Project log: Torburnides

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I still need a name for my house though. I had settled on "Beaconsrock" but over time I've become less fond of it. I liked the idea that this Knight world was acting as an early warning for enemy attacks on the surrounding sector, hence the beacon part. The name just sounds a bit clumsy to me.

House Nightwatch? (Taking direct inspiration from the Night's Watch, from the A Song of Ice and Fire novels and its TV series adaptation, Game of Thrones.) House Pharos? (From an alternate term for "lighthouse.") House Phryctoria?

Edited June 5, 2020 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Magos Takatus]

Nightwatch, eh? Between the potential of there once being a Solar cult on the planet (until the Mechanicus repurposed said religion to align it with the Omnissiah) and the general Imperial need to fight off the darkness arrayed against them, this could evolve into an interesting theme. I'll have to collect together some reference pictures to help with the theme.

 

Thanks again for your help, as always the feedback is very useful. :)

[Magos Takatus]

Hi again. Yesterday I finished my Tech Priest Manipulus in all his floaty glory. I enjoyed painting this guy, I think his ranged weapon is the part I enjoyed painting most, I think it came out pretty well. I didn't feel like breaking out the drills and the magnets on such small pieces so he's stuck with it. :p

 

 

Obligatory rotating footage: 

 

I was surprised how large the model is in person, I always thought he was slightly smaller than the Dominus but it appears they are about the same size, with the Manipulus being bulkier.

 

He's not been varnished yet so areas like the glass aren't glossy. With a model with this many metallic surfaces would I be best off with satin/gloss varnish and then hand paint matte varnish in the right areas? I think matte would do more harm than good on a model like this?

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Techpriest Manipulus.

[Magos Takatus]

 

I still need a name for my house though. I had settled on "Beaconsrock" but over time I've become less fond of it. I liked the idea that this Knight world was acting as an early warning for enemy attacks on the surrounding sector, hence the beacon part. The name just sounds a bit clumsy to me.

House Nightwatch? (Taking direct inspiration from the Night's Watch, from the A Song of Ice and Fire novels and its TV series adaptation, Game of Thrones.) House Pharos? (From an alternate term for "lighthouse.") House Phryctoria?

 

This has been rattling around in my head for a while and my decals from Scumb4g Kustoms arrived today, I present my first two Knights from House Umbra Watch. They require weathering and some highlights but the are coming together nicely in my opinion.

 

 

 

Not sure why this image is massive but I've put it in spoiler tags for other people's consideration.

 

 

In addition, the now traditional Youtube videos.

 

 

For those that may be curious, here is my Household crest: 

However the Knights wear this as their battle heraldry.

This was due to the decal printer being unlikely to replicate the full image at the desired scale so some compromises had to be made. The result was just what I hoped for in the end, I got the image printed in two different sizes. One for the tilting plate and one for the banner and hatch panels.

 

I have one more plastic Knight to build and a Cerastus Castigator but for the time being I am working on some Serberys Raiders.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Magos Takatus

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Knights. The House Umbrawatch coat-of-arms looks good.

[Magos Takatus]

Just a quick addition, I got a close-up of the decal in place on the tilting plate. I figured the designer would like to see it and it also shows the text properly. My larger transfers were a tiny bit too large but a bit of trimming and it is barely noticeable.

 

As always, click on the image to see the enlarged version.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Magos Takatus

[Magos Takatus]

Hey all, back again. I have my Serberys Raider cavalry ready to go! They just need some varnish and they are finished. Since switching to a new computer I can no longer use Photoshop Elements to edit my photos so I'm trying to work out how to get results out of GIMP. I don't know how to white balance but thankfully my light box seems to fix most of that for me. I've got a unit of six of these guys and their doggo mounts. They feel a bit flimsy in places, in particular the holster/scabbard things were glued on last as a separate sub-assembly and the join wasn't very good so I will probably need to keep an eye on that part when handling them.

 

 

Personally I would have like the option to have the Raiders brandishing their cavalry sabres for some more pose variety but that's just nitpicking really.

