Captain jOE Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Grithan's Mercenaries Fluff: Servaan Colony Historical Archives ( Star Date: 40,XXX): Far from Terra on the fringe of known space lies the Servaan quadrant. Among these Solar systems only one life-supporting planet exists. But a mere 300 years ago this planet, for which this quadrant is named, became the staging ground for an Imperial colony. Though life was hard on this barren, mountainous planet, the colonists adapted and survived the worst that this planet had to throw at them, and established a thriving colony. Servaan lost all contact with the Imperium when it was engulfed in brutal warfare with the Tyranids only 150 years after the first colony settled there. This warfare continued off and on for a long stretch of years before a short time of peace settled on the sector. As peace settled, the people of Servaan, disgruntled with the Imperium, chose to remain cut off from it. Five years ago this peace was finally broken. A large war between the forces of Chaos and the Imperium broke out in the neighboring systems and soon boiled over into the solar system of Servaan. Servaan, being a strategic planet because of it's position, became the center of conflict. A space marine chapter (of lesser known origin) and the chaos space marines waged war over the planet. The inhabitants, while equally armed and battle hardened from past conflicts with the tyranids, were unable to delay the onslaught of these power armored toopers for long. The local inhabitants and their armies soon sought refuge in mountains, caves, and jungles that covered the planet. General Grithan Sergus, commander of the remaining armies of Servaan, planned his move while the direct defense of the overland cities was abandoned. Knowing he could no longer continue to fight directly with the Imperium, nor Chaos, Grithan began employing guerrilla warfare tactics to stall for time. Using the time granted to him, Grithan comissioned the top engineering minds of Servaan to fasion him battlesuits to cope with his opponents. A salvaged space marine suit was used as a base for the project. The engineers worked feverishly and relentlessly to forge a suit on which lead engineer Servek commented, "The Imperium has taken thousands of years to breed and mutate the ultimate machine of destruction, the Space Marine. I have but months...no, weeks, to fasion a suit which can turn ordinary men into the same type of killing machine.... If I fail, we all will be crushed here on Servaan, like miserable worms under the heels of the Imperium." Exactly one month after Grithan comissioned the project, the first prototype was complete. Shortly after a successful test of this suit, Servek died from exhaustion. Once a suitable number of suits had been finished, Grithan and his most elite soldiers used this new found power to fight back the onslaught against them. This counter assault bought more time for the people of Servaan and allowed them to scavenge weapons and usable power armor pieces to fasion a larger power- armored army. Despite these efforts, it soon became apparent that defeat and Imperial dominion was soon to come. In a last ditch effort to keep this from happening, Grithan loaded as many ships as possible with the people and the military of Servaan in preparation for a mass Exodus. Those that couldn't be transported due to lack of ships stayed behind with a small group of Grithan's Armored Elite. The fate of these people and brave soldiers is unknown. The Servaan fleet blasted out of the atmosphere and engaged the Imperial fleet that blockaded the planet. The battle was desperate, and defeat looked certain until Grand Admiral Timothy Graves ordered an evacuation of the capital ship Strages. Graves ran battleship Strages into the teeth of the Imperial fleet and crashed it into an orbiting space station. This noble sacrifice bought enough time and took enough fire to ensure the escape of the rest of the Servaan fleet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today, the remaining people of Servaan and its military have become nomads, wandering the galaxies. They are now known as Grithan's Mercenaries. The Mercenaries bare the emblem of a star within a shield, because they are now the protectors and hope of their people. Grithan continues to lead his Mercenaries as they fight to survive the dangers and armies of the galaxies.... Fluff based modeling ideas: I want to have the army have lots of scouts who look like marines in "incomplete" battlesuits. I will have no terminators. All bare heads will have no "metal" bits and no one will have cybernetic parts except for a select few. They will still look very space marine-ish, because Grithan's Mercs often use armor plating scavenged off of space marines. I want to personalize them a bit more than normal marines if possible. If I ever do legion of the damned, I provided fluff for that (paragraph 6). And I only want tanks and landspeeders as vehicles considering the former habitat from which the army came. Color Scheme: Alrighty, now for the blog, I'll show you guys what I have so far. Test marine: WIP photos (these marines will probably get some more stuff like 'nades and knives added to them before painting): The scout sergeant here was painted for another scheme, he will get an armor repaint. Here is a landspeeder typhoon conversion that I am very pleased with. With the way the pilots look I am very tempted to write "We Shootin' and Dey Hatin'" somewhere on it. ;) P.S. this will probably be a slow moving blog, put stick with me :) P.P.S. C + C welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subtlebrush Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Love what your doing! That test mini is amazing. Great job on the OSL. Cannot wait to see more. +++Mr.M+++ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d Karma b Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 That landspeeder is incredible. Love the underslung rocket pods. That's much better than the glaring 'LOOK RAWKETS' setup when they're vertical. Also nice to have them in plastic, no? :tu: Metal ones always were a pain to work with. Personally, I really appreciate the missle trooper, very nice break away from the same 'aiming down my scope' look they always seem to