazing-, I say. It's so detailed, some of the sculpting is really splendid. I'm gonna build this kit OEM style. I also snatched up a squad of Sternguard. I'll be building them too, blending the new parts with a few metal Sternguard from last generation. With the remaining bits from the Vets i'll be building a Combat Devastator Squad with a brace of Missile Launchers. I'll be breaking out another super-classic metal marine as the captain of this squad.

With the remaining blingy-plastic I'll zazz up my last untouched box of tactical marines from last generation, and I think I'll use the Master of Relics as the Tactical Sergeant with some kitbashing, of course.)

[Hyaenidae]

Good God, that thing is a beast! I'm really looking forward to seeing him completed.

[Noctus Cornix]

Work continued on the termies last night. I didn't want to be all lead-fingers with a few days break from painting so I cut my teeth on a chaplain's base tones. It got out of hand, but I kept justifying it with thoughts like 'well he should fit in with the look of the army' and 'copper is cool.' and 'he needs some blacklight GLO to be truly inspiring.'

As I sit down right now, he looks like this (and the brushes are heating up):

If anything springs to mind, lemme know. Back in a bit.

Now THAT'S a Chaplain. Stellar work, man.

[Siyanis]

Well!

That came right along. Though the return of "Death's Door' has caused a surprising amount of Astartes men and material from swiftly getting back into the fight we are thrilled to report that final installations are underway. It will soon be shifted to the Coatings bays for anointment. Praise the Emperor, 7th Company may soon be getting over their enthusiasm and the precious Centurion suits can finally be brought to attention.

Let's have a look at the bits in action, from above so that this presentation can have some focus;

Here's a big pic I didn't want to imbed-in-thread, so have a click on this little image and you can have a look at the sponson rings without turrets.

Finally, a close view of the engine that powers this beast of a Predator. With Great Armor comes Great Horsepower Requirements, so I present what will be a rare Triple Drive Nuclear Reciprocator with secondary turbine compression chambers.

Thoughts? Looks like it's time to begin final welding to seal in the work so far and make ready for primer.

[Disruptor_fe404]

Some excellent inspiration in here!

 

Not to mention an excellent and very subtle colour scheme.

[Siyanis]

Welcome back to the forge, everybody! Let's see how things have been coming along:

'Death's Door' continues on her path to a return-to-service. I've managed the base blue layering thus-far, so I expect to be working on edge highlighting and (finally) some Experior Host livery. Also, Experior Host battle damage. For now, the focus has been on getting each shape 'correct' so the color doesn't blotch or look nastay.

I think I will probably have to do a shade wash on the whole thing. For now, with no edge highlighting it's too subtle to tell and I don't want to over-do it. (A chrome/penny copper barrel is certainly not over-doing it, right?)

Speaking of 'Tasteful and not garish in any way', can we peek at the engine? It's not done, of course, but I want to admit right now that I think there's a whole layer of 'gribley bits' that should be there. Cool extra tubes rimming the outer edge.

(Actually, a whole half of my brain says that there's a whole missing section of bodywork.A sloping bulkhead that goes from the back of the center turret ring out a half-inch beyond the back of the rhino chassis. Maybe with a pair of brass etched grates over the engine housing. If I went this way it would be a huge extra project and would really change the look, the shape of the tank. It would hinge from behind.)

Anyhoo, tons more work to do. I look forward to any impressions from the noble Vox. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to make jet noises with my mouth and push this thing around on the desk a little while. I'll return with some concept mock ups on the livery.

[Son of Carnelian]

I have no idea what I'm looking at but I love everything here. 

[Dosjetka]

I've really enjoyed going through this thread. I do however have one question: what paints do you use to paint the grey armour on your Terminators and Contemptor Dreadnought?

 

I'm looking forward to your next update :)

[Firepower]

Damn, I hadn't caught the update showing off the conversion work before. That thing is...wow. I think I'd rather the front still be a solid slab of armor, rather than the dropped down cylinder, but aside from that it pretty handily beats the STC version

By the way, the finished Dread Plasma-Pistol made me giggle like an unhinged schoolboy I can almost see him Robocopping it into a holster in his thigh with a little gratuitous gun slinging

[Siyanis]

Brother Ludovic, a noble query.

 

1st company's livery is Dark Reaper direct to the basecoat in thin layers without regard for detail. Thunderhawk Blue in thin layers -with- regard to detail. Ulthuan Grey is your edge highlight and of course, Skull White for the popping shimmery spots.

 

For Terminators (and 1st Company's future tactical squad *note the bizarre chapter organization!*) I think this progression of colors is just dandy. For Eisenhower-sized assets, each stage should have an intermediate 50/50 stage. I know everybody says this but it's so totally true: 

 

Keep the paint watered down and give it a swoopy daub on something absorbent before you attack the plastic.

 

Firepower, you've clearly caught a thread of Eisenhower's thirst for one-handed justice (and a 'discard-able explosive hand cannon' rather than an 'explosive cannon hand' though there's obviously no rules for this. Pretty sure a critical Plaz takes the fist and arm with it. Hail the Emperor's glory!) The bizarre and yet obvious marriage of Rhino and Russ is certainly a rare vintage. It is recorded that two other 'Patterson Pattern' Predator chassis were once a compliment of the Host. 'Death's Door' was the first. 

 

Being so rare, I have no doubt many years will pass before another is discovered, if ever again. Should we be blessed -doubly- our engineers will surely enjoy comparing the significant differences between each that return to the Hosts.

