Genetic Engineering - Vat Grown - Tau AI - Men of Iron?

[Kaled]

It was, to all intents and purposes, the same armour as every other barbarian warlord on Terra equipped his troops with, it was (if I'm remembering the history of Power Armour correctly) a relic.

Yes, pretty much the same as the other barbarian warlords had at the end of the Age of Strife - nothing like as advanced as the technology mankind had at its disposal at the peak of the Dark Age of Technology.

But it isn't what we know about these things but what a character knows which is important.

I agree, but since learned scholars of the Imperium have gathered together knowledge of the Dark Age of Technology, and we are talking here about about characters who would have access to that knowledge, then I don't see that the characters goals don't seem sane. An Inquisitor or Magos could have knowledge of the marvels of Dark Age technology that have led him to conclude that mankind once knew of greater technological wizardry than that employed by the Legio Cybernetica. Hence his quest to discover and harness that knowledge.

[DapperAnarchist]

It would be called the Golden Age of Technology in that case.

It is. Repeatedly. The Mechanicus often call it the Golden Age, and the Emperor was thought to be returning Mankind to the Golden Age, hence he was acclaimed as the Omnissiah. It's the Dark Age because it is mysterious, and because it involved an abandonment of human willpower in favour of machines. The Hob storyline in Dresden Codak (this is a particularly useful page) describes what human chauvinists (which the Imperium clearly is) might think of even benevolent AI, and the end of the Golden Age was partly a machine rebellion. The Golden Age is also called a Dark Age because what became curses in the Age of Strife were mostly things developed in the Age of Technology - Psykers and Machines. It created a utopia that, when it fell, became a nightmare.

[Nemesis]

Back online. Nice a full page to read

Ws Bs Strength Toughness Initiative Willpower Sagacity Nerve Leadership
47  56     67             77            61            43        66           68       41

True Grit, Heroic


http://shop.kingdomdeath.com/product/54mm-twilight-knight-pinup is the model I'm going to convert.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/yedharo-models/virgo-54mm.html here is another model i like to convert
http://www.rpgshop.com/miniatures/undead-en/vampires/monique-de-noir-vampire-54mm.html another

The Model I'm planing to use for a Iron Men is a Converted Dreadknight bringing up another question; how do you make Machine Stats?

[MarcoSkoll]

I should say that the Yedharo Virgo is by far the tallest model I've ever seen listed as 54mm scale. She's actually about 66-67 mm tall including the high heels. Here, have a comparison of her alongside Sgt Stone (and less relevantly, the tallest of my scratchbuilds).

This is alright for me, as I generously vary the height of my sculpts and she's therefore not actually that out of place in my collection, but I know there's some people who find her just too tall. So, Caveat Emptor.

[Nemesis]

Could be a result oh the engineering. but what real life height would that be? thinking she looks like high 6's to 7ft

On vat grown; if everyone she knows other then the trainers and tech priests are vat grown I wouldn't think it be that mentally shocking and even then the trainers and tech priests could just say they were also vat grown because they live in a closed system.

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, taking off the heels, and working by 1/32 scale, a bit over two metres - about 6' 7"- 6' 8". The heels are pretty huge and round that up to a full seven feet.
Yes, it could be the result of genetic engineering, but I can't quite see a good reason for her to be 15" taller than the female average that works here.

When I finally get around to working on mine, I'll probably have her as an Inquisitrix who had her height increased for reasons of impact and intimidation - but in your case, would someone who's working on all kinds of illicit stuff (and presumably wants to keep said work at least somewhat secret) really want to draw attention to herself by standing a foot above everyone else?

[Nemesis]

she looks human but really tall. The Lab/research is secret but them in public they would only attract attention as being tall not as experiments. Could see a problem in convert stuff being so tall, but the benefactor needs soldiers maybe he wanted height so they can be intimidating? 

Plus I would remove the heels.

[MarcoSkoll]

but the benefactor needs soldiers maybe he wanted height so they can be intimidating?

She's not exactly got the build of a customised soldier. You'd go for men built like the proverbial. Although, I do have to admit I have a genengineered lady soldier in my own collection, but she's more solidly built and I did rather have to fish around for reasons why she wasn't a he.

