Back from the wilds!

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen.
I return from the wilds.

By which I mean, I’ve spent three months moving into my new flat, enjoying christmas and then looking for the cable to plug my camera into my computer.

So I have a bunch of stuff to show off!

The New Flat

I have a new Games Room and hobby desk on which to play and work at home rather than relying on a 30 minute trek into town to do anything. It’s worked wonders on my hobby!

Once the table was set up, I immediately invited some friends to have a game with me, we wound up having a three-sided 3000 points apiece battle. Orks vs Chaos Marines vs 30k Mechanicum.
A grand success with chinese takeaway and beer! I was able to snap a fair few photos over that battle but very few were clear shots of the table without blur.. ah well.
Behold the battlefield!

Warlord Titan

I bought my Warlord Titan!
Previously I only had one gun and the head, the rest of the parts arrived shortly after christmas and I was delighted to be able to take some pictures…

“What have I gotten myself into?”

 

That’s a LOT of parts..

I’m going to get this thing framed…the reaver’s certificate too.

Since these pictures were taken, I’ve partially assembled the torso of the titan

To my minor annoyance, it turns out I hadn’t quite been thorough enough cleaning the parts, so I’ll be going back over these parts to make doubly sure.
That’s the trouble with such large components…
For the curious, the unpainted circle on the side of the chassis is where I had placed another model (with its round base) on the part during spraying.
That whole area is going to be under the shoulder anyway so I figured it didn’t much matter.

Amazingly, the carapace is actually large enough to drive a tank over…

 

In any case, now I’ve got my camera and photobooth set up again, I’ll be updating my blog a LOT more frequently. and with that, I’ll have a lot more impetus to work on the warlord. I’m thinking I’ll dedicate saturday entirely to it.
I won’t leave the house that day. Hoping to get a lot done!

Dark Mechanicum Acolytes

I had a LOT of fun with these, I’ve been slowly building a collection of Daemon Engines for most of the time I’ve had this blog, so long-time readers know exactly what I’m talking about…
I figured it was time I made some infantry to go with the monsters.
But not just any old cultists or marines would do, they’d have to be something dark, gribbly and John Blanchian.
So I turned to my bits box and some spare dark eldar parts…
I hope you’ll agree that the results speak for themselves!

I’m still painting the back three, but the two with their bases done are complete.

I’ve been working on tentative rules, but the basic idea is that these are a Retinue or can take the role of squad-leader for cultists and traitor-skitarii.
They’re highly upgradeable but basically not designed to stand alone. you -can- give them all plasma guns and field them as mobile special weapons teams, or attach them to the cultists as a major bonus to leadership and other bonuses depending on wargear.

Their secondary role is to be used alongside a Heretek Magos to beef out his power and provide a bodyguard.
To make them, I primarily used Dark Eldar Wracks and Skitarii Ruststalkers as parts-sources. some bits and bobs (mostly servo-skulls and the plasma gun) from other kits too.

Next up, the Magos. I’ve picked up the Everchosen Gaunt Summoner, I think I can get some interesting results by adding DEldar and Admech parts to him…

30k Mechanicum

Running alongside everything else, I went to the Horus Heresy Tournament in Nottingham a couple weeks ago. I had a fantastic time (even though I was the bottom of the league) and I’m definitely going again in june/july

However in preparation, I spent some time prepping my army, so now every single model is fully based and painted.
I built a Macrocarid Explorator using the Land Raider Proteus kit, since my existing Mechanicum Land Raider was no longer part of the army list. Happy to report that it was only destroyed once in the five games I played at the tournament.

I also built and painted a Knight Atrapos.

I’ll post pictures of both the Macrocarid and Atrapos in my next post (probably tomorrow evening)

General lessons learned in the tournament; Mechanicum are okay at melee, but benefit from using the right units for it.
I was fielding my Magos as a Malagra (melee assault specialist) with a unit of Ferrox type Thallaxii. The Rage special rule was meant to make them a lot more lethal, but in practice I never really got to take advantage of it properly.
I also learned that I really REALLY need more tech thralls and transports.
So at some stage I’ll be buying some Triaros transports.

