Yet More AT18 - Acastus Knights

Acastus Knights for Adeptus Titanicus - kits from GW.

My late spring painting run Adeptus Titanicus continues! Once more, these are reinforcements for the Loyalist side of my collection, a pair "Acastus" Knights. They are multi-part plastic kits from GW, part of the model range for the game Adeptus Titanicus.

Rear view showing the armour plates on the back of the torso and legs.

The Acastus-type Knight is about as big as a Knight can be without being a small Titan. I painted two of these types of Knights for the Rebel forces in my collection last year, so these two will balance things out for the Loyalist side.

Energy weapons ready to blast enemies to particles.

I have yet to use this type of Knight in a game of Adeptus Titanicus, but it certainly seems like they will be hard-hitting elements. Their weapons can cause heavy damage to enemy Knights, and are a threat to Titans as well. 

There are some rocket launchers mounted on the top of the hull...you can model them closed up, but where is the fun in that? :)

Acastus Knights also seem like they can even take a bit of a beating, but are not as mobile (even if they are much more mobile than the huge Titans). Acastus commanders, like the pilots of the other Knights, will need to take care on the battlefields of Adeptus Titanicus.

These two Knights are painted in the red-and-black-gold colours I use for the loyalist Knights in my Adeptus Titanicus collection.

Ready to fight in the name of The Emperor. I'm sure Horus is laughing somewhere...

These kits are very, very nicely done by GW. Real beauties to work on, with tons of tiny details. As far as backstories go in GW's 30k/40k setting, I am indifferent to the stories of the Knights (the Titan Legions are SO much cooler), but there are also many hobbyists out there who enjoy all of the details of the Knights. If you are one of those folks, you will be blown away by these kits. The detail is insane - you even get a choice of different auxiliary weapons (either lascannons or autocannons). Wow. 

"Family photo" of my upgraded loyalists for Adeptus Titanicus.

With these two Knights now stepping into the line, the rebel and loyalist sides to my collection are balanced out, with the same amount of God Engines and Knights available to each side. I'm not sure why that should matter - we can't even get together to game anyway - but is it the sort of thing that lingers in my hobby brain. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this recent run of Adeptus Titanicus kit. I think some other GW subjects will soon. Thanks for reading - stay sane everyone.

More AT18 Reinforcements - Nemesis Warbringer Titan

More reinforcements for Legio Gyphonicus - a Nemesis Warbringer Titan.

Another God Machine has stepped off the painting tables here in Northern Ontario, ready to do battle in the world of GW's Adeptus Titanicus. This is a "Nemesis Warbringer" class Titan, a multi-part plastic kit from GW. This is another Titan for Legio Gyphonicus, the "War Griffons", a loyalist Titan Legio that fought on the side of The Emperor during the wars of the Horus Heresy. I am continuing my efforts to even out the Rebel and Loyalist sides of my Adeptus Titanicus collection - this new Titan will balance off the Warbringer I painted for Legio Mortis last year.

The new Warbringer, together with the Reaver Titan from my previous submission.

This Titan class is slightly larger than the Reaver Titans, but still smaller than the Warlord Titans. It is  covered in heavy weaponry, of course! You can see all sorts of big guns all over this thing. The arm weapons are the same as those available to the Reaver Titans - with the important exception that it cannot mount the "close combat" chain/fist weapons. The carapace, on the other hand, mounts a weapon that is on par with the heavy weaponry of the Warlord Titans.

Now THAT is a big gun!

A lot going on up there on top of this Titan...

There are even some anti-aircraft batteries up there...just in case!

It is clearly weapon mount on the top of the Titan that "makes" the model. This is a "quake cannon" - no need to get into the specifics here, but you can tell that it is a really big gun, and be assured it has really satisfying big-gun-type effects in the game. There is an option to mount a volcano cannon as well - which is another scary sort of big gun - but this option does not come with the kit (this option is, in fact, shortly to be available from Forge World...will be interesting to see if they actually provide you with all of the parts you would truly need to make the weapon interchangeable, but anyway...).

You can just make out the crew access hatch in this view...

This is a beautiful model kit from GW, but the assembly for this requires, IMO, more caution in terms of hobby pace than the other large Titan models I have built to date. Many of the components/armour plates overlap, but do not cover completely, the various sections where they are mounted. I get obsessive about these situations, and end up wanting to be sure everything is painted, even if there is only a 0.000005% anyone will see one of these mostly-covered areas. So there is a lot of painting sub-assemblies with this beast.

So much great detail on the armour plates...really great job by GW on these kits.

Lots of overlapping plate armour on the legs and torso.

