+ apologist's Titan-Manufactorum +

[apologist]

Cheers both – much appreciated :)

 

I have been slightly distracted by a new contender, too...

 

 

Eldar Titans are great bipedal combat walkers, produced by the Craftworld Eldar, the Asuryani. Similar to the lumbering Titans that are the greatest war machines of the Imperium of Man, Eldar Titans combine grace, speed and deadly firepower.

 

Eldar Titans move with a smooth agility and grace unachievable by the Imperium's Titans. Like all Eldar technology, these tall, slender war engines are built to be aesthetically pleasing as well as fully functional, and possess a grace and beauty rarely seen amongst the deadly implements of Mankind.

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by apologist

[Sherrypie]

That is going to be pretty sweet.

[Mandragola]

That's a funny looking engine, though I like your version of Astorum colours.

[apologist]

Work progresses on the Phantom. I'm ticking along nice and slowly, just enjoying working with acrylics alone again. Last night I worked on the belly, groin and shoulders:

 

 

I've also started work on some playtesting rules, so I can put this chap in the field. If you're interested in the Designers' notes and helping to playtest, they're on +Death of a Rubricist+ here: https://apologentsia.blogspot.com/2023/01/inload-phantom-titan-in-adeptus.html

 

Here's the Terminal:

 

Playtesting Eldar Titans

+ These are additional clarifications on how the game runs, and how certain weapons interact with or effect Holofields. +

• List building – Replace all references to 'Maniple' for 'Conclave'. Eldar do not yet have Strategems. I suggest you playtest without them for the moment.
• Game prep – Replace all references to 'Princeps Senioris' with 'High Steersman [name TBC]'. Determine Missions, Deployment and Battle Field Control as normal. Deploy as normal.
• Strategy Phase – Treat all references to 'Infinity Circuit Disturbed' as Princeps wounded'; treat all references to 'Spiritweave Disturbed' as 'MIU Feedback'.
• Movement Phase – Treat all references to 'Reactor' as 'Plasmaweave'
• Damage Control Phase – apply the following adjustments:
  • 1. Activate Unit (skip for Knight Households) 
  • 2. If Reactor Level is orange roll D6; if red, roll D10 on Reactor Overload Table.
  • 3. Repair Roll with number of dice equal to 'Shaping' 
  • 4. Distribute results as follows: 
    • X+ Repair weapon (see weapon card) 
    • 4+ Reduce reactor level by 1 
    • 6 Repair 1 critical damage 
    • 6 Repair Holofield Burnout  [Holofield Burnout: Holofields are inactive]
• Combat Phase – n.b. Weapons on the 'Shoulders' location are not affected by 'Carapace' restrictions.
  • To Hit Modifiers – treat references to 'Steersman Wounded' as 'Moderati Wounded'.
  • Ignore all reference to Void Shields.
• End Phase – Treat all references to 'Plasmaweave Leak' as 'Reactor Leak'.

• Orders tables changes
  • Emergency Repairs: Treat all references to 'Servitor Clades' as 'Shaping'
  • Shutdown: Replace text with 'Holofields are no longer Active, can only be activated in Damage Control Phase, make normal repair rolls, reduce Plasmaweave level by 2.
• Reactor Overload Table changes
  • Treat all references to Reactor as Plasmaweave.
  • 1–2 suffer S9 hit to body, bypass Holofield 
  • 3–5 Holofield Burnout; if Holofield already burned out, resolve as result 6-8
  • 6–8 suffer D3 S9 hits to body, bypass Holofield 
  • 9–10 Titan destroyed; roll D3+total number of Plasma Track holes in inch for radius, all units suffer D6 hits with Strength = Scale+1, bypassing Void Shields and Holofields.
• Holofields and weapon traits clarifications
  • Attacks with the Bypass, Melee, Psi trait(s) are affected by Holofields as described above. Note that this means Melee attacks cannot make Targeted attacks until the Holofields are nor Active.
  • Units equipped with Holofields are affected by Concussive weapons as normal if hit.
  • Attacks with the Firestorm trait are resolved as normal against Units with Holofields.
  • Attacks with the Shieldbane or Voidbreaker trait(s) have no additional effect against a Unit with Holofields.

