***REDACTED***

[Lucerne]

out of curiosity have you considered filing down the upper boot bit, to reduce the platform shoes look?

 

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-AT/Word-Bearers-Legion-Gal-Vorbak

 

These guys may be useful for leg/boot design inspiration?

 

Also your painting is fine- maybe look into new techniques to experiment with? Extra weathering, new wash types, etc?

Edited March 13, 2021 by Lucerne

[deathspectersgt7]

Take your time mate. Hear you on the painting . have not painted anything in two years. Loved Averland Sunset. Can't wait to see your gunline put together. Having a hard time getting the blade guard box . Have bits for them but no models .

[Doghouse]

Lucerne: Well spotted, I never thought of that.

 

Did you mean this bit?

 

 

If so that shouldn't be too hard to change because it's attached directly to the shin rather than the foot and then I can just sculpt the new one in it's place.

 

Looking at those pictures I've filled the groove in on the sole of the foot that brings a bit more in line so thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

 

Yeah I'm hoping the airbrush will reinvigorate my painting. Got a couple much needed weeks off work coming up so hope to chill and paint for a bit. 

 

Deathspecersgt7: Thanks mate, I think it's probably just a bit of burn out. Yeah those Bladeguard are quite nice, looking at the parts alone I can see lots of potential from those kits.

 

[Lucerne]

Lucerne: Well spotted, I never thought of that.

 

Did you mean this bit?

 

 

 

If so that shouldn't be too hard to change because it's attached directly to the shin rather than the foot and then I can just sculpt the new one in it's place.

 

Looking at those pictures I've filled the groove in on the sole of the foot that brings a bit more in line so thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

 

 

Yeah I'm hoping the airbrush will reinvigorate my painting. Got a couple much needed weeks off work coming up so hope to chill and paint for a bit. 

 

Deathspecersgt7: Thanks mate, I think it's probably just a bit of burn out. Yeah those Bladeguard are quite nice, looking at the parts alone I can see lots of potential from those kits.

Yeah not sure if it has a clever name but I mean the bit over the bridge of the foot, so yeah that.

[Slave to Darkness]

 

Yeah not sure if it has a clever name but I mean the bit over the bridge of the foot, so yeah that.

 

 

The MK 3v pinkie protector?

[Doghouse]

I think the entire boot is referred to as a Sabaton which should not be confused with the Swedish heavy metal band with a similar name and more likely to be in line with the wooden shoe known as a Sabot. 

[Slave to Darkness]

Well I just subbed to that new Imperium mag and I guess I may as well truescale the Primaris. Gonna be paying very close attention to what your doing now. 

[Doghouse]

Well I'll probably chuck up a tutorial at some point if it helps but if you have any questions or need pointers let me know. They are quite forgiving if you are happy to make a few compromises or you can go whole hog like me.

 

One thing I found extremely useful was a cheap dremel, cuts down on a ton of cutting.

[Doghouse]

Bit of an update, hopefully more over the rest of the weekend.

 

Hard at work on the first twenty guys at the moment. I did try altering the upper part of the foot and while it looked really good it was a lot more work so what I might do is make some in that style later from scratch.

 

I'm aiming for 20 as you can see here for now, I'm seriously fighting the urge to go with a proper Great Crusade Expedition at this point with Remembrancers, hangers on and stuff. I'm really, really tempted to go full 100 strength company but my initial goal is 50.

 

If I were to go this route I'd have to set the army at around 40 years before the Heresy as this is about the time that the Mk IV Maximus made it's first appearance according to The First Heretic novel. 

 

What I am currently doing is production lining these guys which I feel is very fitting for a Heresy style army because to me the age of Imperial Truth had a much more progressive mass manufactured tech feel over the infinitely more superstitious and faith slow to change based tech of the more modern era leading up to the return of Guilliman. I'm doing each stage on each guy at a time in bulk then going to go back and clean up the GS on each as individuals.

 

 

These will hopefully be my first either two squads or single platoon depending if I can fight the lure of chaos. Something about a twenty man squad of Astartes with 2 wounds each being supported by proxy Imperial Army in the form of cultists is extremely appealing and I am getting some serious Great Crusade forums Nostalgia thinking about it.

