Updates! Metalica Walks, Knights of the Black Moon, March of the Fire Masters

It's been a few months, I started a new job in April and things have been hectic ever since! But, the forges have not been silent! In fact I've had a bit of an upsurge in productivity, I think the dissipation of the cloud of depression which was hanging over me at my old job has been largely to thank for that but whatever it is I'm happy to be getting back into my various projects (and starting a few new ones).

Legio Metalica

Last we left of  Mors Incarnadine was complete and the Reavers were on the bench, well, I now have a complete Axiom Maniple and and additional Warlord!

From left to right: Victorious Endeavor, Borophagus, Mors Incarnadine, Aelurodon and Hastati Lux

And the extra Warlord?

Metalica Primis

Metalica Primis was my first attempt at freehand on the titans since I can't see GW/FW giving us Metalica transfers and time in the next decade given were almost 12 months into AT's release and we still don't even have full loadouts for Reavers or Warlords!

I've since applied weathering powders to Metalica Primis and my next job is get the freehand symbols and transfers on the other Metalica engines.

I got a few lightbox shots of the first Maniple (apart from Hastati Lux for some reason) a while ago, I've also since drilled the barrels! Once the Freehand, decals & weathering are done I will go back and get shots of all the Metalica engines.

Knights of the Black Moon

Once the Metalica engines were finished my next job was knights.  I've always liked the Knights, even the gangly classic knights from AT's first incarnation (I even have some, knocking about somewhere).  So I wanted a knight household to support my engines, enter House Hyperion!

I don't know what it was about Hyperion but when the 40k scale Knight was released however long ago that was I settled on Hyperion then.

I feel like I could do a better job on the crescent moons but for now they will do.  I wanted the Lancer's shields to have an energy bubble look to them so the shields are backed with clear blue plastic with Woodland Scenics water effect stippled onto them followed by a was of Druchii Violet. I'm happy with the effect and will be rounding them out to two full lances.

They've also got some reinforcements on the way in the form of a pair of Knight Porphyrions.  

There will be more knights joining them soon enough, once I find both time and funds between all my other projects...

 Legio Surturvora

Enter the Fire Masters, infamous world burners and turncoats!  A few of my friends are into the idea of AT but not the buy in cost which, I will admit, is a hard pill to swallow, so I had already resolved myself to the idea I was doing two legios (which has now upped to four in my mind, but thats a story for another day).  A stroke of luck however picked me up the battleforce (1 Warlord, 1 Reaver, 2 Warhounds) for £65 on ebay! 4 titans for the price of a Warlord, I couldn't pass it up.

And now they're mostly finished!  I've got the bases to finish off then its decals and weathering to finish them.

Unsure where to go with names, I started googling some of the distinctly not latin names of known Surturvora titans, namely Denala, Ashima and Su-benoth, this led me to Babylonian & Mesopotamian mythology, which gave me a nice starting point. armed with that my times are.

Ig-alima

Ignis Natus

Lulal

Inanna

The flames were a bit daunting at first.  Luckily the sets come with enough extra panels for practice purposes! 

Other bits and bobs

So I keep getting side tracked with other projects as well, like these

I loved BFG back when it was released. and since I was doing my 30k army two scales already I figured why not move to a third one... so here we have the VIII Legion Battleship Void Wraith, the IX Legion Battleship Regalia and its, as yet unamed, escorts and the Mechanicum Ark Eternal Equation.  They're not finished yet but jsut need a bit more detail work.  Interestingly, two of the battleships are recasts but you would never know now there's paint on them.

And my other project on the bench?  He knows nothing...

I couldn't pass up chibi none copyright infringing Jon Snow, renamed to Black Snow from Ninja Division (Soda Pop Miniatures as was). but what is the Bastard of Winterfell without the goodest boy!

So taking one of my leftover wolves from the Impact Miniatures kickstarter he now has his own non copyright infringing Ghost, which I have named Spook.

I plan to try and keep this updated a bit more regularly so, until next time...

The British...I mean, Praetorians are coming!

A few posts back I showed a WIP Praetorian guard for 40k, well, I decided to go one step further and add the 208th Praetorian Infantry to my burgeoning Epic armies!

I've not quite got my head round photographing 6mm infantry, maybe I need to switch back to my actual camera and its macro settings as opposed to my (admittedly decent) phone camera.

