Knights of House Cydonia, Taghmata Omnissiah and Skitarii

[JeffTibbetts]

That scuffed paint is fantastic, from what I can tell. How did you get that look? It doesn't look sponged/brushed on to me. 

[Battybattybats]

Thanks. My techniques it this:

Black undercoat. When painting silver areas follow with a quick not-quite-dry brush over raised edges and flat places where i imagine that parts will rub, riders/pilots and maintenance workers will put their hands and feet a lot and on panels which i imagine will get opened and closed a lot. Directing the brush in the directions i'd see scratches coming from and always a couple of angles. Then when i do the red i use Khorne red, a little thin, and i paint around the scratches, again keeping the brush-strokes in line of scratching or stippling or poking a little with the very tip of my standard brush, making sure to go over some of the silver and to leave some little bits of black and to make sure the red is solid and even and clean near recesses and areas which would get scuffed the least. I'm in effect painting the scratch first then painting the layer that was scratched second around the scratch.

You can see it best in these two pics.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/IMG_0011.jpg

In this one i hadn't done all the scratching up behind the seat and on the legs, but the area beneath the saddle has been done. A nice hap-hazard splotch made from semi-drybrush and a bit of stabbing where the riders feet and legs will regularly rub against the paint.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0003_2.jpg

Then the red goes on, I go over some of the silver helping create depth and because the paint is in a thin coat a little shoes through even if only the unconscious picks that up (like the under-painting of yellow in old classical paintings to make colours richer) and it makes the chips look more real, while i also make sure to leave some black as well which adds depth and makes it look like there was a black undercoat over the raw steel metal when it's actually the other way around. Again i put a few drops of the red right in the middle of the scuff which helps it look more natural. The toughest part is avoiding the unconscious minds attempts to impose regular patterns and keeping it all looking random.

When done i don't shade the red or highlight it except on rare circumstances (like the knight as most of it's paint was unscuffed so it got some shade) as the single block of colour with the scuffing creates a more natural set of highlights and shadows and sense of scale that would look less real if given the usual wash and edge highlight, wheras the metal and cloth defintiely needs the shading and highlighting large panels of painted scuffed metal look better on my miniatures without it.

Now, to the tricky bit where i'd love some feedback. Does this work?

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013%202.jpg
 

The rider is sitting loosely on top so isn't exactly in the right spot (they click into place quite solidly) and the left ironstrider arm got bumped so in some pics is on one side of the devotional scroll and other times the other, i was thinking the outside side.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0014%202.jpg

There is still a lot of parts to go on, the engine exhaust cowling, rails, controls, scanners etc. So bear that in mind.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0008%203.jpg

The mask covers the upper pair of eyes of the Ironstrider Engine, but not the lower set.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0006%203.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0016%202_1.jpg

So does it work there like that do you think?

I had also contemplated attaching it on top of rather than the front edge of the machines helmet so it sat more like a headdress and with a bit of banner pole might be more secure, though if i have the arm up against the billow of scroll i could add some glue there to make it much more secure and that would work better where it is.

So, honest feedback please folks :)

[GhostMalone]

I feel like there should be some mechanical parts engine boxes hydraulics or more reinforcement behind the plate rather that a hollow area

 

That's only because I'm basing it on actual machinery and everything I operate has casing for a reason

[hendrik]

perhaps you could cut of the tops of the trianges, making it more cog like?

[Battybattybats]

I feel like there should be some mechanical parts engine boxes hydraulics or more reinforcement behind the plate rather that a hollow area

 

That's only because I'm basing it on actual machinery and everything I operate has casing for a reason

Thanks for the feedback Kurama :)

A bit of cabling might make rational sense if it sees through the eyes on the mask, the mask only partly obscures the two top eye lenses but perhaps this one has additional senses? The novel described the helm-cogs as being additional antenna so it might be a similar device on the Ironstrider mount. But aesthetically yeah an extra cable or two could be done to put a bit of something in the gap and would give it more points of contact to hold more securely. While i have a tentacle maker i haven't yet tried out i might look over my bits first as plastic to plastic attachment with plastic glue might make for a more secure bond.

 

perhaps you could cut of the tops of the trianges, making it more cog like?

Thanks for the feedback to you too hendrik!

 

I've been pondering that. I did that to make the Mechanicus Bookmark on earlier pages of the thread out of chaos icons and to make the raised House Cydonia emblem on the ion shield marker i'm making for my Knight Styrix out of the tactical marine haloed skull banner top.

 

Though the triangle-toothed cog also more easily doubles as a sunwheel as well as suggesting the radiation of the halo, the spread of the enlightenment, and suggests earlier more raw and less systematised forms of the Cult Mechanicus. So symbolically it does have some advantages so i'm see-sawing on that.

