Mechanicum - Tech-Priest Dominus

This cool model was released just after I hit pause on my Adepts Mechanics plastics purchases earlier this year. With all the work I had coming up, I knew I wouldn't be able to get to him in a timely fashion. More recently, I have been reading through the Skittari and Cult Mechanics background in their respective codexes and admiring this mini more and more...

...so I bought him.

Although he is incredibly detailed, the painting didn't take too long at all, and I think he looks great skittering across that Dragon Forge Tech Deck 50mm base  (not yet available, but coming incredibly soon).

Cheers
Dave

New Dragon Forge Kickstarter!

As many of you might know, my Mechanicum/Adeptus Mechanicus forces all stand tall on the wonderful Tech Deck bases from Dragon Forge Design. I've been using these bases for three years or so now and love them dearly. Jeff has, after much pleading, finally sculpted some great new bases for the line that he is now releasing as part of his latest Kickstarter (launched this morning, if I'm not mistaken). He asked me to paint up some examples, and here they are : )

50mm rounds

60mm ovals (perfect for Skittarii snipers)

75mm oval - One

75mm oval - Two

75mm oval - Three

80mm round

105mm oval - One (perfect for Ironstriders)

105mm oval - Two (perfect for Ironstriders)

120mm oval

130mm round (perfect for Dunecrawlers)

The second Knight base in the series.

So head on over to the Kickstarter and support a small business : )

Cheers

Dave

A surprise from Blight Wheel!

Last week I received a surprise package from Blight Wheel Miniatures (a cool European outfit that I've mentioned a few times before). Laurent had sent me a copy of his brand new (currently-titled) Military Truck - a six-wheeled flatbed transporter that is based very much on the conversion I did many years ago. It was also sculpted by another friend of mine, which is very cool. I haven't had a chance to put it together (the painted version above is from the Blight Wheel blog post, here).

Laurent also sent me a couple of surprise pieces (seen below). Two sprues with torsos - all ten torsos in rough and ready armor plates with various icons of allegiance attached.

And a sprue of five heads on various helmets and mempo masks, with optional horns.

I couldn't resit putting at least one guy together, combining a head and torso from the batch with a set of arms and legs from Victoria Miniatures. Without the arms (above) to see the breastplate.

And with the arms to see it all ready to go.

He's finished off with a backpack and rebreather hose from Dragon Forge Design - I sculpted those backpacks!

I hope you like the potential of these kits - get out there and support your favorite manufacturers of cool stuff : )

The New Mechanicus - Some progress...

So, I've managed to get start on my Adepts Mechanicus models. The first unit of Skitarii Rangers are pictured above. The overall aesthetic of these models has grown on me, but they are a bit of a bear to put together. The main flaw, in my opinion, being the difficulty you can have to rid yourself of the seams on the sides of the robes once the front and back halves are glued together. These bases are from Dragon Forge Design's Tech Deck range. But anyway, on to the show.

Here's my Ranger Alpha. I really love this head, so I used it instead of a hooded head. The taser goad is there because I love the rules, and the arc pistol is there to give him something that looks considerably different to the galvanic rifles of his squad.

The two Rangers above, give a pretty good idea of the amount of character these models do have, considering their reduced posability and covered faces.

This current squad has a Ranger with palm caliver and a transuranic arquebus (above). I'm planning on giving this squad three arquebuses (arquebii?), the second squad three calivers, and the third squad three arc rifles. The base is made from the box, with a layer of conversion bits, again from Dragon Forge Design's Tech Deck range (just scroll to the bottom of the linked page).

And finally, the first squad of Ruststalkers are under way. They'll all have glossy black faceplates, punctured by a single, glowing red eye. I've started painting one of these wonderful models, so I'll put up some photos soon.

Cheers
Dave

PS. A drop pod tutorial will be coming soon : )
PPS. If you need some 28mm scale skulls, check out Dragon Forge Design's new Kickstarter HERE. Only four days left to pledge.

Thank you, Secret Santa!

A special thank you to the Secret Santa that sent me these three lovely Vorax Class Battle Automata.

I had a lot of fun assembling these guys, I just love the models : )  The ammo feeds for the rotor cannons are a little tough to get to the right shape, particular if you go for dynamic posing like I've done. Sadly one of the feeds broke, so I've had to build a new one from plasticard strips.

