The Pursuit of Knowledge

[BitsHammer]

Thanks to the board here with it's wonderful project logs, in character posts about tactics and me staring at the codex so hard over the last couple days like I'm trying to memorize it I've found the motivation to work on starting an Ad Mech army. Well, honestly I want to do a few armies due to the interesting things I see in the lore and the models but Mars wasn't built in a day.

 

Knowing my weaknesses I've decided to do a project log to hopefully keep the motivation from dropping out and my laziness to play with unpainted models kicking in.

 

To start I guess I should start with the first Forge World I'm doing (as eventually I'll reach a point where I feel my army is "complete" and hard to add too and I'll start looking at the other Forge Worlds I'm interesting in building) and the models I have so far.

 

For my starting Forge World I've gone with the classic of Mars, mainly because it gives me a reason to own Cawl and it has the least restrictions in how to build to gain benefits from the core rules.

 

My core for this army is fairly small at the moment and is as follows:

Cawl

1x Tech-Priest Dominus with Volkite and Macrostubber

5x Infiltrators with Flechette Blasters and Taser Goads (finished assembling them this morning)

5x Rangers (building out of the start collecting box), one of which will be given the Arquebus from the box

5x Vanguard (going to give them a Plasma Caliver)

5x Electro-Priests (haven't built them yet, but I'm looking at the Corpuscarii built since it works well with Wrath of Mars and a big horde of these guys bubble wrapping Cawl to get up the field could be pretty fun)

1x Dunecrawler with Neutron Laser and extra Heavy Stubber

 

I'm basically looking at expanding this with a little of everything since basically there isn't anything that doesn't benefit at least a little from being in a Mars list, but my goal is to avoid the obvious gunline configuration and instead use Cawl to support more forward units since he wants to be more forward for his own shooting anyways. One thought was to give him a unit of Destroyers (either with Grav or Plasma or both) and move them with him to claim the center of the table (or an objective near there) since he can make their firepower quite withering for the opponent. The Dominus will support my rear elements (mostly by keeping the Dunecrawler, and the later second Dunecrawler (I'm thinking Icarus Array on that one) healed up). I know an Engineeer is cheaper, but honestly I feel the Dominus is a little more useful since he is a decent all-rounder.

 

Future World Worlds I'm considering are Metalica and Ryza (the former to be more Skitarri focused with an emphasis of kiting enemy units with shooting, and the later to be a mix of heavy plasma servitor troops and melee support elements), though Deimos being run using Graia's rules appeals to me immensely as well. Mostly because I imagine it to be a Forge World who has taken a certain approach to fighting Daemons due to the nature of their role in the Imperium (most Daemons want to get into chopping range, calmly shooting them while locked in combat seems like a great method for dealing with that, especially since Vanguard would make most of the Daemon troops T2 in melee), plus it's the only Forge World that can stop psychic powers.

 

The only problem I have with starting Deimos is that I haven't really figured out the best grey to match their robes:

Just as a reminder of what they look like so you don't need to get your book or anything:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/thumb/8/84/DeimosSkitarii.jpg/220px-DeimosSkitarii.jpg

I almost want to say it's kind of a silvery grey, but maybe someone can get a better idea how to represent that.

 

Anyways, I hope to get some WIP up in the next day or so. I haven't decided on a basing scheme for my Mars guys just yet so that'll be a ways off for the moment, but since Red is such a warm color it'll likely be something like GW's brown cracked earth since that is cooler and compliments the warmer model better than I feel the red Mars base paint does.

[Battybattybats]

They look to have used a lot of blue in the grey, so I would look at some of the space wolves colours perhaps.

[BitsHammer]

They look to have used a lot of blue in the grey, so I would look at some of the space wolves colours perhaps.

So The Fang as a base with possibly another grey over it?

[Magos Takatus]

I'd say Russ Grey with Fenrisian grey even. That's a pretty light grey.

[BitsHammer]

I'd say Russ Grey with Fenrisian grey even. That's a pretty light grey.

Yeah, that's why I've been stuck. There are some light greys in my paint collection, but I'm not 100% if they fit the scheme properly.

[Subtle Discord]

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Irradial Cogitor: Online

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Inquiry Input: Deimos Colour options

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Compiling Data...

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Stand By...

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[BitsHammer]

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Cogitation recognized.

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Awaiting output.

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New data entry found.

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Displaying.

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Upon requesting Arch-Magos Duncan of Forge WarhammerTV for input about colors one of the communications servitors responded with the following suggestion:

 

Now it should be noted that this is a far less "silver grey" than was expected, and the Arch-Magos may yet respond to the inquiry further, but I felt the output by the communications Servitor was worth noting regardless.

 

As an additional input I have Cawl painted to around 80% completion. Remaining sections include a number of glowing blue bits, the Ad Mech symbols, the three skulls and some minor touch ups. Excluding basing he'll be complete. And while I will admit to putting some extra work into his robes, they really didn't take me nearly as long as robes used to, which surprised me. Counting the wash portion I finished them in under an hour and I hope to have some pictures online in the near future (perhaps the day after tomorrow).

 

And while I will freely admit the red was rather enjoyable, I'm questioning if it's the army I want to actually do in the end. Perhaps it's the prevalence in Cawl Gunlines I've seen in Battle Reports, or some other factor I haven't pinned down yet.

 

At least Deimos wouldn't make me feel off if I took allies of Inquisition or Grey Knights if I need to nuke some smite spam now that Daemons and Thousand Sons are out with new rules?

 

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End Input.

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Thought of the Day: Our enemies may rest, but rust does not.