I'm not sure the reason I used would work for you, but I had worked on other ideas...

- I don't think the Decree Passive works here, as I can't see them having involvement with the Ecclesiarchy.

- Nor does the High Imperial law argument. (Only High Lords are allowed to order the creation of a Space Marine chapter. So, if you were cooking up some super soldiers, there's some argument in making them female to avoid being accused of breaching that law.) But she's not super-soldiery enough for that.

- Then there's the simple one. Sex appeal. There's got to be some perverted nobles out there who want a squad of statuesque ladies as their bodyguards. But I forget who your benefactor is, so I'm not sure if this works.

As for taking the heels off a model... that's something to be careful of. I tend to try and avoid doing this, as it's a bit of a pig to get it to look good. Mind you, that could just be me - feet are something I don't like drawing/modelling in general.

Don't let me put you off her though. I totally agree that she's a lovely model, but I do think her size and build heavily narrow down the field of characters she can believably represent.

[Nemesis]

Ha like the perverted noble maybe wanting his whole  bodyguard to be women.

[Nemesis]

How much funds would this project cost could it be an undertaking of a civilized world which the governor falls short of his tithes and thinking what could the remecations of the administration dealing with a governor not making his tithes would he get investigated frist or something else?

Meaning he's putting all his funds into this project but if there is too much funds could a noble have to funds or would it just bankrupt multiple nobles?

Could parts of a men of iron or archeotech  be found in a underhive being worshipped by a cult?

I be reading about 40k robot and about the master / slave set up could a advanced brain be able to handle being a master with the ability of the human MADD to make decisions without the need of bio-cards?

[DapperAnarchist]

Marco - I can think of a couple other reasons. One might be that the original DNA source was from a world where height is prized in some way, and so the average height is significantly greater, or another is that the modification wasn't supposed to make her tall, its just a by-product.

[Dolnikan]

There is lots of variety in height on earth alone, that is just one planet, on a million worlds all kinds of sizes could be found, rangeing from the enormous to the really small. 2m tall bodies can easily be sustained here on earth, I know several women who are just ten cm short of that height and they suffer no problems whatsoever.

The amount of funds the project would take depends on several factors, one of these is what sort of people are employed to do it and how much is to be done. A proper project led by a large staff would be impossible to hide while a small group of people recruited in secret working on small modifications would be a lot cheaper.

[MarcoSkoll]

Marco - I can think of a couple other reasons.

Neither of those explains why you'd choose to make a svelte female soldier, which was the main concern in what I was on about.

On a million worlds all kinds of sizes could be found, ranging from the enormous to the really small.

Yes, but the wide variation of human size tends to be, for the most part, compressed into a variation of only few mm from average on models. I'm two heads taller than some girls I know, but it's rare to see that variation in player's collections.

As such, when you take a model 12-13mm taller than average, it'll look far more exaggerated a size than the physically plausible "seven feet in heels" might sound.
It works in my collection, as I do build in these height variations (with models between 48-62mm*), but I know she doesn't work for a lot of people (including kierkegaard, who I got the model from in the first place) - which is why I brought up the warning.

*I've already told you lot that it's Marco who's the 62mm. But can you guess who's the 48mm?

[Koval]

*I've already told you lot that it's Marco who's the 62mm. But can you guess who's the 48mm?

Giovanna? I don't remember you ever describing her as especially tall...

[Dolnikan]

When genetically modifying someone you will often want to eliminate as many problems as possible. Male hormones might lead to higher strength and greater size but testosterone also has some nasty side-effects on behaviour, giving more aggression, which for some roles might be good but control can also be a big issue. There also is the Y chromosome which can make things more complicated.

When actually vat-growing someone gender will be little issue, for instance, on the in character boards one of the characters I'm currently using, Iota Tettares, is a genetically modified vat-grown test subject. She is female, although she lacks many of the usual things in female super soldiers made up by players such as oversized secondary sexual organs which tend to be something a perverted governor would certainly put in. The female gender is more of a biological norm, with the male gender as a deviancy. This is why she is female, but she could also be described as sexless.

Those models look like what a someone who considers the physical appearance to be an import part of his or her bodyguard would design..