[Tossidin]

I was going to say that he looked a little bland. Then I read the fluff piece, and realised that he really fits his fluff, if you know what I mean. And he also looks better when paired up with his brethren. It's actually really interesting, and something I will try to incorporate (is that a word?) in my painting from now on. So you won't only get the usual "Job well done", but also a "Thank you" for showing me another perspective, intended or not

 

[xenobiotic]

Construction & Conversions update: Void Sharks - Boarding/Siege Marines

Hi, again, these days I'm all over the place!
I'd like to thank everyone who commented, PM:ed and/or +rep:ed me - you make all the difference and you're the reason Heresy-Online is such a great place!

I'm also happy to announce that this Project log has now passed 50'000 views as well as the recent 400+ posts. I'm very proud of what this log has become and you all deserve a thank you for hanging in here with me!

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loving it xeno! literally my favourite project log at the moment. vitus looks amazing, as does the group shot of all the priests.

i kinda hoped you would do the stealth thing on the scouts, but your only mortal (?) so i realised it would be way too time consuming.

still, it would be cool if you did it at some point!
+rep if i can

Thank you for your kind words, Sanguinus Noob!

I do believe I am mortal and I don't wish to challenge the assumption just yet (should I be right). Realistically I can't spend the 10+ hour per scout with a cloak, worth 18 pts each. It'd also require them to have some kind of background which most of them doesn't have. It will be a more generic effect but I'll try to keep it in the same vein.

Excellent work mate! I love the way that he turned out and I don't see any disparity between the bionic arm and the shoulder pad. They group shot is fantastic!

On a completely unrelated note..... 2,000 posts!

I like how he turned out as well, similar yet distinctly different from the others. Although they will never be joined into one unit it's still nice to know they are unique.

And man, you've really been at it lately, your name is all over the place :wink:

Vitus seems to be missing a few purity seals, at least in comparison to his brothers there haha.

The one on the left could use some touch up on the spotlight, only pointing it out in case you looked over it or something.

Nice fluff piece!
I forget what you're working on next. Guess I'll find out next update.

It's to fit in with his fluff actually - he's one of the bitter ones that refuses to put a lot of official jewellery on :wink: He does have a blood drop gem on his belt - his way of showing respect to the Brothers he failed to save.

The difference on the lamps is that the one on the left has his turned on while the other ones aren't - so that explains why it looks differently even if it doesn't come across as that...

Well, I'm hardly ever working on ONE thing - rather 12 or 13 of them at the same time...

I really like the white and red you've got going. I'm becomming a huge fan of "dirty" white armour and your work is convincing me more and more... However, I do think that the edging of your shoulder pads and the shading of your white could be cleaned up a bit with a glaze or two of a sepia wash or something, just to eliminate some of the chalkiness! Have some rep

Thanks

I'm not sure of what you mean with "chalkiness" to be honest, so if you could elaborate on that I'd be grateful.

I was going to say that he looked a little bland. Then I read the fluff piece, and realised that he really fits his fluff, if you know what I mean. And he also looks better when paired up with his brethren. It's actually really interesting, and something I will try to incorporate (is that a word?) in my painting from now on. So you won't only get the usual "Job well done", but also a "Thank you" for showing me another perspective, intended or not

I know what you mean. And you have to keep in mind that as you're making an army every sergeant and soldier can't be "unique" all over the place. Because then the bling-bling will take over and go over the top and you'll end up with units overly cluttered with details (which is ok for some of them but not all). That kind if balancing acts also gives a lot of flavour between the individuals - which I find nice.

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Update!
So, poking about the bit boxes and considering you guys mentioning the company champion shoulder pads a lot in the last few posts of the thread I guess it stuck in my mind and so I decided to try out the InstantMold I got a few weeks ago to do something more complicated then pouches.

So after a few trials and back and forth (and some headache) this is the result I came up with:

Two of them are original pads and 3 of them are made of grey stuff (along with one in green stuff).
They did need quite a lot of cleaning up and trimming to make them look as they do in the picture but they are definitely usable! And as I gained some success with the shoulder pads (saving me about 1-1,5£ on each pad had I bought them separately) I now realised I had some things I wanted to try out...

