++A Roar amongst the Thorns++ Project Restart (Pg 6)

[mateus of ultramar]

These conversions are giving me life, that banner bearer is INSANE, consider me watching this attentively

[TheTrans]

Great looking conversions and kit bashes mate! Lots of character and very fitting with the Astral Claws. Awesome work bud!

Thanks a heap mate! Wanted them to have a bit of 'flair' but not like space wolves level.

 

I was going to list what I liked, and then realised that I like all of it I've had a primaris apothecary sitting in my desk's cupboard wondering what to do with it. Now it might be time for him to become a Word Bearer tasked with the duties of a corpsetaker (what I wonderful job title). And your Tyrant of Badab looks like he lives up to the name!

Thanks a heap man! Yeah would love to see a word bearer doing similar stuff!! 

 

I am highly impressed of the level of converting and sculpting! Really delightful for my eyes and sense of aesthetics

Would you mind doing a small tutorial of how to skulp capes, as I see how good you did the banner?

 

Thanks a heap man, I will certainly try to do a cape tutorial! 

These conversions are giving me life, that banner bearer is INSANE, consider me watching this attentively

Thanks a tonne mate!

 

No pics again sorry gang as had a busy weekend and in all honesty I'm doing unexciting stuff at the moment. Just finalising clean up on the Veterans and Corpse Taker. Huron got his tabbard redone and aside from that will be getting ready for a wash and undecoat also. Banner bearer is approaching tidying stage also.

 

I've started a new process for the marines with oil paints and what not, so am just in the process of completing the test model, second he is done I'll get some pics up!

 

Cheers gang! 

[Commissar Lager]

Managed to build the full 10x female guardsmen from Victoria Miniatures.  Beautiful models but annoying to assemble as super glue takes so much longer to hold and plenty of tiny pieces.  I added a few Bolt Action backpacks that I had lying around as they seemed to fit the scale of these femme fatales:

 

 

 

 

I also started work on the Leman Russ command tank, bulking it out with some FW bits that Nick generously traded for.  It doesn't look like much now, but I'll build up the back engine section into the middle hull to give it a different profile.  

 

Reasoning that this is a lost artifact pre-dating the Heresy and reclaimed from a Space Hulk in the Maelstorm.  All STCs have been redacted as per Huron's direct order and original copies are secreted within the Palace of Thorns secret library.

 

 

 

 

[MagicMan]

I love love love me some Badab, and this thread is shaping up to be amongst the greats! Cant wait for more.

[Luna707]

Really beautiful stuff man, I love your termies!

[hushrong]

And just like that, kids, I wanted the Badab War back into my life.

 

Awesome work you two! TheTrans, your Astral Claws are out of this world. I love the conversion work you are putting into them and Commissar Lager I am digging the build up of your Tyrant's Legion. Using those GSC vehicles converted to guard use is inspiring! 

[Commissar Lager]

And just like that, kids, I wanted the Badab War back into my life.

 

Awesome work you two! TheTrans, your Astral Claws are out of this world. I love the conversion work you are putting into them and Commissar Lager I am digging the build up of your Tyrant's Legion. Using those GSC vehicles converted to guard use is inspiring! 

 

Thanks man!  Glad you're enjoying it, this project has really ignited the 40k passion for me again.

 

Looking forward to doing more conversions once the rest of my bits arrive :)

[TheTrans]

I give you Brother-Legionary Abil-Kubi.

Will whack some fluff and what not up for him soon, but just rhought I'd get some cheeky pics up.

 

 

 

 

Just a trial before I whack into batch painting them.

C&C away gang!! 

Edited August 8, 2018 by TheTrans

[Augustus b'Raass]

He looks great, that's for sure! I love the vambrace. Great detail.

 

I would suggest cutting a bit of colour away. Astral Claws are silvergrey with blue paudrons and gold details. Those all complement each-other quite well. You've chosen bright green for the lenses, which is fine - although your green is a very sharp hue compared to the muted colours of the rest of the ensemble, which draws the brain's colour-focus to its eyes and away from its scheme. But if you then also give it a sand-coloured holster, a red sheath, bloodspatters and blue-green verdigris, it becomes a bit much. Why not keep it a bit simpler and do the holster and sheath in the same colour as the bolter casing, and leave the verdigris? It'd also make your life as a painter a bit simpler as an added bonus! :D

 

I also have some C&C about the picture. It's well-lighted and in focus, but it's very tightly cropped - which blows up the miniature on B&C to such a extent that it becomes hard to appreciate the miniature as a whole - leaving me to focus on areas. Which is a shame, as the whole miniature is it's own composition, which deserves to be viewed as a whole. Why not give it more space? Leave at least half the length of the miniature below it, at least two-thirds of the length of the miniature above it, and its base-width on either side of it?   It might even be that with that added room to breathe and the viewer to appreciate the whole miniature, my earlier comments need to be retracted.

