Byron's 2nd and 3rd submissions to the Painting Challenge

Over the past couple of days I submitted two entries to the painting challenge.

The first was one of the projects that I have most been looking forward too this year, the creation of a Mechanicum army for Warhammer 30k.   I have looked at the Mechanicum force for years and loved the overall look of the robot portion of the army, but just hated other portions of it.  Enter the Legio Cybernetica list this past year, which is a Taghmata variant that focuses on robots!  Hurray!  I can make a list with just robots, sign me up!

I love the bonkers look of these walking death machines, and love the fluff even more.  You basically have the masters of technology sitting on Mars thinking that people are idiots and machines are great, so lets turn people into machines.  Sounds great to me, since as a techie I trust machines far more than I trust people!

This is the first batch of two Castellax Class Battle-Automata that I finished and they are wielding the evil looking Dark Fire Cannon.  I honestly have no idea WTF they do in the game, I just got them because I liked the look of them!  Once the force is done and they have to go on the table, I will have to look them up.

Overall I am just aiming for effect on these and not going to spent a ton of time on them.  I am aiming for game pieces not show pieces so a lot of the details are not getting painted, I am using a lot of shortcuts and quick steps on them, nothing special close up, but hopefully good looking on the game table.

I wanted the entire force to look the same, especially with the reds which I find very hard to get looking right, so I have airbrushed all of the models I have all at once, and will be working on the details of small batches of them over the course of the challenge.  

I airbrushed all the reds, then touched up the black areas, then painted the silver.

At this point I was almost done, but something just didn't look right.  There was too much silver and red and no contrast colours.  While I had not planned on any other colours, I felt it needed something so went back and added some quick energy blooms on the weapons in a blue to white fade to try and show high energy expenditure. Not sure if blue / white was the right colour choice or not, but it certainly stands out, which is what I was looking for.

Last up was the bases.  I had initially planned a red martian soil base, but thought it would just blend the model to the base rather than making it stand out.  I changed it last minute to a simple black / grey rubble base using cork, bits of sprue, guitar string, plasticard, and liquitex.


Next up was another brand new force...
Last year I decided that I wanted to do something for this challenge that would allow me to get a bunch of figures done fairly quickly and bring a new era to our wargame group.  The era I chose was one that has interested me for a long while, Ancient Greece.

To start the force I chose to pick up a few boxes of the Warlord Spartans and Greeks, as they are readily available and fairly inexpensive.  I have always liked Warlord plastics so had high expectations...

Well, those expectations meant nothing, as Warlord has 3 different boxes of ancient Greeks, all advertised as different things, yet all of them have the same contents other than a few small character sprues and decals.  Worse, the poses are not varied at all, and have no thrusting arms only throwing arms or at rest arms. The sprues used by Warlord are old Immortal figures sprues and are not even really 28mm they are more like 25mm figures.  I have since ordered a few boxes of Victrix Greeks as they have proper thrusting arms and more varied poses, and will mix them into other units and try to keep the same height by leaving the Warlord figures on their bases and removing the Victrix from theirs.  I would strong recommend against anyone getting any of the Warlord Greeks.

I plan on using the Hail Caesar rule set, and while it recommends 40mm x 40mm bases for 4 figures, I decided on using 40mm x 60mm to allow for some extra ground work in front of the figures for both looks and protection of the spears.

Since I plan of painting at least 10 units of these over time, I wanted to keep the paint jobs very simple and quick so that I can get them done in a reasonable time.  Therefore these were painted by simply blocking in the colours, washing and then highlighting.  Super simple and basic table top level, as I don't know that you actually see much more than the shield from the front or some bronze and cloth from the back.  I will however spend more time on the command stands for the game as you will be able to see the figures there.

This first unit is 16 Spartans, of which probably 1/4 - 1/2 of my final force will be made up of.  I also plan on making heavy use of units from Athens and Thebes.

Adeptus Mechanicus Kastelan Robot Maniple!

Way back in 2015, Games Workshop introduced the Adeptus Mechanicus faction for Warhammer 40K, and man was I stoked. In fact I was moved so far as to proclaim that GW had gotten its mojo back. Well, we've had our ups and downs since then but I still love me some AdMech.

And I've finally put my money where my mouth is! Here is a Kastelan Robot Maniple I finished just in time for the MMSS Show at Legions Maxximus.

As you can see, these aren't exactly the "stock" Robots from out of the GW box. Like many, I'm lukewarm on the "Robby" heads that the Kastelans come with, so I replaced them with these spiffy heads from Wargame Exclusive. In addition to these very cool bits, Warex also makes some amazing looking Inquisitor models, vehicles, and even "not-Tau" characters.  I think their heads suit the Robots perfectly.

