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Xenobiotic's continual madness (Updated 20160816)

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#1 · (Edited)
Welcome to Xenobiotic's Continual Madness log!


To follow the progress better and for newcomers to see how far I've gone in the process of creating my envisioned army of Blood Angels Successors I decided to include this list in the first post. To see the first initial post please continue down this post - Thank you.
Key: Gray = Conceptualized | Red = Built | Orange = Painting Started | White = "Done" (click to go to the post)

Blood Angel Successors - Brethren of the Phoenix
ARMY PHOTOS:
Legal Army
1000 pts

HQ:
Captain Vespillo (Counts as Tycho)
Reclusiarch-Chaplain Sabinus
Epistolary Librarian Favius
Librarian
Honour Guard - Veteran, Meltagunner, Meltagunner, Techadept + Sanguinary Initiate
Honour Guard magnetized for jump packs - Veteran (?), Veteran (?), Veteran (?), Veteran (?) + Sanguinary Initiate

ELITES:
Furioso Dreadnought w. Magnetized Weapons
Furioso Dreadnought w. Magnetized Weapons (Blood Talons vs Blood Fists + Magna-grapple)
12-man Sternguard unit
(Sanguinary Priest w. magnetized Backpack/Jumppack)
Sanguinary Priest w. magnetized Backpack/Jumppack
Sanguinary Priest w. magnetized melta bombs and power weapon
Sanguinary Priest w. magnetized melta bombs and power weapon

TROOPS:
10-man Assault Squad w. 2 x Meltaguns & Powerfist
5-man Assault Squad w. 1 x Meltaguns, Powerfist & Magnetized Backpacks/Jumppacks
5-man Assault Squad w. 1 x Meltaguns & Magnetized Backpacks/Jumppacks
5-man Assault Squad w. 1 x Flamers, Powerfist & Magnetized Backpacks/Jumppacks
5-man Assault Squad w. 1 x Flamers & Magnetized Backpacks/Jumppacks
5-man Death Company Squad w. Powerfist & Magnetized Special Weapons
5-man Death Company Squad w. Powerfist & Magnetized Special Weapons
5-man Death Company Squad w. Magnetized Special Weapons
Death Company Dreadnought w. Magnetized Weapons (Blood Talons vs Blood Fists + Magna-grapple)
Death Company Dreadnought w. Magnetized Weapons (Blood Talons vs Blood Fists + Magna-grapple)

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS:
Repressor - The Auspice
Rhino/Razorback w. Dozer Blades or click here for a weathered version
Rhino/Razorback w. Dozer Blades
Rhino/Razorback w. Dozer Blades
Death Company Rhino/Razorback w. Dozer Blades - The Salient
Death Company Land Raider Crusader
Land Raider
Drop Pod
Drop Pod
Drop Pod

FAST ATTACK:
5-man Vanguard Squad w. Thunder Hammer
5-man Vanguard Squad
Baal Predator w. Dozer Blades & Magnetized Sponsons - Gloam, of the Dusk-Bringers
Baal Predator w. Dozer Blades & Magnetized Sponsons
Baal Predator w. Dozer Blades & Magnetized Sponsons

HEAVY SUPPORT:
5-man Devastator Squad
5-man Devastator Squad
Vindicator w. Siege Shield
Vindicator w. Siege Shield
Vindicator w. Siege Shield
Predator Annihilator w. Dozer Blades & Sponsons
Whirlwind
Stormraven

SUPER HEAVIES:
Knight Warden
Fellblade

OBJECTIVE COUNTERS
Phoenix/Huma Bird Nest
Phoenix/Huma Bird
Phoenix/Huma Bird
Unnamed objective / Undecided
Unnamed objective / Undecided
Unnamed objective / Undecided

HOW TOs:
Dead Mans Hand Counts As
Beaked Helmets
Mud

Dirty White Armour
Jasper effect
Deep Blue Armour

Original Introduction:
I've been a member on Heresy for a few years now, albeit a very passive one. Up till now I've mostly been checking out the occasional project log or modelling tip. Lately I've grown more addicted and started to log on every day, following project logs as I found it boosted my own imagination and creativity. I've also started to write my first posts (success!) so go easy on me :cray:

I'm mostly into the collecting/painting/modelling side of the hobby. Playing is mostly a "Well, if I have to" sort of thing for me. Although this attitude has put me in a lot of trouble with my gaming buddies, seeing as how I've been trying to complete a worthwhile 1000+ pts army for ages now and I'm always distracted by something else (a valkyrie here, a greater daemon there sometimes even a painting or a drawing). If you don't believe me have a look at half of my desk:


So, inspired by the very dedicated minions and overlords of the Heresy Forums, I've decided to put together a playable army of at least 1000 pts within a reasonable amount of time. Seeing as I need to keep the model count down to actually manage (since I have studies and other artwork to do as well) I decided that some kind of Space Marines would probably be my best choice to fill out points quickly. I also have a lot of Space Marine miniatures since before. So I put the old painted ones in a box filled with pine tree oil ("Såpa" in Swedish, don't know the exact translation), ordered a bunch of boxes to fill out my ranks and started searching for a suitable colour scheme.

