--++ Legio Solaria Titans ++--

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

  On 2/23/2025 at 4:26 PM, Firedrake Cordova said:

As something of an aside, I'm working my way through Interceptor City, which mentions an experimental Marauder variant which is stripped down and mounts a volcano cannon (it's specialised for taking down large bombers) ... so, flying volcano cannon (as seen in your flyer) are canon now  

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Nice!

 

Clearly i'm a prescient trend-setter!  Now... where are those Lottery Numbers?

 

Struggling to decide if i like the "turret" on top of the Warhawk or not.  It was something i considered for the Seraphim and ruled out, so not sure it fits here either.

Edited February 24 by Lord_Mephistopheles

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

 

A quick shot here of the Blood Angels flyers - the tiny little red thing in the middle being the Xiphon, and then from right-to-left we have a Thunderhawk; a Thunderhawk Transporter; A Sokar-pattern Stormbird; a Warhawk MK IV; and finally the custom gunship "Seraphim".

 

The older Thunderhawk and Stormbird models clearly show where they need revisiting and redetailing - especially the Sokar Pattern which now needs to serve as more of a visual and evolutionary bridge between the non-STC Warhawk Mk IV and the STC-based Thunderhawk variants.

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

In my last post here, i made the point that the older models of the Stormbird and the Thunderhawk weren't quite up to scratch in terms of the level of detail, and their overall appearance compared to the newer aesthetic.  In addition, they'd lost their familial lineage - not that the Thunderhawk and Stormbird really had one to begin with.

 

I've therefore been working in the background to correct this, and below is my current progress on the Stormbird update:

 

An almost complete rebuild with the aim of being a clear step-down in size from the Warhawk, and starting to evolve to a more Thunderhawk-like design.  The core troop area thus reduces in size, and only provides 4No. drop doors instead of 6No.  The weapon loadout is reduced and changed.  The cockpit and nose changed.

 

Obviously a lot of panelling / armour plating etc. detailing work to be done still, but this shows the trend.  Next task will be a Thunderhawk update to match.

FYI - aside from the "Seraphim" which is a pimped-out custom ride, i've decided that Warhawk / Stormbird / Thunderhawk are general classifications for size of vehicle, rather than Stormbird being an encompassing term which also applies to the Warhawk etc.  Hence:

 

"Seraphim" - a custom gunship / dropship / light spacecraft originally used by Sanguinius during the Crusade.
Warhawk-class, Nephilim-pattern dropship
Stormbird-class, Ophanim-pattern dropship

Thunderhawk-class, Malakim-pattern gunship

Thunderhawk-class, Elohim-pattern transporter

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

Today in the increasingly-inaccurately named "Legio Solaria Titans" topic...

The latest updates to the Blood Angels air wings!  All the below models have been rebuilt, starting from the Warhawk and trending / evolving towards the Thunderhawk. All models obviously require further detailing and panel work, so are very much WIP at this stage, but i think i've captured the design evolution.

 

Thunderhawk-class, Malakim-pattern gunship

 

 

The Thunderhawk itself is a local variation on the typical STC, being only a twin-engined flyer, but with significantly uprated engines over the standard Mars-pattern.  In my head, i see this as the local Forge World adapting the design to simplify it and aid maintenance, as there is no longer a need to access a centrally located, ventral engine embedded in the main hull.  Flare shields haven't yet been added but will be, along with secondary weapons.

 

Stormbird-class, Ophanim-pattern dropship:

 

 

In the next weight-class up, the larger Stormbird.  As this is styled more of a dropship vs. the Thunderhawk which is a gunship with modest transport capability, there are more significant changes.  The hull gets "fatter" to accommodate a larger troop capacity, with large drop-doors added.  Missing for technical reasons are the void shields.

 

Warhawk-class, Nephilim-pattern dropship:

 

 

The Warhawk took a bit more getting right, as I wasn't happy with the nose or cockpit arrangement - there was no evolutionary path i could see, which i think i've now rectified.  Otherwise, remains the same as previously, albeit some tweaks to the wing arrangement to hint at more commonality between the designs.  All three have attempted to show wings slightly arcing round to the front in a pincer-type effect, designed to be somewhat evocative of the "bird of prey" from the naming conventions, and also that of another extremely-famous sci-fi franchise...

 

 

Finally, the size comparison!  There is a largely linear size differential between the three.  The Thunderhawk Transporter won't fit in the same linear pattern, but as it's an entirely different type of vehicle i don't have an issue with that - albeit that is the next flyer i intend to block out to a similar standard as these before i start detailing.

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

Work on the flyers continues - but having found an hour to have a fiddle, i've finally gotten round to changing the material mapping for the 'Seraphim' to the Sanguinary gold colour scheme...

 

My issue is that i'm now not sure it looks "Blood Angels" enough, and I'm wondering if keeping the engine pods red, along with the secondary wings would work, or whether that's veering toward Custodes territory?  Or does it stay completely red, as that is after all the Legion colour scheme...

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think your right in that you need a bit more red on it to prevent it being mistaken for Custodes.

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

  On 3/25/2025 at 3:15 PM, Firedrake Cordova said:

I think your right in that you need a bit more red on it to prevent it being mistaken for Custodes.

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It certainly needs something doing, but changing it to red engine cowling and red winglets didn't look right.  

 

 

I do like the "all-gold" look, but honestly, it gives me more "Imperial Fists" vibes than Custodes.

I wonder if things like putting the BA logo on a big red circle might help.  A bit more iconography on the wings.  that sort of thing.

[Firedrake Cordova]

What about red fuselage, gold everything else?

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

I tried a couple of iterations.

