Mandragola’s Legio Astorum (and Mortis and stuff)

[Mandragola]

So here’s my plog. I’m making a homebrew Legio with a lot of details still to be worked out. I imagine some of that will be sorted when Titandeath comes out. I'm going for Legio Astorum. I've always liked their colour scheme and had half a mind to try them all along - hence the blue basecoat. Since starting this I've done a test mini that I'm happy with and the rules are awesome. Warp Runners it is.

My objective is to have Myrmidon and Venator maniples, all magnetised. This will leave me with enough titans to field pretty much whatever I like I think.

For the pledge thing I’m going to paint a full Axiom maniple, the members of which are already accounted for in the two maniples above. None of those guys are painted, and so far only the warlord and one reaver are built, but not painted.

Here’s a pic of what I’ve built and painted so far. I’m going to paint some kind of heraldry on them and hopefully figure out a symbol for them too. There’ll also be a load of weathering and mud on everything.

http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/tt185/Someguy01/IMG_2099_zpsqt6hb6tb.jpg

I’ve done quite a few conversions on weapons, and have a bunch more to do. Next thing is to build a Gatling gun and quake cannon for my warlords. I’ll post some more pics of what I’ve been up to.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Mandragola

[Mandragola]

Ok here are some more pictures.

 

This is my most painted model. He's had a wash and some blending on his armour, but needs heraldry, transfers and weathering done to him still.

 

 

 

I've made a couple of cradles for gatling guns to fit onto his shoulders. I've just sprayed these and they have come out ok, so I should be able to post painted images soon. 

 

 

These were made from plasticard, green stuff, some plastic tube to make the collar part and some rod for the pistons. Quite pleased with how they've come out.

 

At first I made the gun cradles with little turrets. I decided to remove these and build a simpler collar like the missile launchers and laser blasters have. I originally wanted to represent the 90 degree arc that the gatlings have on their card, but apparently that's a typo. And the turrets made the guns stand up a bit too high as well. 

 

 

My second warlord is meant to be charging forward. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out a pose for a running warlord because I thought it would be easier to get wrong than right. Nevertheless they are described as running in Titandeath, and I thought it would be cool. I looked for images of big guys running and the kinds of postures they get into, and this is my attempt. I think it's come out ok. So far he just has his basecoat done.

 

 

I've started on my third warlord of the Myrmidon maniple. He's going to be a fire support titan with missiles, volcano and quake cannon. So I need to make a quake cannon somehow! And the melee guy wants a gatling arm too while I'm at it. I'll let you know how I get on. 

 

And finally here's a shot of my first game. My Legio Cultura took on a renegade legio that I haven't managed to identify. I won the game, with a warhound managing to get vital cargo across the board. I lost my other warhound to having its face punched and shot in by the enemy reaver. Both enemy warlords died in their damage recovery phases, having sent their reactors critical and had a lot of damage done to their bodies.

 

The terrain was pretty dense and the warhounds did great work. I thought the volcano cannon warlords my opponent fielded were pretty awful by comparison. I had a warhound that was on its last legs but they just couldn't put it down, until it ran out of places to run and the reaver catch up to it. All four warlords struggled to get clear shots, and therefore found their firepower pretty ineffective. Killing titans seems to require targeted shots, which is difficult to do when everything is in cover and impossible with blast weapons. Not a problem for the reaver's fist though.

 

My melee warlord got shot up but was still active when the game ended - albeit with a comrpomised body and a damaged fist. We just had my two warlords vs one damaged enemy reaver titan at the end. One of my warhounds was dead and the other had run through with the cargo.

 

Great fun. Hopefully more games to come soon.

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Mandragola

[Mendi Warrior]

Very nice stuff. I love the running warlord, it is excellent. Have you pinned it to the base?

The gun cradles would be nice for AA guns I think.

From the look of the shoulder armour panels I would think you faced titans from Legio Suturvora aka Legio Infernus aka Fire Masters http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Legio_Suturvora

Seemed it was a great game. The terrain looks great as well.

[Captain Semper]

I think you get full points for the most dynamically posed Warlord! :o

 

This is great work Mandragola, and the game must have been great too - especially as your opponent (yes looks like Suturvora) has also painted his minis and the terrain is awesome!

 

So next steps?

[Fajita Fan]

You did the running pose really well and good color choice. I tried to do something similar with a carapace collar for a couple of Gatling blasters and mine might stick up even higher :(

[Mandragola]

Thanks a lot guys.

 

Glad you like the running warlord. It’s pinned at the hip, ankle and where the foot meets the base. Not sure that’s really needed but it’s good for my peace of mind. I’ve got quite a lot of 28mm knights so I’m used to posing big guys, and I don’t even have to cut a warlord to pieces before starting. Easy!