Having looked through some sources I liked the Iron Hands (I love their background), however their scheme isn't all that inspiring which led further down the search of successors eventually stopping at the Iron Fists (Metallic Blue armour with Gold arms). So I painted a Tactical Squad in their scheme and tried my luck on a converted Master of the Forge but they didn't really stick with me.

Conclusion:
At the same time I read through the rumours of the coming Blood Angel Codex and was a bit confused about which way to go. I liked the Blood Angels back in the 3rd edition, the furioso dreadnoughts, the close combat waves and the Death Company. But I never really fell for the "all red" armour (even with the differently coloured helmets). Their successors didn't help me much to spice the scheme up (seeing as how they are mostly all red anyway). Flipping through even more examples of chapters and trying some combinations with red out I came up with a scheme I like. Red and White. Now I just have to perfect painting it and paint 1000 points. Clobbering the Iron Fists in pause for the time being.

Without further ramblings here's the start of my Blood Angels Successors Chapter (still some finishing touches to do on the models I have painted - no squad markings and chapter symbols, purity seals not all that well painted in these pictures):
Assault Squad 1:





I choose skulls on the "arm shields" on my meltagunners on this squad and ironically I accidentally chose a powerfist with the exact skull for my squad leader, proved to be a fitting way to tie the squad together a tad more.

Assault Squad 2:

And in keeping with the previous squad I had to "align" the squad leaders powerfist with the assault weapons in the squad. An easy cut'n'scrape on a space wolf powerfist with the addition of some "green stuff mold'n'press" solved that problem:


Back to painting marines and building dreads.
Hopefully I'll have something a bit more interesting than just marines to show next time I post.

The chapter needs a name, any ideas or suggestions? Chapter symbol will most likely be very similar to the blood angels symbol (red on white shoulder pad, or perhaps another colour? Black?)
I tried painting battle damage on white armour and found it a bit tricky. Any suggestions on that?

C&C is welcome!
 
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#327 ·
Xeno the Baal is looking incredible. I think that you should add some more stars and things to it just to lighten the overall feel of the turret, but that is personal opinion as it looks fantastic so far. Can't wait to see the end result.

I haven't read IA10 so I really don't have much advice to offer regarding the chapters in it, but I have always been a fan of the Executioners. That being said I really liked where you were going with your Space Shark successors and I would hate to see you scrap that idea. If Tyberos was a disappointing rules wise you could use his model if you like it to represent one of the other Codex Specials, or just come up with your own rules for him.

As to the new Exemplar I love what you have done with the servitor arm. Good looking stuff, can't wait to see him painted up.
 
#328 ·
Count-as is your friend, don't let the Space Sharks die in vain!
 
#329 ·
Thanks to Winterous and Warsmith, but i live in the US... ill look at miniwargaming though. Thanks. Mainly I need it for filling in legs (i stole Xenos legs idea...) and that would be detail... but if i ever get something bigger ill look that up. Thanks!

And definitely dont scrap the space sharks. You could make them something like Gabriel Seth, with the whirlwind of gore that would work well for shark teeth, as is could be like a mass shark attack or something. Either way, keep them at least as an idea. Keep up the good work!
 
#331 ·
I totally think that the new direction you are going with your chapter will work well, and since it was really the paint scheme I was loathe to see you abandon I think that it will work well with the new fluff that you are incorporating. The Iron Hands are a great chapter and I too have always been fascinated by their heavy use of Dreads and bionics. Lots of good conversion opportunities there.

To your Baal, the additional highlighting and small freehands that you have added to the turret were just the tick. It looks much better now and it blends much better with the rest of the piece. Excellent work buddy!

I feel your pain on the challenge count down. My Dwarfs are progressing much more slowly than I had wanted, but hey, there is a week left right:biggrin:!
 
#339 ·
And ideas need to be processed...

----



The paintjob will not be abandoned, it will just be tweaked with better highlighting and possibly more shading (darken it a bit, maybe, I haven't decided yet). I also need to come up with a chapter symbol and a definite name to work with... There are a lot of conversion possibilities, yes, though I'm not sure my skills are up to making bionics just yet... I can steal the Iron Hand influences I like whether or not my chapter hails from them, it's definitely something I want to do since I had that idea about a year ago and abandoned it then (but now I have more skills!).

