The Imperium of Man

[Doghouse]

So this is a little army I am working on set in an alternative take on 40k of which I have a rather lengthy explanation in my blog in my signature. 

 

I'm going for a slightly different take on the 40k universe where things have deteriorated to the extreme. The idea being that only existing and known STCs can be produced and then after can be barely maintained meaning in order to keep stuff running they are constantly salvaging wreckage from current and ancient battlefields.

 

The Imperium is dying, no one has ever heard of a Primarch and the origins of the Emperor are completely lost to the rigors of time and the bad book keeping of the administratum. This could be argued to be the current state of the Imperium as we know it but this is taking the idea further so no one has any records even the most powerful figures in the Imperium. It's complete Dark Ages in space. 

 

RT7 Dreadnought Armour - Deredeo Configuration

 

A mainstay of the forces of the Legiones Astartes this variant of what could be considered the workhorse of Imperial forces sees wide spread use in not only the Astartes but the Imperial Army and other private forces of organisations such as the Navigators Guild Houses.

Armed with a Death Foe DA. 10/08 pattern Las-cannon and Foe Blaster DA. 10/04 the Astartes which come as standard for the Deredeo configuration this variant offers essential additional fire support to the regular Astartes. While able to produce this machine from a wide range of locally available materials thanks to the wonders of the STC machines ranging from wood to Plas-steel with number power plants being available such as coal or even steam generators the Astartes use only adamantium and the most reliable fusion reactors. 

Unlike the Imperial Army versions that use more conventional piloting for their Dreadnoughts the Astartes entomb their pilots within the machines to improve response times making them far more lethal machines. This pattern is known as Eddy amongst the ranks of the Imperial Army.

The pic image below shows a Deredeo of the Rainbow Warriors chapter which has been in service for centuries as can be seen by the replaced right upper leg extension. The skulls on the upper hull indicate that the current pilot has three confirmed kills, these normal indicate enemy commanders or large war machines such as enemy dreadnoughts.  

 

This guy is nearly finished now. The idea of the base takes inspiration from dredged canals where you think there will be great wonders to be discovered but when you look closer all you find is old junk and shopping carts. The reason I wanted this feel is because in this reality the universe is one big battlefield where all the decent stuff left behind has long since been looted. On the base of this guy for example you can see a valuable RTBO1 helmet which would be an enormously valuable find but on closer inspection it is rusted almost beyond recognition and ultimately useless, probably left over from a battle thousands of years ago. The model itself is a heavily modified version of an existing file, so a sort of computer generated kit bash and printed as one piece.

 

 

 

 

Work in Progress

 

For the Imperial army I am leaning in heavily to the Rogue Trader Imperial Guard. The look of the models isn't vastly different to the original soldiers but I like the look of the officers with their breastplates and caps. These are two test models that I have put together in Blender but nearly killed my poor computer doing it so for the time being I am stuck with the regular troops in the single pose for now. For those that may not know the disc on his chest is the platoon colours and will have a number on it, they will also have red arrows down the side of the helmet indicating tactical squads. The officer was a bit of a pain to make and is based heavily on the guardsman model I made but has a las-pistol behind his back, his chest plate design being that of a Captain.

These will be supported by Dreadnoughts that I have modified of an existing model but will have pilots that can get in and out so will be treated much more like tanks. The guy in the middle is just a test scheme to map out the colours, it's not a finished model as I am playing around with the infantry at the moment.

 

 

Then we have the Brother Captain.

 

I decided to go with Rainbow Warriors purely because I ran them back in first edition and secondly other than the Flesh Tearers and Crimson Fists I'd be hard pressed to find a more Rogue Trader chapter.

In this setting the Astartes are not the noble warriors that we all know. They do not recruit children and instead implant adult males from prison worlds, Hive gangs and Death worlds. The initiate is then mind scrubbed and reprogrammed with chem therapy, extensive hypno conditioning and augmented with various bionics and genetic enhancements. They are crude brutish instruments of death who are utterly loyal to the Emperor but are becoming harder to create as time passes due to geneseed degradation. Having said that the RTB01 Power Armour that they wear is because incredibly difficult to produce and suits of armour will be ferociously defended should a battle brother fall in battle. Even to the extent that battle brothers have been given the Emperor's grace when it has come to times where saving the Astartes will mean damaging the armour. After the battle specialised units will comb the battlefield retrieving the armour of the dead to be repurposed. It has been known for privateers to specialise in scavenging ancient battlefields in order to retrieve such precious pieces to sell back to the Imperium at a handsome price.