Ages ago I came across this thread on B&C which has some impressive conversions for Honour Guards and Veterans which I liked. I saved the page since I wanted to use the method before but back then I didn't have any spare company champion shoulder pads nor did I have a dremel (or plasticard rods for that matter) so I couldn't do it.

Here's an example from that thread for those afraid of links:

Miniatures in this picture where not made by me, all kudos goes to the original artist, picture is used without permission from original artist.

But with a, now seemingly, endless supply of these shoulders I could get to work and try some things out. Now, the thing is I couldn't really find any use for such a shoulder pad in my Brethren Army meaning I instead turned to the IA9&10 lists for counts as options (I always feel better doing conversions that can actually counts as something). Therefore I would have to use them with my Void Sharks, which even though they will be used in conjunction with my Brethren (tacticals and scouts to start with) they would later on be used on their own.

Anyway, in IA9 we have the boarding action mission which enables marines to use:

BOARDING SHIELDS [GEAR]
Shown on Models. Chose a single squad in your army with the infantry type, that squad is now equipped with boarding shields. Boarding shields provide their users with a 5+ invulnerable save. However they are cumbersome and models equipped with them may not opt to run in the Shooting phase, and cannot claim the extra attack for being armed with an additional close combat weapon.

In IA10 we have the Siege Assault Vanguard list which enables tactical marines to take:

Siege Mantels (Additional Tactical Squad Special Rule): Space Marines with Siege Mantlets must be modelled appropriately with a large shield of some kind. A Siege Mantlet equipped squad may re-roll failed armour saves against Shooting attacks only. Siege Mantlet equipped squads may not run or make Sweeping Advances or be transported in Rhinos or Razorbacks. Independent Characters joining a Siege Mantlet equipped unit gain their benefit while part of the unit, but also must abide their restrictions.

Both of these options use shield like structures to protect themselves from the enemy, most likely using them to protect from incoming fire in tight situations where transports might not always be usable. I figure they would work well with the Void Sharks preferred method of fighting... [bla bla bla, this is starting to get a bit to long now]

So I spent the afternoon putting together a prototype marine for my Void Sharks tacticals:

I'm going to add some more details to the shoulder pad, I want it to look like the shield is hinged somehow - enabling some kind of movement in the lower portion of the armour plate (which is why there is a gap in the current position of the plates).

On a side note I've been reading up on some of the space marine honours and badges which led me to an interesting read about the Imperial Fists and their use of the scrimshaw which is a tradition and handiwork I could foresee my Void Sharks using as a way to add individuality between themselves...

Anyway, enough blabbering, feel free to C&C as always!

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Till next time :bye:

 

[Midge913]

Interesting looking stuff mate. Makes things a little to unwieldy for my own personal tastes but the fluff and rule set is pretty cool. Would love to see it finished and painted. Execution wise the conversion is very nice. Keep it up man.

 

[JAMOB]

I think the finished apothecary turned out really well, and it fits the fluff beautifully. As for the prototype marine it looks good. Would that be the 5+ invulnerable or the re-roll missed saves? Either way it fits the part. and amazing job with this.

 

[piemaster]

I've not been on HO for ages but have been following your plog via email since p27 and all I can say is that its nice to see your army grow. Lots of lovely images and whatnot. Keep it up.

 

[xenobiotic]

Painting Update: Brethren of the Phoenix - Honour Guards

Hideho, all!

There's been an absolute explosion in activity in the project log these last few days, which is superb and a lot of fun! It also pressures me to keep at it so that I can push my log to the top again. At the same time I have a vow to myself always to have something to show you guys, so, here we go.

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Interesting looking stuff mate. Makes things a little to unwieldy for my own personal tastes but the fluff and rule set is pretty cool. Would love to see it finished and painted. Execution wise the conversion is very nice. Keep it up man.