 

As always, I got a video of these on youtube if you are curious. 

 

Let me know what you think. :)

[Subtle Discord]

*Enthusiastic binaric chattering*

 

Mmm... that green and gold, such a nice match. You're making me wonder if I should have relented a little and added some gold elements to my scheme, but then I knuckle down and remind myself that I desired a completely cold theme so I must be resolute. If you've got me doubting myself you must be doing the Omnissiah's work and getting it right.

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you. The gold originally came about because I was messing about with the Forge World metallic paints and I took a liking to Thallax gold. Unfortunately Thallax gold doesn't cover surfaces well with a standard brush. As a result I've been using the Scale 75 gold paints which are just wonderful in my opinion. The only problem I have is that they seem to separate if you add water but they are still easier to work with by brush compared to the FW air metallics from my experience. The knee armour and ribbed cabling are both painted with Gehenna's gold to get a slightly more weathered effect.

 

I took the idea of Skitarii weapons being anachronistic and somehow that translated into valuable antiques. The guns and armour are almost certainly worth more than the poor individual holding them. The Skitarii felt a lot more unique in 7th than they are now will all those special rules removed.

 

With my tendency to add red to the more elite units in my Adeptus Mechanicus army my force probably looks a bit festive.

 

My next projects will be a start to a unit of Ironstriders and I will be reinforcing my Kastellan robot cohort. I have been challenged by a friend to play some 40k when this scrapcode pandemic dies down and adding new units to my army can only make the army lists I am planning out more varied and flexible. I don't think I have played a game of 40k since the Adeptus Mechanicus have been  playable army so a 9th edition rulebook is going to be a required purchase soon.

[Magos Takatus]

Another upload. This is pretty industrious for me. Not since last year's ETL have I produced this many Adeptus Mechanicus kits in one go. It seems odd that it's already a year since that batch of models was completed. Hot on the heels of my Raiders is my first Ironstrider Ballistarii. I'm hoping to get a squadron of them eventually but for now it's just this one.

 

 

Both this guy and the Raiders will get some varnish, after that I'll be applying weathering powder.

 

After this? I've just started building a Mega Dread for my Ork plog. Time to remind myself why I prefer plastic kits! :D

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Ironstrider.

[Smoke Frog]

Those are some beautiful and green admech raiders! And I like the ironstrider as well.

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you both! I have found about three other people with green Adeptus Mechanicus on Instagram but most of them have gone for a more muted green. I wanted mine to be green to echo the radioactive ore on the bases of my models. Just seeing Armies painted in variation colour schemes makes me happy. Mars is classic and all, but I do like to see different Forge Worlds represented. :)

[Brother Callidan]

Just finished going through your whole thread. Great stuff. I enjoyed watching the progress of the army. 

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you. It's still growing because it's gone from buying a bit of everything to trying to muster a coherent army. I have discovered the two are quite different! :)

[Magos Takatus]

Archaeopter Fusilave ready for flight:

 

 

Once again I looked for excuses to use some Colourshift paints. This time I used Turbo Dork's Floor is Lava. I also got to use the large custom transfers on the wing membranes. The numbers were from a US Navy font if I remember correctly.

 

This pilot was my first attempt at airbrush OSL painting. I think it looks okay when inside the cockpit but looks rough up close. I should have picked either blue or red for the lighting colour to make the pilot stand out more, but I made sure the OSL was concentrated from the three main screens and projected onto the pilot's hands and fact primarily.

 

 

In this pic you may be able to see my attempt to paint a reflective/chrome-ish effect on the cabin window. What do you think, did I pull it off or not?