The Chapters of the Legiones Astartes are uniform in design, save for a few minor rituals that are often frowned upon the only real difference is the chapter name. 

 

WIP Brother Captain

 

The armour of the captain is currently more vibrant than that of the dreadnought which is something I will carry through to the rest of the Astartes simply because the Dreadnought armour has been in service for centuries but has not been repainted for reasons of superstation so it has become sun bleached and heavily worn to the extent that the replacement upper leg extension is completely unpainted and has eroded over time. The Brother Captain's head is from the new forgeworld marine heads.

The paints I am using on the armour for these Astartes is from the original Space Marine starter set from back in 1989 I think which I thought was very fitting given the aged feel of the army I wanted. It's still good even after all this time.

 

 

 For those that may not know the icon under the chapter icon of the winged lightening bolt is a first edition captain marking but in white rather than the standard yellow and red diamond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grotsmasha]

Awwwwww yessss, I love where this lore is headed so far, and Rainbow Warriors look amazing

[ZeroWolf]

Looking good 

[carnosaur93]

Man i have a weird soft spot for that classic old style of dreadnought, and i love this dark desaturated gritty look for it... same goes for rainbow warriors a whole. i always thought they could look cool all grimdarked up, just like with the dread. and they do!

I love bringing the retro classic stuff up to modern quality and styles, and this is a double-whammy of that

Edited June 4, 2023 by carnosaur93

[Pearson73]

Love the retro style of this project and, as ever, the depth of thought you are putting into the models such that they reflect the story, e.g. the dreadnought's paint. Also cool that you used some original paints on the marine too!

[sugar-free]

Love this.  Old School.  Always wanted to paint up some rainbow warriors. Looking good.

[Doghouse]

Grotsmasha: Thanks mate, hopefully it will all make sense and not be too off the wall. 

 

ZeroWolf: Thanks 

 

carnosaur93: Thanks mate, I'm glad you like the dread as there are a few more of them to come. Rainbow Warriors are seriously RT era to me and hopefully I can do them justice. 

 

Pearson73: Thanks  The beauty of skipping the rules and playing around with the setting is that it has opened an enormous amount of creative freedom that I am loving at the moment. I'm working on a lot of stuff at the moment and toying around with so many ideas. The new model I'll be posting tomorrow I haven't enjoyed painting a model so much in years.

 

sugar-free: Thanks  I was tempted to steal the original death wing concept and go indigenous American themed but instead settled on a more generic feel which I am really enjoying.

 

I have been seriously knuckling down on models for this concept now and I am most of the way through the first model of a four walker unit. They're not the greatest as my eyesight is making things a bit difficult but I have enjoyed painting them and just messing around with techniques. I also have started on a huge centre piece model that is one of my all time favourites.

 

 

[Doghouse]

Ok so update time!

 

This is possibly one of the most enjoyable models I have made in years. Not because it's anything particularly special or ground breaking but because the process has just been so much fun.

 

I started out in the same way with the Astartes Dreadnought with a base model stl I found online and then went to town on it altering the form and adding detail and chopping and converting on my computer rather than in the more tradtional sense. Unlike the Astartes version which I slimmed down to make it look a bit more advanced and sleeker this one I wanted brutish.

 

Back in the early days of 40k with the introduction of Epic dreadnoughts fought in units of four. This has stuck with me since I was young and so I wanted to explore this a bit more. The other distinction was that unlike today dreadnoughts could be constructed with different means of control ranging from mind impulse link like the Titans to being sealing in forever. In my mind I wanted a unit that felt more like tanks with pilots that can leave their walkers, something with more of the film Fury type of feel with these common grunts piloting sophisticated but grimed up walkers.