 

Red Fuselage, gold wings:

 

All gold, red highlights:

 

I think that i'm coming round to the idea that it's either got to be all red, or all gold.  The "mix'n'match" approach isn't working for me.

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

Who wants a hi-res image?  Anyone?  Hi-res image sir?

 

 

Anyone who spots the deliberate mistake will gain 10 points for their House.

 

And no, it isn't the fact that the specular lighting i thought i'd included for the Doomstrike missile from the Warmonger hasn't actually worked so it just looks like an ICBM is floating in mid-air...

[Firedrake Cordova]

That looks pretty impressive.  Unfortunately, it looks like the B&C's upload process debigulated the image a bit.  

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

  On 4/1/2025 at 7:32 PM, Firedrake Cordova said:

That looks pretty impressive.  Unfortunately, it looks like the B&C's upload process debigulated the image a bit.  

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Really? That's vexing. It's meant to be a 12k x 5k render that you can zoom right in on...

 

I'll stick the full version on a public Google Drive link tomorrow and post it. 

 

I want to try and get the armour plating and limited detail greeblies sorted on the flyers so I can re-render it and fix the "deliberate mistakes".

 

Also if anyone has any experience in Photoshop or AfterEffects or similar and either wants to, or could be talked into, adding some SFX for things like lasers or something...

 

I may also try to run an animation render at some point but we will see. I am just playing around at this point, but if anyone has any designs or ideas/concepts they want to see me tackle I'd be well up for it!

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

Well, let's give this a go then:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-w3JcC7CzaPzcc0pcGRn992FTxeNZnsU/view?usp=sharing

 

Does that link to an absurdly-large *.png file of above image, at a 12k x 5.5k resolution?

[Firedrake Cordova]

Yes, but you have to download it, rather than using the web viewer (it's a 70MB image file)  

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

Well, at least it's back to robots....

 

Got a bit bored of panel detailing the Blood Angels, so moved onto something else for the rapid dopamine fix!

 

Previously, the Cybernetica contingent of the above consisted of a Thanatar and a Dominar... and nothing else.  I was determined i wasn't going to get drawn in... and then i started reading Lexicanum articles... and i was done.

 

Relatively recently, the model line got buoyed by the addition of the Thallax and Ursurax, and while i'm a huge fan of these models (the Thallaxi in particular), modelling them didn't interest me for a couple of reasons:

1) they're complex models, but small;
2) i love 'em just as they are so there's no room for me to do anything with them.

 

While i've previously modelled a few things - mostly Astartes vehicles like the Rhino, Predator and Stormspeeders - that are as per the GW model, these have been done with future things in mind.  Again, with the Thallaxi, there's no development of them, so no point.

Where there IS development however, is in investigation of the "missing" classes of Cybernetica robots!  Now the 40k Cybernetica models don't excite me, but the older 30k models do... and that is the time period where lots of different classes were hanging about, rather than the current setting, and also before the "... lost to Imperial Science..." deus ex occurred.  Having already got the Thanatar and Dominar models, representing the ultimate evolutionary end-point of Mechanicum design before they become Knight- and Titan- sized, i started with the Castellax, and then moved on to the Cataphractii and Baharrat... and attempting to show design evolution through them all.

 

• The Castellax, on the RHS of the image, is pretty much as the GW model, save the affectation of the half-plated "head" to match the others.  Bolt cannon, bolts and power claws - basic.

• The Cataphractii, which is the next robot in from the Castellax, has been re-imagined slightly from it's wiki entry and now fulfils the role of heavy weapons / fire-support.  Bigger than the Castellax, and armed with a heavy bolter / power claw combi; a Cognis-pattern Lascannon; and a shoulder-mounted Tigris-pattern Heavy Conversion Beamer.

• The Baharrat, in the centre, is in the heavy assault role.  Built on a similar chassis to the Cataphractii, it closely follows it's fluff and also departs from the deliberate asymmetry elsewhere.  Armed with 2 Reaper-pattern rotary autocannon on the shoulders, this one still needs work to complete and the intention is it will have the "circular saw" close-combat weapon from the Castellax, and a flamer mounted on the other arm.

• The Dominar has been seen round these parts before, and again is largely as GW-designed, however i've tweaked the scale and added a substantial melta-destroyer to it's shoulder mount.

• The Thanatar - also previously seen - remains as-was, as a hybrid between the Thanatar and the Thanatar-Calix.

I plan to complete some of the detailing on these - which is mostly completing the Baharrat, sorting material assignments throughout, and adding the "barcode" markings and a few glowing lenses etc. over the next week or so, and then i think that's Cybernetica completed.

[Lord_Mephistopheles]

As it's the school Easter holidays in my part of the UK, meaning a lot of people are off work and it's quiet - combined with good weather - i've had some time this week to fiddle with the robots as there hasn't been a lot on.  The detailing has thus come along, barring one minor issue where the drawing file corrupted for the Cataphract, hence i had to rebuild it from backups!

 

 

Lenses added, albeit the glow effect isn't pronounced because of the lighting. 

 

Materials sorted, although looking at the render now i see i need to mirror the shoulder armour on the Baharrat to break the "right-shoulder bronze" continuity. 

 

Added the identifier barcoding, which i've decided is how the Tech-priests identify individual chassis and weapon configurations. 

 

Updated the Baharrat weapons.  Left arm is now the circular cutter with a built-in flamer.  Changed the shoulder rotary autocannons to make them look more autocannon-y and less bolter-y.

 

Changed the head and chest armour on the Cataphract-class, as the previous version was too "Coneheads" (and didn't really show an evolutionary development of less "flattened dome in the torso" and more "distinct "head / facemask"):