Knights of House Cydonia, Taghmata Omnissiah and Skitarii

[Battybattybats]

Few more terrible overcast-weather pics

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0003_1.jpg

Also hidden in the shadows under the roughly-sitting-in-place stubber is the now affixed skull Sorry about the terrible light

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0004_2.jpg

and equally hard to see the two on the back

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0005_2.jpg

 

[KRG-23]

can't see 

[Battybattybats]

can't see 

Yes i did warn in the post before that the cloudy day made those pictures quite dark (and it was getting worse as i was taking the pics as you can see from the page earlier with the better pictures of the painted wounded knight pilot objective marker), but i posted them anyway mostly to see if the kill banner on the melta worked for movement and composition. If you look back at earlier pages you should get to see a lot of better pics (though i'm no great photographer thats for sure!) Rest assured better pictures will be taken when lighting and time allow.

[Battybattybats]

Here's a nice pic taken mid-game of my first knight to make up for the dark gloomy weather pics :)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0032.jpg

[Argent aquila]

I'd feel sorry for the poor sod who took the image, their ears probably got blasted outta their heads from that battlecannon.

 

MOAR!

[Battybattybats]

I'd feel sorry for the poor sod who took the image, their ears probably got blasted outta their heads from that battlecannon.

 

MOAR!

It was Dark Angels (in my friends own unique scheme).

After i'd fought against Cypher and the Fallen twice while dealing with the Chaos forces that had so rudely interferred with the Mechanicus attempts to rightfully claim a piece of Archaeotech from a Shrine World protected by Adepta Sororitas (the negotiations of which involved bolter fire and lightning gun blasts) an Interrogator Chaplain decided he wanted a rather forceful chat with one of the Knight Pilots about the incident, with Deathwing and Ravenwing there to assert his keenness for the interview.

 

However Their attempt to circumvent ordinary protocols and 'chat' to the pilot in private was not unobserved.

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0016_2.jpg

 

And the response was quite adamant.

Appropriate paperwork must be submitted prior and appointments made or there will be a sanctioned response to improper procedure

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/IMG_0028.jpg

 

Some ancient suits of armour were rendered two dimensional beneath the feet of the god-machine that day.

 

While one unit of Thallax reached the objective first.

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/IMG_0033.jpg

 

Ravenwing bikers rushed to cut off their escape...

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/IMG_0051.jpg

 

Their numbers suddenly reduced...

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013_1.jpg

 

And the Thallax shot most of the remainder before carrying the pilot off to the safety of the main battlelines.

 

[Argent aquila]

AWESOME! Glory to the mechanicus!

 

Hope you're planning on adding a Skitarii Balistarus or two with some vanguard, they'd look great!!

[Battybattybats]

I'm starting with one box of infantry which i'll make two 5-person squads so i can try out rangers and vanguard both straight away, and one walker which i'll make as a dragoon. But once i've dealt with pre-order madness and put some Sicarians/Rust-stalkers together (not sure which but i've asked my local to get one box in for me) i do plan on a Ballistarius or two, especially as the Chaos player i've been playing against has taken to fielding a proxied Helldrake to vector-strike my Knights with. I'm going with favorites first, though i do like the Ballistarius too and will definitely get one or two. I'll have to see if i end up with as many Ballistarius as Dragoon.

The Skitarii are a bit tricky for me as their fragile higher model count than the Taghmata will be a bit more taxing on my CFS when playing, but they do look fun and you'll see them showing up in this thread very soon. Even though i still have a lot of other models underway lol.

[Battybattybats]

A quick selfie (left the macro setting on lol) but i think you'll understand the eager rush.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0002_2.jpg

Now to study the STC template diagrams to begin construction...,

[GhostMalone]

Damn more mech goodness

[Battybattybats]

Building the dragoon, so far the biggest challenge is deciding what to assemble before and after painting, as attaching the two halves of the body will make parts of the cowling over, and wiring that goes into, the servitors head a bit tricky to reach, so i think tomorrow i will spray undercoat the body and just mask some glue points with blu-tak so i can basecoat and shade those parts before assembling the halves together.

[deathspectersgt7]

Looking forward to the Finished product.

[Battybattybats]

I've got a fair bit of the Dragoon assembled today. Most of it quite fun though ensuring the servitor legs and cables would align with the mechanical ones was a fiddle. Also there's plugs in the leg joints that were tricky to glue in place but click in place pretty well.

I might get some paint onto it tomorrow so i can keep assembling but i have a friend coming to visit over the weekend and we may end up spending all the time playing Deathwatch, comparing latest miniature work and reminiscing about our 2nd edition games.

