Legio Hellion: The Brazen Furies & Knights of House Paramour

[Achinadav]

After picking up the rules set as a stoating wee bargain a couple of years ago (15 quid and still in the shrink wrap!), I played my first game last Saturday. Great fun. With no tiny titans of my own, my opponent graciously lent me 2 warhounds & 3 knights to fight his own. We ended up picking symmetric loud outs for our 'hounds; vulcan mega-bolter/turbo laser destructor and vulcan mega-bolter/plasma blast gun. I then proceeded to have a run of outrageous good luck. Must have been the dice, my first use of fancy purple/white Slaanesh ones.

 

Anyway, with the release of the warhounds it was finally time for me to get onboard with Adeptus Titanicus properly. My preorder of 2 boxes arrived Saturday and I have a reaver on back order, hopefully for despatch tomorrow, to complete my Venator light maniple. I've been really enjoying putting the little guys together and this is how they look:

 

 

The bodies aren't glued down yet (neither is the one carapace that I've clipped from the sprue), hence you can see the one on the right being supported by his disembodied twin! This pair will both be armed with a mega-bolter and turbo laser destructor. Although I'm planning on using that bag of noise marine weapons to convert them, so really they could count as anything. Piloted by twin Princeps, Relentless Eternity and Raucous Euphoria will be painted as mirror images of each other and use the same style armour plates.

 

In an attempt to get different poses I've fiddled with the legs. Rather than use them in the prescribed pairs, I deliberately mismatched them. This gives a nice variation:

 

 

For the other two I'll just use standard leg pairs.

 

Colour scheme-wise I was originally going with black and dark gold trim, and then acid green & electric blue as spot colours. In particular, these two I was going to halve the carapace with white and then put 2mm white/5mm green/2mm white/5mm blue stripes. After my good luck in the game, clearly the dice want purple as the main colour I'll still be using white and green, but have ditched the blue in favour of a little splash of yellow here and there. And bright gold trim. We'll see how that plan survives the actual painting!

 

I'm not sure on how I'll arm the other two. Probably one with mega-bolter/plasma blast gun as that was a great combo in my own game. I'm tempted with inferno cannon/blast gun on the last one. Although there's a good chance I'm going to do more conversion work on the armour for more of the spikey death metal version of traitor and it could end up as the founding member of Legio Hellion's Axiom maniple.

 

Thanks for looking!

Edited January 29, 2019 by Achinadav

[Fajita Fan]

That traitor head is so mean looking.  

[Sandlemad]

Excellent posing, I am glad to see that some more dynamic poses are possible by mixing and matching the legs together with terrain.

[Captain Idaho]

I utilised the traitor mouth front for one of my loyalists Warhounds to differentiate between the 2 easier. Looks great.

[Fajita Fan]

I might cut one of mine apart for that mouth...

[Captain Semper]

They look good - the posing is dynamic and... different! Look forward for your Maniple and your painting scheme! :tu:

[Achinadav]

Oh blimey, I didn't realise I'd been neglecting what had become my favourite little corner of B&C for nearly 6 weeks! My hobby mojo did take a hit when I caught a virus from somewhere I hate winter.

 

On the brightside, I did have a 3 day Hobby Fiesta when my dearly beloved went away for the weekend. I managed to get the other two 'hounds assembled and my reaver, bar the weapons (now waiting on the new sprue to be released, I'm not sure how I want to arm it). I even tried magnetising the reaver's arms, although I may have messed that up and so might end up just gluing whatever I choose in.

 

These piles of bits to lay testament to having managed some painting though:

 

The skeletons are drybrushed and washed. Once I've got everything painted I plan to use some browner washes to weather the feet. And technical paints on the bases, so some of that may go up the legs too. So far these photos show the purple and trim I've got basecoated, hoping to finish that this week.

 

Also made a start on the armour panels that I haven't glued on because I want them to have white and green stripes:

 

What that disguises is that every panel has been stripped at least once! Thank goodness for Superdrug's acetone free nail varnish remover (its fantastic! goes straight down to bare plastic without leaving any funny textures and doesn't soften detail. It does smell though, I ended up feeling lightheaded after a sustained scrubbing session). The two 'hound canopies and four leg panels have been stripped twice. The first time I didn't use Superdrug's remover and the alternative was rubbish; it took ages and did a bad job. So I'm kind of glad I messed up by not basecoating white over the undercoat before doing the green stripes.

