"Khurasan previews the Taurans" Topic

We're very pleased to give you the first peek at the Taurans, one of the warrior races in the Carnivoran Hegemony, as the Garn euphemistically refer to their imperial possessions outside the Confederation.  There are eight poses of these huge, powerful flesh eaters -- five with Stogg Gun, Two with Stogg Cannon, and a Herdmaster.

The Taurans are feared predators on Tauros, usually loners but sometimes congregating to share massed prey, as crocodiles will on Earth when a herd of wildebeest is crossing a river.  As such, they may not be cunning unit strategists, but at least they do not attack each other in the battle line.  

These dim-witted, ferocious creatures want nothing more than to fly at the closest prey species and tear it to pieces with their bare hands, which creates something of a dilemma for their Garn masters, but with their normal cold-blooded efficiency the Garn have found a way to get the Taurans to shoot themselves into combat.  Normal weapons felt puny in the hands of the Taurans, who tossed them aside and ran straight into the enemy's waiting guns. So the Garn developed the Stogg Gun, an energy weapon that does not require fussy reloading, and, more importantly, is made immensely heavy by bars of solid lead attached on either edge of the weapon.  As a result, the Stogg Gun is so heavy that it slows even the titanically powerful Taurans -- the weight feels substantial enough in their hands that they will hold onto it as they close to combat, for the Taurans never refuse a challenge to their physical strength.  In order to support the formidable weight of the lead bars, the Stogg Gun's frame has to be manufactured of stabilised osmium, making it quite expensive, especially as stores of osmium are more readily found in Federation space.

The Taurans love their Stogg Guns, because no one else can pick them up, they make a satisfyingly loud blast as they are discharged (a sound effect added by some clever Garn engineer rather than caused by the action of the weapon), and they function as amazing clubs at close range, cracking the thickest carapace armour with ease.  The Stogg Cannon was then developed to increase the stormherd's firepower, an even larger and heavier weapon which has two settings for either a high rate of fire or slower rate with increased armour penetration.  Much to the surprise of the Garn, the Taurans turned out to be fair shots, although their first preference remains hand to hand combat.

In addition to smashing opponents flat with their Stogg Guns, the Taurans carry a carving knife, a weapon the size of a broadsword to human eyes, so they can cut hunks of flesh off of their enemies and devour them right in the midst of battle.

The Garn created complete carapace armour for the Taurans but the Taurans immediately tear most of it off and discard it as too constricting.  The average Tauran in the field usually has only one or two bits of armour remaining from his original full suit.

The Garn use Taurans both as cannon fodder and terror troops, a unique combination in one warrior race.  They salute the bravery and battle lust of the Taurans, if occasionally rolling their eyes at the predicaments the Taurans frequently bring on themselves as a result of their bull-headedness.  The Felids, the most common line troopers of Hegemonic armies, hate serving alongside Taurans, as they detest the crude stupidity and lack of honour of the Taurans as well as their undiscriminating carnivory, and because Tauran impetuosity is the antithesis of the Felid way of systematically stalking and isolating the foe.

These are the first models that will be released in the reboot of the Carnivoran range -- the enormous GAU (Garn Assault Unit), the superheavy war unit of the Garn, will be released at the same time.  Stay tuned for future developments!  Thanks for looking -- models painted by our own Spacejacker.

Quick! Lock up your China Shops!

You just made 15mm Chaos players very happy :)

Not my cupt of tea, but the sculpts are really nice.

Another wonderful offering, Jon.

-Eli

Gives a new meaning to "The running of the bulls."

Tim

Nice looking figs.

I should have anticipated those.

It would work for wargaming the videogame Doom!

Very cool!!!

They look a lot like a crazy conversion idea I had a long while back (April 2008):

link

Dan

I'm amazed those are 15s, they look like 28s.

Like the Tau conversions.
Less keen on the Taurans. Just don't do it for me. Nice scuplts though.

Now Stikks on the other hand…

I'm amazed those are 15s, they look like 28s.

Well, they are minotaurs after all, so expect them to be a bit larger than 15mm humans. I hope to show an image next to one of my 15mm human figures tomorrow.

Man, have you guys been busy lately!

Moooo!!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

They look nice but, it would be nice to get away from animal head on humanized body equals alien. Theres already salamanders sharks t-rexs birds bears cats dogs and probably more I'm not thinking of.

Rather hard to avoid that when you are making sci fi minotaurs!

Yup, it's a pretty common theme, so people must like it.

-Eli

All anyone serves is gruel, so all anyone eats is gruel, so everyone must love gruel.

I also sell non human aliens of several kinds. They are substantially outsold by the humanoid aliens. Which makes sense in combat games, as chances are completely non humanoid aliens are going to have completely different technologies and societies.

