++A Cloak of Foes Felled++ Thunder Warriors in 30k

[TheTrans]

Alright, managed to source a 'cheaper' angron so I've quickly started whacking away on a 'proofing' model and see if its at all doable to repose angron without it looking too much just like a 'reposed angron'

I think I've managed to change up the flow of the model a fair whack.

Pretty basic at this point, but you can sort of get the jist. I printed the shoulder pad, but to me its a mite large, so I'm going to print it a tiny bit smaller. The grey bit on the helm, although hard to see, is an Oni mask which all the thunder warriors will get some form of mask happening over their helms.

This guy pose is just so as I'll have him holding up a vexillia, and once I've got the shoulder pads sorted I'll be putting the wolf from horus' shoulder over his head and sculpting all the fur down and around him similar to the ole roman standard bearers.

Still not 100% on the shoulder pad design, but if anyoe know any decent 3d files out there for a different option please shoot.

As always CC is more than welcome as Thunder Warriors aren't overly well documented outside of some Blanche art and some more recent bits in the Valdor Novel.

Cheers!

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Really cool conversions so far!

[TheTrans]

Really cool conversions so far!

Thanks mate, slowly getting there!

So I managed a bit more on the TW last night, Still have been indecisive about the head. I've really wanted these guys to have like this vibe of hiding who they are, resplendant armour, while rotting underneat sort of thing, while still having some of the TW noble savagery.

So I whipped this up, is legit a couple of files from thingiverse smooshed together.

So the intention/jist is there will be this lovely marble, aquiline face, but behind that is all gross cables, lenses etc

To also follow this up, I created a backpack from a few different files just smooshed together.

Main parts are really are MK2 pack. I wanted this to look a little hodge-podge/well worn. It will eventually have a few fluid vials and tubes running into the armour as this will also be acting as a life support devices in the very literal sense. A diesel powered dialisis machine sort of dealio.

Finally a pic of the extra work put in last night as well as a super imposed head and backpack so you can start to get the feel for this bad boy!

So will kick those printing off tonight so I can get to work on his vexillia and side arm.

[Markus_]

Very promising start, looking forward to see how this develops.

[TheTrans]

Ok have done a bit more work over the weekend and actually getting a bit more happy with how the first TW is coming out. After a good whack of GS press moulds of other parts so I can replicate his armour, i think I'm where I need to be.

He still needs his banner to be done as well as a cloak and some fur, but i think you defiinteily get the vibe of where its going.

(Skulls have since been removed)

Pic Came up hella smol sorry, but shows it clearly enough. You can see on his backpack there is a heap of vials and what not, this is as I imagine his backpack is a life support system in an even truerer sense than what normal marines have. I've also added like the admech backpack as an almost drug dispenser to keep the level of pain or what not down as I imagine TWs this old aren't the happiest of campers.

So I really figured that TW would have some weird and whacky atom-punk style weapons, so given the main squad of guys are going to be nullificators, I figured they better get toxiferrum flamers. Thus I give you the above pciture. Wanted it not to be 'just a flamer' so made it a weird bull-pup configuration radiation cannon looking thing, think it came out pretty well and for those playing at home, its hella large!

(again sorry for smol pic)
This is where i'm at with the aether-shock maul. After reading some snippets from Valdor about some of the TW weapons, I wanted it to be big, heavy (so the TW will be nominally using them in a two-handed grip) but wanted some echoes of custodian gear. Thus I give you this big, ole choppy blade that will have plasma sort of dripping off it.

So thats where I'm at so far. I've started work on a iron-sides esque cortus contemptor dread, but its still a fair whack off yet.

Always open to some thoughts and opinions espcially given how little information we have on the ole thunder warriors!

Very promising start, looking forward to see how this develops.

Thanks mate, is definitely a deep dive into the bits box sort of project!

[DaBoiKyknos]

 

 

 

Thoughts on the little quote? :P

Hey, cool Project you got there going!

The quote world well!

But is it "Ragged Prince" or "Tattered Prince"?

Also did you name him after the A Song of Ice and Fire character?

Edited December 8, 2019 by Kyknos of Athena

[TheTrans]

 

 

Thoughts on the little quote?

Hey, cool Project you got there going!

The quote world well!

But is it "Ragged Prince" or "Tattered Prince"?

Also did you name him after the A Song of Ice and Fire character?

Thanks mate!!

 

Good question, the fluff still needs a bit of an ironing out haha. 