Thanks for the tip Xeno will be helpful and i like the idea. Not sure but you might want to change the word Baal in Baal predator to something else, or maybe not, as this is a Blood Angels term, and Baal is there home planet. I know this army is BA, but either way it might work. Your call though, I know im changing it.
Really never stop rambling it makes it interesting. And i think that Scathainn's fluff works really well with this
Keep up the good work!
The Baal Predator is pretty much a name of a design, because the Blood Angels refused to give up the SCT and therefore it hails from Baal. The name of the chassis with turret doesn't need to be changed in my army (since they still are Baal Predators), it's the "nickname" that I have to come up with.

I will never stop rambling. Often I'm stopped only by the fact that it's in the middle of the night over here and I have to sleep :p

That is one bad ass looking rhino!
Rhino with twin-assault cannon turret and armoured front ;) But she will be able to stand in as a rhino as well since she's all magnetized. I'm hoping the complete unit of 3 will look even more awesome then the individual tanks (of which this is the first).

Dude I love this. Thanks for giving me so many ideas and cool ways of displaying my work on Heresy Online.
I'm not sure what specific things I've inspired you to do but I'm glad I could help out! I was actually thinking of making a post on how to make an interesting Project Log but I'm not sure where it could be posted to make it easily visible and if it would be interesting for anyone to read...

can you explain this "wet blending"? I mean I'm sure I can come up with a general concept as to what that means but it'd be good to make sure I have a better plan for doing it properly.

I like the fluff set up you've got swimming around in your head....heh...and that marine still looks really awesome even after not seeing it for a while. I'm guessing that Aettir word eventually turned into ether which made me think of Draugr Ethereals, but then you've got that whole Tau idea sticking you in the brain whenever you say it. I think something along the lines of what you got would be a good name though for sure.
Basic Wetblending tutorial hope that's of some help. I could try explain it better but I'd have to make pictures and I think that guy has it pretty well explained (the bottom tips in particular with many layers of thinned paint).

I might have a more "Space Marine"isch name in the works for you, some suggestions will be mentioned further down!

Never stop rambling :) Just like Svart's log, your commentary on the creative process is just as interesting as the incredible work being produced.

Baal predator is gorgeous, and loving the ideas for the new chapter :victory:
I won't stop, I just need to know when enough is enough and when I start to type in circles :D It's a good thing if it makes sense for someone at least. I type out all my thoughts here on heresy, I've mirrored my plog on warseer but it's basically just pictures there with links to heresy. I get a lot more and better (more useful) comments here then I do on warseer - that's what typing out the process gives you (and that's my way of trying to lure some of them over here as well, hehe).

First off, as for a chapter name, I think going short and simple would be the best: The Draugr. According to the myth of Norway at least (can't say for you silly Swedes :grin: ), there are two distinct types of Draugr: Sjøendraug, or "Sea Draugr", and Jordendraug, "Land Draugr". The Draugr were described in Norse Myth not as undead, but warriors who "refused to die". This could be explained in your background as the bionics bit, as these warriors all experienced tremendous amounts of pain only to "refuse to die" and recieve bionics to bring them back to health. So, then, keeping with the bionics the Sjøendraug could fit the sense of immortal bionic warriors while keeping the sense of being a Space Sharks successor. In addition, perhaps high-ranking members of the chapter (captains perhaps?) could be called Sjövættir, which in Norse myth were spirits who guarded specific waters and were sometimes considered the keepers of the Sjøendraug.

EDIT: Additional tidbits. Sjøendraug were sometimes described as headless fishermen dressed in oilskins; perhaps a special character ala your Sanguinor count-as? And another interesting fact: the Draugr's only weakness (besides decapitation) was fire; seems a bit at odds with your Phoenixes :biggrin:
Very interesting read, I'm trying to paste together a good comprehension of the myth from pieces of information on the internet - and I must say that a lot of the nuances gets lost in translation from Scandinavian languages to English, the mythological words just aren't translatable in a good way (hence the undead appearance in the story, I believe).

I'm definitely mostly after a feel of power beyond the flesh which I think the myth captured very well. And with the pieces of fluff stolen from the Sharks further down in this post I think there is a reasonable enough connection to make them shark successors and still make them heavily influenced from the Iron Hands as it comes to use of Dreadnoughts and Bionics which is probably where I want to land.

Perhaps I could use a spin off on the headless stories as I make my Vaylund Cal counts as (could be cool, you've definitely sown some ideas about that concept).

About the vættir in general they are pretty much my favourite part of the Norse/Scandinavian cultural heritage. The diversity of their presence and stories are so cool and I can understand why people had such strong respect and belief in them.

I think I'll be able to tie the chapters together. If not by some cool fluff story then at least via the old "Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer".

----

And the tracks keeps on...
Even though I have a lot of time on my hands these days my painting is progressing painfully slow at the moment. We all have these periods I guess. I think my main quarrel was the fact that I wasn't to sure about how to finish of the bird freehand which made me put it aside a lot to work on what was going through my mind (the other successors and IA10 a lot these days). It's still a slow climb for me, and I'm going to have to push to be able to finish it and weather it before the end of January.

