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Hi Folks, As first progress report for this months entries on mine in 12MoH, here come the Castellax Automatas. Of course they cannot be fielded as such in 40k setting, but they will be very decent proxies for Phosphor blasters' tooled-up Kastellans. And the model is rather gorgeous, although less bulky than the 40k one... Building has been rather easy even if long. indeed these chaps are set in numerous bitz. the cut might eventually have been made less complex. I am not too sure it brings that much getting the arm made out of 7 or 8 bits. And I am barely caricaturing... My biggest deception was the weapon sprue. You've probably seen in reviews that you get only one set of cutting blades for example. I would have like getting two of these robots view cutting diamonds disks, but I'll have to content myself with chargers... The paint scheme sticks to the rest of my AdMechs little guies. A grey with some touches of red and metallics. But Cqstellax being Castellax, I increased the amount of brass metal for their, how to call it, bulby head canopy? Oh, and BTW, this is solving some of the remaining mystery bases that were disclosed a few blog entries ago. Only one left... Rest of the week end was spent on preparing the rest of my pledge: base coating the 2 resurrected Inquisitorial henchmen, clipping one of Volkus building sprues and making paint tests on the rumbles. I will go to a paint job aligned with my other ruins, although introducing some small variants for windows and floors... We will see how it ends up... See you soon.

Hi Folks, A very rapid update of my progress on my second vow. The Attaché and the plasma containers were completed earlier this month; the same with de Sydonian dragoons. All of these were all done in a quite a decent amount of time. But I am struggling a little bit more with the Serberys units. Yet, after a rainy WE, I've got some time to progress. Mounts are now all done for the Raider and the Sulphurhound units. The cyberhorses were done exactly qs their brothers from the first vow. The Sulphurhounds, well, too... This leads to units that are not so easy to distinguish on the table one from another. I hope that once the riders will be positionned, this will change. Yet, of course, the proper design differences between the 2 mounts (or lack of difference) does not help too much. I expect the pistolier design will bring some visual impact allowing a better definition of the R&R. Close ups make the difference more obvious though. The pounches of the Sulphurhounds are a design detail that I especially like. Riders are at 50% more or less, so getting a full completion of my vow this week is possible. To be continued. See you in a next installement of this blog. Cheers,

Hi Folks, As we reach mid of August soon: it is time to get an update on my pledges for both challenges. Shared pledges in fact, at least partially. I indeed vowed for 12MoH 2 Ironstriders and 2 Plasma Generatorium while enlisting in CTA24 5as a second vow) the very same items plus - Serberys and 1 Attaché. So how does it goes so far? I, of course, started by the stuff pledged for August in 12MoH. I am currently making some paint tests on the Generatorums but it does not necesarilly goes that well. Or at least I am lack of self convinction. But, what else went better? The chickens of course (just in cqse the banner was not explicit enough). I managed to paint both over the last week. And it went not too bad. Just make your own opinion: Once again I globally sticked to my usual paint scheme, except I did not wash the bone coloured legs this time. It makes them less dirty than the Onagers´ones. but it is fine like that. What else could I report? Serberys are all primed: I will go 3 Raiders and 3 Sulphurhounds. But I will start these latter on. The Attaché went fast, I could even have fielded it in the 2h challenge. If I can keep the rythm, I am on good tracks. See you soon with more stuff, hopefully.

I Folks, After a small break to recover my sanity after almost completed Pteraxii decided to take q shades bath (leading to a full stripping and repaint for 2 of these bat-cyborg-men) I finally completed my vow. It took me quite much time than usual in fact. But these Serberys and Pteraxii are really really requiring calm and concentration for... everything - from painting to assembly to detailling... The final result is OK, the models are gorgeous but it is definitively not a Combat Patrol box for people without a decent hobby experience. I painted 69 pts. 1 Admech Patrol box inc. 1 Manipulus (5pts) 3 Serberis (6 points) 10 Skitarii (10 points) 5 Pteraxii (5 points) 1 Master of the Watch (5 points) 1 Archeotechnologist (5 points) 1 Engineseer (5 points) 1 Marshall (5 points) 10 Negavolt cultists as proxi Electropriests Admech scenery inc. 3 small machines (3 points), 2 big machines (4 points) and 1 generator (6 points) I set the Pteraxii as Sterilizors. just for the look. And the idea to get some welding lamp holding bats on the field is somehow attractive. So steampunk. I wonder how they will rend in gaming performance. One sure thing is that they span is so wide that, in respect of other jump pack troops, they have a serious handicap. Screening and COver will be difficult to get. I was eventually thinking into expanding the unit to 10, but this will probably be, for survivability of these mostitos, a bad idea. It is now time for a second vow! I, bouargh, heed the Call to Arms and pledge to paint: 6 Serberis (12 points) 2 Sydonian Drqgoons (6 points) 1 Regiment attaché (1 point) 2 Plasma Generatorums (8 pts) For a grand total of 27 points for the Glory of Adeptus Mechanicus and the Imperium Stronghold on or before 17th September 2024, or bear the badge of failure until years end I learned quite a lot with the 3 Serberys from my first vow, so I think I cqn get these 6 new ones faster done. I will go for 3 Raiders, to complete the previous unit, and 3 Sulphurhounds. I now go to priming station (a.k.a backyard); see you soon with some progress (hopefully)

I succumbed to the charms of the Machine God and started a new army for Stygies. For the moment it is not structured at all. Units are selected on a "I like this one factor" and will not allow anything else than free play. Her is what I have: - Mago on Abeyant - Macrotek with its thralls - Termite - The old "get started box" with another Seer, a squad of Skitarii and the Skorpius Dunerider So far I started with the 2 first from the list and here is the current state: More views in my galleries, so, feel free to consult though my profile and share comments and advises. Thanx