 

Been a while since I read the ASOIAF books, who was the tattered/ragged prince again? 

[DaBoiKyknos]

He is the leader of a mercenary company, with a cape made out of a myriad of banners in different colours as his trademark. I thought he was an inspiration for you. Edited February 17, 2020 by Kyknos of Athena

[TheTrans]

He is the leader of a mercenary company, with a cape made out of a myriad of banners in different colours as his tradenark. I thought he was an inspiration for you.

Wow haha, must of jammed in deep somewhere on a subconcious level haha! 

[TheTrans]

Ok, been still doing bits and pieces of this bad boy.

Finally got some more 1.5mm brass rod so I could sort out the banner.

Although there is no real allowance for a banner in a black shields force I'll just be running this guy as my Nullificator Sarge.



Now don't worry, its not stitched together skin :P. The banner will be made up of stitched together remains of fallen foes banners, so will have a good smattering of loyalist and traitor on there to show these thunder warriors aren't as sanguine about being betrayed as Arik Taranis!

[PeteySödes]

Damn Brother, this is some serious :cuss !

 

Love where it’s going, following with a vengeance!

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Holy cow that's some amazing green stuff work!!

Edited December 11, 2019 by Kolgrim DeathHowl

[ranulf the revenant]

Obviously awesome.

[Master Umbra]

Ok, at first I was baffled about the fact that you decided to scrap such a promising first prototype, but oh boy, things are getting hawt in here. Superb sculpting/moulding skills man. It is coming along rather nicely. Be careful with the legs, tho - they might end up looking a tad too thin. This is really knitpicking tho, I wish I was that skilled!

Excellet job so far!

[K0rtmer]

Awesome work, very inspired and skillfully made.

[Pearson73]

Absolutely brilliant.

[TheTrans]

Absolutely brilliant.

Thanks mate! 

 

Awesome work, very inspired and skillfully made.

Thanks brother, skillfully, or luckfully ;)

 

Ok, at first I was baffled about the fact that you decided to scrap such a promising first prototype, but oh boy, things are getting hawt in here. Superb sculpting/moulding skills man. It is coming along rather nicely. Be careful with the legs, tho - they might end up looking a tad too thin. This is really knitpicking tho, I wish I was that skilled!

 

Excellet job so far!

Thanks mate! Yeah the first thunder warrior was based on our 'generic' conceptions of them, but the reimagined one is from the extra tidbits gleaned in valdor! Yeah the legs are probably looking toward the skinny side, but not a whole heap can be down while maintaining the awesome-sauce that is the angron sculpt haha.

 

 

Obviously awesome. You're still using the first tw model, right? Didn't quite get the part where you said you found a 'better' model.

Nah mate, moving toward the angron-based TW design for the rest of them, I want them to have a bit of uniforminty and it actually requires less work haha.

 

Holy cow that's some amazing green stuff work!!

Thanks brother, love using the ole GS! 

 

Damn Brother, this is some serious !

 

Love where it’s going, following with a vengeance!

Thanks mate, got to pull my finger out to finish off the dark mech for the end of Jan, but then its all in after that!

[TheTrans]

Heya gang,

Managed to ge the Dark Mech sorted out for ACT of Heresy V, which was an absolute blast of a weekend and managed to score the Hobby Hero award which was quite the honour given the level of mind bogglingly good armies that where there!

But anyway, currently cleaning out the hobby room for improved hobby vibes, but I've been cracking away low-key on some stuff for the Thunder Warriors.

First up I've written some fluff based on the Valdor book that should hopefully, at the very least, handwavium away a few of the plot-issues with Thunder Warriors being around during the heresy.

20th Legiones Cataegis

The XXth Legiones Cataegis was, akin to their brother Legiones, forerunners to their later Astartes counterparts. The XXth Cataegis, while excellent warriors and shock troops like any of the Legiones Cataegis, they were also trained in the arts of subterfuge, reconnaissance and specialised in the subduing of enemy rear echelon elements.

While the epic sagas and stories told of the Unification Wars boast of grand set piece battles, final stands, apocalyptic barrages and heroic charges, for most of the conflicts during that time, this was hardly the case. The XXth were normally deployed into enemy territory well before the Emperor's unification forces were mustered for a final push.

The XXth warriors were generally secreted in cohort level numbers to not only gather intelligence on enemy defenses, force disposition and supply channels, but to more importantly sow discord and confusion among the enemy populaces. While it does in hindsight sound odd that these large, gene-bulked warriors could hide in plain sight within these enemy kingdoms and empires, but during the wars for unification, post-human soldiers were very much the norm and not the exception. On the outside one muscle bound post-human looked very much like another to the common folk of these areas and many citizens would not question the comings and goings or even orders from these warriors when given.

