Sedition Wars - Commodore Grist

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

I have mentioned before the cool heavy armour of the Sedition Wars universe, the Gnosis Battlesuits. In-game, such equipment is issued to the elite of the Vanguard. These suits are like little tanks; they're immune to nasty things like acid and fire, and when finally wrecked the pilot can climb out to continue the fight!

Back in 2013, studio McVey released a high quality resin sculpt for Salute 2013, Commodore Grist. I managed to find one over the summer online, and just finished painting it up.

I used many very thin layers for the zenithal highlights. Only 5 drops of colour (4 white and one green) in the small metal cup in the airbrush, 5 drops of thinner, and the rest water. You don't see the "dots" of the spray as much, just a smooth transition from dark to light. See shoulder pads in the photo below.





I did most of the face in Vallejo acrylics, with some oil paints to smooth transitions.

I augmented the usual glazes of Coelia Greenshade (the green parts of the armour) and Fuegan Orange (shoulder pads) with actual painted colour layers in acrylics. The armour and shoulders used the Vallejo Yu Jing paint set. However, Seraphim Sepia continued to work well on the gun and the "plumbing" of the suit.I used artists' oils for blending, point highlights, and special effects such as chips, scrapes and impact damage. Vallejo powder went on the lower part of the boots. I airbrushed the base separately with Secret Weapon Stone, and weathered it with oils.





Below, the nominal light source for painting highlights and shadows was above and in front of the figure's forehead.





The rear parts of the figure fall into slight shadow.






I debated using OSL to make the muzzle of the plasma gun glow, but decided against it.




Below, details of the power fist and it damage.




Comparing this to previous Vanguard figures, the armour colouring  is deeper and richer, I think because I am not just relying on glazes over white for the highlights.

Just one more figure, the big boss Cthonian, to complete phase one (the boxed set) of the Sedition Wars project.


Kara Black's sword in NMM

Back in September, I attended a great painting seminar put on by Polish master modeler Michal Pisarski, winner of both the Crystal Paintbrush and GW Slayer Sword. The seminar was all about skin tones and non-metallic metallics. The figure we used was a large scale bust of a vampire. At the end of the seminar weekend, he shared some tips on painting wargame scaled figures.

He completely repainted the blade of my Kara Black figure from Sedition Wars. From Michal's POV, at this scale less is more. He painted the blade flat black. The hottest highlight is at the tip of the blade, in pure white. IIRC, he added blue to the mix as he worked down the blade toward the hilt. Note also the very fine scratches and irregularities along the blade's length. Michal's brush control is superb; this was all done in about 10 minutes with acrylics.

Random 15mm WW2 Germans

Assortment of late WW2 German infantry figures and a SdKfz 250/9 from Battlefront.

A couple of weeks ago I embarked on a clean up/purge of various piles of hobby and hobby-related stuff in my basement. It's strange...I threw a ton of stuff away, but I still seem to have too much hobby stuff.  Whatever the amount of net de-cluttering I did (or did not) achieve, the process was great in that when I do this I stumble across a number of things that I was "just about to paint", and therefore had left on or near my painting pile.  This feeling of telling myself I am "just about to paint" something can persist for some time...my assorted WW2 interests had fallen into that abyss.

The main bases are 20mm rounds, while the panzerschreck team is on a 30mm round.

I have a large collection of 15mm WW2 figures. It's not terribly focused, but for the most part it consists of mid-to-late war Eastern Front stuff, along with a nice little pile of North African stuff.  This collection started circa 2007 with a dive into Battlefront's "Flames of War".  Other WW2 gaming systems such as "Bolt Action", "Crossfire", "Blitzkrieg Commander", "Battlegroup" and "Chain of Command" have joined the Flames of War books on the shelves.

The 250/9 is a pretty small ride - must have come in handy when trying to keep a low profile while scouting ahead.

Many of these games require the infantry to be based individually - or, even if they don't explicitly require it, they still work much better with the infantry based individually. But at the same time, I do love 15mm gaming for WW2. I enjoy the "look" of the engagement ranges with the 15mm models - even ones with primarily tanks can avoid the dreaded "tank park" effect.  So in 2013-14, as we started to play some "Chain of Command", I took to doing up a number of individually-based 15mm WW2 infantry units - again mostly for the Eastern Front, 1943-45. The figures you see in these photos were meant to be part of this effort, primed and ready to go, probably some time in 2015, when I put them down to pick up...oh who knows what, but based on the blog history, it was probably something 30k...