These are the first 4 bases of what will be an 8 base Infantry Company, the models are from Baccus 6mm and aren't actually Imperial Guard, they are actually 6mm British Colonial troops with their long rifles cut down to more closely resemble lasguns.  They haven't got an extensive range of different troops so I think some creative greenstuffing will be in order to make Grenadiers/Stormtroopers.  I also managed to snag some Stormblades off eBay so the Praetorian's have the first of their armoured support.

208th Praetorian Infantry

Hailing from the Hive World of Praetoria the 208th were latecomers to the 73rd Expedition fleet, having been raised following the compliance of Dreska. The 73rd had lost almost the entirety of the 16th Michorian Samites during the compliance of the renegade humans and subsequent running space battles with nearby Orkoid forces which had been drawn towards the growing conflict.

The Praetorians were considered 'green' troops upon joining the expedition, have been recent formed and, as such, untested in the field.  Despite their untested status the Praetorians proved effective in the field, being deployed first against the Eldar during the purge of Jorn III alongside fellow Milita regiments of the 603rd Mødherne Brotherhood and the 9th Sumian Mamelukes and then again working directly alongside Legion elements of the IX and XII Legions during the Neverlight Compliance.

Being a recently founded company the 208th joined the expedition fleet with their full compliment of armoured fighting vehicles.  Standard battle tanks, such as the Leman Russ were in abundance as well as larger super heavy tanks such as the Stormblade.  

A relatively recent addition to the Armouries of the Imperial Militia the Stormblade was a tank of known provenance, having served for the early decades of the Great Crusade in the armouries of the Legiones Astartes.  However, with the discovery of STC data allowing for the creation of the Fellblade, Glaive and Falchion super heavy tanks the Stormblade found itself increasingly sidelined in favour of the more advanced tank designs.

As the crusade wore on these mothballed units found themselves being recommissioned into the rapidly expanding regiments of the Imperialis Mitia, or Imperial Army. Finding a new purpose amongst the human soldiery the Stormblade ground its way across the battlefields of the galaxy unleashing the fury of its Plasma Blastgun upon the enemies of humanity once more.

Legion Armour

As tanks such as the Stormblade fell out of favour with the Legions armoured behemoths such as the Legion Glaive were gaining a reputation as main line tanks within the Legions. Detachments such as the above, attached the the VI Grand Battalion, III Tagma of the IV Legion could be found on myriads of battlefields across the galaxy.  

Primarily deployed against infantry heavy positions the Glaive's Volkite Carronade was capable of reducing massed infantry to smoking ruin in moments and was even effective against light vehicles. The 73rd had an expansive armoury of Volkite weaponry going into the Neverlight compliance and then into the Mycenae campaign, effective as they were against the massed infantry assaults and ramshackle vehicles  

When they came under attack from, what the considered, renegade elements of the XII and XVII Legions they were forced to turn the deadly Volkite weapons on their erstwhile brethren.  The Carronades of the Glaive's proved particularly useful at scything through the packed ranks of degenerate cultists thrown before any assault by the Word Bearers.

Land Raiders and Rhinos were commonplace on the battlefields of the Great Crusade, so much so that their use extended beyond the Legions to the Imperial Army, or at least, those regiments capable of manufacturing their own.

 WIP Stuff

I've got quite a bit on the painting bench at the moment, including a pair of Mastodons, a Trio of Fellblades and a squadron of Leman Russ tanks.  But here's some shots of the next 4 bases of the Praetorians, a tiny Primarch and my first test paint for some Metalica Secutarii Titan guard.

Thats my weekend sorted!

Until Next Time

  

Legio Metalica Walks!

At last! An update with actual models, its been a weird few months and I have been in a bit of a lull.

However, the siren call of the new Adeptus Titanicus proved too strong for my, admittedly poor, impulse control.  And as such, here strides forth [I]Mors Incarnadine[/i] the first of my Legio Metalica engines.

I was a little slow off the mark (and also, too poor) to pick up the Grand Master Edition so I settled for the Warlord Bundle with the titan plus rules. I will say I really like the ruleset, which I know, everybody is saying the same thing. The rules are complex enough that the first time you play you'll find yourself keep going back to the rulebook to check stuff but once you get the majority of the basics set in your head there is a lot of tactical depth.  I wont go too much into detail in this post but I will do a full battle report once the Warhounds are out and we can run full maniples.