 

Looking forward to more of your excellent work!

Edited August 8, 2018 by Augustus b'Raass

[Son of Carnelian]

Wonderful miniature, but I'm surprised you went with the default Primaris backpack. I think swapping those out for standard Marine backpacks might be a better fit with the Imperial Armor vibe you're going for. Regardless, he looks great and I'm excited to see more!

[Commissar Lager]

The Vigilance Seething  

 

Finally completed work on the rare, unknown pattern Leman Russ recovered from the space hulk Imperius Judgement rescued from the Maelstrom by the Astral Claws subduing a raiding fleet.  All known records of this STC have been deleted from Imperial files except for the ones reserved in Huron's personal library below the Palace of Thorns.

 

Only a handful of these vehicles exist due to the arcane construct of the engine block which requires a faction of fuel of a normal Russ but is prone to frequent shutdowns if the correct litanies are not repeated.  A dedicated servitor skull has been retrofitted inside the power core and it has been rumored that such skulls are of those commanders who have displeased the Astral Claws in previous campaigns.

 

The 'Vigilance Seething' serves as the command tank for Col. Admund Helleman during the defense of the Palace of Thorns:

 

 

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Vigilance Seething looks promising, but why is its engine deck so big? To differentiate it from rank-and-file tanks- maybe identify it as having an overcharged engine?

[hushrong]

The Vigilance Seething looks awesome! You know what they say about tanks with big engines and cannons! Background fluff is great too!

 

Will you be painting your tanks with the Astral Claws colors?

[ephrael]

I would agree with everything that Ausustus posted about colors on your Marine, TheTrans. My only input is about the damage to the marines right shoulder pad. The holes in the pad could only be made if the marine was shot from behind which implies that he retreated from an enemy with his back to them. That’s pretty opposite to all descriptions of how space marines fight, even the morally bankrupt Astral Claws. I would try to keep most if not all damage to the front of your marines.

[gaurdian31]

ephrael-Someone could have sneaked up on him and shot him in the back maybe?

 

TheTrans-Model looks great! Lovely basing. 

[hushrong]

Just because the marine has battle-damage toward the rear of its armor doesn't simply mean he ran from a fight. Although running is not beneath an astartes after reading some NL novels. This marine could have shielded a downed comrade from oncoming fire presenting his back to suffer the brunt and he took two good rounds to the shoulder. He could have been caught in an ambush with an enemy springing from behind and opening fire. Perhaps during a melee he was knocked down and his would be killer tried to end the fight with a few bolt pistol rounds and just missed horribly while the Astral Claw scrambled to get back up.

[Commissar Lager]

The Vigilance Seething looks awesome! You know what they say about tanks with big engines and cannons! Background fluff is great too!

 

Will you be painting your tanks with the Astral Claws colors?

 

Cheers man!

 

Been trying to work out what colors would be best suited for the Tyrant's Legion -- there isn't much in the Imperial Armor books.  Seems to be a lot of greys, with maybe some blue stripes thrown in to link it back to the Astral Claws.  Ideally, I'd go a bit darker than Nick's marines to help them stand out more.

 

Any ideas?

[ephrael]

I’m just pointing out how the battle damage looks to me. I meant it as constructive criticism nothing else.

[hushrong]

I’m just pointing out how the battle damage looks to me. I meant it as constructive criticism nothing else.

The holes in the pad could only be made if the marine was shot from behind which implies that he retreated from an enemy with his back to them. 

No biggie, I just read more into the above quote and just wanted to provide some other ideas why there could be damage on that part of the armor.

 

 

The Vigilance Seething looks awesome! You know what they say about tanks with big engines and cannons! Background fluff is great too!

 

Will you be painting your tanks with the Astral Claws colors?

 

Cheers man!

 

Been trying to work out what colors would be best suited for the Tyrant's Legion -- there isn't much in the Imperial Armor books.  Seems to be a lot of greys, with maybe some blue stripes thrown in to link it back to the Astral Claws.  Ideally, I'd go a bit darker than Nick's marines to help them stand out more.

 

Any ideas?

 

When I tried doing some Tyrant's Legion I was just going to copy the chapter colors. Metallic silver and blue markings, nothing outstanding haha. I think I was just copying the FW book or somebody else's work. I'd have to dust those books off and take a look. I do remember wanting to have an Astral Claw sticking out of the cupola. I could be thinking of something else but there was a tidbit how even Leman Russ' were kind of rare for the TL, or one of their variants, so astartes were charged with their command.

