Oh, So Many Knights - WIP

 

In my over abundance of enthusiasm for Adeptus Titanicus, I decided to complete assembly of some recent kits sitting on the shelf. The goal was to pull together a full family shot of what I have so far.  These knights represent my House Taranis force in support of my two Triumverate legios, Ignatum and Tempestus.  As Horus's betrayal unfolded, legios and knight houses found themselves divided on both sides, often based on which crusade fleets they were attached to at the time fo the heresy.

In my collection, Legio Tempestus may serve Horus in actions against Legio Ignatum.  Rather than collect and paint two separate knight households to support the two legios, I'm going to collect just one household, House Taranis.  House Taranis served on both sides of the Horus Heresy, such that those most loyal to the Mechanicum and the Emperor began to replace the traditional blue with Mechanicum red - the color use currently in the 41st millenium.  I will represent this by painting my collection in a mix of the traditional blue/white for those loyal to Horus and the newer red/white for those remaining loyal to the Imperium. 

Then during games where my Legios are in conflict, I'll use the red/white models with Legio Ignatum and the blue/white models with Legio Tempestus.  In a large game, why not use all of my collection as Loyalists?  I am purposefully NOT using any Horus iconography on my Legio Tempestus titans so I can use them to represent a battle group still loyal to the Imperium. My Legio Tempestus battlegroup has only recently turned to horus, or perhaps fights on not yet aware that Horus has turned traitor.

On deck to be built were a few recent Forgeworld resin kits.  These Questoris Knights Magaera were the first to get assembled. So cute at this scale! They are reasonably easy to assemble, but watch out for some delicate, fiddly bits.  Resin can be so brittle.

The next to build were the Questoris Knights Styrix, basically the same model as the Magaera with different arms.

These Cerastus Knights Atrapos were the last to be completed.  Now we're getting bigger, but still so cute next to the larger titans.  These were very easy to assemble, quite straight forward. And with these three kits built, I had nothing left in the to-do pile for Adeptus Titanicus knights. The final family shot is at the top of the post. 28 knights ready to serve either legio of the Triumverate in my collection, bound by ancient Martian oaths.

I won't get to painting these for a while yet.  I have one Warmaster, one Warlord, and two Warhounds ahead of them in the AT painting queue so far. But at least these knights are assembled and playable for my games - which I hope to have a few more of as the immediate risks of Covid wane.

So that's it for my adventure with tiny knights.  Next up, we'll return to Blackstone Fortress with an update on Janus Draik.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator - week 4 - TO DONE

Welcome to week four of the Jewel of July challenge.  As expected, I was able to finish off the Cerastus Knight-Castigator.  It stands proud, leading my growing collection of House Taranis knights.  I have five more built and primed waiting forlornly for more paint.  For now, I'll be content to put the big seal o' DONE on this model.

After applying a good coat of lacquer to the whole model, I brushed on some weathering powders soaked in pigment fixer. When that was dry, I dropped a little water effects in the deepest craters and holes on the base.  I don't use water effects much, so I decided this base offered a good opportunity to give 'em a go.

Otherwise, the decals were finished and additional highlights added prior to the coat of lacquer going on.  Here is how the Knight-Castigator turned out.  I'm pleased with the result.  I do favor a cleaner look than some, but I think the knight still stands tall and proud regardless of its lack of weathering and battle damage.

Ready to bring the Omnissiah's Justice to Heretic and Xenos alike.

The big guns never tire...

A good shot of the 10 - 20 seconds of ammo available for the bullet hose.

Crackling power sword ready to cleave something in two...

Our Baron seated in his comfy chair, watching the battle play out on thrice blessed displays.

So that puts and end to the Jewel of July challenge for me.  I hope everyone isn't now burnt out on Knight-Castigator WIP picks.  Moving on, I'll start painting Dark Angels - either 30k or some new 40k Primaris.  I'm torn as I have the backlog of 30K models built, primed and ready - but I also got my Indomitus box and so have some really great new 40k Primaris to paint in Dark Angels livery.

I also have two Legio Ignatum Warhound Titans for Adeptus Titanicus waiting for some paint.  I do love painting tiny titans.

You'll have to check back next week to see what I move forward, I'm afraid.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 3

Hello, and welcome to week three of my Jewel of July project, a Cerastus Knight-Castigator for House Taranis.  During week three, I recognized that I needed to stop stalling and paint in the white stripes on the carapace that would designate this knight as being piloted by a House Taranis baron. This process involved masking out the stripes, painting them with white scar using an airbrush, adding a coat of lacquer, adding the panel shading to match the rest of the carapace (I should have done the stripes before all the shading), then cleaning things up.