 

The reaver canopy has had Tamiya 5mm tape and green applied. I'm very pleased how its turned out. Needs some tidying up in a few places and the harsh light of the photo shows up imperfections. But at table distance it looks fine. The hardest bits to get the tape into are at the top of the piccie, that's the bit that needs the most tidying. Very nervous about painting the trim now...

 

I'll probably wake a transfer in the middle. I've got these ones in black, white, silver & gold:

 

And these ones in black & white:

 

Sorry for the photo dump, must try and put stuff up more often. And comment on all the lovely threads that have multiplied whilst I beavered away in the background!

 

Thanks for looking.

[Mendi Warrior]

Looking very nice, good start.

 

 

the harsh light of the photo shows up imperfections.

 

 

Maybe some battle damages / weathering to hide them?

[Achinadav]

Thanks Mendi Warrior. I have considered battle damage on the armour plates. I'm not sure what would work on the green, white & purple, though. Maybe just some sponged on grey? I know I'll be able to strip it all off and start again if I have to, even after the paint has had weeks to cure! Not sure I want to try for a record on how many times I can paint the same armour panel.

[Mendi Warrior]

Not sure what would be best, chipped paint showing bare metal or shot impacts, sponged grey. Quite honestly from the picture, the only "imperfection" I can see is a little "blob" of paint on the second green stripe from below. Nurgle-aligned legio? Then its only the very first signs of his blessing  Agreeing with you regarding setting a stripping record.

[Fajita Fan]

I like the term Hobby Fiesta.

[Chaeron]

Love the stripes Achinadav - great stuff!

[Captain Semper]

Very nice striping for sure... Once you do the rims, it will really pop! 

 

And a brave colour scheme if there ever was one! :o

 

Keep going man, we really want to see this Reaver now...

[Achinadav]

I ended up taking a wee hobby break over Christmas & New Year because of bugs and what not I was a bit grumpy about it if I'm honest. But no I'm back on my feet and can look at my laptop screen without feeling dizzy, I've been painting tiny titans and also getting up to speed on all the fantastic work here!

 

With the release if TItandeath, I couldn't help myself; on Saturday my copy, along with the new reaver, a box of Cerastus knights and Dan Abnett's Titanicus turned up. The volcano cannon has been assembled for my first reaver and the rest of the kit planked for when I've got more titans painted. The Cerastus knights went together straight away. I intend my 2nd battlegroup to be more spikey chaos, so meet Malice & Spite, the first members of House Paramour:

Decided I wanted slightly different looking lances, so used wraithguard sword blades. Apparently, House Paramour use xenos tech in their weaponry., clearly heretics and traitors. Already planning my next two Cerastus knights. One will be an Acheron, probably as the Scion, and the other will be another lancer.

 

I've also got my first warhound assembled. Paint needs work, as there's no highlights or shading. But I've got the members of my Venator light maniple to the stage where its more efficient to work on one at a time. So I aim to get all of them to this stage before adding highlights, etc. And also transfers and weathering (maybe, never done it). The stripes and trim also need tidying. Anyway, here's Rapturous Eternity:

Only three more 'hounds and a reaver to finish the maniple...

 

And for anyone that hasn't had a Cerastus knight in their hand, here's a size comparison:

They're really tall and lanky! They look great and I really enjoyed assembling them. But they're quite fiddly because there's pretty much as many parts as the 'hounds. The guy on the left is a normal size Space Wolf, for reference.

 

Thanks for looking, I'm off to admire the creativity of the rest of you. And apologies for the naff photos. Sun sets early at this time of year and I'm struggling to get non-blurry photos.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Achinadav

[Mendi Warrior]

Very nice progress. I particularly love your Cerastus, excellent conversions 

[Captain Semper]

Excellent conversions and a striking colour scheme for the Titans!

 

If you look for some extra motivation, consider joining the Titans of the Heresy event: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353097-titans-of-the-heresy/

[Achinadav]

Thanks chaps. I'm never going to get to the level of brush work that others manage, so hopefully I can at least manage tidy. This whole form is awesome.

 

I forgot to post a pic of the Cerastus shields, which have added spikes. And I slapped a chaos star over the centre of one of them, because it seemed like a pretty good fit. Apparently I deleted all photos of them :(

[Achinadav]

Excellent conversions and a striking colour scheme for the Titans!