It should also be noted that while true that certain lineages of Thunder Warriors were prone to degradation of both body and mind for no apparent reason, the Thunder Warriors of the XXth whether by design or sheer luck had significantly lower catastrophic failure rates in their warriors than any of the other Legiones. This unprecedented ‘stability’ allowed them to function as such an excellent, far reaching vanguard and slow-burn sabotage force during the unification wars.

It was these clandestine operations by the XXth and other forces like them that allowed the Emperor and his armies of Unification to force these heroic set piece battles with little to no fear of being obliterated by enemy artillery assets prior to the forces joining battle, while his own artillery was able to maul the marshalling enemy forces safely from range.

These standard operating procedures during the ‘triumph’ at Mount Ararat is what allowed the, by then, massively under strength XXth to not be caught in the treacherous cull of the remaining Thunder Warriors.

It is true that the order was passed down by the Emperor and his Custodes that all of the Legiones Cataegis were to commit their remaining forces and military assets to the final push for the battle of Mount Ararat. It was assumed by the Custodes that due to the Thunder Warriors 'perceived’ blood lust they would happily amass for a headlong charge during the battle and in turn ideally be decimated by the enemy artillery and guns on the approach and save them the trouble after the battle was won. This was the first of many times during and after the Unification Warsthat the Custodes blatant disdain of lesser troops blinded them to many threats, causing untold issues for them and the Imperium in the future.

The planned decimation via enemy would have worked perfectly, but the XXth, although unaware of the coming treachery, followed their usual practice of ranging forth prior to the commencement of battle to sow discord behind the enemies main axis of advance. In the hours before the Battle for Mount Ararat they managed to ambush and destroy several enemy artillery trains that were moving into position for bombardment of the battle ground. Once these were destroyed they roved through the enemy back lines killing what targets they could find.

It was while the headquarters element of the XXth were overrunning an enemy command position that the battle of Mount Ararat was ‘won’ by their brother Cataegis warriors. Crackling vox reports from surviving enemy scouts reporting to their now-dead command elements about the victory of the armies of Unification over their forces. But no more than 5 heartbeats had passed before the lamentation of the enemy scouts turned to exaltation as they reported that the Custodes and a new, unseen force of armoured warriors had turned on the remaining Legiones Cataegis and seemingly murdered them to a man.

The decision was then made by the remaining Cataegis of the XXth, they could either move quickly to Mount Ararat and mount a forlorn hope charge and die with their brothers, or simply fade into the shadows of Terra and reap what damage they could on the nascent empire of a fickle tyrant they had bled so long for.

So more fluff to come no doubt, but at least that should get the ball rolling.

Now I've also decided on the built of the army. I'll be going for an Air-Cav force, fluff loosly being that the TW are causing some sweet insurrection action on like a 'bespin-esque' world, thus a lot of fliers and stuff.

Most of the basic infantry will be based off of Mortians new Drop Toop models, who'll be rocking around in Arvus lighters.

I'll also be running two storm eagles for use by the thunder warriors. I wanted to steer away from the Storm Eagle looks, while still having an imperial vibe to tie them in with the arvus.

Now this is legit just a few 3d models from thingivers that I've scaled correclty to each other so I could 'play' with the parts available to me without yet cutting resin. These still need a lot of tidying, but you can see where it is going.

The main parts used for this are a marauder destroyer and a Valkyries troop bay.

So no cock pit yet, or proper fore armaments etc, but as you can see the shape is starting to get where I wanted it. So while this will be a tradional build, doing it in 3d has made the 'plan' so much easier!!

Hope you're excited as I am for this upcomgin stuff!!

[malika666]

Hmm...now that's a mindblowing flyer!!!

[TheTrans]

Hmm...now that's a mindblowing flyer!!!

Thanks man!! Lets see if I can get it closer in RL!

So first steps of building this bad boy!!

So baby steps at the moment, but you can see its basic shape starting to form up. Will try and get some more pics tonight, manage to get the engines attached last night as well as start working on the under carriage gun turret mount!

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Looking good so far, interested in seeing more of it!!

