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

[TheTrans]

Alright managed some more work over the weekend. Started working on the bulk of the Nemean Kataphrakts/Immortals. 

 

So there we see the beginning of the production line.

Next up I have some hashing out of very basic poses for the 3 Storm Shield guys. I opted to use the Shields from the Custodes dreads as they look like they could actually sheild the model (and more importantly the Tyrant).

 

 

Finally the different work on their chest pieces... I've opted to change up their gorgets to differentiante them as these guys are heroes of the chapter, the envoys of Huron that carry out the Tyrant's will across the Maelstrom zone.. So want them to look like heroes of old. They come with assorted bric-a-brac etc to tart them up a bit, working on some fluff for them at the moment that will explain all this.

 

Will continue more tonight, but I pretty much need to greenstuff/clean up their torsoes, then its onto brick-a-bracing! 

[Luna707]

Man that Custodes dread shield is a fantastic idea, I wish I could find one without buying the whole damn dread!

[TheTrans]

Man that Custodes dread shield is a fantastic idea, I wish I could find one without buying the whole damn dread!

Thanks mate.. they may or may not be from an unsavoury place..as bugger buying 3 dreads to steal their shields :P #worstbloke ;)

 

So slowly but surely getting there, had to bulk up and smooth out the terminator bodies. So I've got the poses pretty much set, they just need some final sanding, some of the shields need rejigging also. (thinking some lion head iconography, maybe some tyrants claw symbols.. or de-ornamentising them... some a bit fancy I feel (1 will be left as is for one of the termies that is quite EC in dress code.

 

Any way here is a rough group shot of Huron, Chapter Ancient and the Nemeans.. just so you get a feel for their presence. Also happy with how even though Huron is based off of the Horus model, he isn't stupidly larger than his bodyguard unit. 

 

 

As always C&C away gang! 

[Luna707]

Sorry I keep commenting on your stuff, but :cuss I love to see all these true scale terminators. Killing it man

[TheTrans]

Comment away thanks man!! 

I've been doing truescale marines for years...but the termies all ways left me stumped, so glad there is an easily repeatable way to smash them out. I feel when building an army and adding conversions thats a key think to look into is uniformity. 

I find you need base line uniformity to allow little details to stand out. If you sort of throw uniformity to the wind..then squads begin to instead of look like a cohesive unit of veterans with little keepsakes, slight wargear variances etc more like just a hodge podge of parts you slapped together because you didn't have any 'doubles' if that makes sense? 

[TheTrans]

Alright actually cracking along at a decent rate now boys. I had to remodel all the Astral Claw shoulderpads to have 'rims' on them as they looked pitifully small on the bulked up true scale termies.

Any way some pics of where I'm at.

 

So I whipped up a Tyrant's Legion symbol to mount the the stormshields for the Nemeans. I've since made a push mold of it so I can easily replicate on all 3.

 

Partial side shot so you can see the side of the shield. The model needs some slight GS touch ups (as well as the tabbard needs some correcting) but over all this is him pretty much done. You can slightly see the rims on the shoulder pads in this pic.

 

Here you can actually get a decent look at the shoulder pads enlarged rim-plate. This fella is festooned with extra blades and also has an ornate axe as opposed to a hammer to sort of put him forward as a bit more of an elegant, finesse-fighter kind of dude... his gorget and hip plates I'll probably do in a marble colour to change him up a bit.

Each of the Nemeans will have their own feel/look as the get closer to completion, really want to convey each of them is a hero/legend of the chapter in their own right.

 

As always lay the boot if you see any issues! 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Great job on that icon! I was planning on doing that very thing when I was working on some Astral Claws a while back, but never got to it. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Terminator's storm shield.

[lionofjudah]

[TheTrans]

Great job on that icon! I was planning on doing that very thing when I was working on some Astral Claws a while back, but never got to it. 

Thanks mate! I loved following your work on the Astral Claws!!

 

Excellent work on the Terminator's storm shield.

Thanks mate! Prefer the largish shields over the little almost buckler-esque ones!

 

[Pearson73]

That icon is wicked, niely done!

[hushrong]

That is just beautiful! The terminators are fantastic but that shield! That just dialed everything up to 11.

[Son of Carnelian]

This is just so crazy. I love the whole new look you've given the Terminators. Recognizable but still unique.

