Dr_Ruminahui

Your Macharius looks sweet - as do your 2 painted elesian buggies. Not sure what your intent with the faux-FW turret is, though - do you have a Russ potentially in the works, or is for an alternate load out on the Macharius?

He looks like a real brute - nicely done. I like the use of small spot colours like the red cords, the blue on the hammer and the green collar - really helps add some definition to an otherwise mostly black and metal model.

The internet tells me Halo 3 ODST came out in 2009, so unless there was some earlier Halo with ODST, the FW Elesians seem to have been first.

Personally, I think the variant on the box (with both battle and demolisher cannons) looks best, but I'm just a guy on the internet so go with whatever you think looks best and/or will work best for you on the table. Also looking forward to your chaosification - that's always the most exciting parts of these projects.

It sounds like you weren't playing with the change to Devastating Wounds - they now simply remove a save rather than becoming mortal wounds, which means excess damage no longer spills over to other models. Without that mechanic, forgefiends are a lot weaker and there is really no reliable way they can be mowing down large squads as seems to have happened in your game.

Those guys are all fantastically awesome! And yes, no problem on B&C posting the same content in multiple forums - provided, of course, that the content is 40K related, constructive and appropriate to each forum it is posted in. Your figures more than qualify for each of those - for at least the killteam and heretic marines forums, anyway. Maybe not so much in Tau or the like, though.

Pets for the pet god!

Like what you are doing with your sisters - that blue is very vibrant. I do think the kite shields look much better than the round ones - the shape is much more evocative and I don't think the wood backing on the round ones is the best fit for the sister's aesthetic. Don't know if this is helpful, but my old sisters army was in blue - maybe there is something in my thread that might inspire.

Thanks for everyone who replied to the thread and gave their comments and suggestions - its much appreciated. Interestingly, on my informal pole in the chaos forums and my WIP thread, long crushing claw just edged out short with the same for shield versus spike leg (both 4-3) while tentacles were the run away favorite versus hatch (6-2). @Firedrake Cordova - certainly removing some of the "'niddy-ness" from the tyranid parts is one of the challenges. Another is balancing the Russ elements with the chaos elements - I definitely want to make it look corrupted, but I always want it to be visually apparent that this is a possessed Russ. A third is that I want to make it visually apparent that it is a defiler, so I'm trying to incorporate design elements from that model as well. We'll see how well I can pull all that off. @Terminatorinhell - the drum flail is a neat idea, but not one that would work on this model - it would make it too front heavy, and add a large mechanical element that schews the balance I'm trying to get between biological and mechanical (I'm trying to make most of the additional elements largely biological). It's going to have a biological flail option that will be mounted on the bottom front, but that's going to be one of the last things I build - hopefully it will scratch your flail itch. @Brother Christopher - that's high praise coming from you, but I doubt this will be anywhere near as involved as the magic you do with plasticard. I have thought about using guitar chord cabling, but won't be doing that until I have my leg positioning set, as I want them to droop appropriately. Not only does it bring (as you noted) a nice mechanical element, but it also helps tie it in visually with other chaos models like the venomcrawler that have the same. @TheArtilleryman - interesting idea about the mouth, though I don't think there is enough room below the lascannon mount - if I put one on the front it would be beside the mount where I currently have the open space where the driver's hatch/vision slit would go. That said, even if a mouth doesn't to there, I have plans of other places I might put one. @PHS - the thread is exactly what it says on the tin, so I'm not sure why the confusion on what it might be about. Not sure if I want to make the model that gribbly - as noted, I want to keep it visually identifyable as a Russ and want it to fit in visually with the other chaos demonengines I have, such as the mauler/forge fiends, the venomcrawler and the hell drake, which all combine elements of fleshybits with large areas of ungribblied armor (making them different from the chaos marine models, whose armor tends to be more warped). Anyway, we'll have to see if the end result matches your expectations or if we simply have different visions for the model. I had thought to combine the tentacles with the side hatch (having it partially open with the tentacles coming out the gap) only to find that I have no idea where the hatches were (I seem to have lost them somewhere). So instead, I glued on some plates from the chaos vehicle accessory sprue and will put tentacles elsewhere on the model, and I may well do the other side with no hatch and emerging tentacles. As shown above, rather than make up my mind on the arm/leg questions (though I'm inclined to side with the majorities for both), I built the smoke stacks instead. Here are some close ups: The one on the very back is because I had a gap from how the gestation sacks joined together and decided to fill it this way. Though you can't really see it, the outermost stacks on either side have little faces cut into them kind of like the mauler/forge fiend does - I'm thinking of building them up (again like the fiend does) with greenstuff to make them more visible.

Thanks bloodhound23 and Bonehead - glad you like it so far! Interestingly, on my informal pole in the chaos forums and my WIP thread, long crushing claw just edged out short with the same for shield versus spike leg (both 4-3) while tentacles were the run away favorite versus hatch (6-2). So, based on the above I thought to combine the tentacles with the side hatch (having it partially open with the tentacles coming out the gap) only to find that I have no idea where the hatches were. So instead, I glued on some plates from the chaos vehicle accessory sprue and will put tentacles elsewhere on the model, and I may well do the other side with no hatch and emerging tentacles. As shown above, rather than make up my mind on the arm/leg questions (though I'm inclined to side with the majorities for both), I built the smoke stacks instead. Here are some close ups: The one on the very back is because I had a gap from how the gestation sacks joined together and decided to fill it this way. Though you can't really see it, the outermost stacks on either side have little faces cut into them kind of like the mauler/forge fiend does - I'm thinking of building them up (again like the fiend does) with greenstuff to make them more visible.

