Ed's Heresy Kill-Teams: Custodians and ruins

[Atia]

great work on that Iron Warriors! they have the good old 2nd edition flair! (never liked the "new" look of the traitor legions, and it's ace that FW keeps the 2nd edition chaos style with the traitors during the HH)

[EdT]

Glad people liked it! It was a fun project to do. Inevitable of course that the second I finish FW releases some interesting helmets for the IV (not so keen on the torsos); I'd love to have used that one with the targeter on, say, the Apothecary.

 

Anyhow, I've had some Thousand Sons sitting painted on my shelf waiting for me to finish their ride, and having been a bit staled there, I decided to concentrate on finishing the Funerary Barque for them. You might recall that I left the barque like this...

 

 

Since then, the only thing I'd done to it was add a bottom and the docking port for the flying base stick. I didn't take a photo of this process, mainly because it was dull; I just took a rectangle of clear plastic slightly wider than the width of the barque, and wedged it on the underside so that it it had a curved shape. You can see what I mean in the pictures to come. At present it looks odd as the plastic is clear, but once painted it should blend in nicely.

 

So far so good, but the thing that was frustrating my further progress was the bow and stern of the barque. Egyptian water craft were characterised by their large bow and stern adornments (like here, for example, or here); I wanted to replicate this sort of thing, but wasn't sure how to go about it. I needed something curved to fit with the underside of the barque, but ideally it'd be curved in both axes, and the right scale. That's quite specific! Eventually though, inspiration struck when I went to the pound shop and found... whatever these are.

 

 

I think the idea of these is that they provide a reliable supply of water to plants in pots when you shove them into soil- but it doesn't really matter. They had the sort of sphere leading to a spout shape I was after, and were made of fairly soft plastic so could easily be cut. So that's exactly what I did! First I cut the spheres in half along a handy seam, so that the spout bit was halved as well; then I shaved away the rest of the sphere bit until it fitted on the end of the barque.

 

 

This was my first attempt; luckily I had four of these to work with, so could afford a cock up or two. You'll notice that the spout is also bent; this was done using a hairdryer on maximum and some gentle pulling. I ended up with two pylons, one curved upwards and one straight; I then added some bitz to each to blend them in better with the barque. The left-hand one is crowning the stern pylon, while the bow pylon has the scorpion sting, which I think works quite nicely as a prow.

 

 

With that done, I stuck them on the barque; here's where I am at the moment. Lots of gap filling to do, and the deck either needs to be continued up the pylons or some other top surface added, but the basic shape is there and everything is sturdily attached... 

 

[Dantay VI]

You are an absolute inspiration to modellers and kitbashers!!!

 

I would never have even thought of that.

 

I wonder if I could adapt that to make a longboat prow??

[Brother Dallo]

That's looking awesome EdT. That's some inventive kit bashing. 

 

Keep up the good work, good sir.

 

Dallo

[JeffTibbetts]

That TS transport looks really cool so far. Can't wait to see what you do with it. 

 

Also, having just discovered this thread, I have to tell you the maces are SO perfect for Iron Warriors. It's amazing how much they drive the theme home. 

[EdT]

Thanks all- sorry for the radio silence.

 

I've made some progress on the Barque. The gap filling is now done and so is the smoothing- not that you can really tell, as I've used vallejo still water as an alternative to liquid greenstuff and it's completely transparent! I've also added some stabilisation fins on the stern, which are meant to recall the steering oars on the Egyptian original. The idea is that they only deploy when the Barque is in flight; when it's resting they fold flush with the hull. Here's what it looks like at the moment, with Amenhotep on top and the various different grave goods there...

 

 

It's getting tantalisingly close to being finished! The next step is to detail the prow, stern and the bottom of the hull. This will partly be with greenstuff pressmoulds, similar to the ones I used on the Sons themselves; I'll also use some vinyl stickers cut using a sillhouette cutting machine to add some basic relief, which should produce a really nice, if subtle effect. Unfortunately, I won't have access to the machine for a few weeks, so in the meantime I need to amuse myself another way.

 

How, you ask? Welll, like everyone else I've been rather excited by the Skitarii release, and have had a nice idea for a Kill Team involving an Archmagus and his bodyguard. I'm currently waiting on delivery of the new plastics. But it's dull to do things unconverted, even if they are cool; so I also picked up some of the new Forgeworld Scyllax Guardian-Autonoma. Here's what you get in the box; it really is a treasure trove of conversion bits and well worth picking up if you wanted to make your Skitarii ridiculously over-augmented veterans with mechandrites agogo...

 

 

I wanted a unique theme for my Skitarii and I thought that an obvious approach might be to change their method of moving around. Everyone in this kill-team will scuttle through the martian regiolith on three legs; everyone knows that Martians use tripods, right?

 

Scyllax automata are meant to hover above the ground like insects, with the head facing horizontally forwards. I realised that if I rotated the torsos by 90 degrees so that they were vertical, they'd look quite distinct; and if you stuck three legs on the bottom they'd actually be rather close to grim-dark versions of the Destroyer Droids from the Star Wars Prequels.

 

First off, I picked up some plastic plasterboard plugs from the Pound Shop and cut them down so I just had one half of one end. This fitted perfectly on the bottom end of the Scyllax torso, as the photo below shows.

 

 

Then it was a simple matter of sticking on three legs! They were the little claws from the Necron Canoptek Wraith. Here's what my prototype currently looks like...

 

 

That's as far as I can get at present really, sadly; I need to wait for my Skitarii to turn up so I can start thinking about heads and armament...

[miteyheroes]

That's brilliant! I quite want some...