Hi Folks, As fantasied in a previous instalment of this blog, I tried to play to the "What-if HH minis were introduced in the 40K SKitarii setting" game. I short listed the potential candidates, and, after cooking some rules adaptation I reached a point where some custom datasheet can be shared. Without pretention. The design process has been anything but playtested. I indeed started with a kind of rule of 3, leading to start from the diferencial perfiles from the Mago and Myrmidons (as I will start with these) in the HH rules, and then translating them, with an offset, to the 40k era using the Dominus perfile as a base case. Once done, I went though a small statistic simulation of performance and yield agianst usual standards: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly (a.k.a. the Primaris Intercesor, the fool Fire cast xeno and the Grot); all credit to MSExcel. Result were... Well, just consider that it did not make the cut. So back to the workbench after some key learning: 1. HH is repleted of special rules that are not so easily transposable. 2. Perfiles differences in HH are quite extreme if transposed to 40k just by proportional rating, especially for Mirmydon than would become beastial beasts 3. 40k datasheet Factions and Core abilities, even if they represent a painful amount of info to remember and to manage (as literally every and each unit has something special to claim), are in fact a most rationnal way to balance a set of datasheet without bloating too much stat lines. It is still however impossible to rate pointwise in a smart and mathematically simple way. Result has been a full revision of the design (pompous) philosophy: making the Myrmidons eguals to Mago Dominus but i) working in band and ii) shifting their features for some more cult specific abilities rather than leadership features. What is a cult specific ability one may ask? Well, on the first hand the Myrmidons are probably more heavily augmented with tooling oriented toward war and survivability. Rather than more Svg or T increase I dealt with this through the Feel-no-pain system. On the second hand they belong to sects such as the Secutor (HtH) and the Destructor (kill-shoot-kill). To be reflected in gear and abilities. For weapons, stats were taken or adapted fom baselines of other Admech, Knights or others existing datasheet, adjusting the BS o CS only. The delivered product ended-up (with a fancy Warhammer - Home-Cooked datasheet format (Thank you Paint.net)) as these 2 wannabe-a-40k guy-too datasheets: Point wise I set both at 210 pts. It is not cheap, and it will not really compete with existing legal entries (Kastellans for example). Also, most probably, Destructors as I set these will have a lower battle yield than Secutors. I did not repeat the extensive simulation attempted with my own elected triumvirat for mortality evaluation. Neither did I extend these to vehicles. But It has been a fun stuff to produce at lunch time. What do you think? PS: I also have some dessert slowly cooking for the other units I short listed, maybe, with some extra sugar and colourful topping, they migh end-up in that format too someday. See you soon

Hi folks, I will not make it. My target of completing the last unots of my CTA24 first vow before end of week will not be achievable. Current temp rise and high humidity make any painting or modelling attempt catastrophical. paint dries on the brush and in the pot once opened, gets thick, crackle while drying... Anyway, I have been able to complete the painting of the separated items of the Skitarii just before this hot summer time really appeared, so I have been left this week only with the final assembly and glueing. Which went quick and fast doing it at 6:00 a.m. As one may notice I am well above the number or arc guns than allowed in the dataslate (3 vs. 1!). This is in fact the final step of my legalization/optimization of my Rangers units. I indeed already field 2 units but fitted only with Arquebus and plasma. I will therefore swap 2 mundane gunmen (one in each previously owned unit) with these arc gunners. Et voila! 3 fully kitted Ranger units I also managed finishing the Watch Master - as most of the model was painted already, missing only a few details such as cables or so, fast paint drying has not been an issue there. It is a regular result for the latter. I have been quite demotivated by the news about Imperial Agent and I managed completing this model only because it was pledged. It almost ended up into the waiting list of stuff reprogrammed-to-a-latter-yet-to-be-confirmed date. So here is the updated progess status: 64oo69 pts. Close to finish line. 1 Admech Patrol box inc. 1 Manipulus (5pts) - Completed 3 Serberis (6 points) - Completed 10 Skitarii (10 points) - Completed 5 Pteraxii (5 points) - WIP 1 Master of the Watch (5 points) - Completed 1 Archeotechnologist (5 points) - Completed 1 Engineseer (5 points) - Completed 1 Marshall (5 points) - Completed 10 Negavolt cultists as proxi Electropriests - Completed Admech scenery inc. 3 small machines (3 points), 2 big machines (4 points) and 1 generator (6 points) - Completed Weather forecast is showing an improvement from Thursday afternoon (which is today´s by the way); may be I will have enough time tonight to tresume these Pteraxii... Afterall, most of these is done. But I often need more time for details that for main areas. See you soon.

Hi Folks, It has been a busy week. I managed to progress quite a lot on my pledge, although it is not yet 100% completed. At the moment I can had to the rooster the 3 Serberys and the Manipulus. The latter was supposed to be the last miniature to be painted but in the end it took over the Pteraxii. The Raiders were configured in the standard tooling for a unit of 3: sticking to the manual. I have some others on their way and when I will expand the gang, the 3 additional raiders will be only gunners. The Manipulus has been fitted in the exact opposite of the one I already have. So, the second head option and the railgun/ray of death stuff. Is it all I did? Not really. Most not to say all the other entries are started and at various completion levels. Rangers are progressing and are at something close to 80% finished. Pteraxii have received all their base colours and I am starting the detaling steps. Watch Master is also well engaged, even if I left him aside after publication of the Imperial Agent news. Felt depressed by the dirrecion DW is probably going to... Here is the resulting progess status: 49oo69 pts. So a little bit more than 70% 1 Admech Patrol box inc. 1 Manipulus (5pts) - Completed 3 Serberis (6 points) - Completed 10 Skitarii (10 points) - WIP 5 Pteraxii (5 points) - WIP 1 Master of the Watch (5 points) - WIP 1 Archeotechnologist (5 points) - Completed 1 Engineseer (5 points) - Completed 1 Marshall (5 points) - Completed 10 Negavolt cultists as proxi Electropriests - Completed Admech scenery inc. 3 small machines (3 points), 2 big machines (4 points) and 1 generator (6 points) - Completed I have to amnage to close some stuff this week, as coming August is rather busy and will send back the stuff uncompletetd to a latter date in the month. And if I want to enlist a second vow, it is better trying out to manage the time left as a rare and key ressource... See you soon.