Bases intended to not look completely out of place on a winter table, while still being OK for a summer table...

 I decided to do some "mopping up" of these 15mm WW2 forces that have been waiting so long for some painting attention. Over the past few years I have painted very little in terms of WW2 - I sure wish I had taken the time to write down some of the paints I used back then...anyway, I was able to bodge it together again.  And I'll write it down this time!

These are all from Battlefront.  The infantry are from their excellent late-war Winter German collection - now sadly no more as they sacrifice themselves to the altar of plastic figures.  These Germans were just great sculpts - very lean, and they manage, ever for 15mm figures, to look...hopeless, like even if this battle works out, they know the war is lost...I just love these figures, and I'm glad I picked them up while they were still available.

Great assortment of attire on the late-war German castings. Sadly they are no more, as Battlefront focuses now on plastics.

The half-track is a SdKfz 250/9 (I think?So, so many type of half tracks...).  It is a Battlefront model - an older mixed media, resin and metal, model (I think these can be had in plastic now from Battlefront and the Plastic Soldier Company).  I didn't try any cammo because...I couldn't remember what paints I used to use.  I settled for trying to get that German panzer yellow colour settled...the result is...OK.

It's great fun to re-connect with old projects! Stay tuned for more (or, who knows, something else entirely different, anything is possible).  Thanks for visiting the Blog, and have a great day.   

Legio Ignatum

I finished my first titan from the Legio Ignatum “Fire Wasps” titan legion. I decided to start with the warlord because it was the most complicated to paint and I figure the smaller titans will be quick by comparison.. I still have to varnish it and maybe add some stones to the base, but those will have to wait as I’m off on vacation for the next 2 weeks and won’t be able to paint.

 I thought about weathering it, but decided against it as I figured the Tech priests would probably keep the paint fresh on their god-machine. There are no decals for Ignatum yet so the wasp is free hand.

Some Greater Good Additions

Some new adds for my Tau collection.

Here are a couple of models for a faction for which I have not painted for quite a while...some 40k Tau! There is a Broadside battlesuit, two drones - all GW models - and a "Greater Good Deep Strike Veteran Big Shas" from Wargames Exclusive.

Earlier this fall ByronM was kind enough to host several folks for a "FriendsCon" - a group of players who love GW's 40k setting, so much so that as a group we ignore the things we don't like about the 8th edition of the rules and just play for kicks.  Curt brought out his Sisters of Battle, and at the time had shared with us how jazzed he had been to work on those figures again, as the Sisters had been a force he collected "back in the day".  Ah - the power of nostalgia!

When assembling my own FriendsCon force, I was moved to go back into an old collection as well - my Tau! I built and painted nearly all of my Tau forces back when they were originally released (around 2000 or so?) - so many of my Tau models are almost all 20 years old! The Tau were one of the first real attempts I had made at a "serious" 40k collection - a complete force, with attention to painting etc. etc. that was a big deal for me back then. I had loved how the red and white painting combo had come out, and even though we got carved to bits on the table, they generally looked great while getting blasted/obliterated/tabled. 

But time moves on, and my hobby interests moved all over the place (as you can see at the side of this blog!).  And at several points, I vowed I would sell my Tau forces, and I tried to on several occasions - but a sale never worked out. So I still had all of these models for FriendsCon. With Byron's help, I sort-of-figured-out-a-bit of the Tau's 8th Edition codex, dusted off the models after pulling them out of storage, and hit the table with them. And you know what? It was super fun! A sign from the Hobby Gods that these models must stay in my collection - and be improved...hence these models!

And wow...have the Tau ever changed! The models available from GW for the Tau range today are really something. New suits. New drones. New versions of suits. Wow!  My amazing wife even got one of them for me for Christmas in 2018...one of the new Broadside suits, so in October I put that model together and got out the red paint!

XV88 Broadside Suit

XV88 Broadside battlesuit.  That huge frigging rail gun sure fits with the 40k vibe!

