Relics of the Dark Age

[Frater Cornelius]

Hey there lads!

 

I am currently working on the allied detachment (and whole army in the end) for my Chapter (Space Wolves codex, mind you), which are Tau. But not real Tau. In fact, they are just non-Astartes humans joining the fight. As non-Chaos renegades kicked out for disagreeing with the =][= you take all the help you can get.

 

Here's my question: what relics of the Dark Age are still in use in the Imperium and how would have old machines and advances tech have looked back then?

Some hints to help me redesign my Battlesuits (especially those damn heads) and Drones would be very nice.

I was thinking about giving them an ancient baroque look mixed with the heavy metal goodness of 40k tech sporting pseudo Mechanicus icons. Would that be appropriate?

 

If you are interested, the fluff would be something along the lines of them finding refuge on a cut of human world to rebuild and take the fight back to the corrupt and all the others. There they find old ruins from the Dark Age and an STC for a very powerful power source and maybe some experimental robot-tech (or something). Later they managed to adapt that old tech to use in combat to help out the Astartes, thus my crisis suits and riptides and what-not.

[LordOrdGermany]

In the novel "Death of Integrity" there is mentioned a cutter, who can cut a whole in every material and a machine, which is then laying a kind of street made of rubber so that troops can penetrate Space Hulks more easily..for example.

[*Furyou Miko]

A lot of the stuff FW have released for 30k is 'relics from the dark age' type stuff, so you could look at the designs for the Sicarius and the Jetbikes for inspiration, along with Volkite weapons and the like.

 

The Deimos Rhino is the first generation of true combat APCs, with the Rhino mk 1 being the original R1HN0 exploration vehicle it's based off, which is also STC (IE: dark age) tech.

[Eddie Orlock]

I was thinking about giving them an ancient baroque look mixed with the heavy metal goodness of 40k tech sporting pseudo Mechanicus icons. Would that be appropriate?

I've been under the impression that much of the baroque architechture is an artifact of the sensibilities of the modern Imperial aparatus and that dark age would be better represented with something more like an art deco asthetic. Compare and contrast the lines on the javelin with those on the darkshroud.

[Emperors Immortals]

Eddie, I agree. We were constantly fed Blanche goodness focussing on towering baroque sensibilitiies, monolithic structures of architecture and bureaucracy where efficiency as we know it was a far second to observing a near religious prtocol of beliefs in the 40k's, while recent sculpts of prefall tech is decidedly artdeco neoclassical sensibilities.

 

I see the pre heresy aesthetic of the imperium to be like Roman aesthetics versus Norman or gothic; beauty of a perfectly planed edge and proportioned structure replaced by the beauty of the ostentatioussurface, encrusted with so much detail the mind swims.

 

A rediscovered tech store could end up like the jetbikes coveted with admech badges and borders of gold for example, battlesuit heads replaced by ornamental helmets or my favourite, highly decorated dreadnought facades with sarcophagus.

 

Is like to see what you come up with to be honest, good luck :)

[Frater Cornelius]

Thanks, trying my best. My main issue with battlesuits is that they look a bit blocky and too sterile. However, I adore the look of the R'Varna suit (the new FW riptide). I wanted to base the rest of the dark age models on his shape. Like the aforementioned javelin, he's nicely rounded and slick without having that toy-like look of gw xenos. Didn't really occur to me to check the 30k line for aesthetical inspiration. Still, I just love that massive look that some of the 40k stuff brings. Might cut back on that, but it will still be there. It just adds so much to atmosphere, what Artdeco can't really imho.

Maybe a subtle mix? After all, even given STC and some prototype builds, it is manufactured by them in 40k, thus showing some local and more broad influences and the cultural zeitgeist as well as some of the 40k shortcommings given lost knowledge and inability to perfectly recreate as of yet.

[Eddie Orlock]

Some of it might rest in the sharpness of the edges. The Tau asthetic tends to be, as described, toyoid with soft edges, whereas the javelin has sharper corners, some with raised trim. You may be able to make the Tau suits work if you could find a way to sharpen the corners. Sadly, unlike the reverse process, this is easier said than done.

 

In the past, on one off projects, I've done similar things by crudely lumping the edge with an excess of green stuff and shaving it sharp again. I placed the greenstuff lump on, allowed it to cure, pealed it off, glued it back on, and set to carefully shaving and sanding it down. This would be considerable effort though for multiple units in an army.

[Frater Cornelius]

I already have a plan for the crisis battlesuits. It involes power tools, dismemberment and carnage. The rounded corners do bother me as much. In fact, the thing that I hate aber the tau suits is that they have so many corner. This is why I adore my R'Varna suit so much. I am attempting to make the crisis more like a mix between the castellax and the rvarna riptide variant.

Gonna post some pix, either here or in a new thread. More ideas are always welcome though