Mandragola’s Legio Astorum (and Mortis and stuff)

[Mandragola]

I was going to try this but didn’t realize Reaver legs could bend that far!

 

Somehow I feel like you’re slut-shaming my titan here.

 

I tried out using the new GW wraithbone primer as a base for yellow. I think it’s worked quite well. You still need two or three thin coats of yriel yellow over it, but the result is nice and bright.

 

 

Lucy has now had her skeleton sprayed boltgun, washed in nuln oil and agrax and drybrushed necron compound. I've painted the inside of all the armour plates gold, prior to doing the edging properly. She’ll take a long while to paint I’m sure, but this is a start. She's got a face now.

 

 

[Mendi Warrior]

The yellow looks nice.

 

Are the feet/legs pistons already glued? Have you dry-fitted the armour panels first? I'm afraid you might encounter some "fit" issues.

[TheDreadfulSagittary]

That is a really nice yellow! 
I've been toying with the idea of the new primers because painting yellow over black is a real pain in the  I tried the Corax White primers, but I had many issues with them. I had to throw them in the bin, and I said that I will never ever use one again. 

If you recommend the new Contrast primers then I might give it a try... because I would like to experiment with white armour too.

[Mandragola]

The yellow looks nice.

 

Are the feet/legs pistons already glued? Have you dry-fitted the armour panels first? I'm afraid you might encounter some "fit" issues.

 

I think it’ll be ok. This is actually my 4^th Reaver. The first one caused me all kinds of issues, especially since I didn’t realise the shin armour plates weren’t identical.

 

With Lucy, the angle between the foot and leg isn’t that big, because her feet are angled outwards as well, roughly in line with the legs. That tends to be where you run into problems, in my experience.

 

Anyway I did some dry fitting during construction. That’s why those two shin panels have been removed from the sprue and sprayed separately. So I’m relatively confident it’ll be ok, but definitely not 100% certain.

 

I did forget to fill the gaps in the toe joints made when I bent them. Can’t not do that, so I’ll have to go back and do it and repaint those areas. The armour plates (hopefully!) cover the affected area pretty well.

 

That is a really nice yellow! 

I've been toying with the idea of the new primers because painting yellow over black is a real pain in the  I tried the Corax White primers, but I had many issues with them. I had to throw them in the bin, and I said that I will never ever use one again. 

If you recommend the new Contrast primers then I might give it a try... because I would like to experiment with white armour too.

 

Yeah Corax white is useless. Wraithbone seems to give you a decent warm yellow without too much difficulty, so I think it’ll be my go-to undercoat for my Astorum guys from now on. It’s quite nice stuff.

 

Prior to this I’ve mostly just used white paint applied by hand in multiple thin layers before the Yriel yellow. This method is far easier.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Mandragola

[Mendi Warrior]

Based on the picture, I would say the one most at risk is the exterior one on the left foot. It might simply be an optical effect, I hope it is just that.

 

I typically glue the pistons to the ankles' armour panels and leave them off until the last moment so I can rectify things at the level of the pistons, if need be.

[Mandragola]

I see where you mean. Hope it'll be ok! I'd like to have the armour on the pistons at this point. Unfortunately the yellow paint scheme (on this one at least) requires the panels to be sprayed seperately to the skeleton. The ones with blue piston armour can be sprayed metal.

 

I'm pretty confident I can pull the thing apart if needed, or else do some subtle trimming of armour plates. 

[Mandragola]

It fits, just. No chopping required. Hurrah.

 

[Fajita Fan]

How the hell are you painting and assembling a conversion like that this quickly?!?! Am I just the slowest guy ever or what?

[Mandragola]

Well I haven’t done much really. The skeleton has been sprayed, had two layers of wash and a dry brush. The plates have gold on the back and yellow on some of the fronts.

[Fajita Fan]

You made more progress in 48 hours than I did in two weeks. 

[Mendi Warrior]

Glad it fits!

[Parweke]

I really need to start painting soon...been too long.

 

btw, thanks for the terminal M.

[Fajita Fan]

Do it! Get painting!

[Mandragola]

I really need to start painting soon...been too long.

 

btw, thanks for the terminal M.

 

Yeah go for it. Good luck doing Ignis Ferrus. I see that there's a guide to painting Atarus armour from Duncan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNpD0110k6U

[Rabenga]

Very impressive Edited August 20, 2019 by Rabenga

[Mandragola]

Very impressive

 

Thanks. I haven't been able to do anything for the last couple of weeks as I've been moving house. My titans and paints are all still packed. I might have a chance to do something over the weekend though. I really want to see how this thing comes out.

[Mandragola]

Played another game last night vs my old enemies in Legio Suturvora. 1750 points with me attempting retrieval and Suturvora attempting to hold the line.

 

I took a Fortis maniple of two warlords and two reavers, with a banner of questoris knights as back up. I meant to bring some lancers but forgot to print out the terminal, so apologies for the unpainted guys. Lucy isn't ready yet but I hope to get her onto a table soon.

 

 

Sutorvora had a Myrmidon maniple with two warhounds as reinforcements.

 

 

Here’s how we deployed. Suturvora had first drop so I got to deploy my knights last. I put them on the flank where hopefully no bellicosas could see them. I paired up my warlords and reavers to share void shields.

 

On turn one I only gave orders to my knights, who got full stride. Sutorvora gave full stride to both warhounds and put his warlords both on first fire.

