Forge command

So it is a new year, and I hope it will be a better year than last, but I have my doubts.

The first entry of the yea is actually the last project of last year. I had hoped to finish these guys over Christmas but that did not happen. These are some models that I have been looking forward to paint as they are all full of character but I have been stalling for inspiration. Most of the models comes as surplus models to my titans and knights and they make up the strategic advisory board (SAB) to my forge lord. The board consists of the liaisons to the; fleet, titan legion (Northern Ghosts), knight house (Northern Knights), legio cybernetica and the skitarii forces. The board is also joined by the ever present secretary taking notes.

Fleet Liaison

Legio Titanica Liaison

Legio Cybernetica Liaison

Knight house Liaison

Skitarii host Liaison

Ever present secretary.

The models coming with the titans are what appears to be hand sculpted resin cast models, and they feel a bit out of place compared to the high detail plastics of the knight pilot and the skitarii general. But I think they make an interesting group. Paint wise I stuck to how I have painted my other titan crews and mechanicum servants, so not really any new stuff. For some reason the models look a bit shiny, not sure if it has anything to do with the resin. I have seen similar stuff on the titans where the paint almost look wet, but that have not shown up until a few months after painting and some warm weather.

Next up on the painting table is Fulgrim. He is a present from my wife and I hade hoped to have been painting him over the vacation, but I decided that finishing the SAB would need to be done first. Lets see if I can keep up a more stable flow of posts this year.

Pteraxii done

Long time no blogg. This time it has been about two months. Not that I have not done some hobby stuff, I have, but nothing worth showing, until now. This time I finished the Pteraxii squad that I got from my wife many moons ago. I painted the first three back in feb 2022. When I started the models I quickly realized I could not paint all five in one go as the back pack is quite complex and requires some time. So I said I'll do three now and then the last two a bit later. A bit later turned out to be two years, but who is counting.

I used the same woodland theme that I have used on my rangers, a brown leather body suit and olive green plating. This is a very basic scheme and there really is no finesse to it, but it look ok and it is fine with rank and file soldiers. I really like the backpacks, the small jet engines together with the variable pose wings look really neat. I can really see these backpacks as drones with a small bomb underneath. The membranes are a bit of a hassel to get right as I am drybrushing in the blend and there is a constant "over spay" on the spars holding the membranes that I needed to go back and fix. There was also a bit of an accident with to much paint on one of them that I saw in the pics that I need to go back and fix.

With this squad done there is only the last Onager left to do on the recon elements and perhaps another strider (which I do not have right now). Then I have 20 titan guard to do...  wounder when that will happen.

But all in all I am happy with this small element of my mechanicum host.

Skitarii Rangers with transuranic arquebuses

This week I have done some clean-up of the workstation and cleared out some models that has been hanging around in the background for some time. When the skitarii set was released I bought a box and painted up most of the models, including one carrying the transuranic arcebus. I like the idea of the long sniper rifle but was not convinced by the model, the goofy recoil dampener and the support stick did not do it for me. So I left out the stick and mounted the model on a normal round base instead of the oval one that comes with the model. 

But I was never really happy with this. As I collected more ranger squads through some starter sets and other boxes containing skitarii models I sort of started thinking about this again. According to the rules two models in the squad my have alternate weapons and if the squad numbers ten then three may take a special weapon. I got the idea that it might be cool to have two ranger squads with two arcebuses in each but I never really made it so the two squads I started by splitting of some of the original squad have been sitting around by display case unfinished. 

Then a couple of weeks ago I finally decided that it was time to finish of these two squads. So I built the remain models and removed the original from its round base. The arcebuses got some modifications by the removal of the the recoil dampeners. I tried to mount it more like what a real version might look like but it did not work. I also used other bodies for the skitarii than the one indicated in the build guide, just to make them look a bit different, but it is not easy to get it right as the arms are intended for a aiming pose. Two of them got the sticks while the other two got some alternate poses so did not need them. Then I started painting, but I stalled and these just sat on the desk but with out any real progress. I do not really know why I have problems with these models. Might be that the two main colour fields are so interlocking that it is difficult to paint well? Could be all the filigrees on the rifles...  I do not know. And I still have two more squads on the frames. At least these will be a bit different as I also have upgrade packs from forgeworld to make hoplites and pelestas.

Apart from the arcebus wielding skitarii I also finished two normal rangers and one with a plasma caliver. 

