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The recent replies motivated for me to try to grapple with something that I put together back in the day but never finished and, indeed, never get as much put down on paper as I seem to recall. That is, a take on the Adeptus Mechanicus. Before I try to do that in more fragmentary fashion than some of the other threads (if such a thing is truly possible), a little bit of history is needed on the discussion that centred around the Adeptus Mechanicus and how one could interpret them in the 40k setting. THE ADEPTUS "ME-CAN-ICUS" VS. THE ADEPTUS "ME-CAN'T-ICUS" This was the central historical debate around the Adeptus Mechanicus back in the day. Simply, did the Adeptus Mechanicus understand the technology that they used/created/perpetuated ("can-icus") or was everything blackboxed behind STC or, subsequently, the C'tan ("can't-icus"). As one might imagine, many thousands of words (tens of thousands!?) were posted on the fan forums of the time as to which was the most correct. I think that it's reasonable to suggest that on the "can" side, you had people focused on the tech from the original Rogue Trader* whereas others were more inspired by the "Cassocks in Space"** approach to the Imperium that was focused around the Adeptus Ministorum and "priesthood" via A Canticle for Leibowitz. * I still love the visual of having crystal control consoles rising on suspensors from the floor of a starship! ** This is obviously a prejudiced reference of the Imperium as what amounts to a medievalised version of the Catholic Church... in spaaacce. It's very much focused on the A Canticle for Leibowitz approach to the Adeptus Mechanicus and is what one might think of as the "standard" approach of GW to the orgnaisation. SO WHAT CAME OUT OF THAT? Discussion. Lots of it. Over at the Anargo Sector Project, I advocated for what I considered a "more balanced" approach to the Adeptus Mechanicus. There were other voices at the time that called for something markedly different, including the fun Philip Sibbering with his 40k Concepts (proof, if ever it was needed, that if you marry concepts to artwork you're on for a winner to start with). And for once a great deal of the inspirational materials came from GW in the form of Mechanicum (novel), Titanicus (novel), one by Matt Farrer (part of the Calpurnia novels but I forget which), and what Gav Thorpe had done with the Inquisition (mostly positive, but a mixed bag). Or rather, the inspiration came about after a lot of time was spent discussing the approach and subsequent GW/BL materials happened to fit a lot of that discussion. :) SO, THE FRAGMENTS... The central premise of this alternate (?) approach is that it tries to balance the "can" and "can't" elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The proposed answer to this was to focus on the premise of the Mystery Cult, or the notion that the lowest ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus were very much on the "can't" side of the continuum. They didn't really know what they were doing. Everything was learned by rote, and prayers and ritualism were used to obfuscate the truth behind the actions. Herein, the "Machine Spirit" (and more broadly "Machine God") were divine premises and referring to animistic principles. As one went up the hierarchy of the Cult Mechanicus, however, you brought in more and more elements of the "can" side of the continuum. Finally, Magos and Archmagos (etc.) had access to the "hidden mysteries" of technical knowledge. So, the first base. An hierarchical approach to the Cult Mechanicus before one even gets into the difference between lay practitioners and those that are invested into the Cult Mechanicus. As an example of this, the Universal Laws of the Adeptus Mechanicus (both Mysteries and Admonitions) are part of the lower-echelons of the Cult Mechanicus and are firmly ensconced in the "can't" side of things---even if there might be some variation in rank access even at this lowest of levels. If one continues to rise through the ranks of the Cult Mechanicus, however, you are introduced to what I refer to as the Derivative Mysteries/Admonitions, and finally to the Prime or Root Mystery/Admonition. TTRPG Note: For those interested in this side of things, the basic gist of how this manifests is that different (Theological) Ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus are restricted in their access to certain broad skill types. For example, the lowest echelons may only Operate and Repair technology. The next rank up are those that can Build technology. Finally, there are those that have Wildcard access to technical skills, which aggregate those skill into unrealistic combinations (hyper-competence) that also serve to break down Tech Level differences. THE PHILOSOPOHIES OF THE ADEPTUS MECHANICUS The "Philosophies" were originally meant to be mirrors to the factions within the Inquisition, at least insofar that they were spiced to how Tech Priests might approach technology. The obvious continuing example would be Philosophies that dabbled with Xenos or Malleus technologies, but a lot of the others seem to have been lost to time. THE BINARY DOGMA OF FACTIONALISM This deliberately-pretentious term was a stand-in for the obvious conservative/liberal divide in the Adeptus Mechanicus that was suggested from the discussions (back in the day! ;)) and subsequently showed up in novels like Mechanicum. The general gist of this is obvious: the orthodoxy is inherently conservative and leans towards the "can't" interpretation, while the more radical "liberal" approaches get up to shenanigans with technology (like research and exploration). THE PARADIGMS OF THE ADEPTUS MECHANICUS Given the importance of Forge Worlds, the "Paradigms" were invented to create a specific confluence of Faction and Philosophy that may become dominant and lead to broad trends (primarily orthodox as radical Forge Worlds would be more contentious). This was a specific part of the Anargo Sector Project, so re-tooling them outside of that is a little bit more challenging but possible. THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE ADEPTUS MECHANICUS The novels Mechanicum and Titanicus really started to get into the technological manifestations back in the day and, at least based upon current readings, this now seems to be the norm. The adoption of terms like "binaric cant" is a (sensible, for once) part of this by GW. I'm not sure where I would take this. At the moment my notes started and left with Haptic Interfaces and the Noosphere, but technology has come along since those days. I'm wondering about such things as distributed networks that don't use standard communications infrastructure etc. (You can interpret elements of these from some of the more recent novels). * * * And that's where I'm going to leave this one for the moment.