My feeling is that the Ferrox was largely wasted, so I’ve purchased some Scyllax guardian automata to fill the role. uncertain how they’ll mesh with my army since I normally field my Magos with a jetpack. perhaps they’ll play nice with her if I remove the jetpack and replace it with something else…

Solar Auxilia

I actually got a game against the solar auxilia while I was at the tournament, my first proper encounter with them. My previous meetings were when they were attached as allies to a Sons of Horus army so I never really got a sense for what they were good at.

As I’m sure my dear readers are aware, I’m aiming to build a Solar Auxilia army and currently have a command squad/legate-commander, Storm Section and an Arvus Lighter built for them.
After the tournament was over, I bought Book 4 and a pack of Ogryn Charonites to really kick off my army.

I adore the charonite models. They go together with a nice snug fit on all parts and no messing around with bending anything, even those pipes are the right shape to fit as long as you use the correct numbered parts!
They’re also big, a Lot bigger than you might think.
Guard players may be mislead about their size by comparing them to 40k era ogryns.
These are not your regular ogryn in a space suit, they’ve been gene-bulked and given augmetic surgeries. they’re a LOT scarier. They are to 40k ogryns what 40k ogryns are to guardsmen.

I mean wow, they make regular ogryns look puny!

This Ogryn isn’t finished yet, still quite a bit to do on him, but you get the idea of how I’m painting them. The vibrant orange is very striking, I’m having a great time with this army so far!
Hoping when I get to the infantry tercios I won’t get so bogged down I lose the sense of fun with them.

Imperial Assassins

Some may recall my previous posts in which I showed off my Culexus and Callidus assassins?
Well, the new models showed up and I decided I liked the look of the eversor and vindicaire more than my own rough attempts. So I went ahead and bought them.

Nothing much to say, I’ve painted them with the same style as my previous models and I’m very pleased with the results.
Special mention goes to the vindicaire’s glowing eyes and blended camoleoline suit.

 

Anyway, that’s all for now. It’s been a busy couple months!

Somewhere in there I fitted moving house and christmas…

 

Warlord Titan: Part 2 – The Crew

Some may be aware that I’ve long owned the seperate titan princeps and moderatii box, as well as the Titan Tech Priest. they’re technically intended for the Reaver, but since moderatii are identical in both..I figured I’d paint them appropriately for the Warlord.
The Warlord’s head comes with an extra Princeps-Alpha for tabletop use, so I figured I’d make a Thing out of painting the entire crew.

Behold!

For the Princeps, I’ve added a Cognis-Signum badge to his base, GW went through a bout of providing them for free in every mail order when the Admech and skitarii came out, so I naturally have quite a few!
I’m still waiting on word about my new flat, so I’m unwilling to buy the rest of the titan until that’s all sorted in (hopefully) a few weeks. Plenty of time to handle my other projects!
To-Wit, my entire WIP-box, containing as it does four entire squads of various types of Admech and half a squad of Solar Auxilia…

Warlord Titan: Part 1

For those not aware, as soon as I saw the release announcement of the Warlord Titan some months ago I made the declaration on the spot, I must have it. Did some figuring, worked out that I could afford it and had the space/tools/willpower to complete it.
Some complication is to be had by the fact that I will be moving house over the next month or so, so rather than have the box sitting under my desk taunting me for the whole move, I decided to invest in just the Head of the titan to start. It should take me a week or so to get it done, from there I should be well settled into the routine of moving house.
I’ll order the rest of the titan when I have a workspace to build it again 🙂

My package arrived in the mail this morning!
I was kind of lucky to live in a house-share because I was fast asleep at the ridiculous hour of the morning they delivered it..
But in any case, I woke up, discovered the package waiting for me, unboxed, cleansed the parts and anointed them with the holy Abaddon Black Spray Paint…
Then I went out to Games Workshop and set to work.
While everyone else celebrated the official release of Age of Sigmar, I painted and painted and painted..
So far, so good!