 

Got some interesting parts coming in the post for the next squad I'm assembling and may make a minor alteration to the Captain. I really cannot wait to get started on the second squad, that one is going to be something really cool.

 

At the moment not sure what I want to do with the paint scheme. The more I get into this the more a Chaos army of Alpha Legion screams to me. I love the idea of old school platoons charging into battle so appealing speaking as someone that cut their gaming teeth on the original Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus. Maybe Great Crusade Iron Warriors or crusading Death guard, either of those would be really fun...

 

But that can wait till later, too many ideas and options running through my head but for now it's build, build, build! :D

 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

Hard at work on the first twenty guys at the moment. I did try altering the upper part of the foot and while it looked really good it was a lot more work so what I might do is make some in that style later from scratch.

 

I'm aiming for 20 as you can see here for now, I'm seriously fighting the urge to go with a proper Great Crusade Expedition at this point with Remembrancers, hangers on and stuff. I'm really, really tempted to go full 100 strength company but my initial goal is 50.

 

 

I like how that escalated quickly. "I'm aiming for 20 marines. I should do a proper Great Crusade Expedition, with a lot more than marines. A 100-Marine full company, but for now we'll just go with 50 marines". 

 

It's something , on that note about remembrancers and hangers-on, we did for the early phases of the Vox Stellarum Horus Heresy effort - a small number o Remembrancers that were Terran War of Unification veterans that'd been semi-discharged from armed service, for instance.

 

Look forward, as ever, to seeing wht you come up with ! 

[Doghouse]

Thank mate

 

Yeah kind of how my brain works I'm afraid . 50 is a realistic and credible goal but I expect it'll only be 20/30 for the time being. But the rate I can churn these out now 100 is extremely plausible and I am really enjoying making them. I also have the parts to hand for most of it such as these for the second squad:

 

Test Astarte and reworked Captain.

 

 

I've added a Mk IV jump pack to the Captain and figured to heck with it, him screaming out of the sky supported by elite Raptors is just too cool not to do.

 

With the things I have to hand I could right now make two twenty man units and fifteen jump troops with 60 cultists/Imperial Guard. I've got enough bodies for about another fifty or so and can still make Deathspectresgt7 his Soul Drinkers Captain. I've got a couple of weeks of coming up in just under a month so I am going to lock out the world, chill, make marines, relax and play with my new airbrush.

 

One thing I did see on the Cult of Paint Youtube channel was a Plaguebearer in flesh tones that looked really nice. The idea of using them as fledgling daemons is another excellent option.

 

The Remembrancer veteran idea is quite a nice one. I've been teaching myself Zbrush so may at some point make some Great Crusade hangers on at some point and 3d print them.

 

[Midnightmare]

Great work mate, your conversions are always so inspiring!

 

I must say like the fluff you have going on with this project too :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate. :)

 

This project kind of feels a bit all over the place at the moment but some ideas are starting to take shape...I hope. I'm mostly getting excited to start painting to be honest but need the surfaces to be clean and smooth before I press on if I use metallics.

 

I think it's one of those heck it's a fun runaway train ride so we'll worry about where it ends up later kind of projects.

 

Seems I am five short on the Jump Packs but ploughing on regardless. The packs actually make them easier to hold while sculpting stuff onto the bodies which is a plus. 

 

 

I'm thinking full on fifteen man Raptor squad but again I could go with loyalist rules and make some Vanguard, still early days! :D

[deathspectersgt7]

Coming along nicely . Like the powerfist. Looks like he is itching to use it.

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate.

 

One last update for today. The more I work on these guys the more I am thinking I should go full Alpha Legion on them because they are looking too uniform and clean to me for a secret project created in the midst of humanity's greatest civil war. Having said that I don't want to abandon the idea either because I think it's really fun, so slight course correction time.

 

I'm going to carry on with what will now be Alpha Legion but reboot the Novus Astartes into something much cruder and much more Frankenstein in appearance. So to explain a little more about the original idea I've always liked the idea of the original Astartes being too human which proves to be their failing in my eyes so when later generations are created hypno-therapy and conditioning is used to place them under greater control. There was an article in white dwarf years ago that listed the entire schedule of an Astartes for a day and it came across to me as being rigidly controlled with next to no free time which kind of lends itself very well to how I always envisioned them to be in contrast to each other. The idea at the time of the article was that Astartes were far too powerful to be left to think for themselves and become prey to the lure of Chaos. 