 

The original stl model had the hatch built in but was part of the model rather being something you could open so the first job was to remove the hatch, add hinges and then hollow out the torso. I knew that for the lead walker I wanted a human commander visible so I have added a Captain who has opened the hatch maybe to get some fresh air or is taking a break. I have seen a lot of female models added to mechs but I really didn't want go the skimpy anime route so decided to make her a tad smaller but keep the gear she wears the regular size making the breastplate look slightly ill fitting. I think this is an important part of the one size fits all standard issue I want for the army elements with gear being handed down from generation to generation rather than been custom fitted.

 

This first model is very wip but I am loving it so far. I have been playing with a new technique I came up with of painting the model chocolate brown then covering it with Dirty Down Rust. I then start to stipple the base colour on but by adding water to the mix activates the undercoat of Dirty Down Rust allowing me to blend the new layers into it. While I am not going for ultrarealistic weathering I am instead going for what feels right to me and like I say I am loving it.

 

I'm struggling with finer details which is a fact of getting older I guess but I am using magnifying glasses and all manner of lights and lenses so don't expect golden demon for the faces and stuff.  Could I used to do better? Oh yeah big time but it is what it is I guess.

The captain I made from scratch with the exception of the head, I can sculpt faces fairly well but this was more about getting something to paint up and running fairly quickly.

 

There are some interesting design ideas I enjoyed such as when I added the pilot seat into the mech it was too low down into the hull to see, the cramped confines also made it look awkward for the pilot to clamber out. So the solution was to raise the internal floor up along with the chair with the idea that when the hatch closes the floor sinks down into the walker's torso and when it opens up raises up so the pilot can get out or look around. I was going to add grab bars so that when in the field the pilot could climb up the torso but figured why give the enemy a means to climb up and get the the hatch? Instead they use traditional rope ladders when not at a base or on a ship. I also added some minor stowage for extended patrols, the close combat model know as the Contemptor or Chuck variant has two spare bolter clips added to the shoulders along ouches to give a more tactical vest feel. The two Furibundus or Fury variants have added details like extra tarps and some shovels on the back.

 

I see this team being the standard unit composition for the Army, two riflemen, one melee walker and a commander with an anti personnel weapon for taking down hordes. Typically they are lead but an NCO but in this case I wanted a Captain who probably leads a Dreadnought company supported by infantry and engineer elements.

 

They will be mounted on 60mm bases when I can  get some more.

 

 

 

The interior of the hatch I made from scratch and wanted a sort of simple robust feel with a heavy manual feel to it with little handles and a hatch override in the middle and an emergency light. I kept the interior intentionally sparse and adopted a WW1 tank style colour scheme. I wanted to go overboard with cables and dials but simplistic works best for me. I picture this as being Mind Impulse linked so may add some cables to her neck but for the most part wanted something that you could peek inside if you handle the model in person rather than going overboard. I may add some bits like personal effects such as family pictures or a shrine later.

 

 

 The colour scheme I am using as the basis is form the original White Dwarf updated rules that were cemented into time in the Warhammer 40,000 Compendium from back in something like 1989 which is one of my most treasured possessions. The 53rd Regiment being the basis of my colours but there are couple of others showing how widespread these were in use in the original game mostly because we had so few models. The idea behind my take in this reality is that this pattern of Dreadnought is mass produced thanks to the existing STC template but quite difficult to repair due to the lack of separate parts meaning frontline forces often rely on salvaging destroyed walkers to keep them running.

 

 

I'll probably do one at a time while working on other stuff in between, I'm itching to get started on the centre piece for the army but I am looking at other bits such as the infamous Rick Priestly hover tank and Baneblade scout tanks to add some flavour.

[Rusted Boltgun]

Wow, love your Dreads. The RT dreads have that 'face' that, for me animates the model so much more than the current walking sarcophagi. 

[ZeroWolf]

6 hours ago, Doghouse said:

Ok so update time!

 

This is possibly one of the most enjoyable models I have made in years. Not because it's anything particularly special or ground breaking but because the process has just been so much fun.

 

I started out in the same way with the Astartes Dreadnought with a base model stl I found online and then went to town on it altering the form and adding detail and chopping and converting on my computer rather than in the more tradtional sense. Unlike the Astartes version which I slimmed down to make it look a bit more advanced and sleeker this one I wanted brutish.