I want to get the Skitarii onto the table asap but the design also begs for some painting during assembly. I am still planning to build the infantry as two squads of 5 though the models are very specific and not hugely interchangeable so one squad may not get an alpha till i can get my 2nd box and expand each squad into 10-troop units.

The same small decal sheet comes with both kits, similar designs to the large one though without the Skitarii Alliance Campaign Marking that i want to add to my knights.

The dragoon also has a holstered Jezzail and a holstered Serpenta but no stowed lance, with two handlebars in the kit one held with the right hand one with the left this means you can have a jezzail dragoon firing the seroenta but any lance dragoons need to have their serpenta holstered. When i get more dragoons i may convert one's handlebars so they can be riding hands-free and firing the serpenta while still holding the lance. I'm thinking also that one of my Dragoons will get the other Vanguard Alpha head which has a cog-crest angled front-to-back rather than side-to-side which might look better on cavalry looking more streamlined than the side-to-side one.

[Doghouse]

 

Ok so back to my Errant. I'm wondering if the melta kill-banner works.

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0001_2.jpg

 

As the angle of the other banner is from movement not wind my brain is saying 'yeah it works' but i'm not entirely sure

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0002_1.jpg

 

I think the banner does work, hard to see it clearly but given the motion of the weapon arm which would justify the angle if it was being swung slightly which would make the chains go taut. I'd have it fluttering backwards a little to show drag as the arm is moving out and forwards.

[Battybattybats]

Thanks Doghouse, i'll try and get some better pics when the weather clears up :)

[Battybattybats]

Pre-ordered the Limited Edition.
:D
 

[Battybattybats]

Finally some better pics of the Errant, though i haven't done anything new to it yet.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0008%202_1.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0009%202_1.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0013_2.jpg

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

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0018%202.jpg

Work has begun on my first Skitarii Vanguard as i test the scheme and make sure it's all working.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0005_3.jpg

I'm still contemplating whether to use the golden cog i used on my Taghmata or the black and white standard on the chest opus.
Thankfully the decal sheets have just the thing for a very fluffy variation of the symbols i've used thus far.

And of course i've been working on the Dragoon

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/IMG_0011.jpg

Ready for the highlighting of the main metal and final decisions about where the red paint will get scuffed by use. You'll notice i've already blocked in some silver where the legs of the rider will often wear at the paint.

[GhostMalone]

Good god you didn't let that one sit in its box long :P

[Battybattybats]

Hahahaa it was opened less than a minute after the selfie was taken!

But i am working slowly, there's a lot of decisions i'm making about colour and background which is tentative till i get my hands on and read the codex. I got my local game store to get me in a standard edition, but alas GW stuffed up their order and it won't arrive till sometime next week! Very frustrating. It's possible my Ruststalker Edition Codex could arrive before the standard edition!

For one I heard from someone who has the codex that the Ironstriders were created after the Heresy, which throws out my hopes to use them in 30k games and the ideas i was pondering for fitting them into my background. Though that won'r stop me fielding a fair few of them.

I'm also pleased that the Onager looks much better than the initial blurry leak pic had suggested, so when my finances recover i'll have to get some of those too. The White Dwarf mentions that the Onager was originally used by Techpriests to travel from forge to forge on Mars in huge caravans protecting them from the radiation and from rogue servitors, so i'm hoping that Forgeworld make a Techpriest Transport version with a more decorated and less tank-heavy-weapon cab to it. I they don't then that might be a project i'll undertake in the distant future.

I've magnetised the taser-lance to make the Dragoon more transportable. I'm also trying to figure out where the holstered Serpenta (and Jezzail if you want it holstered and the Serpenta Drawn if you take the Jezzail instead of the Lance) are meant or best to go as the instructions do not say.

[GhostMalone]

Pffft just field them anyway, say it's a pre variant stc with a volkite toting lance

[Red Skullz]

Ton of great stuff here, look forward on seeing you tackle the new admech stuff.

 

Btw on martian soil. If you've seen my red sand on my INQ28 stuff it's the simplest but best looking bases I've ever done.

[Battybattybats]

 

 

Pffft just field them anyway, say it's a pre variant stc with a volkite toting lance

 

As the white dwarf points out the shared design elements across the Knights, Onager and Ironstriders belonging to pre-imperial technology and design it would make sense that there might be some form of precursor to the Ironstrider. Apparently the Onager was developed from an earlier machine called a M.U.L.E. which would be the original transport version mentioned in the White Dwarf. Hopefully one or the other of my Codex orders will arrive in a day or two. It's very frustrating not getting to read all that background yet!
 

