Heresy Era Mechanicum - Shots from the forge

Spent a few more hours over the last couple mornings painting, and finished up the Tech Thralls (more or less).

30 menials sorted out - I'd planned 40, but managed to lose two heads in the build process. Soooooo, 30 it is. Doh!

 

They got some white cog-tooth patterns around the hems and collars of the stormcoats, and the various power cables given a lick of blue. Next up is getting the static grass in place, followed by giving them a spray matte seal and then a brush-on gloss on the helmet domes.

I spent a little time getting the Ursarax started - the basic Thallax bodies were given a shoulder-mounted volkite, and they'll be getting power fists from the Centurion kit (idea shamelessly stolen from a loving homage to Eye of Error's fantastic builds).

Pulled everything off the shelves to see how it's all coming together and snapped a quick family photo as well. So far so good!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Adsecularis painting in progress

Over the last few mornings I've not been sleeping well so I've found myself killing time before heading out for work. So, I fired up the batch painting machine and got cracking on the Tech Thralls for the Mechanicum army I have planned for the Las Vegas Open coming up in February.

Started off with the usual red recipe of Vallejo's Dark Flesh, followed by a medium and light drybrush of Gory Red and Blood Red, respectively. Finally a wash of Carroburg Crimson was applied to help blend them together and deepen the shade.

Next up I laid on the Burnished Gold followed by a Reikland Fleshshade wash. At this point they're starting to come together pretty nicely, getting the metals in place on the arms, weapons and backpacks should be pretty straightforward, then they'll get a white cogtooth pattern on the hem of their coats and around their necks. So far, so good!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Batch painting continues

Snuck in a little more brush time last night and got the next two colors onto the Spireguard. All of the straps, harness and pouches got a layer of Vallejo's (Graveyard) Earth, while the interior of the coats, the cuffs and collars all got a layer of (Kommando) Khaki. All the little fiddly bits ended up taking a surprising amount of time due to having to be very careful not to slop over onto previously-painted areas, so these two colors ended up adding another hour and a half to the clock.

Getting very near the finish line now! Both the Earth and Khaki areas will get a Strong Tone wash to help give them a bit more definition, then it's just a matter of getting the metallics done, and then the bases! There's rumors floating around that the next FW Heresy book may drop next month, fingers crossed!

A couple folks asked for some closeups of the Adsecularis builds, but unfortunately I'd primered them (and black primed models don't photograph well) since I'd last photographed the models. However I was able to re-edit the original photo and get a decent zoom on a selection of the models in the build stage. Definitely looking forward to getting some paint on 'em soon!

Adeptus Mechanicus - Adsecularis Covenant built

The packages from Anvil Industries and Ramshackle Games arrived over the weekend, and after getting all the resin goodness washed and trimmed I spent a little time getting everything assembled!

Quite happy with how the bits all fit together. I'd heard that the Anvil Industries stuff tends to be on the 'chunky' side as far as their Marine-scaled bits are concerned, so I made sure to go with their Guard-scaled bits instead - hard to tell from pics on a website, but when I had them in-hand I have to say they're scaled perfectly! The 'lens screen' heads from Ramshackle games worked a treat as well, and definitely ties the models in with the Thallax models - I'm envisioning these poor tech thralls as being just a few steps away from Thallax implantation...

In other news Feast of Blades is coming up this weekend, really looking forward to going down and getting some Heresy games in with the Thousand Sons. If you happen to be attending, stop by and say hello on Sunday!

In other, other news I cleaned out the bookshelves a bit and put a mess of older 40k books up on eBay. Bunch of auctions starting at 99 cents just to clear out some room...

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Adsecularis build begins

The mechanicum lists that FW has put out thus far are rather interesting, for Troops I find they're either terrifying mechanical death machines or nearly defenseless rabble. I've done a fair few of the former, so now it's time for the latter! Now, I love the tech thrall models FW have done, but I find their poses all a bit too same-y for my tastes when it comes down to having huge swathes of them on the table. I thought I'd try my hand at building some of my own from various bits instead!

The tech-thralls come in units of up to 20, so I figured 40 of 'em would be the way to go. Interestingly I don't have to worry about them taking up a bunch of the army's points - the cost for all 40 is a whopping 130 points! The legs and torsos are from Blight Wheel miniatures, from their sino-russian range.

  

For arms and weapons, I'm going with some cybernetics and laslocks from Anvil Industries. I haven't used their bits before, but I've read lots of good feedback from folks who have. Quite looking forward to giving 'em a try! For a little extra detail I ordered up some of Anvil's small power plants as well. Not sure how the scale will work out, but if not for these, I'm sure I'll find a use for 'em!

I'm planning on using the "Lens Screen" heads from Ramshackle games, as I really like how they'll stylistically tie in the Adsecularis to the Thallax's heads!

I couldn't resist picking up some of their "Iron Brothers" heads as well, Not sure that I'll use 'em for the mechanicum, they may make for some interesting headswaps for some Prosperine Spireguard Stormtroopers! Sadly all these bits are coming from the other side of the planet, so I've got a bit of a wait ahead before I can see how they all work together...