have. I'm working on converting mine so it looks like he's inserting the missle into the launcher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kierdale Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Nice land speeder. I too like the underslung pods, and the windscreen for the pilot. Nice idea, that. You could always jaizz it up with a bullet hole/cracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onipunk Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Looks great, and if you want a vehicle to cope with the terrain on their homeworld... jetbikes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain jOE Posted November 24, 2011 Author Share Posted November 24, 2011 First of all. Thank you all so much for the compliments! :confused: Second, I'm kind of posting so you all know that that I'm not dead... I say that last part half teasingly and half seriously because I had a rather harrowing weekend :( To sum it up in just a few words. I was involved in a 40 MPH head-on car collision. Thankfully myself, and all involved are ok, miraculously with no injuries major or minor. Just really sore. Suffice it to say, I'm pretty thankful this Thanksgiving ;). And I'm using the extra rest and free time to paint :) . It's not a ton of work, but here's the progress I've made on the speeder so far. The symbol got washed out a bit because of my rushed photography, but hopefully you get the picture. Unfotunately, when drilling out the original bolt pistol, I had a misshap, so I had to replace that...hence why it remain's bare bones plastic and not primed. Also, I recently discovered the AT-43 minis, and bought a Fire-toad on E-bay to use as a dreadnought :) . I figure that the fire-toad will make a good dread in my army based on the fluff. I'll probably deck it out with some GW weapons that I have to make it more "40K-ish." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain jOE Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 I'd edit but I wanted to shamelessly bump the thread to the front page :P Ok, so new update. No real work done on the landspeeder since last time I updated. But I got my fire toad Friday after Thanksgiving, and converted it. I also wasted lots of time beta testing SWTOR ^_^ . I grabbed some junky car model wheels for the conversion pieces, now all I got to do is fill some gaps with green-stuff and add some cords with guitar string. Here it is. (size comparison to marine in last photo) Comments and criticism welcome! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myxx Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 ED209? I like it. Definitely looks like a wearable exo suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtle Discord Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I'm hoping you're going to add a bit more, because it needs (in my humble opinion) more between the arms and the body. Those white 'trunks' are just too long and bland, to me. I understand that you need to have them out that far to provide clearance for the 'hips', but I think they would look better if the were bulked up a bit, and maybe some armour 'pads' on the top. Don't get me wrong, it will look very solid as-is, once primed. I say 'just add some bulk and armour plates' because I know just how I would attack it. But I also have a stock of plastic card, tube, and rod to turn to. If you don't have the right materials, it might be trickier than I make it sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain jOE Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 I'm hoping you're going to add a bit more, because it needs (in my humble opinion) more between the arms and the body. Those white 'trunks' are just too long and bland, to me. I understand that you need to have them out that far to provide clearance for the 'hips', but I think they would look better if the were bulked up a bit, and maybe some armour 'pads' on the top. Don't get me wrong, it will look very solid as-is, once primed. I say 'just add some bulk and armour plates' because I know just how I would attack it. But I also have a stock of plastic card, tube, and rod to turn to. If you don't have the right materials, it might be trickier than I make it sound. Yes! Thanks! I knew something was wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it. Sadly I don't have plasticard at all. I should order some, but, yeah, my budget right now, is VERY small, hence why I made due with old car model wheels. So yeah, it might be tricky. I could making an armature (spelling?) with plastic bits and sprue, then cover the whole thing with the clear plastic from blisters... yeah I'll think of something. Necessity is the mother of invention is it not? ;) Also, the "butt" looks pretty good, imo in rl, but I'm gonna at cords going from it to the power pack in the back of the walker. Also, I'm gonna an antenna in the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtle Discord Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I've been there, trust me. Life expenses come before gaming. Everything else on it feels plausible and good, it's just the 'arms'. Not that more here-and-there will hurt (I have to stop myself from adding more, more, more...), but it's the shoulders that need... something. Even a few select squares of plastic around the join, or a few bands. Like you say, necessity is the mother of invention, and you make due with what you can bash together. On a certain level it's more fun/satisfying to see how well someone can do with next to nothing. I'm constantly picking up the odd toy to consider for something, or dismantling some other item for interesting bits-and-pieces. Not too much of it has made it to my work, yet, but soon it will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain jOE Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 I've been there, trust me. Life expenses come before gaming. Everything else on it feels plausible and good, it's just the 'arms'. Not that more here-and-there will hurt (I have to stop myself from adding more, more, more...), but it's the shoulders that need... something. Even a few select squares of plastic around the join, or a few bands. Like you say, necessity is the mother of invention, and you make due with what you can bash together. On a certain level it's more fun/satisfying to see how well someone can do with next to nothing. I'm constantly picking up the odd toy to consider for something, or dismantling some other item for interesting bits-and-pieces. Not too much of it has made it to my work, yet, but soon it will. I'm a musician too, so yeah.... ;) But I think I'll make a plate that resembles the one on the top of the legs and place that on the "shoulders." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain jOE Posted November 30, 2011 Author Share Posted November 30, 2011 Ok, so nothing major, just getting pics up of the armor plating mock-up I did today. IMO it's getting there, I think all it really needs are some rivets, gap filling (of course), and instead of cords I decided to do a square "butt" plate. Looked good. Sadly I forgot to tack it on for the photos :tu: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain jOE Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 Hi all :lol: . I hope you guys had a great holiday season! Mine was rather busy, hence the lack of updates for a month XD. But I'm back with a bit more pics. These two guys I finished this last month. The space marine sarge was started in a different scheme, hence the white and gold (thought I'd keep those two colors because ther were already painted). The second model I want to use as a scout. It's a Reaper mini from their Chronoscope line. My brother got me him and two other great minis from the same line as a Christmas gift. So obviously, I must include them in my list :lol: . So without adieu, I present to you: Brother Sargeant Marcus: Lore: Marcus is the only sergeant in the Mercs refered to as "Brother Sergeant." He is a true space marine in every facet; however, his allegiance to the Imperium has been strained due to an unfortunate mistake in the rites of the creation of his original chapter. His original chapter underwent it's creation process and the chapter was early in it's foundings. However, the Imperial Inquisition found a flaw in the geneseed, deeming the chapter unfit for service. Instead of purging the chapter however, the Inquisition decided to purge the chapter in service of the Emperor because the "flaw" was determined to not be "degenerative" enough to warrent burning at the stake. Sent to the Servaan quadrant to spearhead the assault against the recurring Tyranid threat, the chapter was all but exterminated. Or so the Inquisition thought. When the Mercs returned to Servaan on a stealth ops to recover lost armor tech and assess the fate of those who stayed behind, they picked up a distress call from the barren world of Kervaat where Marcus had been dispatched. Grithan and a few others answered the call, saving only Marcus from a vicious and gory fate. Marcus, having finally realized the motives of the Inquisition, joined Grithan's party. Marcus vowed to complete his last mission and refuses to officially join the Mercs and wear their marks and army Symbol until the hive fleet which he was dispatched to fight is exterminated. While still somewhat loyal to the Imperium, Marcus has also proved his unwavering loyalty to Grithan, having slaughtered dozens of fellow space marines on the field of combat. Great advances to the Merc's power armor have also been made since his arrival. Modeling notes: this it he first model I have tried to used the "zenithal highlighting" technique on. I have to say I am quite pleased with the results. I plan to paint future marines with zenithal highlighting, but maybe not attempt to blend it as well (not so say that my blending was good in the first place XD ). I also thought that the Kraken bolter's multi ammo system would be better displayed with specialized energy cores over bolter rounds. So I tried some OSL and lighted bullets. And here is Jazz. No special lore, just a scout :lol: . Let me know what you guys think. Comments are always welcome :( ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firepower Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Cripes man...wow. The green glow from his ammo and eyes is excellent, but please tell me that dark brown in the crevices of his armor is Weathering Powder..I don't know if I could ever face my brushes again if that was done with simple paint. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain jOE Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Cripes man...wow. The green glow from his ammo and eyes is excellent, but please tell me that dark brown in the crevices of his armor is Weathering Powder..I don't know if I could ever face my brushes again if that was done with simple paint. :D Thanks man for the compliments! ....I hate to break it to you, but yes, that was done with paint. I originally got my technique from the Relictors painting tutorial in the librarium and modified the technique and application somewhat. It's pretty simple really. First you mix up som REALLY watery scorched brown. I guess a glaze, but maybe a bit more watery. I take a standard brush (maybe a bit larger or smaller depending on where you need to get the paint) and dip it in my "brown water", then I put the bristles on a paper towel to let the excess get soaked into the towel. then I paint it around all of the area that I want to be muddy to sort of establish the color (I also like to do this in most "top" crevices like above the eagle...kind of where dust would settle). Do this two to three times. Then get a load on your brush and apply it like a wash to the crevices around the feet and the very bottom of the greaves. Now that this layer is done, you just have to go back and do pretty much the same thing with bestial brown. The reason being that scorched brown dries "pinkish" when you water it down that much and bestial dries "orangish." The two balance out and create a nice dirt color. With the bestial brown though, you can kind of skip to the last step, just don't let it pool too much, except of course, around the crevices. Oh, and do it after all stuff like battle damage. Also, I glaze the bestial brown layer around some of the armor damage. That's pretty much the process, I am still working on how many layers I should use and stuff like that. But it's really a quick and simple effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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