Mors Incarnadine and the war on Mycenae

Tasked as they were with the eradication of an Ork Waaagh! splinter which had found itself in the resource rich but otherwise unremarkable Mycenae system the 73rd Expedition fleet petitioned Legio Metalica for aid, given their long history of war against the Greenskins around Charadon it was the logical choice. The lords of Metalica agreed and a Demi Legio of 35 God Engines accompanied the 73rd Expedition to Mycenae.

In the shadow of the great war machine a stranded member of the IV Legion fends off the traitors.

The engine designated Mors Incarnadine acquitted itself well in the following four years of war, scoring a total of 8 confirmed Engine Kills on Gargant class Orkiod constructs, but it wasn't until the aftermath of the War that the engine proved its true worth.  Caught on the fringes of Lorgar's Ruinstorm the 73rd found itself isolated and ignorant of events taking place in the galaxy at large.

When a fleet of ships belonging to the XII and XVII Legions broke through the storms the 73rd at first thought reinforcements had arrived.  It quickly became clear that was not the case when the XVII Cruiser Epistle of Fire launched a devastating torpedo salvo detonating the plasma reactor of the Solar Auxillia Bulk Carrier Flame of Jupiter crippling the IV legion Cruiser Thunderhead.

The fleet of the 73rd scattered from the oncoming ships, attempting to extricate themselves from the incoming lance and macrocannon salvos.  While the orbital forces retreated in good order, suffering no further casualties, it allowed a window for the enemy to launch transports and landers onto the planets surface.

One of the most hotly contested zones in the first assault wave were the landing fields on the great crystal plane.  One of the few area in Mycanea's vast deserts open and stable enough to facilitate the landing of Titan and Ordinatus assets.  

When the enemy forces began to land, having received news of the attack from orbit Mors Incarnadine along with its Reaver Class escorts Hastati Lux and Pyroclastia held the landing field, along with support elements from the 208th Praetorian Infantry and a garrison force from the IX Legion, for 7 hours of bitter fighting, buying the defenders in other locations time to prepare their defences.  When it became clear they could not stop the flow of enemy landers the trio of titans were the last defenders to pull back from the landing fields.  Although Pyroclastia suffered catastrophic damage its weapon systems which would see it sidelined from the fighting until the very last days of the war, to have held their ground as long as they did was a truly magnificent feat.

So I still have a little more work to do on the titan, it needs decals and markings etc, though I'm not certain whether to get decals printed from the BOLS Metalica Transfer Sheet or to do a bit of a redesign on the, admittedly dated, Legio icon. We shall see.

Now, something I've been toying with the idea of for a while,  This guy is just the first test paint for the regiment (because why do one militia list when you can do more), but here is the first soldier of the 208th Praetorian Infantry.  The pants came out a bit on the shiny side which was odd but a blast of matt varnish once I've finished the rest of the squad will sort that out.  

Continuing the Brotherhood and Weekender thoughts

It’s been a sparse hobby week this week, then a busy weekend of craft fairs and zoo visits hasn’t lent a lot of time to doing hobby things.

 

I did, however, get the remaining 15 Squats for the Infantry Platoon built and primed.

 

Not very impressive I know but proof I did something!

 

 I did start painting them but the progress isn’t really worth showing yet.  I decided in the end to prep them all and get them painted without their pistols and then I can paint and add the guns on as and when I can get hold of them.

 

I haven’t been entirely idle though and I thought I’d show a bit of what I’m working on behind the scenes for these guys:

 

I’m working on a background book/pdf.  I’ve been furiously squirrelling away all the information I can find on the Squats background and I’m in the process of trying to bring their fluff up to date.  When I started this I hadn’t realised how difficult that was going to be, it’s a lot harder rewriting/adapting someone else’s work than it is to write your own and that surprised me.  All the units are going to fit in to the Militia list with the exception of the last few:

 

Anything with [] around them I haven't decided on names for.

I’m going to attempt to create apocalypse data sheets for the Colossus, Cyclops, Leviathan and Land Train.  I’ve seen a few that people have made for the Leviathan and one for the Colossus, but they are definitely made with the Imperial Guard in mind and I what a definite Squat feel to these.  I am considering dropping the Land Train from the list though, I don’t know, I’m struggling with it a bit.

 

Moving on though, I’m excited!  It was the Horus Heresy & Necromunda Weekender this weekend, and although I couldn’t be there myself I have been living vicariously through some of the other blogs that did have people in attendance, mostly Recalcitrant Daze and Battle Bunnies (both excellent blogs that you should check out) who I have totally stolen these pics from.