Thanks Tallarn Commander, Brother Nathan and Trawling Cleaner - glad you like my work so far! Brother Nathan, I agree the ground displacement issue would be a huge issue for the front claw, but realistically even the feet on the armored legs are way too small to keep the thing from sinking into the ground - but realism only takes you so far when one wants a spider tank. Interestingly, on my informal pole in the chaos forums and my WIP thread, long crushing claw just edged out short with the same for shield versus spike leg (both 4-3) while tentacles were the run away favorite versus hatch (6-2). So, based on the above I thought to combine the tentacles with the side hatch (having it partially open with the tentacles coming out the gap) only to find that I have no idea where the hatches were. So instead, I glued on some plates from the chaos vehicle accessory sprue and will put tentacles elsewhere on the model, and I may well do the other side with no hatch and emerging tentacles. As shown above, rather than make up my mind on the arm/leg questions (though I'm inclined to side with the majorities for both), I built the smoke stacks instead. Here are some close ups: The one on the very back is because I had a gap from how the gestation sacks joined together and decided to fill it this way. Though you can't really see it, the outermost stacks on either side have little faces cut into them kind of like the mauler/forge fiend does - I'm thinking of building them up (again like the fiend does) with greenstuff to make them more visible.

These guys are all great - you should really consider sharing them in the heretic astartes and/or kill team forums as well.

Just realised I never shared here the one primaris marine that I've painted. Enljoy!

Now, there was about a 6 month break here, where I lost my hobby mojo. One of the things that derailed me (other than general malaise) was the trouble I was having with getting the trim to fit properly to the shields on the legs I've been building. Anyway, here is a reference picture: Basically, the way they are built is that I have a thick piece of plasticard that I cut out using a template, then bend to the proper shape. Then the trim is cut from a much thinner piece of plasticard, using the same template. Problem is that, even though I have a template, they are cut by hand so are all a bit different - not normally a problem with chaos, which is pretty forgiving with minor differences, but makes it hard to get the trim to fit. So, for the first one (the one on the right), I cut out the trim only to find that it was too big for the shield it was to go on. Rather than throw out my work, I cut it down the middle, removed some material, then glued it in place - this left a bit of a gap in the top of the trim, which I've hidden with some battle damage. So, even though I got it to work, it was way more effort than I had wanted and it left me kind of discouraged. So, last week I picked the project back up and tried again, just trying to be more careful and not cutting out the internal details until I had the outside dimensions correct. That didn't work, and the trim piece ended up too small and unusable. So I got a brilliant idea to glue the thin plasticard to the leg shield with a glue stick (the kind for gluing paper) then trimming it down to fit one the glue was dry. It then pealed off very easily, and after washing the dried glue off both pieces, I cut the internal details. The one on the left was produced by that method, and it worked like a charm. I then finished putting the holes in the side of the hull for the legs, and was able to do so in such a way that I only had to bend back one tiny part in order to fit the sponson (much to my own surprise - I was quite worried about the process warping the side to the extent that the sponson wouldn't fit anymore). Anyway, here's a picture of the almost finished side plate - just need to decide whether to glue the side hatch on or put gribblies behind it, and maybe put a few spikes through the side. And here it is with the legs glue tacked on: Two options for the big claw - the above, where the crusher claw attaches directly to the end of the arm - or the below, where I leave a bit of the crusher arm on to make the arm on the model longer. Away from the model, I prefer the first option but I think the second looks better on the actual model. Also, seeing the whole thing together, I'm not sure I like the small claw - do you guys think I should put another armored leg there instead? So, let me know your thoughts/opinions on the following: 1. Short or long arm for the crusher claws? 2. Spikes or tentacles on the side, or keep it smooth with a closed side hatch? 3. Small spike front leg (like the above) or another leg with an armored shield?

And now for some leg work - sorry, some of the pictures are a bit blurry. This is the right front leg, with the top picture showing it next to an unmodified tyranid claw and the bottom the greenstuff trim so far. I'm likely going to detail the circles to look more mechanical and maybe add some greenstuff to bulk out the arm a bit - it looks a little weedy right now. The model will also have a rear and a middle leg on each side, modelled to look similar to the rear legs on a venomcrawler. The top shows the front of the shield, where unfortunately the trim I cut out ended up being too big for the shield, and in resizing it it ended up a bit lopsided. Trying hard to avoid that on the next set of trim, but its challenging. Middle picture shows how the shield and the legs are attached and the bottom how I have bent the plasticard (by repeatedly putting it into a pot of boiling water, pulling it out and bending it a bit, then back into the water) - the different thickness is the left one has trim and right doesn't. The leg portions still needs some carving and greenstuffing to remove their tyranid elements, but I wanted to get the shields right before I did that. We'll see if that was a mistake. Here's a picture of what the tyranid pieces look like that I am working with - the left is what the assembled tyranid leg looks like, the middle is the piece I am actually working with, and the right is obviously is a more finished product with the shield. Here's roughly how they will look on the defiler - the rear two will be closer together as I end for them to protrude more sideways (rather than front and back) than I was able to achieve in this photo. Finally, here is the side of the defiler with the leg hole for the rear leg. Didn't get as good of a bent armoured plate look as on the front leg hole, but I have 6 more opportunities for the other legs and its claws, so I'm hoping to get better as I go. So far, these legs have been an enormous amount of work (and is still largely undone), but they are what will make the model a defiler so I think its important to get them right, as the look of the whole model will likely hinge on me getting them right.