++The Free Flesh is Strong++ - Army Complete P.5

[TheTrans]

Hey Gang, I've got the minidex here for anyone that wants to have a read, I've used the templates that are floating around online to recreate the entries for each unit, with fluff and thematic naming and what not. The format is a bit out of whack as I need to find a right hand sheet template for doing units.. so bear with me there haha. (The copy I'm putting up has a few pages missing as they are straight out of the Redbooks for rules).

Thrilliart Taghmata Minidex

Have a crack off the fluff and let me know what you think gang!! Please let me know if its a bit too Mary-Sue etc!

Holy smokes, your work is so cool, I can't stop myself from freaking out.

At the moment I'm planing an Epic Adeptus Mechanicum army myself (Incaldion themed). And now I want to get an Jotunn- Class Automata in 6 mm. I need to source parts which look the part. This is sooo good.

Thanks a heap brother!! Glad you enjoyed the Jotunn... he took a bit of finangling to get him right and I'm happy how he came out! :). OOh let me know when you figure it out, would love to see it!

I like the insectoid look of the Jotunn Automata, it matches some of what we read in the Black Library books and ties in nicely to the daemon engines of the forty-first millenium. I'm a big fan of Theta-12-Zyvod, you really do have a talent for making characters that stand out. The lance looks good and the combination with the helmet style and circular shield recalls the warriors of antiquity, whilst the fur and mail cloak ties her back into the other warriors of the forge.

Thanks mate!! Yeah really wanted the dark-mech and almost like proto-deamon engine sort of feel, while still having some cybernetica roots (the little R2-D2 head, Dominatar shoulder pads etc!).

Super happy with how she came out! She will be taller than the rest of the Hoplites due to the rust stalker legs, but will very much look like them!

The ingenuity you have with these conversions is refreshing. Just balls out weird, dark sci-fi.
Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

Balls out weird is where its at mate!!

The weirdness sadly will be slowing a bit as I've built everything, but I've got plenty of pictures to come as it gets painted.. although I wonder what I could do with some Vorax ;)...

“Working like a madman” should not be an apology in this thread. Those are the exact words I want to hear!

Uttu is another phenomenal conversion and the fluff behind him is great. The insectoid look is very well executed with the multi legs, the layer of plates, as those two antennae like appendages up from. Even that “prow” on the front makes me think of those Hercules beetles. I can just imagine the top life-like movement as that thing skitters about raining plasma or even ramming and crushing lessers beneath it.

The hoplite is also very sweet! The mix of bits you used go together flawlessly. I just love the use of the stalker legs and when armed with the lance and that shield it looks so characterful.

Or Mad Magos? :P

Thanks mate, super happy with Uttu.. the frontal plates weren't actually meant to be on him in my original invisioning..but the lord Discordant once I got my hands on it was a little smaller and less impressive than I thought it would be...so much blu-taccing and trying this and that... I eventually got to the Uttu design.. which if I need to make some more thanta should be relatively easy to replicate! (Although requires multiple kids haha). Once it came together thats the exact vibe I got as well mate... big ponderous Goliath beetle!

Yeah happy with how she came out... again it was just the slapping together of parts that i thought would look good, then making it all work and stick together haha.

Those are some gorgeous models! I especially like the Thanatar and your Magos. Some nice inspiration for my own Domitar, that keeps lieing around.
Also, how did you make the chain mail parts?

Thanks mate! Have a look around the interwebs, there is some amazing stuff people have done with the Domitars and Iron Circle chassis!!

It is a Green Stuff World chainmail pushmold, Medium size.

Awesome work, dude! Can't wait to see them at Tegular Hive

A local melbourne boy mate?

This is gold mate.
Can't wait to see more

Cheers!! Will do what I can to keep it churning out!!

[hushrong]

Mad Magos it is!

 

Definitely happy you went through all that trial and error to come to that final design. I also just love you went with an insectoid form instead of a bipedal humanoid one. Going beyond the design limits of human flesh just seems right for this force. Flesh is weak but the Free Flesh on the other hand haha :) I’ve also been wanting to build a mechanicus bot to use as an obliterator for my Alpha Legion kill team so I’m taking some design notes from you..

 

Now off to check out this minidex.

[BrotherEndcat]

Jesus christ thats some insane conversion work! Very cool indeed!

[TheTrans]

Hey gang,

 

Sorry for it being so quiet on here of late, have had a few other hobby things to get sorted for tournaments on my 'to do' list...

So had a heap of fun at the Battle of Tegular hive event, I got everything undercoated and zenithal highlighted. I also got the Secutarri and Thallaxi painted for the event (wiil get some pics).

I played 3 great opponents on the day and its the most fun I've had at a GW based gaming event in years (40k around these parts is just people chasing the latest net-filth). It was nominally a Centurion event with some vehicluar leeway.

Round 1 I was defending against a great bloke named Chris Lewis who was rocking some hard as nails Salamanders Termies, dreads and some Tacs with Solar Auxilia support. Bloke was an absolute champ at fielding all my nufty questions. Deployment really suited my army and not his as he had to foot slog through a lot of fire power. We ran out of time due to my newbness but I managed a convincing win just from the shear amount of pain my army could throw out!

Round 2 I played Darcy Williams, he had a whole heap of Iron Hands with some conversion beamer dreads doing their thing. Was a great game, but due to gasbagging and just talking heresy we only got to turn 3 (my fault really). This netted him the win as I had to kill a certain sergeant in ruins and his warlord (he managed to roll the stealh in ruins trait) so he managed the win even though I think I had lost 5-6 models and cleaned out a large amount of his (scoria does work yo!).

Round 3 I played Mitch Wragg, his army was super fun and themey. It was a Dark Compliance army list consisting of mainly Emps Children being support by the stubborn, rending cultist hordes. Reinforcing them was a good number of daemons of slannesh. I think he had somewhere in the vicinity of 100 odd models on the board at the start of the game. This one we actually finished and got to turn 6. Through some amazing rolls on my behalf I managed a win and managed to murder everything but a handful of models that where fleeing. Was a really topsy turvy battle that was saved by a unit of thralls being killed then coming out of reserve (lachraeymarta bless you!).

So all in all, amazingly fun day! I managed to score Event Organisers choice for the conversions and fluff I had written (even though my army wasn't painted) which was awesome beyond belief! Also got invited to one of the ACT of Heresy teams for the event next January in Canberra (the ACT series is a big ongoing campaign/event series in Australia) so that was another huge win!!

Since then I've gotten in one more game for the Omega Celia global conflict the other weekend. We played a 7500pt a side game with 5 players (that took a good 6 odd hours). It was a combination of Dark Mech, Airborne Word Bearers and Sneaky Alpha Legion vs 7500 points of Death Guard with Mortarion leading the vanguard.

God damn was that game fun, from turn 1 it was on for young and old, Typhon siege tanks scattering into themselves, Termite drills popping up under Spartans, massive casualties everywhere. Highlights for me though was not losing a single thrall to 20 odd wounds due to the 4+ armour and 4+ FnP, Varrack-Tar (scoria) killing Mortarion and the Myrmidons led by Watch Lord Enna-Sin murdering countless terminators and dreads with their conversion beamers which somehow where at max range the entire time!!

Again only 4 games into heresy and loving the hell out of it!!

But more important than all that...

 

....preorders went up for this bad boy the other day, which I have promptly thrown money at. (not my model or paintjob!)

Is a joint called Mortian, he, some of you may recall, made some really cool macharius looking leman russes years upon years ago and it seems he is gotten back into business in a big way!! 

The second I saw the WiPs of this I new I had found my LoW for my Dark Mech. Big crab-bane/fellblade, helllls yes!! I look forward to creepifying it a bit, not sure exactly how much I'm going to fiddle with it as I love it how it is, but there will be mods :P.

So with the money put down on this big nasty I'll get my arse into gear and get everything else painted in the coming weeks so I can treat myself with the above .

Pics and hopefully actual progress will be coming soon! 

[hushrong]

The wait was worth it!

 

THAT THING IS A METAL BEAST! Looking forward to you adding that to your forces. Any plans for conversions/upgrades to give it your own twist?

[TheTrans]

The wait was worth it!

 

THAT THING IS A METAL BEAST! Looking forward to you adding that to your forces. Any plans for conversions/upgrades to give it your own twist?