Compared to them carrying a bulky rectangle with a vision slit I think I prefer something looking like this actually. And then we have the whole power armour discussion, hehe. But it would be cool to add some kind of exo-skeleton structure to some of them just to get the message across (and fit in with the bionic theme).

I think the finished apothecary turned out really well, and it fits the fluff beautifully. As for the prototype marine it looks good. Would that be the 5+ invulnerable or the re-roll missed saves? Either way it fits the part. and amazing job with this.

That would be the extended left shoulder pad (the green and white parts on the picture). Which could be an extended armoured plate with an incorporated field generator (to provide more protection then meets the eye).

I've not been on HO for ages but have been following your plog via email since p27 and all I can say is that its nice to see your army grow. Lots of lovely images and whatnot. Keep it up.

Thanks, piemaster, always nice to know that there are people following the progress even if they don't do it "out loud" so to say. Unless some unforeseen event happens I'll be adding to this army (and the space sharks, but I've come to view them as one unit these days) for at least another year (probably a lot more) so there should be plenty to see as we go along.

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Progress!
There's a lot of different projects going on at the moment.

For the Army Painting Competition next month I'm thinking I might be up to the challenge of painting an entire 5-man assault marine squad (being led by the mutated bird man you have all seen), impressive for me, huh? I feel I ought to give it a try mostly to challenge myself but also to finish of some of those desperately needed troop choices for future games (I know jump infantry aren't the best of the best but they do present some interesting tactical choices which I would like to try out sometime).

Some of you know that I'm easily persuaded by ideas I get (and I have a lot of ideas). I had an initial thought of doing as much vehicles as I could in the Army Painting challenge, but after seeing how much time I spent on one Baal and how I really should push myself into doing more infantry units I'm tweaking my list for the challenge a bit if I can pull this first squad off. All in all I'm thinking about producing an actual playable army by the end of the challenge (so, an army within the army(?)).

Here's how the list is looking at the moment (green = done):

• Secret surprise project
• Furioso Dreadnought
• Drop Pod
• Sanguinary Priest (magnetized for jump pack)
• 5-Man Assault Marine Squad with jump packs
• 5-Man Assault Marine Squad with jump packs
• Baal Predator
• Baal Predator
• Vindicator
• Vindicator
• Whirlwind
• Secret surprise project

Obviously there are 12 items on the list and we only need to produce 10, but it's nice to have a plan for all of them if I have the momentum to achieve it. We'll also see how long I can keep my mouth closed about the secret projects (I'm hoping my IRL friends won't drop the bomb and ruin the surprise for you guys)

So with that goal set I finished up the building process with the first assault marine squad (i.e. making the bases, pinning everything that needs pinning and finishing off details) and as soon as march hits they are ready to be painted!

Have a look at their current status:

By the way, I was thinking about how to paint my marines now that I'm getting a fresh start on the troop choices with these Assault Marines. Should I paint their helmets in any other colour? If I did them as I did before they would have red helmets but I guess this opens up possibilities - the Blood Angels have yellow helmets on their assault marines - should the Brethren adopt a similar viewpoint?

As a warm up for next month I'm going to try my hand at painting 3 marines at the same time to complete the Honour Guard squad I've been dragging behind me for ages now. I've just started but I'm working my way down all the different highlights for the red armour:

Other than that we have some minor progress on the Void Sharks, the first average Tactical Marine prototype has moved on to painting and the scout cloaks are getting more folds. Not very much to show you visually just yet though, so hang in there!

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Till next time :bye:

 

[JAMOB]

I understand its the white thing on their arm, but you talked about two things it could be which is it? I must say i love birdmen, and the assault marines in general are coming out great. For their helmets I think do something similar but different. Perhaps try white helmets with some yellow symbol on it or something like that? They should be different but easily distinguishable. Nice job on them so far. What are the 3 redmen?

 

[Djinn24]

They are looking good. I like the white thing in their armor. It has a certain flow to it.