This isn't new to any Tau gamer out there, of course, but wow, it was new to me. The early version of the XV88 Broadside suits was essentially a basic XV8 Crisis suit with some additional metal bits. This newer one is larger, is bigger - and WAY cooler!

Old and new...the model on the right was painted back in 1999!!!

Prepare for GREATER GOOD TIMES!

The Broadside Suits are very much an anti-tank/anti-heavy-armour weapon (as you might guess!). In 40k's 8th Edition, these sorts of weapons are much less effective against vehicles than they used to be.  But wow, the vision of the rail gun as a huge frigging rifle is SO neat. I love it.

Fantastic detail on the back...you can see the Smart Missile pods on the right shoulder.

The sculpting/design of this model is super cool...what a great re-visioning of the XV88

This suit is also sporting some "smart" missiles.  I recall back in the days of the Third Edition that the Smart Missiles were kind of useless, but they seem much more effective now. In fact, you can build this new Broadside to be armed with nothing but missiles...but I just think the rail gun is too cool, so I didn't do that. 

Shield drone on the left, marker drone on the right.

Markerlight drone...so cool! We didn't have these back in 3rd edition...

Shield drone...for an old salt like me, very cool to see these as fully plastic models...back in the day you needed to get metal parts to convert a gun drone to a shield drone.

You also get drones - it's the Tau after all! There are so many more types of drones now...I went with a shield drone and a markerlight drone, just to experiment building them and painting them.

Deep Strike Veteran Shas

A cigar? Is that greater good for your health?

This is a resin model from "Wargames Exclusive", purveyors of very interesting alternate 40K figures.  Their "Greater Good" range has some really interesting figures.  The "Gunslinger" - a character model I painted back in 2016 - is also from "Wargames Exclusive.  These figures are very cool. This grumpy-looking character "Shas" is very interesting, not your typical cool, smooth eco-urbanite Tau Fire Warrior, is he?

Cool view of the "jump pack"...

Shas with friend, the mysterious "Gunslinger"...

A cigar-chomping drop veteran? Hey, why not? He sure looks cool, and could serve as a "Cadre Fireblade" or something while on the gaming table.

Thanks for visiting!

Adeptus Titanicus Escalation-icus - New Warlord for Horus

Horus for hope! A new addition for the forces of Legio Mortis, seen seen here equipped with paired laser-blasters on the carapace, as well as a plasma annihilator and a power fist.

It's been great to see a new Titan Legio taking shape on Dallas' painting table! His progress has inspired me to continue working on my own Adeptus Titanicus collection - the process of "collection escalation" is always a great motivator.  Earlier in the fall I finished a second Warlord for my loyalist forces, which was fun! But it left the rebels of my Legio Mortis forces a little under-equipped to pursue the Warmaster's enlightened agenda through the galaxy.  I have addressed this disparity by completing a second Warlord for Legio Mortis! As with the additions to my loyalist collection earlier this fall, I have also finished an assortment of different weapons to give rebel Titan commanders some variety in their weapon choices. I am pleased to share some photos of the latest addition to the Warmaster's forces - along with some new weapons - here in this post.

The Arm Weapons

The "Bellicosa Volcano Cannons".

The "Plasma Annihilator".

The "Macro Gatling Blaster",

The "Quake Cannon".

The "Arioch Power Claw".

A view of the paired laser blasters on the carapace. With the "shieldbane" attribute, these weapons are also great at damaging enemy void shields - and once those shields are down, these weapons have a legitimate chance to damage enemy God-engines, as opposed to the missile launchers, which struggle to cause damage on targets once shields are down.

The New Titan 

The "out of the box" load-out - paired "Apocalypse Launchers" on the carapace, and "Volcano Cannons" on the arms.

The "out of the box" weapon loadouts which came in the original Warlord Titan box included a set of paired missile launchers for the carapace weapon mounts and two volcano cannons - one for each arm.  In game terms, this is a pretty punishing weapon combo, as the paired missile launchers are great for knocking down void shields, while the volcano cannon is arguable to most destructive weapon available in the game.  A Warlord kitted out in this way will wreck lots of stuff - but it also will have little incentive to maneuver, and operate mostly as a giant weapon battery.