Ton of great stuff here, look forward on seeing you tackle the new admech stuff.

Btw on martian soil. If you've seen my red sand on my INQ28 stuff it's the simplest but best looking bases I've ever done.

Thanks Red Skullz. Glad you liked it.

The Dragoon is coming along nicely. I'm really enjoying putting it together (though i'm yet to tackle the infamous leg wire) as well as painting it. I'll hopefully get some more pics soon.

I went with the black/white standard opus on my Skitarii Vanguard's chest... very tricky and annoying so i should probably have gone with a gold cog around a bone skull. Ah well.

[Battybattybats]

Update time. And i am a happy cyborg today let me tell you!

Because of this

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0026.jpg

And what do i find but that some of the fluff i spy just on my first skim of the book may as well have been written for me!

The face at Cydonia is referred to as the Sydonian Mask, fitting in with my whole mask-wearing theme!

The Ironstriders were inspired by "the stilt-legged seekers of the Sydonian Mask" which might imply a precursor walker to the Dragoons or it could be something lower of tech but steeped in symbolism as well as practicality, pilgrims needing to raise themselves as high as possible above the rad-desert and perhaps being a 40k version of this!

http://www.think-aboutit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/dogon-dancers-stilts.jpg

And those are the Dogon people, with all the 'ancient aliens' theories attached to their mythology fitting in nicely with my face on mars and pyramid stuff. Added to my pile of future projects: a stilt-legged Sydonian Pilgrim! It may take a while to get to as it will be a display piece probably but it'll have to be done.

Even better there's a part that i've been holding onto which i'd hoped might work on the skitarii which i'd been thinking of using on the Ironstrider Alpha for the Dragoons (even if just ceremonial as they don't get a sergeant ruleswise) which now i HAVE to go ahead with! As much as i wanted to make a Ballistarius next so i can try a bit of everything before building my Dragoon unit up i think i'll have to make the Alpha ASAP just because i'm so excited by this. The only thing stopping me from doing this with the one i'm working on now is that i want a fully assembled one to hold the part to to be sure which of a couple of variations i could go with will work best.

Speaking of, i got some quick snaps before the sunlight got too weak.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0011_1.jpg

Sure, that great scuffed paint will dissapear behind the Skitarii riders legs but it makes sense that it'd be there so i painted it :)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0009_1.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0003_2.jpg

Also i did some hazard stripes and highlighting on my first Vanguard. A bit rough but it'll do.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0018_2.jpg

And here's the shot of the front. I haven't decided whether to do the blue glow on the radium weapons, am inclined towards doing so but not yet fully decided.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f250/supreme_martian_overlord/DSCF0020_2.jpg

Terrible pic i know :P

I also got two sets of the freebie Mechanicus car decals thanks to my paranoid ordering the limited codex by itself at breakneck speed and then going back and ordering the novel separately (only to find out the next day of the limited edition novel and order it too!) and while i don't have a car i'm sure to come up with some use for these. Perhaps once i am certain of how to transport my army a customised carrying case will be adorned with the opus mechanika?

[GhostMalone]

Howzaaat!!!!

 

That's pretty awesome of a coincidence on the mask thing and im loving the stilted pilgrim idea can't wait for that to happen (use that SoB penitent thing)

 

 

 

Edit: my car could do with mech stickers :P

[Battybattybats]

Sorry Kurama but till i'm sure what plans i have for at least some of the stickers myself I can't even consider parting with any.

As for the penitent engine it is an interesting idea for the Sydonian Seeker pilgrim, though i was considering something a bit more vulnerable (though i expect the pilgrims likely have Skitarii on hand to protect them from any radmutants rogue cannibal servitors or remnant AI's), it'll take a lot of thought but i'm sure ideas will come and my bits box will be even more laden by the time i get to it.

I did forget to mention another cool thing i noticed in the codex, cool but also intriguing. The map shows The Lathe Worlds which are of course the heart of the Mechanicus presence in the Calixis sector from Fantasy Flight's Dark Heresy rpg and contain several powerful and important Forgeworlds... only the map simply says "the lathe worlds" and does not put a Forgeworld icon on them... why not i wonder?

I grabbed some as yet untrimmed parts and the blu-tack and now i may be forced to make my first Dragoon my Dragoon Alpha after all. I'll try and get some decent pics tomorrow and see what feedback i get to see if it works solidly enough.