 

[xenobiotic]

Painting Update: Brethren of the Phoenix - Honour Guards, part 2

I understand its the white thing on their arm, but you talked about two things it could be which is it? I must say i love birdmen, and the assault marines in general are coming out great. For their helmets I think do something similar but different. Perhaps try white helmets with some yellow symbol on it or something like that? They should be different but easily distinguishable. Nice job on them so far. What are the 3 redmen?

Oh, I misunderstood then, I'm thinking it's neither nor and it can be both. Seeing as those are both equipment types used either in special scenarios or with a particular special army list from forgeworld to be used for space marines I can go either way depending on what I want to try out.

Up till now I had the organisational view on the Brethren looked like this:
Non-veteran: Red helmet
Veteran: White helmet

Now, since I painted my first assault squad I've pretty much exclusively done units with white helmets so it's safe to say that they have grown on me quite a lot. Doing different symbols on helmets might actually be a good idea for diversifying the army instead of just doing helmet colours. Now I just need a suitable symbol...

I am however thinking about giving the Death Company marines (or Ember enraged) red helmets instead of their current white ones. I have an idea that it might make them pop even more if I did that.

The miniatures I'm painting at the moment are the 3 remaining marines for an Honour Guard unit (I've previously posted the tech adept and the sanguinary initiate from the squad).

They are looking good. I like the white thing in their armor. It has a certain flow to it.

Thanks, djinn!

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Painting?
I basically just wanted to show that I've gotten some painting done on the honour guards:

As you can see I'm pretty much done with one of them (so far). I got a little carried away with the armour highlights and instead of stopping myself I let go and did as much painting as I wanted to which proved to be a good tactic. We'll see how it goes the coming days and I might have a good structure to adapt to the Assault marine squad I'll be doing for March.

Here's a better look at the one I've been working the longest with:

Hopefully I'll have another update for you soon™
Till then :bye:

 

[Midge913]

Looking good Xeno. I am always amazed at the depth of tone that your red armor has. The bionic leg looks great and the yellow on it really helps to break things up on the model. Nice touch. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Tossidin]

Hopefully I'll have another update for you soon

You better make sure you do! :wild:

 

[JAMOB]

I love it, nice job on the bionic leg especially that was done amazingly. Keep it up!

 

[warsmith7752]

*drool* red armour *drool* bionic leg is really nice also and gives the army a bit more flavour.

 

[xenobiotic]

Construction & Conversions Update: Brethren of the Phoenix - Secret project No. 1

Hi, all, it's been a while since last time!

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Looking good Xeno. I am always amazed at the depth of tone that your red armor has. The bionic leg looks great and the yellow on it really helps to break things up on the model. Nice touch. Can't wait to see the finished product.

I love it, nice job on the bionic leg especially that was done amazingly. Keep it up!

*drool* red armour *drool* bionic leg is really nice also and gives the army a bit more flavour.

It took me quite some time to get it the way I wanted it, experimenting back and forth, looking at other peoples logs and suggestions until I came up with the recipe I'm using now which I'm very satisfied with. It's actually pretty quick to learn and to use (user friendly), the washes are what brings it together so nicely (the miniatures look pretty odd and bright before the final Baal Red wash).

I tried some of that Midge magic on the metallic parts (up till now I've left metallics pretty much at a basecoat + badab black stage), experimenting with boltgun metal base with different washes and a highlight of chainmail and even a touch of mithril silver is in there. I see now that pretty much every colour can become better with just a few spots of highligts.

The yellow and black cords is something I enjoy doing ever since I did a few test miniatures of a Iron Hands successor chapter and I found it added some life to the miniatures. It's pretty easy to do on smaller items and it ties in with the old school kind of comic relief that warhammer 40k used to have without it taking the overhand. I guess it also makes sense to put some kind of warning on some cables seeing as how they might be crucial for function or even dangerous should they be damaged (easier to replace them if you can see them clearly I guess).

You better make sure you do! :wild:

You'll just have to learn to wait

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Update :friends:
I had planned for this particular miniature to be a Secret Project until I was finished with it but it's a somewhat trial and error miniature and I feel like some input would be good for me (I've almost come to depend on it :spiteful before I pick up the brushes some time in the future.

