New Knight & Reaver Weapon for AT18

Some AT18 painting - another Cerastus Knight Lancer and a new carapace weapon for a Reaver Titan.

In my last post about painting, I mentioned I was staying in 10mm, and I sort of consider the new Adeptus Titanicus model range from GW to be 10mm-ish...at any rate, after finishing those few small Prussians, my brushes have returned to Adeptus Titanicus subjects for the past couple of weeks.  Here is a Cerastus Knight and a Warp Missile Rack for the carapace mount of a Reaver Titan.

Cerastus Knight
The Cerastus Knight is one of the newer models GW have released for their Adeptus Titanicus re-boot ("AT18").  When it comes to the "fluff" of the story, the Knights are not of great interest to me, but the models are really lovely and the Knights can play an important role in the game.  This specific Knight will join two I painted earlier this year to form a full-strength banner of Cerastus Lancers.

This may shock you...

Each Cerastus Knight seen here carriers a shock lance and an "Ion Gauntlet" (a power fist for Knights, essentially).  They are intended for close combat on the AT18 table.  They are able to move fast and if they survive to get close to their opposition, the shock lances could deliver a nasty surprise to even the mighty Warlord Titans.  They will also do well putting a beating on banners of opposing Questoris Knights.

I can't say enough about the excellent decal sheets GW has released for AT18. They are very nice, and really help finish a model, especially the Knights, which are often sporting heraldry of their various "houses".

There are other weapons available, in theory, for the Cerastus Knight chassis, but for now the shock lance and ion gauntlet are the only models out there. I assume the flame cannon and bolt cannon variants will arrive as either separate model sets, or as upgrades from Forge World.

The Ion Shield, which is capable of delivering a short-range "shock blast".

The shock lance...another short-range weapon, but can be very deadly on the table if the Knight is in the right position...

My loyalists now have the support of two different Knight banners - these fellows, and a full strength banner of six Questoris Knights.

Warp Missile Rack
GW's support for AT18 has been hit-and-miss, but they are gradually releasing a greater variety of weapons for the Titans in the game.  Selecting different weapons load-outs for your Titans was always a fun aspect of the original Adeptus Titanicus game - and while the new Reaver kits at least have a touch of variety in their weapon loadouts, Forge World has augmented the choice out there (for a price, of course) by releasing Warp Missile Racks designed to fit the carapace weapon mount on Reaver Titans.

A one-shot deal, mounted in the carapace mount of a Legio Gryphonicus Reaver Titan.

The Warp Missile is a fun, whacky, weapon.  Basically the missile flies at the enemy Titan, goes briefly into the warp in order to avoid any void shields, then returns from the warp just in time to hit the target Titan.  In essence, this weapon gives you a chance to land a critical hit on an enemy God-engine even while your target's void shields are in rude health. Yikes! This weapon has a lot of disruptive potential - I look forward to seeing the players try it out on the table!

Another view of the Warp Missile Rack.  The missile itself can be removed to show it has been fired (and presumably has caused trouble for the Warmaster's minions...).

While I am not hobby-savvy enough to figure out how to magnetize the arm weapons on my Reaver Titans, it is very easy to magnetize the carapace weapons, and so it is easy to swap out the Apocalypse Launcher and/or Laser Blaster to mount this thing on top.

Reaver Titan and Cerastus Lancer banner - you can see the Cerastus Knights are pretty tall for Knights (it's all relative in the grim darkness of the far future).

There is a nice variety of weapons available out there now for your Titans.  They are not cheap to acquire, and GW has managed to package this in a fashion that brings to mind the ridiculous process TV signal-sellers use to flogging channel packages, but they are out there now, and even seem to be in supply.  As I said above, choosing weapon loadouts is, for me, part of the fun, so I hope to share some more progress on different weapons for my Titans soon.  And, of course, more Titans at some point...

Thanks for visiting!

30k Battle Report - No Hope For The Hydra

"Alpha to omega!" A Preator from the Alpha Legion (name redacted) leads his detachment into action against the loyalists of the VII Legion during 30k gaming last week.

Conscript Mike F stopped by last week for a 30k game, and here are a few pictures to share from the battle. Both of us enjoy the Black Library novel "Praetorian of Dorn" (it's a great book, go read it!). While the specific battles from that book are not something I can re-create at this point, we still thought it would be fun to pit the opponents from the story against each other. So some of my Alpha Legion forces would battle against his Imperial Fists.  We set up a small game, using the fan-built 8th edition of 30k.  The "Power Level" for both sides was 70.