 

(I'd kinda like to build one so big that it 'counts as' a Land Raider Crusader, like, extra long, extra wide, some barbaric front opening ram. FLUFF ALERT!

 

Patterson Pattern Predators are built by a triumvirate of houses nestled in a metal-rich valley between two once verdant mountains. These three noble families are key to high grade alloy works and are in an eleven-thousand year 'friendly competition' of sorts which takes on two forms:

 

1: "The Forsaken Sunrise" About every solar decade there is a three-team brawl between each house's most athletic and Imperium-zeal-addled young ladies which ranges over an entire town and can last for months. Very few men are involved because there are already so many avenues for athletic, zeal-addled young men across the Expar System and the Imperium at-large. This town, called 'Memorial Town' is heavily fortified but regardless of any preparations hundreds of living spaces are destroyed and thousands perish in the battles waged all around them. 

 

2: "The Iron Miracle" Each house builds a tank. In fact each house is responsible for building thousands and thousands of tanks in the time that each Patterson Tank is produced, and according to STC no less. Across three planets and at least six moons, but the tanks we're talking about are not mere war material. These tanks are built by young engineers. The children of line masters, middle management, the odd bright youth of even a lowly welder. The golden truth of glory in the Emperor's honor can touch any human's cockles, even a child's. 

 

The design of these tanks follow fragmented STC. Their construction, riddled with every hurdle of bureaucracy and political skulduggery. Conniving, delusion,  tests of supply, the sanctification of a new machine spirit. It can take a century or more to develop a design, and a decade or more to actually build the thing. The 'Iron Miracle' Competition takes place in three tank factories within precisely the same valley and town where 'The Forsaken Sunrise' occurs. Thus does the tank competition draw more children, normally retain them for life, and hold the attention of the Expar society rapt when a 'Crescendo Year' occurs.

 

The Crescendo Year is when the Forsaken Sunrise is followed immediately by the Iron Miracle. 

 

The tanks are designed in specific complexes on three outskirts of this 'Memorial Town' and while the once-a-decade competitions battle over local resource lines and dominating nearby objectives, every hundred years or so the games get heated as finished elements of the tanks begin to move into their jigs. The engineering teams themselves become targets for a once-a-decade cycle of fervent battle. Tactics demand that the Iron Teams build AP fortifications, and as holovids of each house's day-to-day triumphs are teased to the Expar society more young men and women flow into recruitment centers and draft offices across the inhabited lands of Expar. 

 

Finally, the Crescendo Year arrives. First, waves of mostly lady soldiers enter the Memorial town. By the first month lines of attrition are identified. Wounded and the inevitable (though few) casualties mount as early upper-hands lead to later over-extensions. By fall, the Forsaken Sunrise finally gives way to the Iron Miracle as three distinct vehicles take to the shattered city. By the time the year is over each has very likely been destroyed. 

 

Sometimes they even push forward into the areas controlled by another house before the fighting intensifies or they are finally brought out of commission. 

 

But three times since 38,000, since the first Crescendo Year, a tank has emerged which captures the attention of the Astartes, the Sororitas, the Guard, as well as the public. Through tactics, design, perhaps a bit of serendipity but -always- via the guidance of the Emperor's Intent, three times one of these tanks has brought the other two houses low as soon as it entered operation, denying the rival houses access to their support, their engineers, and ultimately the theater.

 

Three times since 38,000 one family's forces sent to the Crescendo Year were able to press the 'shut it down!' buttons in the core of the rival houses' command bunkers and open the giant stone and plasteel gates that open the Memorial Town. There is no higher triumph than this. Any tank that should remain active when this gate is opened and successfully make it across 'Patterson Gate' is a 'Patterson Pattern' tank (once it was the captured tank of a rival house claimed early in the competition). The winning House has tactfully aligned the aims of many consecutive sunrises to ensure the Iron they brought to bear was truly a force multiplier, a miracle. 

 

Sororitas interest has always been high with regard to the Forsaken Sunrise. Many of these ladies are actively vying for the attention of Sisters Superior or Hospitalier. Some actively reject the gender-specific pressure and seek out positions within the Imperial Guard where they are always welcome. One specific village within this town even holds a separate-but-equal mini competition within Memorial Town during every Sunrise to earn a banner which they carry alongside elements of the Experior Host's 7th Company.

 

A great pageant is made of each martial group vying and bidding for the glory to claim a Patterson Tank, and while political posturing has even come to blows between actual power-armored death dealers amidst the same Memorial Town the truth is that the Sisterhood continues to lack the tactical flexibility from an intergalactic standpoint that might open the door to a real tank-based area denial. The Imperial Guard has no interest what-so-ever in tanks so obscure that only servitors can maintain them.

 

It is a drama-loaded foregone conclusion that should another tank also cross Patterson's Rubicon from exercise to the crucible of real war it will also find it's way to the Experior Host. Also, that while Crescendo Years can claim tens of thousands of young lives, it draws many millions more into the Imperial War Machine. 

[Siyanis]

Tired. Progress! Must confess...

[Siyanis]

Break! Thanks for peekin, hope you like it!

[Disruptor_fe404]

Sweet screamin' goat!

[deathspectersgt7]

Cool!!!

[Dosjetka]

Thanks for the recipe and excellent work on the Screamin' Goat :lol:

[Hyaenidae]

Best thing I've seen in a while, man. The goat is awesome.

 

Dude, promise me your next ride will be the Screeching Weasel...

 

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000000FH3.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg