Taghmata Kyrus - photo update 11th May

[Cactus]

Ave Deus Mechanicum!

 

Welcome to the first part of what should become a record of the creation of an Adeptus Mechanicus army. Specifically my army, Taghmata Kyrus, using the army list from Extermination. I've loved the visual style of the priests of Mars since I saw John Blanche's illustration in Rogue Trader and I'm very excited to now have rules and a model range for everybody's favourite cyborg fanatics.

 

Before I reveal more about Archmagos-Prime Kyrus and Forge World Medea I'm working on a pair of enginseers. The red cowls and pouches are finished, the white robes need dirtying and the rest needs shading and highlights. I'm thinking of a dark grey base with small bits of stone/rubble but I'm open to suggestions.

 

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/SAM_1123_zpse8226f8a.jpg

 

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/SAM_1121_zpsebe1e004.jpg

 

More to come!

[korban]

Looking good!, what model is next?

[Cactus]

Thanks koban. Next up is Magos Dominus Labac. Having long since forgone the use of his natural legs Magos Labac skims across the battlefield on an abeyant device, appearing through the smog of war like a centaur shaman of ancient myth. With cortex-controller and machinator array the battle-automata in Labac's charge will never falter and never fail. This model will also stand in for the Archmagos-Prime until Forge World release their magnificent floating cog-pulpit.

 

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/20140824_233927_zps1c8a06c5.jpg

 

Machinator array. The nozzle is a heat-ray, the focus of which can be adjusted to narrow (melta) or wide (flamer) beam.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/20140825_000823_zps6c2069c0.jpg

 

Cyber-familiar with integrated vokite serpenta.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/20140825_000901_zps03fff93e.jpg

[korban]

Niice, I assume you have a Myrmidon missing a power axe?

[GrandMasterAralia]

Niice, I assume you have a Myrmidon missing a power axe?

Unless he used the power axe of a SM techmarine ;) My plan, if I ever get to build an AdMech force. 

[Cactus]

I do have a myrmidon secutor missing an axe, and a destructor missing a pair of mechadendrites. I like to see it as gaining two tech priests and some guns for my bitz box.

[korban]

You could use the body to make a Myrmidax Magos Prime!

[Cactus]

That's what I had in mind. Not necessarily a myrmidax, but the two spares could form the basis of future tech-priests. Aralia's idea of using the techmarine axe is a good one - I have a spare finecast one.

[Cactus]

To the scribes of the Officio Astra Cartographae the Forge World Medea is simply the largest moon of a gas giant in the Chelm system. A footnote records the planet's mass as 404 Terra-equivalents and its composition as primarily hydrogen. Such a rich resource would ordinarily be harvested to supply the Imperium's insatiable thirst, but not in Chelm.

The Psyk-Privateers of the Elbonian Corona tell of the planet's rings, remnants of another satellite destroyed in aeons past, that hold an even more valuable treasure. Rare heavy metals are found in abundance here, needing little more work to gather than to simply open the hold and receive the bounty of the stars. They tell such tales, but they never travel there.

Only the Fabricators of Mars, those artisan-priests of the Machine Cult, pay much heed to Medea. Only they possess the knowledge to refine and transform the fragments of the forgotten moon. Here, in the temple-forges of Medea, they use the finest materials to manufacture the advanced circuitry and interfaces of that dread weapon, the cybernetica cortex.

Painted models! I've been browsing a few tutorials and I plan to make industrial floor bases, but that has to wait while I gather the necessary bits so they aren't attached yet. Which is why the first of these two enginseers is leaning backwards. Unless he's been at the oil?

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/20140831_144012_zps14cb2567.jpg

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/20140831_144042_zps8d8d2512.jpg

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/20140831_143914_zps6b3ef9b8.jpg

[korban]

Looking good. I think the metal needs a dirtying up with a brown wash or something, then maybe some bright silver chips? I like how the white cloak turned out! I need to hurry up and get some pics of mine up.

[Cactus]

Thanks for the comments korban. I think I agree with you about the metal surfaces but I'll hold off doing anything for now. I'm new to weathering and battle damage so I want to see what I can do with the castellax first. They'll be the core so whatever works for the robots is the look that I'll use across the army.

 

Speaking of which, I washed the resin for my first castellax two days ago. Because nobody wants to see photos of unassembled components here's a picture of my first painted servitors instead. I swear the faces of these guys are based on Peter Weller.

 

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/20140914_165439_zps763bbf14.jpg

[korban]

Are the servitors for a specific unit, or just good to have for now?

[Cactus]

I'll be using them as the servo-automata that accompany the enginseers.

[Cactus]

"By the lathe and screw, latch and lintel, by the power of the Omnissiah, I raise this edifice from the ruins of the past to once more take its place in the great work, the Opus Mechanicum!" - The Rite of Threadomancy, M37
 
I've been thinking about colours and insignia recently. The mark of Medea is a silver skull bounded by a white cog on a crimson field. Called the Opus Medea, literally “work[manship] of Medea”. Bonded forces of the Taghmata Kyrus display crimson, often with a white cog-tooth trim.
 
Magos Dominus Labac's cohort of the Legio Cybernetica is identified by a skull and cogwheel motif cast from a titanium alloy. Small molecular variations in the alloy serve as unit identifiers, visible only to the enhanced senses of the Martian adepts.
 
The Opus Medea worn by a sicarian infiltrator.
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/1aac0da1-eccb-4e4e-9177-deae3527d1d5_zpsbwcpmdoe.jpg
 
I've also been painting. Before I complete my first vow for the ETL IV I want to share what I've completed over the past six months.
 
The enginseer auxilia are now based and finished:
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0052_zpsjvmpkds3.jpg
 
So is Magos Dominus Labac:
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0047_zpsu4laryb4.jpg

 

This device on the side can represent a conversion beamer, i-rad cleanser or anything else. The various capabilities are selected by inserting carbon based punch cards.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0048_zpsk5bselwr.jpg

 

I love this network of skulls that makes up the cybernetica cortex. In my mind each skull still contains the cerebral tissue that was donated to the project. Why waste such a perfectly formed vessel? So gothic, so grimdark and so very very hard to photograph. No one angle does it justice.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0049_zpsqqoqvc3w.jpg

 

Close up of Labac's machinator array. I added the barrel of an inferno-pistol between the jaws to show the flame/melta capability.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0050_zps3wssyo7r.jpg

 

Two of my five castellax:

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0041_zpsahpbooio.jpg

 

This photo comes the closest to showing the true red colour.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0037_zpswzonacer.jpg

 

The castellax are magnetised so each chassis can have either shock chargers or power blades, and each arm can have either a boltgun or a flamer.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0040_zps5r3uoxes.jpg

 

Here's the test model for my tech thralls.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0063_zpskytgiwyw.jpg

 

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0064_zps5ezljakt.jpg

 

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/Taghmata%20Kyrus/DSC_0065_zpsz8nvrlsn.jpg

 

Edited to add this WIP test for my rangers. I decided against red coats. I wanted to do red armour plates and painting both red just overwhelmed all the detail. Utilitarian brown it is then.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/ETL%20IV/DSC_0066_zpsebi4vqbb.jpg

 

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb440/Cactus-/ETL%20IV/DSC_0067_zpsnjaxauv6.jpg