The Dawn of a Chapter: Twisty tries to build a army..

[Pearson73]

Lovely colour scheme and great weathering.

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Very cool colour scheme and I love the bikers. I am a huge fan of the biker captain, that quartered heraldry looks awesome. Looking forward to seeing this Chapter develop.

[Twisty]

The the absolutely only thing I don't like about your fluff is that I think the astrophysics of a planet managing to have a rotation speed such that giant rolling cities can move at ~40mph and still race the sun is a bit... silly. At least, I think it is. Maybe you're an astrophysicist and you'll get to respond to my post and laugh at me. Also, how does it work for the cities to be "mining rigs" if they are constantly moving?

My only suggestion would be to tone that down a bit. What if the problem is seasonal, so the giant mining rig cities can afford to stay in one place for a few weeks, stopping near rich veins of ore, but generally moving around to avoid extreme heat/cold?

Everything else, I loved.

Thank you. It is true that I´m not an astrophysicist and your points are entirely valid, I had my doubts about if it could actually work when I first had the idea. But I did some research on the rotational speed of different planets and it turns out that both Mercury and Venus rotate at very slow speeds (10-11km/h and 6-7km/h at the equator respectively) so my idea of the cities moving at about 60km/h is quite a bit overkill. I might even slow it down to something closer to the speed of Venus, which would help create some diversity between the different sizes of cities.

My original idea was based around the larger cities only moving closer to the poles where the speeds to race the sun is lower, and then they where still in constant motion and not mining anything on their own but instead serving as a base/mothership for smaller mining vessels. These would race ahead of the city and start mining until the city catches up with them at which point the miners pack up, offload their gods at the city and then head of to repeat the process again.

Smaller cities more akin to oil rigs in size could operate closer to the equator by scraping/mining the soft surface materials in the deserts as they passed by, or by a similar process as the smaller vessels that accompany the the massive cities in the north and south.

But like I said, you have a good point. I think that by changing the rotational speed of the planet and the size of it even more I could make dawn/dusk last for maybe a day or two. This would make the extreme heat and cold be almost seasonal in nature (like you suggested) and give miners on the planet time to stop and mine for longer than a few hours. It would also make living at different longitudes of the planet have different problems and benefits. Mining closer to the equator would mean that you have to move faster to catch up with the sun but would also mean that the twillight lasts longer, giving you more time to mine, make repairs and such. The closer to the poles you come the slower you have to move, which means that you could have larger cities but you have less time to stop and mine.

Sorry for the long reply, but I love 40k lore and I want to make mine as good as possible

Lovely colour scheme and great weathering.

Thanks! This is actually my first time doing any major weathering, this forum has taught me much.

The Obsidian Shields, Protectors against the darkness of Chaos

The Iron/Steel Seneschals. Guardians and keepers of Iron forges

And I like thenames you have and the lore youhave laid down

The Obsidian shields sound pretty interesting, maybe replace the shield part for something else though. One could do a lot of interesting iconography with obsidian as a theme for the librarians i recon. It´s also a nice touch that obsidian is made from lava (something very hot) that has cooled down, seeing as hot and cold and finding a balance between them is one of the larger themes in my chapter. Order of the Obsidian Flame?

Very cool colour scheme and I love the bikers. I am a huge fan of the biker captain, that quartered heraldry looks awesome. Looking forward to seeing this Chapter develop.

Thank you! As I have said before your Sons of Tyr have been very inspiring. My all seeing eye (aka Email notification ) saw your pre-edit post and you do have a very good point, I am absolute crap at coming up with names and the Burning blades are proof of that. I recently discovered where my subconscious had found "inspiration" for that name. The SM codex has a piece of war gear called "The Burning blade".. Woops..

Anyway, I´d love any advice I can get on naming characters, places or anything else. And don´t hesitate to call me out on something that is already taken, closely related to something else or just simply bad. When it comes to naming I could use all the help I can get.

[Firepower]

Very cool dude.  Brown n' blue for the win :lol:

 

I wouldn't have gone with orange, at least not in the planning stages.  Between the already light tone of the basecoat and the dust of a desert base, I would have been reticent to use it. And yet somehow, it's working fine.  It helps that you're using a very neutral color as a base, but even so, it's the execution that makes or breaks the colors.  So bravo, sir.

 

The one thing I can spot which really irks me is the eyes.  They look 'flat,' which is made all the more clear when it's the same color as the armor's highlights.  I would try brightening/darkening the eyes a bit, or trying to give them a proper lens flare.

 

Keep it up :tu:

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Thank you! As I have said before your Sons of Tyr have been very inspiring. My all seeing eye (aka Email notification ) saw your pre-edit post and you do have a very good point, I am absolute crap at coming up with names and the Burning blades are proof of that. I recently discovered where my subconscious had found "inspiration" for that name. The SM codex has a piece of war gear called "The Burning blade".. Woops..

Anyway, I´d love any advice I can get on naming characters, places or anything else. And don´t hesitate to call me out on something that is already taken, closely related to something else or just simply bad. When it comes to naming I could use all the help I can get.

Thanks for the kind words - I hope you found something you could take away! What helped me most with the background and theme for my Sons was to come up with a 'feel' for the Chapter's culture that ultimately influences everything from their aesthetic, to their naming methods, to their own unique way of war. My guys have a mix of Norse (Icelandic) and Native American (Anishinaabe) motifs and themes influencing their aesthetic and their backstory, and I get all my names from either Norse sagas or Native American legends. At first this was literally just because I stumbled across some awesome stuff on Wikipedia about Algonquin creation myths which fired my imagination, but then I decided to use my degree in Norse history and language to influence the darker side of the Sons of Tyr (and of course that's ultimately where their name came from).

