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Knights of House Cydonia, Taghmata Omnissiah and Skitarii


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Thanks!
Yes, the pilots heads are so far all from Dark Angel Deathwing Knights terminators, though i have some Dark Angels hooded power-armour marines heads that will also end up Knights of House Cydonia pilot heads in the future.

I'm working on the pilots for my 2nd and 3rd knights at the moment who both have more of the Deathwing hooded heads, the 3rd (despite not having bought Knight number 3 yet) i got all inspired about and drilled out (kind of carving with the pinvice drill really) the face and inserted the skull faceplate from a vampire counts wraith into the dark angels hood, It took a long while to do but i like the result. I'll try and get some pics before i start painting.

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I've taken some pictures of my next two knight pilots, still needing some clean-up and the addition of the MIU cables.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0001.jpg

The pilot on the right i aimed for a sorrowful tone to the pose, as this will be the pilot for my Knight Errant 'The Betrayed'. The Knight saw extensive action during the Horus Heresy, and the original pilot lost both his sons who were training on Mars when the Mechanicum was torn apart by betrayal. The Betrayed spent much of the Scouring as a freeblade hunting down every member of the Dark Mechanicum he could find before eventually, weary and broken, returning to New Ares and House Cydonia. This tragedy left a deep mark on the Throne Mechanicum, and since then the Knight has required the most calm, logical and confidant of pilots to balance out the paranoia and rages that have become embedded in the Throne. The combination has worked well since, and even the Knight has been defeated still the Throne and enough to be salvaged has remained, so even while only a handful of components remain from it's original founding The Betrayed still lives fighting still as part of the forces of House Cydonia, and still venting fury at the traitors of the Dark Mechanicum.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0002.jpg

The pilot on the left, will be the pilot for my 3rd knight, my 2nd Paladin. 'The Scholar'. This knight is going to have no faceplate so that it more resembles a techpriest and because the helmetless true face of the Knight is cool. This knight uses it's unobscured augers and senses to get a superior tactical view of the battlefield and keep an eye on dangers and conditions that are harder to detect with an armoured helmet on. To show respect to House Cydonia's emblem the holy noble priest pilot then wears the skull faceplate instead of the Knight.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0003.jpg

The putton-pushing arm on the pilot on the left was made using the pointing hand and shoulder from a cadian command arm and the rest of the arm is from the original valkyrie pilot arm.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0004-1.jpg

As the bulky outfit is sufficiently androgynous i've kept the torso the same even though the pilot on the left is a woman. A rarity amongst the usually conservative restrictive rules of most Knight worlds the intentionally small population of New Ares caused by the deliberate minimal terraforming leaving the world mostly rocky plains and desert so that it would retain it's holy resemblance to Ancient Mars means many Nobles could not be guaranteed to have sons, and so it was decreed daughters could also be Sacristans and Knight Pilots.

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I realised i hadn't yet told the story of my first pilot/Knight, the leader of my Household force (until/unless i decide to get a Forgeworld Knight as my Baron)

Toll the Great Bell... says the ancient Mechanicus ritual.

At the heart of Forgeworld Von Neumann the ancient Great Bell would toll with countless ritual and with every completed shipment repaired Titan or constructed Great Engine. When the Forgeworld came under threat the pilot of the Knight Quod Erat Demonstrandum of House Cydonia swore that the Forge's bell would continue to toll as long as the Imperium remained. A brave and noble and Knightly oath, and like too many Knightly oaths one that would result more likely in sure death than fulfilment. One by one the forces of the enemy destroyed the manufactora of the Forgeworld, battlefront by battlefront the war was lost. Finally with the heart of the forge under assault the Inquisition declared Exterminatus. What few of sufficient worth to be evacuated would be as the process of utter annihilation would commence.

But no Knight or worth or merit would easily break an oath, nor easily throw away the machine in their charge.

Deciding within seconds of the declaration the reaper blade of Quod Erat Demonstrandum whirled in the opposite direction to that of the enemy, cutting the ancient bell from it's housing! Quickly attached to a lug on the great machines leg by part of the Taghmata Hoagland's Enginseer Auxilia, Quod Erat Demonstrandum and the remnants of the household and the Taghmata in his charge barrelled through the enemy fighting desperate battle to the handful of ships withdrawing Astartes  Inquisition staff and other high ranking less disposable personal and equipment off the world even as the cracking of the crust by bombardment was underway on the opposite side of the planet.

Once returned to New Ares the Great bell of Von Neumann was welded to the end of the barrel of Quod Erat Demonstrandum's rapid-fire battlecannon.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0001-1.jpg

Now the Great Bell tolls with each shot, pealling it's holy tones accross the battlefields of the Imperium of Man.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0003-1.jpg

While some nobles of some houses consider the solution to be a form of cheating, many others have praised this act of defiant thinking even in the face of certain defeat.

