The Zanatorian Machine Cult Project Log

[Proiteus]

Most of you will have seen my previous armies such as the ‘Darkmakers’ and their undead marines and the Grot Rebellion.

I’m now working on my latest project which is an army with a Mechanicus theme that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. For this project I plan to keep a log of my process for all of you guys to see. So let’s get started.

The Theme

Like all of my armies this one started with a simple conversion which was a robotic drone for the game ‘Inquisitor’ called the ‘Dragoon’ it was small fast and very hard to hit. So I built 3 more of them and my war band ended up consisting of a techpriest controlling 4 small drones, it was awesome.

After a few years most players had grown tired of Inquisitor and my ‘Dragoons’ where gathering dust. It was then the thought occurred to me: “How cool would it be to build an army for 40k based on this concept?” It was then that I decided to create a Mechanicus cult army called the ‘Zanatorians’.

The fluff behind the Zanatorians is solid they are a renegade group of techpriests who believe that mankind must evolve to a new level of evolution in order to survive the inevitable fall of the Imperium, this can only be achieved through the use of powerful technology. The Zanatorians originally claimed independence from the Imperium and settled on a small system on the outskirts of Imperial space where they founded a small highly technologically advanced civilisation. However it wasn’t long before the Imperium located them and carried out a great purge of the system.

Despite this the Zanatorians survived and now exist in secret continuing their research towards robotics and other forbidden technology. Most of them are housed in colossal sized spaceships which they call ‘Sanctuary Worlds’. The leaders of the cult are the Machine Lords often working in pairs to fulfil their overall objective.
“To save mankind from its own destruction!”

The Army

First thing was choosing the best list for the theme, at first I’d looked at Witch-Hunters: Converting the sisters into cybernetic warriors and having acts of faith represent ‘Acts of the Machine God’ overall it sounded pretty solid.

Then the Blood Angels codex was released and the idea of having the Dragoons flying round with the techpriest was excellent. However the Dragoon model was far too small to represent a space marine so it was back to the drawing board.

I then settled on using the Necron Codex, what better list for an army of robots. So it was then on to the next step, the miniatures.

The Mock Models

Going from the left...

The Machine Lord
I had a bit of trouble in thinking of a good looking miniature that looked like a Techpriest by still looked…. Necrony? Luckily I came up with this dark mysterious miniature that supports my warrior squads at the far back of the field.

The Harbingers (Immortals)
This was my favourite conversion out the lot it looked unique and was not bad considering it was made from metal.

The Dragoons (Warriors)
As I’ve mentioned this is where the idea of the Zanatorian Machine Cult came from, The Warriors were the hardest to covert they either looked too much like a heavy battle droid from star wars or something from IROBOT they just didn’t look unique so I decided to use my old Dragoon design.

The Destroyer Tank (Destroyers)
All plastic, cheap, easy to build and look fantastic!

Models that were not yet completed

The Mobile War Factory/Citadel (Monolith)
For this conversion I plan to use two Monolith bases and sandwich the parts from the Manufactorum building in between them mounting the turrets on the top half with the powerful tesla coil like weapon built in the middle. With any luck this will be one of the best models I’ve ever made.

Forger (Tomb Spyders)
The idea is still up on the drawing board so far I thought of using the tomb Spyders legs and a Tau drone to create the lower body: Tau Online - Crayfish I also plan to use the Spyder’s arms problem is, what to use a torso that would fit and suit the lower torso, suggestions anyone?
Another more recent idea is to use one of the old Rogue Trader dreads seen here: http://www.solegends.com/citcat88/41...marines-01.jpg as the base for the conversion replacing the arms with that of a tomb Spyder and perhaps mounting it on tracks.

DISASTER!

These were the models and I was very happy with them and ready to start construction of the army in February last year, then disaster! The bits discontinuation happened without warning and the entire project was shattered! I stopped working on the Zanatorians for a while hoping to come up with a solution that didn’t rely on metal or non gw bits. During this time however I created the Darkmakers but unlike the Grots despite being a heavily converted and well painted army they did not win an award for Best Army, this made me more deter mended to make the Mechanicus my best army yet!

That’s the end of the first part, feel free to critique my work so far. I will upload a new part in a few days.

[Proiteus]

Part 2: Back To The Drawing Board

Thanks to Games Workshop I was now back to the Drawing board on one of the most difficult conversions in the army’s theme. While the conversions for the most of the Necron units were brilliant, it was still proving very hard to convert a model to represent the Necron Warrior without it looking too much like a marine or something from IROBOT.