Alongside the elite Skitarii regiments, whose allegiance and command was owed ultimately to Mars, and the Collegia Titanica, which comprised the planet-shattering Titan Legions, both of which organisations operated separate military traditions of their own, the Taghmata formed the great trinity, the ‘Triad-Magna’, of the Mechanicum’s power during the Great Crusade. Besides these three there stood the ‘lesser’ independent and allied divisions of the Mechanicum such as the Knight Houses, the Ordo Reductor, the Explorators and the Legio Cybernetica, among others. Each was a great power in its own right, but all were dwarfed, both in scale and reach, by the great three. I Folks, As the plasticized HH era Mechanicum is likely to hit the shelves soon (sooner than later I hope), some debates come back on the scene about if (or not) these plastic keits will be usable in 40k. My opinion is that they will not*. At least if we talk of bridging the two temporal line allowing reuse of models by means of rules set in each gaming system. I copied as a header an extract of the limited amount of Lore included in the Liber Mechnicum as an illustration to my point. Shall the HH era Triad-Magna be set as a seed for the split of work between the army lists in both setting, we clearly end up with segregation from the Lore n the factions taht may support Skitarius being something distinct from all the feudal Taghmata. And the latter ha sprobably not passed the heresy, being cleaned and purged in the time lap up to 40k era (because of war attrition or action of Arcuitors). The "gathering retinues" of powerful warlords and serving feals that used to be the Taghmata is maybe not over but secondary in the Indomitus era. This one will focus on Skitarius only, ie the "regulars" of the AdMech. And I guess it is fine like that. So, am I advocating in direction of getting a strict segregation and treating the idea of crossed used unts as a born-dead idea? Not necesarily. Indeed the rest of the header also introduces the "lesser" branches. and these lesser branches play a role in the Skitarii forces as supporting unit. Let´s see: Corpuscarii and Kastelan are part of a clergy branch and Legio Cybernetica. They are not Skitarius. So, there is already an existing status that imlies a kind of permeation of the Skitarius with outer units. This is the mouse hole I think we may use as hopium for integration of some, in limited extend, HH range models into the 40k range. Wish list. In my opinion, options that might be acceptable are rather limited but one might consider: Magos on Abeyant - 40k illustrations portfolio sometimes include hoovering Magos, so, why not. Myrmidions - They are a lesser order and they are rpesented like that in the 40k lore associated to Skitarii legions. SO they only have to step on the stage. Yet, would it be Secutor or Destructor or both? Ordo Reductor - Skitarium needs a Titanic model that is not a Knight and would be Siege oriented. They do not need it for game reason if Knights fulfill the role but for fluff. And rule of kool. Krios tanks as these are marked as (I quote) "never [being] seen [in] service outside the Taghmata and Skitarius". Beyond that point we might then get the usual use as proxies for Magos´model and eventualy Castelans as archaic Kastelans (or part of one of these wandering Maniples that comes out of nowhere and go back there after) , but I would not expect much. And being proxies, so, no dedicated rules. Otherwise I do not see much room for the rest as, mostly, all HH entries would be redundant with existing Skitarii entries (although Skitarii are not as bulky and punchy than Ursarax or Thallax, but it is not what we meant for or look for). Of course as a wish list, I´d personaly like to see more Automatas (Vulturax or Thanatar), Arcuitor, Secutarii inc. Arxiarch... But I do not think this will happen (although I wish I´d be wrong). In the case of Secutarii (one will underline they are available through Legends except the Arxiarch), I even think that they are in a dead end alley even for HH. As you cannot ally Admech with Admech in HH setting and as Titans (which is the only way to field Secutarii) are considered as AdMech, you just can`t have them except playing an Astartes Legion or Solar. Limited scope indeed. Alternatively Skitarii may have plenty of room for their own units,(see for example list on Lexicanum fed from references from GW and Black Library) such as bulky bodyguards, Ogryn VAT servitors... Or anything else: afterall, neither Pteraxii nor Skratos were foreseen. Now, in case nothing from above would happen in the short/medium range (or at all) , what about trying up some House rules? Let's see what I cqn cook for the Abeyant and the Myrmidons in next instalments of this Blog. See you soon. *with exception of Knights.

Hi Folks, After 5 weeks of challenge, and a welcomed holiday break, I am back to the brushes since last week. these past 10 days I managed to have some progress, although less lighting fast than it isued to be last year at the same period in the previous challenge. But, hay, it is an endurance run afterall, and I may eventually boost up my productivity latter. I started with the Serberys mounts. I have been excesively enthusiatic and I did not consider prepainting at all. Big mistake. these model require being as much painted as possible befor being glued together. Their sheer complexity makes that many parts are hard or impossibkle to reach with the brush once assemblied. anyway, after a lot of corrective touches to cover paints spots left here or there during the contorsionist´s exercices needed to paint the bellies of the cyber horses, the mounts are done. Next job will be the riders. I also spent time on the 3 minor heros, completing them all. The Marshall and the Technoarquelogist went rather fast, keeping the usual pallet of colours. It makes that the Marshall does not stand out much. But it is a cyborg and is not supposed to have any personality, so I guess it fits the big picture. Getting some more baroque stuff and a cloak is probably much more a sign of the ego of his master than wants a shiny puppet to show to his mates. The last figure is the kit-bashed Mining Priest, with hydraulic claw and mining laser, I previously introduced in a blog entry (May 9th). This one went even faster. 6 hours gran total inc. basing and drying, and a quite long drive to and back from the supermarket to fill up the fridge. Here is the resulting progess status: 38oo69 pts. So a little bit more than 55% 1 Admech Patrol box inc. 1 Manipulus (5pts) 3 Serberis (6 points) - WIP 10 Skitarii (10 points) - WIP 5 Pteraxii (5 points) - total 26 points 1 Master of the Watch (5 points) - WIP 1 Archeotechnologist (5 points) - Completed 1 Engineseer (5 points) - Completed 1 Marshall (5 points) - Completed 10 Negavolt cultists as proxi Electropriests - Completed Admech scenery inc. 3 small machines (3 points), 2 big machines (4 points) and 1 generator (6 points) - Completed Not too bad, but there is still some work ahead. Riders and rangers have received the black and metal drybruch and I will focus on them next. The Master of the Watch is waiting for some attention now that it has his black and his maatal done. but I keep him for dead times. Manipuls will the the cherry on the cupcake once Pteraxii will be done. These look rather complicated to assemble. I do not want to screw up so I am thinking on the best way to do. See you soon.