But this poetic victory has not come without... complications.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0006-1.jpg

Technically the Forgeworld of Von Neumann is only destroyed once no more rituals are performed with the bell, so according to official records the Forgeworld is Exterminatus and yet also still exists!

Spacefleets have been sent by confused Administratum to finish the job only to receive back reports of an asteroid field where the Forgeworld once was, yet officially it still exists!

Whole Basilica Administratum have filled up to literal overflowing and been abandoned by the paperwork nightmare caused by this, claims for goods and taxes and tithes and demands all groaning and bursting at the buildings seams.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0009-1.jpg

When finally one particularly industrious official thought to send Astropathic word to the Forgeworld by way of House Cydonia hoping that those who last fought on the world might know why it was incommunicado, a message that was demanding the Imperium's share of the Forgeworlds products and taxes the nobles of House Cydonia in reply had transported in return, to the officials great bewilderment, a masterfully woven banner depicting the full record of the Battlecannon's kill count since the bell was affixed with the label 'the complete and entire record of the Imperium's tithe tax and dues of Forgeworld Von Neumann, paid in full'.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013.jpg

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Some more progress, the lower armour plates.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0002-1.jpg

Though if you look close you can see that even with a LOT of micro-sol the old old GW Epic Titan Legion decal didn't want to get perfectly smooth.
I feel it's within the realm of acceptable repaired-battle-damage-painted-over texture though.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0009-2.jpg

Thanks to a spare decal from a friends Iron Hands forgeworld sheet, cut in half, along with a cut-up House Raven symbol and a skull kill-marker both from the standard Knights decals from the kit we now have the crest of House Cydonia on the Knights shield.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0010.jpg

I'm currently working on the tabard-banner, after that there's the daunting shoulder decals, some finishing work on some small details, adding some more purity seals and the like. Not far off to completing this one now.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0011-1.jpg

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Time for another older piece of work, i made this much earlier in the year before the release of the Imperial Knights. It's not very original, being based on an excellent original idea i saw online ages back (sorry that i've lost the link to credit the original genius who thought of using forgeworld bolter combat accessory chainblades on a vampire counts wraith as an Adeptus Mechanicus!) Still i'm very happy with my colour scheme and pose.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/ad-mechwraith-assasin.jpg

I plan on using it as part of my Necromunda Explorators and also in 40k games, probably as a counts-as Eversor I'm thinking.

On Mars the original holy Cydonia is home to a secretive sub-cult and a sisterhood of Assassins directed by hidden masters. It's blessed namesake on New Ares cannot help but entice such esoteric and occult elements and much occurs beneath the feet of the Holy Knights deep beneath the pyramids and great carven image of the Omnissiah that, so long as it does not break the 16 Universal Laws nor oppress the weak or threaten the sacred order continues in dark vaults of oily metal and red stone. Some even whisper that the consorts of the Knights may be initiated in and direct such hidden blades and watching eyes.. though such that whisper such things do not whisper them long!

And so it is that elements that might weigh against the Holy Knights of House Cydonia in the byzantine politics of the Mechanicus less overtly are dealt with less overtly, but sometimes no-less bloodily.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0019.jpg

I picture it moving at a more human height in the crowd or amongst dignitaries, 'hands' in it's sleeves, robes dragging along the ground like any other techpriest, emitting hums and occasional blasts of incense-laced steam, then suddenly levitating up into the air revealing little body exists, there being just a grav-generator and life-support under the 'hump' the articulated metal limbs bearing the killing blades marked in sacred stripes and a head full of killing techniques and sacred unspoken mysteries, it's Noospheric codifiers changing from an innocuous false ID-tag to rolling numbers of sacred geometry, and suddenly falling upon the target in a flurry of whirling squeelling metal teeth, the spatter of the targets floodstream or bloodstream and the black smoke of engine fumes before dissapearing into the crowd in a thoroughfare or into the maze of pipes in shadowy forgeworld alleyways.

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Working on the shoulder plate decals, wow are those big cog decals a challenge, i'm glad i got so much practice in before doing those. Trying to get them over the rivets.. not easy. I might have some pics tomorrow if i get some free time.

I particularly didn't like how the cyborg shoulder-cog piece just has a white circle for it's mechanical eye, so i've done something about that. Other than that though i quite love those two decals, and so far they are looking very good to my own eyes indeed.

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This is the banner so far.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00102-1.jpg

The algebra, x = x-1 refers to the "ah-ha!" moment i had when dabbling with computer programming on a Commadore 64 that gave some sense to algebra. x being a grid axis, so if the program as it looped a subroutine reduced the value of x each time by one my little sprite would scroll across the screen.