[TheTrans]

That icon is wicked, niely done!

Thanks mate! I originally wanted to just push mould one from a land raider door.. but the Astral Claws stuff is super hard to find now!

 

That is just beautiful! The terminators are fantastic but that shield! That just dialed everything up to 11.

Thanks brother! 

 

This is just so crazy. I love the whole new look you've given the Terminators. Recognizable but still unique.

Thanks mate, I definitely wanted them to still have a 'basic' terminator feel to them (hence use of normal heads, arms etc) while still having them look a bit more like verterans of hundreds of years, almost walking reliquaries sort of thing. I find that stock standard marine termies are far to sparse of cool clutter! 

 

Ok short of a bit of sanding and final gap filling with liqued greenstuff, I'm happy to call these guys done!

 

The big nasty himself, Huron.He hasn't changed a whole heap from the front, except that upon suggestion from some of the delightful peeps here I re-did he loincloth, made it much shorter and tried to get sharper definition the the leather decoration (it was so bloody hard and still not perfect.. but you get the point :P).

 

A little blurry, so apologies for that. Just put a press mold of the Custodes Bro's lions head on Huron to really drive home the use of lion ionography. I also added a few more chains + chained skulls to blend the GS areas in with the resin parts a little more, hope it turned out ok.

 

Now Ancient Zah-Eil hasn't changed a whole heap since his orignal inception, I've since given him a storm bolter (as the next few tournaments I'm using the AC in they'll be running as Blood Angles for a variety of reasons) as well as one of those cool power swords from Sevrin Loth's bodyguard unit. He is obviously rocking the Chapter Banner 'Furor Astra'. Still looking for ideas on painting is up or designs, so please hit me up if you have any decent ideas! 

 

 

Next up we have the vet sarge of the Nemean Eternals, Ancient Iddin-Sin. Yes Ancient is a rank for standard bearers, but part of the still nascent fluff for the Nemean's is they all must be old and have served as an ancient for 50(or insert x legnth of time that maybe ties into the founding millinea of the chapter or something)  years, once done, they are offered to join the Nemeans or continue as an ancient. I wanted him to be quite 'generic assault sarge' but then tart him up a little with a good whack of lion iconography.  

 

 

Next is Ancient Aguha, the Tabar. He is sort of meant to be a consummate warrior, with sword, axe etc.. pretty generic fluff wise..think lucius the eternal.. He is rocking a few daggers, also wanted to have his armour look a little more ornate hence the EC shoulder pad usage, as well as the change up of the hammer's head and shoulder-light sensor thing. I feel by lending them selves out also to slightly chaos archetypes leaves a heap of fun room to possibly to a Red Corsairs army, but with characters from before the fall. I could really image Huron having a body guard of terminators encapsulating each chaos god.. sort of showing he is favoured by all, peon of none... 

 

Final Thunder Hammer termy is Ancient Yazkur-el. I imagine him as being a bit of a ball breaker.. a color sergent Kell sort of dude, exhorting those around him to do the will of the Tyrant etc, hence I've given him a little speaker on his cowling. I see him as being Huron's envoy when he needs to just head-butt some one into following orders where as Aguha would be a little more subtle and insidious. 

 

[TheTrans]

I think I may of maxed out the post size, so apologies there gang...

The final two Nemeans now! 

 

Here is Ancient Domara. You'll note I opted to give neither of the LC weilding bros fall back swords.. while cool.. I do enjoy a little bit of logic to god-like fantasy super humans ;). I imagine Domara as a bit of a new kid on the block, he isn't rocking a whole lot of swag, but is more than keen to show his mettle to Huron and the other Eternals. I wanted him to look a little feral, so kept the very spikey neck piece sort of thing.

 

 

Finally we have the (trule) Ancient Enlil-nirari. This dude has been around for legit for ever. I wanted him to maybe represent a bit of the old guard, that was around well before the cult of Huron was sort of a thing. I like to imagine that even after Huron tore down imperial heraldry and :cuss around badab this guy still proudly rocked the aquila on his chest. Like... he is still loyal to the imperium, but he holds his chapters health and his oathes in even higher regards. So while he probably hates Huron and what he has done to the Claws, I see him as no doubt doing what ever he can to keep Huron alive and further the AC cause as thats what he swore to. So he'll be one that wouldn't make it over to the Red Corsairs I don't think, he will die with the Astral Claws. I tried to keep him relatively clutter free, I imagine Enlil is just so old and jaded he cares not for trinkets and what not.. he is there to get his job done and thats it...