Hi Folks, I had a dream, a dream where I could enlist different stuff for CTA24 and the 12 Months challenge. It will remain a dream. Time being what it is, a rare and limited ressource, I had no choice than enlist a comon entry for the 2 challenges in July. This common entry is the Negavolt Cultist unit (x 10), to be used as a proxy for Electropriests. I will call them Corpuscarii Zealots. They are designed as something inbetween the electrofists and the power staff, so, upon games they could be used either as one or other unit. As a scheme I have been tempted to add some "variety". I already did it with some Legend Secutarii Hoplite, breaking my Custom Forgeworl Colour scheme. I repeated the process this time again. Afterall, Electropriests are not related to Skitarii Legions. They are rather allied factions within the Mechanicum. So, why should they follow exactly the same painting patrons as the Skitariis and their Leaders? OK, they belong to the same world, so maybe a series on common points could be welcomed? Let´s check - Red armour pieces ? - No, Negavolts run almost naked - Grey tabards - Possible, but I am not convinced - FW Symbol - I cannot imagine where one can fiend enough free spoace available on Negavolts miniatures to put a decal on... Looked like a dead end alley. I finally opted for a distinct way, let´s call it "inverted scheme". Instead of getting a grey major with red as upgrading colour, I went for main dark red with greyish details. "Main" should be understood as Tabards and "Details" as wrist amd anckle bands. It sorted out not too bad. To my taste. The alectric blue coils really help to create the contrasting point these crouching minis needed. As there are only 2 poses, the diversification comes mainly only by mean of disitnct distribution of the Medusae cables and plugs snaking from the heads. Being snap minis, no prepainting was done. Of course it limits accessibility to internal details and an accurate eagle eye watcher with miniatures in hands will see that they are globally one level bellow the other skitarii of my army. Only stuff wrong: Base size. I Ebayed the miniatures without bases and I did not checked which base size comes with the Electropriests. As a consequences these are mounted on 25 mm bases instead of 32 mm. I am not obsessed by this theme, yet it might eventually requires a future correction with diameter extansion rings. Fortunatly, my basing is simple enough to allow that potential modification without screwing up everything. That´s all for the moment. Let´s now assembly Seberii from the patrol box enlisted in CTA24. I feel like this will not be a quiet journey. See you next time.

Hi Folks, CtA 2024 has been launch and it is time to set a first progress report. For the moment, I decided to focus on my AdMech. This New Year New Army project started in 2023 still need to be strengthened. My first pledge is therefore oriented i order to egt some supporting troops that were missing on the rooster. The pledged models are: 1 Admech Patrol box inc. 1 Manipulus (5pts), 3 Serberis (6 points), 10 Skitarii (10 points) and 5 Pteraxii (5 points) - total 26 points 1 Master of the Watch - total 5 points 1 Archeotechnologist (5 points), one Engineseer (5 points) and 1 Marshall (5 points) - total 15 points 10 Negavolt cultists as proxi Electropriests - total 10 points Admech scenery inc. 3 small machines (3 points), 2 big machines (4 points) and 1 generator (6 points) - total 13 points For a grand total of 69 points. Although I usually keep scenery as a "snack" between units, I decided, this time, to start with them. My time table is rather busy and I only managed saving some minutes everyday for hobby. As I treat these models mainly by dry brushing, the perfectly fit in my agandea. When Technicity meets time constraints... Without saying much, here are the first victims of my marginal contribution to this year contest: The sigil of Adeptus Mechanicus is watching you: I sticked to my usual scheme of bone gantries amd greyinsh structure, There is more metallic parts though on this model. More details bellow: The machineries are also from KT set - but these were Ebayed. Once agian I kept it simple and aligned with all myprevious stuff for Sectro Mechanicum: And that´s it for these few days. Next progress report will touch some of these new units. Only stuff I am sure of is how I will assemble the models: - Vanguards - Serberys raiders - and Pteraxii Sterylizors Except Vanguards, all these models will require that I adopt some variant for the paint scheme in order toa dadpt it to the specific features of the sculpts. Same will apply to the Negavolt cultist used as Electropriests proxies... But we will see this in a next instalement of this Blog.

... Or almost one year later, what is the status of my "legalizing" effort to adapt my armies to 10th? This used to be one of my first entries in this blog and I feel like it is worth setting a kind of progress report. Remember, last year, after launch of 10th, the state of my armies was more or less: - AdMech (New Year / New Army 2023) - to be redesigned. - Eldars - requiring a big refresh. - Death Watch, - claiming for love for the Veterans One year (or almost) later, what is the state of the revamp? Let´s start with AdMech - the easy part in fact. At the time I barely aligned 1 and a half patrol box. So "legalizing" was not really the most appropriate term, as, indeed, I could not even pretend that I was able fielding anything playable at the time. Now, the Army has grown in a rather, let´s admit it, significant manner. It is in its maturity time where adjunctions are more intents to diversify the tactical options than required investments. It is still a challenge to face these points drops (see balnce dataslates) every quarter, but in the end I can get a good and stable core at 2000 pts with nice posibilities for variations around. And more to come. Then the Aeldari. They haven´t had any love since 3rd Ed so, anyway, 10th did not bear any guilt into their derelict status... But , hey!, it is easier to borne the responsability on rules reedition, nope? Call to Arm 2023 put me on the way of "redemption" and I managed painting almost everything I had. Then I Ebayed some stuff to get legal Guardian squads and jetbike unit a full strenght. I added everything that was needed so far 2 Serpent platforms and 1 HW platform, plus the 2 bikes that were missing to reach 9 riders. Great, nope? Well, nope. Ebay being Ebay (or rather Bouargh being Bouargh (aka a compulsive buyer)) I bought more stuff. Another HW platform, just in case, as I still have enough legs and torsos for 1 or 2 additional guardians squads, another extra bike (converted into an Autarch), 2 warlocks, a D-cannon and an old ooP Spirit warrior, for a proxy wraithlord. Plus plastic kits for Rangers on foot and on bikes and more guardians. I don´t really know why for the latter. Most has gone to a rejuvenated Pile of Shame and will be involved, hopefully, in the resuming CtA 2024. Finally DW. I did not do anything there. The 2 boxes I would require to redesign the Vets squads are still at GW warehouses. For a good time, at least untill getting a new version of the 2024 Roadmap and entering in sheer FOMO panic... But "finally" was not a real final: I indeed forgot to include, last year, my armoured fist company of Astra Militarum (SW auxilliaries). Legalization was quite small here as it consisted into adding the 2 regimental advisors missing on the rooster (fly guy and blind guy). Ebayed too. It makes me think that I´ll need a command squad may be, and building this HW squad sitting at the bottom of my Pile of Shame ever since before COVID too... I was planning last year a very limited amount of investment, excluding AdMech. I went out of control. Litterally. Eldars saw an increase of some 800 pts, considering what I disclosed here, more stuff and even more if putting into the equation DE stuff affiliated to Ynnari that joined the frey. Astra Militarum also have a potential of 200 pts and something waiting to be converted from GSC sprues I grabbed by "accident" + recycling some of these AdMech bitz accumulated. I largely recomposed my Pile of Shame while on Feb 24 it was reduced to 6 wolves, two kitbashed Rhino and Land raider and 3 ooP Rhinos chassis only. All of these still remain to in the waiting zone of course... A "consolation" I have is that all of the stuff was obtained with discounts between 15 to 30%. Even considering Ebay and comparing what I paid vs. the charged price for equivalent stuff on GW webstore. Let´s say, in a more positive way, that I was preparing myself actively for the CtA 2024 event (without knowing it). So, see you there, for sure.