In this case the X represents both the enemy number, a promise that the enemy will face certain reduction till it ceases to exist, but also represents the unknown, showing that the Mechanicum/Mechanicus will perpetually reduce that which is unknown by making it known.

The 1 inside the cog represents this Knights position within the household as Seneschal, if i get a forgeworld knight at some point and make it my Barron they will get the holy number 0.

I also noticed as i was putting the decals in place that it formed a vague shape of a priest with the House Cydonia emblem forming the head, with hands in their sleeves formed by the chest-cog and the holy algebra of the knights motto forming the robes. Which alas makes it more difficult to decide what to do about the last blank space at the bottom.

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Thanks for the feedback Ion, you too Teetengee.
I'll give the banner some more thought, either leaving it as-is like you suggest or maybe putting the tiny red-cog campaign badges from my first two Knights and one of the small triangles there.

Meanwhile some more decal work. Here in this pic, though the shoulder is not yet de-glossed (though the lahmian medium is drying on it as i type this) is what i was talking about doing about the blank white circular eye on the cyborg half of the opus mechanicum shoulder decal.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00022.jpg

One of the targeting-reticule design campaign badges did the trick. Though next time i try the trick i might use the yellow-bordered one rather than the black as it ended up closer to the diameter of the eye circle than i had thought. And the little circle near the vent i couldn't leave as plain as most so thanks again House raven for another part to cut off and use differently.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum is almost finished, just a little more left to do.

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Thanks for the appreciation everyone!
 

I had a thought about the banner. What if you tried to put in a binary conversion of a name or something, perhaps even something as simple as 'death' at the base. That way your little tech priest is standing on a sea of data.

I quite like that idea, but i used up all my small white 1 decals on my Thallax units. And i'm not skilled enough for freehanding that. So it would have to wait at least till I purchase Knight 3 or find another way to do the numbers.

Knight 2 is underway, i'm about at the stage to make the pilots MIU connections and start painting and gluing him together so that i can be sure of how it will sit inside the torso and mask off where bits of sprue will glue him in before i spray undercoat and glue the torso together. I may start on my "Skullz" Techpriest (the one with the storm bolter), the downed pilot and return to work on my Mechanicus Explorators for Necromunda and/or my Techpriest Auxilia servitors (whose capacity to repair the Knight and Castellax has made them the biggest bullet-magnet in my force!) so that i focus on painting several figures with cloth and flesh at the same time.

Knight 1 is just about finished, though if after another coat or two of lahmian medium the shoulders still are too distinct tonally from the other armour i'll have to gloss and dull the rest of the red plates till it matches. After that it's just one other bit of special detailing yet to be added and maybe some more purity seals.

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I did a little more work on some miniatures i haven't shown in this thread before, some of the Explorators i started putting together for Necromunda before the Knights came out.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0017.jpg

The miniature on the left is my Sacristan, raising the machine spirits of the Knights into wakefulness and rousing them to battle using the ancient hymn Mode M attributed to the early martian composer Dia Lup.

(ok, no complaints, that's a perfectly 1st ed style bad joke!)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0004-2.jpg

This was a Rescue miniature, being that someone had already converted it and i was making it better. For whatever reason they'd taken the cool flamer-staff thing the inquisitor retinue figure came with and replaced it with the plastic hand that remains on it, but holding a marine flamer and leaving hacked cable and scored side. I knew i'd have to do something with it that would cover up the hatchetjob and make it more evocative. The inspiration came from an old source.

I got into GW games via Adeptus Titanicus back in 88. And one of my favourite illustrations in the rulebook was this one.

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111011050037/warhammer40k/images/7/71/Titan_Repairs.jpg

Combining the two elements of preacher and censer-bearer was the kind of idea so obvious i wondered why it had taken me a few days to think of it.

The censer comes from the Dark Angel censer-flail carefully cut from the other two tails. The incense cloud comes from the Terradon set which i happened to have bought for use in some pulp wargaming. I cut the flame piece to a good size and used greenstuff to attach it to the censer.

While i did this conversion before Codex Knights came out it works perfectly as a Sacristan. The heavy (leaded? Asbestos lined?) apron and goggles suggesting dealing with a lot of grease, sparks and radiation than many other techpriests.

The Sacristan is part of the Explorators in Necromunda to search for the remains of a lost House Cydonia Knight thought to have fallen in battle against the Orks there many generations ago, following rumours of an archaeotech haul that contains what sounds like it could be Knight parts and perhaps the lost Throne Mechanicum of the fallen knight.

