Knights of House Cydonia, Taghmata Omnissiah and Skitarii

[Battybattybats]

You might just have to put a small 40k force together just so you can use them.

[Battybattybats]

Speaking of the Dragoon, some more pics.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0012%205.jpg

Warning! If you place the holstered Serpenta where i did be careful, i totally fluked the hadlebars being able to fit right up against the ring on the end of the grip!

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0019%203.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0017%204.jpg

This helmet is perfect for the Alpha (Or would it be Princeps?) of the Dragoons that ride alongside House Cydonia. The rest of the unit will have the customary spikes.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0014%205.jpg
 

Now as for the vanguard.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0015%205.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0016%204.jpg

[Battybattybats]

Well the new knight pics are leaking, and it looks like rather than piloting a Paladin the female pilot i made a while back for a future Knight named The Scholar who was more tactical and sensible will instead be piloting one of these:



Note what appears to be an opus mechanicum next to the shoulder stubber instead of an eagle head... have i set a trend already? Probably just serendipitous synchronicity.

I will of course also need a pilot for the Warden too, i can't ignore that huge powerfist style weapon option and i always did like big missile pods. With the skitarii and 2 knights already started i will try to finish off more of what i have got before buying more... however if those are opus as optional replacements for the eagle heads i may need them for my Styrix, maybe even rip the eagle heads of Quod Erat Demonstrandum too though i'm not sure about that. Hmmm.....

[Battybattybats]

Isn't it amusing that when that low-quality picture leaked i noticed the small blurry detail difference of the opus mechanicum and not that the faceplate right beside it was different? That half-skull faceplate is definitely one for me, going i think onto my Warden when i can afford one, it should look great combined with the new gauntlet weapon.

Meanwhile i've progressed a way with the Dragoon. I've decided to leave off one of the scanner-screen type devices as the one on the right is very much going to interfere with using a lance! I think my lancers will only use the lefthand screen device while the righthand i think will work better on a Jezail Dragoon.

[Battybattybats]

Here's the screen that i am putting on.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0027%202.jpg

Alas the window reflection falls across the radar-sweep on the circular screen but that's always a trouble with gloss. I should have painted this while it was still on the sprue, so i'm very pleased with what i was able to do with the small part sitting on my hand for the most part.

I was also very happy with the scuffing job i did on the footplates. Keeping the areas more covered and less interacted with less scuffed and those where pilots and maintenance techpriests  would touch more scuffed has worked really well on this i think.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0032_1.jpg

Though i have to touch up the gold on the denticles of the mask as the gold paint has a bad tendency to wear with handling and that piece has required being put on and taken off a lot (it's not yet glued to better get at various parts). The railing is glued but won't be painted till i glue the scanner on, so i can get a good plastic-glue weld on them.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013%206.jpg

Most of the way done! The lance arm, the calf and thigh armour and decals on the exhaust armour and the base are all that's left to do.

[GhostMalone]

Nicely done love the level of detail

[Battybattybats]

Thanks Kurama. I'm quite happy with the results so far.

[Battybattybats]

Been working on the decals. I could have cut a little neater on the vanguard and might go back with the fine detail brush.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0027%203.jpg
 

The dragoon i've done the forgeworld and unit alpha marking on one side, and want to put a symbol on the same part on the other but i'm not sure yet what to put there. Some of the symbols may end up with meanings ascribed to them in the Cult Mechanicus codex so i may have to wait a fair while for that book first. There's also how to paint books coming and it may be they might put such in those too.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0020%205.jpg
 

Getting to ride alongside the Knights of House Cydonia is quite the privileged and honoured position, so it seemed appropriate for it to be Dragoon unit number 1

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0021%205.jpg

Protecting the Knights flanks with both incense smokescreen and the bodies of they and their steeds the 1st Dragoons charge into death or glory.

[Battybattybats]

Drilled holes in an old mint unbuilt metal Battlefleet Gothic Adeptus Mechanicus Cruiser and glued in some magnets so i can swap weapons and began gluing it together. :) I'll assemble it in sub-assemblies to make it easier to drybrush some pieces as it goes. It'll be nice to have my force's ride to use in BFG scale for the 40k campaign some friends and i are planning that will mix Planetary Empires, Battlefleet Gothic and 40k.

I expect our first games will be Kill-team games though. Several of us are using this as the excuse to assemble armies sitting round in boxes and for a friend who's only now starting a 40k army and of course while i have my Taghmata at a playable stage (though i need to finish painting the archmagos and servitors) i'm all keen to build my Skitarii and try those out first.

[Battybattybats]

So in the process of assembling my revered ancient relic, a mint Mechanicus Cruiser, and augmenting it with magnets, i noticed that a crucial part barely even touched it's intended glue location, which when i'd swap the panels aside it wouldn't hold so well. So i decided to do something about that.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0020%202.jpg

By making it maximally non-secure! I added some more small magnets to the prow and the frame. so the removable panels brace and help hold it in place and when changing those rather than being panicked about the glue coming unstuck and trying to reglue it straight and not being able to use it till the glue sets for fear of gluing the removable panels instead i expect it to come off :)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0016%202_2.jpg

The bridge will be glued once the painting is done on the inside of the 'wings'.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0021%202.jpg

The bridge is just sitting in place for this pic :)

As well as using it alongside my plastic imperial cruisers from the battlefleet gothic box i bought when it first came out (unless i can manage to recover some more Mechanicus ships) and the Dauntless i bought to represent the ship in our Rogue Trader RPG with all the talk of Skitarii being controlled by Techpriests in orbit in Arkcruisers I may also just sit it beside the play area on the table of my 40k games and place the Doctrina Imperative Cards beside it when i play them to add just that extra little touch to my games.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0024%202.jpg

[GhostMalone]

So pumped to see this happen ^^

[Timotheus]

Makes me wanna spend an income for the new Skitarii. The pilot of the Knight is a nice idea with stunning outcome..

[Battybattybats]

Thanks Kurama, hopefully it'll end up looking good.

And thanks Timotheus. My own Skitarii will be small, a supplemental force for the knights, though the dragoons will eventually end up a fairly large unit of up to 6 or two medium sized ones of 3.

For the Arkcruiser I've magnetised the flight decks next. I figure that the Knights aren't carried by some vulnerable bulk troop ship but that they and the core of the Skitarii/Taghmata travel aboard the cruiser. Standing in the flight decks firing at any boarding craft (something other knights were mentioned as doing in the Knight codex or companion) before a quick reload and stepping into landing pods before being dropped to the surface alongside a fighter escort. So i expect it will be usually used in the Dictator Class configuration.

Currently i am trying to figure out my special weapons for my Skitarii, I'm thinking two Arquebus and an arc rifle for the Rangers and two plasma and an arc rifle for the vanguard. Though getting variety on the Arquebus bodies may be tricky, i'll assemble one as per instructions then i'll see if any of the other bodies neatly fit the arms, if not i'll swap a body between my vanguard and my rangers so each has one pose doubled up.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Battybattybats

[Flint13]

I love the faded red color you've chosen for your Skitarii. Great look so far!

 

I'm super curious to see how a bunch of them look together.

[Battybattybats]

Thanks Flint. I'm a good way done on my second vanguard and i'm starting on my first ranger (I'm going to be sorting out the special weapons across two boxes so seems easier two work on them both) so hopefully it won't be too long before i can get you a group pic :)

I use thinned khorne red over a black undercoat with a druchii purple wash (i find purple shades a lot of reds more realistically than brown or black) and then highlight back with khorne red so i'm not getting highlights that are too bright. On some figures like the Necromunda Explorators where i wanted more of an impression of artificial light and strong directional overhead light with sharper shadows i mixed up to small mephiston red highlights and a little purple and black in with khorne red for some of the shadows.

I'll see how the ranger looks as it comes along, they might get a hint or two of mephiston if it looks like they need it, though i find keeping the highlights subtle looks more real so i'll try to keep to that.

[Gorthaur]

I like the tomb kings bit on the dragoon, adds a bit of character. Its also a shame GW decided to discontinue the battlefleet gothic stuff. I got into that for a while and it was fun doing ships for a change.

[Battybattybats]

The Skitarii Alliance decal is now on Quod Erat Demonstrandum's knee. It looks small over those stripes but with the titan emblem on the other knee it just seems the right place for it to go. It also implies appropriate hierarchy that the collegia titanicus symbol is much larger than the skitarii alliance one.

I've also put a white text and symbols decal onto the back of the tabard banner. I'll get pics once they are set flattened and sealed.
I'm also deciding whether to add a maker plate. The large skitarii decal sheet has lots of lovely ones but the dates on them rather set the knights in time more than i want as i'll be using mine in 30k and 40k games and the later ones are the cooler of the new ones. Though there's also smaller versions of the one on the knight sheet which might work out better for the styrix. I also note the cog one on the small skitarii decal sheet that come with the models has a date starting with a 2! VERY early indeed, it seems like that's intended for the robots but... if the mechanicus didn't make it how do they know the date? Unless that was when the Mechanicus obtained the Kastellan.