I added the red highlights and some steel edge highlights on the armor panels.  I need to make another pass at highlights, but things are coming along. I painted in the Mechanicum symbol and added color to the "skylight" on the top hatch.  Then it was time for decals...

I'm going to do more on the Baron's banner.  He needs lots of accolades and what not for his long years of service. But things are coming along.  Also - I don't know why I used the steels trim on the banner.  It has to go.  I think I'll use black, the same as the back of the banner to go along with the black/white House Taranis motif.

Typical top down shot to see what the Knight looks like with it's iconography.  I'm going to add some little Mechanicum techie symbols to jazz things up a bit.

I added a House Taranis icon on the ammo loader for a bit of interest from this side of the model and break up the large flat red panel.

All assembled and standing proudly on its base.  I have all the major iconography applied.  I'm going back in with another pass to fill out the banner and add some interesting little bits.  These large Mechanicum models are gran for decals and adding lots of interesting images.

I'll definitely get this model done for the challenge.  Having made great progress early on, I have slowed down a bit to work on some other side projects (like assembling the AT Warhounds).  It helps to avoid burnout when working on large models.

I hoep everyone's summer is going well.  Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 2

Welcome to Jewel of July week two.  Since last week, I put some time into the Castigator's eyes (seen above) and attached the rest of the armor to the chest and shoulders.  He's now fully assembled, though the waist has not been glued yet to make it easier to paint.

Taking a break from painting the Knight, I spent some time with the base this week. I'm following the paint recipe for House Taranis so this base will compliment the Knight Paladin and the two Armigers I've already painted for House Taranis.  In the pic above, the washes are still drying.  I like to apply washes for the base as a wet blend like this to prevent a splotchy outcome. With the two GW greens merging with the Agrax I get a range of shades when things are all dry that make the surface of the ground look a bit more interesting.

Above, the washes are dry and I have applied a heavy dry brush over the whole base,  The sand bags were painted using a supper heavy dry brushing.   The barrel was painted liberally all over with GW Typhus Corrosion and then dabbed with the GW Ryza Rust while the Typhus was still wet.  A used a little GW Nihilakh Oxide on the shells. Vallejo Brass picks out the name plaque nicely. 

As noted, the pilot for this Knight is Baron Harkon and the knight has been named Gladius Martis (Sword of Mars)...cause big sword, right? :)  I find it best not to over think this stuff.  As I worked on the base, I thought it would be fun to continue what I started with the Knight Paladin and use some bits from the Death Korps of Krieg as a nod to 262Krieg.  I painted up a melta gun and a couple mines and glued them down.  

Here is how things will look with the knight standing on the base.Simple, so as not to detract from the knight itself, but still interesting enough to tell a short story of its own, I hope.

So that is where I have gotten to by the end of week two of Jewel of July; well on my way to completion.  I'll get some decals and highlighting on this beast and then we'll see where we are at.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 1b

As I sail through week one of the Jewel of July painting challenge, I'm making great progress on the Knight-Castigator.  Washes are down, and even some highlights have gone onto the legs (dry-brushing). The legs are fully assembled now, with armor plates and banner attached.

I decided to take a break from the mundane and put some work into the sword last night.  I took inspiration from the old Duncan GW method for Custodes power weapons and combined it with an approach from Spikey Bits, though using standard brushes and not air brushing the crackling energy. 

The body details are almost done.  I have to complete the work on the chest cabling so I can attach the armor. Some bits can be seen in the pic below.  Apparently, I didn't capture any images that illustrate the bony details any better.

The Castigator bolt cannon is coming along well. What a bullet hose that thing looks like. Yikes. Here is the bucket of bullets.  Seems like about 30 - 45 seconds worth of ammo for that cannon unless it has a seriously slow rate of fire...

So as week one of the Jewel of July passes on, we're looking in a great position to complete this model during the challenge.  Which means I'll have to look for the next thing to complete, since the challenge is about completing projects. Heh, but I shouldn't get ahead of myself.  There is a lot of work yet to do, including the untouched base.

Best of luck for all the other challenges out there. Stay safe.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 1

Greetings.  This week I kick off a new community challenge Jewel of July with a Cerastus Knight-Castigator, painted in the livery of House Taranis. I bought this model a couple years back and finally built is last year.  It has since sat waiting for a paint job (although I had at least painted it's interior before setting it aside). So this model was a good pick for a challenge on completing projects.

I started out air brushing the panels and main skeleton of the Castigator according to my House Taranis paint recipe (see recipe tabs above). The one change I made was using ScaleColor  Black Metal (SC-63) for the skeleton instead of starting with a steel dry brush over the primer.  This brightens the model a bit, but still offers a nice contrast to the chrome and steel accents that follow. I started using the black Metal with the Adeptus Titanicus Titans and I like it a lot.

