Mandragola’s Legio Astorum (and Mortis and stuff)

[Mandragola]

You're a skilled painter. The Reaver is beautifully painted.

 

Thanks very much. I’m pleased with the yellow bits and I think it's looking promising. Loads more to do of course. The thrice-damned edging is next.

[Mendi Warrior]

The dreaded edging

Cool progress!

[Gore Crow]

Love the yellow, don't envy the trim work.

[Sherrypie]

I like Lucy, proper old school cool. Will you also have the group of marines on the base?

[Mandragola]

Not sure about the marines. I do have some old epic ones I could use. The quality really isn’t up to modern standards though so I’m not sure I want to put them on there. It could be with experimenting with.

[thewarriorhunter]

Not sure about the marines. I do have some old epic ones I could use. The quality really isn’t up to modern standards though so I’m not sure I want to put them on there. It could be with experimenting with.

 

That's my thoughts as well. I had envisioned a snow themed base with dead marines and destroyed land raiders scattered around but the marines just don't stack up to modern sculpts.

[blackbabyjesus]

3d printing is your friend for base ornaments!

[Mandragola]

I won’t be 3D printing stuff. I don’t have a 3D printer and I like to go to official GW things, where this stuff isn’t allowed.

 

Mainly though, I just can’t be bothered! I don’t think Lucy’s base would be improved all that much by some marines anyway.

[Fajita Fan]

I won’t be 3D printing stuff. I don’t have a 3D printer and I like to go to official GW things, where this stuff isn’t allowed.

 

Mainly though, I just can’t be bothered! I don’t think Lucy’s base would be improved all that much by some marines anyway.

Your GW doesn't allow 3d printed basing materials?  

[Mandragola]

I'm not sure, no. I think they'd object to third party stuff, regardless of how it was made, but probably not if I did it myself.

 

The main thing is that I just don't particularly want marines on the base. There aren't any that I really like and I don't think it's needed. I'm not trying to do a complete replication of the reaver in that image - which is actually from Legio Mortis! I just liked the pose.

 

Maybe if GW makes epic marines at some point then I'll use some things to decorate bases. I thought about doing this with an AI thunderbolt or something, but I think it might not look good.

[Fajita Fan]

Not wanting marines on your bases is a valid enough reason, I’d just be pretty miffed if my GW said I had to buy OOP models to base my other official GW models I pay out the ass for.

 

I was already told I can’t use a third party 4’x4’ game mat even though GW doesn’t even sell a 40k game mat anymore let alone something AT scale. Stupidity...

[Marshal Wolfhart]

It's their stores, i don't know where you're from, but around here realestate is expensive. And GW pay for the real estate to get people to play the things they're selling. It's fine, if you play at the official venue that you are demanded to play with official stuff only. To me at least ;)

[General Zodd]

I am probably a bit out of date, as I used to be GW manager about 10 years ago, but their stores are essentially their advertising. Though they’re unlikely to last long if they’re running at a loss, GW stores aren’t really there to make a massive profit, they’re there to recruit new people and showcase the hobby, plus be a focal point for their local community to keep existing customers interested, though this last bit was being massively eroded by the time I left, one of the reasons I did leave!

 

So, if you’re playing on a 4’x4’ mat, which is clearly professionally made, and people ask the staff where they can get it, they either have to lie, refuse to answer or give free advertising to another company which is paying them no commission. So I can see why they’d rather you didn’t use it in store, even if they don’t sell an analogous product.

 

3D printed elements on bases, though, I think would be hard to disallow. It’s not substantially different to any other more esoteric basing material like textured plasticard or aquarium rocks. The line would almost certainly be 3rd party models or model components. A converted Quake Cannon would be fine, a 3rd party Quake Cannon almost certainly wouldn’t be.

[Mandragola]

Some progress to report with Lucy. Not a lot of time to paint titans lately, irritatingly. Still, the edging is done, the flames are painted and most of the armour has had a wash. Pleased to be able to confirm that all the armour still fits on.