[TheTrans]

Sorry for the radio silence gang, AT got me by the short and curlies so I've been making up some Lucius Pattern armour for the warlord kit.

 

 

But those armour sections are off to the caster for a bit, so time to dig heavily back into the Tyrant's Legion force. 

 

He looks great, that's for sure! I love the vambrace. Great detail.

 

I would suggest cutting a bit of colour away. Astral Claws are silvergrey with blue paudrons and gold details. Those all complement each-other quite well. You've chosen bright green for the lenses, which is fine - although your green is a very sharp hue compared to the muted colours of the rest of the ensemble, which draws the brain's colour-focus to its eyes and away from its scheme. But if you then also give it a sand-coloured holster, a red sheath, bloodspatters and blue-green verdigris, it becomes a bit much. Why not keep it a bit simpler and do the holster and sheath in the same colour as the bolter casing, and leave the verdigris? It'd also make your life as a painter a bit simpler as an added bonus!

 

I also have some C&C about the picture. It's well-lighted and in focus, but it's very tightly cropped - which blows up the miniature on B&C to such a extent that it becomes hard to appreciate the miniature as a whole - leaving me to focus on areas. Which is a shame, as the whole miniature is it's own composition, which deserves to be viewed as a whole. Why not give it more space? Leave at least half the length of the miniature below it, at least two-thirds of the length of the miniature above it, and its base-width on either side of it?   It might even be that with that added room to breathe and the viewer to appreciate the whole miniature, my earlier comments need to be retracted.

 

Looking forward to more of your excellent work!

Thanks for all the CC mate. WIll definitely take all of that under advisement. There will probably be less blood on most of them, so there shouldn't be that bad or a hit there. The green was due to the colouring being that way in the IA books. I quite like the not-black webbing so I may keep that but I definitely agree on the verdigris mate, will be used much more sparingly (and I'll be revisiting the armoured plate to tart it up a bit and simple it down.

Will keep a bit more breathing room in future pictures good sir!! Thank you :)

 

Wonderful miniature, but I'm surprised you went with the default Primaris backpack. I think swapping those out for standard Marine backpacks might be a better fit with the Imperial Armor vibe you're going for. Regardless, he looks great and I'm excited to see more!

I actually like the extra 'bric-a-brac' a lot of the primaris parts bring, always thought standard marine armour was a bit too simplified, but will take that under advisement thanks mate! 

 

I would agree with everything that Ausustus posted about colors on your Marine, TheTrans. My only input is about the damage to the marines right shoulder pad. The holes in the pad could only be made if the marine was shot from behind which implies that he retreated from an enemy with his back to them. That’s pretty opposite to all descriptions of how space marines fight, even the morally bankrupt Astral Claws. I would try to keep most if not all damage to the front of your marines.

 

Definitely not retreating good sir, this late in the war the Astral Claws where heavily outnumbered... but I will let you in on a little secret... that pad will probably get moved..I just accidentally put the transfer on the wrong side :P... thus the holes are on the wrong side for that marine :P.

ephrael-Someone could have sneaked up on him and shot him in the back maybe?

 

TheTrans-Model looks great! Lovely basing. 

 

Thanks mate! 

Just because the marine has battle-damage toward the rear of its armor doesn't simply mean he ran from a fight. Although running is not beneath an astartes after reading some NL novels. This marine could have shielded a downed comrade from oncoming fire presenting his back to suffer the brunt and he took two good rounds to the shoulder. He could have been caught in an ambush with an enemy springing from behind and opening fire. Perhaps during a melee he was knocked down and his would be killer tried to end the fight with a few bolt pistol rounds and just missed horribly while the Astral Claw scrambled to get back up.

Love it posed that way mate!

 

 

I’m just pointing out how the battle damage looks to me. I meant it as constructive criticism nothing else.

The holes in the pad could only be made if the marine was shot from behind which implies that he retreated from an enemy with his back to them. 

No biggie, I just read more into the above quote and just wanted to provide some other ideas why there could be damage on that part of the armor.

 

 

The Vigilance Seething looks awesome! You know what they say about tanks with big engines and cannons! Background fluff is great too!

 

Will you be painting your tanks with the Astral Claws colors?

 

Cheers man!

 

Been trying to work out what colors would be best suited for the Tyrant's Legion -- there isn't much in the Imperial Armor books.  Seems to be a lot of greys, with maybe some blue stripes thrown in to link it back to the Astral Claws.  Ideally, I'd go a bit darker than Nick's marines to help them stand out more.

 

Any ideas?