So keen for it mate haha!! I'm honestly looking at it and trying to figure out what can be done to tie it in. One thought has jumped up to start helping tie it in. I could have some chain skirting (similar to what some tanks have hanging around their turrets) around the bottom of it to protect its underside against shaped charges, which will double as making it look a bit more Darek Mech-ish and tieing it into the other models.

 

If you have any suggestions brother, shoot!! 

[ElDuderino]

That thing looks great! Just how big is it?

 

For the dark mechanicus vibe, how about some short mechadendrites at the very front, like mandibles? It would give it a bit of an animalistic look, without going all daemon

[TheTrans]

That thing looks great! Just how big is it?

 

For the dark mechanicus vibe, how about some short mechadendrites at the very front, like mandibles? It would give it a bit of an animalistic look, without going all daemon

Ah...apprently is about 12" by 12", about 4" high and weigs about 1.5 kilos haha.

 

ooh I like it mate, some big thick ones!! Good start, internet points for you brother!! 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

It looks like a multiped tank, from Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex. Edited June 18, 2019 by Bjorn Firewalker

[hushrong]

The protective chain skirts would be sweet. I also like the idea of the mechatendrils and mandible ideas.

 

Thinking back to the chains...maybe a chain-flail like tanks use for mine clearing as a CCW type of defensive weapon/looks. It would be cool to have it on limbs, like a crab's pincer arms, and if an infantryman thought about getting close the idea of being whipped by dozens of chain rolling at high speed would keep them at bay. *I want to say I had a merkava tank model with them but I think they were rollers.

 

Also, I wonder if a 'head' where the heavy bolters in the front are would be cool. Some multi-sensor protrusion jutting out from the body.

 

Just some ideas but regardless of them I cannot wait to see you work some dark mechanicus magic on them.

[Brother Pheidias]

Fabulous work!

[TheTrans]

Ok gang, finally back on the 30k hobby wagon. Had to finish off a AoS army for a tournament(:cuss that is a terrible system) but now that is finally done, fully back into the Dark Mech (espcially with the crab tank being sent out on the 27th and me running an event on the 24ths of August).

I should hopefully have the tech thralls done by the end of the week, but I finally got around to getting some decent pics of the Secutarri and the Thallxi.

First up we have Theta-12-Zyvod's Huscarls, part of the Legio Fureans Compliance Phalanx attache to the Thrilliart Taghmata.

While nominally all of the Mechanicum population of Incaldion are affiliated and do their utmost to support the Legio Fureans, sometimes this is not the case with some of the more ‘independent’ forge-fanes.

Secutarii Phalanx’s are not only used as Titan Guard for the Tiger Eyes’ god machines, but also as bodyguard and enforcer units for the Legio Fureans Compliance Overseers that are needed to make sure the resources from the more unruly fiefdoms reach the Tiger Eyes’ coffers.

Theta-12-Zyvod’s Huscarls are the first most Phalanx within the entire cohort that Theta-12-Zyvod has requisitioned to keep the Thrilliart forge-fane’s production up to scratch. They are well aware that both they and their charge are in no way welcome within Thrilliart. Even more so they are treated as second line troops when supporting (and surveilling) Varrack-Tar’s forces on the battlefield.

While they are nominally loyal to Theta-12-Zyvod and will defend her at all costs, they are also true scions of the Mechanicum and will happily bring ruination on all who stand in the way of Incaldion’ s manifest destiny!

So wanted these guys to clearly be hopilites, but wanted them to have a bit more of a rag-tag and war-worn look as I imagine anything comeing from Incaldion would, given all the new and excellent resrources again would be given directly over the titan manafacturing. Also, even these guys are secutarri and therefore should get better equipment, given these units are more political police than front line combatants, I imagine they wouldn't have the best gear compared to front line Secutarri units actually guarding titans.

Now we have Theta-12-Zyvod's Shield Bearers

When Theta-12-Zybod was assigned to watch over the Thrilliart Forge-fane and more importantly Varrack-Tar Majoris, she made sure she would send a message to the recalcitrant forge-fane and magos. Not only did she bring a full phalanx of Secutarii as her compliance bodyguard, she opted to bring a handful of Thallaxi also.

