The Conclave

The Ordos Majoris - Hobby, Painting and Modelling => Painting and Modelling => Topic started by: Ramnok on October 17, 2011, 08:55:46 PM

Title: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: Ramnok on October 17, 2011, 08:55:46 PM
Gallery Here..
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=si&img=74007 (http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=si&img=74007)

(http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/1318793987/gallery_15142_6574_83093.jpg)

He is a battle brother in the Iron Souls chapter of space marines. He was called to deathwatch for his skills in killing Necrons and recovering the parts that could not teleport back. He was wounded in battle, losing his right arm to a stray flayer blast yet he continued to fight with his bolter until the campaign had ended. The only recourse was to graft a powerfist to his body and he had it modified to hold a melta in its palm that could retract when powerfist was in use. Deathwatch came to him first of the band they wished to infiltrate a Necron Tomb Ship to retrieve an Eldar from behind enemy lines. This Eldar had great knowledge of the enemy they faced as with a device that could help the Techpriests of Mars unlock the secrets of living bonics the true pinnacle of machine evolution, Perfection.

Iron Souls are a specialized chapter made of Iron Hands and Soul Drinkers genetic seed who's Space borne Chapter Barracks is located in a region of space where several world's necrons have awoken and even gangers on worlds in their sub-sector has to deal with them in a fight for survival.

Marines of this chapter are born with an extreme hatred of Necrons, becoming some of the best fighters against them. They have recovered a few pieces of Necron tech that have layed as relics in their most sacred halls. Their Chaplains are knowns as Caretakers, they have a stronger connection with the machine spirits of the chapter's bionic bearing marines and armors. He mostly cares for the Terminator suits that have survived (due to increased enhancements from techniques learned from the recovered Necron tech.

Librarians are known as Forge Fathers. They are the ones who do most of the research and handling of the Necron tech as they are deamed spiritually pure by the Machine Spirit. A different Librarian holds the title of Master of the Forge every 100 years or so as most don't make it past 60 years of service due to falling in battle.

They share their love of bionics like their Iron Hands brothers and their same desire to follow the teachings of Dorn such as the Soul Drinkers. Their true strength lies in their Plasma Armed Marines, from pistols that assaults wield to the Plasma Guns tacs use and even their awesomely skilled Devistator Plasma Cannon Marines. (Dev Plasma model to be done when funds permit aka sometime soon)

Have a look and let me know what you guys think, I'm glad I found an inquisitor forum.
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: MarcoSkoll on October 17, 2011, 10:07:53 PM
Actually, you found the ONLY Inquisitor forum. There are subsections of forums elsewhere, but The Conclave is the sole dedicated Inquisitor forum.

QuoteThe only recourse was to graft a powerfist to his body and he had it modified to hold a melta in its palm that could retract when powerfist was in use.
Quote(Dev Plasma model to be done when funds permit aka sometime soon)
While Space Marines carrying the nastiest weapons available are possible in Inquisitor, they're not really the point or focus of the game. Inquisitor focuses on the war away from the front lines, a place where Space Marines are only seldom found (being seven feet tall and wearing power armour does tend to mess up covert investigations!)

After all, the game is about a co-operative narrative, not smashing the crap out of the other players (which is largely pointless when you can just take whatever models you like and usually turns into an arms race that ends with an Half-Necron Half-Tau Obliterator Archon Sorcerer Arco-flagellant with Terminator Armour and a Holo field).

So, while Space Marines are to be expected in a game set in the Grim Dark Future, I expect most people here will be more interested in hearing about your more mortal characters - the Rogue Traders, the fanatical priests and the Hive scum...
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: Ramnok on October 17, 2011, 10:49:02 PM
Understood, these are DM models, not personal use, I do have some eldar I am working on for a warband this is mostly going to be conversions with stories lol... I just love the model.
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: Ynek on October 18, 2011, 09:19:09 AM
First of all....

WELCOME TO THE CONCLAVE!

Big yellow welcome aside, I think that you've done rather well on matching up parts for your space marine model. The use of a dreadnought power fist is intriguing, as is the gears-of-war-esque 40k-chainsword bayonet.

Although, as has already been said, having a space marine as your first character may SEEM like an interesting and fun prospect (and in the short term, it can be) but it doesn't really work out that way.