After masking and air brushing the various colors, I got started on the legs.  Vallejo Chrome was used on the piston shafts and Vallejo Steel was used on the armor panel trim.  Vallejo Dark Rubber was applied to the flexible joints where the legs join the hips. All of this will be shaded soon and that will help things look more defined.

We're only six days in, but there has been solid progress so far. I hope this will be a fierce looking knight to lead my House Taranis force.

Not much to see from the back yet, but still a good illustration of all the great detail on this model.

I plan to leave the carapace loose (probably magnetized) so I can get in to see the great detail on the optional pilot cockpit kit that I added when building the model. As I recall, this was available separately from Forge World.  Not sure if it is an option anymore, but I felt it was well worth the extra money at the time

.

The pilot is keeping tabs on the fight, tracking both allied and enemy engines. I pre-painted the cockpit before assembly and so had a jump start on that bit of painting going into this challenge.

That's where I'm at so far.  Check back towards the end of the week for more progress. I'm trying to keep up my regular two-post-per-week cadence, but I'll fill in a post or two on other projects no doubt as the month moves on.

Best wishes for all of the other Jewel of July challengers out there.

Stay safe.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [November] - House Taranis Knights for Adeptus Titanicus

And they were legion...I used a little free time over the weekend to make use of the new Questoris Knight upgrade sprues I picked up on pre-order recently. The Knights themselves I had sitting on the shelf waiting for something new.  I new that had I assembled them, some upgrade options might come out and then I'd be bummed I hadn't waited. This time, waiting worked out.

I chose the standard three lances, each with a single main weapon type.  I armed all of the new knights with meltaguns and fists from the upgrade sprue. The original three I had started to paint have swords and a couple the stub guns.

I mixed up the legs, arms and heads to keep each lance looking as unique as possible.  I used the three heads form the upgrade sprue mixed with the heads from the original box.  And of course, everyone gets missile pods.  This is a game of mighty titans, so these little guys need the best shot they can get to make a difference.

The bases are all coated with Vallejo black lava and will be painted to match the titan based form the Legio Tempestus force. I'm not sure when I'll get these to the head of the painting queue, but I look forward to haveing these painted up along with the Cerastus and Acastus brethren.

These are fun models to build.  I could see picking up more in the future to build some Gallant and Crusader variants for fun.

My next post will return to the Sisters of Silence Vigilators.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Results from the 2018/19 Hobby Season

Well, it is time to bring the 2018/2019 Hobby Season to a close.  I had a great year of hobby and I'm excited to share my accomplishments.  I continued to build on the momentum of past seasons to get into a cadence that produces results without burning me out.  In all I completed 31 infantry models, two dreadnoughts, one Imperial Knight and seven Adeptus Titanicus Titans this season.

And there have been a great number of new releases to break up the monotony as well.  Some were not expected and so I pretty quickly diverged from my original to-do list to work on many unexpected things. As the season unfolded I decided to commit to three primary projects:

• 1000 points of 30K Dark Angels for Horus Heresy (a special challenged with a gaming buddy)
• 40k Blades of Vengeance Primaris successor chapter force 
• A full maniple of Legio Tempestus titans for Adeptus Titanicus

Anything else was a bonus - those projects emerged from the year as my key focus. Unfortunately this put some things on the back burner for now, such as the excellent Blackstone Fortress minis and several kill team projects.

Here's a summary of the models I was able to complete.

Custos Martis of House Taranis

The season started out with the exciting completion of my Questoris Knight Paladin.  This model started out as a planned Freeblade project, than sat unloved of a long time...maybe a year or more? It got a new lease on life when I decided I really needed to get in gear with my House Taranis project. Here the paladin stands leading four previously completed Armiger Warglaives.

House Taranis Knights

Next up, it was time for DreadTober 2018.  I took the opportunity to complete a Forge World Custodes dreadnought I had sitting on the shelves for far too long.  Do you see a trend here? I had a lot of fun completing this model.

Legio Custodes Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought 

Then it was time to get to work on my Legio Tempestus maniple project for Adeptus Titanicus.

Two Reaver Battle titans seems a good way to get started and practice my art before taking on the Warlord.  The main challenge here was learning to paint an effective camouflage pattern, to match the art in the Black Books. While it came out a bit too chunky on these Reavers, the learning helped me power into the Warlord and later titans with much better results. Custom checkered decals were also a new thing...

Legio Tempestus Reaver Battle Titans

Next, it was time to kick off a 30K Dark Angels project as a challenge with a buddy who wanted to make progress on his 30K Thousand Sons. We committed to get 1K painted over the winter and I chose to get right into things with a couple tactical squads. 