These being Thallaxi of Incaldion, they are slightly altered to their wider Mechanicum brethren. Although nominally and under the grand sweeps of categorization used across the Mechanicum, they count as Thallaxi, but followed a divergent creation path to their more subdued brethren. The creation process of the Incaldion Thallaxi relies on the usage of conscious host brains, namely severed heads inserted into the Thallaxi’ s cranial aperture. The ‘host’ will generally remain conscious but have no control over their new cybernetic body. Their brain is essentially hi-jacked as a living cogitator to be controlled by a remote cortex-controller.

Essentially, they see and live every act their cybernetic body carries out but have absolutely no control over it. This will eventually cause the conscious brain to descend into madness, which offers no negatives effects to the Thallaxi’s combat viability, but has been seen as quite disquieting to allied forces to have a stoic, unmoving metallic golem with a leering, maddened and quite possibly screaming human face set upon its shoulders.

Finally a group shot of the completed models so far.

It looks like a multiped tank, from Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex.

It definitely has that vibe mate!

The protective chain skirts would be sweet. I also like the idea of the mechatendrils and mandible ideas.

Thinking back to the chains...maybe a chain-flail like tanks use for mine clearing as a CCW type of defensive weapon/looks. It would be cool to have it on limbs, like a crab's pincer arms, and if an infantryman thought about getting close the idea of being whipped by dozens of chain rolling at high speed would keep them at bay. *I want to say I had a merkava tank model with them but I think they were rollers.

Also, I wonder if a 'head' where the heavy bolters in the front are would be cool. Some multi-sensor protrusion jutting out from the body.

Just some ideas but regardless of them I cannot wait to see you work some dark mechanicus magic on them.

I love the idea of some form of 'head' mate. Make it almost like a giant battle automata, that has 'nominally' crewing of implanted coritical stacks etc, I love it!!

I've also found some big, metal tentacle arms over at blood and skulls industries I reckon I'll pick up to have slithering around the bottom of this big bad boy!

I know of the rollers you speak of mate, the allies had them on shermans and chruchills I believe for mine clearance.

Fabulous work!

Cheers mate!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Skitarii hoplites and berserkers.

[hushrong]

Dude, the models are awesome and I am happy to see you back to work on them! The hoplites and thallaxii look stunning and the fluff just oozes characters alongside them. I especially like the thallaxii of incaldion. Just idea of those unfortunates hooked up to a war machine and losing their minds is utterly grim dark.

 

As for spider tank/possibly semi-automata I am excited to see what you do. You’ve dialed the mechanicus to 11 so far so I just can’t wait.

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Loving what you're doing with these guys. The Hoplites look awesome and really quite intimidating. I also can't wait to see what you do with that big-ol' bug tank; I'm interested to see the scale of it next to the minis as its giving my horrible ideas of my own...

[Markus_]

Brilliant fluff and models to boot!

[Isengrin]

Awesome! Those are the kinds of conversions and paint jobs I love to see in 30k.

[Brother Pheidias]

Can hardly express how great an Idea that is. I need to do something with those Cawdor somehow.

[ElDuderino]

Stunning work! The painjobs look great, I like the background you've written too! Very inspiring.

 

Now you just have to figure out how to being that creepy vibe to the giant spider tank, all I can think of is more trapped faces used as cogitators, but that might look a bit derpy on a tank. Looking forward to see what you come up with:)

[Shovellovin]

Excellent work on your models. I love how gritty they are.

[TheTrans]

Hey Gang,

Apologies for the radio silence again, only like to post stuff when I actually have something for you!

So I've got a gamesday/narrative event coming up on the 24th of August that I'm running at mine. Its mainly a good reason to get on the turps with some good blokes, eat some good food and roll some dice!

Anyway, there is a full players pack and whatnot that I've written if anyone is interested. It is also 'canon' in the Aus30k sector which is fun and cool!

Players Pack

Now the big ole walker tank from Mortian has been delayed due to production issues which is a damn shame, so won't be at mine in time for the event, so I've been wracking my brain for the last week or two on how to attempt to make those points up with what I've got floating around the home. One thought was to do some biomechanical Daemons of the Ruinstorm (which I actually need to make 3 brutes for any way :P) but given I still need to finish the dark mech, it wasn't the best idea.