This is a Librarian for my Brethren of the Phoenix (if that wasn't clear by looking at the picture). He's a splice between Shadow Captain Korvydae and the Sevrin Loth miniatures from Forgeworld along with a Raven Guard veteran helmet and some parts spliced together to become a two-handed force axe.

I'm making him with a jump pack since I want to include him in a Jumper-list I'm slowly progressing towards (the first squad of which I'm painting this month) and don't worry, I'll be making a foot-slogging Librarian as well. I just didn't want to magnetize this miniature for a couple of reasons and I think the flow of the miniature is better this way (with the jump pack).

Now. What I've done so far is that I've tried to add a psychic hood made out of grey stuff and green stuff to represent that actual piece of equipment. I have however made no adjustments to the helmet meaning it's a pretty tight fit in there but hopefully it works(?).

I've also adjusted the right arm and spliced together and Honour Guard axe with a normal handle from the sanguinary guard box in order to create the Force Weapon/Staff. I'm worried the handle might be two long as it is? Or maybe I should change the head of the weapon into something other than a blade to make it into a staff instead of an axe?

Thoughts?

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Till next time! :bye:

 

[Midge913]

I think that you have an excellent conversion there Xeno. I wouldn't change the axe/staff at all. It is a very impressive weapon and I think that it works really well. I think that you have done an excellent job meshing the two kits, but I think the psychic hood needs to come up over the helmet just a little more. It kinda gets lost behind the helmet, especially once you get the jump pack on there. I see that this may be a bit of a problem with the beak of the raven icon on the JP hanging over into that space, but I really think that the hood needs just a little something more to make it read. Paint may do that in the end, but in the raw it gets lost.

I tried some of that Midge magic on the metallic parts (up till now I've left metallics pretty much at a basecoat + badab black stage), experimenting with boltgun metal base with different washes and a highlight of chainmail and even a touch of mithril silver is in there. I see now that pretty much every colour can become better with just a few spots of highligts

Glad to help! I wouldn't call it magic though, just experimenting with suggestions from others. Adding colored washed to metallics really can make them pop.

Keep up the good work man, I really Think that you have managed a really nice conversion there, keeping the movement and presence of both models, while incorporating the bird motifs of the Korvydae piece. Can't wait to see it painted up.

 

[Zodd]

The Librarian is wonderfull. The haft of the axe has just the right lenght, because being two-handed, the librarian can better balance when air-borne.
And the psychic hood is fine, it don't always have to be the large hood, as often seen lately, imho. This is very WYSIWYG. +rep.

 

[Npf6]

The hood looks great. and the staff / axe looks fine.

 

[Warpetrie]

That is an awesome looking model :shok:

I think the length of the handle is fine and so is the head of the weapon. The axe balances the model out instead of having a thin sword blade. Also with the hood i think it should come over his head a bit more, it’s been said before but it does kind of hide once the JP is on.

It’s such a clean conversion....I’m kind of jealous ^_-

 

[unxpekted22]

lots of cool little pieces there from all sorts of different kits it looks like. Maybe most of it comes from the raven guard pieces I dunno haha, Haven t ordered any myself. Is that like a MK V jump pack? I'm a fan of the MKV armor a lot, its just too bad the forces of chaos make much more use of it than the loyalists, due to the timing of the horus heresy and all that...

I think the axe looks great as well, wouldnt bother changing it and risking any unnecessary frustration. I have to agree with midge that the hood is a bit too hidden. I didnt even notice it at first to be honest, as strange as that may seem since its definitely not a normal thing on these models.

 

[JAMOB]

I agree make the hood a bit more visible. I do have my own thoughts of course. Is a librarian allowed a two handed force weapon? Im pretty sure theyre not, but I guess you can just count it normally or whatever. Is there any bonus to having it being two-handed? I thought at one point it made it better someway not just taking away an attack, but i might be wrong. excellent conversion though, youre making me hungry for more. Glad you didnt keep it secret keep it up