 

If you look for some extra motivation, consider joining the Titans of the Heresy event: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353097-titans-of-the-heresy/

Remembered about your mention of the event! My currently assembled titans have all got their skeletons completed (bar weathering at some distant point) and most of the armour panels have got at least one coat of paint on them. I think that disqualifies them from being pledged :( I don't want to assemble my 2nd reaver until I've got at least a minimum Venator/Janissary maniple painted, and that could take a while. But I will pledge my cerastus in a couple days; rushing off on a trip.

[Achinadav]

Not exactly awe inspiring progress, but two evenings driving my paint brush has lead to some sort of progress on my second 'hound, Raucous Euphoria:

 

His legs came out blurry. The base is covered in Agrellan Earth, etc, so it looks awful. The actual legs are at the same boring stage.Trim needs another coat and then I'll have to go over everything a tidy up all my mistakes. Another couple of evenings and he should be ready to glue together like his twin.

 

I'm using a Vallejo gold and wish I wasn't. Needs a lot of thinning to use, but then dries out incredibly quickly and goes lumpy. Yuck! I might try and find close match GW paint, because the ones I'm using are lovely.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Achinadav

[Mendi Warrior]

Looking good.

 

So far, I have used Citadel Retributor Armour as base for my gold. It also seems to dry quicker than other paints. I use very little and constantly add a drop or two of water to try to keep it moist (a wet palette might help better) then add a little bit more paint, and I start the circle again. This probably explains why I take ages to paint gold trim 

 

Doesn't Vallejo have some medium to add to the paint so it doesn't dry too quickly?

[Brother Dallo]

Progress is progress, so don't hate the little steps. My plog just hit 9 pages and I've yet to get a Titan finished. :p

 

You've got some nice Titans here and a unique looking colour scheme.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Dallo

[Achinadav]

Looking good.

 

So far, I have used Citadel Retributor Armour as base for my gold. It also seems to dry quicker than other paints. I use very little and constantly add a drop or two of water to try to keep it moist (a wet palette might help better) then add a little bit more paint, and I start the circle again. This probably explains why I take ages to paint gold trim 

 

Doesn't Vallejo have some medium to add to the paint so it doesn't dry too quickly?

 

Thanks, the dodgy photos hide a million sins Still work to do, but desperately want to have everything in one piece for a game on the 23rd. I was on target, but see below.

 

Retributor Armour was the colour I was thinking of going for. My love hate relationship with paint that dries out has continued in the last 72 hours. Not sure about Vallejo, does water count? Most of their paints are pretty good. I like the reds and silvers, but the gold/bronze metallics all some to dry too quickly for comfort.

 

Progress is progress, so don't hate the little steps. My plog just hit 9 pages and I've yet to get a Titan finished.

 

You've got some nice Titans here and a unique looking colour scheme.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Dallo

 

Thanks for the encouragement! The colour scheme has worked out the way I was hoping, even though the green isn't quite as bright, the purple is a little too violet, and the gold is horrible paint. I've got some tidying up to do on the trim and then touching up the others colours where I will inevitably get gold...

 

More progress! Sometimes the Primordial Annihilator giveth, and sometimes it annihilateth with extreme prejudice. I had my cerastus knights, with the almost prophetic names of Malice and Spite, primed, drybushed and washed. Pretty pleased with how that pulled out the detail, and its exactly the same recipe I used on my tiny titans and is very easy. Then Sunday night I decided to push some paint around. What colour contrasts purple whilst being complimentry to it? Yellow thinks I. Basecoat went fine, layered on the next whatever yellow it was and it went lumpy and streaky Last night they had a bath in some of Superdrug's excellent paint stripper (otherwise known as acetone free nail polish remover, its awesome, accept no substitute). Now the little pinheads look like this:

 

Because of the detail and delicacy I was quite careful with the toof brush, so I missed a couple of places and need to have another go. I also stripped one of my other two 'hounds canopies. I'd realised my tendency to adopt patterns meant I'd also set them up to up symmetric/antisymmetric schemes like the other two. So I've changed my mind and one will have a lot more white/green and the other will be almost completely purple. I think that will lend the maniple a cohesive enough scheme wihlst still giving individuality to each titan. They are AI/MIU gestalt god-machines after all.

