BERSERKERBLADE: Mechanicum

Showing posts with label Mechanicum. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 January 2020

Belated Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I know it's only a distant memory now, but better late than never, right? I hope you all had a delightful and productive holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed having a break and got a good bit of painting done to boot.

First up, I painted a Kastelan robot to add to my ever growing squadron (brigade? phalanx??).

Punchy fists for a change.

It was nice to paint another one of these guys, so much so in fact, that I completed a second one over the weekend. No photos of that one though, so you'll have to make do with a different angle on the first one.

He also has a flamer do discourage unwanted chargers.

I figure, adding a pair of punchbots to my force gives me some different options and a more aggressive Mechanicus list might be fun to try. I have a game lined up tomorrow evening, so we'll see how that pans out.

As for painting, adding some transfers and static grass tufts to these chaps really sets them off nicely. I'm still not 100% happy with the lenses, but they'll do I suppose.

Next up, I painted a random Electropriest and a Skitarii who were hanging around the painting table. Both of these are part of squads which I intend to finish this year, so it's a step in the right direction.

A bit random, but nice to have them done.

And finally, some time before Christmas, I painted up a couple of Ursarax to add to my growing Mechanicum contingent. Here's one of them that hasn't appeared on the blog before now.

Multi-panel shot. So classy!

That's about it. A selection of nice new models to get the New Year off to a (hopefully) flying start. Judging by the sneak peeks we're getting from GW, there should be plenty of fancy new models to add to my Adeptus Mechanicus army. I'm pretty excited to see what this year will bring!

Tuesday, 27 August 2019

2018/2019 Hobby Season Roundup

It seems the hobby season is at an end. (The hobby season by the way, is defined by Dave over at 40k Addict. Thanks Dave for continuing to run and support this event.)

It's been a productive and interesting year for me. I've learned quite a bit and developed as a painter in ways I wouldn't have anticipated. So, what goals did I set last year?

Complete up to 3000 points of Adeptus Mechanicus/Imperial Knights. I managed to smash this one, bringing the army up to just over 3800 points. Goal completed. You can see most of the collection here.

This has grown somewhat since the photo was taken.

Paint another Onager Dunecrawler. Goal completed. You can see it here.

I also experimented with new basing techniques.

Paint another five Skitarii Vanguard. This is an odd one, I didn't paint five Vanguard but instead I painted five Rangers (as seen here). I'm calling this one done.

Wait a second. Those aren't Vanguard!!
Complete up to 4000 points of Adeptus Mechanicus/Imperial Knights. Another odd one, I didn't technically manage this. However, if I count the 30k Automata which I painted to match the army (using the fan made points values) then I'm well over the 4000 point mark. I'm calling this one done too.

Build and paint a Cerastus Knight Atropos. Very much no. I haven't even had it out of the box since I first checked the components.

Build and paint a pair of Kastelan Robots. I built two and painted one, so about 50% done.

Build and paint a pair of Kastelan Robots. As above, this one is another crushing failure.
Finish painting Tyranid Heirophant Bio-Titan. A major victory, I got this big beauty done a few months back.

The big bug.
Finish building and painting 300 points of Infinity Nomads. Nope. I haven't played or painted Infinity this year. That doesn't mean I've fallen out with it and I fully intend to play lots of it in the future.

Stretch goals:

Make a spreadsheet to track the completion of my Tyranid collection. Done! Perhaps this was an easy win but I'll take it regardless.

Make some progress with the completion of said Tyranids. (Preferably paint more troops.) Another major victory, I painted a huge batch of Tyranid troops recently which gave me a fun, playable army.

Quick and nasty. But fun to play with.

Play some games of Infinity with fully painted forces. Nope. Haven't played Infinity this year.

Get a better grip on the rules for Infinity. Obviously, also no.

Paint my Forgeworld Mechanicum Thanatar Siege Automata. Done! I was very pleased to get this finished and I think she looks great.

I love these 30k robots.

Finish building and painting Mechanicum Vultarax Stratos Automata. Same as above, this was a really enjoyable project and I'm very happy with it.

Such a cool model.

Paint my Necromunda Goliath gang. No. I haven't worked on my Goliaths, but I feel a Necromunda session coming on in the near future.