Not to be left out, the Kastelan box comes with an Adeptus Mechanicus controller dude to control (?) the Robots. I've always been a bit intimidated by all the detail on these new AdMech character models but never fear, Leadbelcher and Nuln Oil cure all. Add in a skosh of Brass Scorpion/Balthasar Gold here and there and Robert's your mother's brother. Robes are painted with Mephiston Red, washed with N.O. and highlighted with Mephiston and Evil Sunz Orange.

The pistols on this model are notably cool sculpts.

The giants robos got a coat of Mephiston washed with good old N.O. with Mephiston over top again. Sponge weathering and some random Leadbelcher chipping finished them off.

During assembly one of the model's hip joints were cut up and reposed slightly as well, just for some variety.

I'm a big fan (and somewhat less skilled practitioner) of the Magnet Revolution - mainly because I'm cheap and I love having flexibility to use the same models in different ways. So for the Kastelans, I magnetised the hands and painted both sets for both models - so I can field blaster-bots, handy-bots, or a combination of both in the same Maniple.

Here's a family portrait of my Adeptus Mechanicus "army" so far. It will be added to - I have a bunch of unassembled models to build yet - but I think there's a sufficient number for a small multi-player Rogue Trader/Kill Team type game. I can hardly wait to get them out on the battlefield.

Onager Dunecrawler Rescue Project

One part of the hobby that I find enjoyable is what I like to call "rescue and rehab". This is where you find a model that's been neglected or abused, and by cleaning up, repairing, and repainting, return it to a state where it can proudly be deployed on the wargames table.

As I've been building a small Adeptus Mechanicus force (in fits and starts), I couldn't resist picking up an abused Skitarii Onager Dunecrawler for a deal... but as it turns out, not enough of one...

The model had been assembled and painted, thickly, in a bizarre colour scheme. The assembly wasn't great either, as the "turret" part had been glued straight down to the hull/legs, removing any poseability to the model. The Dunecrawler also only came with one weapon - the Neutron Cannon.

After getting the piece home, I started to make plans as to what parts I needed to order. I ended up getting an Eradicator main gun, Ad Mech gunner and cupola, comms array, and decal sheet from a trusty bits supplier on eBay. While waiting for the parts to arrive, I soaked the model in SuperClean to get most of the paint off, then carefully sliced off the turret and constructed a rotator assembly. I also cut off the manky cupola and replaced it with fresh bits, and added the Ad Mech pintle servitor. I carefully sliced apart the neutron cannon assembly and magnetized the main gun mount. Lastly, after adding the new parts, I textured the base and primed the model:  

After a lick of paint, here is what we have!

Done up in the traditional Martian colourway to match the Skitarii Rangers and Kastelan Robot maniple I've done already. The hull was painted Mephiston Red and washed with Nuln Oil, then punched up with Mephiston again.

Metalwork is Leadbelcher again washed with Nuln Oil. The gold bits are Brass Scorpion.

The undercarriage is painted Rakarth Flesh, and copious amounts of sponge weathering applied.

Some Leadbelcher applied as chips complete the weathering.

 Lenses are done with a straightforward jewel style. The "racing stripe" on the front hull was laid out with low-tack masking tape and painted in with Pallid Wych Flesh over Celestra Grey in a heavy stipple.

Here it is with the Neutron Cannon. Purposeful enough I guess but I prefer the Spaceman Spiff look of the Eradicator...

I'm really pleased with how the project turned out, even though it probably made little economic sense to do it the way I did. Between what I paid for the basket case model and what I spent on spare parts, I'm nearly up to what the model costs from a discount retailer. But these projects can be fun when you think of what it started as, and what you ended up with.

Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii Rangers and Magos Dominus

First of all, I can't believe it's been two years since the first onset of "Titan Madness" - the mysterious malady that struck me and Conscript Greg and compelled us to buy and paint two Armorcast Reaver Titans.

At the time, I had idly mused over picking up some of the new Cult Mechanicus models as an adjunct to the big Titan. "Not only should you do that, it would be irresponsible not to!" Greg helpfully remarked. So after two years, I've finally finished the Rangers, and a Forgeworld Magos Dominus (Tech-Priest proxy) to lead them to battle.

First, the Rangers. These are pretty cool models but there are definitely some tricks to keep in mind when painting them. For one, I would recommend following Duncan's (GW YouTube painting wizard) example and paint the inside of the cloaks before anything else. Otherwise you'll end up making a mess of the painted legs.