The bases are scratch built using other bits of plasticard and the cool Tech Deck conversion parts from Dragon Forge Design. Click on the link above and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - More Thallax roll off the production line.

A little while back (here) I had assembled a bunch of Thallax so that I could really expand the beefy (yet fleshless) core of my Mechanicum force - after playing a few games, Toughness 5 and 3 Wounds is certainly nothing to sneeze at!

Well, over the last week I've finished off the last eight : )

After applying the weathering powders to their bases, I plonked them in the pile with my other Thallax so I could apply a cog decal to all of their left shoulders. Once I'd done that I couldn't pick out which models I'd just finished, so I figured I'd show you the whole lot, all 21 of them (see above).

The shoulder icon is from the FW Iron Hands decal sheet. I chose this particular one as it has three nuts arranged in a pattern like the three skulls of the post-Heresy Death Guard. A nice little connection if I run them with my pre-Heresy Death Guard ; )

And finally, as with all of my Mechanicum army, they are standing on Tech Deck bases from Dragon Forge Design. Jeff is currently running a Kickstarter to expand the size of one of his most popular lines. Click HERE, or on the image on the top right of this page, to check it out!

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - Knights, and more...

While I've been waiting on the custom decals for my Heresy-era House Taranis, I've taken my Knight Paladin a little further. Of course, once I reach a certain stage with him I'll use the same custom decals, and then just need to build his power blade replacement for his Reaper chainblade. The base is the Knight base from the Tech Deck range by Dragon Forge Design.

A few folks have asked me about my metallics recently, in particular the base metals for my Knights' super-structure. Well the basic approach is this:

• Prime GW Chaos Black spray
• Heavy dry brush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Vallejo Game Color Tinny Tin
• Drybrush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Army Painter Gun Metal
• Wash with Army Painter Dark Tone
• Selectively shade with thinned washes of Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown
mixed with Army Painter Matt Black
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Amy Painter Gun Metal
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Army Painter Shining Silver

I hope that helps : )

For those who would like to get a closer look at how I do my metallics, I've been coerced into running two classes at AdeptiCon 2015. More details to come!

Another work project I've had on my painting table are a bunch of the fantastic Hell Dorado models from Cipher Studios. Much more information to come as this project nears completion : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - Cerastus Knight-Lancer Part One

No prizes for guessing what's in the bath of Simple Green. This weekend's assembly project is a Cerastus Knight-Lancer. I'm looking forward to getting this puppy built, and if I can squeeze in a little time, I'll even build a pilot for it : ) And that's a Tech Deck base in there from Dragon Forge Design.

And for those who have not yet seen the rules for the Cerastus Knight-Castigator (the one with the sword), Forgeworld apparently posted these rules up today. Check out the madness that is the sword! S10, AP2, with Deflagrate, and the ability to auto hit all models in base contact at Int2. Perfect for wiping out Terminator hit squads!

And with that thought I bid you all a great weekend!

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - The Thanatar has arrived!

When the mighty Thanatar Siege Automata went on pre-order, I couldn't resist. I placed my order through the FW website, and about a week later the order shipped. It arrived last Friday, and I spent a bit of time over the weekend scrubbing, cleaning and assembling the delightful resin parts that go together to create this excellent robot!

In the photo above, you can see that I'm yet to attach the Plasma Mortar or the Mauler pattern bolt cannon ammo feeds. The feeds will go on before painting, the mortar after.

I wasn't sure what size it would be, so when it came through with the large oval base rather than the Knight base, there was a momentary twinge of disappointment. I took the plastic base and built a "Tech deck" base to match the rest of my army using conversion strips and sheets available from Dragon Forge Design.

It was nice to see that it was a similar size to the "knight" I built last year (primarily from the Grey Knight's Dreadknight kit). So, now I just need a name and rules for the "knight". Anyone want to suggest something based off the Thanatar stats in the Horus Heresy: Extermination book?

While I'm talking about the Mechanicum, I thought it might be a good idea to point out the Suppressor here. This "robot" is about to be unlocked in the Infamy Miniatures Kickstarter, which can be found here.

