Inq28 - Cult of the Drowned Machine WIP

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- Looped recording found loaded into the vox-banks of the Multus est Mare, a fishing trawler found drifting empty 13 kilometers west of Leviticus Anchorage. 28 crewmembers are unaccounted for, and presumed dead. An encrypted translation, stored on a data-slate in the water wardens' 182nd precinct archives reads as follows: 

"Join with our glory. Die so you may live. Join with our glory. Die so you may live. Join with our glory. Die so you may live. Join with our glory. Die so you may live..."

Work has officially started on the Cult of the Drowned Machine. This will be a warband or set of NPCs for the Mare Solum waterworld project. I'll be writing some in-depth (pun totally intended) fluff on them at some point, but for now the general gist is a sort of mysterious, undead, and waterlogged dark-mech like force that worships a god know only as the Drowned Machine.

I'm taking a very piecemeal approach to construction right now, just sort of fitting things together and seeing what sticks. I've put together, then taken apart or extensively modified at least 4-5 different models so far. Some of the survivors appear below.



I tossed this together last week. An okay start.

Made from a Mantic zombie, a Tyranid adrenal gland, and some forgotten chain bit.

I almost pulled it apart to start over. Instead it became this pitiful wretch.

The first servant of the Machine that I created. It's lost an arm and gained a head,

but otherwise has stayed relatively unchanged.

Made with a Mantic zombie, FW scyllax guardian-automata parts, and part of a trygon mandible.



Skreee! First attempt at using a mold to texture a base. Came out kinda janky,

but I'll cover that up with puddles and bolted-on sheets of metal (aka plasticard).

Made with Ruststalker legs, the skeleton torso from the GW ghouls kit, 

a Tyranid adrenal gland, and the tentacles from a spore min. 



Not sure what's going on with this one. It may or may not make the cut.

Made with something from Warmahordes and a trygon tongue-spike. 

Cute little mandible arms!

(He won't stand up on his own yet, hence the tweezers)

Made with FW scyllax guardian-automata tendrils, a Mantic zombie,

a daemontte claw for the arms, and misc wires 

 

He's another one that I'm not sure about right now.

It might just need greenstuff work and final details, or a bit more a re-think.

This monstrosity is still heavily wip. Very much just seeing what sticks in terms of aesthetics.

So far contrains FW scyllax guardian-automata parts, a tervigon birthing sack, some cables, and a Kataphron servitor arm.

Size comparison with some Saga Vikings.

I don't think even brave hearthguard would like to meet this beasty!

Cheers!

Saga - Pagan Rus Warrior Priest and Hearthguard

Finally back to painting Saga after a few months of distraction. Still don't have a process that I'm fully comfortable with for these guys, but I'd say they're coming out alright. And it turns out that audiobooks, while not normally something I go for, are a great way to zone out for a few hours and crank through some progress. I've finished two more points for my Rus vikings, bringing me up to a respectable three. Just eight more warriors and the warlord to go for a playable four point force!

Warrior priest of Odin, accompanied by his mystic ravens

This was a simple conversion of the Gripping Beast Jomsviking Warlord model.
Weapon swap to spear and shield, and some fur around the helmet and chainmail coat.
The two over-sized ravens were sourced from the Zombicide Murder of Crows. 

First point of hearthguard. For some reason the skin especially on these gave me a lot of problems
and I'm not super happy with it.

Models are a slightly converted Gripping Beast Jomsviking, a Gripping Beast Pagan Rus Varjazi,
and two slightly converted models from Saxon Miniatures Viking and Saxon Warlords packs.
Shield transfers are, of course, from LBM Studios. 

I'm hoping that I'll manage to find a partner for the Saga Doubles tournament at Adepticon in March and get to bring these guys. So far though it's looking like they may be limited to more local pillages for the foreseeable future.

Cheers!

Inq28 - Ash Wastes Strider (WIP)

Sometimes you see a bit of inspiration and just KNOW. In this case, I ran across this piece of art by James Flaxman years ago. At the time I had no idea what I'd do with it, but saved it off in a gallery of inspiration, knowing that someday it would come in handy. I probably scrolled past it 50 times or more over the course of the years until one day I was explaining my creative process and it just sort of hit me. I suddenly knew exactly how I could create an homage to the piece.

Just look at this adorably creepy little guy
And there's plenty more Inq28 inspiration where that came from

Parts list so far:

- Ghoul torso, arms removed (Mantic)

- Zombie legs (Mantic)

- Slaanesh Hellstrider blade arms (GW)

- Chaos Cultist gas mask (GW)

- Skaven Stormvermin spears (GW)

- A bit of metal cable (Dragonforge)

A little more tech-horror than the inspiration image, but of course, that's what's "beautiful" about 40K.

The pose ended up reminding me a lot of the landstriders from Dark Crystal 

Not sure if it'll get spikes or something similar to the piercing stakes.  

May add bandages where the ankles meet the spear hafts, may not. We'll see. 

A mysteriously anachronistic warrior for scale.

Unfortunately, this little guy is pretty low on my priority list in terms of getting finished up or painted. But when I finally get around to making a warband of ash wastes travellers he'll get the love he deserves.

Cheers!