Chances are I'll use the standard knight one, after all i already decided that New Ares get's their new knights from Mars rather than St Hoagland whenever shipping allows, and use one of the smaller versions thereof on some plate on the Styrix.

Building has begun on the 2nd Dragoon and the Onager while i continue with the Vanguard and Rangers.

I haven't had any luck so far finding a suitable 'glass' container to fit the Styrix pilot neatly, visibly and leave some room in the cabin.. but another miniature company working on a totally different style has some pieces that look straight out of one of my favourite Blanche mechanicus pictures that might help nicely with decorating the crew compartment and making up for skipping putting the pilot floating in a jar. I'm not giving up entirely on the jar, but if i don't find a suitable container within my meagre price capacity soon i might go ahead without it.

Contemplation continues on the Mechanicus Cruiser scheme, pondering a few ideas. I did note that the rules don't allow Mechanicus to have assault boats or boarding torpedoes... but how are they supposed to get the Skitarii into battle without them? After all the Explorators are meant to be searching for ancient tech in hulks etc which means they should need to be able to get into enemy ships surely? Being vulnerable to boarders when most of your crew are built-in servitors makes some sense but not having vehicles to board an enemy with? I might have to house-rule that one.

[Battybattybats]

Hopefully the weather will improve enough to let me take some pics and spray-undercoat some things. Today i put magnets in my Blackstone Fortress which should look good in the colours of the Mechanicus :)

Now it will be able to be used as inactive or activated which will be very useful in the upcoming campaign. I'm always on the listen for the sound of a delivery van pulling up as i have several things due soon including some more Mechanicus BFG and of course new stuff from GW.

With the Cruiser i'm not sure whether or not to put the nova cannon on or stick with torpedoes and magnetising that bit doesn't seem plausible. The other strange gunlike bit i don't see any rules for so am wondering if it's some form of sensor. I might try and take a pic with both parts blu-tacked on to see what people think of them both on visually. I tempted to put them both on in the prow indents they appear designed to fit for no other reason than many people don't seem to have used them on their own miniatures in pics i've seen, though they do break up the stylised skull-silhouette of the prow.

And of course work continues on the Skitarii.

[Battybattybats]

Well the weather wasn't good enough for enough light to show off any decal work but i was able to get some dramatic lighting for a few pics of some things...

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013%203.jpg

So Nova-cannon and.. other thingy,, blu-tacked in place. The spiky prow protrusions remind me of the Sulaco and the Cygnus.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0014%203.jpg

So shall i just forgo torpedoes and glue in the Nova Cannon and whatever they other bit is i wonder?

And what's that visible in the corner...?

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0015%203_1.jpg

I'm considering leaving the flash on the capstone on to make aerials, but am not yet decided. It currently sits at a lean, i may keep it that way or straighten it up. If i can scrounge up enough turrets i'll put some on, it's designed to take 16 though, but if i can find 8 i can put them just on the top of the top part at the arrow points and the top of the bottom part near the central pillar. Behind it you will have noticed the gas-giant, an actual piece of rare GW Battlefleet Gothic Terrain! The paint needs some fixing but a lovely item.

But the best part of a Blackstone Fortress is that it has other configurations....

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0017%203.jpg

Here the central beams are deployed. The configuration common to Imperial-controlled Blackstone Fortresses.. but with the right arts and devices they may become fully activated....

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0020%203.jpg

What dread desperation of the Old Ones during the War In Heaven led them to call upon THIS in their battles with the C'Tan?

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0019%203_1.jpg

I'll show how i set up the magnets.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0021%203.jpg

The lower part, one magnet placed becide the hole for the stem of the midsection aligned with a star point direction and another between the star points

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0023%203.jpg

On the corresponding side of the midsection is a single magnet so the midsection can be rotated to align with either of those two magnets with ease. Now importantly when we flip this piece over...

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0024%203.jpg

i have placed this sides magnet on the opposite side of the central peg. i wanted to spread out the magnets as much as possible otherwise if too many lined up it might 'prefer' one configuration. Of course they all have the same polarity when sat in position so there's no repulsion at work... other than that all wise beings feel for the reality-warping power of chaos of course ;)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0022%203.jpg

The top has the relative position of the corner-magnet mirrored.

Now the end result isn't super-strong, it's not a model you'd pick up by the top, but it sits in position and holds enough for gaming purposes while being transportable, paintable and of course configurable in case any of us in the campaign opt for ultimate destructive power...

The Campaign will be set just after the events of the Shield Of Baal campaign. With the spread of Leviathan a series of ancient warpstorms are quelled by the Shadow in the Warp. As explorators rush into areas of space long cut off they find independent human colonies and a surviving Blackstone Fortress that somehow escaped the destruction of the Gothic War and corruption by Abbaddon. The Mechanicus want to study it, the colonies want it's power so they may remain independent, The Blood Angels hope to use it as a weapon to save Baal from Tyrannic Invasion, The Tyranids are drawn to the light it shines in the warp and the Eldar... are inscrutable as ever. All of us will have plenty of reasons to fight for it....

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0025%203.jpg

Hmm my as-yet-unnamed Arkcruiser looks to be outnumbered by those Eldar... better hope the delivery truck hurries with the reinforcements!

[Battybattybats]

One of my GW orders arrived (the limited ed codex and novel are coming separately, i expect the codex will arrive tomorrow and the novel a fair bit later) and this one contained my Mars Cult Mechanicus decal sheet... and Praise the Omnissiah there are yellow cog decals!
I have to check sizes but hopefully this will resolve the problem of the Forgeworld Styrix not coming with a Knight decal sheet as of course i have been slicing up the House Raven decals for the yellow cog halo's for my House Cydonia emblems.

Also i note there are red cogs, i'll have to find some use for those too. I wonder what could symbolically justify a variation on the cog-haloed skull with a red cog? With the new knight tilting plate and carapace rank markings, which i was thinking of putting the black and yellow striping instead of white, red might show up well over yellow where a yellow decal over yellow stripes.. well that's not likely to work well. So maybe the red cog will go on Barons tilting plates.

[HighGothic]

Hey, do you get all your BFG stuff off of eBay? I'm thinking of inspiring my game group to try out some specialist games like necromunda, inquisitor and BFG, so just wondered where you got your models and rules from. Thanks!

 

P.S, meant to say your stuff is looking great. The tone of the red is really nice.

[Battybattybats]

Thanks HighGothic. When Battlefleet Gothic first came out i got super-excited and bought the main boxed set and a few choice pieces like those Eldar ships you can see blurry in the background there but alas my friends of that time didn't get into it and my brother lost interest quickly (but my brother never holds to any game for long), and i have some ships from Space Fleet the much older game before BFG. But because i didn't have any players then i didn't get half the things i now want so yeah i've been torturing the wallet on ebay, though i've also got some from some friends of recent years too.

It doesn't help that Mechanicus ships are very sought after and rarer as they came out much later so will go for a lot more than (corsair but not Craftworld or Dark) Eldar Imperial and Chaos. You can reliably expect to pay almost double for that Mechanicus Cruiser there but in a used condition than the Blackstone Fortress mint still in shrinkwrap cost me! I'd been holding on to that one Mechanicus Cruiser for years and with the amount i'm paying to get more mechanicus ships i'm really kicking myself for not buying a whole fleet back before Specialist Games was shut down.

Of the other specialist games i've played some more than others.
Necromunda we played a lot of, i have a Spyrer team from back when the game was current and of course have many conversions to use with fan-made Mechanicus Explorators rules i found online. I definitely found it a good game, a bit subject to random rolls for gaining equipment etc like many GW games of the time, though we had some problems with cheaters back then and would like to try it run with a strict organiser next time.

It is worth noting that FFG's new 40k boardgame https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/forbidden-stars/ has some ships in it so for some factions that will be an excellent source.

Mordhiem was the next most played, i have Undead and Skaven for that but i hardly played the skaven they mostly ended up a loaner force to friends so aren't painted. Mordheim was very popular. I found it flawed on a couple counts, the Undead ended up weaker comparatively over time when so many of the fun options (Zombies and Doomwolves) couldn't gain experience and the equipment options didn't really suit while some human and elf forces ended up with large numbers of powerful ranged weapons that unbalanced things a bit once campaigns had run for a long time. Next time i join in a long Mordheim Campaign i might argue for some of the fan-made balancing changes, especially giving my Vampires some more vampiric gear to spend accumulated wealth on. There's still Mordheim games being played locally, so i might end up making that argument soon :D

Inquisitor i only played one game of (and found just how nasty the Deathwatch marine is!!!) but hope to play more despite it's complexity and, in it's original scale, the difficulty with terrain. I leapt on the brief release of Genestealers with as much as i could afford at the time so have a single Purestrain Genestealer (alas the closed-mouth one, never saw the open-mouth head for sale ever) a Magus made up of the Magus conversion parts, Eisenhorn's torso and Cevenant's legs and two Hybrids made out of the Hybrid Conmversion Pack and legs and various Inquisitor Guradsman parts (though i still haven't put anything in one hybrids open hand!). A lot of people play Inquisitor with 40k scale miniatures and if i got the opportunity i'd have both Genestealers and Mechanicus for that.

I never played Gorkamorka, though i was tempted by the idea of the Kommunist Grotz but again my gaming circle back then weren't playing it, but current friends who played it a lot back then speak very highly of it.

As for rules, well some are easily found and others not. GW used to have them all for free in PDF on the Specialist Games part of their website, but they marked the copyright of some do-not-share so those can be hard to find while others a quick google will turn up. The games have active player communities online still with many having fan-made new editions or supplements or refined rules. I still have my paper books for BFG, Necromunda and Mordheim and a friend has Inquisitor but the fan-made Mechanicus Explorators in Necromunda rules i'll be trying out came from here http://gaming.yaktribe.org/community/threads/experimental-mechanicus-rules-v-1-5.824/page-3 Active forums like that and this one http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php are often a good way to find those PDFs still legally available and fan-made things to fill the gaps.

In further news, something arrived in the mail today

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0017_1.jpg

The Dominus edition of the Cult Mechanicus Codex to perfectly match the Ruststalker Edition Skitarii codex :D
Shame it's such a chilly autumn morning, that nail-polish is colour change and shifts from purple to red to pink based on temperature and would have been better red. Ah well :)

[Flint13]

Exciting! Can only imagine what wacky AdMech hi jinks you can get up to with that.

 

In other news... Dem nails doe 0_o.

 

Kudos to you. I can't go more than 30 min of hobby without jacking my mani up, and mine are all stubby. You go.

[HighGothic]

Cheers BBB. It looks like eBay then! The other games are easy to kit bash for, like inquisitor or mordheim, but BFG.. well, we'll just have to be creative lol. I thought about 3rd party but I play at GW, (warhammer world to be precise  ) so thats a big no no. Thanks for the input though, hopefully we will start some campaigns soon.

[Battybattybats]

Flint, Thanks! And well i do get glue and paint on my nails sometimes but i have very strong nails so they don't break or chip often. :)

HighGothic, Yeah we will likely use some other companies supplemental things as we all also play War Rocket (we were one of the official playtest teams for Hydra Miniatures infantry game Retro Raygun, set in the same Universe as War Rocket,  and i wrote the fiction for the scenarios in the Retro Raygun rulebook) and some are also Firestorm Armada and X-Wing players too so we will likely see some substitution if needed and other-party supplemental stuff on the table. But everyone is quite background and theme keen so we'll be trying to keep everything matching the same visual style and we are all getting the old GW miniatures wherever possible.

Where we will use a fair bit of other companies things will be in terrain. I am thinking of getting another cloth nebula matt from Corsec for this campaign as the one i use for War rocket has a hexgrid on it (as some players prefer the hexgrid optional rules in that game) and playing a spaceship game on a cloth-printed actual photo of a nebula really is a potent experience, and i have some lego star wars planets i could use (but i want to take another look at my Storm of Magic hemispherical templates as those might be useful for BFG).

Here's a pic of some of that stuff we use for War Rocket. The asteroids are just BBQ rocks. The Ice-teroids are aquarium ornaments. The coloured planet is lego Tatooine and the blank ones are as-yet unpainted (and alas it seems OOP) ones from Corsec Engineering who make the mats. 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/nebula%20mat.jpg

Another corsec mat with the GW planet and Storm of Magic Template, the BBQ rock asteroids and the BFG and Space Fleet miniatures from GW should be some pretty awesome Battlefleet Gothic games.

We are pretty lucky, we have two copies of the basic BFG set between us and one player has a good sized Imperial Fleet they've had for years. Though we are also planning on playing small sized games which means we don't need to get huge fleets together.

Still playing at Warhammer World? I am jealous! Perhaps you could make your own starfield mat and planets so that you are only taking scratch-built rather than other-company stuff in alongside your ebay'd miniatures?

While typing this the mail arrived...

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0012%203.jpg

Straight into the bookcase it goes for now while i finish reading the ebook short story collection from Black Library first (I was pleased to read one of the stories includes an Ironstrider Alpha!)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0019_3.jpg

The Mechanicus Cruiser nearly vanishes from view now that it has it's black undercoat. I've almost decided on what colour to put where on it.