Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator Force

[Weaver]

UPDATE: 10/22/2011 - some rather more recent shots...

















Original First Post -


Hey all. This is (or will be, I suppose) an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator Force attached to a Crusade Fleet pushing into the Eastern Fringe as part of a campaign my friend and I are running. I'll be expanding on the Crusade Fleet as time goes on, but Mechanicus are first on my list. This model is mostly a test and is not quite finished (his hood, and cowl to a degree, needs significant smoothing, some sort of tubing coming out of his mouthpiece, and a bit more work on the bionic arm). Anyway;

<pictures removed>

Now, there are a few things I'm not quite sure about. One is a backpack or powerpack of some sort; I kind of want one, but I'm not exactly sure what to make it look like. Two is the gun itself. I've tried to andogynize it enough so that it's not instantly recognizable as its component parts, but on the other hand, it feels like it still may need more. I'm thinking some sort of barrel coming out the square end at the moment. My tests on that make it look like a beefy lasgun) Any brilliant ideas would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

[New Cult King]

Ooh looking very good so far. A small powerpack on the belt at the back rather than a bulky backpack would suit the sleek lines of the cloak and hood.

As for the gun, maybe just a drilled hole in the end instead of a barrel - also a scope of some sort or something along the top would add to the look of the gun, bulk it out a little, and make it look a bit more original

Keep it up though.

[the damned artificer]

You could make a backpack along the lines of the power supplies on the back of the metal servitors from the techmarine set, to not make it look like they're all carrying a com link but instead a powerpack for their bionics and weapon. Great work so far, it really has a good pose. For the gun you could ad some targeting lenses and maybe twoof the small barrels from a boltgun etc.

[CMDante]

Great start here!

Great use of bits combined with great sculpting means that I'll be keeping an eye on this log.

I think the damned artificer is right about some sort of power pack mounted on the back. I wouldn't make it big though, just a small unit with cabling running to the weapon. Anything bigger would overpower the mini and make him top heavy.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Dante

[The Hoff]

That is fantastic, great greenstuff work.

I will put a vote in for leaving the barrel end squared off. Gives it a nice techy look. Maybe a tiny (thin) slice of plastic rod at the end to indicate the muzzle.

[Totenkopf]

I really like the way he has gone, the gun looks great! As for the powerpack, I had the same problem. In the end I just went for something small, rather than the big, complex steampunk generator I had in mind.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3.../IMAGE_052.jpg

[only joking...]

Very good looking skitarii!

[Weaver]

cheers all, thanks for the positive feedback. I'm kind of feeling the tiny circular barrel at the end. It looks good in the test mockups that I've done, but I'll need to wait on some plasticard before I can start making the final conversions. Still no ideas what exactly to use for the powerpacks, but I definitely agree that smaller would be better. I'll take another romp through the bitz box and see if any inspiration strikes.

In the meantime, a minor update

++++
The bridge of the Rogandum Rem was almost entirely silent. The soft whir of cooling fans on cogitators and the rhythmic tick of servitor hands on keys at data terminals were the only sounds audible over the low background rumble of the engines that resonated constantly on any ship. It was so quiet that, if he disengaged his photoreceptors, and tuned his autorespirator down to the bare minimum, Archmagos Irosian could almost hear the machine spirit of the ship itself, whispering and chattering in binaries and trinaries as it chewed through the volumes of data being fed to it through the numberless sensors that were its eyes and ears to the inky void in which it drifted. The tech priest reached an ornate mechanical hand out to rest against the bulkhead, trailing intricately tooled metal fingers down its length. Microsensors along the armour plating monitored the change in pressure and temperature beneath the Archmagos’s touch, feeding them to the central cerebrocore, and the machine spirit purred and shuddered in response, curling to its master’s touch. No, not it’s master. Irosian was no more the master of this vessel than he was master of the stars themselves. The Omnissiah was the one true lord and ruler, and the ship, and Irosian, were but humble servants in the light of its glorious knowledge.

Turning from his thoughts, the Archmagos glided towards the integration podium in the center of the room. Well-oiled tendrils of cables snaked out from his fingertips and found their corresponding sockets. In a sudden, comforting wash of data, Irosian was one with the ship. He was aware of the thousands of ratings and servitors who toiled away at the massive plasma cores. He smelled the grease and the fire of the guns. He felt the metal-shod feet of the adepts and magi who drifted the corridors. He tasted the prayers on their lips.

His presence bent outwards, and he was among the stars. Below, the warm crimson radiance of the atmosphere of Diphyrigum shimmered, the billowing plumes from the foundries scorching the skies of the Forge World black with thick chemical smog. He looked away, into the void. Where his gaze passed, he was made aware of volumes of information. Star Classifications. Tithe Statuses. Industrial Quotas. Planetary Census Reports. Birth Rates. Death Rates. Cataclysms. Plagues. Wars. The numbers flowed in an endless current, but none of it interested him. He knew his target. His attention came to rest upon a distant system. A galaxy away, it was but a microscopic point against the vastness of the void, lost amidst the wilderness of the Eastern Fringe; a miniscule cog within the great machine of the Universe. But every gear, no matter how small, was necessary to the sum of the calculation.