With Space Marines, games tend to follow the same narrative paths over and over with little variation. (The space marine shoots/hacks/blows everyone else to pieces and grabs whatever objective he likes.) Since all of your games would blur together and become very samey, you'd quickly get bored. Additionally, finding a reason for a Space Marine to be in an Inquisitor game is like trying to shoehorn a watermelon into a wellington boot. It requires real skill to make it look like the watermelon fits and belongs, and that you're not just trying to squeeze it in there purely so that you have the biggest "game piece" in the boot.

For example, why isn't the Space Marine with his chapter? Why is he out here alone? Why isn't he on his way back to his chapter? How did he get involved in the events of the game/campaign? Upon discovering the situation, why did he not send word to the Imperial Authorities so that they could bring in their own specialists and investigators? Space Marines also require extensive maintenance to their armour, weapons, and implants. Where is he getting this maintenance? It's not something that you just push under the nose of any old tech priest and say: "I used this bolter to smash the skull of a cultist yesterday, and now it's not firing straight. Fix it." Or walk up to any medicae / biologis adept and tell them: "Ow. My ossmodula's acting up."

Generally, space marines who have broken away from their chapter are not easy to fit into an Inquisitor narrative. I'm not saying that there is no place for them, but as a "battlefields and warzones" type of character, I often think that fitting one into a game could be tricky.

In short, space marines are the following:
1:         Almost universally popular with new players.
2:         Controversial and rarely used amongst veterans.

On the other hand, an Eldar Warband has a little bit more scope and diversity. The Eldar have pirates, outcasts and wanderers which gives Inquisitor players ample excuses to have them in-game. Additionally, they are humanoid enough that they can hide their alien physiology under robes/cloaks or alternatively explain away their physiological differences as mutations. (Provided the people they're talking to aren't too smart / clued in.)

An Eldar warband is one which can have much greater narrative diversity and with their enigmatic and cryptic ways, influencing the future one little nudge at a time, they can fit quite nicely into an Inquisitor game.
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: Ramnok on October 18, 2011, 11:57:01 AM
Thank you! I actually think you guys are kinda ignoring the fact that I am working on an eldar warband which would consist of a striking scorpion, possibly a spiritseer (harlequin) was also thinking of adding in some pirates or maybe a heavy weapon eldar.. dunno which yet as Heavy weapons in this game are pretty op.. so dunno...

I am working on these models mainly to enhance my GS skills and modeling skills so I can eventually work with modeling skeletons to make models from scratch. I already have another Space Marine and both are Deathwatch yet being from the iron souls chapter they have a much stronger connection with their machine spirits and it so happens this machine spirit in his armor is a bit more testy then most so its only painted half sided.

I've actually used my Salamander's Deathwatch with some of the eldar I made to go against a friend who DM'd a game with Necrons. We've got plans to do a full SM vs Necrons game (which the stats we drew up were decently equal...) So while I will use him for DM games for a majority of them, I'll also use him in those games I do catch against necrons. I have a friend working on an Ork Warband as well with wyrdboy and nob boss, so when we play some matches with modified rules we also kinda snatched abilities from Space Marine the PC game since most of them are an amazing analog to current skills and current gameplay. "Favor of the Armory" you get double the grenade loadout and grenades have a lower chance of exploding on the user as these grenades have been blessed by the techmarines for their use.

I've been trying to find some good models for eldars but I am trying to stick with GW works. once my funds come in soon I'll be able to finish my eldar warband (I had a deathjester but lost her somewhere and only have picture memories.)

Here are the Eldar I had (I'm currently going back and giving my Striking Scorpion some more greenstuff armor as the first time around I didn't have greenstuff only some plumbing putty...

(http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/1318883366/gallery_15142_6574_27718.jpg)

For my death jester I was going for something that would look like a holofield but ironically It came out not like how I invisioned it at all...
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: MarcoSkoll on October 18, 2011, 01:35:14 PM
Quote from: Ramnok on October 18, 2011, 11:57:01 AMThank you! I actually think you guys are kinda ignoring the fact that I am working on an eldar warband
Hardly. You've had one reply since you said that, and it agreed that Eldar could be an interesting warband.

Still, based on what you've just said, I think your group may be treating Inquisitor as if it's a skirmish version of 40k. This isn't what it was designed for, and it's not actually very good at the job, as it horribly overcomplicates it. 
As Inquisitor's tag line says, Everything you have been told is a lie - Inquisitor is not a 40k RPG, and it's not a 40k Skirmish game either. It's about cinematic fights in the darkest shadows of the Imperium - heresy, mutation and evil plots all at once.