Looking at the size, this thing could certainly double as a Dreadnought in any number of 30K/40K armies, or even as a walker in other games (like Deadzone, perhaps?). I'm thinking it's the perfect size to represent a Castellax Battle Automata on the tabletop. The price through the Kickstarter is even quite similar.

Cheers
Dave

Look what arrived in the mail...

Yesterday, two of these cool bases arrived in the mail from Dragon Forge Design! These are the Urban Rubble bases that will be going under the two Knights I'm working on. I would have taken a photo of them in the flesh, but I wanted to get them primed up and ready to be painted. Not long now until Adepticon!

I've also taken a look through Jeff's other Knight base designs, and of the eight different themes currently available, I think this one above (from the Badlands set) is my current favorite. I am definitely looking forward to the Tech Deck version for my Mechanicum Knights.

A little birdie tells me they should be available very soon : )

Cheers
Dave

More Mechanicum Menials

What a busy week. I haven't had as much time to blog as I would have liked, but most nights I've been crashing on the couch as soon as the girls are in bed. So, expect a few more posts over the next week (if I can stay awake).

First up are three more Mechanicum menials. Two are converted from Forgeworld
Vraksian priests, the third is a Night Goblin conversion I did back with the others, but somehow misplaced on my incredibly clean painting table ; )

There were some fairly extensive conversions done to the guy on the left, extra cables added, resin cables replaced, a cool "Tentacle Maker" arm (including a connector to interface with communications arrays), and other elemtns from an Imperial Guard voxcaster. The guy on the right is almost completely untouched, just a few areas where some bubbles needed to be filled. The little guy in the middle was built much like these were.

I'll be putting them on Dragon Forge Tech Deck bases as soon as my package arrives tomorrow : )

Also on my painting table is this brute - Frank Hyde. I've had him for a little while now, but was never sure what to do with him. When I saw the cool new plinths from Secret Weapon Miniatures I new I finally had a setting for him. I'm going to be trying out a few new techniques (for me at least) on Frank, so don't expect to see him finished anytime soon. If you are interested in seeing Frank with an excellent paintjob, head to the Infamy Miniatures website and check out all the goodness there.

Cheers
Dave

More bestial, not less...

Last week's post on the Chrono Gladiators received quite a bit of feedback (which I always enjoy) and not all of it positive (which can be helpful if phrased correctly). I took a bunch of this feedback into account, modified the models a little (despite their already primed status) and got stuck into painting them.

The biggest fear some folks had was that they were looking too Dark Eldar and not enough Mechanicum. I'm not sure if I've been able to redeem them in the eyes of these folks, but I'm happy with the results, so I guess that's the main thing ; )

One comment was that the legs looked a little too bestial, and I agree that it was the legs/feet that were causing some of the issue. I stepped back and thought a little about the influence behind much of this army - the crazy work of John Blanche. Then it hit me.

These legs weren't too bestial, they weren't bestial enough! The model was heavily "wolf" influenced, so I decided to take a suggestion from commenter Mkvenner and add hooves into the mix. And not just horse hooves, but crazy, metallic hoof collars for the bottom end of the leg. There's an interesting kind of "fetish" look to them, something that makes the model feel awkward and unnatural - voila! John Blanche inspires again.

Here's a size comparison shot of the tallest and shortest of the bunch along with the Plasma Cannon servitor and the Thallax.

I trimmed off some of the pointy bits on the faceplate too, filled in the holes with putty, filed it down once dry, and added a couple of plasticard squares on the sides, to mimic the Thallax faceplate. The painting of the faceplate was achieved in the same manner.

And here are the three of them ready to join the Mechanicum horde!

I hope they worked out and that you like them as much as I do.

As always with this army, the bases are from Dragon Forge Design.

UPDATED: My apologies to Luke Jordan, but I forgot to include these links to pictures of his beast.
Of course, there is plenty of "derivative" work going around in our toy soldier world, but sometimes people stumble onto the same cool idea completely separately - a "great minds think alike" kind of moment. Here are links to the first of Luke's beasts, built sometime last year I think. Note that we both used the mechanical Talos hand to replace the gravestone in the Crypt Horror's hand : )

HERE and HERE

Cheers
Dave