My advice would be to find two or three real-world cultures whose history, language and mythology you really like, and then add some of your own inspiration to make your Sentinels of Dawn representative of that cultural mix. I see you're from Sweden, so you're not exactly short on personal cultural history and mythology that you could draw from, but you might look at some of the lesser-known cultures (like the Sami) for inspiration for your own Chapter. Type 'mythology' into Wikipedia and see where it leads you ;)

[Twisty]

Very cool dude. Brown n' blue for the win

I wouldn't have gone with orange, at least not in the planning stages. Between the already light tone of the basecoat and the dust of a desert base, I would have been reticent to use it. And yet somehow, it's working fine. It helps that you're using a very neutral color as a base, but even so, it's the execution that makes or breaks the colors. So bravo, sir.

The one thing I can spot which really irks me is the eyes. They look 'flat,' which is made all the more clear when it's the same color as the armor's highlights. I would try brightening/darkening the eyes a bit, or trying to give them a proper lens flare.

Keep it up

Thanks! I agree that the eyes of my recent bikers do look pretty meh, both in the pictures and in person, but I´m much happier with the lens effect on my first Devastator squad. Sadly they look pretty bad in the pictures I uploaded and I completely forgot to include them in the army shot I took, they must feel so left out Anyway, I´ll give the eyes on the bikers another go later and maybe try to snap some better pics of the Devastators for the next update.

Thank you! As I have said before your Sons of Tyr have been very inspiring. My all seeing eye (aka Email notification ) saw your pre-edit post and you do have a very good point, I am absolute crap at coming up with names and the Burning blades are proof of that. I recently discovered where my subconscious had found "inspiration" for that name. The SM codex has a piece of war gear called "The Burning blade".. Woops..

Anyway, I´d love any advice I can get on naming characters, places or anything else. And don´t hesitate to call me out on something that is already taken, closely related to something else or just simply bad. When it comes to naming I could use all the help I can get.

Thanks for the kind words - I hope you found something you could take away! What helped me most with the background and theme for my Sons was to come up with a 'feel' for the Chapter's culture that ultimately influences everything from their aesthetic, to their naming methods, to their own unique way of war. My guys have a mix of Norse (Icelandic) and Native American (Anishinaabe) motifs and themes influencing their aesthetic and their backstory, and I get all my names from either Norse sagas or Native American legends. At first this was literally just because I stumbled across some awesome stuff on Wikipedia about Algonquin creation myths which fired my imagination, but then I decided to use my degree in Norse history and language to influence the darker side of the Sons of Tyr (and of course that's ultimately where their name came from).

My advice would be to find two or three real-world cultures whose history, language and mythology you really like, and then add some of your own inspiration to make your Sentinels of Dawn representative of that cultural mix. I see you're from Sweden, so you're not exactly short on personal cultural history and mythology that you could draw from, but you might look at some of the lesser-known cultures (like the Sami) for inspiration for your own Chapter. Type 'mythology' into Wikipedia and see where it leads you

I already have a few cultures that I´ve based the cultures of Thesan on, mostly ancient Mongolian and Chinese. I haven´t really nailed anything down yet when it comes to the culture, beliefs, and rituals of the chapter or the natives of the planet, so the Mongolian/Chinese influence is still pretty limited to names and symbols.

So far I think I have a pretty good idea of what direction I want to take them in lore-wise but I have yet to put it all on paper (digital, interwebz paper that is ). I´m also quite fond how naturally the lore I have in my head have grown from the basic idea for their planet, it´s a lot of fun thinking about how cultures would develop in the different conditions of your planet and what sort of relationship they would have with each other. Hopefully I can make up my mind on all the little details of the three major cultures and get it all written down soon enough.

[Twisty]

I´ve been lazy with updating again, but I have not stopped painting! Well.. Planing my imminent expansion into 30k has been pretty distracting, so I haven´t painted as much as I would have liked. But I have made some progress, the razorback has gotten a coat of paint and plenty of decorations after proving it´s worth, earning the name "Red Wind" and been assigned to Helios squad.

http://i.imgur.com/jmAgyEX.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/yYk4EEW.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/Vscw8i1.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/2URz1Hv.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/F9MgzyS.jpg?1

The command squad on the other hand is starting to get their paint jobs in the faint hope that they´ll stop dying all the time..

I´m really happy with the first veteran so far, he and his bike just needs a few finishing touches and maybe some freehand before I start applying battle damage.

http://i.imgur.com/phLMnwE.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/whHYbwf.jpg

On the lore front I´m still stuck when it comes to names, but I have decided to take the two smaller veteran orders and split them into three. They will instead be closer to a inner circle or a warrior lodge within the three main Orders. I will still keep the organization of the techpriests, librarius and apothacarion, these specialized mini-companies are instead referred to as Tempels. The three are sometimes called the Temple of the Machine, the Temple of Knowledge and the Temple of Healing.

The chaplains of the chapter does not have their own order but are instead selected from each Orders since their are many slight differences in the beliefs and traditions of the three Orders and their main recruitment sources. Similarly, the Sentinels does not have a dedicated scout company. Instead they rotate initiates/scouts through the Orders until they are deemed proficient enough in the Way of the Sky, the Sand and the Stone to be elevated to full Astartes status. They are then given the choice of their path, joining the Order that best fits their style of fighting (usually the Order that hails from their own culture). A rare few are personally selected by the master of one of the Temples to receive further training in their own specialized fields.

That is all for now, thanks for reading!