Consequently, almost anything that has a 40k codex entry is NOT good material for Inquisitor, because those profiles represent troops to be committed to the front line.
Other than Inquisitors, the exceptions to that rule of thumb are mostly in the Imperial Guard codex (and are not the ones with armour values).

If what you want is "Skirmish 40k" then there are Necromunda fan sites that have put together rules for things like Space Marines and Eldar, or alternatively, Killzone (http://galaxyinflames.blogspot.com/) is good too. And yes, like Inquisitor can be played with 28mm models, those games can be played with your 54mm models.

If you're interested in reading more about how Inquisitor was designed to be played, it's worth reading Kaled's guides about Inquisitor. See the four headings under "Everything you have been told is a lie: A Guide to Inquisitor" (http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/)

But if you really wish to continue playing skirmish games with the Inquisitor ruleset, then given the general power level of your group's characters - Space Marines, Eldar Aspect Warriors, Necrons  and Orks - it's probably worth rescaling the stats.
Most of those warbands will have characters with stats near or above 100, which doesn't work well in game (high stats mean most rolls will pass, which removes chance and unpredictability from the game).

If scaled back so that all the characters neatly fit within the 1-100 range (on which note, I'd recommend Dark Magenta's revised Space Marine rules in Issue #2 (http://www.darkmagenta.co.uk/Dark_Magenta_2.pdf)) and the equipment is scaled in kind, you won't be pushing the system beyond its limits quite so much!
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: Ramnok on October 18, 2011, 02:23:31 PM
Thank you for the replies. I've played some normal games with my eldar codex type rules from another forum that did a reworking of the stats (warseer I believe) so I've played some matches and the highest skill she has is a 92 in WS the rest were 80 and lower

We did one special campaign with the modified stats and it worked out good, necrons missed a smidge more but their battles were fun and that's what the game is about really.

My Eldar is my main Inquisitor warband and the space marines are usually DM controlled with other npc's

Also looking for feedback on the painting and modeling portion of the conversion.
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: MarcoSkoll on October 18, 2011, 04:36:22 PM
Modelling wise, your greenstuff work would benefit from smoothing and post-working.

On the first point, you need to take more efforts to smooth the green stuff as you work, particularly on the larger smooth areas like the Scorpion's helmet. This can be done with cheap watercolour brushes, wetted fingers for large enough areas, or ideally a set of clay shapers (http://www.heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=66_67). They're usually like £15 for a set of 5 in different shapes, so not necessarily an impulse buy, but if you do much sculpting work, you will not regret having them.

Personally, I have a full set of five in size 0, seven in size 2 (including some of different hardnesses) and even three in size 6 and a single size 10. (Which is part of why the contents of my sculpting tool case are worth most of a painful £150...)

"Post-working", for lack of a better name, needs a decent hobby knife. The scalpel kind, not the Stanley knife kind. Green stuff doesn't hold corners well, so while you can slave at them while the putty's "wet" (if you do try this, come back after about an hour after mixing and sharpen them up), it's much easier to make it so that you can come back after the putty's completely set and trim in the hard edges with a knife.

You can also scrape over bumpy flat areas with the edge of the blade to neaten them up. Again, often much easier than trying to get it flawless while it's wet, but do put in some effort first time around here!

Painting... How old are your paints? They're starting to dry out, so you need to dilute them a little. Also, reds and yellows don't cover well, so it's best to do either two coats or paint them over white.

I could also address the point of shading and highlighting rather than just using flat colours, but other people can explain that better than I.
Title: Re: (New here!) =][=Scale Iron Souls Deathwatch Marine
Post by: Ramnok on October 18, 2011, 06:49:05 PM
every dental visit I picked up some dental picks/tools that are actually doing an amazing job of shaping, fine lines and the like. I have a small exacto knife I use for the post work. Painting on the models shown for the eldar isn't in question as my scorpion is getting a repaint as soon as I finish her up (see other post made for her) As far as tools go its patchwork but it works, larger knives for larger areas and the like.

My Death Jester was made completely with plumbers putty which dries softer but since that fiasco I've used only GS (finally got a good supplier)

While I'm no expert by any means I do love the challenges of working with the larger range of models, it allows me to work on a larger scale. My Marine came out more then satisfactory (minus the fleshtones, may get some to redo it)