A gathering of warbands - kitbashing in the EoT

[Kenzaburo]

@lowkey: now you gotta figure out what kind of powerweapon those two daggers are under 6th rules... powerfists? axes? swords? hehehe.

[lowkey]

well, in the current codex CSM raptors do not have the option to take power weapons, except for the champion afair (therefor they count as normal CCW). but if the new dex allows power weapons for raptors, then the dual karambits could count as swords or maybe lightning claws. that would make the most sense, i think.

[Kenzaburo]

claws, eh? yeah, makes sense. prefer that to all that wolverine-wannabe crap. been done too often. shiving your enemies in a mean riddick style is scary in itself.

also i thought it might be time for another picture. since lowkey and me have been discussing truescale marines a bit lately, he decided to try something just for show. thing is, most people tend to believe that marines are not truescale, especially compared to cadians and especially tau. well, i give you the tau. but compared to cadians, marines are a tad larger, if they weren't all squatting like they are about to take a dump. so, a marine standing straight gains some interesting height just by standing up. we don't have a comparison next to a member of the emperor's anvil (the guard was the anvil, right?) but here's a squatter next to a marine standing at ease:



as a byproduct you get to see lowkey's test for his black legion scheme and especially testing out how to paint black armour. by chance i'm sort of doing the same since i am painting a chaplain for a friend's raven guard and am experimenting with black armour myself.

as always, i hope you like the picture.

[Beppo1234]

I've never bought the true scale concept, and generally, those that attempt it, always take it too far, to the point where their marines are 10 feet tall. I've always thought the same as you, that a marine that wasn't in firing position would look much taller.

[lowkey]

yeah well, i'm not too fond of true scaling either. i've seen some very good executions of true scaling, but in comparison to other 40k miniatures they look out of place.
some people increase their marines height by chopping the legs in different parts and inserting "spacers" to elongate them, and i gotta say this method is actually really nice. the marines look a little bit taller and more in proportion, while not turning into giants.
in the end it's a matter of taste, as always

[avragehuman]

thanks for the kind words. it's much appreciated!

@avragehuman
the raptor with dual karambits is my favourite of the squad, too. the possessed running legs are awesome for creating some dynamic poses.

I'm stealing this when the new book comes out..

[Kenzaburo]

well, the problem with truescaling is not that it doesn't look nice. i love veteran sergeants truescale plog over at the imperial plog forum, the truescaling seems to give him a few more possibilites for dynamic posing. but part of his marines' appeal is also the amount of kit and the overall posing of his marines. he also admitted that a truescale marine will look slightly more out of place next to standard vehicles. and i'm in no mood to convert every vehicle in a marine army. on top of that you might end up with an army that looks out of place when fighting standard marines...giants vs normal sized guys...like two different gaming systems cobbled together.
again, this is no rant against truescaling, i like what people like veteran sergeant and apologist f'rex have done with the idea.
but it was impressive to see, that a marine standing straight is indeed that much taller...after being used to looking at the squatters for ages.

anyways, back on topic: i've been looking at the black legionnaire for a while now. while i like the pale metallics, it is too much looking like brass, which you used for the zerkers. i think the black legions trims are a bit more burnished and saturated, similar to those black legionnaires seen in the 2nd ed thread around here. still just an idea and i know it's your test mini, just saying.

[lowkey]

I'm stealing this when the new book comes out..

go for it! and take some photos of your version



@kenza
yeah, i agree about the metallics. didnt have the right gold colour at the time i painted them. but i have bought the new "auric armour gold" from GW, which is a very nice yellowish warm gold. i hope it will look nice in contrast to the cold black armor and help to make the mini more interesting.

[Kenzaburo]

i wasn't trying to say that the gold looks uninteresting or anything. i kinda like the washed out look for the metallics. looks...blighted, if that makes any sense. i don't know, it's like we always say: it's hard to judge a half painted mini. finish the test mini with that scheme and add all kinds of markings and whatnot to it, so we can get an idea how a finished black legion marine looks.

also, try to come up with some common warband element to unify the look of the army. the bases can of course go a long way, but since multi-legion warbands have a tendency to look like an insane clown posse, you might need something to pull it all together. and no, don't start with stripping color from all your marines again(!!!)!!!

[lowkey]

The "gold" was just a place holder because of me not having the right color. It was never ment to be the final tone

At the Moment i have no idea how to unify my different traitors or if thats really necessary. We will see

[Kenzaburo]

time for more pics, gentlemen.

the big guys, aka the world eater terminator elite is making it's appearance now:







again, work in progress shots, but lowkey mentioned yesterday, that they are done now. so hopefully he'll be able to post some shots of the big meanies next week himself.

pics are a tad dark though, bro. and try to snatch that digicam away from the parents, will ya?

[Harwammer]

Good stuff!

I didn't realise there were snap fit CSMs. I bought some snap-fit imperial space marines to test out my renegade colour scheme on. Whoops

[ilikebmxbikes]

you have some really awesome inspiring stuff. i love the Kharn conversion, very well done and very subtle.

[duffybear1988]

Could we have a tutorial on how you paint that gold/brass colour on the termies please?

Man these look sweet.

[lowkey]

@ilikebmxbikes
many thanks! awesome to hear that some of my stuff inspires you


@ duffybear1988
thank you, too, bro!
your wish is my command:

1. black undercoat
2. basecoat Vallejo Model Color Bronce

3. apply a black wash (thinned down Chaos Black or just Badab Black Wash will do) to create shadows
4. rebuild the basecoat (with Vallejo Model Color Bronce) but leave some of the black washed parts in the shadows untouched
5. highlight: ca. 50/50 mix of Vallejo Model Color Bronce + Mithril Silver (+ some water)
6. highlight 2: apply pure Mithril Silver to the highest parts like edges etc.
7. wash the entire part with Gryphonne Sepia (may sound funky, but really works) to blend the colors

thats it it's really easy and fast to do, even though it may sound rather long. but trust me, it isn't. if you want to achieve a smoother finish just add more steps for shading and highlighting. hope that helps!



some other "news":
I am in "possession" of a digital cam (burrowed it from my parents when I visited them last weekend) at the moment. in the next few days I'll try to take some better photos of my stuff (right after figuring out how that thing works^^)


bye

[duffybear1988]

That's great thanks.

[lowkey]

so, ca. 15 years ago when the 2nd edition of 40k was da shiznit, I started collecting my precious Chaos Space Marines. in particular Plague Marines and Berzerkers. because this thread is called "A gathering of warbands...", i wanted to show you guys some of my other CSM instead of only khorne dudes.

these are some Plague Marines (still a sh*tty smartphone-cam pic, sorry) I converted (still some kind of WIP). the "sculpting" didn't turn out too well, I didn't want to invest too much time. coverting is time consuming enough^^ so please bear with me

[Mr Feral]

Awesome Plague Marines, how'd do the pustules?

[lowkey]

the pustules are tiny balls, which were part of a "Brita kitchen waterfilter cartridge". If you need more info let me know

[anselminus]

really nices conversion nd painting ideas, i particuliary like your plague marines, I am hurry to see them painted