Knights of House Cydonia, Taghmata Omnissiah and Skitarii

[Battybattybats]

The last major piece of my first knight is now done, i'm not quite ready to call it finished as i had intended more purity seals and there's likely to be a couple more bits needing fixing up and some tidying on the base yet, but it's almost done. So here is the Kill Banner of my Knights Battle Cannon, the tally for which the bell of Von Neumann tolls.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00062-2.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00032-1.jpg

I still might do the smooth power cables something other than silver, but i'm not sure yet what colour if i do.

[JeffTibbetts]

Black is a safe bet if you don't want to add anything to the color palette. That or your red.

[Aspecti]

How about black/yellow hazard stripes on the cables?

[Xenith]

Great looking models, very nice work.

[Battybattybats]

Spray undercoated my sister of cydonia and a 2nd ed 'Skullz' techpriest, started conversion work on some cyber occularum and working on some objectives while anxiously waiting for my Arch-Magos to arrive from Forgeworld. No pics to show yet but the great manufacture progresses.

[The_son_of_Dorn]

SO MCH WIN!

 

*PALPATATIONS- HEARTH FAILURE*

[JeffTibbetts]

Are you going to get one of those Mageara Knights from FW? I'd love to see what you could do with that. 

[Battybattybats]

I'm thinking of saving up for the Volkite variant of the Mageara still to come out first, as it has a more skull-style face that'll suit House Cydonia. I also like it's curved claws. I'll get the current Mageara after that. That and my bank balance is a bit rough after a few nasty bills and the arch-magos.

Hmm looking for a pic to show it i find this one with the other side of the head visible showing it to have more of the Omnissiah emblem cyborg skull. Still lovely shape to the skull and should look great.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/s/i/at/at2/2014/9/6/40dfd0d69882c1ec282818751268d009_57678.jpg

pic from here http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/296351-forge-world-european-open-day/ not sure which of the 3 sources that link cites it's from though.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Battybattybats

[JeffTibbetts]

Oh man, I hadn't seen that head. Yeah, that's much more 'you' isn't it? Really cool looking. Is that pic from FW open? I dunno how I missed it. 

[Battybattybats]

Yep from what i can see it was. Certainly other images of that variant are.

Got the email form forgeworld that my acrh-magos is in transit! So now it's the long slow wait for international shipping.

Still no new pics yet sorry, but i'm working on my wounded knight pilot and my sister of cydonia assassin. The wounded pilot has a magnet in his foot now so i can swap him from a normal base (i may use him in my Necromunda Explorators perhaps, he may need that rumoured Knight Throne they search for to return to combat) and a larger base with some fancier basing as an objective marker. The Assassin has a half-cog glued into the slot of the slotta base and some first steps of paint, i'm not sure if the piece she's leaping from will be rusted metal or whether i might even try painting it Necron-crystal (and/or crystal from Graham McNeils * Of Mars trilogy, whatever it will turn out to be), it'll depend on how the rest of the base starts to look balance wise.. and if I try green crystal and it doesn't work rust covers all :)

[Battybattybats]

Sorry i've been a bit busy so not managed to get much done and worse any pics of what i've been working on, but on the plus side...my Archmagos arrived from Forgeworld today and is currently soaking in a bucket. I'm currently thinking of adding some magnets to make the Magos a bit more secure on the Abeyant, to enable swapping of weapons and i might even magnet on the dog-skull head just so that i can change the direction they are looking and make it easier to paint.

Going over the pieces there doesn't seem a lot of flash or mold-lines, though the ones that are there on the cyber occularus tentacles will be annoying and one under one of the arms on the sleeve will be tricky to reach. I also worry about how thin the axe handle is. Still it's a really magnificent model in my opinion and I'm really excited to start on it.

I had been wondering what colours to use on the abeyant but looking at the parts i'm thinking i will make the armour plates of the pulpit red after all as there's enough metal on the Archmagos that without some red on the abeyant too it might look too out of place in the force.

I'm also stripping some 2nd-hand Servitors for my Techpriest Auxillia and work progresses on the Sister of Cydonia, Wounded Pilot and some objectives.

[Battybattybats]

So here's a little of what i've been working on.

First, my wounded pilot

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00022-2.jpg

Trapped behind enemy lines with just his emergency beacon Servo-skull for company and a well maintained laspistol for protection.