 

+++

 

... and some further pictures of the work in progress:

 

 

 

[apologist]

 

 

 

…and a Warhound on the blocks. This chap has a Battle Bling upgrade to give a classic retro feel.

[Lord_Borak]

Damn! That Phantom Titan is looking awesome. Really like the Bone and Blue highlight work you've done. The model is really nice as well. 

 

I'm not sure on the BattleBling hound. I really want to like it but something seems off. It might well be that the body doesn't suit the legs? I dunno. 

[Raziel-TX]

That agile pose on the war hound is probably one of the best I’ve seen. 

[apologist]

3 hours ago, Lord_Borak said:

Damn! That Phantom Titan is looking awesome. Really like the Bone and Blue highlight work you've done. The model is really nice as well. 

 

I'm not sure on the BattleBling hound. I really want to like it but something seems off. It might well be that the body doesn't suit the legs? I dunno. 

 

Thanks for the kind words on the Phantom – and the critique on the Warhound. I've never been all that fussed about Warhounds (likely why this is my first one ever!), and the main reason for the conversion kit is that I want to visually distinguish between Warhounds and a Dire Wolf conversion kit, which will use the normal Warhound kit as the basis.

 

 

A consistent undercoat helps somewhat with the visual disjunct, but I do know what you mean on the intregration. While a nice enough kit, I think it would benefit from some additional details to tie it into the other plates – perhaps some rivets, and a couple of the little cross-shaped flourishes you see on the standard hip and shin plates.

 

40 minutes ago, Raziel-TX said:

That agile pose on the war hound is probably one of the best I’ve seen. 

Thanks very much! It took a bit of time and lots of dry-fitting, but was a pretty simple conversion in the end.

[Mandragola]

The running pose on the warhound is great but I've also never particularly liked that body mod. It just feels a bit insubstantial to me. The normal kit has those blocks at the back, apparently containing something to do with the reactor and/or void shields. It feels like a shame to lose them.  I understand the nostalgia for the original kit but the more modern* one is a better design in my opinion.

 

I also quite like the resin dire wolf, though I'm sure you'll be able to make something cool from a Warhound.

 

*Slightly - the kit must be well over 20 years old.

[apologist]

On 2/9/2023 at 10:43 AM, Mandragola said:

The running pose on the warhound is great but I've also never particularly liked that body mod. It just feels a bit insubstantial to me. The normal kit has those blocks at the back, apparently containing something to do with the reactor and/or void shields. It feels like a shame to lose them. 

Yes, I think that's a fair assessment. I quite like the contrast between the sleeker, lighter Warhound and...

 

 

The Death Chicken Dire Wolf! This is a Grim Dark Terrain modification kit, which will be joining the Amber Kings.

[Mandragola]

Looking good! I do prefer the standard warhound arms to the crazy wing things of the official dire wolf. 

[apologist]

… and frantically building an opposing force. A mate of mine has got into the game and asked me to convert him up some more dynamic poses. Here’s what I came up with:

 

 

 

[Noserenda]

Great work mate, i see magnets but i still want to chant *double flamer* :P 

[apologist]

Ha, yeah! I know inferno guns have a bit of a bad rap – but they're just so cool :D

[malika666]

I feel that here and there you might also wanna add some Chaos styled details to the hulls of those Titans. Just to give them a feel that they're more than 'just' the original Titan models with Juggernaut heads on them.

[Mandragola]

19 hours ago, malika666 said:

I feel that here and there you might also wanna add some Chaos styled details to the hulls of those Titans. Just to give them a feel that they're more than 'just' the original Titan models with Juggernaut heads on them.

I see what you mean, though Apologist has used the Chaos-y armour plates. I do see your point that a very mutated head with no other weird features could look a bit off, but the jugger head does work well on hounds (and Acastus knights)

[malika666]

On 3/9/2023 at 10:51 AM, Mandragola said:

I see what you mean, though Apologist has used the Chaos-y armour plates. I do see your point that a very mutated head with no other weird features could look a bit off, but the jugger head does work well on hounds (and Acastus knights)

I don't think major mutations would be needed, just a few spikes here and there. It could be subtle.