At first I sought to create a replacement for the Tomb Spyder head and had a model sculpted based on a 3D concept I had created...

However I later realized that it looked more like a robot build for construction and repair rather than for fighting purposes. Plus although original it was lacking in detail and I thought it best to save it for a representing a new unit in the new Necron codex (which I thought would be out Xmas last year).

Another concept for the warrior conversions came from a friend of mine on the site Deviantart who converted for me an interesting spider like robot.

I loved it as it reminded me of the ‘Tachikoma’ robots from a favourite anime series of mine called ‘Ghost In The Shell’. But then another obstacle for the project appeared which were the 5th edition rules. This caused me to ditch the spider robot because with the true line of sight rules a robot that short would be a nuisance for both me and my opponent.

None of my ideas for the warrior conversion were showing any signs of success and it was beginning to prove impossible being restricted from using non GW miniatures and metal components. But i soon came up with an interesting soloution!

In the next part I’ll reveal how I finally came up with a conversion to represent the Warriors.

[can't_decide]

Came here from your marines log, and this is great stuff too!

[t-tauri]

Your destroyer looks too much like a Necron bodied destroyer for me. The hull section looks too much like the original arrangement. Maybe a different basis for the floating section?

The rest look great.

[Proiteus]

Your destroyer looks too much like a Necron bodied destroyer for me. The hull section looks too much like the original arrangement. Maybe a different basis for the floating section?

I've realised that myself and I'm planning to add a bumper like the one on the Land Speeder to the front using plastic card, hopefully this will get solve the problem and make it look a less like a necron destroyer.

[Proiteus]

Part Three: The Warriors Emerge

As mentioned in my pervious entries I was having trouble coming up with an interesting conversion that would represent a Necron warrior in my renegade Mechanicus army. Previous concepts were faulted due to poor availability, high and looking too much like another miniature.

I continued to search for inspiration in films, games and books. The Horus Heresy Art Books were a great help and I soon came across this piece of artwork for a Mechanicus robotic unit.

Artwork Copyrighted to GW

It was then I remembered the old knight titan models from the old epic range, they were the perfect base for converting a robotic warrior and because they were plastic they’d be easier to convert.

First thing I did was replace its weapons with a pair of Gauss Blasters both were shortened down and while one had the gun barrel attached to represent the ranged weapon the other had two Necron feet either side to create a claw like weapon, which I thought was a stroke of genius.
Another good idea was for the head, the epic knights all had a fixed head facing forwards which looked awful. I thought over whether or not to take the chance and cut it off with a model saw and replace it altogether with a head that could be posed. Then while looking through my bits box I came across an empty Cadian helmet and I placed it over the head facing down. It worked a treat! It was just lose enough to pose and had space for robotic eyes to be added which I used the space marine scout visor for and it suited the rest of the model perfectly.

Overall it didn’t look right the eyes looked goofy and the thought of having 30 of them in the same stance wasn’t going to look good at all.
Some people also noticed how it looked similar to the robot from Lost in Space which is correct; he has always been my favourite robot so he has had a lot of influence on the army’s design such as the blue metallic color scheme.

I immediately went about improving the robot’s eyes and legs. The eyes were easy as I replaced the goofy scout visor with the tip of a Tau rifle, which I placed it on vertically instead of horizontally to appear less human that the other one.
The legs however were a challenge, at first I thought about making them hover with some wires hanging beneath them. But in the end it proved too difficult to model successfully, especially since I’d have to do it 30 times. I then decided to go with the simple solution of replacing the top part of the legs with that of the Necron warriors. I used green stuff to model wires on the back to help improve it a bit. By doing this I would be able to pose the ]legs slightly so not every robot would be in the same pose. I also replaced the bolter scope on the shoulder with a part leftover from the titan’s original weaponry.

The end result was a fantastic and original miniature that I’m very proud of. The Iron Guard Robot was born

[Sorry File Lost!]

However I did have two main problems with the final model: 1. The model was very short so I had to buy some resin bases to increase their height to avoid them being overshadowed by guardsmen. 2. Epic Knights are very expensive to get a hold of, overall I believe I’ve spend £60 getting 32 of them off eBay but in the end I’ll have a truly unique looking army so it will be worth it.