The hood and arm just have the black spray undercoat currently and are just sitting in place and won't be staying black though his gloves and boots will end up dark grey or grey highlighted black, the red hasn't been highlighted yet so still early point of painting. He's attached by a magnet in one foot so i can shift him to a smaller base to use in my Explorator team or for custom missions where he is a rescue objective that will move with the squad that rescues him.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00052-1.jpg

These are some hastily gathered Cogitators and Memory modules. A portable device sits beside them unplugged (not yet glued down as i'll paint the mesh first for easy painting). Clearly these contain vital data of either great military value or precious secrets of the Mechanicum. I'm yet to decide if these will be in the rusty style of the ruins on bases or in House Cydonia colours.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00042-1.jpg

In the foreground my Sister of Cydonia Assassin leaps over a rusted cog on the attack with her electro-coil. Highlights are started but not yet finished but she's a good way to being done.

Behind her is a Communication Relay in House Cydonia colours. I picture it having a large data spike below ground, dropped from orbit to embed into the surface to function both to relay communication signals of the force but also to tap local Noospheric data and gain Intel from any operative systems in range on the field.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF00062-3.jpg

There's still an aerial to attach to the com relay and a fair bit of paintwork left on it. But i'm quite happy with it so far.

So there's my objective markers and Sister of Cydonia so far. I'll try and get a pic of my first Cyber Occularum once it's attached to a base for easy photo taking, though my main focus right now is finishing the clean-up and beginning sub-assembly of my ArchMagos!

[JeffTibbetts]

Very nice work. That assassin is downright sinister. There's something a bit Necrony about her mask and head-gear as well. Which makes a lot of sense, depending on how you feel about the Dragon of Mars.

[Kierdale]

Very, very nice work. The assassin in particular.

[Battybattybats]

Thanks.

I chose the parts for the head because i wanted something a little bit art-deco-ish (And a bit Metropolis-ish) to match the hood-ornament-pose and because i wanted to carry the House Cydonia emblem forward to make an obvious connection between the House and the Assassins and emphasise the darker elements interwoven in the Mechanicum's history and religious mysteries. The skull-faceplate of the Knights already has a strong hint of Necron-ish-ness to it but i like my Necron-Mechanicus connection subtle and suggestive and possibly coincidental not overt with gauss weaponry all over the place (not that I'm criticising those who have done that with their knights and/or mechanicum).

I had thought of some of the Dark Elf Executioner heads and will get some at some point for future Mechanicum conversions but this Sister of Slaughter head had the perfect mix of stylisation, aggressive deadly angry femininity (I had also thought of a beatific cold angelic look but decided i liked this better) and the bladelike headdress elements work perfectly as another layer of the halo-sunburst-cog which had me very very happy when i cut the face off the servo-skull and the back off the sister of slaughter and saw how perfectly the sister of slaughter face sat on it.

[Battybattybats]

Today i spent removing mold-lines on the ArchMagos (the ones on the sides of the large cyber-occularum tendrils are pretty bad, i'll give them some more work tomorrow but i'll provbably just have to ignore some or i'll lose too much detail trying to be rid of them) and i put magnets in to swap the Abeyant weapon, to add a teeny bit of grab for the ArchMagos's removable base and in the skull-head neck not to swap heads (the halo being separate for the skull head would make that tricky) but just for the ability to pose the head turned to either side or pointing straight ahead. I'll need to use a little green stuff on a couple of minor air bubbles and a bit of cable on the trailing edge of the Magos's tentacles in place of legs that didn't come off the pour shaft so well. With some luck i might even get to spray-undercoat tomorrow or the day after.

[Battybattybats]

Several delays have come up, not the least is realising how tiny a piece the machinator array attaches by, how much thinner it is than the slot it glues into and on top of that there's a crack in the resin that while not terrible would provide just another weakness for the piece. So my current thoughts involve running a pin or two, disguised as wires, from the potentia coil (big generator thingy) in amongst the Machinator Array Mechandendrites (the metal tentacle-dreadlock things). I'll try and get some pics as i go once i work out if i'll go with one pin or two.