Although my Reaver Titan is painted in the colours of the Legio Metalica, I opted for the traditional Martian treatment on the Rangers. I think it's just my aversion to painting white, but I reckon the iconic Martian livery suits the models best. The red cloaks are painted Mephiston Red, washed with Nuln Oil (along with the rest of the model), re-highlighted with Mephiston then highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The metal bits were painted Leadbelcher, with the gold parts done with Brass Scorpion highlighted with Balthasar Gold.

One cool thing about the Rangers is that your squad of ten gets up to three special weapons - along with the Transuranic Arquebus (above) I built both other ones - Arc Rifle and Plasma Caliver.

Of course, the rest of the... lads(?) carry the standard Galvanic rifles.

Rather than spend $43 on a plastic Tech-Priest (!) I opted to spend about the same amount on a Magos Dominus from Forgeworld. The great thing about these Cult Mechanicus types is that their weaponry isn't really that recognizable, so pretty much anything can represent anything.

The Magos was pretty easy to assemble and a snap to paint. I used the same colours as the Rangers, except that I painted the "candy shell" a darker Khorne Red and weathered it a bit with the sponge.

 

I actually agonized somewhat over what size base to use. The model was supplied with a 40mm round but it seemed a tad weedy considering the size of the model. However the 60mm seemed excessive so I went with the 40.

Anyway he's done so I can get on with the next things - a Kastelan robot maniple and Onager Dunecrawler! I figure with that stuff done we can play some smaller Rogue Trader-type games. Looking forward to getting these on the table! 

Has Games Workshop Gotten Its Mojo Back?

We've done our share of ragging on Games Workshop over the years, and Emperor knows they've deserved it. From "new paint" debacle to retail fails (not to mention stratospheric price increases, insane managing directors and skull-itis), the so-called "Evil Empire" has come in for some stick on this blog.

But we've always been big fans of the grimdark future of Warhammer 40,000. However, despite the fact our group plays 40K regularly, I've not been excited enought about the new models to buy any but a very few at full retail (even my Imperial Knight was bought online at a discount). Make no mistake, I've spent lots on GW product - but pretty much all of it out-of-print metal models for my Blood Drinkers or OOP conversion fodder/Forge World stuff for my Chaos Renegades.

But all of that may be about to change. Because Adeptus Mechanicus.

Last Saturday's White Dwarf featuring the new Imperial Knight Warden (and a cool paint chart) had sold out by Sunday afternoon. This followed two weeks of Mechanicus spam - Skitarii Rangers and Ruststalkers one week, and Onager tank the next. I snapped up and devoured both these issues eagerly. With these releases, GW has recaptured (for me, anyway) the coolness and nihilism of the original Rogue Trader milieu. I love the look of the half-mechanical robed Skitarii and even their walker tank is growing on me (still not sure about the Ironstriders though). I even bought the Skitarii codex!!!

I bought this. At full retail price at a GW store. Fourth sign of the Apocalypse...

But then this week, they kicked it up another notch with the Kastelan robots. Now if there were ever a modern model influenced by Rogue Trader style it's this one...

Now this is what I'm talkin' about... see any skulls? Me neither!

Awesome innit???

Okay, maybe not quite as awesome but still quite cool...

I haven't felt this inspired by a Games Workshop new release since... the Imperial Knight in 2014? And before that, maybe... the new-look Land Raider perhaps? Forge World has been consistently knocking it out of the park for me with their Heresy stuff and before that, Chaos Renegades. But the Mothership has been pretty flat for me for a few years. Until now! I have to say that these new Adeptus Mechanicus releases have me pretty stoked. Full retail on the Kastelan maniple (two robots and Techpriest buddy/handler) is $83 CAD which... I don't find completely shocking/unreasonable. And these models will be eminently suitable for duty in the Heresy as well, which makes them an even better deal. As Greg said, now that we have the Reaver Titans, it would be irresponsible not to paint some Skitarii for ground support. Of course, the truly responsible thing to do would be to add a Robot Maniple and Onager tank, right?

And it seems that many of you agree. In our recent poll, just over a third of you (34%) said you were planning to buy some Skitarii models either for 40K or other gaming, another 53% said you liked the models but had no plans to buy, and only 12% indicated they disliked the models. At least as far as our readers go, GW's doing something right.

Poll Added!

Games Workshop has introduced a long-awaited faction into its grimdark 40K lineup - the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii. There's a basic infantry box (Vanguard/Rangers), an elite-type infantry box (Ruststalkers/Sicarian Infiltrators), a light walker (Ironstrider Ballistarius/Sydonian Dragoon) and even a walking tank (Dunestalker)!

We've added a poll (up there at top right of the page) to ask you what you think of the new Skitarii for 40K.

Do you like them, or not? Will you buy them to use for 40K games, or maybe even in another gaming system? We'd love to know!