 

Of course the novels portray Astartes differently for the most part with far more humanity because it makes for a much more interesting story when the protagonists have conversations and express opinions beyond just "brother pass me more ammo" or silently just getting on with the job at hand. I think that might be why I like the Astartes movie so much actually, no chatter or banter just follow orders.

 

So I think I am going to make these guys in Mk V variants that look like they have been knocked together into an unofficial armour mark but have had half their head removed in a rather crude attempt to control them but not quite lobotomise them at the same time. So for this I am going to use the same bare head on any of them without a helmet using the one from the Assault Intercessors.

 

This is the basic mock up so far but I want to add some little cables and things yet and generally tidy things up.

 

 

 

[Doghouse]

And another quick update, maybe more later if I get more done today.

 

The plan I have forming now is that Malcador had known of Isla's project for some time. Isla had not been vocal over her concerns of the free will of the Astartes so as not to draw attention, or risk sabotaging the extensive network of contacts that she had spend decades establishing on Terra amongst the fledgling departments and organisations of the newly forming Imperium. She had diligently and patiently planted the seeds that would grow over time, favours here, promises there, even going as far as to bribe or blackmail some, so convinced she was that the Astartes would be their undoing that she secretly went about her business with utter focus and determination. She could not allow herself to fail.

The fall of the [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] Legions had been the catalyst that had forced her hand and given her the opportunity that she had been waiting for. With over two hundred aspirants of [REACTED] being transported in stasis to [REDACTED] for dissection and examination Isla and a small team of elite mercenaries skilfully hijacked the transport mid warp jump, making it appear as if it had been destroyed before heading to a secret heavily shielded and converted mining crawler located on the side furthest from the Sun on Mercury. 

The idea is that Malcador becomes aware she is up to something and in return for not shutting down her project he tasks her and her Novus Astartes to find Konrad Curze. So it's kind of like these are not the ones responsible for the death of Curse but instead were the one that provided the co-ordinates to the assassin that did. So they would have been hunting him and taking out small key targets along the way as directed by an agent of Malcador. The plan was never to develop Isla's Novus Astartes but more of a case of ok so we are in a desperate war and are low on options and have these clandestine enhanced Astartes so lets put them to use.

 

This guy is probably going to be the Alpha/Captain for the little force. What I would really like to do is a small combined force of Astartes and Admech with maybe some other Imperial elements thrown in. I'll be using the Primaris rules for these like I said before so everything in terms of weapons and vehicles has to atleast resemble their Primaris counterparts.

I have the general look for the Novus Astartes nailed down now. I'm going for a hybrid Mk V/Mk VII look which is pretty straight forward to replicate. For the helmet I've used a Mk VII and drilled some holes to put 1mm ball bearings in, I did try on the shoulders and wanted to do the legs as well but to be honest it'll take ages, maybe if I get some 0.5mm ones I may try.

 

 

[Doghouse]

Another quick update.

 

Nearly finished the Captain who will have the designation Novus Prime. 

 

I much prefer the bluntness of the MK V design for these guys. The cleaner Mk IV works really well for a Legion that is equipped with the latest gear but these are hotch potch, thrown together with limited resources.

 

Still need to add some gubbins and clean ups here and there but pretty much nearly done now and will be painting soon.

 

 

Still need to start properly painting Isla properly as I roughly started blocking out the colours early but got no further. It creates a really nice sense of scale.

 

 

I have a couple of cool little ideas such as Imperial Army officer acting as a handler and a few other neat little addons for the force. The Lieutenant I am especially looking forward to starting.

[Markus_]

Absolutely lovely stuff, will be following this with keen interest.

[deathspectersgt7]

Getting very interesting mate. Like the Captain.

[Doghouse]

Markus_: Thanks mate

 

deathspectersgt7: Thanks mate, about to get even more interesting...

 

Started work on the Lieutenant.