Hi Folks, It has been a while since I published in this blog. Not so long but longer than the weekly puvlishing rate I defined as a target of mine in January. Anyway, volume does not necesarilly means quality. And as far as quality is concerned, I am still struggling to raise the level of my contents... This blog´s purpose was to follow up the cleaning of my Pile of Shame. Yet it looks like tha, recently, the Pile grew up mopre than it shrinked down. Too much stuff bought here or there beyond the targets of strictly legalizing what remains to be painted. This boarding patrol for AdMech is one of the guilty investment I made earlier this year. Now, 3 months latter, it is fully painted. Here is the result: I decided to boost the HtH capabilities of my AdMechs adding these Breacher, Hoplites and Sicarians. SOme other pics with different angles allow seeing the different units better, even if most can be found in previous Blog entries, individually featured. The Hoplites are the last unit painted. They have been a kind of pain to build. Superglue looked like it did not glu anything except my fingers. But in the end it is rather OK, even if some poses for 1 or 2 minis are a little bit odd. But I did worse before, so, I am rather OK with these. I decided to revise the paint scheme for this unit -being a titan Legion associated unit, they bear their own livery, distinct from my Forgeworld. Cloak is black with red inetrnal aprt and armour darker and fully metallic. I can be eventually better appreciated there: That´s all for today folks. Next steps will be to come back to decluttering of my pile of shame: I bought on ebay some Warlocks and Platforms in order to compleet some old Guardians squads that were on sprues for more than 25 years. Platforms are done and the 20 guardians (10 Defenders and 10 Strom) will be my pledge for 12 Months of Hobby 2024 - April. Let´s see you later.

(... Except if some more come on bargain inside miniature bundles.**) Hi Folks, Yes, these are going to be the last Kataphrons I include in my army on purpose. This addition will raise my count to a fourth unit: one unit of 3 Destroyers with grav cannon and flamer one unit of 6 Destroyers with plasma culverin and blaster one unit of 3 Breachers with arc gun and hydraulic claw and as the latest addition this unit of 3 Breachers with arc gun and arc claw These were coming with a Boarding Patrol - on sheer discount - and were not really desired; or at least not on the top 3 of my buying list*. But, hey, here they were! Close up are not too fancy. I sticked tio the paint scheme of the rest of the force. My only extravagance has been for the last one, passing over a wrecked chimera panel. This leaves me only with the Skitarii foot troopers to be painted from this box. They will be fitted with the FW Secutarii hoplite kit. The resin parts has been soaped to remove molding liquid and everything is ready to be primed. But this will go in my April pledge for 1 Year of Hobby. Let´s see you soon once more stuff will be added to my Admechs. * List includes Marshall, Serberys riders and Negavolt Cultists as proxi for Corpuscarii Priests. ** Just realized that these chaps' sprue has been designed in 2014. It's their 10th year birthday! It is therefore more and more likely they could be redesigned before I might buy some more "accidentaly".

Hi Folks, I considerably slowed down my painting rhythm lately. It could be a kind of hibernation syndrom. Or the fact that I am close to ending up with my 40k Pile of Shame and that it is a final step I, in an unconcious way, do not want to pass. Or that I am a little bit bored. Anyway, slowing down does not mean not doing anything. After a glorious series of 5 models painted in 2 months or so, I duplicated this number last WE by adding to my AdMech Biinaric force 5 Sicarians Infiltrators. A milestone. Sort of. The scheme applied to the rest of myforce was declined on them too, with very little changes. One red stripe on the helmet. You bet it is a big change! These models are probably the most difficult to build from all the AdMech models I assemblied so far. They are very fragiles and show some relative "Flexibility" that make me fear that any kind of remotely light table-top quake or fall from top of a scenery element might be fatal. They however get a nice presence on the table thanks to the size. The Princeps is probably the oddest model of the squad; oddest because its cloak does not fit in well for me. I would have been more inspired building it with the spare plain body, leaving the cloak away. I find it "out of place". Matter of taste I imagine. Weapon wise I went to taser and needle gun, even if I find the stub pistol had a better look. But rule wise, you have to swap the pair of weapons. And as the probabilities to do something better with the taser goad and the needle pistols are a tad higher than with the power weapon and the stub pistol,... Rational choice led me to this configuration. Ohh, and by "tad", one shall not lure itself: against a Primaris Intercessor, this unit will probably not do better than 1 unsaved wound in shoot and 1 unsaved in HtH per turn. If they can engage the enemy and survive to the encounter at full body count. It is an objective grabber and keeper, not a shock troop unit. At 10 cyborgs strong it might eventually be different. But I am not yet ready to increase its size. This unit was from the Boarding Patrol Box I grabbed in January at tremendous discount. I painted the Mago previously as you might have seen. I will see if I add the Skitarii or the Breacher as a vow for my March pledge in the Hobby Challenge. For the Skitarii, I will use the a Secutarii Hoplite kit to get them tooled up for HtH. This unit is not too bad as we saw it in a previous entry of this Blog Series. And I am planing a different colour scheme. To rejuvenate the Love... See you latter. I have building and scenery dry brushing waiting for me.

Hi Folks, It is not really a post resuming my last year´s "New Year New Army" series, but almost. My February vow for the 12 Months of Hobby Challenge came back in the dominions of the God Machine, focussing on 2 miniatures; a Mago Dominus, from a Boarding Patrol set a ooP Reaver Titan from EPIC 2nd Ed., or at least it was the edition available when I bought it And here are the happy painted ones: The Mago is as per my usual paint scheme for my Not-Stygies VIII force. I tooled it with volkite weapon and the blaster in order to amximize number of shots. The eradication ray was more of my taste for its unique character, very AdMechy, but in the end I decided to go optimized game play instead. The Titan machine was all of a challenge, mainly because choosing a paint scheme is not necesarily easy for such a miniature. You want it to have presence, be distinctive from your force, but neither otT. This antique mold does not present the armour plate partying that the recent mini may have, with segmmented area being defined by engraved aquillas of decorations. It is especilly tricky for the legs. I decided to keep it plain yellow there, without stipes or fancy details. The colours are largely inspired from models (4ok by FW) that can be found in Google. Time to think about next month´s entries. In between I will go back to my plodding along entry. I completed all the pillars from the Bheta-Decima set and primed the 2 platform sprues. This part of the challange is going to be complete sooner than I imagined. I am still trying some paint schmes for the Ryza pattern buildings and ruins. But this will be for another episode. See you soon.