[GhostMalone]

Cables would work make it an enhanced targeting apparatus maybe through a mounting box with cables attached maybe even add a wire connecting to the operators noggin so he's getting impulse readings from the upper sensors

[Battybattybats]

The square helmet of the ironstrider engine is quite small, definitely encourages using small tubing. But i have all those bits cut from the servo skulls that now adorn The Betrayed. So small cables i do have :)

But before i add a few small cables i need to make a decision, sharp cog-teeth or square-tip cog teeth. The technical term for which are Denticle, which i learned thanks to the novel Skitarius which i am slowly reading (slowly to drink in all the details, i usually read quite fast but some books i stretch out, and this is one). I've already used both, for example the Cydonian Sister Assassin has the sharp teeth on her cog-halo.

Sharp does have a degree of combat functionality. And takes less work, but square would also look quite good. Still unsure on it. I also am pondering the colour for the semi-disk around the skulls, the rim and denticles will of course be gold, the skulls will be bone, but dark bronze, black, red, or a halved black/white field are all options i'm considering.

[GhostMalone]

Hmmmm flip a coin?

[miteyheroes]

I love the face-plate on the walker, works excellently there.

[Battybattybats]

I've decided to keep the pointed teeth on the Dragoon Ironstriders mask.
I've just done the fiddle of the separate thigh cable... i fluked it with minimal hassle but that was pure luck, that bit won't ever be easy. Lucky i had a really good pair of tweezers for the job.

I've also got the mask gluing to the helmet edge, when it's solid i'll cut to size the spare servo skull cables and add them running from the back of the mask to the helmet.

Pics may not be for a little bit though, as i have to take some time celebrating my name going into print as the non-GW wargame Retro Raygun went on sale today and i wrote the flavour fiction for the scenarios and was part of the playtesting. But once the celebrating is done i should have the mask-cables done and be able to get pics to show them off.

[Battybattybats]

I could have waited till i'd finished the Dragoon and the first infantry squads but... nah i couldn't wait!

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0004_3.jpg

I'm thinking of trying using magnets to swap weapon configurations it looks plausible from a quick flick through the instructions but i'll take a closer look later :)

[JeffTibbetts]

I think that would be a super easy magnet job from the looks of it. Even the different bits for the top spot, like the radar dish and the data tether if you're so inclined. 

[Battybattybats]

Well the dish etc all sit into this wedge-shaped slot in the base dome, so should be possible if a bit of a challenge to position and drill. The weapons will take a few magnets, as the side dome needs to be magnetised so the missile pod can go on, the housing at the base of the guns needs to be magnetised which allows swapping most of the guns over but Icarus Array and heavy phosphor blaster use the same housing so those will need to have magnets attaching the barrels to the housing which may complicate matters or at least determine the magnet locations. The Cognis Manipulator looks easy to do but i like it so much i may just glue it on and use the searchlights on future conversions. What looks the most fuss may be the hatch for the optional gunner.

[Battybattybats]

So i've got the Dragoon data-tether done and cables added to the Sydonian Mask so here's some pics thereof.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0007%204.jpg

Again note the rider isn't sitting in the proper place but just resting on for looks, he 'clicks' into position pretty solidly with his knee against that silver piece.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0005%204.jpg

The cables ended up extremely easy, just a quck chop of the spare servo-skull cables left over to get some nice corners a drop of glue and put in place with tweezers.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0015%203.jpg

The data-tether is quite scuffed, i figure that it probably gets a lot of maintenance work, and that would be difficult when the machine is always moving, even if on a giant treadmill.... how are these things deployed in dropships? I think they'd be walked into a crane's grasp and held from the roof with their legs swinging in mid air on the drop down.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0010%203.jpg

So there we go. Still a lot to do on the model but it's coming along nicely. A unit of dragoons led by this (Would it be an Alpha or a Princeps i wonder?) should look great on the table.

Looking at the Relics available for Skitarii i notice the Omnissian Mask. Clearly i will have to make one of my Alphas or Princeps the bearer of this relic and convert a model accordingly. Perhaps even magnetising the head so i can swap between a normal Alpha/Princeps and the relic-bearer. But what bit/s to use for the mask... i'll have to do some pondering!

[Grand Master Laertes]

For the relic mask, maybe you could try the masked heads of the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guards. They are not as grim as your other masks, but share with them the halo-theme and, beside, their impassible faces remind of the face-mountain of Cydonia.

[Battybattybats]

Good suggestion Grand Master Laertes, though i have used one on this piece http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/293094-knights-of-house-cydonia-taghmata-omnissiah-and-skitarii/page-4?do=findComment&comment=3856612

Graham McNeil in his ... Of Mars series in one of the many little asides that adds so much to background material described the origin of the Cydonian face as stemming from early religious martian settlers who expected to find the face and when they arrived on Mars found it was just a rock formation after all so they made it into one themselves. So retaining a human appearance would work, but the skull theme on the other hand is so prevalent throughout the Mechanicum I wonder if even if it started as a living persons face that it may not have stayed that way.