So putting one of these together and painting it is a bit of a slow process, at least for me - I paint a lot of the components (like the armour plates) separately from the base structure, and then assemble afterwards. That takes more time, and is more fiddly for sure. But it is worth it in the end - I really like the model, and I'm glad to have one of these available for my loyalist forces. I have nearly balanced/evened up my Legio Gryphonicus forces, and the paint brushes are continuing on AT18 topics, so I look forward to sharing more soon.

Thanks for reading! Hope you are all well out there.  

New Reaver Titan for the War Griffons

Reaver Titan from Games Workshop - standing with some alternative weapon options. This is a plastic GW kit.

Hello again everyone. More Adeptus Titanicus production to share with you in this post. With that last batch of WW1 figures completed, my paint brushes have now been turned over fully toward Adeptus Titanicus and the towering war engines of the Mechanicum. It has been about a year since I last completed a round of reinforcements/expansion for my AT18 collection, and I felt it was about time for more. Since my last efforts were (mostly) focused on the rebels of Legio Mortis, I thought it would be best to balance things out, so we start with this new Reaver Titan for the loyalists of Legio Gryphonicus.

A closer view, showing the various energy weapons mounted on the Titan.

Progress was a little rusty at first on this machine, but I got back into the groove eventually, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

A closer view showing the "Volcano Cannon" on the left arm...a scary weapon, but one that tends to put pressure on the Titan's reactor.

This is the third Reaver I have painted for the loyalist side of my collection. The best part is that its weapon points are fully magnetized, so players can now choose from the steadily growing assortment of weapons that are available.

Another view, showing some alternate weapons - including a giant chainsword hand! Good times!

The Reaver is a great model and these kits really are excellent. As always, I find the feet of the Reaver Titans to be particularly tricky, but lucky for me I managed to get it right this time around.

Another weapon option - a large calibre, multi-barrel cannon - good times!

You can see some of the different weapon options available for this machine - picking a favourite weapon configuration is a great part of the game, and now players using this loyalist machine will have a choice of the weapons seen here, as well as some others painted previously. 

A "family photo" of my Loyalist Titan collection...Knights in the front, Warhounds behind them, then the Reaver Titans, including the newest one on the left, and finally the Warlord Titans at the back.

Adeptus Titanicus is a fantastic game, a great set of rules and models from GW. It has been fun to get back to this model range over the past couple of weeks, and I look forward to sharing more towering war machines from the grim and dark far future as they come off the hobby desk! Thanks for reading, and be well.   

More 12mm German WW1 Infantry

In this squinty photo are more 12mm early-WW1 German troops - nearly all from Kallistra.

Hi everyone. I have been slacking off when it comes to blogging, but I've still been painting. The more stressful things get, the more I try to paint. I mean, I love painting and I am always trying to paint, but sometimes I just need to paint more to stay sane. Suffice to say, recent conditions continue to encourage much painting...with this is mind, here are some more 12mm Germans for my early WW1 project. 

There is a bit of a twist compared to my previous posts on this subject - where my previous figures had been from Great Escape Games, nearly all of the figures you glimpse here are from Kallistra's 12mm WW1 range (the lone exception is the MG08 gunner - an extra I had found in one of my packs from Great Escape Games - always nice to get a surprise like that :) 

View of the infantry elements - the MG08 on the right is from great Escape Games - everything else is from Kallistra.

Most of the basing is consistent with the game "1914" from Great Escape Games, but there is one square base in the group - I intend to use this as a "Regimental Command" for games of "Great War Speahead". Overall, for "1914" there is a unit of infantry, a command base, and a regiment of cavalry, both mounted and dismounted.

The Kallistra sculpts are very nice, and there is a bit more variety of poses available.

The Kallistra castings are a little thinner than the ones from Great Escape Games, but also have a bit more variety of poses. The range is a more established one, and it just has some more variety to it.

German Dragoons - mounted.

The German cavalry is a good example. They could/would represent some German Dragoons - either mounted or dismounted - to give some variety to go with the Uhlans on the table. It's an example of how the Kallistra range is just a little more rounded out than Great Escape's (although, again, both are excellent - I recommend both). 

Side view of the Dragoons.

German Dragoons - dismounted. I might paint a base of horse-holders or something at some point...

It's been quite a dash to start this project. I have made good progress - the German side is certainly all set for a game of "1914". But I feel a bit of exhaustion when it comes to this project for now. You can see with few posts I have made prior to this one,  my painting interests are moving back toward other subjects for a time - likely more Adeptus Titanicus stuff, but probably some other 30k things as well. 

Thanks for reading - stay safe, and stay sane out there.