At the moment I'm trying to give the birds structure (remove all the completely red areas) on top of the tank before I decide how to do with the sides. The doors are magnetized and will pretty often be replaced with the sponsons which have a lot of detail in them so I think the sides are going to work with my plan of doing just the wings of the big bird there. Possibly I'll do the rhino doors with freehands similar to the one on the dozer, just to give some details to them (I think it will look a bit booring otherwise).

Here's a top down view of the current status, with and without the turret:

Time Spent: ~9 hours

----

While on the subject of IA10...
So, as time goes by I'm still tossing around ideas and I've gotten a lot of good input from you all, which is very nice since it helps me condense a better result in the long run.

There are a few things I like a lot about the Carcharodons, here are a few quotes from IA10 which are pretty much dead away stolen into my successors when drawing up the concept in my mind:
Imperial Armour Volume 10 said:
Those that fought besides them remarked upon their ability to seemingly erupt from absolute stillness to fury in a moment and without warning, and then equally without warning withdraw like ghosts from the battlefield [...]
Imperial Armour Volume 10 said:
[...] eerie silence during their attack. Their officers' commands issued via a locked and encrypted vox-net, not a word or sound were being uttered during battle to friend or foe save out of extreme necessity.
Imperial Armour Volume 10 said:
[...] when viewed in the flesh, [they] were also singular, displaying a greyish-pale, almost deathly pallor, with their more venerable members possessed of liquid-seeming black eyes without a visible iris or sclera.
Bold emphasis is my own markers.

The things I like about the Iron Hands/Sons of Medusa is the clan structure (I like things that differ from the codex) and their affinity for ancient machinery and bionics (No specific quotes for this just yet but I might find some later on). I'm guessing these aspects won't be hard to steal and infuse into my chapter which I'm now pretty sure will remain as a Space Shark Successor chapter. Perhaps they found a way to still their bloodlust by removing the weakness of the flesh(?)

Possible new chapter names to fit the theme:
Void Specters
Void Sharks
The Specters
or maybe even
Ghost Sharks :shok:


Chapter symbol suggestions are welcomed!

As you could read in the previous post what I'd like is a force where everyone wears some kind of helmet (which leads me to another problem later on with the scouts) with a heavy focus on infantry and walkers to simulate the "Ghastly Specters" feel. I will try to embody a boarding party/unit (to perhaps possibly play scenario in IA9 sometime) but the bases will be more heavy industry with dirt added to it - not to confine the army only to industrialised/ship environments (which isn't available at the time where I play anyway so I'll make that sacrifice). I'm thinking of doing some of the scenario specific units as conversions just to have smaller projects to work with on the side :) (there are some attack drones and explosive drones available as well as tiny shields for marines to avoid heavy fire).

Basically I want to include units that my Blood Angel army doesn't have a lot of or ever will include. At the moment that stands to be Tacticals, Scouts, Terminators and Devastators with the addition of dreadnoughts (since they are so cool).

I'm going to need a lot of bionics for the Power Armoured marines, which I'm not sure how to get a hold of just yet. There is the Iron Hands conversion pack which I guess I could get pieces from. I also have the FW character conversion pack which contains a few arms and a pair of legs (as well as a head without a helmet). But I'm going to have to convert some of the stuff by hand so I'll be experimenting with plasticard rods and gears and cogs from old watches as well as alternative miniature suppliers (tips would be nice!).

I've finally got a reason to make some scouts, which I've had a lot of ideas for very long but no need for in my BA army. I want to make at least a 5-man bolter unit with cammo cloaks. I want them to have helmeted heads (as if they where able to operate in low-/no-oxygen environments) which I have no idea of where to get, the sites I know about doesn't make decent helmeted heads that would fit my taste (tips on this would be welcomed as well). I'll also be making custom cammo cloaks with urban/ship camouflage in greenstuff for them - which I've been envisioning for a long time and I think it could be an awesome conversion/addon. If the first 5 turn out well I'll buff the unit up to 10 with a heavy bolter for good measure. I'm pretty sure they will be crap on the field but hey!

Considering the Dreadnoughts I'm going to use the ones I'd planned to make into Death Company dreads as Riflemen/Normal dreads. This decision has also given me use of the Autocannon arms I bought ages ago from FW, which is a neat bonus! MAYBE I'll buy one or two of the MK IV ironclads from forgeworld to represent my Ironclads in this army. I'd love to have at least one MK IV dread in the army (since they are just so wicked in so many ways).

Some of you might recognize this fellow:


Right now I'd sure like to paint him to get the ball rolling but I'm going to keep focus on the Baal for the time being.

That's all my rambling for tonight! Comments on this is of course very welcomed! and I'm sorry if I keep changing my mind back and forth, that's the problem with sharing the creative process I guess... :russianroulette:

----

Till next time :bye:
 
#332 ·
Thanks for the tip Xeno will be helpful and i like the idea. Not sure but you might want to change the word Baal in Baal predator to something else, or maybe not, as this is a Blood Angels term, and Baal is there home planet. I know this army is BA, but either way it might work. Your call though, I know im changing it.
 