As always please C&C away and if you see any glaring issues please pipe up prior to me washing and undercoating these bad boys haha!

Thanks for having a look! 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The new loincloth work looks great, but if you want a tip for doing something like that pattern again in the future, find some mesh or screen in the right size and press that into the wet GS to set the pattern and then you can work each square to give it more definition. 

 

The gorgets I'm not crazy about because they look too big and most of them still clearly look like a shoulder pad attached to the chest. Very imaginative and a clever idea, but for me, the need a bit more transformation to not look like what they originally were. 

[TheTrans]

The new loincloth work looks great, but if you want a tip for doing something like that pattern again in the future, find some mesh or screen in the right size and press that into the wet GS to set the pattern and then you can work each square to give it more definition. 

 

The gorgets I'm not crazy about because they look too big and most of them still clearly look like a shoulder pad attached to the chest. Very imaginative and a clever idea, but for me, the need a bit more transformation to not look like what they originally were. 

Good thinking on the mesh idea mate, will keep an eye out for something in the future!

 

Yeah thats fair man, I feel they'll probably be the most divisive points on the models. I quite enjoy them, you do not, eacht to their own! But I do certianly get where you are coming from mate and if you do find some better alternatives please hit a brother up! 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your kitbashed Lufgt Huron looks great!

[Marshal Rohr]

The use of Stormcast lion parts is brilliant.

[hushrong]

Yes to all of that. I also cannot get over Huron. Especially with that lions head on his shoulder, that's a touch of brilliance!

[Vairocanum]

Man those are such cool terminators, definitely liking the unique look of them. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Luna707]

Nice work on the pauldron rim, they look suitably formidable 

[steamius]

This are some amazing conversion skills! 

[TheTrans]

The use of Stormcast lion parts is brilliant.

 

Thanks mate, was one of those necessity moments, as there isn't a whole lot of lions head iconography out there (there is the older scibor shields and heads..but they are a little too abstract for my liking). 

Yes to all of that. I also cannot get over Huron. Especially with that lions head on his shoulder, that's a touch of brilliance!

Thanks man, that was a last minute 'oh I wonder how that'll look'. Glad you liked it.

 

Man those are such cool terminators, definitely liking the unique look of them. Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks mate. Next on the to do list for an upcoming events whos rules have kicked me in the nuts again is some scouts.. but I'm tempted to make them as tech heretics or muder-cultists

Nice work on the pauldron rim, they look suitably formidable 

 

Thanks man, tried making push molds of the original sergeant ones from the AS kit, even tried proper silicone molds and resin, then cutting and attaching them. Turned out much easier just to make some up haha. 

This are some amazing conversion skills! 

Cheers mate!

 

 

Ok not been a lot since the big post, but have since primed the minis which are drying as we speak, I'll hit them with a zenithal highlight and chuck some pics up if anyone is interested in seeing what they look like prior to paint going onto them.

 

Also a quick thing for any Badab aficionados.. 

 

Got to run some scouts in the list now to make up PL for termys to deepstrike. I'm actually going to run them as a Renegade Marauder squad, as I honestly don't feel that this late in the Badab War that the Claws would be going through the normal steps of marine induction. I reckon they'd get the black carapace in, some psyco-indoctrination.. maybe some muscle grafting.. then straight into power armour.. no learning steps as a scout I don't think. 

 

So Renegade Marauders are the scouts, the question is do I run them as, Hereteks, Stalkers or Murder Cultists and if you any of you have any thoughts on what either of the 3 would look like, I'd be all ears!

 

Thanks in advance! 

Edited September 20, 2018 by TheTrans

[Augustus b'Raass]

Brilliant modelling, converting and sculpting, buddy! You've certainly upped your game!

 

I love how Ancient Domora has a helmet and lighting claws, but still rocks a hunting horn; how is he going to blow it? :D Leave it on for sure though - it looks cool and is part of the ridiculousness of 40k. :tu: