Ed's Heresy Kill-Teams: Custodians and ruins

[Red Skullz]

No doubt - A.

[EdT]

A bit of progress...

 

Firstly, thanks all for your thoughts on the heads of the Temple Guard. I decided in the end to go with Option A; I was already leaning that way, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt that given their background, something ceremonial was the way to do; the new Skitarii heads were all too practical and would also have involved some trimming to fit, which would have been a pain. So anyhow, I've added some bionics to the skulls and here's the result! I'm quite pleased with them. You'll also see all four models now have their back-mounted volkites attached, plus some trailing cables.

 

 

Here's a shot of one of them from several angles to show how he's shaping up. I'm quite pleased so far; the next job will be to add some attachments to the remaining front-facing sockets. Not sure what these will be yet; I'm leaning towards mechandrites on the rear pair and close-combat weapons on the front.

 

 

 

 

I've also made progress on the Rangers. Everything is now glued together, and their coats are restored, although I still need to do a little bit of work on them to smooth out the texture and repair a cut purity seal. Obviously at present it looks rather weird, especially as the tissue is semi-transparent in the sun, but when painted it should just look like a continuation of the upper part of the coat. 

 

[Battybattybats]

A B & C

Skull head for the unit leader
Antenna head or half-human head of B for the weapon specialist
C for the rest.

Edit, lol wasn't fast enough, ninja'd by the update!

The results look great, the rangers too. Looking forward to the next update :)

[KrautScientist]

Man, those Skitarii kitbashes are really inspired! If I have one suggestion, it would be to put a bit more work into the area where the legs of those insectile Skitarii are joined to the body: Right now, the legs are basically joined to yet another ball, without any obvious point of attachment or joint. I think the area could look better if you were to add something to suggest some kind of pelvis -- does that make sense?

 

In any case, fantastic work so far!

[EdT]

Thanks all. @Krautscientist, good point on the legs. My idea was that the various components were connected using electromagnetism to allow for the maximum mobility and freedom of movement; I may see if I can find some bracing struts or cabling to beef up the connection, although there's not too much room to add stuff there.

Anyhow, you know when I was writing about the Thousand Sons Barque, and I talked about 'project creep'? I do seem to have a problem where I start off with a small and managable concept, then gradually it expands to something far larger and sillier; here's an typical, vaguely depressing example.

I wanted to make a Tribune to lead my Temple Guard; basically the temple's head of security, and the guardian of the inner sanctum. I had a concept I was fairly pleased with using a Thallax torso as base, and had got as far as assmbling the body and legs for him when I realised; he was perhaps a bit weedy for the sort of grizzled old veteran I had in mind. So project creep set in; it occured to me that there was an Ogryn head with a gasmask and goggles that looked passingly similar to the Skitarii helmets, so maybe if I modelled a hood on with greenstuff it might look quite cool? This would allow some beefy portable weapons too. I found the beginnings of a bionic arm, and everything seemed to be falling into place; here's both concepts.

That was all well and good; but then another head caught my eye, and I added some greenstuff to it as an experiment, and a couple of hours later I ended up with this monstrosity tacked together on my cutting mat...

Building this guy to look like a larger version of his little brothers is going to kill my wallet. Should be fun, though...

[Battybattybats]

All 3 are looking cool.. what head did you use on the Thallax body? I don't recognise it!

[Pearson73]

Loving these guys, adding a twist to the already twisted!

[EdT]

The head on the Thallax body is the unhelmed one from the Medusan Immortals set; for some reason the ball joint underneath is much larger than the regular power-armoured head and won't fit on any of my power-armoured torsos. It does fit perfectly in the Thallax neck socket, though! I may give him a greenstuff hood too; I haven't decided yet.

 

Fluffwise, I've decided to repurpose him to fit the religious theme as an itinerant warrior who is making pilgrimage to the shrine. I'll give him a taser lance and a shield to drive home the knightly theme; a servitor-squire might be fun too...

[Forward Assist]

Are the volkites on the Temple Guard from an AdMech kit, bud?

[EdT]

The Volkites are actually ones I had left over from the Solar Auxilia Veletarii, if that helps...

 

 

Now, a little progress on the guy with the Thallax torso. It's amazing what a bit of thought about background can do; the second I began musing on the hedge-knight theme, the whole model snapped into focus. He still needs gluing together and some cabling between his shield and the torso, but he's getting there. Now all he needs is a Sancho Panzatron...

 

 

Edit: What are people's thoughts- do I give him a hood or not, do you think?

[plaguewolf]

This is so awesome.. i think no hood

[StoneSentinels]

Yes yes yes yes yes. These are all awesome! On a more serious note yer give him a hood to tie in with the blachesque thing you have going through the other models.

[Battybattybats]

Sancho Panzatron!!! :D Oh my sides are hurting!
Considering that i say nay to the hood for the Donbot. While it would be cool i don't think the model needs it :)

[Daemon2027]

Oh you have to build Sancho Panzatron. That's idea is brilliant.

[EdT]

So, Sancho Panzatron is built; he's holding on to his master's helm and his Jezzail, so they're ready if required. I figure that warriors like Hamet Benengeli (which is I think what I'll name the guy)  would be equally proficient with lance, sword and gun as the occasion demands.

 

 

I'm mulling over the idea of giving Sancho Panzatron a mecha-sombrero to wear; I have a fun idea for how that might work, but at the same time I rather like his mask and bald head as they are, which reminds me of this guy from the Star Wars prequels. I dithered a lot over the choice of helmet and went through about six or seven alternatives; in the end I settled on one of the Solar Auxilia helms, which seemed to really fit somehow. Here's what it looks like with Benengeli puts it on.

 

 

 

The next job is to work out a paintscheme; the problem is that while red is an obvious option, doing that and then basing them as if they're wandering the Martian wilderness wouldn't really work. An entirely metallic scheme might be nice and knightly, but I was also wondering about a very chipped and dusty white armour, like the sandtroopers in the original Star Wars movie. Another option might be ochre, but is that too Tau-ish?

 

Here's a shot of the two together, anyhow..

 

[KrautScientist]

Mate, I cannot possibly tell you how much I love this idea! Unfortunately, I can only like it once ;)

 

I'd stay away from the sombrero, though, lest the analogy become too on-the-nose! ;)

 

Brilliant work, as usual!

[Daemon2027]

Out of likes. Stay away from the sombrero but otherwise amazing.

[Stercus]

These guys are absolutely brilliant.

[Monstra Sumus]

I love the idea of a duelist mechanoble. Very well executed mate, I just read through all 19 pages and you have some amazing stuff. 

[Half Goat]

awesome work as always Ed!  One thing I thought I would mention, is that the capes look pretty good, but what about a kilt made from strips of leather like the roman legions used? as it may hang better around the legs (thats if it doesnt end up looking like a grass skirt).

[Battybattybats]

I am seriously loving this.

This thread is one of the most inspiring and bliss-enducing on this forum, and this forum has a lot of talent on show.

While i'd like to see them in red (and it can be distinct from the base by making it a very different red to the basing, and i think the original reason the mechanicus wore red was camouflage when the deserts were filled with mutants and rogue servitors and remnant A.I.), 1st edition conflictingly said they wore white in one part of the book, red in another, so you could use something like the Forgeworld Metallica scheme of white with red decoration.

[EdT]

Thanks all- glad people like these guys! I'm amused by the universally horrified reaction to my mecha-sombrero idea; it genuinely wasn't as ridiculous as it sounded, but turns out it didn't work anyhow- so Sancho Panzatron is going to stay as is. Colourwise, the Metallica scheme is deifnitely something I'm moving towards; white or cream robes stained red by the Martian dust might look rather appealing.

I have to say, the more time I spend thinking about Martian society in 30/40k, the more interesting I find it. Not so much the great forges so much as the stuff we only ever get hints of in the background; the nobility of the Martian hives, the Cult Mechanicus away from the Magi and closer to the masses, the wastelands between the various manufactories, and so on. We've had Terra fleshed out a lot for us by the Horus Heresy books; but Mars has been settled for 20,000 years by this point and must have just as much interesting stuff going on.

With this Kill Team I've decided to try and put some of this across. While originally my group were going to be refugees from one of the temples destroyed in the Schism, they're now going to be much more Chaucerian; a diverse group of pilgrims who have fallen in together in their journey towards the Temple of Tokar, where the Cimmerian Oracle resides (I imagine that the Oracle generally suggests you try turning it off and on again). We've seen the Armiger and his faithful squire; I've decided to repurpose the Temple Guard as the personal protectors of a young aristocratic pilgrim from the Jovian moons, who, when I get round to building her, will be convyed side-saddle by a servitor-steed. I've made some progress on the guard, and they now have two more arms; I'm unsure whether to fill the last two sockets or add some sensors or dangling cables there, as I suspect anything more extensive will make the model look far too busy.

Then, we have a new pilgrim, who is very much in the early stages. It occured to me that while I do a lot of converting, I'd missed one of the traditional rites of passage that we all have to follow; I'd never done a Cairn Wraith! This guy is an attempt to rectify that; he's going to be an Eremech or Circuit-walker, a holy hermit who has withdrawn from society to minister to and watch over the feral machine spirits of the Martian wastes. Robogast the Brown, basically...

There's lots of work to be done with him, but I need the greenstuff to cure first. At least one of his mechandrites will be communing with a servo-skull, Francis of Assisi style. I have however made a few of his flock, which still need a bit of work.

[miteyheroes]

This thread, as always, is like hobby crack. And now with puns as well? I love everything you make, and your new Canterbury Mechatentales are really quite something.

[Battybattybats]

The thread that keeps on giving!
I for one wasn't minding the sombrero idea if it worked.
The Robogast looks great, the ruststalker princeps head is a very good part i expect to find use for once i get a spare building some infiltrators. Great cog on his staff, what's it's provenance?

I totally agree about Martian society, the tiny snippet about the lower classes of Mars in the new codex was great to get

(tattoos and piercings to look more augmented being an unexpected one, and aspiring to apply to join the Skitarii to rise in class, with the surprising detail that in the Martian skitarii some (of those who survive) can graduate to become techpriests)

being fascinating, and of course i've been building my own notions of Mechanicum nobles through my House Cydonia work. It will be interesting to see what similarities and differences there will be between your noblewoman and the one i've made.

As you are going with pilgrims do note that bit in the new codex about Seekers of the Sydonian Mask (the face on Mars :) ) being the inspiration for the invention of the Ironstrider engine.. in case you want to put legs on your pilgrim instead of the more common floating or cables most tend to do with the wraith (myself included!) while i have some plans to make such a Sydonian-Seeker pilgrim of my own they are distant future plans stuff so if you go there first i'll be looking forward to your ideas and may steal mercilessly from them :D

[KrautScientist]

The guardian looks great with added arms! As for your Cairn Wraith conversion, maybe this could serve as inspiration, if you'll excuse the shameless plug... ;)