A view of the deployed forces on the first turn...

The table was 6' x 4', an arid setting (maybe some isolated part of Terra?) with a communication-relay set amid some ruins.  The key was to secure this communications relay objective.  You could do this by moving into contact with it. But there was another way to win: wiping out the opposing detachment! It's 30k, after all...besides, the Alpha Legion wouldn't want any witnesses.

Deredeo class dreadnought covers the approach of the XX Legion.

The carnage arrived rapidly.  The sons of Alpharius made short work nearly all the members of Mike's tactical squad.  The firepower from my Deredeo Dreadnought was impressive, and things seemed to be going well! But that would not last...

Alpha Legion seeker squad - "Headhunters" - move out.

Wait a minute - who invited these guys??? The elite of the VII Legion teleport to the battlefield...

And then...the Imperial Fist terminators arrived on the scene.  I hoped my Praetor, together with some Lernean Terminators and the squad of 10 Headhunters would be able to cut them down to size...it was not to be.

Where did the seeker squad go?? Eliminated by VII Legion Terminators...

Alpha Legion Preator confronts the Imperial Fist elite...

It's all-in with the Terminators...if we don't stop these guys, we don't stand a chance...

The VII Legion Terminators first BBQ'd my Headhunters.  The Alpha Legion Preator charged in, but could not bring down his opponent.  The assistance of the Apothecary kept the Alpha Legion commander around a bit longer, but you can only get whacked by a chain fist so many times and still expect to be around...and so the Alpha Legion Preator fell in action.

The Apothecary could only do so much...

Meanwhile, my Alpha Legion tactical squad, after losing their Rhino, found themselves facing both a Leviathan Dreadnought and a Contemptor Dreadnought.  The covering fire from the Deredeo Dreadnought was insufficient, and they were soon wiped out.

"Hey, we're moving in on the objective, great news!"

"Oh no! Two huge dreadnoughts! Hope we can hold out!"

Suddenly there is only one survivor in the Alpha Legin tactical squad...

Overall, a loss for the Alpha Legion. Or was it? Surely this was all part of some greater scheme...

The covering fire had no effect...

Mike's collection of Imperial fists looks amazing! He does a great job with the yellow (always a tricky colour) and it continues to expand bit by bit.  This was the first time I came up against a Leviathan Dreadnought, and it was...pretty unpleasant! Melta-bombs were not going to stop that thing...I love the 30k setting, and 30k gaming. While a bit more luck on the dice would always be preferred, this was a fun game - many thanks to Mike F for visiting and bringing his fantastic VII Legion forces out for a spin!

Hope everyone out there has enjoyed the final days of summer. The fall has now arrived - and the countdown is on toward another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

Resinlab Models "Iron Warrior" Knight Titan

Some months back, a local gamer mentioned in a Facebook group that he had a garage kit Knight Titan for sale - not an Armorcast Reaver, but a model that some Italian Spaniard had sculpted and produced in a limited run. This kind of thing is right up my street so a deal was quickly made.

It turns out the kit was the Iron Warrior from Resinlab Models. Produced in a limited run of 150 kits (60 of the "original" IW followed up by 90 "IW MkIIs"), the model springs from the talented sculpting hand of Enrique, principal of Resinlab Models.

I built up the kit with a few conversions, including the GW stubber added here. I also drilled and added a magnet on top of the carapace to mount a missile rack, not shown. I've built one from the GW Imperial Knight to use.

The model represents the Knight "Nero" of House Caesarean, an Imperial Knight house associated with Legio Krytos of the Collegia Titanica. According to lore, both Krytos and Caesarean engines supported the Iron Warriors Space Marine Legion in the battle of Tallarn in the Horus Heresy.

There aren't any 28mm scale Caesarean decals available yet so the tactical markings were painted by hand. I used some IW decals from the Forge World decal sheet.

House Caesarean's colours are yellow and black of course, so I painted the Knight in much the same palette as my IV Legion Iron Warriors Space Marines.

I really like the helmet of the Knight - apparently the Mk I model was sculpted without the laurel wreath.

 

Decals from the IW decal sheet and Imperial Knight sheet were used on the paldron.

Wouldn't be a Knight without a big f*ck-off chain weapon, would it??

Knight world origin marking on rear of the chassis was poached from the Imperial Knight sheet as well.
 

Bitty li'l skull in the groundwork.

I assembled the model with a central pin, so the torso can rotate, or be removed altogether for transport or storage.

Some comparison photos... here's the Resinlab model with the GW Imperial Knight. I really like the Resinlab model's inspiration being drawn from the original Adeptus Titanicus knights of yore.