 

There has been some awesome stuff previewed and available at the event and a few things in particular that have caught my eye.

 

First, and most obviously, the Squat Bounty Hunter for Necromunda, GW gave a sneak peak of this on Friday(as well as showing they are aware that people want plastic SOB and Thunderhawks) but people got to see the mini in the flesh… err, resin, at the show. 

 

I don't remember the old Squats having quite so big bears though?  Meh, I still love it!

I have to say it looks amazing, I fully intend to pick one up, he’s probably not going to fit in aesthetically with my army but I certainly want to just paint him up.  He definitely has the retro squat look going on.  Who knows though, I’ve heard the reaction to him has been overwhelming on social media so maybe GW will take the hint and we’ll get a new faction.

 

One of the other things that really made me go ooooh, was the Termite.

 

I’m not sure what the rules are going to be for this, I’ve seen conflicting reports going from it being Legion only to it being available for all forces and everywhere in between.  If it is legion only though, perhaps Forgeworld would be kind enough to FAQ Survivors of the Dark Age to allow its use alongside Rhinos and Land Raiders?

 

Please?

 

The Aurox is an interesting little kit,  I’ve seen people describing it as a prototype Chimera for the Solar Auxila and Militia but I’m not sure,  I get more of a Dracosan vibe from it. 

 

Perhaps the idea is it’s the step between a Dracosan and a Chimera?  I don’t know, I like it though, and if it is available for Militia it fills the much needed transport gap between a 40 man Gorgon and 12 man Arvus, I like the idea of the Arvus but it’s got paper armour and rubbish guns so if you put your command section in there it’s going to get blown out of the sky!

 

The Final interesting thing is the Ordinatus Mole.

 

With it being an Ordinatus I suspect it will only be available to the Mechanicum, which makes me sad.  I’ll still get one even if I can’t use it!  (with me squats anyway, my Taghmata force might get some use out of it though). 

 

Hopefully I’ll get these last 15 Brotherhood Warriors painted this week and I can actually post a meaningful update!

Until next time!

Brotherhood update

Just a quick post today,  I got some paint on the 5 Brotherhood warriors that have weapons!

I kept the scheme pretty simple as I am still going with the theme that most of their gear is dual purpose and is, largely, drawn from their mining equipment.  I think the Akanauts fit that theme really well, with the small packs on their back that resemble air filters and their boiler suits.

These five are almost done, I've missed a few details that I've noticed that just need touching up before I get their bases sorted. After that its weathering.

The other reason for keeping the scheme simple is the sheer number of these guys I will be painting.  I've not settled on a complete list yet but already in a 1500pt list I will need over a hundred of them and if I'd made the scheme too convoluted I would quickly lose interest in painting that many.

I've been thinking on my weapon problem as well. I'm thinking the best way forward for now is to get the whole squad painted up, sans weapons, and then as and when I can get hold of them to paint the guns up separately and add them later.  Otherwise, at the rate the weapons are coming up on eBay, its going to be next Christmas before the squad is finished!


Anyway, that's all for now.


Until next time!

Squat brotherho... *cough* Militia Infantry Squad

Only a small update today.  We had 2 parties to go to at weekend (and 18th and a 30th) so by Sunday I was a little bit knackered! It was nice to get out and pretend to be a human though so its ok.


One of the armies I'll be focusing on this year are my Squat/Imperialis Militia.  I decided once the Kharadron Overlords came out how I was going to work the army (mostly), I'm still mulling over tanks but they'll come later. First up I needed infantry, now, the Survivors of the Dark Age provenance does mean that my compulsory troops have to be Grenadiers, which is fine, but I do intend on having some of the more basic infantry too.


 With that said, here are the first 5 (of 20) Infantry.



I'll, eventually, be fielding 4 20 man units with close combat weapons and 2 with Lasrifles(and Advanced Weapons for the extra punch).  The Arkanauts themselves don't require a huge amount of converting, since the description of Auxila Pistols is pretty vague you could even get away with leaving them as is, but I wanted to swap out the guns for something a little more recognisable.

In my hubris I thought the Renegade Militia Las/Auto pistols would be a good choice which, visually at least, they are but by Christ are they hard to get hold of.  This is why at the moment there's only 5 guys with guns, and one of them is the sergeant with a Bolt Pistol!