Kavalos Deathriders

 The final entry of Ossiarch Bonereapers for a while are the Kavalos Deathriders. They are the cavalry unit for the army and can be armed with either sword or spear. I went with sword because they offer rend which is a -1 to armor save. The mounts are bone constructs made from an assortment of animal remains. They also have the spirit skulls that make painting a bit of a challenge. This unit wasn't as bad with the skulls, but i still had to paint it in sub assemblies.  In game terms I don't think the cavalry are the most useful, but I had to include at least one unit.

Next I'm going to switch gears and work on some more Minotaurs space marines

Impact! Miniatures 28mm Hockey Players

Several years ago Pam got me a set of hockey players from Impact! Miniatures. I'd thought it would be fun to paint them to use in some kind of tabletop hockey game. Of course they sat in their box for... some time, until I recently decided to get cracking on them.

I should say that the sculpts definitely date the teams to a certain period in the history of the National Hockey League, mainly due to the style of the goalies' equipment. This type of gear was worn in the period between the late 1960s and about 1980 or so. The only anachronism with the equipment worn by the players, though, was that every Impact! skater was sculpted wearing a helmet, and helmets were definitely not in general use in the NHL during that period. Some players wore them, but they were definitely in a small minority. So in order to keep a consistent and historical look to the teams (which I had determined would represent the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs of the 1975-76 NHL season) I had to cut off most of the helmeted heads and replace them. For this I used the excellent bald head sculpts sold by Victoria Miniatures, on which I sculpted some 1970s hockey hairstyles and the odd moustache, using greenstuff. Above are the Canadiens - forwards Guy Lafleur, Pete Mahovlich, and Steve Shutt; defencemen Larry Robinson and Serge Savard; and goaltender Ken Dryden. You'll note that all of them shoot right-handed even though Mahovlich, Shutt, Robinson and Savard were all actually left-handed shots (like me). It would have been way too much work to fix this though. 

The "Big Bird", Larry Robinson

The "Flower", Guy Lafleur

Lafleur again

One of the reasons I picked the 1975-76 teams was that they didn't sport name bars on the backs of their sweaters (jerseys) yet. This was only mandated by the NHL starting in the 1977-78 season, which is a funny story... the owner of the Maple Leafs at the time, notorious cheapskate Harold Ballard, refused to put the players' names on the backs of their sweaters, reasoning that if he did so, no-one would buy the programs he sold at the games. The league threatened heavy fines for non-compliance, so Ballard gave in... printing the names on the backs of the Leafs' blue sweaters in blue, making them unreadable. The NHL clarified the rule to state that the names must appear in a contrasting colour and Ballard was forced to give in. 

And speaking of the Leafs... here they are: forwards Lanny McDonald, Darryl Sittler, and Dave "Tiger" Williams; defencemen Borje Salming and Ian Turnbull; and goalie Wayne Thomas.

Sittler, #27

I mentioned some slight anachronisms with the equipment but the real weird thing about the players is the way the forwards were holding their sticks. Normally you'd hold a hockey stick with one hand very close to the butt end and the other midway down. However the forwards were all "choked up" on their sticks, with their hands both close to the middle. I fixed this by cutting the end of the stick off and reattaching the taped up butt end right above their glove. This makes the sticks a bit shorter but it's certainly better than leaving them as sculpted - they just looked wrong. Fortunately the defencemen and goalie are good as-is.

Wayne Thomas

Lanny McDonald, #7

Montreal goalie, author, and sometime politician Ken Dryden

Some game action

So the next order of business is to find some rules and build a rink. There's a set out called "Trick Shot" as well as a variant of Blood Bowl called "Cross Check". Trick Shot originated in a Kickstarter but the rules can be downloaded for free. It seems straightforward but of course, uses special dice... not a dealbreaker but inconvenient. In any case the first thing will be to convince Conscript Byron to design me a rink... we'll see where it goes from there. And I have also resolved to get some new brushes, as the line work on these models is atrocious. I know a poor workman blames his tools but my detail work has been subpar for awhile now and it's time I did something about that. Maybe some Kolinsky Sables will help.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the post as something different, and please stay safe. 

Otherworld Miniatures Cockatrice

One of my favourite miniatures manufacturers nowadays is the UK's Otherworld Miniatures. Their stock in trade is great 28mm fantasy models with a definite old-school feel. These models are perfect for Otherworld's own fantasy ruleset, as well as other sets like the new Thud & Blunder rules. 

In fact, Thud & Blunder was the inspiration for this model - there's a scenario included in the rules called "Catch the Cockatrice" that features a cockatrice as the objective being fought over by the combatants. This was enough for me to order up a cockatrice from Otherworld.

The cockatrice is a pretty cool little model - cast in metal and multi-piece. I didn't pin any of the parts but rather sculpted some additional feathers around the bases of the wings to add some extra strength.

Just a great looking miniature... can't wait to get it out on the table in a game. Maybe someday...