Command & Conquer Poll

[tcraigen]

Beautiful conversion work, models look great.

[Corryn]

...

After a mucho long hiatus, I got inspired a few months ago by commission work, to finish the half-done Nod Avatars I had started. They came out better than I expected. What better way to herald the Prophet's (and this projects) stubborn survival... than two hulking warmachines! I give you Units 10 and 13 of the Rio Elite Cabal.





There is also a bit of slight adjustment to the infantry based on ideas I had right at the beginning of the project. For now, I humbly offer the Avatars

[Proiteus]

Glad to see this thread hasn't died, love avatar especially the detailed glow effects.

[Corryn]

"The years was 2034. Tiberium infestation was rampant without the Technology of Peace to curb its pervasive growth on the global geography. The First Tiberium war had ended over 30 years ago with the apparent death of Kane in a climactic battle in Sarajevo. But the Brotherhood is bigger than any one man... even Kane. And his legacy survived to varying degrees across the planet. The Brazilian cabals struggled under the boot heel of Brazilian GDI dominance. With GDI oppression suffocating the already downtrodden citizens of the Rio de Janeiro favelas, the masses began to rebel. Increasingly hostile and violent force was applied by the local military forces under the command of unsympathetic GDI leadership.

The tide truly turned when members of the Special Police Operations Battalion became sympathetic to the plight of the common people. Swayed by the rhetoric of Nod factions within Rio de Janeiro, and uncomfortably aware that they were being forced to oppress the very people they were meant to protect, they finally declared allegience to the people and allegience to Kane, bringing much needed military expertise to the Nod side of the rebellion. The result came to be known as the Rio Insurrection, and began a chain of events culminating in the Second Tiberium War. These bold men and women serving on the front lines of the fight against GDI, became an institution within the Brotherhood; known as the Rio Elite.

That's the premise for this splinter faction of Nod, rather than a generic Nod army. As you can see by the picture below, I've opted for the Rio Elite specific marking on all veteran members of the army, instead of the more generic white stripe I previously used. My freehand is rough at the best of times, so I went with a crude approximation of the SPOB symbol minus the twin pistols (that would be pushing it), and settled for the skull, dagger and platoon numbering instead. Simple enough for me to put on all the infantry.




While the army is largely a veteran base, with small 5-man fireteams as pictured below, I'll still be building a couple of big squads of the original style black and grey armoured Noddies (as from my previous pictures), to represent new recruits and sequestered squads through the course of the Second War. But I'm quite pleased with the red overalls in comparison to the drab grey from before I'm also making a point of loading up each individual model with extra baggage, satchels and equipment. The idea is that a normal Noddie is part of a horde that goes through the meat grinder. Give him some armour and a gun and he's good to go. These veterans work in smaller teams on longer campaigns, so they tend to bring a lot of equipment with them. Also, each team has a communications operator.



I'm just about to start painting the first (of several) veteran Confessors that lead each of these veteran squads. More on him when I finish the painting

I've continued to browse for more vehicle options, but the damned Nod vehicles are usually awkward or alien shaped monstrosities that don't match with any historic military vehicle (I've been browsing 1:35 scale military vehicles to convert). The forgeworld buggy is tempting, but too expensive for my tastes. Any suggestions would be welcome

[DeeKay]

Yay! Kane's thread lives!

Liking the Rio Elite, and the Avatars... wow. Must steal the idea. Any plans to do any other NOD vehicles?

With regards,
Dan.

[Corryn]

Well despite all the fiddling about with those Tib War 3 Nod raiders... I'm still not really sold on my efforts there. I DO however really like these:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhamme...T_VEHICLE.html

I might just bite the bullet, buy a couple, make some minor adjustments and use them instead. The look delicious as Tib War 1 and 2 era Nod buggies.

I'm also looking at making a Reckoner. A number of modern APC model kits in 1:35 scale would make a good base for that.

[Faolan]

Those Tauros are great mate, I've got 3 of the long body version around here, courtesy of Colonel Jacka.

[Dayspringer]

I love this thread and am excited to see updates!

[Demoulius]

I love this plog

Some very amazing conversions you have in it

MIght I ask (sorry if I missed it anywhere) if you play with the army as well? Most units can be counted as other units from the codex pretty easily

[Corryn]

Aye, originally I had intended to field it as a "counts as" Imperial Guard army. But really, I'll have to stand back and see what I have when I finish a decent number of them. My biggest problem is that I periodically took on commissions and sold off platoons of these guys as I made them. And then there were Command and Conquer community competitions where a number of figures were given away as amusing little prizes etc.
So here is an actual shot of what I'm working with in terms of the remaining units now...



There's the lonely little group of GDI experiments in the bottom right corner (Zone trooper, a couple of engineers, Grenadier and Rifleman). Then two of the old colour "mass infantry" style Noddies (in grey, I'll be building a mob of them in between the Elite fireteams). Then to the left of them the Elite 5 man fireteam led by the new Nod Confessor (pictured below). Next is the old Nod Cyborg. Behind him is that god awful Cyborg Reaper which was made on request, but I don't like it. Moving across to the right is Slavik, Kane (his clothing needs repainting to bring it back to a nice matte black), the female Nod commando, the Nod Cyborg commando and then the Avatars behind all that with two shoddy incarnations of Nod raiders lurking in the background.
Looking at the pickings, it frankly makes me kind of depressed lol. I think I'll be buying a couple of those forgeworld Tauros' after all, to give the army a bit of meat (within minutes of posting this I went to Forgeworld's site and ordered two of the buggies :P ).