 Oh well, I'll get there in the end with them, it might just take some time.  with the next batch of guys I may customise them a little more, mix in the vanilla models with some more flashy ones since, in theory at least, each Squat is responsible for his own gear so I imagine there would be a decent amount of custom modding going on.


 As for the army list, its not really possible to represent everything the Squats used to have but you can get a good amount of them.  For now my 1 to 1 comparison is something like this:


Force Commander -  Warlord: Fairly straight forward, he's got a decent range of equipment to allow for a pretty unique Warlord.  No way of getting him into Exo-armour unfortunately but its a small gripe. You've already seen my Force Commander in the last update so I wont post him again. Yet.


Platoon Command Cadre - Hearthguard: I backed and forthed for a while whether to make these part of the main Brotherhood troops of the Hearthguard, they are only BS3 so hardly fitting of the Hearthguard but then the way Squat society is set up it didn't make sense that the commanders would be standard Brotherhood.  Either way, with Advanced Weapons you can give them Carapace Armour and Laslocks for a 3+ save and Str 5 shots (even if they don't have any AP) and throw them in a Rhino(or a counts as Rhino, we'll come back to that). I'm still not 100% settled on this so it may change.


Rogue Psyker - Living Ancestor: But Amy! Your army is Loyalist! I know, I know, but its the only way of getting a Living Ancestor in.  I'm not saying I'm going to use one, but its nice to have the option.  As long as you're fluffy with your choices of Psychic Disciplines I don't think most players would have a problem with you taking one.


Militia Infantry Squad/Fire Support Squad/Recon Squad - Brotherhood:  The backbone of Squat forces are the Brotherhoods, Between these three squads you've got a decent layout of options, Infantry squads can be melee orientated (as above) or ranged with Lasrifles or Laslocks, Fire support squads give you your heavy weapons, I plan on using the FW shoulder mounted ones as much as possible for a real RT era feel, shame the squad cant take Plasma Cannons but oh well and Recon squads can either be Snipers or close assault Shotgunners (I'll be using the DKOK Engineer Shotguns if I make some of these!).  These will all use the Arkanaut Company models as they only have Flak Armour (although with SOTDA its at least a 4+ save).


Inducted Levy Squads - Cyber Slayers:  This one is a bit of a stretch, I'll be honest, but again, its the only way I can think of to fit these in.  Give them two close combat weapons and Discipline Collars.  I'll be using the plastic Slayers an hacking arms/legs/whatever off and giving them a Servitor esque look with lots of bionics.


Grenadier Squads - Hearthguard: Their Carapace Armour gives them 3+ saves(thanks to SOTDA) they're BS4 and with Laslocks they have Str 5 shots. they have a decent amount of options for other gear including Boltguns if you want some AP shots, they can also take up to 2 guys I nthe squad with special weapons from Rotor Cannons(Which with advanced weapons is Str 4 AP 6 Salve, not shabby) to Plasma Guns.  There was no way these weren't going to be the Elite Hearthguard, it even says in the description for Grenadiers that they are often the "retainers of the Commander's Houshold".


 Ogryn Brute Squad - Exo-armour: Ok so its not a perfect analogy, especially with Ogryns low LD but, it does make them a T6, W2 hard hitting unit.  BS2 isn't great but kit them out with Close Combat Weapons, Power Axes and Boarding Shields etc and then it doesn't matter when you slam them into combat. I'll be using my converted Centurions to represent these.


Enginseer Auxillia/Rapier Battery - Engineers Guild/Trikes: I keep seeing people bemoan the like of Bikes/Rough Riders in the Militia list, and Ok, I would like Rough Riders if only so that when I do my Imperial Beastmen somewhere down the line I can use Centigors to represent them, but I digress, the Enginseers are the obvious choice to represent the Engineers Guild, and I've already started changing my old Force Commander into the first of an Enginseer detachment.  Trikes we're a little harder to get into the army in a justifiable way, in the end I settled on Rapiers, they'll represent slow moving "Trikes" that rather than being fast transports for Engineers are actually more like heavy mining equipment that the Squats have mounted on a platform with one driving and one manning the gun.  its not perfect, but it will do.


So that's my ideas for the Infantry, As I said I'm still torn on Tanks but it will be a while before I get there.  I mentioned "Counts As" Rhino's earlier,  I'm not going to spoil that one just yet so you will have to wait for the next update on that front.  In the meantime, if anyone has any of the Renegade Laspistol or autopistol arms lying around then let me know and we can sort out a trade or something!


Until next time!