Hi Folks, No painting progress ythis week. I have been kept busy by a challenging professionnal agenda and barely touched a brush. Just made some preliminary test of yellows on Micromachiens from Epic era, which turned out to be, well, no so convincing, but, hey, let´s talk about that in a future entry. So, my New Year/New Army 2023 project is now mature enough not to be considered anymore as such in a couple of weeks. But I will not commit any other New Year/New Army project for 2024 (I swear) and will instead focus on expanding the Cyborg host and/or resuming my Eldar Force resurrected this summer in the 2023 Painting Challenge. But Ad Mechs will be first, mainly because I like them better in terms of outlook. Playwise, I still do not really know how they manage beyond Patrol Format... ALthough being apparently a gunline army, these chaps are extremely mobile. If you play with some Legends units such as a Termite drill as I do, even better. But mobility means close quarters. here, I am not that convinced by my recent perfs and I feel like some extar hitting power may be needed. Which unit(s)? Kastellans - Robots looks alright now (apparently, as I still haven´t played with Codex rules) Sicarans - I do not like the models and they are expensive Electropriests - but these models are generaly speaking "ugly" and expensives, except there are some left boxes at old proces in a nearby FLGS... And beside the "ugliness" I may atttribute t these sculpts, I dislike then less than Sicarans Secutarii hoplites - I play mostly only friendly games with Legendary units and shall I have an extra Skitarii unit I´d like trying a different stuff wit them that the usual suspects (Vanguards or Rangers) Breachers - I will pass this time, I have too much Kataphrons to my taste and sanity atm As I already have a box of Kastellans and want to keep to the rule of cool that drives the project, my heart hesitate between Electropriests and Secutarii. My planned next investment in a Patrol box (new version) will let me with sprues for Skitarii that might be upgraded with the FW Hoplite kit for the cost of a single Electropriest box (more or less). So from an economic PoW, Hoplites may have a small premium. Pts-wise 10 hoplites or 10 electropriests are more or less similar. But what about their "performance" - ¡ beware of the Math Hammer"*! Shall the different versions of Priests and te Oplite be compared in their HtH performance (this is my point afterall), what does the stats say?: Weapons profiles are very close ones to anoter but differ from SPecial rules point of view (still and only talking about melée) My reference will be against an Intercessor SM - these are popular apparently Results are interesting as in the end once everything is accounted, my napkin calculations gives me that Gauntlets from Corpuscarii and ArcLances from Hoplites lead to the same probability to inflict a wound. 41-42%. Being Damage 1, the number of models removed is straight forward. Staff from the others Priest give 56% probability to inflict an unsaved hit, at D2 they break the deal. So staff is superior once in HtH. But you have to reach HtH and the Fulgurite Priests (except if in the relative safety of a transport - hello Termite of mine) might be reduced in numbers when they arrive at contact. While other guies, while wandering in the open and viced air of the battlefield, may have time to shoot a volley or two of their pistolled ranged weapons, compensating in a way the potential losses on the march. This extra dimension may change the decision making process? Qualitatively I would say: "partly". Another partial impact is the Lance rule of the Hoplites. Shall they charge, well, they may improve their kill ratio. This... plus their 0 CP heroic intervention stratagem... Hum, what do we end up with all this once accounting time as come? I guess my tabulation would say that for HtH buff unit we have a win and two quasi ex-aequos Fulgurite Hoplites Cospuscarii Maths are guiding my choice? I really like the idea of Hoplites, so, in a couple of weeks I may end up with Rule of cool being the final arbitration... And as I mostly play friendly games with Legends... What to you think? * the playskool version of course. POSTSCRIPTUM: I have considered in the main body of the blog entry mostly only the damage dealt in HtH as a "rationalized" decision making factor. Although, from a qualitative point of view, I touched the additional shooting contribution as a side benefit that might shift the case analysis. Yet the capacity of the models to survive to an attack is also an important feature. As the T of the 3 types of models are more or less the same it is the invulnerable Svg of the Hoplites that make this unit climbing to the top position in defense mode. It allows them to walk on the battlefield while Fulgurites will need to pay a taxi tax in order to really reach their full efficiency... Does it looks like I am looking for any argument to go for Hoplites?

As most, or even all, hobbyists than want to end before they even took the time to think out how proceed wisely, I used to have built hundreds of models before painting them. Thousands in facts. And I end up with stuff taht sometimes was impossible to paint in a "satisfying" way because many parts of the model are uneasy to access to. and so paint can be applied except at high cost of contortions, stains and retouching. Which most of the time is worse than the issue it is meant to solve. Anyway, I only recently started to apply this trick (I really wish someone would have told me this before, but they were probably too busy doing the same mistakes as I did or laughning out loud on people commiting this 1o1 mistake of building the models without taking into account the painting step). No acrititud there. So, how it works and why would one paint models before assembly? 1. because otherwise it will be too complex to access some visible enough areas to be painted 2. because you cannot stand the idea that the back of the bolter should not be shaded (I can live without this one but, sometimes, it is necesary to get a proper access as part of the back of the weapon is visible enough to be like a wart on a witch nose if it is left unpainted or not detailled enough) 3. because you read/watched a tutorial saying it is a way to go and believe everything you see on Youtube. Can we agree not talking about bullet 3? Otherwise the 2 first options are still valid. I my case I will be dealing with AdMech miniatures, that are so gorgeous and full of details and character. Sometimes so much details and character that painting stuff separatly ceased to be an option. I just give as a precision that I am NOT painting bellow the robes of these TechPriests... Main things to take into account whem painting models before assembly/by parts: 1. Follow the manual (The assembly manual, not my step-by-step wanabee list of stuff) 2. Follow the manual AND track the parts numbers - I use small labelled bags so that I am sure I am not going to button up monday with tuesday 3. Paint some preassembled block that make sense - for example Front and Back torso on the Skitarii example, But it might be Legs and Torso plus arms on a SM, Decide on basis of the complexity of the model 4. Paint heads but glue them last. Why do you think GW made this tool to gather heads and paint them separately? It is NOT only to sell you another expensive tool. I has a purpose... (Which is basically that the model looks in the right direction once painted and waving his gun) 5. You can paint directly on sprue. In that case I find useful to tag the parts I need to paint. Of course it has two disadvantages: a) do not forget to paint heads and tails (obvious? I am sorry, not always, I pledge it) and b) you will need to add spot paint to correct unclipping marks. Yet the key advantage is obvious if you once tried to paint a small arm holding it with your thick fingers. Think about it with part 45 of the picture below in mind. As last advises: 6. you do not need to paint everything in details at preassembly step: some parts of the model will remain hidden once assemblied; so focus and keep effort and energy for what´s worth. 7. you do not need to prepaint everything at preassembly step: some parts of the model may be better painted once glued in postion. Especially if you are using cements with solvent that disolved paints. It sucks having worked to see that everything is now dissolved by acetone... As an example for the Skitarii, I do not paint shoulder pads at this stage, I wait for the arms to be glued... Alternative is not to use liquid cement with solvent and use Superglue... Should it be a topic for a future entry??? See? No paint on shoulder pads... 8. not all details are needed at this stage: for example, turf glueing on bases can wait for the model to be in position... Hope you will find this useful. I has been of great help to me to "discover" this obvious trick. I wished I knew it before. But, hey, I could have used my brain too? Apparently not. Or it is a very recent evolution. So I paintd my Skitarii by parts so that I could wait for the new Codex to be released. Technicaly it is not, but as Youtuber already reviwed it... I have enough info to decide on how to tool my Vanguards. As I alredy own an illegal Vaguard squad (thanks to ruel changes from 9 to 10th) and as we now know that (for a while) Vanguards can get all special weapons at once, I will assembly the 10 guies od my second patrol box with 2 purpose in mind: - get a shiny new squad completed fitted with haywire, plasma and sharpshooter radiactive longgun - redistribute with my existing squd so that it can be fully tooled witht eh same. so once of the haywire and radium carabine model already painted in era of 9th will be swapped with a plasma and transuranic from the new squad. I will have to see if body B2-B3 can fit properly with this long gun... See you once squad will be completed.