#333 ·
That is one bad ass looking rhino!
 
#335 · (Edited)
can you explain this "wet blending"? I mean I'm sure I can come up with a general concept as to what that means but it'd be good to make sure I have a better plan for doing it properly.

I like the fluff set up you've got swimming around in your head....heh...and that marine still looks really awesome even after not seeing it for a while. I'm guessing that Aettir word eventually turned into ether which made me think of Draugr Ethereals, but then you've got that whole Tau idea sticking you in the brain whenever you say it. I think something along the lines of what you got would be a good name though for sure.
 
#337 · (Edited)
Well.

Being a Space Sharks fan, I'm certainly having some mixed feelings regarding your changing in the background. However it's your army and I'm determined to keep the sharky spirit alive, even if it means helping you with some fluff :) .

Also, being originally born in Norway myself, I dig the ideas you had with the Draugr and I wanted to give my opinions on chapter fluff.

First off, as for a chapter name, I think going short and simple would be the best: The Draugr. According to the myth of Norway at least (can't say for you silly Swedes :grin: ), there are two distinct types of Draugr: Sjøendraug, or "Sea Draugr", and Jordendraug, "Land Draugr". The Draugr were described in Norse Myth not as undead, but warriors who "refused to die". This could be explained in your background as the bionics bit, as these warriors all experienced tremendous amounts of pain only to "refuse to die" and recieve bionics to bring them back to health. So, then, keeping with the bionics the Sjøendraug could fit the sense of immortal bionic warriors while keeping the sense of being a Space Sharks successor. In addition, perhaps high-ranking members of the chapter (captains perhaps?) could be called Sjövættir, which in Norse myth were spirits who guarded specific waters and were sometimes considered the keepers of the Sjøendraug.

Just my thoughts as one Scandinavian to another. Keep the shark spirit alive! :victory:

EDIT: Additional tidbits. Sjøendraug were sometimes described as headless fishermen dressed in oilskins; perhaps a special character ala your Sanguinor count-as? And another interesting fact: the Draugr's only weakness (besides decapitation) was fire; seems a bit at odds with your Phoenixes :biggrin:
 
#340 ·
Loving the paint job on that Predator; the only suggestion I would make is to darken down the central bird's plumage where the two side birds meet it, to give a greater sense of the side birds being above the central one; at the moment the area where the two meet is a bit flat. Have some rep for taking some risks paint-scheme-wise.

And name-wise, I'd go for Void Spectres...
 
#349 ·
And ideas need to be considered...

----



I keep going back and forth with the colours, I'm probably going to land somewhere when I have a good enough distinction between the individual birds. I mustn't get stuck in it for to long though cause then I'll miss out on the challenge!

sorry i've not posted in a while xeno, i was busy gaping at all your stuff again, SUPERB doesnt even cover half of it.

love whats going on, your army in the end if going to be one amazing army, i cant wait for the final army shot!

as for your chapter.. i think void specters sounds best, as for the symbol, i dont know, something sinister with a pair of black eyes on a grey triangle? i dont know thats just a quick thought, liking the dread, you see too many stand in riflemen dreads because of the forgeworld kit, good to see one!
Thanks!

You're going to have to wait for a while for that photo because the end for this army is not even close at this rate. Probably at least a year (possibly more) if I keep at it with this rate and try to keep my purchases at a low rate and not get distracted by other shiny things.

Ok. So i think you should use the deathly hallows sign (yes i did say that) with two circles instead of one, higher up so they look kindof like eyes. If you dont ill think of w way to use that. And i agree with void spectres, but if so youll have to make your no open heads idea be perfect with no exceptions, to show silence of the void. Nice work as always.
I have some ideas about the helmeted concept, should work out just fine. There will be a lot of room for minor conversions and tweaking in that army, something I've been wanting to do for a long time but really didn't have the skills or know-how (or even the tools for) before.

I think that the Baal looks absolutely fantastic! The birds are shaping up nicely and they are really beginning to fill the space and blend the model together. All I can say is excellent work.

I like everything you are going with with your new chapter and I am glad that you are going to continue to incorporate the Space Sharks into the imagery and background. I am particularly taken with the chapter name the Void Sharks. I think that one really ties together all the fluff that you are keen on.

I love the idea for the scouts but off the top of my head I can't think of anything that will really suit what you are going for. I will keep an eye out for things in my jaunts around the internet and if I come across anything I will give you a shout.