Skitarii

 Well, I just had to try out the new skitarii models from GW. Sadly they do not really keep to the aesthetics of FW mechanicum, which is to bad as the FW ones really look nice and unique. I suppose GW had to fall for the pressure and make the models we expected, i.e. the robed Rangers and Vanguard. This in itself is not to bad, but the weapons look so out of place I am not really sure what to say. I also expected them to be more machines than humans, but that would have put them to close to necrons I guess. Also the 3D sculpts reduces the re-paintability of the models, as every box will look more or less the same and there is no real way of altering the pose of the models. But it is better than the chaos cultists as there are at least 10 models and some weapons interchangeability. That being said, the level of detail is very high, almost to high for rank soldiers as they take quite some time to paint but I like them. I will see if I am going to get one of each kit and paint them up just to try them out.

When it comes to the paint scheme I stayed with the Northen Ghosts theem of wood colours, painting armour and metal green and any fabric a brown leather. As with the necron scitarii I made earlier the leaders will have red robes so that you know whom to shoot. Talkeing about these, they actually fit quite nicely to the stalker models so they are not completely out of place and I could see some nice cross overs conversions between the kits. This is certainly a way to make more mechanical skitarii troopers if one is more inclined to that look. I am tempted to use some of the leftover bits from the rangers/vanguard together with some necrons to see what can be done.

I have also ordered some FW mechanicum models so expect to see some more small green men on this blogg, There might also be some larger green men as I am sorely tempted to get some more Knights, especially with the new upgrade sprue.

Summer update

Hi there!

Once again I have been on a brake from the painting hobby and the maintenance of this blog. It has been summer and I have been hard at work building a new home for the family together with my wife and so hobby time has been reduced. But I have still gotten a few hours of painting and a bit of green stuffing.
In the beginning of summer I was hard at work on my first raptor. I thought that the build came out all right but after painting I does not seam to fit the over all army so I will probably sit tight on the parts for the rest for a while before deciding if I should build more. I do have some alternative plans but they involve some more defilers ha hammerheads so it will have to wait.
Apart from finishing up the raptor I also started to work on the CCW knight. I had to exchange some of the face plates because I needed it for something else. In stead of using the side leg armor from the defiler as a face plate I used the front arm armor since it was not needed in the build elsewhere. It turned out ok, the head/cockpit is now a bit stubbier. Once the kitbashing, cutting up and gluing together was done a long period of green stuff work started. I decided that I would add a lot of sculpted chaos growth to this knight, and from experience I have learned not to work on more than one surface at a time.
The idea with the knight was to have a lance of two medium knights and the leader in the CC knight. Now, after working on it for some time I think it looks more like a army commanders knight than a simple lance leader so I am thinking about rethinking the project some what. If I change the lance leader to an army leader then the lance needs a new knight to take its place, I do not have parts for it now but it might tie in nicely with  the change in plans for the raptor parts.
 
Since the knights and myrmidons are quite large projects I have also squeezed in some scitarii models in-between working on the larger kits. These are mostly necrons remodeled into more humanoid warriors with their weapons attached directly to the one arm, swinging an ax in the other. I had planed to make squads of eight models since then I could get three squads from two boxes. But I love the new necron models and I just had to by some of the new once and try to work them in to the squads, so instead of eight models there are now ten, I added a heavy and a special weapon to the squad as well as exchanged the sergeant for a more imposing model. I also gave the sergeant some robes to tie it in with the mechanicum look. I also painted it the same way as the engine seer / tech priests, with a brownish red armor and deep red robes making the troopers green and characters/officers red.

Random minis

I have found that I have somewhat of a difficulty to maintain a strict focus on the blog now that I do not have a project running. It was much easier to remember to update the blog with the progress of the week. It was also a way for me to document the progress. Now however I only paint random miniatures without any greater context, not that I don't enjoy it the painting, but documenting painting a single marine and then posting about it becomes some what lame. During the last weeks I have painted some more Desert Eagles, Space Wolves and Scitarii as well as finishing up the Desert Eagles command rhino. But since I am not painting an army it is still random minis. So what I need is a new large project to keep me occupied for some mounts so that I can post about it. I have an idea about building two more knights to join my mechanicum force. I have also seen some Myrmidons based on the Defiler kit so I am tempted to build three of these. I have made a list of parts that are needed and it looks promising. I need 5 Defilers, 2 Sentinels, 1 Phirana, 2 Imperial strong points and 4 hammer head weapons sprues. The cost is about a war hound so It better last at lest 4 mounts. I only have to come up with the funds for this, and order the bits...

One year achievements

I thought that I would make this post on the anniversary of this blog, but I forgot so I will make it now instead. This is what I have painted during the last year.