 

When I tried doing some Tyrant's Legion I was just going to copy the chapter colors. Metallic silver and blue markings, nothing outstanding haha. I think I was just copying the FW book or somebody else's work. I'd have to dust those books off and take a look. I do remember wanting to have an Astral Claw sticking out of the cupola. I could be thinking of something else but there was a tidbit how even Leman Russ' were kind of rare for the TL, or one of their variants, so astartes were charged with their command.

 

You are thinking of like the 'Tyrant's Pride' pack or some :cuss which was a baneblade leading a squadron of leman russ vanquishers mate. The Baneblade had a Astral Claws commander/crew as due to the dwindling supply Huron wasn't trusting normal humans with his precious Baneblades.



Anyway, we finally got the players pack for the doubles tourney and it totally destroyed our army compositions (no special characters and only a patrol detachment allowed,....) so was pretty put out by not getting to run Huron as Huron... but I've gotten over that and ready to get back in with some gusto! 

So the army will no consist of (I'll be using BA rules as they allow ancients in TDA.. and I love the 5+ FNP banner they can get for their ancients.. really represents the die-hard(er) attitude of the claws at this point.

So:

HQ
Huron Counts-As
Captain in Cataphractii Armour w/ Combi-Flamer and Lightning Claw (:cuss load out..but what can you do)

 

Ancient Klietor
Librarian Dread Counts as. I've build the leviathan with speakers where the auxiliar guns go... he'll be taking the powers of Quickening..as you imagine him really working himself into an indignant rage and 'Unleash Rage' which will be essentially him exhorting his brothers to git in dere and get 'er durn!

Elites

Ancient Neriglissar
Terminator Ancient with Lightning Claw + Reroll to hit in Fight Phase and 5+ FNP banner

 

The Nemean Kataphrakts 
Terminator Assault Squad (3x TT/SS, 2x LC) Fluff to come on this bros, but they act as not only a bodyguard to Huron, but his envoys etc. Kataphrakts could change..feel free to advise a better name!

Troops
Tyrant's Legion Disciplinary Demi-Cohort

5x Marines w/ 1 Lascannon. These are just some guys to be keeping the Tyrant's Legion in line.

So the rejigg to force construction really did murder my army idea... but now I get to build a full squad of Truescale Termies which I've really wanted to.

So all I need to build now is the termies and finish off Kiletor.... so not a too big of an ask which is good.

Will keep you crazy kids updated, but will start work on the termies tonight! 

[Kriegsmacht]

Really nice work on the Warlord. The Mars pattern is nice but i'll always prefer Lucius over it. :tu:

[Pearson73]

The Lucius overhaul looks just right, really nice job.

[hushrong]

I will never tire of seeing that titan! That is honestly some great work building that Lucius armor! And is that armor off to the caster for more titans to come? :)

 

Dang, I was off on the tank commander fluff. I swear I have the book I just haven't touched it in years (sadly). Also looking forward to seeing this army on the battlefield in that upcoming tournament you mentioned.

 

 

I also don't think I have thanked you for your work on these Primaris minis! Your use of the mk3 armor on the primaris was awesome and the very thing I needed to see to finish off some conversions. I was excited to use primaris to make bigger marines but the chest felt so lacking when trying to change it. I trimmed down some plastic mk3 torsos and applied them to the minis and haven't looked back, so thank you for that! 

[TheTrans]

I will never tire of seeing that titan! That is honestly some great work building that Lucius armor! And is that armor off to the caster for more titans to come?

 

Dang, I was off on the tank commander fluff. I swear I have the book I just haven't touched it in years (sadly). Also looking forward to seeing this army on the battlefield in that upcoming tournament you mentioned.

 

 

I also don't think I have thanked you for your work on these Primaris minis! Your use of the mk3 armor on the primaris was awesome and the very thing I needed to see to finish off some conversions. I was excited to use primaris to make bigger marines but the chest felt so lacking when trying to change it. I trimmed down some plastic mk3 torsos and applied them to the minis and haven't looked back, so thank you for that! 

More titans to come indeed mate! Will start on the Reaver kit when I get my hands on it. Also at the casters so if peeps are in need of some basic lucius armour and aren't afraid to get their hobby on, it will be available for purchase :P. 

 

Oh mate I would have to say the vraks trilogy and the Badab war books are far and away the best 40k lore you can get! Well the tournament is at the end of october.. so while I only have to paint 12 odd models, you'll definitely start seeing more of Byron's stuff popping up haha.

 

Very glad to hear that it helped in some way mate! :)

[Vairocanum]

Very nice plasticard work on the lucius pattern! Hope the casted parts come out well and looking forward to seeing the true scale terminators!