The plan broadly is that the head will be orange and white as shown, and most of the armour plates will be blue.
At least a couple plates will be done in red and dedicated to the Mechanicum with cogs and cognis-mechanicum logos.
Armaments’wise I plan to have a volcano cannon, two apocalypse missile launchers and a Saturnine Lascutter to start, I may invest in other weapons depending on performance in battles.
For now though, just the head. On with the new adventures!

Warhammer World!

It’s been a pretty eventful week or two!

I and a friend travelled down to Nottingham to see Warhammer World for the first time.

I’m totally blown away by the experience, it was utterly fantastic.
We did everything but play a game while we were there, I’ve literally got the T-shirt (the burgundy Mechanicum logo one)
Brought back a bunch of “souvenirs” too.
Not started working on them yet but in the bags are:
A pack of Thallaxii with a Photon Thruster to round out my existing squads
A pack of Myrmidon Secutors to expand my existing squad
And a pack of a Solar Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section. I love the look of them and decided I really wanted a squad of them!

They’ll have to wait though, because I’m working my way through a pack of Vorax Battle Automata and Kataphron Destroyers.

I have one of each done!

Amazingly, I was able to paint the Kataphron in only 25 minutes! This bodes well for getting a whole unit of them together for my Cult Mechanicus forces…

I was also able to get around to painting my Hellbrute conversion shown in my last post.
Thoroughly pleased with the results

With all the stuff on my plate, you’d think that’d be enough, but after seeing the Warlords that they have at Warhammer World, I’ve also ordered the Head of one to start me off. it should be here Today! (omg, totally forgot it was coming in all the chaos. now I’m gonna have to reorganise my plans for the weekend again :P)
I’m expecting to get the keys to my new flat in the next week or two as well as the Manchester public transport being heavily disrupted for a few months. so my hobby may be likewise disrupted. I do my best work in the store where there’s fewer distractions…

Ah well. it should all work out.
But in any case, after I’m settled into my new place, I intend to order the rest of the Warlord, I’m hoping the specific weapons I want to fit it with will have been released by the time I’m ready for them, I’m planning on the Apocalypse Missiles (confirmed as the next release for it), a volcano cannon, and the Saturnine Claw. (A hellstorm template attack with a powerful melee that re-rolls armour penetration too! picture a blowtorch for a fist, the size of a tank.)

Kastelan Robots and Warlord Titan

I finished the paintjob on my first Kastelan today.
It still needs markings and insignia but the actual paintscheme is done.

For bonus points, on saturday I was able to finally get around to painting my Titan Princeps in honor of the announcement of the new Warlord Titans

Enjoy the pictures!

After a lot of hopping up and down in joy over the Warlord’s debut at Warhammer World this weekend (they had FOUR of them in the displays!) I’ve made the dubiously sane decision to buy one.

The price-point is estimated at £1200. easily twice as much as the Reaver. I’m hoping that includes the weapon systems, because Reaver weapons run at about £50 each and spending another £200 on top of the base cost would be pushing it.

I’ve already preordered Horus Heresy Book 5 (which contains the rule-set for the Warlord)

I estimate that constructing and painting the Warlord will take me about five months. maybe less if I’m really on the ball. I’m going to be taking everything I’ve learned building Meliora Bellator and applying it to this project.
We’re talking heavy use of pinning and bolts. countersinking magnets into the shoulders. stuff like that.
My reaver is adaptable, I can swap out any of the weapons, however the power fist is a chore to deal with, requiring power tools to remove it safely.

At any rate, spreading the £1200 price-tag over five months averages out at £8 a day. I think I get good value for money! And the biggest and baddest war machine anyone can bring to bear in Manchester’s gaming community, full stop. So there’s that too!

For bonus points, my house-mate has been infected by the same madness as me and has also pledged to buy a warlord. So we’ll be sharing resources and tools. as well as experiences in the process.