As for the chapter symbol: I have really been taken with your space imagery on the Baal and as such I think that you should go with a lot of that imagery with your Shark successors as from what you have said it sounds like they are going to spend most of their time among the stars. However to differentiate them from the work on your Brethren, you should go with mostly cool tones. Blues and whites, grey swirls, and the like. I am rubbish with the photo shop but I found a couple of images that really took me.

all of these hit on the cooler color tone that I think would be fantastic alongside the current color scheme you have for the new chapter. Perhaps something like one of these images:

Superimposed on the swirling star vortex thing would be pretty cool as a chapter symbol.
You're just full of spurring ideas aren't you? You're almost making me want to paint my marines in space patterns :D Or at least darken the grey areas and do it on them and maybe some other kind of pattern on the turquoise side. Oh, the danger of ideas!

I'm liking the shark symbols. I might be able to greenstuff a suitable icon on a shoulderpad and make a press mould out of it to duplicate it across the squads. Maybe even do a few variants to make them a bit different but still very similar... Then I could paint freehand space phenomena around that...

Are you allowed to use models with forge world parts like that in games? just wondering, not sure for example if the SM codex has rules for adding twin linked auto canons to dreads or anything like that.

I'm kind of confused about the carcharodons, is that the NEW name for the space sharks? or is it a separate chapter entirely? I've read a summary if IA10 but dont actually have the issue myself.

Pred additions looks amazing as usual haha.
Riflemen dreads are in the normal SM codex, costs 125 pts and has 2 twin-linked autocannons. You might not be aware of it since you're playing Black Templars and they can't have that configuration :)

And yes, the Carcharodons is just a new name for the old Space Sharks :)

Great Freehand work, LOVE IT!
:victory:

Void Sharks! Cheesy marines - go!

Or even better - ROBO-SHARKS! :grin:
:spiteful: Or maybe not Robo-sharks :p

The only bit I have to comment on right now is the helmeted scout heads. I've seen alot using heads from Pig Iron but personally I think the Forge World Elysian Drop Trooper helmets would fit well.
Yes, I'm thinking that as well, they look space suit:y enough and with some modifications to the scouts I might have been able to pass them off. I think I'm going to try one other option before I resort to that one though.

WOW :shok:!!! Absolutely amazing work. You make me want to quit painting...or paint more to try and get better.
I'd suggest the latter of those two options :O

----

Isn't this starting to get annoying?
As you might have suspected I've done some more painting on the Baal Predator, pretty much finished of the top freehand. Now I've run into some new problems - I have no idea if I should continue it down the back. The tailfeathers will look short if I don't but the steep angle might make them look odd anyhow(?). Your input into the matter would be welcomed.

I'll also have to speed up my painting the coming days.. Oh my oh my...

----

About them Sharkies...
It feels like we've fleshed out the chapter pretty well in our discussion now, hopefully I haven't ignored anyone totally in my dictatorship that is this thread.

About the chapter name I was first more inclined to go with Void Specters (which I think sounds very much like a typical space marine chapter name) but then I realised I had no chapter symbol ideas what so ever to fit that theme which made the Void Sharks more appealing for me (since I have some ideas for that). One thing doesn't rule out the other I guess, they could be the Void Sharks and still be called the Void Spectres or just Specters.

I think I'm going to try my hand on a Shark chapter symbol, if possible I'll try to sculpt it on a shoulderpad and make a press mould to make more of them which would save me to freehand a more complicated symbol over and over again.

About the scout heads I had some ideas, going about the net I figured that it would probably have to be Elysian Drop Trooper heads or Cadian Respirator heads. Both have different upsides and downsides.

Elysian Droop Trooper Helmets:
Example miniature not done by me and picture not taken by me

Pretty small (as many FW things are when put into comparison with other GW plastics)
I don't like the glasses
Does indeed look very "space suit" like and have a sci-fi/high-tech appearance (then on the other hand space marine suits aren't very super high-tech).

Cadian Respirator Helmets:
Example miniature not done by me and picture not taken by me

Bulkier (which is both good and bad)
Has cooler googles
A bit to much "guardsman"?

As I was pondering these ideas I happened across the B&K-site which I do from time to time and I saw that he had a lot of the Iron Hands bionic helmets in stock so I bought a bunch of them and while I was ordering stuff anyway I went ahead and bought a batch of cadian respirator helmets. I figure I might as well give them a try and see what I can do with some minor adjustments (I have some ideas but I'd rather toss them to you with an actual attempted picture rather then spill them all now).

I also decided to order a big mix or plasticard rods of different smaller sizes (0.6 mm, 0.8 mm, 1.0 mm) which I'll be using to make bionic pistons and such on my marines but ALSO on my scouts, which I figure will need some kind of reinforced armour to withstand low pressure environments on a spaceship. We'll see how that goes. Suffice to say it will be an expensive scout unit with a lot more conversions going into them then any troop choice should get...