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[Subtle Discord]

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I'm not usually a paint or colour guru, I know I'm a decent painter but I also still have much to learn. However, I think I can help a bit here. When I was switching to mostly Vallejo for my paints I picked up a few different greys looking for some colours that were a good starting point for the blue-grey highlights I prefer for my black. I have to give credit to GW for creating a solid 'system' for their paint range that is very user-friendly. I don't really dislike the paints but GW did shift away from some core colours I had grown used to and I've also come to like a broader range with more subtle variations to select from. That Vallejo also comes in dropper bottles is just the nail in the coffin, but I do still use many of the GW paints but mostly from their technical and special range.

 

Left: 70.901 Pastel Blue. Middle: 70.904 Dark Blue Grey. Right: 70.907 Pale Grey Blue.

 

One downside of all the selection is all the selection. The brochure is good but the colour accuracy is not perfect and there are a ton of greys that are similarly named and appear similar. The Dark Blue Grey I show here, in particular, is called blue but it has a definite green tint that seems quite close to what you might be looking for. There is a Blue Grey Pale (70.905) that is directly beside the Dark Blue Grey, but I don't have that to directly compare. The Pale Grey Blue pictured here has a slight blue-green tint that might work well as the highlight; if it's too intense you could easily tone it down with the Dark Blue Grey. The Pastel Blue to the left is an option if you want to tilt it towards the blue and not the mild green. I've never worked in large areas with this range of blues, but I do use them for highlights and they do a good job of making nice cool highlights on black.

 

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Output... Complete.

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Comm-link... Open.

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Edited January 28, 2018 by Subtle Discord

[Magos Takatus]

There does sound like there is a huge variety with Vallejo paints. It seems a little daunting but I bet it's a huge advantage in the long run. It looks like those two outer paints would be ideal. Those three paints probably would have been useful for the Hive Tyrant I recently completed but I feel there was enough experimentation in that project already. :)

 

Now I would like to see what Fulkes's version Belisarius Cawl will look like!

[BitsHammer]

After going home last night I took the Deimos Skitarri image and plugged it into MS Paint and did some color sampling. Basically, it is definitely a light blue-grey that borders a bit on green.

 

I don't use Vallejo paints though (mostly just because I have too many GW paints and don't want to go down yet another rabbit hole of paint pot collecting), so I'm leaning more towards the blue-greys that GW used for this Krieg tutorial (EDIT: Forgot the video):

 

I feel like the colors (especially the highlight color) match pretty heavily with the image.

 

After I was done with that I played around with my camera servo-skull pict function and got a WIP of Cawl:

 

I actually took a couple to try and play around with a few things (lighting and focal distance mainly) and this one came out the best. I feel like some of the colors are a little more subdued in this image and that I may need to look into a higher quality camera (this one came out when Windows XP was still the current operating system) to try and get better images.

 

That said, I woke early and spent a few more hours on him and he's nearing completion (glowing bits painted, tubing painted black, symbols and skulls painted in, ect) save for basing which I haven't fully committed on. Once he's done I'm going to make a decision if I want to continue doing Mars or just switch to Deimos for everything else.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Fulkes

[BitsHammer]

Since my camera is a meager 10 mega pixels and the macro function doesn't lead to quality images on newer monitors (like the one I use at home) I've decided to start looking for a reasonably priced digital camera (so less than a new army of Sisters of battle :P) that can take good pictures of models. If anyone has any recommendations I'm more than welcome to them.

[BitsHammer]

So despite not having the paints I need just yet (I have a shopping list for payday a couple days from now on what I need to get for the Space Wolf Blue-Grey cloth and the blue wash for the Electro-priest skin) I still like to keep plugging away at getting stuff ready for painting.

I haven't really found a basing scheme I want just yet due to the color balance for Deimos. They're largely cooler colors (blue-grey robes, dull silver metals, blue glows) paired with red pants/bodysuits, and a dark red armour (Thinking Mephiston, recess wash with Nuln Oil, and then highlight with Evil Sun Scarlet to give it some "pop" around the edges, and originally I was considering a gold for the trim and details, but as I've stared at it more I feel copper is a better fit, so I'll be pushing towards a copper trim) the model has both warm and cold tones, leaning really neither direction especially heavilly (save in certain cases like the Dominus).

I'm looking at doing something with one of those cracked earth style paints, but the question is to do something in something more tan (basically using a light neuteral color to balance the colors of the model) or take it another direction.

Pretty much this is why I never seem to use less than like twenty different pots of paint when working on my models. Well that and being a student of the: "Base, Wash, Layer Base, Highlight Layer 1, Highlight Later 2" school of painting (leading to me basically needing 3-4 different pots of paint per color....basically you can see where this is going).

Well this isn't much of an update if I don't post some pictures, so first here's a couple decent ones I managed to get of my finished Cawl:

I swear the colors aren't this subtle in real life, but the camera seems to wash out the highlights a bit.

And here's a shot of everything currently awaiting paint:

 

On a side note I've been thinking about which units fit into Graia's rules the best for synergey and honestly I feel like Electro-priests might be the big winners (5++ Invul, 5+ Fanatical devotion, 6+ Graia trait to prevent wounds). Don't know if I'll go all out in getting tons of them, but I am looking at building 20 of each so I can run full sized sparking blobs of them.

[BitsHammer]

Still not sure how to exactly get the color balance right to make the highlights look like they do in real life but I'll start playing with things in an image editor to try and fix things.

 

That said, here's my Dominus so far:

 

Russ Grey washed Agrax Earthshade into the folds, and given an extreme highlight with Ferensian Grey makes up the robes. Collar was Rakarth Flesh followed by Pallid Witchflesh, followed by an extreme highlight of White Scar. Armour is Mephiston Red, washed Nuln Oil, touched up with Mephiston and then layered with copper for the trim. Metal is going to be Leadbelcher, washed with Nuln Oil, drybrushed with Necron compound and the plug ends done in copper.