The central figure here is of course the Forgeworld Tech Servitor.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0007-2.jpg

Very little was done to this, just some liquid greenstuff to obscure the metal inquisition logo plate and turn it into a small scroll.
I'm not sure if i'll use this as a servitor or as a techpriest as i think it could easily be either, though the robes give a more priestly feel it will depend on what i need for the gang roster once the campaign starts. (and yes, i know there's still some greenstuff showing from the air-bubble-fill on the shoe, i'll fix that when i do the basing)

The servo skull is unaltered forgeworld, purchased together with the Tech Servitor and Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Solomon Lok.
I was quite trepidatious about doing writing on the scroll after doing a great job of shading the parchment. But having a bad day yesterday i decided to jump feet-first, doing the writing on the paper on all three of these.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0012-1.jpg

I'm quite happy with the results.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013-1.jpg
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

With the basing done and some very minor adjustments I think i'm ready to call this figure finished.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00022-1.jpg

I'd found before that attaching the mesh with pva meant it would often lift off when trimming the mesh to the bases edge, and if i then put some superglue under the pva it'd create an odd bubble effect that looks like detritus that's under the mesh. I used that a lot on this base near the edge so that it looks like a hollow cavity beneath is filling up with metal rubble, giving the bit of girder something to be sticking out of, some small slate from the basing kit turning the wraiths rock into a badly rusting pile of crumbled metal. Sorry that the close-up of the base is so blurry.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00032.jpg

As i'd already glued the model to the base getting the mesh on the base was tricky, i'm glad i managed it.

I'll use this in two roles, in my Necromunda Explorators as a Skitarii with two chainswords and in 40k I think using it as a counts-as Eversor Assassin might fit the bill.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00012-1.jpg

Is it a part of the Sisters of Cydonia Assassins? Perhaps. Though i'm currently after some parts to make a Sister of Cydonia that will probably end up a counts-as Callidas.

I'm very happy with how the weathered striping came out on this side.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00042.jpg

Getting the cloth to look worn and to paint the light falling on it the way i wanted was an interesting experiment but i feel worked well.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00062.jpg

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The updates look great, dude. I love the three Necromunda models to bits. That FW servo-skull is such an amazing model, I'm actually glad you left it intact. The writing turned out very well, to boot! That censor guy really is great, and I def get the old-school artwork feel from it. 

 

Bravo. 

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Glad you like the Explorators JeffTibbetts, i'll post more as i cycle my work round to them. I'll hopefully do some basing work another i haven't yet shown shortly.

But yesterday I got the parts i needed for another piece and i was so excited i couldn't wait to work on it.

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0002-2.jpg

My Sister of Cydonia Assassin.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0003-2.jpg

The basis is of course a dark elf sister of slaughter. This faceplate in particular just screamed as perfect for a Mechanicus conversion.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0004-3.jpg

I'm thinking perhaps the Callidas Assassin rules might work for her.

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0007-3.jpg

To get the House Cydonia emblemic head-dress i cut the skull off the Militarum Scions servo-skull and the back of the head from the dark elf. They went together just as i'd hoped. The scorpion-sting tipped mechadendrites are of course one from the same servo skull and another from an identical one. The whip will be an ancient form of electro-coil, the strange device on the wrist is a marvel of alchemical arts from the dark age of technology, a device which scans lifeforms in the immediate vicinity or targeted via the implants of the wielder and in seconds tailors poisons specific to their DNA and corrosives particular to what armour they might be wearing so that the envenomed stinging mechadendrites might do their grisly work directly or by 'spitting' the corrosive/poison mix at short range.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Should i make a thread in the Hall of Honour section for my completed minis?

Here is another of my key Necromunda Explorators. Another rescue model someone else had already altered, presumably after the mechadendrites. While i like the original version (and have one such unaltered Inquisition penitent) the amputation of the mechadendrites made more sense (after all, why leave someone with several functioning metal tentacle limbs if you are chaining up their hands and feet?) and were quite inspiring of narrative.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00062-1.jpg

A Magos who overstepped the laws of the Mechanicus his fate would have been execution (of the flesh, and techsorcism of the machincal parts) were he not to have promised, along with his deep contrition, to have found clues in his borderline-sinful activities to the remains of a fallen Knight of House Cydonia in the deep archaeotech hoards in the underhive of Necromunda. His life promised to this discovery the Magos has been given a chance of redemption in the eyes of the Omnissiah. Till it is found he remains chained and bound to crawl on his knees in constant painful supplication, his mechadendrites amputated sparking stubs, his machinery connections unmaintained, his rank revoked. He guides the Explorator team into the Underhive on their quest, accompanying them till his death or the discovering of whether the Throne Mechanicum of the Knight still holds it's ghosts and can be restored to operation restoring his rank, pardoning his sins and returning him to the Grace of the Omnissiah.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00162-1.jpg

This was my first use of the blood effects paint, which will get a lot of use when i get back to my Vampire Counts army. I tried to keep it realistic and subtle.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0020.jpg

Crawling in the prayer position over miles of twisted rusty metal floors of the underhive? Ouch!

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0022.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0023.jpg

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