Last year at this time I was going through a rough time and I felt that I needed something to occupy myself with as well as having something relaxing to do. For a long time I had wanted a Forge World titan, actually the though of a titan was awakened some time 20 years ago when I visited a gaming club and someone had brought a armourcast reaver. At the time I did not have the financial means to buy one so I thought about scratch building one but it never happened. When the FW titans where released I once again found the urge to paint one, but I could not really motivate myself to by one. But as I needed a large, all consuming project last year I finally decided that a trio of titans would do. I did have my wive's blessing to buy a titan but I think that she was a little shocked when I ordered three. I did pay for them form my own stash so the family funds did not take the hit.  Well, as I was looking over the internet for inspiration a came across a lot of titan WIPs. So I decided that a blog would also be a nice way to document the project. I also came across some ad-mech armies and different paraphernalia. One thing that fascinated me were the different defiler knight conversions. This gave me the opportunity to build something titan like to have as a test bed for painting techniques before applying them to the titans. Of course a knight and and some titans can not be without scitarii troops to protect their feet so I had to build some of them to, so I took the opportunity to make a tech adapt with a robot and servitor as well. Then if you look carefully you will see two chaos marines that where the first models painted to try out the color scheme of the legion. And then I also had a predator hanging around that I finished of while waiting for the titans to get assembled. 

So now we will see what I will do next year. The titans will be done soon so I will have to find something else to do. I have thought about some models that I would like to paint. But I have also thought about doing a new space wolf army but we will have to see what comes up.

Update, Scitarii

A short update. I have painted another three Scitarii and I am starting to get the hang of the assembly process and the painting. Now I is just a matter of buying and building enough of the guys before GW changes the Necron models. Al in all I thing they look suitably wild and non uniform for one to forget their origin. I also include a picture of my AD-mech "army "so far (except Titans and Knights). Now it will be back to the titans, finishing of the insides of the last Warhound. I might also make another Defiler conversion, Mordian 7th has a nice Myrmidon that I might like to imitate or it might be another Knight, but with close combat weapons this time. We will see.

I just got a question about what the original models look like so I show I picture of the necron warriors from the Games-Workshop website (© Games Workshop Limited 2000-2011)

Back to 40k-work again...

I am back, again. I have had another project, non 40k related that has a deadline this weekend that needed to be done and the only way to get it done in time was to pack all the 40k stuff away. Hide the paints and brushes, and occupy the work space with other stuff. But now it is all done and my hobby table is once again filled with titans, robots, scitarii and other stuff. The first thing i did after my seclusion was to finish of the robot prototype. I had some sugestions to change to leg armour and it might have been best to do so, but this prototype should be build with out of the box parts and a minimum of green stuff so I will save any major modifications for the next one.

Then I also put some scitarii together, I tried to experiment a bit with using guitar strings to make cabling to the weapon as well as modifying the cuts of the parts to improve some things I was not happy with. I also cleaned up the engineseer and the iron brother and got them all spray pained and ready for painting. This was a few days ago and I have not had so much time to paint so I will just give you some pictures of where I am and I will have to get back when I have some more to show.

Scitarii

Once again life has intruded my plans for the mechanicum. But don´t worry, I have a new project again. This time its time to tackle the Scitarii. What would a fledgling titan legion be without Scitarii. The titan, and knights for that matter, needs foot sloggers to protect their feet. Most people that I have seen on the net are using guards or dark angel (or marines in generall) models painted in the Mechanicum colors to represent the scitarii. Others are using the Ironbrothers (or something similar, can´t find it). Looking at the fiction the two main sources (that I have reed) are mechanicum and titanicum. In mechanicum the scitarii are described as mechanical cyborgs, more machine than men, in titanicum they are portrayed as savage warriors with cybernetic upgrades.I rather think the mechanicum description sounds better. Why would the mechanicum, that revers the machine, use biological warriors if they have the technology to use servitors in battle chassis. It don´t want the the scitarii to be just another imperial guard army or dark angels in red robes. So to represent my scitarii I choose to use the necron warriors. So to make them look less like necrons and more like scitarii I planed to use some guitar strings and green stuff to make a gas-mask and some power cables. So I when to the music store, picked up some guitar strings and a box of necrons. Once at home I opened up the necron box and took a lock at the sprues, and then it hit me that I could build them another way that did not require me to sculpt. =) Now I can here some of you thinking that then they will only look like necrons. Well as with the defiler, there are ways to assemble the parts in a kit so that it does not look like what it is. Of course you can see what the ground model is but the trick is fooling the eye to see something else. So what do they look like then. Are they just necrons dressed up, I let you decide.

The head is made from the front of the fleyer gun and the necron head. I took the weapon and attached it to the left arm. The lower support of the weapon with the axe blade makes a close combat weapon. The small scarabs make exelent backpacks. I will paint these two and then decide if they will cut it or not but I like the feel of them. THey have a dynamic pose and they are easy to build. If it does not work I will go back, add some wires and green stuff to make them less necron.