Size comparison with some other Iron Warriors models it's likely to be supporting in battle: Contemptor Dreadnought, Lochagos/Praetor, Deimos Rhino.

I enjoyed building and painting this model - it's cool to be able to work on something a bit different and rare. I'm sure it'll get blown up quickly in the first game in which it's deployed, but it'll be cool to get it out on table. And needless to say, it's a good feeling to complete a project that's been in the works for some time.

A Few More 10mm Prussians

10mm Prussian infantry for the Franco-Prussian War.  Castings and flag from Pendraken.

Well, the summer is almost finished - although we're getting some AMAZING late summer weather, yay! The work pace usually picks up here after Labour Day, and this year has been no exception.  While work has been busier, the painting pace has slowed, and this month I have been trying to knock off a couple of "pending" items that have been sitting around primed since the spring.  Up first were some 10mm Prussian infantry for the Franco-Prussian War.  These sculpts are from Pendraken.

These fellows are wearing their long coats, so not quite as colourful.

These are part of an slow-but-still-moving-forward effort to run some games using Bruce Weigle's "1871" fast-play grand tactical rules. In this case, each base here would represent a battalion of infantry, and so together the three bases would represent a Prussian infantry regiment.  "1871" can be scaled up or down too, so different permutations are possible - and of course relatively scale/basing agnostic rules systems such as "Black Powder" will work for these figures as well, but for now the goal with these is to play an "1871" game in its basic scale using 10mm figures.

Nice sculpts for 10mm - Pendraken are top-shelf!

I continue to be blown away by how much fun 10mm sized figures are, as well as by the sculpting and casting quality I see in the figures from Pendraken.  They are excellent, a lot of fun to work with and paint.

Ready to advance!

Of course, when looking to play "grand tactical", you are looking towards some larger engagements, and the Franco-Prussian War, even in the relatively short "Imperial Phase", had some very large battles, so this is still pretty slow going - particularly when you add in a lack of focus on my part! But I'm taking a patient approach with this effort...a few bases here and there between 30k things or who-knows-what-else...we'll get to try "1871" eventually :)

Thanks for visiting, I hope you are enjoying the last few days of the summer too!

Up next, more 10mm...but a rather different setting...

30K Iron Hands - Deredeo Dreadnought

Bonkers firepower to support the Loyalists of the 10th Legion!

My summer of 30k painting wrapped up over the Labour Day long weekend - the traditional "end" to summer here in Canada.  I finished - or, mostly finished - one last 30k project at my cabin during the weekend.  This is a Deredeo Class Dreadnought for my growing loyalist forces of the 10th Legion, the "Iron Hands".

A Dreadnought is "crewed" by a Space Marine, one that has already received near-mortal injuries in battle.  The Apothecaries round these poor fellows up, and then assuming they are still alive at a basic level, embed them in Dreadnought armour.  In this way, the direly wounded/nearly dead Marines can continue to serve the Emperor!

Insane auto-cannon array, pumping out tremendous firepower.

Certainly, in the wake of the events in the Istvaan system, the Iron Hands would have no shortage of nearly-dead Marine candidates in which to install into any available Dreadnoughts...

Large ammo cannisters on the rear...just imagine the brass piling up when this thing opens fire!

The Deredeo Class of Dreadnought armour is, as you can readily see, clearly bonkers, armed to the teeth.  Where the Contemptor Dreadnoughts have more of an "all-round" application on the battlefields of the grim future, the Deredeo is there basically to just shoot stuff, and keep shooting until the enemy is gone. Fun!  The autocannons and missiles will put out serious abuse - and if that is not enough, two heavy flamers are recessed in the front of the hull, to blowtorch/purify whatever might still be standing.  It's all very over-the-top, very 30k, and I love it.

Missiles available too, just for fun!

This particular model was acquired from a local hobbyist in Winnipeg who had built and primed it, but decided not to proceed with their 30k project after all.  I was pleased to get it, and glad to add to my growing force of loyalists.  This will be a serious boost in firepower as they seek revenge for their fallen comrades and Primarch.

Looking for some revenge...certainly equipped for the job, 30k-style.

As with many of the models painted at the cabin, this isn't yet completely finished - you can see gloss patches beneath the decals, applied to deal with silvering from the decals.  Those gloss spots will disappear after I apply a layer of Testors Dullcote after I get back home, safe from the high humidity.

Thanks for visiting - I hope everyone has been able to enjoy their Labour Day weekend and their summer!