 

So I've always been a massive fan of the Thunder Warriors and over the years I've had a couple of attempts here and there at making some.

 

Such as this chap on the right

 

 

But I've never been happy with how they turn out. Being that they are hands down my favourite aspect of the history of the Imperium I figured that this would be a perfect opportunity to create a bodyguard for Isla.

I started off making it as a "chuck it all together and see what happens" type of deal with next to no planning other than I intended it to be a simple conversion. Then I broke out the GS and that plan soon went out the window.

I'm only creating a form at the moment over which I will sculpt the armour so not being too clean with the GS work but I am beginning to wish I'd just done this as a straight up sculpt now but I'm going to run with it.

 

This guy is intended to be a brute, probably armed with a bolt pistol and powersword/spear to fight alongside Isla and oversee the combat training of the Novus Astartes. It's coming along nicely at the moment and I am going for brutishly large proportions that will probably be bigger once the armour is in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deathspectersgt7]

Awesome !!!

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate. 

 

I think I am just going to sculpt the Thunder Warrior from scratch as it was a bit of a lets see what happens and I have a better idea of what I want to do now.

 

Moving back to the Novus Astartes I've been doing some serious bits hunting over the the last week or so and have come up with a new look for the helmets. While the Mk V looked ok it's not the look I wanted so after looking at loads of SM helmets I finally found what I was looking for in the Death Guard kit of all places. It gives them a really nice soviet prototype look that I like a lot and sets them apart from the regular Astartes.

 

 

I'm also playing around with ideas for Infiltrator stand ins based on the Rogue Trader Scouts. I have the basic form in place and am about to add the detailing and puffy shoulders/upper arm.

 

 

Next up I snagged another addition for Isla's team. This guy was partly painted but I am going to paint him in the proper GW colours, The idea being is that Isla has planted a chip in it's head that allows her to give it orders. I thought it'd make for a nice side project that she was working on to weaponize Ambulls before the war broke out.

 

 

One of the other aspects of this project is that I don't want to use hands moulded on weapons. So I have sourced loads of open hands that I am going to use like on this guy I am making into a left hander.

 

 

Lastly for people that want a fairly simple way to make truescale marines from Primaris I've found that you can actually just put the Assault Marine torso onto the legs if you carefully remove the belt on it at the front. The other bit you can do is trim the top off the knee pads before gluing them on and use the Reiver or Infiltrator arms. The reason I suggest these is that they are basically upscaled Mk VII arms and have basically bolters as their ranged weapon. You can pretty much leave the lower legs alone other than that but it is worth cleaning all the detail off the thighs.

 

The reason I use the Assault torso is because it looks just like a scaled up Mk V torso and is slightly larger than regular firstborn torsos. Combining a Vanguard veteran boxed set with the logs from five Primaris marine would be a great and fairly easy way to make Truescale Vanguard Vets.

 

 

[Doghouse]

So due to the pandemic causing havoc with my local post office I'm still waiting on tons of parts to arrive meaning my project has ground to a halt for the time being so I've been playing around with a few bits in my spare time.

 

This guy is a Mk VII Lieutenant I've put together as a bit of practice that I may well make into a patrol at some distant point in the future. I've really enjoyed making him and here stood next to Lieutenant Amulius it works well to demonstrate how by effectively slimming down Primaris to create truescale Astartes you can use this guy as a truescale Primaris because he is unusually tall.

 

Might make for a nice buddy cop movie

 

 

One of the other areas I have been getting into is 3D modelling using Zbrush as eventually I want to get into 3d printing so I can finally shake off the shackles of being limited by what parts I can access. This is a very quick sketch face I did in about ten minutes from memory as this is the area that I want to focus on first. It's a bit too symmetrical at this stage and needs some major clean up along with some referencing to actual faces so I will be going back over it and moving it about a bit but with the focus on speed it's not too bad. I want to see if I can construct a Thunder Warrior from scratch before moving on to making my own unique races and civilian models.  

 

 

Fingers crossed my parts will arrive over the next few days.

 

[Guest Triszin]

Awesome work. I've been trying to learn z brush, so many options, gets confusing fast

[deathspectersgt7]

He is tall !!! Civilians are a must . always bwant to do a game with them in the middle .