[Marshal Rohr]

Absolutely love the drop ship

[Ryltar Thamior]

Cool concept - well, concepts plural; the flier is a notable work of ingenuity - and the XXth makes for a logical and interesting incorporation. It's definitely got my own mind working for the various Unification [and Unification-derived] stuff we do over at Vox Stellarum. 

What I'd potentially note is that the way in which the (later) Custodes Ephoroi appear able to infiltrate places disguised as even ordinary human sized (and mass'd somehow) figures - suggests that it's not beyond the realms of possibility for such activities not to be limited only to pretending to be a pre-Unification warlord's genehanced walking biomancy experiments. At least for a few. 

It may also be that, akin to some of the stuff around Alpharius/Omegon being the *smallest* of the Primarchs, that these forerunners to that later legion, might also incorporate within their number some great things in smaller packages - custom units who're pushing close to limits what can be done in a normal, or rather larger than normal [but still broadly 'human'] sized frame. [dangit, you now have me eyeing up some spare Goliath frames and working out how difficult it'd be to put cameoline cloaks on 'em] . 

That Alpha Legion point also touches upon another thought I had when reading your fluff-explication - the rather perplexing material that turns up in some Alpha Legion fluff around them potentially sharing design-elements with the Custodes, being around from ... before there are supposed to be 'proper' Astartes, and all sorts of other things lik that. It's possible to write much of that off as deliberate misinformation, hubris, or the results of in-universe speculation and shoddy record keeping ; but perhaps it is the case that some of your XXth were either deliberately retained for later 'building upon' (possibly, as you've noted, due to their greater 'stability' being a design-feature), or might have accomplished the rather impressive feat of having infiltrated the naescent Legiones Astartes [which, given how that particular setup appears to be working in current fluff, might mean they're actually running around with later Dark Angels - which would certainly go with a certain penchant for dark secrets and such :P ] 

That also supplies another manner in which your XXth might have learned of the plot for Mt Ararat - by habitual Alpha-style OTT paranoia meaning they and/or their operatives were in a position to learn of it, or at least ot make a reasonable inference as to its likely impending occurrence, ahead of time. 

It's also possible that th more 'independent-minded' sorts from this XXth may just never have 'come in' from previous assignments - either through deliberate evasion, because it was a longer-term op, or simply through fog of war meaning the relevant orders never made it through. 

Oh, 'operatives'. Maybe do some of those :P 

Anyway, great work - keep it up!

[TheTrans]

Hey gang,

Instead of doing more work on the Flyer I sat myself down and cut up some angron models to finally sort out the poses of the TW/Nullificators.

So wanted to vary their poses a bit.

From left to right we have the Sarge, who I'll replace his sword with a thunder hammer ti WYSIWYG him up a bit.

The next one is is rocking an Aether-Shock Maul, didn't want to go the pure maul look, hence the big sword/stave thingo. I liked the bit in the Valdor book about the TW's weapon just sort of spewing plasma down its blade to sort of recreate the effect of a power sword, so I'll be idelaly doing that. His pose is meant to be trying to show the weight of the weapon even to a Thunder Warrior in power armour.

Dude 3 is rocking my take on what a toxi-ferrum flamer could look like. I kind of wanted to not go full 'flamer' look but also have a few things alluding to it.

Next one is the same, rocking a toxi-ferrum flamer/raygun. I wanted these two to be a bit more 'military' to keep in mind although the TWs can be vicious and a bit crazy, they are still comepetant soldiers.

Finally the last guy is just ideally posed as him parkouring up a wall or some :cuss to really swing a big nasty hit in from his Aethershock maul sort of dealio!

Just a couple of more close in shots for you.

Now they'll all be WYSIWYG in regards to the CC guys will have their guns slung on straps and the shooty guys will have their staves stored in some way or another (any ideals pelase let me know!).

So now its just a matter of starting to work all the bric-a-brac onto them so they end up like the sarge!

Looking good so far, interested in seeing more of it!!

Thanks a heap man!

Absolutely love the drop ship

Thanks brother, wanted it to still have imperium /STC vibes, but really didn't want it just being a storm eagle or marauader bomber or some such.

Cool concept - well, concepts plural; the flier is a notable work of ingenuity - and the XXth makes for a logical and interesting incorporation. It's definitely got my own mind working for the various Unification [and Unification-derived] stuff we do over at Vox Stellarum.

What I'd potentially note is that the way in which the (later) Custodes Ephoroi appear able to infiltrate places disguised as even ordinary human sized (and mass'd somehow) figures - suggests that it's not beyond the realms of possibility for such activities not to be limited only to pretending to be a pre-Unification warlord's genehanced walking biomancy experiments. At least for a few.