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Till next time :bye:
 
#341 ·
sorry i've not posted in a while xeno, i was busy gaping at all your stuff again, SUPERB doesnt even cover half of it.

love whats going on, your army in the end if going to be one amazing army, i cant wait for the final army shot!

as for your chapter.. i think void specters sounds best, as for the symbol, i dont know, something sinister with a pair of black eyes on a grey triangle? i dont know thats just a quick thought, liking the dread, you see too many stand in riflemen dreads because of the forgeworld kit, good to see one!

+rep if i can!
 
#342 ·
Ok. So i think you should use the deathly hallows sign (yes i did say that) with two circles instead of one, higher up so they look kindof like eyes. If you dont ill think of w way to use that. And i agree with void spectres, but if so youll have to make your no open heads idea be perfect with no exceptions, to show silence of the void. Nice work as always.
 
#344 ·
Are you allowed to use models with forge world parts like that in games? just wondering, not sure for example if the SM codex has rules for adding twin linked auto canons to dreads or anything like that.

I'm kind of confused about the carcharodons, is that the NEW name for the space sharks? or is it a separate chapter entirely? I've read a summary if IA10 but dont actually have the issue myself.

Pred additions looks amazing as usual haha.
 
#346 ·
Void Sharks! Cheesy marines - go!

Or even better - ROBO-SHARKS! :grin:
 
#350 ·
As far as the tail feathers go I think you should continue them down the back. The angle may be weird but I think that as it stands right now the design just stopping there at the back of the rhino looks unfinished.

I think that your best bet may be the cadian helmets. I have been keeping an eye out for something suitable as a suggestion, but no luck so far. I will let you know if I find anything.
 
#357 · (Edited)
I'm holding my thumbs that the cadian helmets will work out, after all I'll only need around 10-20 of them depending on how many units of scout equivalents I want/need in the army. While expensive I guess it can be worth it to get the look I'm after (the unhelmeted scout heads are just so big and.. well, bad).

my opinions are:

If you have the wings going down the sides you should probably have the tail going down the back. I don't think the angle will be too much of a problem, and if you put that tank on a game table and someone said anything other than holy shit that tank looks amazing or something similar then you'd have the right to hit them. 'hrm I dunno looks pretty good I guess, but that angle of the feathers on the back really brings down the model for me, I've seen better'... SMACK* haha j/k I know as a fellow painter that its more about your own satisfaction with the model than anything.

Void sharks is so much better than void specters zomg

Those Arbite helms would probably look pretty legit. Definitely give them a try. How would you do one of those 'molds' of something you painted?
Heh, the people I play with have hard time seeing what I've painted on some vehicles actually. The rear of the first rhino I did for this thread is a mystery for them (which I find odd). They might actually be one of those hypothetical persons you just brought up :russianroulette:

I wouldn't do a mold out of something I've painted. I would make an icon out of greenstuff and make a press mold to duplicate it onto other items (such as the helmets) in greenstuff. Sorry for the confusion.

yeah i say go for painting the tail feathers, a blank back would look off even if you did the stars. Take a look at these heads, they look pretty cool and ive seen them used on scouts before
http://chapterhousestudios.com/webs...page=flypage.tpl&product_id=78&category_id=35

heres a pic

sorry about the really bad pic i dont know what happened
you could also try Pig Iron heads
While visually interesting (I've looked at those particular heads before for other reasons) they aren't really what I'm looking for. The biggest problem is perhaps that they are very different from each other and I'd like this particular unit to have a cohesive "standardized" look with some personal mods and extra equipment added to them (lenses, freehands, chapter icon sculpt - such things).

The pred is looking great Xeno. I think you should carry on the tail onto the rear door also.

Scout heads. Here's a shot of one of my imperial fists with some pig iron heads:

Not a Great picture but you get the idea for what pig iron heads can look like.

Keep it up bud.
There's just something about those particular heads I can't wrap my mind around which makes me reluctant to use Pig Iron heads for my scouts. I've found they look better on IG bodies and I'll be using heads from Pig Iron when I do my IG army (ages from now most likely).

I like either the Pigs or the heresy ones the best personally. The other one just looks weird in general. Excellent work as usual.
I have some heads from Pig Iron lying around (enough to make an Imperial Guard army of them, actually) and they suffer from being pretty small when compared to other space marine helmets and heads which is one thing I don't like. The other thing is that they lack the feeling I'm looking for in this particular scout unit.

Reference here is a trial IG soldier I've been mocking about with from time to time to try out cammo patterns:


I have a feeling these scouts might end up as a very iconic unit in the army.. Which is kind of odd for a 5-man Scout squad. Ah, well.

You always annoy me. You get stuff done!...

You wouldn't have had that tail problem if the bird wasn't so fat... No, really :p
I would continue with the tail. It looks more wierd when it's unfinished than going down at a bad angle. Now maybe you will make a plan so it won't hapen on the next tank?
As always, wery high quality on your paint job, looking forward to see it finished.
Actually I do have plans for all my freehands as I start them out, and this one was planned as a "fat bird" from the get go. Actually, the initial idea contained only the big bird along with a massive field of falling stars going in the same direction as the bird.