The Series continues with the finished Kataphrons taken out of this second Patrol Box. I should say from this ooP (or soon to be) Patrol Box as anew one has been announced. BTW, what are we goint to find in this new Patrol box?: One Manipulus Five Pteraxii Three Serberys One battleline squad of Skitarii. I already commented in the forums that it is IMHO a significant change into the structure of the "Patrol" type of content vs. the previous one we got for AdMech: A change toward a more useful character The loss of a Tank and Kataphron delete most of the gunline feature of current AdMech Patrol The inclusion of Serberys and Pteraxii put the focus on combined arm approach - in the mood of the 10th Ed Index For me this is a huge change in the design of the Box vs. current way of gathering forces for AdMech. In fact I tend to think that this box is not a good way at all to start a new army. I see it, because of the units proposed, being more indicated for a second or third levy rather than for a core building of an AdMech force. Do not misunderstood me: I do like the composition and I will probably grab one for myself but I am a little bit confused about its potential for new AdMech players... The maths were also done and shared by various contributors, and can be summarized as: a. the new patrol box would represent a less interesting absolute discount as current cost of individual sets is about 175€ in the new configuration vs. 187,5€ for the current one; should it be sold at 125€ the discount will be lower. b. the new patrol box would represent a smaller army point value, rounding the 275 pts max in the new configuration vs. 415 pts for the current one. For sake of comparison, the SM Patrol box is about 440pts worth atm... I wonder how the patrol rules will equilibrate this... Anyway, back to the actual and current Patrol box I am painting. Here are the completed 3 Kataphrons: As promised, in the same mood and trend as the previous ones. These can be aligned as a self standing unit or join the existing one into a big 6 Servitors strong unit. With these bases, these use a lot of space on the tabletop... That´s all folks. Until next time. I will go back to the bench and keep on painting the SKitarii, or rather prepaint them by parts, until I am decided on how to tool them. Codex to be relesaed soon will play a decisive role (obviously) in the decision making. So, do not expect anything related to AdMech until the release of the Book of Mars.

Blog entries pass and sometimes look like very similar to some previous ones. It is one of the issues when dealing with army building on base of multiples buy outs of the same Patrol Box... Yet we might eventually expect some variation if the models are fitted in different fashion, ain´t we? The Onagre DuneCrawler as already been spoiled in the FOrums, but it has been the major progress of the past week so I will "proudly" republish it there. It is also an unhonorable way to fill this post as I have little to say in fact. Little to say but not necesarily nothing "new" to share. "New" being relativa as it is probably the second or thrird time I share some Kataphron tarck units painted and waiting for the upper body. So here we are this these 3 tracks for Destroyers. I have been quite rapid with these as I started them on friday afternoon. It is one of the virtues of serial painting: once you practice your paint scheme and made all the most obvious and common mistakes, you can go faster on your second or third iteration of the same type of unit. Yet tomorrow is a special day and my agenda for next week being so full of time consuming tasks, I will probably not progress much more than that. Have a nice W.E and see you next time.

Since all the plans for this week end have been affected by the Ciaran storm, what can I do nbut stay at home and wait for the wind to fall? Which leaves some time for painting some stuff. The prep for the Kataphron ended with the track units assemblied and wainting for their first dry brushing (boltgun metal on tracks). But the bases are done. The sad aspect of these bases is that I clipped some skulls from CSM bitz in order to use them as scenic alements, but I completly forgot using them... Smaller Skitarii bases are not to adapted for using that kind of ornementation, so I guess I will have to fit these skulls back in the bitzbag... While painting 3 bases, why not paint 4? And here comes the larger round base of the DuneCrawler. Speaking of the Dunecrawler, the cabin/turret or whatever it might be called is done too. I will try to see how I can improve the headlights as I am not too happy with these. Most of the legs are waiting for their first layer of paint. I do not like painting the legs. Last time I spent so much time on these I had this feeling of not progressing at all. We will see if the same happens. That´s all folks. See you next time.