Now we all know necessity is the mother of invention and I was rifling through bits boxes and what not yesterday for anything... and i came upon probably 1.5 knights worth of cerastus kits of dubious quality and just started having a play and what not.

After a few hours work last night I came up with this!

It sill has a lot more work to be done on it, and a hideous amount of detailing to be blasted all over it, but I feel you can see where I'm going with this.

It will end up having a rear mounted vulcan mega-bolter (from the cerastus boi) up over its dorsal armour and I'll be using it as a macharius proxy for the use by the admech. I'll be working on it mainly this week so hopefully with be a bit more forth coming with pics for y'all.

I'm happy so far how it eludes to some brass scorpion feels, while also having alot of design similarities with 'Uttu' my thantar counts as.

Any suggestions or ideas are always welcome gang!!

Excellent work on the Skitarii hoplites and berserkers.

Thanks a heap mate, wanted them looking a bit shifty!

Dude, the models are awesome and I am happy to see you back to work on them! The hoplites and thallaxii look stunning and the fluff just oozes characters alongside them. I especially like the thallaxii of incaldion. Just idea of those unfortunates hooked up to a war machine and losing their minds is utterly grim dark.

As for spider tank/possibly semi-automata I am excited to see what you do. You’ve dialed the mechanicus to 11 so far so I just can’t wait.

Thanks mate. I was pretty stoked about the slight corruption of the existing thallax fluff, thought it added a real extra little bit of horror to the whole thing!

Cheers mate, will be fun I reckon!

Brilliant fluff and models to boot!

Thanks brother!

Awesome! Those are the kinds of conversions and paint jobs I love to see in 30k.

Thanks mate, I'm loving the 30k vibe and community down here in Melbourne!

Can hardly express how great an Idea that is. I need to do something with those Cawdor somehow.

Do it mate!! Although be aware that some of their legs are very crippled-like haha

Stunning work! The painjobs look great, I like the background you've written too! Very inspiring.

Now you just have to figure out how to being that creepy vibe to the giant spider tank, all I can think of is more trapped faces used as cogitators, but that might look a bit derpy on a tank. Looking forward to see what you come up with:)

Thanks mate! Yeah the tank is definitely going to be a bit of a change for me, so I've got no idea what I'll be coming up with for it haha. Although working on the above tank may help a little with that :P.

Excellent work on your models. I love how gritty they are.

Thanks a heap mate!! I've always liked to have models a bit more 'in the battle' than is probably best :P.

[Brother Pheidias]

That's looking so promising I might have drooled a little!

[hushrong]

Sad to hear about the production delay. Can’t wait till it’s in your hands. However the work on the new beetle is sweet! Pretty sweet idea making the armored plying with the shoulder pads. Makes you wonder if it was built with battlefield scraps and a sweet dose of heresy.

[TheTrans]

Hey gang,

Actually cracking away at this bad boy bit by bit.

So have started working on the gun-pod which will be housing the VMB:

So this is just nutting out the basic mounting system of the gun itself. There will be some more pistons and support built into it once I've got the bare bones down!

Next up I need everyones opinion.

Option 1

Option 2

So just need peoples thoughts about option 1 or 2 in regards to the orientation of the armoured plate on the VMB, I'm feeling option 2 as it lents to the whole 'pointed-ness' of the creature, but would love y'all input!

That's looking so promising I might have drooled a little!

Cheers mate! A little drool never hurt!

Sad to hear about the production delay. Can’t wait till it’s in your hands. However the work on the new beetle is sweet! Pretty sweet idea making the armored plying with the shoulder pads. Makes you wonder if it was built with battlefield scraps and a sweet dose of heresy.

Yeah is a bit of a shame, but I suppose its forced my hand to make the above abomination haha. Hmmm oooh I like that, or the gist of it! Maybe Thrilliart has some basic STCs of some knights, but obviously a knight would be useless in some tunnels..bomm #techheresy!

[hushrong]

I’m down for #techheresy!

 

The new crawler is looking nice with the weapon mounted. As for the orientation I like option #1 a bit more. I like the break up of the rounded edges.