[apologist]

The plasma-forges kick back into action after a long time.

 

I'm off to my very first gaming tournament in a few weeks – Beachhead in Bournemouth – and I thought I'd make it harder for myself(!) by deciding to work up a brand new maniple, this time from a 'canon' Legio: the Iron Skulls (Legio Metalica):

 

Work-in-progress:

 

While it's time-consuming, I'm pleased with how they're coming along – and I'm finding a deadline invaluable in actually pushing me onwards. 

 

The concept is to present a Retrohammer modern update of the Metalica Titans from old White Dwarf battle reports, which has involved some fun research, bits searches and quite a lot of conversion work!

 

 

 

Wish me luck – not long to go now...

 

[The Yak]

Now this is a sight for sore eyes!!! (trust me they're very sore being an Evertonian).

 

As soon as I saw that picture of your Metalica Maniple I got the tingly nostalgic feeling and mouthed "proper old school" to myself. Then when I read your aims to produce a retrohammer vibe I thought "nailed it" haha.

 

As always, the attention to detail you put into the poses to make modern renditions of the iconic classics from days gone by is inspirational.

 

I love all your Legio Nikator stuff, the way you make your titans look and feel like the slow lumbering behemoths they are is a skill many find difficult to pull off (myself included).

 

Good luck with getting them ready for the tournament, and I can't wait to see these boys come together.

 

Cheers

 

PS: That Melta on the Reaver.... Superb!

[apologist]

Cheers @The Yak – very kind of you to say, and I'm glad the old school feel comes across. :)

 

Last night was spent starting to paint the bases, and while I waited for the Calth Brown to dry, I built some themed objective markers:

 

 

 

There's more in-depth burbling on my blog [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], but suffice to say these are slightly over-scaled Varus miniatures prints combined with Battle Bling scenic details.

[LameBeard]

This is retrohammer done right: taking the best from the contemporary and the days of yore. They look great - really nice choice of colours and basing, great posing, subtle conversions. Where did you get the Reaver heads?

[apologist]

Ta! The heads are a bit of a story – ever since the new version of Adeptus Titanicus came out, I really wanted to recreate a Reaver I had back from 2nd edition Epic: Space Marine:

 

 

The Reaver's always been my favourite Titan, and that head in particular was what sold me on it – and so I was disappointed that releases came and went, and we never saw a modern version of it. I chatted with sculptors and third party creators, and posted on various groups, but it never came to anything – until quite out of the blue someone messaged me to say they'd sculpted a version. Needless to say I bought the very first copy of the file! :D

 

Happily, Battle Bling, purveyors of all things third-party-Titanicus, have now secured the rights, so you can buy prints from them direct via this link. They've got four variants currently up for sale, and I suspect the remaining ones (including a nifty chainsaw-faced one) will come out soon.

[Lord_Borak]

Those BattleBling heads are really cool. I saw them on FB but it's nice to see them painted up on the Reaver model. 

 

Nice highlighting on the red as well!

[Mandragola]

Good to hear you're going to Beachhead. I can't make it this time but it's a really good event. Hope you have a good time. Nice work on the maniple too.

[apologist]

Things are getting stripey:

 

 

Steel Hammer here is piloted by the Maniple's Princeps Senioris, so he gets some extra-snazzy plates. I'd been a bit nervous about the stripes, but ended up really enjoying the process. I used a pencil to rough out the lines before committing to paint, so that made things a bit more relaxing.

 

 

Old Three Skulls got his shin attended to, and his power claw received a coat of yellow ahead of the chequers (see post above) being added.

 

 

I'm a little apprehensive that the chequerboard effect isn't going to look great on such a visually confusing area. Neverthless, in for a penny, in for a pound. Amongst the best bits of taking inspiration from older models is the enjoyable challenge of translating details like this onto modern figures, often much more complex.