Now that my Patrol box has been delivered, it is time to plan for the painting. There are 4 units to be scheduled and designed, and I will start by the one that will be painted last: Skitarii. Why would I keep it for the last may you ask? Well, mainly because I wish I could have an eye on the AdMech Codex before closing my choices. I do not necesary expect changes but it might be that the Battle line units undergo some adjustments vs. the Index. Afterall, I did not expect any change for Tactial squads in SM Codex and yet it happened. I would most certainly go Vanguard, but how will these be tooled up? I do rather do some prep painting, doing legs and bodies but without final assembly until releas of the holy expensive book... Fisrt unit I will probably paint is the Crawler. As stated in the Forums already, I will be driven by "Rule of cool" more than by gaming rules. It will be set with an Annihilation Beamer. Simple. Kataphrons will strenghtn an existing unit of 3, pushinf their numbers to 6. Same out fit as the ones already done: And then, the Seer. The unit I will probably NOT paint. Or at least not too soon. I might be facing a choice here: First Option - a different piant scheme, just to change, and add it as a Seer for my Astra Militarum Armoured fist detachment Second Option - keep it for Conversion/kit bash. But this means it will join the Pile of Shame until I am decided on how and what to do exactly. Thrid Option - a combination of the previous ones ATM I am still not decided - so it will be a temporary postponing, meaning joining the "Pile of Shame"... So, it looks like the begining of a plan. While undercoat is drying, I started preparing bases for Kataphrons and Crawler. Kataphron bases are under the same type of design as previous models. Sand and rocks, plus some pavments that goes with my Sectro Imperialis table. Note the usual push printed track prints (Milliput) for mud evidence of armoured transit... The Crawler base is distinct to the initial idea. I wanted to have a wrecked Chimera Chassis coming out of the sand, but the piece endede being too big; So I will keep it for something else (a new piece of scratch built scenery or a more gargantuan base (I have some flyers waitnig for scenic bases for example...)), and instead I finally went on a dusty Imperial Plascrete road segment. Sands and rocks start covering it... Once coating will be done, painting and assembly will start...

Since the day I passed my order on the website of a FLGS, a lot of water has flown from the mountains to the sea. Let´s do the maths yourself: Order passed on July 24th and AdMech Patrol Box received on September 26th (last Tuesday). What went wrong would you ask? First we might need a small step back in time, just to reset the context: I did not want this Patrol box. Not really. Not as much as I wanted the Extermination Maniple left on shelves of the e-FLGS. But the discount on other products was attractive, and I needed anyway something to get access to their free shippment offer. Just think that after discount I was just bellow the Free shipping threshold for a dime or two. And the postage itself was worth 1 or 1 and a half character blister pack. As these were not under discount, but the Patrol box was. And it looked like being a fair deal fitting pretty well with my New Year New Army Project and the 10th Ed Index and Rules remodelling. Small detail anyway: the Patrol box was not available in the store but they proudly announced "we will get it for you". Internet coments about game store and order deliveries was quite OK/very positive, so, here I go. Order placed. But what went wrong? GW ERP? Supply shortage? Post delays? Or a little bit of everything? The Patrol was already marked as being temporarily unavailable in the GW webstore. So I expected some delays maybe. But then it shifted to available in the Spanish webstore at mid August. Yet still nothing from the the FLGS. A couple of emails latter they wrote it has been ordered, appeared on the bill of material for August resupply, but did not show up in the delivery. Warehouse issue? Probably not - apparently, from the seller´s comment, it look likes it is happening a lot: a kind of ill treatment at preparation stage for B-to-B orders that would predate Covid, Logistic crisis and ERP issue reported about GW IT projects. Interestingly they mentionned too that they are delivered from UK while private buyers are delivered from a warehouse in France (for my country area. It is true the parcel tracking leaves from Lyon´s airport, or at least it was marked as such in the last order I made at GW one year ago...) August died, September aged, and still no Patrol Box. The FLGS in fact did not get resupplied in anything - they said. Not even new stuff from Sept releases that was publicized but has been shown as unavailable right from being set online. No delivery has been reported, or at least I have been told, although shipment has been done from GW warehouse to the FLGS - "Royal Mail Service sucks" has been the explaination I have been given (And as I saw here on B&C some british fellow gamers complaining about the same, I may tend to believe it could be true). October came. I had a few trips around and did not had time to spend on this until I came back last week, seriously thinking about cancelling the order btw. But something happened: they called me directly from the FLGS. Not an email, a real phone call, saying "Hey boy, we´ve got it!" It was on Monday 23th of October. Delivery was received at my office on Wednesday by Correos and I picked it up on Thursday after my shift. So, what went wrong? I don´t really know for sure. Most probable explanation is that the stuff was unavailable and that once resupplied, priority has been given to GW webstore and GW stores´ customers - better marging than through retail sellers surely. It means that a business that manage stores but also count on local retail for distribution of its goods may have a politic of two weights/two measures: to be understood as "me, myself and I" first and retail latter. But what about countries where the GW stores are barely or almost not implanted - Portugal, Spain for example (of course these 2 countries have NOT been selected in any aleatory fashion - it is where I wander)? I am a third class customer? What else? As a lesson learnt: I will never ever order at any e-FLGS webstore some items that are not physically available on their shelves. Whatever supportive and professional they have been, they are too self-depending of GW good will. Getting their discount is still attractive and GW webstore do not applying that policy: so this will impact on my customer behaviour - I will surely reduce my amount of purchase even more as I could not get any easy access to the material I want and that fits in my budget thanks to discounts offered. And as I will try not to turn compulsive buyer, I may truly become that kind of third class customer I might be supposed to be: the one that only complains and does not buy. But anyway, great support from the FLGS. And what about my Pile of Shame? Well, nothing changed. I painted 2 HE minis from WFB, but nothing more related to 40k. So no news, except the badge issuance from the CtA 2023 Challenge. As I am too goofy to set them properly in a signature, I will share and expose them them right here: Now, let´s go planing the painting of this AdMech Patrol box! Edited: I finally managed getting the pic of badges in my signature... It has been so simple that I feel like goofier...

After a few days away I finally completed the final steps of assembly of my 2 Kataphons´ Units from my Extermination Maniple - one Destroyer and one Breacher. The Breachers scheme is finally not as convincing as I initially thought. Getting armour plates reds and tracks grey makes that the visual impact of the armour is a little bit too present I feel. On the other hand they are quite in synthony with the rest of the army, especially the Priests and Robots, but I do feel lak there is a lack of subtility. Anyway, I will not repaint them, so, they I will have to convince myself they are OK in the big picture... May be a vertical red stipe on the front shield armour would improve the whole aspect and unify the transition from red to grey? As for the Destroyers, they are more classic in their style and the red plates, even if they are still there, are not so over present. I am still waiting for my Patrol box, ordered since July 24th... When it will be delivered, I will increase the size of the Destroyers, with the same tooling, increasing the unit size to 6. As usual, some additional pics can be found in my galleries and comments are more than welcomed. This is by the way an important milestone too: as of today it only remains in my W40k pile of shame/accumulated minis: - 10 half built guardians, - 2 kit bashed tanks - 1 esher ganger - 3 IG heavy weapon teams I may add 5 ooP rhinos chassis to repaint and 6 wolves, but these ones are also used for Goblins´ carts in my old WFB... But it means I do not have any model left on sprues. Even if there are a lot of bitz on sprues now. It looks like I see the end of the tunnel since I resumed my painting at start of Covid. Might be worth a dedicated post in the future.