First Legion Astartes Tactical Squad (Terrans) in mkIII Armor

I have a weakness for the fluff, so of course the units had to be divided among Terrans and Calibanites. This approach gave an opportunity to show the special permission offered the Calabanite squads personally by the Lion himself: Forest green shoulder pads in recognition of their service on Caliban during the wars to slay the beasts.

 First Legion Astartes Tactical Squad (Calibanites) in mkIV Armor 

Wow, time for Squaduary already??  Nothing to do but soldier on with the 30K challenge by pledging two support squads. No way the Terrans were going to let the new guys handle the ancient (if twitchy) tech. So the first squad are Terrans with plasmaguns.

 First Legion Astartes Tactical Support Squad (Terrans) in mkIII Armor 

But missile launchers were fine, it seems. All of these infantry models are a mix of GW plastic and Forge World upgrade parts. The fancy new breast plates and helmets were reserved for the Calibanite squads under the rationale that they were all issued new armor, while the Terrans were largely wearing their original 1st Legion gear. That and the shoulder pads make it easy to pick out the various squads on the table.

 First Legion Astartes Heavy Support Squad (Calibanites) in mkIV Armor 

With Squaduary 2019 a success, and a great deal of my 1K challenge completed, I returned to the Legio Tempestus project and pledged a Warlord titan for #MonsterMarch3. It was time to take what I learned while painting the Reavers and get serious with this Warlord. This was an amazing project and I enjoyed every bit of it.  I like to think that comes through in the final model. These AT titans are just terrific to work on.

Legio Tempestus Warlord Battle Titan for AT - Ascraeus Magnificat

At the end of March, and a little more than halfway through the season, I was feeling very good about my goals to complete a maniple of AT titans and 1K of 30K marines.

The Legio Tempestus Maniple Grows

The Deredeo Dreadnought came next as I entered the final push to complete the 30K Dark Angels project. This dreadnought is one odd duck.  But it was fun to paint and looks great on the table with the rest of the force. I used an Imperial Guard transfer cut in half as a battle honor for this Dreadnought.  The interred marine is a Terran veteran of the Unification Wars who fought along side the Emperor as a member of His first Legion Astartes. I also had fun with some kill markings on the left ankle armor.

 First Legion Astartes Deredeo Dreadnought (Terran)

The final project for my 1K of 30K Dark Angels project was a cheap HQ choice.  This model can serve as a Consul and will be a Legion Champion for larger games where I can spare the points.

 First Legion Astartes Champion (Terran) in mkIII Armor 

With the Dark Angels challenge complete, I moved on to the remaining Warhound titans for my Legio Tempestus project.  Lots more camouflage practice and loads more custom checkered decals. I'm very pleased with how this little group of four turned out.

Legio Tempestus Warhound Battle Titan for AT - Turbo Canis

Legio Tempestus Warhound Battle Titan for AT - Facta Belli

Legio Tempestus Warhound Battle Titan for AT - Dente Ferrum

Legio Tempestus Warhound Battle Titan for AT - Lux Curet

With the four Warhounds finished, the plans for a maniple were complete. These four Warhounds were my most ambitious project for the year and took basically the entire summer to complete, though I was away for a two week holiday in there. These models are great fun and I'm, psyched to have a load of miniatures for the greatest game I will likely never play. ;)  A second Warlord was built this season and stands ready for paint as well.  Not to mention a load of tiny Knights.  So plenty to do in 2019/2020 with this project.

The Completed Maniple for Legio Tempestus 

In addition to the painting work, I built A LOT of models as well. I have another 1K of 30k Dark Angels ready to paint.  The new models represent a Zone Mortalis force and introduce a new Dreadnought and terminators along with a breacher squad.

Two Cerastus and two Acastus knights for Adeptus Titanicus are build and waiting for paint along with three Questoris knights.  I even built my Forge World Cerastus Knight-Castigator for the House Taranis 40K project.  That model might just be what I paint up for #MonsterMarch4.

Many Kill teams got build as well, my favorite being a Chaos Fallen team. Not playign much Kill team right now, so they got put to the back of the queue.  I built all of the Black Fortress heroes, but still need to assemble the bad guys. I'm looking forward to playing that game.  I keep collecting all fo the expansions for the day I DO finally play it.

And last up, I built all of my Primaris models as Blades of Vengeance.  Some of the Characters are on the painting table now so expect to see a lot more of them this painting season.  DreadTober may well see one of the knew war suits painted too...

And with that the season comes to a close, a least in terms of finished projects.  After a final summer weekend camping trip, I will be back with a Vengeance (see what I did there?) to kick off the 2019/2020 Hobby Season.  Hope to see you there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!