Although I don’t have time to construct the full army at the moment due to university work, I’m currently working on improving the army’s overall appearance. This includes improving my painting skills and making big changes to the Destroyer and Lord model, all of which you’ll see in the next part.

[Proiteus]

Zanatorian Interceptors
The newest edition to the army's conversions. These guys represent Scarab swarms and were made using the BFG Dreadclaw Assault Pods from Forgeworld, which I was quite pleased with.

[Proiteus]

Part Four: Improvements
With the modeling part working out well I decided to focus on improving my painting skills as I did not want the army’s quality to be brought down due to poor painting. I started by posting some images of the ‘Iron Guard’ robot on two painting forums and asking how it could be improved, someone suggested that I lighten up the bases to help the models stand out more. I’ve done this and it has really helped, I’ve also started using a bit of blending which I’ve never used before on the solid areas such as the blue areas. You’ll see an improved version later.

While improving my painting I went back to redo the Machine Lord model as you can see from the first post he was to be honest very dull and boring so I brightened his robes up, changed a few bits such as his head and added the model I originally planned to use for my Warriors on to the base. Much better don’t you think?

I’m currently working on a plastic conversion to represent a Necron Immortal as well as experimenting with an earlier concept and my Mobile Fortress (Monolith) concept, which will be posted shortly

[sheep]

Interesting concept, and the models look cool. Good luck mass producing the warriors.

Cheers

Sheep

[Proiteus]

Part Five: The Mobile Fortress

This will hopefully be the centre piece of my army so I don’t want to rush it, but I would like to get some feedback on the conversion concept which is why I put together these photos of a rough build of the model.

I’ve provided detailed descriptions of each of the parts.

The Main Body: The main hull of the Mobile Fortress is parts from a city of death set sandwiched between two monolith bases, each attached to a sheet of plastic card to support the overall structure (however I could not include the lower part in the rough build) using plastic card to fill up the gaps.

The Turrets: I’ll be placing the 4 turrets from the monolith set inside tank hatches. I’m thinking of adding features such as wires coming out the back of the turrets, a targeter on the top and even magnetising them so that they can be moved round.

The Main Weapon: The biggest problem with this conversion is thinking of what to represent that massive crystal and it’s ablites with. My ideas have included…
Tesla Weapon (Seen in photo): It was created using a Eldar weapon and although it looks the part I’m still exploring other options.
Missile Launcher: First time I thought of this idea I considered using this IG missile tank turret as my main weapon: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/manttank.htm But since all other units were fitted with energy weapons it didn’t fit it.
Radar Dome: This was my favourite as I feel it would look very natural on the model, as for the monolith’s ordnance I could say it was calling in a bombardment.

I really would like some feedback on this model especially for the Mobile Fortress’ main weapon?

[OutOfContext]

That's incredible!

I like the idea of a radar dish myself. Fitting and a bit more unique.

[Proiteus]

Part Six: The Elite

I'll get back to the Monolith/Mobile Fortress at a later date. Some of you may remember my Harbinger model featured in part 1 that was to represent an Immortal but due to GW bits discontinuation I was unable to construct more of them. However because of this I was forced to create an even better model.

I was struggling to come up with a way of creating a new model to represent the Immortal. Then luckily I came across someone else who had also converted a Mechanicus army online using the plastic Epic Knights, it was a terminator army and he had used the terminator arms and tau stealth suit legs on the main torso of the knight. This had made them look a lot more tougher so I decided to try this out.
It came out perfectly, I then cut out the lower part of the arm and replaced it with the main part of the Gauss weapon attaching the cable to the bottom of the gun. It took me a while to find a suitable barrel for the weapon to represent it’s increased strength, I eventually chose to use the small part of a Tau gun drone as I could imagine it spinning round before firing.
When it came to the head at first I tried to put four eyes on it instead of two but that proved too difficult to manage so I settled for a large one to make it look more menacing.
I still have doubts about the paint scheme though, I choose to paint the parts of the model white because I felt it would make it stand out from the basic warriors and make it look more elite. However white is a pain to paint well and I’m not sure whether to paint in dark grey instead?

As always you feedback is very important into the development of this army.

That’s enough for the moment, in my next post I’ll be asking for your opinion on which is the best model for representing my Scarabs ‘The Interceptors’ or a new robot that I’ve recently converted?

[warhound]

After seeing your original 'tombspider' heads in the local shop, I was concerned (as voiced) about the direction that you were going in.