After grabbing "accidentally" a GSC patrol box, on purpose to use the body to kitbash some IG regiment, I am potentially left with some bits inc. mining tools. I then remembered this pic, unless I decided that GSC bodies would do better base for IG than Orlock gangers BECAUSE of this pic: I am already the happy owner of enough Engineseers to fill all the slots in my AdMech army. And I have been left with one extra (remaining from a Patrol box), in desperate need for a purpose in its life of plastic toy soldier. Kitbashing it to get an oversized clamp and a mining laser looked ike a fun idea. And here is the result: The beauty of AdMech kits is the amount of left bitz you have once the models are built. For this one, I used a Skitarii arm, chopping away the rifle as right arm. Left arm is the spare arm from my mago, removing the serpenta. and servo arm has been relocated whille adding a small Kataphron mechanical limb to handle the laser will on rest after harvesting a quintal of noctilith... extra bits from grav canon of Kataphrons make the handles. As you can eventually appreciate, from this too dark pics bellow , it gets an oversized hydraulic clamp from GSC Metamorphs. A little bit otT maybe... To be painted in June, with the rest of my AdMechs, once starting the CtA challenge! To be continued...

WarCom Article. Mechanicus going hard on war crimes simulator.

So, January kind of put me in a small (large) hole for my plan to reduce my pile of shame. In response February has been a month of looking to redress that issue. Hobby time has been limited unfortunately. Having a small child means living with your very own nurgling and boy oh boy did she bestow some of papa nurgle's finest blessings upon us this month. In total I managed to complete a grand total of.....5 models. Not ideal. However on the plus side, they were all from the same army AND from the same army that I completed models for last month! This is fairly rare in Doobles-land and I'm actually a little proud of that. I even have a dozen or so more Ad Mech models primed and waiting at my airbrush station (lol it's just my desk + a mask) for March. This has the possibility of becoming that rarest of things.....a fully painted army. I've just jinxed it though I'm sure..... Anyway, here are our completions this month: 3 Breachers. I think I enjoyed painting these? On one hand I think the OSL is much much better than the Skitarii I did last month so that feels good. On the other hand these felt like they took much longer than they needed to despite the simple paint scheme. Can't put my finger on why, but I've got 3 more part built, and another 3 still on sprue and I find myself in no rush at all to pick them up. Anyway, I think they look alright. A Skitarii Marshall and a Techpriest Enginseer. I'm not as happy with these, although they're both lovely models. Not sure they have the presence it feels they should have as leaders but I'll reserve judgement until the force grows a bit more as I can view it all as a group. Might return to add a bit of something to them at a later date, but in the meantime I'm conscious of A) getting stuff done & B) not wanted to depart too far from the look and feel I've established and the techniques to get there. We'll see. In other pile-reduction news there was a lot of selling this month which - in spreadsheet terms at least - more than made up for the limited painting time. An entire project has departed (Flesh Eater Courts - side note, what on earth is with the price of Charnel Thrones??) and I also uncovered a random bunch of Ultramarines things that I didn't see me going to trouble of ripping apart and rebuilding to fit in my Black Templars. So off they went. Talking of Black Templars, and marines in general, I've found myself with less and less interest in 40K marines in the last 6 months. I love the BTs and their lore and aesthetic was a big part of what pulled me into the game back when they were the poster boys of 3rd edition. But I have no desire to paint any 40K marines or get them out for a game. Heresy is somehow different and still holds my interest, but in 40K marines are now bottom of the list out of the stuff I own. It's weird. Can't bring myself to part with them yet, but not leaving the garage for the painting or gaming table for the foreseeable future. Anyway, enough waffle, here are the numbers! Models IN: 12 Models OUT: 58 FEB TOTAL: -46 YTD TOAL: -30 We're back baby! Let's see what new stuff gets released in the next month, but I'm going to see if I can keep a bit of momentum going now. Marching on to March!