 

My knights sprinted at the warhounds, to the frustration of my opponent – whose warhounds couldn’t shoot at them due to full stride orders.

 

 

Meanwhile all my titans advanced on the centre, pushing their reactors hard for war march (and gaining a lot of heat in the process) I got both reavers to where they could reach the objective next turn. Early shooting resulted in quite a lot of shields going down, mostly on my side, but no major damage.

 

 

I won priority in turn 2 but Suturvora stole it back with the warlord trait. This allowed one of his warhounds to first fire its flamer at my knights before they charged, killing one of them (with some help from the missile launcher battlefield asset). The knights then charged, straight through some thermal mines, which damaged a second knight but didn’t kill it. They chopped and shot at the warhound’s body, causing two crits but not quite killing it.

 

 

Meanwhile my laser-armed reaver went and grabbed the crew of the fallen titan and my melee reaver ran up to it, so as to merge void shields. My laser guy took a beating but its shields just about held, thanks to its friend’s help. Its reactor went orange though. The other enemy warhound took a melta blast to the leg at close range, causing two crits. Sorry no pic of this.

 

On turn three my melee reaver charged the warhound with the damaged leg and killed it (though not before it first fired at both reavers, dropping another shield). This was actually the first time I’ve achieved an engine kill in melee. The other warhound ran up to the melee reaver, leaking plasma, and then exploded right in its face… causing just one direct hit to the reaver’s head and no damage to the nearby Suturvora warlord. Meanwhile a knight died to the missile battery asset, leaving just the baron, who ran for the enemy board edge.

 

My laser reaver, who was carrying the crew of the downed titan, had an orange reactor. I put it on repair orders but rolled badly so they only fixed a point of heat – which was just good enough to get out of the orange. But it was able to run forward 9” (going back into the orange) and merge shields with my quake cannon warlord, who advanced to meet it. The reaver took a devastating hit to the body in the damage control phase but kept its shields. The warlord lost three shields to the barrage they were both then subjected to, but that kept the reaver safe. A helpful quake cannon shot hit an enemy warlord, disabling a bellicosa and and turning it away from my reaver.

 

We called it at this point. My opponent had lost a couple of titans and wasn’t looking like scoring anything for hold the line, while I had the rescued crew well on their way to safety, about to get out of sight behind a building. Meanwhile my warlords had managed to drop the shields on both enemy warlords and were starting to land hits on their armour. These were the final positions.

 

 

I really liked the Fortis maniple and I expect I’ll use it more in future. I was able to have my “ball carrier” reaver tag different friends as it made its escape with the rescued crew, which dramatically improved its durability.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Mandragola

[Fajita Fan]

I never thought to turn cargo containers on their side as simple buildings. I also love the winter mat, Astorum really pops against it.

[Mandragola]

I was thinking of those containers as some kind of big storage tanks. They did a job of being LoS-blockers.

 

My opponent characterised the game as his 2018 list, full of bellicosas, vs a 2019 list with all kinds of resin guns and the like. I think that seems fair. It’s a very strong reason to magnetise your models, as my opponent didn’t!

 

I was quite struck by how well melee worked against the warhounds. The hounds had to come close to do anything with their flamers, but they found a choppy reaver and some knights coming the other way. The flamers weren’t great against the knights and the Vulcan mega bolters did nothing.

 

Warhounds also seriously hate getting crits against their bodies. They start to overheat, meaning they take even more hits to the body, and pretty soon they pop.

[Mandragola]

Got myself a ticket for Blood and Glory. Now to get an army ready!

 

Here's what I'm thinking of bringing:

 

Regia Battleline Maniple 

                               

Warlord Titan                    475

                Sunfury Plasma Annihilator         

                Macro-Gatling Blaster   

                Apocalypse Missile Launchers    

                               

Warlord Titan                    475

                Macro-Gatling Blaster   

                Sunfury Plasma Annihilator         

                Apocalypse Missile Launchers    

                               

Warhound Titan                                220

                Plasma Blaster  

                Vulcan Mega-bolter       

                               

Warhound Titan                                220

                Vulcan Mega-bolter       

                Plasma Blaster  

                               

Reinforcements               

                               

Lucius Praetorian                             355

                Melta Cannon  

                Power Fist          

                Apocalypse Missile Launcher      

 

That comes to 1745. I think it should be a fun list to play, though it's a bit of a shame to have two pairs of identical titans. I could swap one of my warlords' weapons for bellicosa/quake, or potentially stick a power fist on one, for a bit of fun.

 

Main thing is to get things painted up. I have been focusing on 40k lately, getting an army ready for the LGT. That went very well, with a 5:0 finish for my Taranis knights. Blood and Glory is apparently a narrative event, so I'd like my list to be fun. I also really like my warlord titans though.

[Mendi Warrior]

The power fist could be fun, if you get up close and personal of course. A bellicosa or quake for more diversity might be interesting as well. Does the narrative event allow for weapon swaps between different games? I imagine probably not. Could be cool (without prior knowledge of opponent's weapons of course).

[Fajita Fan]

Volcanon/Quake/Apoc is a nice loadout but I like yours.

[Mandragola]

Did a bit of work on Lucy tonight. Great to be back painting titans. Lots more work to do, but good to be off the mark.

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

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

[Fajita Fan]

Love the classic pose, I kinda want to do a version of that.