Legio Fureans

So Adeptus Titanicus is finally returned, and I am here for it!

[Brother Handro:   “you took your time...”  ] 

Exams and really life issues  took priority so it sat UNOPENED for weeks. Finally, after a busy Hobby Day with Brother Handro, I can claim some progress! 

The sprues themselves are a thing of beauty! 

Slowly taking shape...

Titans are amongst us! 

The building kits are simultaneously amazing and infuriating; they have a degree of interchangeability but several combinations simply won’t work. I focussed on a huge building with the large walls, and small buildings with the small walls. Brother Handro did the opposite. Hopefully this will give us an array of buildings to use for our upcoming games!

The shame grows! A quick, post shift, trip to Element Games resulted in some re-enforcements to the Legio, as well as a fan of lead belcher....because who has time to paint silver for days...

I’ve decided on Fureans for my Legion. Good true traitors, and suits my Kill Kill Kill tactics! The black books are full of reference images... 

Just need to learn to paint now....if only there was some way of doing it...*furiously orders stencils* 

Der H 

Instagram progress!

So, real life is in the way again. Der H is approaching his last (Der H:   “hopefully...”  ) post grad exam, and Brother Handro is merrily churning through thousands and thousands of points of Sons of Horus before Decembers  Scouring of Melos event in Stockport. 

This will be our first ever event weekend - late to the party as ever - and will see Brother Handro’s SoH and Der H’s EC battle it out with 18 other North-West heresy fanboys. Having played some of these guys before we’re expecting tough competition. The whole thing is organised by the Road to Terra guys; they’re awesome guys so check out their podcast.

Progress! 

There has been some! 

Brother Handro has been merrily painting his SoH. 33 infantry this week, and 33 to go....(Brother Handro:   “....and the vehicles” )

Meanwhile, Der H has been assembling Phoenix Terminators....after the mammoth task of relocating his modelling desk out of the city of Rapture...aka the basement of damp.... 

Hopefully it all come together for December! 

Check out our pages on Instagram:

@brotherhandro and @thehobbybutterflies 

Brother Handro & Der H 

Blood and Plunder: No Peace Beyond the Line

It. Is. Here! 

Firelock Games’ 28mm historical pirate game is something really special. I went all in for their first Kickstarter, so when the second arose I had to go big or go home!

[Brother Handro: “...is that why there’re still hundreds of lead coloured pirates in the basement?”] 

I’m a big fan of Kickstarter. It gives smaller companies the space to expand their range or start their business with guaranteed funds and a new player base from the off. I joined Alex Huntley’s 2nd and 3rd kickstarters for Arcworlde [Der H: “and haven’t painted much of that either!”  ] and always find that, with wargaming at least, the enthusiasm of the creators gets stuff finished and shipped out pretty promptly!

This Kickstarter is BIG, huge box...glad I took the landy to pick it up. 

Such goodies! 

The contents are far too numerous to list here, however I will post some pictures of the haul:

The ships are, as with the first Kickstarter, beautiful. The Paragua and Bark are relatively small, and the canoa are essentially glorified longboats with some extra rules.

The fun starts with the Fleut and the Galleon. The Galleon is a BEAST of a model, 4 decks and an impressive chunk of resin. It sounds hollow so I’m tempted to look into putting a Bluetooth speaker in to play dramatic navel music [Der H:   “Think master and commander...”  Brother Handro:   “yeeees! Do it!” ]

The faction boxes are a nice touch; the previous KS had loose figures!

The less clear miniatures are assorted characters, with beautifully crafted cards, and civilians. Always nice to see the disguised female pirates and monkey with blunderbus make an appearance! 

Like a kid in a toy shop....actually, exactly like that... 

The Deluxe/special edition/combined rule book is beautiful! Crafted with a raw cut edge... 

...it is styled to represent the style of many books of the era; Great work Firelock! 

I feel it will be a few weeks at least before I get my teeth stuck in. Exams, real life and the release of Titanicus have occupied much of my time. All being well the new year will see much more hobby time, but until then we shall plod along!

Der H 

Thought for the day:    “To wives and sweethearts; may they never meet”

Legio Praesagius walks!

Presenting to you in all its glory the first completed model for Adeptus Titanicus, Arx Argenti, Thrice Blessed, of the World Eat...Legio Praesagius...

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Oh, how the faithful have waited for this day!...I mean, assuming we managed to get our hands on Grand Master Editions (Der H - Obviously we did!), otherwise it would have been a mighty blow to our campaign plans, but fear not, the Legios will walk!

The first finished Titan, Arx Argenti (Silver Fortress), also known as the Thrice Blessed; by the Emperor, by the Forgeworld of her birth (Gantz) and by the genius that saved me from throwing it out of the window when I realised I'd messed up building the legs...

Heraldry left blank optimistically in case of Praesagius transfers in the future...

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I may throw some FW weathering powders on the lower legs and feet to dusty them up a little...

Although I didn't enjoy airbrushing this model as much as my Sons of Horus stuff, the results were more than acceptable, and practice is practice! Be warned, painting all the trim of the 38(!?) armour panels may make your brain melt...I also used enamel weathering products for the first time, and they are...tricky to get used to. You need near-microscopic amounts, a bottle will last several lifetimes. Blending them in requires patience, otherwise you end up with horrible-looking, painted-on lines or blotches. White is hardly the most forgiving colour for this either!

On the plus side, I'm well pleased with the end result, and I'd back Arx against any other tabletop standard titan I've seen so far. (Spoiler, that's precisely none). The aim, as always, is to get models on the table, not agonise over mistakes or imperfections (Inb4 Der H makes an Emperor's Children joke)...also, my World Eaters test scheme is ready to go!