From the deluge of inane records and registers, he drew a single report. A century ago, one of his peers, Explorator Magos Sogeriyv, had traced a long, winding path of half-clues and heretical sources to a planet called Targeirus. There, he had found something buried in the sands. Something ancient. A shining beacon of technology from ages past. A repository of knowledge lost. Irosian probed deeper. No further reports had been published. No further contact had been made from Sogeriyv’s expedition. Indeed, later data indicated that the Magos ‘s fleet had never even entered the Targeirus System. That Sogeriyv himself had never existed, an error of his Forge World’s roster archives. But Irosian knew such hallmarks when he saw them. The Inquisition. Sogeriyv had been declared Excommunicate Traitoris. The Magos’s stricken apprentice had come to Irosian’s workshop, wounded, malfunctioning, desperate for help. After extracting the adept’s useful memory engrams and recycling his corpse into a new addition to his servitor pool, Irosian had begun the search to uncover just what it was that had caused the meddlesome fools of the Emperor’s Most Holy Order to come down upon his colleague. This must have been it. Whatever Sogeriyv had found upon this desolate planet was significant enough to force the Inquisition to risk rousing the ire of Mars to keep it hidden.

Irosian withdrew back to the warm confines of the Rogandum Rem’s hull. With a thought, he willed the ark’s massive warp drives to life, and began to charge the Gellar Field generatorium. With another, he sealed hatches and bulkheads, and fed coordinates to the navigator wired into the observatorium high above the bridge. Within the hour, the vessel would slip effortlessly into the warp. Irosian would find what had been Sogeriyv’s undoing. And he would not be so careless as to allow the same fate to befall him.


Now, post wall-of-text pictures!


The boys so far. Pardon the flash; natural light was gone, and the pictures just weren't coming out visible otherwise.


This one will probably need his arm repositioned; I went and tacked it on without checking the locations for the hoses hanging off the gun first




This is the very WIP Archmagos Irosian. He will eventually be clutching a tome of some arcane knowledge to his chest with his right arm, and either pointing or holding a staff with his left. And he'll probably get a servo arm, but my mockups on that seem to unbalance the model rather unpleasantly, so that may not happen, in spite of how cool those darn things are.


More to come soon. The first Skitarius is almost done and in need of a test paint job (I mean, not much excitement here...I think you can all figure out the colour scheme...)

Thanks all,

[Drakon]

Looking good so far I always wanted to do an army of these but need better modelling skills

[tcraigen]

very cool start, Good idea using Empire flags as body starters, and interesting weapon design.

[Magos Errant]

Always great to see more Adeptus Mechanicus! Excellent job on the Skitarii, Weaver! Ingenious use of Pulse rifles/carbines. The Arch Magos looks like he'll be awesome. Can't wait to see more.

[Lu&Pu]

I can spot nice and well thought over mini´s and usage of bitz here.

Even tough I have to critic something, look at the arms which hold the guns (left arms ) they seem to long at least the forearm is definitely to long.

Other than that keep up with your great work.

[Weaver]

yeah, stretch armstrong as since been truncated a bit. Slightly more anatomical now. Thanks all, more soon.

[Frowbakk]

If you could add either Imperial Eagles or AdMech cogs to the guns, I think that would go a long way towards making them blend in.

Good to see that Flagellants work well as a basis for that Imperial Gothic-techno look.

[sheep]

Looks like you're off to a great start, look forward to seeing where you go with this.

Cheers

Sheep

[tk7]

Yeah looking great so far. The weapons look very cool, and good GS work too.

[Bane_sword]

Your greenstuff skills are pretty good i would say
I will keep my eye on this wonderful log.

[the damned artificer]

I definately want to see more of your stuff dude ! I like the arch magos alot, he looks so cool.

[doghouse]

I love the first guy! Definately watching this one!

[Weaver]

Hello all

The positive feedback is wonderfully inspiring and motivating Thank you so much!

I started sculpting cowls and sleeves onto the next Skitarii I had prepped. Then I went back and looked at the test model and decided that his cowl didn't match, so I ripped it all off and resculpted. So this isn't quite a hugely exciting amount of progress, but it's getting there . I've ordered some plasticard and plastic rod so that I can tack some more stuff onto their guns, so that ought to be in my greedy little hands soon. I have a few options I'm considering for backpacks as well, so they ought to appear in the next update.

Oh, pictures
Shoddy image quality: I'm working on getting a proper set up. Until then, grainy, photoshopped images.









Hoods need to be added next, along with the odd sleeve and hand claw (and fifth finger...). Progress on Irosian is coming along as well, but not enough to make him update worthy quite yet. The first Leman Russ ought to be along some time soon as well

Thanks for looking, more soon!