[Battybattybats]

Oh wow... from the magnificence of the Thousand Sons Barque to the inspired Scyllax conversion and it's just the start of that! I better increase the tolerances of my cool-o-meter otherwise it may max-out overload and rapture a gasket.

[EdT]

Thanks. Early days yet but I have some fun ideas for this team; the Mechanicum have so much scope for retro sci-fi weirdness!

[Grand Master Laertes]

You, sir, are a genius. 

[HighGothic]

That crab guy looks awesome! Will he have cog axe?

[EdT]

In terms of armament I'm leaning towards a back-mounted Volkite, which will hopefully recall the other battle automata. This will then also free up the front for some close combat weapon attachments. Pictures soon!
 
And speaking of which... the new plastics arrived! The new Skitarii reallly are lovely models, although their poseability is a bit limited; not really a problem for me though, as I'm chopping them up anyhow. My Kill Team will have two Rangers as members; they act as long-range pathfinders for the group and so will be armed with long rifles, lots of comms and comparatively spindly tripod legs to let them pick their way through the Martian landscape. Here's where I am with them so far; the legs will be attached to the lower ball joint.
 

 
You'll notice that I've cut the bottom of their long coats off. This is temporary; I want the fabric of the coat to interact with the tripod legs in a realistic way, but the plastic can't do that as is. Once the legs are on, I'll remodel the lower part of the coat, either in greenstuff or more likely using the Brother-Chaplain Kage tissue and pva glue technique, which should hopefully blend everything together satisfyingly.
 
But on to the important bit. I've picked out some head options for my Scyllax conversions and would be interested in feedback. In terms of background these guys are not designed for open warfare; they're effectively Temple Guards, protectors of the inner sanctum of a Mechanicum shrine. 
 
So, first off, Option A: these were originally banner-top decorations from the WHFB Imperial Knightly Order kit. I rather like these, and they fit with the fluff of Mechanicum Protectors having brazen skull masks. If I went for these, I'd probably add some extra tech to them like viewfinders and cabling.
 

 
 
Then there's option B, which are the bare heads from the Skitarii kit. They'll need a bit of trimming to fit properly, but hopefully you get the idea. I quite like how this option emphasises the grimdark fact that these guys were human, once...
 

 

Then there's Option C, which are the Vanguard heads. Again, they'll need some trimming to fit. This seems to give the group a slightly Cylon-ish vibe which I rather like.
 

 

 

Option D uses the Sanguinary guard deathmasks, and is meant to emphasise the group's religious function. Again, some trimming is needed, so the heads would sit lower down and further back.

 

 

 

Finally, there's Option E, which is the generic Mechanicus option. It's certainly the most Martian, but I wonder if it's maybe a bit generic?

 

 

I'm leaning towards Options A and C myself, but I'd be interested in people's thoughts.

[malika666]

I'd say options B or C!

[Ion]

I really like option B for this set, that's my clear favourite.

 

Option C is also a good one.

 

I would keep the Sanguinary Masks for other servitor creatures, particularly that one with the hair (where is that piece from btw?). Seeing that one in particular on a larger mechanical creature would be beautifully disturbing.

[StoneSentinels]

Deffo option A because temple guard and the skulls and wreath is vaguely pointing me towards the Ominsah/emperor cross over that is the strange mechanicus religion.

[Castellan Cato]

A>D>E In my opinion.  Most of them are too human on nonhuman frames

[EdT]

Thanks for the feedback all, I still haven't decided so please do keep it coming!

 

Now, a quick update on another front; I've finished the leg assembly for the first Ranger. As I mentioned, the idea is that they scout ahead of the rest of the team, so I wanted to show how nimble they were on their spindly tripod legs. The basing I have planned is basically rocky Martian wasteland; I went out into the garden today and found some suitable pebbles to scatter around the place. I've integrated a couple of them into the rangers, so they're clambering across them; I think it gives a nice effect.

 

Everything apart from the legs and torso is still tacked together; there's not much point adding anything else until I give him his long coat back, but it's good to have a sense of what he'll look like!

 

 

 

Edit: Sorry, meant to say- the smaller head along with the Sanguinary Guard belongs to the Sanguinor. I figure it should look quite good on some cybernetic monstrosity- I would use it for the Tribune, but he's a bit too big for it.

 

I'm increasingly leaning toward Option A, btw- currently fiddling around with some bionics for them.

[Daemon2027]

Really nice idea with the Rangers, I may have to do something like that myself.

[HighGothic]

Option B for me, then C. But if you like A the most, go for it!

[Argent aquila]

Def. A  Skulls For The Skull Golden Throne

 

 

 

those Skitarii are BADASS man!

i wish there was a way to thin out those canoptek legs though, they look kinda thick for the mechanicus' liking IMO... maybe more dangling cables from the lower torso can help thicken things out a little and balance things? Eh, whatever you go for will look way cool!

 

EDIT:: the coat will also help a bunch too...

[EdT]

At the moment it's quite bare, I agree; I think me putting the coat tails back on will make a big difference, not least because they'll interact with the legs and hang realistically. I'll also have some cabled dangling down to add to the confusion, but there's no point me adding that until the coat is done.

 

In the meantime, I've got the second Ranger up to the same point as the first, again just tacked together;

 

 

 

I've also been playing around with weapon options for the Master of the Temple Guard; his ranged weapon is a Lascannon, while the other arm has a Power Sword with a flamer attachment. 

 

 

[GhostMalone]

Option D

 

It's creepy and it's like walking :cussed up art

[ElDuderino]

B or D seem most disturbing to me

[Soldier of Dorn]

C. No idea why, but the Vanguard heads look the best to me.

[Red Skullz]

No doubt - A.