The Quake Cannon - hits hard, and knocks enemy engines out of position!

Now that GW finally has a good variety of weapons available for the Warlord models (and they are now actually, you know, available for sale) you have options to use the Warlord Titans in different ways in the game, which is more fun!

Just imagine the shell casings falling from this weapon...

This weapon load-out can smash enemy void shields - both the missile launchers and the gatling cannon can fire at volume.  The gatling cannon can also hit home once the shields are down - as can the quake cannon!

The plastic Warlord Titan model kit is a beautiful piece of hobby work and I do love working on them. The models are complex - you will need to take your time to build them. But while the model itself is complex, thank goodness the designers created the Warlords in such a way that magnetizing the weapons is super-easy! This makes swapping the different weapons on and off a Warlord Titan very easy.   

The Plasma Annihilator...a flexible weapon for Warlord Princeps. You don't need to push the reactor to use it, but you can go to "maximal" and this makes it an ideal weapon to deliver a killing shot.

The "power claw" - a devastating weapon, but must be used up close!

A close up showing one of the new, alternate heads - this comes on the same sprue as the plasma annihilators, laser blasters and power fist.

 A view of some of the back details - these model kits are just incredible. I tried to put a splash of colour here and there among the pipes, plates and pistons - with a focus on the crew door.

My AT18 collection is not yet fully balanced yet between the loyalists and rebels - there is no sort of requirement to do this, it's all in my head, but for AT18 I'm trying to keep my loyalist and rebels at a roughly equal size. With this in mind, I still need to add some Cerastus Knights for the rebel side. But Warlord-Titan-parity is an important milestone of sorts (certainly, it is from the Warmaster's perspective :) I also hope it will help drive Dallas in his continued efforts to complete his own Titan maniple. 

The latest "family photo" for Legio Mortis.

The new "Adeptus Titanicus" is a great game, and the opportunity to field multiple Warlord Titans and work some of these new weapons into future games will - I hope - make it even more fun for the players.

Thanks for visiting!   

Adeptus Titanicus Legio Krytos Reaver Titan

Titan escalation continues! The latest model to be finished is the amazing Reaver battle titan. I just love the look of this model and it's a great addition to the Warhounds and Knights I'd finished previously.

One of the cool things about the Reaver is the variety of weapon loadouts that are now available, and I've taken full advantage of these by magnetizing pretty much everything on the Titan. Shown above are the Apocalypse Missile Launcher, Laser Blaster (right arm) and Melta Cannon (left arm).

I also used the cool Legio Krytos decals on the titan. I think that I maybe use fewer decals than others in finishing my titans, I dunno.

Rear view of the Reaver. I have to say I found some of the assembly a bit tricky, particularly the feet and lower armour plates. Certainly you have to be really careful in ensuring the legs and hips end up at the right angle (level or very slightly inclined forwards) or the torso assembly can look a bit wonky. I screwed it up a bit on this build but corrected it mostly with a very slightly angled magnet on the hip-torso joint.

Alternate weapons - Void Missile, Gatling Blaster (right arm), Chainfist (left arm). The Fist comes from the alternate Reaver sprue and the Void Missile is from Forgeworld. The missile itself is also magnetised (with two teeny-tiny magnets) so you can remove the missile from the rack once fired. Cool!

And here we have the Turbo Laser, Volcano Cannon (right arm) and Power Fist (left arm).

Some detail on the magnetising process. I used 5x1mm magnets here, gluing the right arm into place as it would always have a weapon of some kind - I figured I'd never want to build a Reaver with two melee weapons! I magnetised both ends of the left arm, so I can use a ranged weapon there as well, if I want. Gotta thank Conscript Greg for coming to my rescue with an emergency magnet resupply as I'd run out in the middle of assembling the model... I think I used 17 magnets altogether.

Standard titan weathering techniques - sponge chipping with a Rhinox Hide/craft black mix, and streaking with Agrax and Reikland Fleshshade.

Some more detail of the weathering.

Sorry for the blurry pic - just wanted to show the decal on the left knee.

Here's the battlegroup so far - Reaver, two Warhounds, and three Knights. Next up will be the two Warlords I've not yet assembled, as I'm waiting for the box of 100 5x1mm magnets to arrive!