Thing is, as you work with a miniature of this size you tend to change your concept as you go along (since you're actually seeing how it comes together). So I dropped the falling stars and I added another 2 birds. Another thing about painting such a big freehand with many different angles (which makes it hard to see what you have painted already - in order to compare it with what you are painting at the moment) is that you tend to do things a little different which can screw the overall feel up quite a lot.

It's a complicated process - much easier to make a painting on a flat surface (a canvas). I'm definitely going to need to do something vastly different after this tank because I'm just exhausted by this particular freehand.

If you want the Chapter House ones I would hurry up before GW shuts them down for IP violations:biggrin:
Hehe, I was thinking about that as I read the suggestion, not much of a surprise though :biggrin:

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Since last time I've gotten some more freehand work done. To be honest I'm all emptied out on this vehicle now, I'll have to push to get it done but it should be possible. I know there are some areas that could use touch ups but I'm fed up with the birds and I'll try to cover some mistakes by wear and tear instead in the weathering process. I still have some stars to do on the rear and the front sides (along with highlights on those black areas). After that it's minor details (lenses, lights and metal parts) then it's all weathering (the tracks will stay black till the very final step of the weathering process which is when they get a metallic sheen, I've found that to be the easiest way to "paint" them).

Time spent: ~13 hours

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Hopefully I'll have another update to show you soon™
Till next time :bye:
 
#351 ·
my opinions are:

If you have the wings going down the sides you should probably have the tail going down the back. I don't think the angle will be too much of a problem, and if you put that tank on a game table and someone said anything other than holy shit that tank looks amazing or something similar then you'd have the right to hit them. 'hrm I dunno looks pretty good I guess, but that angle of the feathers on the back really brings down the model for me, I've seen better'... SMACK* haha j/k I know as a fellow painter that its more about your own satisfaction with the model than anything.

Void sharks is so much better than void specters zomg

Those Arbite helms would probably look pretty legit. Definitely give them a try. How would you do one of those 'molds' of something you painted?
 
#358 ·
I like it. It definitely looks finished as far as the freehand goes so I wouldn't worry too much fiddling about with it. The wings down the sides and the tail down the back are really nice. Excellent work buddy!
 
#362 · (Edited)
Weathering will balance a lot of the minor issues out - I'm very thankfull I started to dabble with that right now otherwise it would have been hell to get it finished tomorrow.

Changing the consept as you go? It was a bad plan then? (yes I am kidding) :p

Looks wery good man, you managed to make it look even better than I had thought, good job!
You are a very angry man :p

I think the Cadian helmets would look awesome... Just as long as it's not the scout head... They're aweful and make the scouts look like hunchbacks...
Compared to many other heads GW have done the scout heads are probably the at least amongst the worst. I also dislike the fact that they'd throw recruits into warfare without even the option to have helmets on :shok:

Amazing job on the bird i like the extensions on it. Whatever heads you want should work fine. Anyway, i was looking through my personal Black Library (containing our 3rd gen codexs/rulebook + fluff books) at the BA ones in particular. I read in Red Fury (by James Swallow) that the Angels Sangiune never show their faces: they always wear helmets in presence of others, to a man. Are you going to do something like this with you sharks? Was that your inspiration? Nice work as always, +rep if i can

*Edit* vBulletin Message
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to xenobiotic again.
Actually I have a very firm idea of what they would look like without helmets (since they are related to raven guard and charcharodons they'd have pale skins with very dark eyes (even black eyes on some of the oldest marines)). The reason I want to portrait them with helmets on is that I want them to represent a boarding party fighting in low/no oxygen and/or gravity environments. There is a particular mission you can play in IA9 that portraits such a boarding action (there are even rules for what happens should there be a hullbreach as you fight). You can't walk around without a helmet there even if you're a kickass scout so I figure they'd have the equipment.

Another reason for it would be the chapter themselves living up to the rumour of being "Spectres". In order to keep the aura of mystery around them they communicate on encrypted lines and add to that fact that their helmets are on at all time and they'll simply look like huge ghosts walking around in silence as they fight with utmost devastation to the enemy.

Another reasons is quite simply the challenge to create them. It's going to be fun to try to sculpt cloaks since last time I tried I was an utter green stuff noob and it went horribly wrong.

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I was hoping to get more done on the predator today (I was hoping to finish it actually) but it took me AGES to do the highlights on the black parts. This is where it stands at the moment. I've started to weather it, done some dust effects on the bottom and some paint chipping. Tomorrow I'll be adding metallic weathering, smoke stack ash, finish of the lenses and the lamps as well as doing the final "mud" cover to tie it together with the other vehicles better.

I'll also add a short fluff piece to go with the vehicle in tomorrows post.

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Till next time! :bye:
 
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