And where does that leave us? Well, I think I'm going to scrap a lot of the leftover goals from last season and start afresh. Nothing like wiping the slate clean (sort of). So, without further ado, my 2019/2020 hobby goals are:

Paint five Skitarii Vanguard.
Paint five Fulgurite Electropriests.
Paint my Necromunda Goliath gang.
Build and paint a Cerastus Knight Atropos.
Paint a tech-priest Manipulus.
Paint some more 30k robots.
Attend College of Artisans at Warhammer World again.
Complete the Acastus Knight Porphyrion which I began painting this year.
Paint at least one Black Templar model and one Imperial assassin.

I think that will do to start with. I'm sure I will wander from project to project and have some surprising things come up that I can't currently anticipate. Here's hoping for another year of fun hobbying and gaming!

Tuesday, 23 April 2019

Mechanicum Thanatar Siege Automata

The latest addition to (what I hope will be) my assorted collection of Horus Heresy Automata is the big daddy of them all. The Thanatar Siege Automata!

I just love this thing.

The Thanatar is armed with a Hellex plasma mortar which just might be the best weapon name in the entire 40k universe. I left the mortar off for painting and then glued it on afterwards. As you can see, I went for my usual pink colour for the plasma effect.

Stripy!

I laid down some hazard striping on the left shoulder using Tamiya masking tape. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I think I'll carry this through the rest of my 30k models.

Cool ammo feed.

The model wasn't too difficult to construct. Although bending the twin ammo feed for the bolt cannons did give me some headaches it was easy enough with the application of some hot water and a few pins to hold it in place. Honestly I wish I had used more pins on this model because the ankle joints aren't that sturdy and they could have used some reinforcement. Still, if it breaks I can always drill some pins in during the repair.

Left side!

As you can see, I added a handful of transfers from the Skitarii and Armiger transfer sheets to give a bit of interest. I've really been enjoying transfers lately and I feel it's a shame I didn't use them in the early days of my Adeptus Mechanicus army. Still, every model is an opportunity to expand your repertoire of techniques and I feel I have been able to do that with these.

Since finishing the Thanatar (only two days ago) I feel at a bit of a loss of which model to pick up next. I might do another 30k model or go back to Adeptus Mechanicus and add some more infantry or a Dragoon. Ah well, such is the joy of having an extensive hobby backlog I guess. Tune in next time to see what I decided to do!

Monday, 8 April 2019

Mechanicum Vultarax Stratos Automata

A bit of an odd one out this week. As some of you may know, I have a bit of a backlog of Mechanicum automata for the Horus Heresy. Well, I decided to start making some headway with it! First up, the amazing Vularax Stratos Automata.

It's just so damn cool!

I just love the Mechanicum units; they're similar enough to the 40k Adeptus Mechanicus stuff that they look good alongside it, but they have a really ancient, mysterious feel to them. The Vultarax shares a lot of cues with the Nurgle drones but with a more streamlined, less pustulent aesthetic. Basically, I think it's awesome!

Sorry about the glare.

The Vultarax did prove tricky to photograph though. No matter how I positioned it I couldn't get rid of the annoying glare on the hull. What you see here is the best I could manage.

Did a bit of water effect on the base.

It was a delightful thing to paint though. I'm really happy with the hazard stripes on the front canopy. So much so that I think I will make them a repeating motif across all my 30k units. That should allow them to look distinct from my 40k stuff whilst still remaining a unified whole when together.

The rest of the scheme is my normal green/brass/pink which I'm sure you're all sick of by now. Special mention has to go to the lenses however; the Vultarax is absolutely festooned with them and I really loved painting each and every one.

Profile shot.

Now, to address the slight stumbling block of this project. These days I pretty much only play 40k; I don't really have the time to commit to other game systems (much as I would like to) and the Vultarax only has official rules for 30k. Hopefully Forgeworld will release some rules for their Horus Heresy Mechanicum range for use in 40k in the near future. For now, there are some excellent fan made rules available online which my gaming group has agreed to use to allow me to field this thing from time to time. Thanks a lot guys!

Anyway, that's about it for the Vultarax. I'm hoping to crack on with some more Mechanicum units and get a few more painted up very soon.