After news got around at my local store, I’ve already received a preemptive Challenge from store staff for a 10k point battle in which both warlords face down an entire armoured company of Guard.
I fancy my chances…

Reaver Titan – Complete

News from the Front: The Reaver Titan Meliora Bellator has been deployed to smite the enemies of mankind.
Tremble in fear at the Titan’s Mighty Tread™
Gasp in awe at the power of the Melta Cannon™
Feel the power of my huge resin Penis Extension™

*ahem*

Yes, the titan is done.
Four months (take out about a month because of the christmas holidays and that one week where nothing could happen because I was waiting on stuff)

about £700 in costs and a modicum of blood and sweat, no Tears, I did get frustrated at various points but nothing worthy of crying over.

This won’t quite be the end of this project, I’m planning to extend the armaments of the Titan to include some of the other Arm Weapons and possibly some Carapace weapon conversions.
The prospect of giving it an Inferno Cannon pleases me possibly a bit too much.

In any case, here are the photos I took at my local Games Workshop. Unfortunately no pics of the back, but there isn’t much I really care to show off about the rear end of a titan 😛

Titan Power Fist

I finally assembled and painted my Reaver’s Power Fist

I’d been putting it off with the vague plan to carve up the joints and build plasticard versions that I could make poseable.
The kit is poseable in whatever pose you like, however with the caveat that once you decide on one, you have to glue it in place.
As a test, I drilled out and pinned each of the thumb joints, that worked great, but the fingers have armour plates covering each knuckle which simply cannot be made flexible. the only way I could think to do it was to put a dollop of hotglue underneath each one and let it flex and bend that way…I wasn’t convinced it’d work or stay intact after lots of playing.

The second big problem was that all the major joints were basically a resin drum which butted up against a curved section of the next part. No-where to fit a pin for the joint.
To that end, I bought some sheet plasticard to cut up in several layers and build into actual working replacement joints.
Problem is a lack of appropriate tools to do that, I may yet in future though.

In the end, I gave up and went with Generic Pose #1, the slightly camp not quite hand-on-hips that the official FW photographs of it use.

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My Reaver is very nearly there.
Currently the To-Do list is as follows:

• Misc Detail pass over the main hull, there are some vents and such that need attention
• Drill Through feet to add Pegs to hold it to the base.
• Drill out shoulders so I can attach the arms by Bolts to the shoulders.
• Scenic basing on the Base.
• assemble legs, the ankles and hip joints need gluing at this point.
• Add the toe piston arrangements and ankle plates
• Assemble Waist section, not gluing the waist to the torso, it can sit stably on top of it anyway.
• Magnetise elbow area for weapon arm so it can swivel.
• Acquire and attach corrugated rubber hoses, the resin ones are awkward.
• Final Assembly and gluing of major components (particularly torso/head)

Estimated timescales…Most of the assembly and painting can be done in a couple days, the scenic basing will take a few days.
I hope to have it very nearly done before christmas.

Reaver Titan – progress 80%

Back in early september (around sept 10th) I took delivery of a Reaver Titan.

I’d always wanted one and after some consideration I decided that I didn’t want to start small with the Warhound. From what I’d seen, the Warhound is actually technically more complex to assemble and structurally weaker in the legs.

Nope, if I’m going to drop more than £100 on a titan it’s going to be the one I actually want. No point working up to it!

So I’ve been working on it on average 6 – 9 hours a week for the past two and a half months.

Here are the photos I took as I went.

So far, I’m at the stage now where I need to seriously decide what I’m doing for the basing.
My plan was to buy a wooden Trophy Plaque, but it’s so far proven quite hard to find a reasonably priced one big enough.
I’d rather not buy raw lumber and have to bevel the edges myself… Whatever I do needs to be durable enough to withstand the mass of the titan if it starts to keel over. I’m also going to go over it with poly-filler and suchlike to build up terrain, add some GW scenery materials too. I’ve bought a Manufactorum kit to help with that.

When the Basing is planned and viable, I can figure out the foot positions and start posing the legs to fit. I can’t do very much with the Pistons or the toes until the shins are at their permanent positions, so it all hinges on this.
I’m thinking a braced forwards stance, it’s walking and firing its weapon