 

Back in the early days of 40k with the introduction of Epic dreadnoughts fought in units of four. This has stuck with me since I was young and so I wanted to explore this a bit more. The other distinction was that unlike today dreadnoughts could be constructed with different means of control ranging from mind impulse link like the Titans to being sealing in forever. In my mind I wanted a unit that felt more like tanks with pilots that can leave their walkers, something with more of the film Fury type of feel with these common grunts piloting sophisticated but grimed up walkers.

 

The original stl model had the hatch built in but was part of the model rather being something you could open so the first job was to remove the hatch, add hinges and then hollow out the torso. I knew that for the lead walker I wanted a human commander visible so I have added a Captain who has opened the hatch maybe to get some fresh air or is taking a break. I have seen a lot of female models added to mechs but I really didn't want go the skimpy anime route so decided to make her a tad smaller but keep the gear she wears the regular size making the breastplate look slightly ill fitting. I think this is an important part of the one size fits all standard issue I want for the army elements with gear being handed down from generation to generation rather than been custom fitted.

 

This first model is very wip but I am loving it so far. I have been playing with a new technique I came up with of painting the model chocolate brown then covering it with Dirty Down Rust. I then start to stipple the base colour on but by adding water to the mix activates the undercoat of Dirty Down Rust allowing me to blend the new layers into it. While I am not going for ultrarealistic weathering I am instead going for what feels right to me and like I say I am loving it.

 

I'm struggling with finer details which is a fact of getting older I guess but I am using magnifying glasses and all manner of lights and lenses so don't expect golden demon for the faces and stuff.  Could I used to do better? Oh yeah big time but it is what it is I guess.

The captain I made from scratch with the exception of the head, I can sculpt faces fairly well but this was more about getting something to paint up and running fairly quickly.

 

There are some interesting design ideas I enjoyed such as when I added the pilot seat into the mech it was too low down into the hull to see, the cramped confines also made it look awkward for the pilot to clamber out. So the solution was to raise the internal floor up along with the chair with the idea that when the hatch closes the floor sinks down into the walker's torso and when it opens up raises up so the pilot can get out or look around. I was going to add grab bars so that when in the field the pilot could climb up the torso but figured why give the enemy a means to climb up and get the the hatch? Instead they use traditional rope ladders when not at a base or on a ship. I also added some minor stowage for extended patrols, the close combat model know as the Contemptor or Chuck variant has two spare bolter clips added to the shoulders along ouches to give a more tactical vest feel. The two Furibundus or Fury variants have added details like extra tarps and some shovels on the back.

 

I see this team being the standard unit composition for the Army, two riflemen, one melee walker and a commander with an anti personnel weapon for taking down hordes. Typically they are lead but an NCO but in this case I wanted a Captain who probably leads a Dreadnought company supported by infantry and engineer elements.

 

They will be mounted on 60mm bases when I can  get some more.

 

 

 

The interior of the hatch I made from scratch and wanted a sort of simple robust feel with a heavy manual feel to it with little handles and a hatch override in the middle and an emergency light. I kept the interior intentionally sparse and adopted a WW1 tank style colour scheme. I wanted to go overboard with cables and dials but simplistic works best for me. I picture this as being Mind Impulse linked so may add some cables to her neck but for the most part wanted something that you could peek inside if you handle the model in person rather than going overboard. I may add some bits like personal effects such as family pictures or a shrine later.

 

 

 The colour scheme I am using as the basis is form the original White Dwarf updated rules that were cemented into time in the Warhammer 40,000 Compendium from back in something like 1989 which is one of my most treasured possessions. The 53rd Regiment being the basis of my colours but there are couple of others showing how widespread these were in use in the original game mostly because we had so few models. The idea behind my take in this reality is that this pattern of Dreadnought is mass produced thanks to the existing STC template but quite difficult to repair due to the lack of separate parts meaning frontline forces often rely on salvaging destroyed walkers to keep them running.

 

 

I'll probably do one at a time while working on other stuff in between, I'm itching to get started on the centre piece for the army but I am looking at other bits such as the infamous Rick Priestly hover tank and Baneblade scout tanks to add some flavour.

Love what you've done to the old dreadnought!