It may also be that, akin to some of the stuff around Alpharius/Omegon being the *smallest* of the Primarchs, that these forerunners to that later legion, might also incorporate within their number some great things in smaller packages - custom units who're pushing close to limits what can be done in a normal, or rather larger than normal [but still broadly 'human'] sized frame. [dangit, you now have me eyeing up some spare Goliath frames and working out how difficult it'd be to put cameoline cloaks on 'em] .

That Alpha Legion point also touches upon another thought I had when reading your fluff-explication - the rather perplexing material that turns up in some Alpha Legion fluff around them potentially sharing design-elements with the Custodes, being around from ... before there are supposed to be 'proper' Astartes, and all sorts of other things lik that. It's possible to write much of that off as deliberate misinformation, hubris, or the results of in-universe speculation and shoddy record keeping ; but perhaps it is the case that some of your XXth were either deliberately retained for later 'building upon' (possibly, as you've noted, due to their greater 'stability' being a design-feature), or might have accomplished the rather impressive feat of having infiltrated the naescent Legiones Astartes [which, given how that particular setup appears to be working in current fluff, might mean they're actually running around with later Dark Angels - which would certainly go with a certain penchant for dark secrets and such :P ]

That also supplies another manner in which your XXth might have learned of the plot for Mt Ararat - by habitual Alpha-style OTT paranoia meaning they and/or their operatives were in a position to learn of it, or at least ot make a reasonable inference as to its likely impending occurrence, ahead of time.

It's also possible that th more 'independent-minded' sorts from this XXth may just never have 'come in' from previous assignments - either through deliberate evasion, because it was a longer-term op, or simply through fog of war meaning the relevant orders never made it through.

Oh, 'operatives'. Maybe do some of those

Anyway, great work - keep it up!

Thanks mate all that info and your thoughts are some awesome stuff to go off of!

Good thinking on the 'body cloak' sort of dealio, is definitely a nice plot hook/hand wavium way to allow some of them to actually infiltrate!

Yeah I do have a few Goliath sptures that will be getting a work out for some of the dieing/cancering out TW that will be the ogryns, some good bits and pieces in there! I'm escpially looking forward to those new stimmers and the bane-guy that are coming out! Also I was originally going to use ab-human helots for this army but swapped to alchem jackers proveance.

There was definitely a a plot I was looking of going down that the 'vivisector' (more than happy to hear better names!) is pretty much the main reason most of these TW's are still going (he'll be a primus medicae). I'll have medicae's attached to all the militia squads, but the medicaes will be based off the Necor Delaque dudes. The plot there would have been that his 'vivisector' has also started messing with the humans under their command to up their combat potential a bit (think fabius bile level of weirdness, less the Babu Dakal messing'.

Oh I like the idea that some may have been kept on ice! Hell that could be just a fun 'aside' story about maybe them doing some clandestine stuff to pilfer one of these untainted dudes so as to allow the vivisector to mess with a 'fresh' TW!! Oh I do like the running around with Marines also!! Another fantastic hook!

I like the idea of them being aware that something may have been up prior to Ararat!! Thats great, could then rejigg the fluff to say that they thought something was up, so they did what they normally did, thus avoiding the trap. If it wasn't a trap, too easy, standard MO for them!!

Yeah Operatives has me thinking!! Possibly a reckon squad!! Ooooh!

But thanks a heap for all this excellent insight man!! By all means keep laying the fluff and your brilliant ideas on me!!

Cheers,

Nick

[TheTrans]

Aight, had a decent crack at bric-a-bracing these boys up over the weekend!

Still need a bit more detainling + backpacks and cloaks so that will be what I'm working on thise week once I get some more resin!

So here we have guy #1 rocking a toxiferrum flamer/what ever I need it to be :P.

Possibly my favourite pose that to me really conveys the weight of the staff/maul thingo.

This is ole parkour mate leeroying into battle.

Finally tacticool guy.

You can see the big pipes coming out of their chests, they are runnign to like a dialysis machine sort of deal strapped to their belts to ideally stop their bodies eating them selves. They'll all end up with the converted kroot pistol just as a bit of a unifying sort of look.

I'll most probably once these guys are done get to work on the dieing thunder warriors that are sort of burting out of their armour. So they'll be using a heap of push moulded angon plates, but also lots of cancerous flesh and what not to show they are starting to go down hill.

Hope y'all enjoying it!