 

 

 

 

I think the colours are coming out ok. Mainly the highlighting on the blue to go now, and a few Astorum lines here and there. And of course doing the base properly.

 

C+C welcome as ever.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Reaver is beautifully painted.

[Marshal Wolfhart]

The yellow is really nice and vibrant, the fade to orange in the flames works really well, especially considering the scale of these models. I like it ;)

[Mandragola]

Thanks guys. I think I'm getting the hang of yellow now. Pretty pleased with the results. I'm particularly happy with how the head has come out. The flesh shade wash on the gold has given it good definition, which I haven't done yet round all the other edges. Actually these pics were taken while the wash on the shoulders was still wet and puddling in places. I've cleaned that up.

 

I find I can use reikland flesh shade gloss on the gold and blue, which saves a bit of time. It does great things over retributor gold.

[noigrim]

will you put some marines between its legs?

[Mandragola]

will you put some marines between its legs?

 

No, there aren't any models that I like enough. Had this conversation a page ago. :) 

[Mandragola]

Big update this. I've done quite a lot of work to get a force ready for Blood and Glory.

 

First up is Lucy's base. To do the slope of the hill I slapped on a load of Polyfilla. This was probably not the best material to use, but I was able to squish it into roughly the shape I wanted. I then added some Green Stuff to be where the ground had been ripped up by the trees being uprooted. This was seriously crude stuff, because I was going to add thick mud on top anyway.

 

 

Meanwhile for my running warlord I wanted to make a splash. Ages ago I did something a bit like this for a dnd character and I thought it would be fun for a titan. This involved ripping green stuff while still wet to get a sort of ragged edge (working essentially underwater, so it doesn't stick). Like this:

 

 

And then building it up around the foot to create the splash like this:

 

 

I also made myself a Vulcan mega bolter array out of two reaver Vulcans and some cradles from spare laser blasters (being a bit lazy here rather than making them myself).

 

The cut down cradle:

 

 

And here it is with the gun stuck on. I reattached the pistons at a slightly different angle than they are on the lasers. Did a little GS filling after taking this photo.

 

 

So here is where I've got to so far:

 

Lucy now has a big muddy hill to stand on, complete with the remains of a forest that she's standing on. No idea why that would be a good thing to do, but there you go.

 

 

 

I'd like to try and add some puddles to this. There are a couple of dents that could take them. Not sure how I'll manage this though, so far.

 

This guy is running about the place:

 

 

Splosh.

 

 

I also did some more work on my Princeps Seniores' Warlord. Proper blending on his armour and made a start on the lines, with my first attempts at elliptical orbits.

 

 

 

These guys aren't all finished, but they're getting there. I need to add a few more transfers, tidy up the white lines and muddy them up a bit. But they're a lot further along than they were before, and I'm happy with how they're coming. 

 

The purpose of all this work was to get ready for Blood and Glory this weekend. I went, and had an awesome time. Here's the full battlegroup that I took. 

 

 

And here's the painting trophy that I won!

 

 

Sadly my girlfriend feels this would not enhance the décor in our home, so it is banished to my study with the various other ugly things I've been presented with in the past - more often for generalship. There were only actually six of us in the event, but Rhu James' knights were there and they're fantastic, so I was really happy to win - on a tiebreaker as we got equal votes.

 

That's enough for now. I'll post some photos of games later in the week if I get a chance. We played 2 matched play games and then a scenario from Titandeath on Saturday, and then on Sunday we did a massive six-player game on an 8x4 board. 

 

This was deployment. The weird yellow and green thing close to the camera is actually my coffee cup, not a terrain piece. We found the Admech stuff works quite nicely for AT, perhaps apart from the ladders.

 

 

C+C of course welcome, as always.

[Fajita Fan]

That splash is brilliant, awesome table too.

[thewarriorhunter]

Yup, love the splash effects on the base. Very cool.

[noigrim]

Top notch job

[Sherrypie]

I just love the way that Warlord runs, especially now that there is a properly huge splash signifying weight. Now put some poor sods hunkering in their foxholes under it too to really sell the scale...

[Mendi Warrior]

Wonderful as usual!