Adeptus Mechanicus - Mk II Hypaspist test models

As I'd mentioned previously my intention has been to use the models I'm currently in the process of painting as the Praetorians in the Ad-Mech army, and build some other models for use as the Hypaspists (tech guard). While I was between colors, I banged out a couple test models to see how they'd look.

The bodies are Wargames Factory's Greatcoat Troopers, the heads are from Pig Iron, and the rest is GW Cadian guard bits. To represent the hellguns, I went with a replacement muzzle for the standard lasgun which is the lower portion of the main aerial trimmed from a Voxcaster. A couple other pieces are shaved from the Vox and is inverted as the model's backpack/power pack. I want to run cabling from the gun to the pack, but don't relish the thought of using guitar wire on 36 models. I think this may be the ideal time to try out the Dragon Forge cables, as I've heard nothing but good things about them!

Adeptus Mechanicus - Hypaspists in progress

A little forward progress on the Hypaspist units over the past week. With 24 of them to do at once, I really start to notice how similar the various casts are. While they are nice models and I'm not complaining about the detail, there are only three variants, and to be honest at arms length they do all look about the same. Eventually these models will become the Praetorians for the Army and I'm scheming on how I'm going to build the replacements. I have several boxes of the Wargames Workshop Greatcoat Troopers, and at 18 in a box, the two boxes will allow me to build three 12-man units. I'm hoping that with the judicious application of Cadian arms and Pig Iron heads, the to-be-build Hypaspists will end up looking a bit more dynamic than these Iron Brotherhood sculpts.

...But back to the task at hand - the Iron Brotherhood models from MicroArt Studios. In order to keep myself from going completely insane while batch painting them, I decided that I would alternate the cloak and trim colors between the two units. One squad would have red cloaks with white cog trim and one would have white cloaks with red cog trim. Holy cow does painting all those little cogs ever get tedious! I still have the white cogs to do on the first unit, and then an entire pass of highlight red and while for all 24 models. Once that's done however, the rest of the detail work shouldn't take much time at all - the various hoses and lenses, some gold details on the bionics and I think I can call them done!

Our local gaming group recently kicked off a Special Operations: Killzone campaign, so I took a little time and banged out a small campaign map. We're keeping the map campaign rules extremely simple for this initial go - the tiles are simply a means for us to keep score. After 8-10 strategic turns the player who holds the most hexes (via winning games as the attacker) wins. Depending on how that goes, the next go-around we may try to add a bit more flavor to the campaign map with various tiles providing bonuses or detriments, as well as including add-ons such as the bastions, power generators, etc. that come with the Planetary Empires box...

"The German Guns" by S. Baldrick

Baldrick: "Boom, boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom, boom..."
Edmund Blackadder: "Boom, boom, boom?" 

Baldrick: "How did you guess?" -- S4.Ep6

I figured that particular poem would be appropriate for the last Thudd Gun post. I've been agonizing about repainting all the bases on my guard and it occurred to me that while the infantry wouldn't be too big of a deal, most of the larger bases have some sort of urban-themed terrain built on to them and as such would look sort of silly with buildings jutting up out of mud and grass. That being the case I've decided that I'd go with my original plan of adding snow to the various bases instead and took a crack at it on the Thudd Gun. I don't think I had the snow/glue mix quite right, but it's a passable effect overall. Practice makes perfect, after all!

Secondly I painted up a test model for the Hypaspists (Tech Guard) for my burgeoning Adeptus Mechanicus army. A fairly simple scheme - red cloaks, white piping, grey armor plates and various metal and gold detailing. It painted up rather quickly which should help when it comes to painting up the other 30+ models.

Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated...

Well it's been a seriously hectic past three weeks and I had very little hobby time unfortunately - Real Life(tm) had me very, very busy. Couple that with the fact that I managed to misplace my camera for the better part of a week and I was unable to take any pictures of the little bit of modeling and painting I did manage to complete. However, the camera was found, and I was finally able to snap a few pictures!

As I'd mentioned I was suffering from "Guard Guilt" as I haven't done much work on them recently. I took a bit of time and assembled the Thudd Gun I'd picked up a while back and got the initial base colors on the model. Can I just say that I am sick to death of the red/grey paint scheme? I suppose that's bound to happen after painting 5000+ points in that scheme, but I have to say it's getting harder and harder to get excited about painting it.

During the downtime I got the most recent package from Forge World so I took a little time to build and paint up the Mekboss Buzzgob that I'm using for my Bad Moon Bigmek. I really enjoyed his oiler grots, especially the faux-Opus Machina one of them is carrying!

While I was at it I cranked out the AoBR warboss in Bad Moon colors to accompany the unit of Nobs. 10 PK-and-Big Choppa-wielding Nobs and a Warboss makes for a darn scary unit!

Also in the box of FW goodies was the belly gun and head for the Stompa. I'd never assembled a Stompa before and it was way more involved than I expected although it was a hoot to build. The FW additions to the kit? Not so much. The parts were warped rather badly and even after hours of hot water dips and bending they still didn't seem to fit very well. I ended up having to utilize a fair bit of plasticard and rivets to cover up a few unsightly gaps, but once it was primered you can't really tell the difference. I left the arms separate to facilitate painting, we'll see how that goes. It's going to be a lot of black and yellow once it's done!

Last but not least, one other package arrived - the Iron Brotherhood models I'd ordered way back in April for use as Hypaspists for my Adeptus Mechanicus army. Due to the Yyjafjallajokull eruptions, the order was delayed for the better part of a month. Disappointing, but hey, what can ya do? The models were cleanly cast and although they looked a little static initially, a bit of mix-and-match with the arms and weapons sorted that out. They were nice enough to throw in a set of extra models as an apology for the delay so I'll be building a unit of Sagittarii (heavy weapons teams) as well, though I'm still pondering how I want to build the weapons platforms.

Here's hoping this month will be more conducive to hobby work!

Hypaspist (Tech-Guard) test models, part 1

While I was pulling out the models that I plan to get painted this month, my eye fell upon the package that I'd gotten from Pig Iron a couple days back. I'd been gathering bits to make a few squads of Hypaspists (Tech-Guard) for the Adeptus Mechanicus army, and spent a little time last night making a couple test models.

 

I'm using a mix of High Elf Archer legs, Cadian torso and arms, some plasticard and Pig Iron Kolony Ferals heads. I'm trying to keep the conversions simple and repeatable, using as many commonly found bits as I can, as my greenstuff skills are relegated primarily to the gap-filling persuasion. Nevertheless I'm going to try my hand at sculpting some scalloped pauldrons over the top of the armor on the shoulders, and perhaps some elbow armor plates. The power pack is made from a Vox Caster that has had a bunch of the bits shaved off and repurposed - for example, the muzzle of the hellgun is the cut-down aerial from the Vox pack, which I think makes the weapon look a touch more "tech-y".

  

For the tribune I went with the bionic arm carrying a power sword from the Cadian HQ set, and added a leftover servo arm from a spare FW techpriest. I'm liking the models look so far, I'd initially thought about replacing the boots on the High Elf legs with ones from the Cadian legs, but decided that I rather liked the look of the original feet, not to mention going that route would mean that several of the legs that come with the High Elf Archer sprues would require more greenstuff sculpting than my meager skills allow. Seeing as I need to build 36 of these guys, I'm trying to keep the conversions as simple as possible!