 

The yellow on the knights has been ditched in favour of using the same green as the titans, with a little touch of the purple and maybe red? They're a semi-vassal house, so they adopted one of Legio Hellion's colours, whilst the Legio took on the green to honour their vassals after some big achievement. Like slaughtering an entire world on their own, these are traitors after all. Tested the green and it goes on fine, no lumps or streaks. I hate light colours.

 

Last night I also contined work on Raucous Euphoria. She's progressed quite well, so rather than going backwards I've kind of gone sideways:

 

Had the same problem with the white when I touched up the stripes on the leg panels after getting gold in the wrong place! But I think I used the wrong pot, because when I basecoated the white on all the panels it came out lovely. You can't see it here, thank goodness for rushed photos in poor light and a dodgy phone that wants to focus on the shopping bag behind her. I think I can fix the roughness with some careful brushwork using the good white paint.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Did I mention I hate light colours?

 

Especially yellow and white?

Edited February 13, 2019 by Achinadav

[Mendi Warrior]

I found this one from Vallejo https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/producto/hobby/auxiliaries-model/retarder-medium-70597/

Maybe worth a try.

 

Always bad when you have to strip paint and start over, fingers crossed for your next attempt.

[Achinadav]

I found this one from Vallejo https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/producto/hobby/auxiliaries-model/retarder-medium-70597/

Maybe worth a try.

 

Always bad when you have to strip paint and start over, fingers crossed for your next attempt.

 

Thanks Mendi! Knowing the right name makes it pop up all over the place. I think I might throw a bottle in next time I have to order more tiny titans or knights (notice the "have"?). Yesterday the gold behaved itself and actually went on my reaver's legs rather well:

 

This is the last titan I need to get stuck together for my 2nd ever game of AT next Saturday. And the 1st one with my own titans. Aiming to get to the same stage as the 'hounds, i.e. trim and armour panels all basecoated and stuck together. Actually, that's not true, this guy isn't going to have any of his armour panels attached. And yes, I should have dry fitted the leg panels before choosing the stance. No, I don't think they're going to fit properly....

 

Malice and Spite have been returned to their pre-yellow disaster state:

 

You may have noticed a sudden improvement in photo quality. I got fed up not being able to take decent photos, even though I know my phone has a pretty decent camera in it. So 3 things happened:

 

1) I read up on how to use it and installed a new camera app with better white balancing and exposure compensation than the Nokia one;

2) I brought a tripod, no more wobbly out-of-focus shots;

3) I brought a little light box, which has two LED light strips in it, no more poor lightlng.

 

Combined this actually leads to pretty decent pictures, even without putting a lot of effort into it, or really knowing what I'm doing. And with proper lighting and a steadicam, lo, the auto white balance, focus and exposure compensation are all pretty good! So here's Rapturous Eternity and Raucous Euphoria in their ready-for-battle glory:

 

I'm really happy with how they've come out so far, even for know highlighting/shading (even down to the I-couldn't-be-bothered-to-open-the-agrax-earthshade state of the brass on the weapons). But the bases! My idea actually worked. There's some bits of cork stuck on and then I was rather generous with Agrellan Earth & Badland, Armageddon Dust and Stirland Mud (I think that's the four, I'm having an I-can't-be-bothered-to-walk-to-the-dining-room moment). Gave the lot a coat of Vallejo's Desert Yellow, without wanting too uniform a covering, drybrushed with Vallejo Khaki and then Ushabti Bone before slatheing the lot with Agrax Earthshade. Its come out just how I wanted. Lots of texture and interest, with different shades and whatnot. I'm recording it here for posterity so when I end up putting the paints away to go back to my Word Bearers future me will be able to find out what current me did when it becomes time to add to Legio Hellion.

 

Enthused with my new lightbox I decided to take it out for a spin and do some glamour shots of the two titans. I've put them in spoilers, so if you're having an I-can't-be-bothered-to-look-at-more-photos-of-the-same-unfinished-titans, then you don't have to

 

Rapturous Eternity

 

Raucous Euphoria

 

Boy! Proper lighting and being in focus is unforgiving. I really should thin my paints more often, not just when they're really gloopy. Thanks for looking.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Achinadav

[noigrim]

Green and purple? My eyes!

 

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/816/127/a90.gif

Edited February 18, 2019 by noigrim