 

The terrain is my club’s. We run an event called Salute, which pays for a lot of this sort of thing. We’re very lucky!

 

Next step is to probably continue to flit between different projects more or less at random, depending on what I feel like. However, these are the things on my to do list:

 

- Have a finished Titan as a test model. This is likely to be a reaver I think, or maybe it should be a warhound. Actually a warhound might be best because my reavers both want weapons off the new kit that’s coming out. A warhound could actually be “done”.

 

- Get started on my pledge to build and paint an axiom maniple, so as to avoid being turned into a servitor. The new reaver model is required for this but I’ve got everything else so there’s plenty I can do.

 

- Figure out the heraldry, back story, Legio symbol etc for my guys.

 

- Practice basing and weathering.

 

- Kill lots of traitor engines.

 

Here’s a close up of the Gatling just before the spray went on. I’m quite pleased with the work on the bolt thingy where it joins on. Looks a fair bit like the one on the original guns.

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Mandragola

[Fajita Fan]

I’m testing a 3D printed generic collar for the weapon choices that haven’t been released but it’s not coming out right. I’ll have a printer in my own building soon so I’ll be able to test different variants soon and share a file that might help.

 

I’m on mobile so I can’t see location, where are you at?

[Mandragola]

I’m in London, which isn’t handy for Virginia unfortunately. I really appreciate the offer though.

 

To be honest I quite enjoy making things by hand, rather than printing. I’m actually quite experienced with CAD, having done an architecture degree once upon a time, but I like the old fashioned approach.

[Mendi Warrior]

Cool work!

[Fajita Fan]

I’m in London, which isn’t handy for Virginia unfortunately. I really appreciate the offer though.

 

To be honest I quite enjoy making things by hand, rather than printing. I’m actually quite experienced with CAD, having done an architecture degree once upon a time, but I like the old fashioned approach.

I did everything by hand for years but when I'm trying to make 12 of something uniform that's where 3d printing gets handy. Also on by bucket list is to someday play Warhammer in England, it seems like there's a ton of players there.

Edited January 17, 2019 by Fajita Fan

[Chaeron]

Superb work so far and love the pose! Have always meant to get down to the SLW club, as a regular at Salute - this may help to sway things!

[Mandragola]

Superb work so far and love the pose! Have always meant to get down to the SLW club, as a regular at Salute - this may help to sway things!

Thanks. All are welcome at the Warlords - especially if they bring titans! We can have a game if you like.

[DuskRaider]

I'm in love with your Warlord's posing. I'm tempted to try it myself but I'd be afraid of ruining the model, lol.

[Mandragola]

Cool. I'm glad you guys like my little giant robots.

 

I've made a bit of progress on the Axiom maniple that I've pledged.

 

Here are the skeletons of the warlord and one reaver. This warlord is going to be my "fire support" guy, so he's in a rather more chilled out position than my melee guy. The reaver is plodding along pretty normally.

 

 

I've converted up a spare vulcan mega bolter to go on the reaver's roof. This involved carefully removing the magazines and sticking them on top instead, then filling in a lot of gaps and making a curved bit on the underneath (like that on the apocalypse launcher) for it to stick on. I've got both options magnetised for this guy.

 

 

My metal recipie is leadbelcher spray, nuln oil wash and silver drybrush. Today I tried chucking mig jiminez engine grime wash all over these guys and I'm pleased with the finish that it's created.  Looks a lot like mucky metal, to me at least. 

I've also put together the two warhounds for the maniple. And off they go!

 

http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/tt185/Someguy01/94886278-4932-40D3-AB9B-866F4B364C63_zpsnqaldx6y.jpeg

 

These guys have a little bit of greenstuff filling that's drying at the moment, but I've undercoated their armou plates. Haven't built their guns yet.

 

Now I'm off to buy some white spirit to clean my brushes. Didn't realise the mig stuff was enamel-based!

[Captain Semper]

I really like this metal effect. And the mega bolter on the Reaver carapace? lovely! :D

[the damned artificer]

That running warlord looks amazing! I have not seen anyone pulling that off yet, good job 

[Mandragola]

Added some muzzle burn to the barrels of my volcano cannons. I followed Duncan’s recipe from WarhammerWorld TV. I think it’s come out quite well.

 

http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/tt185/Someguy01/C8F9435D-39DA-4A82-971F-5B31ED8E4E82_zps0rwbq8kr.jpeg

 

One issue I had was that I’d just coated all the metal with oil paint, in the form of this mig engine grime stuff. Turns out that this is not a good idea before applying water-based washes. I had to give them a scrub with washing up liquid to get the washes to work - which is not a recommended approach. Turned out fine in the end though. Lesson learned!