On the plus side, it was the commission jobs that kept me going on this, and what most recently made me start buying bits to get the Nod infantry on their feet again (and finish those avatars...)

And the new confessor ...



I went with a more pragmatic style of gear on these fire-team leaders. No flowing capes etc. Lots of packs, grenades, smoke bombs etc. I tweaked the helmet a bit compared with earlier incarnations. Aside from my crude GS work on the arms, I'm happy with how he came out. My intention with reposing the arms was to have one holding the strap on his rifle, and the other (his left arm) doing a two fingered touch against his helm (ala Professor X) as he recieves a comm signal inside his helmet. "Dynamic" by my standards. I realise though the picture doesn't convey the effort I put into messing with his arms and sculpting teeny little hands (something I haven't tried since the Grenadier). So I took another quick photo at a different closer angle...



Hope that conveys my intention

[Dayspringer]

He looks awesome!

As for what to play them as, how about Grey Knights? (I know, maybe over done at the moment, but hear me out)

The NOD infantry can work well as standard henchmen. The fancier dudes could be Grey Knight terminators of some kind, and the Avatars could work as Dreadknights. Kane could be an Inquisitor.

Either way, keep it up, they're looking very cool as a group!

[Corryn]

Yes actually I collect a Grey Knights army so I have the new codex, and it wouldn't me impossible to match them against that. Say cyborgs as Terminators, and Kane as an inquisitor with an entourage is ideal really. Anton Slavik as his Acolyte and the commandos as various types of assassin.... hmm... I'm liking it.

[Proiteus]

I approve of the whole Grey Knight codex idea!

[Corryn]

Just so it's evident I'm still working on this. Here is progress on the second squad. I should hopefully have time this weekend to finish them and begin the second Confessor...




I am also pleased to note that some items I orders should be waiting for me at the local postal depot. So I'll have a chance to grab those on Tuesday... my hope is to assemble a totally new version of Nod Black Hand flame troopers. Instead of clumsy imperial guard conversions. I'm looking at some slicker models outside of GW's lines.

So...
Axis Laser Troopers for the Flame infantry:


And then Kemvar Merc soldiers to be modified into Shadow Team jump infantry. At first glance these don't look right, but it was the superb urban paintscheme by Worthy Painting that convinced me of their potential...

And finally of course, a pair of Tauros vehicles for Nod raiders.... I'll post WIP pics when I get all the pieces on tuesday.

So far I'm thinking of using Kane as an Inquisitor Corteaz, thus enabling me to use groups of henchmen as troop choices (and given the variety of the henchman entourages, I can get everything from commandos to saboteurs to Nod Ministers of Science in there...). Those teleporting Grey Knights *check codex* ... Interceptor Squads. And the Purifiers perhaps as Black Hand flamers, although the weapon profiles don't quite match up (since their flaming is a psychic power, not an actual flamer).

[Animerik]

Very cool project and is nice to see a mix of C&C and miniature gaming As a child I always love the games and nod was my favorite faction. I'm thrilled to see this project back on its feet and the new minis are gorgeous! The acolyte is well worth the effort you have put into it as it is my favorite so far.

Keep it up!

[Corryn]

I managed to pick up my postal order this morning. A few little goodies in there...



The MERC and Dust miniatures are lither than the typically chunky GW minis, but en-masse they should blend in. So I've pulled one of each of the new items out and begun tweaking...



As you can see, I've made some progress on the second Nod squad too. The Forgeworld Tauros.... wow. I love it. There was the usual tedious amount of cleaning, trimming and adjusting with a few minor moulding issues, but really, it's a fantastic little figure. And tiny too! I was afraid it was going to be bigger, but it's the perfect size... a compact little anti-infantry Raider. I'm just waiting for glue and green-stuff to set before painting now.

[Corryn]

Just finished the first Raider. I quite like it I think after this one (and the second one I have to paint) I'll probably get another one or two and make a little squad of them.

[Dayspringer]

That is awesome!

[Corryn]

Right, sorry for the silence, I was away for two weeks with my girlfriend abroad. So when I got back I finally finished the last touches on my second Elite Squad, and I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to try refine a few things... So here's the squad with some shots of their mostly sculpted baggage:



Aside from dedicatedly giving them all various baggage, knives, grenades, etc, I've given the Nod scorpion marking a little shading to better highlight it, and I've also changed the way I paint the visors and helmet slightly to give it more of a sullen glow effect I'm happy with.



Finally, here's a shot of the new conversion for a Nod Flame Trooper. The helmets on my old style conversions were always pretty chunky, and the poses were static thanks to the design of GW's Cadian flamer troopers. I'm going to start painting this guy ASAP and compare the results.




I also just took on a new commission so I'll post shots of the progress there as soon as the extra boxes of imperial guard infantry arrive.

[Corryn]

Finally had some time after work today, to paint up the new flame trooper prototype. I always seem to end up taking photographs at night... not ideal for showing off the colours, but I'm happy with the final result