Dux Ferrum, the second God-machine, is already under construction in the sacred macro-forges, and is earmarked for the hard-pressed Legion Gryphonicus...

Handro. 

Adeptus Titanicus arrives!

So, like many of you, we have both been suckered int...dutifully bought the infamous Grand Master Edition of GW's new Adeptus Titanicus range, (Der H -'Did we not have enough to do?) and I couldn't wait to get started, getting a Warlord built on release day...of course it wasn't until 3 days later I realised I'd put the lower legs on back to front...

Airbrush stage finished, onto the nitty gritty...

It is definitely easier to paint the armour panels whist still on sprue, especially if you're airbrushing.

You will be heartily sick of painting armour trim by the time you finish...

...but once it starts to come together...

Starting to put some panels into place...

Slowly, slowly...

And finally a mock-up to check the leg plates all fit as they should...once the lower legs were the right way round...

This one is Legio Praesagius, but I expect to cave in and go full Legio Gryphonicus before too long...glad I got my World Eaters test scheme down though!...

Handro

So you want to build a Storm Eagle...

Short answer - don't.

Long answer...

FW resin, meet my friend Mr. Clamps...

Now this is how the Steagle sat on my shelf for nearly a year, which was long enough for the top rear panel to almost nearly not quite fit where it needed to be...Seriously, it was, and still is way out from where it ludicrously claims it ought to physically be able to exist. The fit is so bad, I eventually had to pin both sides of the fuselage to the floor, even after hours of heating and filing. Even then, the front ramp sits in a gap that is too big for it, requiring plasticard and Greenstuff to help out.

Further on....you can see that even the plastic on this kit is bent,  the front 'flap' of the cockpit housing the (absent) Multimelta is lifting away from the hull...You can also see that the resin differs in colour, depending on whether it had sat in the sun on my shelf or the darkness of the hobby cupboard for a year...

I had to remove significant amounts of the rears of the top wing parts (where the Greenstuff is in the above pic) just to get them in, the main issue being that the front plastic top panel just wouldn't sit in the right position, consequently shifting all the parts behind it out of position...The engines are pinned into the hull for strength, most of the weight is on the wings and rear of the model (which also causes 'issues' in terms of flying stand stability). Don't forget to pin the landing skids to their legs either, I didn't trust them to hold the weight of the thing alone. Magnetising is an option here.

Pretty much there!

Here she is, pretty much done and awaiting undercoat. What a labour of...well, it wasn't love, certainly. Bit of a grind, really!

Best of a bad job an' all that...

Here you can see the WIP 'Greenstuff covered in Liquid Greenstuff' phase of the project. Yeah. It looks better than this now, promise!

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Overall, this is a great looking model (remember the brick-like abomination this kit is based on) that is dragged down by horrendous warping and bad fit. Equally it's so rear-heavy extra attention will be required to get it to go safely (and/or semi-permanently) on its flying stand. God-Emperor knows how I'll transport it either. I can't really recommend the kit itself to anyone, never mind the inexperienced modeller, just get a Spartan instead. (Der H: Funny you should mention that...) It does pretty much the same job and is more survivable (on and off the battlefield). However, if you really want, or list restrictions require you to have a flyer transport, you don't have any other option in this price range...in that case, Emperor be with you.

Handro

Handro lives!...

...and therefore builds things!

It begins...

Behold! As DerH mentioned, I did indeed pick up both variants of Land Raider Proteus at the FW Open Day, and by some dark magic, have turned them both around from bags of bits to fully built tanks in less than a week. I know, sit down, I've gone light-headed. The reason? Well, we've only gone and signed up for a campaign weekend in December, for which I bravely decided to volunteer my Sons of Horus for. Y'know, that army I've been collecting for the best part of a decade but barely has 1000 points painted. Yeah, that one.

So now I'm looking at completing around 1000 points a month until December, so I gotta build at lightning speed just to keep up my average whilst I'm unlikely to be finishing painting anything in the first month.

As you can see above, both tanks have Sons of Horus doors (on a whim, despite me picking up the newer transfer sheet too). I preferred this design to the big round eye one, the chains make it more evil somehow. (Everyone  knows chains = evil, right?)

Such has been the strength of my hobby zeal, a notorious kit that has been lurking on my shelf for nearly a year now has rolled onto the hobby conveyor belt...

I don't think there is a single straight panel on this thing...I got lucky with the Land Raiders not being as bad as I feared, but it was all paid back with interest on the Steagle...It's a little further on than in this pic; engine blocks and funny top wing things (DerH - technical term) are on and greenstuffed. On the home stretch hopefully!

Thought for the day: For the Warmaster!

 Handro.

Another year, Another ETL...

Behold - in the nick of time - my finished ETL 2018 vow to complete 6 Scimitar Jetbikes as a Sky Hunter Squadron, with a sky Hunter Sgt with Phoenix power spear of total value 270 points! Its a shame I couldn't do a second pledge, have a lovely purple Dreadclaw that is gathering dust!

For those that dont know, over on Bolter and Chainsword there is an annual event called the ETL ("E Tenebrae Lux" - Or for us peasants, "From darkness, light"). It is popular, and as such is now in its 6th year.

Pledges are made to a particular faction on the boards, and their points cumulative to that faction's grand total, 270 points is a poor show in all honesty, but real life does get in the way.

These are my first jetbikes. I have one more being built as a legion champion for Maru Skara shenanigans....but that can wait...

I even put details on the control panel - a rare treat for me!

In the works are a Dreadclaw, 2 10 man tactical squads, 5 more phoenix terminators, a librarian (for the IIIrd you say?!) and some more HQs.....oh, and a Spartan!

[Brother Handro: "That's basically 2 years' work right there...."]

Der H