I am a lot less so now!:-)

Great use of parts on the new droid model (tau, terminator and knight) and the floating fortress is very inkeeping with the newer fluff that has come out of the blac library in reference to ADMECH and DARKMECH. The Necron bases will prob need a bit of imperialising, but otherwise, really like it!

keep it up!

cheers

WaR'hound

[Proiteus]

Part Seven: The Little Things
When I was struggling to come up with a suitable (and cheap) model to represent a Necron Warrior a friend of mine suggested a spider like robot concept seen in part 2.

I loved it as it reminded me of the ‘Tachikoma’ robots from a favourite anime series of mine called ‘Ghost In The Shell’. But then another obstacle for the project appeared which were the 5th edition rules. This caused me to ditch the spider robot because with the true line of sight rules a robot that short would be a nuisance for both me and my opponent. Until now.

All the models so far were coming out well but I was beginning to have my doubts about the Interceptors models: They were a pain to paint to a good standard and some Forgeworld stuff have the worst mould lines ever, which on a model this small is a problem. This made me reluctant to use them. Then I remember Wordbearer’s spider design. So I sat down with some bits and a new robot emerged:

‘The Steel Scorpion!’ Overall it looked fantastic and was kind of cute due to its small size; however I could only fit two to a base.
The way it works in regards to the scarab’s jet bike movement is it’s ability to jump great distances making it very agile allowing it to get where it’s needed quickly. Kind of like these robots but without the webbing: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EQrIQ3...eature=related

Overall these robots will represent my Scarabs now, as for the Interceptors they’ll be used for decorative purposes only.

I’m all set to begin construction of the army in May.
However I’ve been play testing some army lists using my local store Necrons so I know exactly what I need to build, problem is it’s becoming clear that I may need a C’tan in my Necron army (most likely a deceiver) so right now I’m coming up with concepts on how to portray a c’tan using this army’s theme.

[[sgt.Harris](voltarian)]

these are awesome!

i might have to steel that guy idea, the warrior of chaos style dude that is

[bluebugs]

Quite the idea. I love it, even if you don't produce a full army, please don't stop making models.

[muggs]

those are some really great looking models you have made. the Dragoon Mk 3 has to be the best

Muggs

[Proiteus]

I’m currently having doubts about the project at the moment, the conversions all look fantastic but the Necron codex is one of the hardest codexs next to the guard to use with the 5th edition. And while the guard are about to be fixed up so they work better with the 5th edition rules the Necron’s will not be fixed till mid 2010. Do I really want to make an army that will struggle to win games against competitive opponents and tournament players (who I mostly face) for such a large space of time?

So far I’ve considered creating a 2nd army using a difference codex that will feature the Iron Guard conversions by creating them so they can swap out arms between ones armed with gauss blasters and ones armed with Boltguns. Certain codexs come with nice benefits with a few examples listed below…

Witch Hunters: Acts Of Faith representing Acts of the machine god and the machine god avatar will make a good model for representing the living saint.
Space Marines: I maybe able to use the destroyers as attack bikes plus design scouts as a sort of backup military force for the Zanatorians.
Chaos: Sadly I’ve already converted a Death Guard force for my undead theme so I can’t use them for the Iron Guard. Although the chaos list has things such as defilers, deamon princes and obliterators that may fit the theme well.

I’m in serious doubt here guys should I grit my teeth and stay with the Necron codex or should I consider a backup list and if so which force?

[Proiteus]

Part Seven: The Big Things

Apart from the C’tan there is one unit that is effective in pushing infrantry back in close combat and smashing up vehicles and that is the Tomb Spyder.

So far I’ve had only two ideas on what I could use to convert this mechanicial monster, the 1st was to use the large Inquisitor Tyrus model from the Inquisitor range and convert it into a large robot but I felt that wouldn’t work.

The 2nd was a lot more interesting which was to get a hold of 1 or maybe 2 of the old rogue trader dreadnoughts and use them as Tomb Spyders.

It would be a simple conversion to replace the arms with that of a Tomb Spyder and perhaps experiment a bit with the legs, they seem the best suited model to represent such a unit and still blend in well with the rest of the army. But before I begin my hunt I would like you opinion on using such a classic model in my army?

[Chris_Lancaster]

Would it be possible for you to make a resin cast of the dreadnought to leave the original intact? (I don't know much about casting, myself, but I think it might be possible)