[Mandragola]

Tonight I had a go at doing a Legio Astorum scheme on my second reaver. This guy is kind of a test  mini so I thought I'd go all out on the yellow and flames. Most other titans will have a lot less of this sort of thing - that is if I actually even go for Astorum.

 

I had a look at Astorum schemes from the siege of Vraks, which I found online. They actually vary enormously, from titans that are virtually all blue to ones with loads of flames on them. So my existing guys could get Astorum schemes without needing vast amounts of work done to them - though I think they need yellow heads as a minmum. Stripes and cheques will also feature quite a bit and I will do some flames here and there too.

 

So the first step was to paint several thin layers of white onto armour plates (which I'd undercoated metal, which isn't ideal!). These then got a yellow basecoat, blended up towards orange. Here's the roof.

 

 

Then for the roof and shins I started painting on flames in blue. This is pretty difficult! I might need to watch a tutorial or something. Iverall I think the effect is ok, but I've seen better.

 

http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/tt185/Someguy01/0FF403EF-7C73-4238-8A4B-10BDDF17BBC2_zpshlc77ffn.jpeg

 

http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/tt185/Someguy01/7CF8861A-761C-4D78-A129-BCDBBA56EC37_zps5bawydcu.jpeg

 

The idea is to stick the legio symbol in the gap between the flames on the carapace. Hopefully I've left a suitable space for that.

 

I've got one more of the shin plates to do, but I'm pretty tired so I'm going to leave it there for now. Overall I'm quite happy with how he's coming.

 

It goes without saying that this method takes an awful lot longer than the other guys I've done! End result is cooler though, I think. This guy could look quite good once he's finished, I hope.

 

C+C would be very welcome indeed. Do you think I should go for Astorum or stick to my original homebrew?

Edited January 19, 2019 by Mandragola

[DuskRaider]

Wow man, that looks awesome! Beautiful transition and clean flames. Are you going back to do your Warlords? It would be a shame if they didn't match. I'd 100% go Astorum!

[Mandragola]

Thanks. Yes I’ll certainly revisit the warlords if I go for Astorum (which does look likely) but not all my titans will have fire on, and this guy’s an outlier for flaminess. It seems that they aren’t universal on Astorum titans. To be honest not a lot does seem universal! The vracks image shows a huge variety of styles, with the yellow head as the only constant.

 

Sp my old guys will get little fire, if any. My new warlord, warhounds and as yet unbuilt reaver will get a lot. Where there isn’t fire though, there’ll be chevrons, stripes, checks (if I’m capable) and so on.

[Mendi Warrior]

I think you nailed the flames pretty well! Did you use an airbrush? If you use a brush, what size did you use?

 

As it is on my list of things to do I had a look at flames myself. Here is one tutorial I found on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y6TlMIYXWw There are other ones, some much better but this one seems more oriented towards painting models, I haven't made an exhaustive search though. The other ones are realised on much larger surfaces. Two recurring elements seem to be the use of airbrush and use of template.

With regards to stencils, I added this one to my favourites https://www.anarchymodels.co.uk/hd22---hotrod-flames-21-p.asp Note that the guy in the video does make his own.

Without airbrush, I remember reading someone explaining he delineated the overall shape of the flames with a precision marker before painting them.

[Mandragola]

Thanks. I used a brush for this guy. The yellow/orange blend was pretty easy with some lahmian medium. I used an artificer later brush for the blue shapes.

 

I don’t really think I could make templates to airbrush small enough for this, unfortunately. Have to do it the old fashioned way.

 

Marking out the design in pen is a great call though. I’ve got some little whiteboard markers that would be ideal.

[Mendi Warrior]

Cool, thanks for the info.

Not sure the template must be extremely small, in the video where the guy makes is own it seems that what matters most are the curves.

As I have no airbrush, it is also the old fashioned way for me.

[Mandragola]

Curves are definitely the difficult bit. You have to paint a tight round curve at bases of the flames. Tricky.

 

The other difficult thing is where you have a change in height. You don’t want long thin flames really. Better to build up height and width together.

 

Having seen the Legio rules, and with a paint scheme I like, I’ve decided that Astorum is the Legio for me. I really like the sound of the extra speed in the first couple of rounds and rerolls to repair rolls. My running warlord’s pose is now highly appropriate!

 

In terms of what to do next I think I’ll get this reaver fully done. I’ll then work on the rest of my Axiom maniple for the pledge. I might even occasionally field them as an axiom.

 

Edit because I keep writing Atarus instead of Astorum!

Edited January 20, 2019 by Mandragola

[Chaeron]

Looks incredible - so crisp! You could certainly play with blurring the lines between homebrew and Astorum... then you've got all the benefits of both!