 

 

Here you can see I struggled with the bombs. Initially I was going to paint a cog-tooth pattern around the heads of all the bombs but I failed miserably and instead decided to paint bands instead. That was also unsuccessful as the banks ended up crooked. A shame, but after layering from black all the way to yellow and then messing up the black lines I didn't want to work back to black again or the paint would be an inch thick from about 500 thin layers. :p

 

 

Here you can see I am pulling out the stops with the base. I got some of the Chemical Plant set that I think came from Pegasus Hobbies. I wanted it to look like it had been partially looted by my Ork army so it's going to be surrounded by scrap and barricades. I will have two Skitarii moving through the ruins. One will be equipped with an Omniscope, the other creeping forwards with a Radium Jezzail to get a few sneaky shots. I am using parts left over from the Skorpius kit including arms from the tank commander and bits for the Dunerider gunners. Fingers crossed when finished it will look more like an intentional gathering of building materials crossed with a barricade and less like some bits of plastic I stuck to a base.

 

Have a good day and I'll see you when I have more updates on the base building.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent works.

[Brother Callidan]

Great job. I think the chrome effect worked out well. I will also take your word on the up close your OSL is rough. Looks great to me man

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you both for the feedback! I tried to go for a more natural style on that bird. Would I have been better off doing edge highlights like I normally do?

 

I've still got a lot of work to go on the base. It's structurally there but I need to undercoat it and the Skitarii haven't arrived yet. For various reasons including (but not exclusive to) my own laziness I haven't got any new pictures to show... yet. I don't know how to get any really good pictures of the model since it's not going to fit into my light box. Does anyone have any ideas? I will probably try my daylight desk lamp and the led lights from my light box but I will have to with with them for a bit to get good results.

 

Oh, and I joked with a friend that I should paint some nose art on the aircraft and that following the memes it would probably have to be a toaster. It turned out somebody else thought the same idea! I don't know who painted it but it was not me.

 

Also an odd coincidence that they went for a dark green colour as well. posted by a person called u/CopChef. I think they did a really good job.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Magos Takatus

[Smoke Frog]

Really great looking flyer!

 

If I may ask, how do you make your own custom transfers? As in paper/type of printer? Would love to make some Ryza ones as they aren't sold on the website anymore.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Archeoraptor's pinup is most imaginative, and appropriate for the AdMech.

[Magos Takatus]

Really great looking flyer!

 

If I may ask, how do you make your own custom transfers? As in paper/type of printer? Would love to make some Ryza ones as they aren't sold on the website anymore.

Good question! The custom transfers can be acquired from a few places. These transfers were produced by a company called Fallout Hobbies, but they have a mixed reception when it comes to fulfilling orders so I personally recommend Scumb4g Kustoms on Facebook. They worked hard on my Imperial Knight heraldry and I was delighted with the result.

 

You can make your own with transfer sheets but my models are dark and so require lighter transfers which normally need white ink to really stand out... which requires specialist printers. I probably could have used white decal paper to get aroud that but having to cut out every cog manually would have made me cry, and making my optical implants rust does not sound like fun.

 

Seeing some Ryza decals on your models would really take them to the next level. I hope one way or another you will be able to apply some to your models. :)

 

The Archeoraptor's pinup is most imaginative, and appropriate for the AdMech.

 

I thought so too. I told you who made the image but I forgot to tell you where I found them. I got a notification for Reddit which linked me to the photos. I thought it was so good that I had to share with you all. I wish I could claim credit for it but I am still at the level of painting skill that works for Ork models only. 

[Magos Takatus]

Hey all! Finally finished the base of my Fusilave and added a tiny bit of weathering to the landing feet.

 

 

I quite enjoyed kitbashing the recon/sniper team on the base. I used a few parts from the Skorpius kit including a Dunerider crew member body and two of the tank commander arms. The sniper rifle is a holstered Radium Jezzail from the Dragoon. I used a storage tank from the old Pegasus Hobbies Chemical Plant set, partly to hide the flight stem and partly to give the idea of my Ork army having looted some abandoned factory complexes. As of now there are no skulls on the base, something that makes me very uncomfortable and which will be addressed soon.

 

Thanks for taking a look, I hope you like what you see, if not some constructive criticism would be appreciated. :)

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine work on the Archeoraptor and its base.