And I've released an entire range of aliens with 23 unique species, a fair number of which are non-human.

Want to know what outsells all aliens, of any kind? Humans in carapace armour. By a wide margin. But I make aliens anyway, because I like them.

I think I'd like them a bit better if they were more "techie" (and sensibly dressed) but they're fine as they are.

I, for one, am all about the anthropomorphic aliens.

Rock on, KM.

Yeah. Head and feet transplants* is all the rage these days.

I'm still waiting for someone to sculpt one of these on top of another "heroic" human dolly, and to dare call the thing an alien:

Just make sure the feet match the head and, voila, you have a new alien species!

Dan
* At least with tv examples you can blame it mostly on the low budgets the shows had when they first started (like Star Trek and Doctor Who).

When it comes down to it, the anthro aliens and future humans are what is paying for experiments into fancy aliens. Like it or not, Khurasan, GZG, Rebel, Critical Mass and all the other fund folks out there have to pay the bills and those figures pay the bills.

These figures might make for fine conversion bait for mutant future mutant animals. I have a mutant farm animal faction in an RPG set in the northwest were I live called BEAST (Bovine and Equine Agricultural and Security Trust). 90% of the community is made up of mutated farm animals.

-Eli

These minis were a lot of fun to paint and the shapes make it a breeze to get highlights on.
I will probably add some war paint and other small details in future, but I wanted to make sure the figures were accurately represented for the product shots.

The fluff has got me thinking about doing some Tauran vs Garn "uprising" scenarios… And they will make fantatstic opponents for my Alien Legion JTFB!

Thanks to spacejacker for providing an extra pic of a Tauran compared to a sandwic… erm, I mean, human.

Hey, cows with guns!

Bulls actually -- cows are girls.

These are great… would work well for conversions too, with head swaps… and If I ever need to make a beastman army :)

If you don't like humanoid aliens, then just call the humanoid/terran animal alien figures genetic experiments and such…. transhumanist soldiers… uplifted animals.

I find the horns a bit much, but that is a issue only here…. That and they look loverly….

The horns are actually a separate piece. They look pretty cool without them too, although you'd have to putty in the gap.

Horns are also pretty shapable so you can curl them around in different patterns, like these:

… being careful not to break them of course.

Dan,

The gauntlet has been cast…

Where?

Dan

I'm just glad they're wearing pants/loincloths. I have kids who want to play these games, too, and to see the Llurgs with their junk hanging out… *shudder*

I like them. They're FUN.

Am I the only one in the room that remembers we play games for *fun?*

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

If you don't like humanoid aliens, then just call the humanoid/terran animal alien figures genetic experiments and such…. transhumanist soldiers… uplifted animals.

Thank you for reminding me how I can justify a platoon or three of these in my JTFB project; they're not Taurans! They're *Toros* courtesy of Martinez Bioengineering on Alpha Ceta IV! Ya see, the local Satrap got fed up with watching his levies getting scattered like ninepins by Tauran herd stampedes, so he decided to solve the problem, er, *head on*…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

amazong stuff. If I would have to name two things in my life that make it worth living they would be my wife and khurasan minis. In no particular order :p

any update on these?

Come on, these guys weren't even teased a full year ago – they're less overdue than the Andromeda Cult. You want examples of "where the heck are they" his blog's rife with better ones:

link

link

link

link

link

link

link

That's not counting other stuff that's been previewed on threads here and not released, like the Tauran, Andromeda Cult, Meso-Nai vehicles, etc. Too many irons in the fire over there – paying for masters and brushwork on models that don't go on sale is no way to make a profit.

so your reply was pointless, got it

Etranger: "Hey, cows with guns!"

Khurasan: "Bulls actually -- cows are girls."

Then I guess the hold up might simply be about how to sculpt the female Tauran troopers:

Dan

so your reply was pointless, got it

Don't worry about it, RatGod, the hostility in Chief Lackey Rich's response can speak for itself.

I wanted to release all the new Carnivoran Hegemony pieces together, but am still waiting on paintup of the second Felid Stalker assault transport variant. I'm hoping that will be done soon, then a pantload of models will be released.

Then I guess the hold up might simply be about how to sculpt the female Tauran troopers

Nah, will leave those to you Dan. That sounds like a good subject for one of your threads.

I think they look cool!

Khurasan: "Nah, will leave those to you Dan. That sounds like a good subject for one of your threads"

LOL. I guess you missed this one then:

TMP link

Dan
link

Like I said!

There's obviously a Red Bull joke, or marketing tie in there, somewhere…….

What a load of bull…

I need these, looking forward to them.

Like I said!

And that ain't no bull!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

"I say ya have to take the bull by the tail…, and face the situation!"

- W.C. Fields