Could the weathering of millennia, the damage of Old Night or the influence of the Void Dragon on iconoclasts with chisels have transformed the face into a stylised skull? Or the original Opus Mechanicum cyborg skull? I might have suggested that it was the Emperors near-death that could have led to the transformation but we know the mechanicum were using the cyborged skull emblem from before the heresy.

So on the one extreme i could use a sanguinary guard head, or the other a necron head, or a variety of in-between options such as a dark elf executioner or even one converted to add a cybernetic eye on one side. None of them simple choices, as i need it to stand out and yet fit the established pattern and i'll have to decide what side of the theological divide to tread or how to place it in an ambiguous way between them.

Hmmm i am considering this Necropolis Knight head as an interesting in-between point, though it would need teeth added or cut into the crest to make a cog. And i'd remove the beard.. perhaps even run a power cable into the chin?

http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/images/DSCN7618.JPG

[Dantay VI]

Or a WHFB Gold wizards head with the silly stick beard trimmed off?

[Battybattybats]

Another good suggestion. And i think i may have one of those in one of my bits boxes somewhere.

[Battybattybats]

I didn't mention it before but to give myself maximum time to make decisions about alphas i started with the last vanguard in the instructions and am working backward. Trouble is the last two have the extremely delicate cables that swing away from the body with only a tiny point of connection which in both cases stressed just being cut from the sprue and snapped off during moldline removal. GW is pushing the limits of delicacy on their designs. To make sure the repairs don't snap off again easily i'm repositioning the cables so that they re-contact the cloak to give an additional connection point.

I'll repost the picture of the first Skitarii so you can see the new cable position.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0018_2.jpg

This Skitarii is now mostly done, i'll post pics when i can, but i'm leaving the heads for a bit till i decide which heads will go on which Vanguard. I'm also leaving the decals till i've done one on the Dragoon on a flat-er surface.

[Battybattybats]

Ever have those moments where your unconscious sees something but the conscious doesn't?

I had that the last few days. I was trying to decide how to pain the ironstrider engines mask. I even got to the point of painting one half red and the other black to decide which worked better and neither quite was working, i knew it could and should work but wasn't quite sure what to do. I looked at my knight, thinking about how there was a hood of armour over the skull like that of a techpriest and then the band of gold above it representing the enlightenment of the omnissiah, the inspiration for the House Emblem, and decided i would paint it like that, so the edge gold, then a band of red for the hood and then black for the hoods shadow and then the central skull. As i started to fill in the black on the red side it finally struck me what my unconscious saw in this piece from the outset but my awake and aware mind did not.

The cog in the gaps.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0027.jpg

The skulls form a cog shape with their cheekbones and jaws!

Still a fair bit of painting to do, the highlights on the bone and scrolls, writing on the scrolls, shading and highlighting of the gold, tidying of the red, finishing the eyes of the machine below the mask etc. Not to mention all the parts still to put on.

But it's good to finally find the bit of awesome in this part that had been sitting in the back of my brain telling me to go with it.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0028.jpg

Praise the Omnissiah!

While i'm at it, these are the limited edition book numbers i got my hands on :) Taken for threads in the Adeptus Mechanicus section collecting who got what ones.
My Codex:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0015_3.jpg

And the novel:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013_3.jpg

Hmmm think it's time for the leadbelcher undercoat of my Dragoon rider. :)

[deathspectersgt7]

It is really shaping up. 

[Battybattybats]

Due to a call for peoples own invented forces i've started a thread that collects some of my background material together, including some on my titan legions (including a picture of one of the Genestealer Cult-affiliated Titans i used back in 1990!) so there's some material in it that I haven't put in this thread. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/306400-house-cydonia-forgeworld-st-hoagland-fleet-d-gamma/

[Mithrilforge]

heya BBB,

been looking through this huge plog of yours,great stuff indeed! The Dragoon is coming along very splendidly indeed, i quite like the tomb king face plate

overall im very impressed with your whole body of work!

 

cheers,Mithril

[Battybattybats]

Thankyou Mithril!
I have a lot more to come at my slow pace. There's more Necromunda Explorators (who are already much larger than a starting gang so several will probably end up narrative campaign special characters), more Skitarii, more Knights, a small Battlefleet Gothic Fleet (mostly the old plastic imperial cruisers i've had since release and am planning to magnetise but i have one mechanicus cruiser and hope to get more and there's a Blackstone Fortress in the mail!) all being worked on and a lot of other projects. So this will definitely be ongoing in my haphazard fashion for some time :)
I'm working on the Dragoon Rider's backpack, they are almost ready to attach to the dragoon so i can then do the footplates, exhaust cowling with decals and the controls screen and forward frame. My first Vanguard is almost ready to base and decal and the second is well underway. Once i have the Dragoon done i'll start on the Onager.

[Atia]

the ironstriders are so cute :< damn GW for the M.33 lore >.<