[JeffTibbetts]

Several delays have come up, not the least is realising how tiny a piece the machinator array attaches by, how much thinner it is than the slot it glues into and on top of that there's a crack in the resin that while not terrible would provide just another weakness for the piece. So my current thoughts involve running a pin or two, disguised as wires, from the potentia coil (big generator thingy) in amongst the Machinator Array Mechandendrites (the metal tentacle-dreadlock things). I'll try and get some pics as i go once i work out if i'll go with one pin or two.

 

That seems reasonable. I think a pin would be a good idea. At least one. Have you looked into greenstuff tube makers at all? Lots of people embed wire into them so they can be as strong as a pin. You really should get one anyway, as much as the mechanicus is into ribbed tubing. 

[Battybattybats]

That is a good idea, though i'm not sure i could wait the time for international shipping and don't know of any stockists in Australia. Also at paperclip thickness a smooth cable will look like rubber-coated wire so should work without such coating and with a coating it might be a bit too thick and make too much of an impact on the hollow space visually. Still i have several ideas that such would be really useful for so i will try and get one.

[Battybattybats]

Pinning attempted!
So, firstly the front shot, here is my ArchMagos thus far.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0009-3.jpg

I'm not very good at pinning, but nearly anything would be sturdier than as it was.

I drilled a hole where there was some mold-slip beside the rivet-y detail on the top of the Potentia Coil. Bent a paper clip into an s-curve-ish shape and trimmed and fussed till it was the right length. Drilling through the tendrils was tricky, i nearly broke through the other side, being thinner than it looks, and will need a blob of green stuff to neaten up a distortion left on a cable.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0010-1.jpg

And looking at this next pic i can see some mold-line hasn't completely gone. This model is a challenge when it comes to mold lines and slips over detail texture. But it's worth it nonetheless.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0006-2.jpg

Edited October 19, 2014 by Battybattybats

[Battybattybats]

I have another conversion to show before i start undercoating a batch of minis.

The first of my Cyber Occularis!

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0001-2.jpg

Fairly simple, a tomb kings vulture with the ruff and part of the neck removed and a second head and neck added.

4 eyes to scan in every direction and provide precise targeting data to the Taghmata, Wings and small size to carry these eyes to shadowy corners of any forgeworld or hiveworld and so ensure the ArchMagos is one step closer to Omniscience. All while showing the loyalty to the Treaty of Mars with the form of the Aquila, the Bones showing the Omnissian truth, the chain on one leg a symbol of duty and office.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0006-3.jpg

I didn't want to weigh this design down with too much overt tech, instead i'm intending to paint it mostly in metals (dark golden feathers and silver bones and claws, maybe keeping the skulls mostly bone except the eyes). The other vulture that now has no head will of course end up a bit more obviously ad-mech.

[Battybattybats]

Aaaand thanks to a sudden wind gust the Aquila cyber occularis heads are now at slightly different angles than before -_-'

Thank the Omnissiah i pinned the Machinator Array!

[JeffTibbetts]

Aaaand thanks to a sudden wind gust the Aquila cyber occularis heads are now at slightly different angles than before -_-'

 

Thank the Omnissiah i pinned the Machinator Array!

 

LOL. Might look better a little less symmetrical anyway. All hail and all that... 

[Kierdale]

Great stuff.

I wanted to do something like that with the vulture I had left too, but I'd already used one head...I suppose I could use one of the vulture head-like pommels from a TK tomb guard sword as a cyber head.

Very much looking forward to seeing how you paint it up (so I can steal a good scheme ;) ).

[Battybattybats]

Things have been a bit crazy, with lots of little bits of work on all sorts of things, but i got a copy of Gods of Mars the other day and, like I did once before years ago i decided i needed a special bookmark to use with it and similar books, but whereas last time i made a Tyranid bookmark to suit my Tyranid army this was finally time for an Ad-Mech bookmark.

Having seen someone else make Opus Mechanica using one of the chaos marine backpack icons with a servo-skull set in the centre i got some of these bits and likewise chopped the spikes down to cog teeth (pretty roughly, but enough to do this job, i rushed it as i want to get back to reading the book :P ).

Being late at night i tried placing the bookmark on my scanner with.. odd results. I'll try and get a decent photo at some point when i have time during daylight hours.

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

When i get some more of these bits i'll make a matching pair of earrings as i did years ago with spare Tyranid Warrior heads.