Legio Fureans it is then...

[Forté]

Hi,

Has been a fair while since I last posted on B&C (late 2019 perhaps). Think a few things happened and motivation vanished, got distracted by other things, something might have been going on in the world. Can't quite think what

Anyway... many of those who I often talk hobby with have been building titans for a while now and even getting some games in too. Those who know me know I had quite a falling out of love with GW a few years back but last year I got the Blood Bowl bug and last Christmas I even got Dungeon Bowl. So... what does that have to do with AT? Well; I also got a Reaver Titan as the kits honestly looked great and I had painted up a Reaver for the original Adeptus Titanicus many, many (many) years ago. Seriously, I've not had that much GW stuff for Cristmas since the 80's.

Now, the Reaver is built, save for some armour panels which I've left off for ease of painting. I even went the whole hog and magnetised all the weapons. Here's where I'm at.

I'll admit to overthinking the pose. I just wanted to get a feeling that the huge machine weighs several hundred tonnes. Obviously part of that will come when I do the basing.

My dilemma though is that I'm torn between two Traitor Legios (no chance of me turning loyalist).

• Firstly the incredibly slow but slightly more resilient Legio Mordaxis in their purple and black scheme,
• or, Legio Fureans with their ferocity in their yellow and black.

I've been having a look about and I get the feeling that Mordaxis are really crippled with not being able to increase their speed or turning but would be interested in hearing from yourself on what you think as it'll help with window shopping and future planning... because Warhounds are tempting... another Reaver perhaps. Something bigger at some point maybe... I'm so weak at times.

Many thanks for reading this and I'm looking forward to having a good scroll through the other posts in this forum to see what people have been up to

[schoon]

What is your play style like (in this or in other games)? Do you prefer methodical or aggressive in general. That might answer your question.

 

Another consideration: which Legio inspires you the most, in either color scheme, backstory/fluff, or game rules? Those things might help keep you motivated to keep creating. Very few of us are in this game to win tournaments; most are here to have fun. So pick something you think is fun.

[Marshal Loss]

Is this your first Legio, and do you intend to actually play the game? If the answer to both is yes, then Fureans, absolutely, and I say that as somebody who has played & owned both (with my Mordaxis project being a real passion of mine). Mordaxis look great and have killer lore but their rules come with the largest drawbacks of any Legio in the game (by a significant margin). Movement is a huge part of what makes AT tick and Mordaxis basically just miss out on a large chunk of it. This has the effect of instantly making numerous Titans and weapon options impractical at best and useless at worst. The benefits offered by their ruleset virtually never outweigh these drawbacks. Fureans by contrast are an extremely adaptable Legio with rules that aren't going to punish you for taking certain classes/trying to play in a certain way. They've also got a really nice transfer sheet and aren't too shabby in the looks department either!

 

Mordaxis I'd recommend only if the project in question is just for the lore/modelling or if you've already got one or more Legios on the shelf and want to go in a very different direction.

[Slave to Darkness]

Id hazard a guess that this will be a display piece, just a hunch. :P Id say Fureans. 

[Forté]

What is your play style like (in this or in other games)? Do you prefer methodical or aggressive in general. That might answer your question.

 

Another consideration: which Legio inspires you the most, in either color scheme, backstory/fluff, or game rules? Those things might help keep you motivated to keep creating. Very few of us are in this game to win tournaments; most are here to have fun. So pick something you think is fun.

Tricky as I rarely game and have always played in different ways. Definitely not a tournament player though, that's for certain.

 

Good point about fun though.

[Forté]

Is this your first Legio, and do you intend to actually play the game? If the answer to both is yes, then Fureans, absolutely, and I say that as somebody who has played & owned both (with my Mordaxis project being a real passion of mine). Mordaxis look great and have killer lore but their rules come with the largest drawbacks of any Legio in the game (by a significant margin). Movement is a huge part of what makes AT tick and Mordaxis basically just miss out on a large chunk of it. This has the effect of instantly making numerous Titans and weapon options impractical at best and useless at worst. The benefits offered by their ruleset virtually never outweigh these drawbacks. Fureans by contrast are an extremely adaptable Legio with rules that aren't going to punish you for taking certain classes/trying to play in a certain way. They've also got a really nice transfer sheet and aren't too shabby in the looks department either!

 

Mordaxis I'd recommend only if the project in question is just for the lore/modelling or if you've already got one or more Legios on the shelf and want to go in a very different direction.

You seem to have hit my concerns right on the head.

While the idea of infectious zombie titans seems fun, sacrificing so much maneuverability might be frustrating.

[Forté]

Id hazard a guess that this will be a display piece, just a hunch. :P Id say Fureans.

Anything I paint ends up on display eventually :D

Painting this and any other titans won't be involving glazing and subtle highlights for one thing. Much more drybrush and oil weathering.

[Slave to Darkness]

Oh my choice was based on the fact I have seen you paint tons of Slaanesh stuff over the years, I wana see you paint something 40k that doesnt use purple. That and yellow and black looks badass.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[Forté]

Oh my choice was based on the fact I have seen you paint tons of Slaanesh stuff over the years, I wana see you paint something 40k that doesnt use purple. That and yellow and black looks badass.

That is a fair point. Wish I could find some of the good Fureans transfers mind. Black or white ones are okay but those full colour ones look great.

 

Looks like I'll be trying freehand flames at some point then. Been a fair few years since I did those last.

[Mandragola]

Zach from Goonhammer has Mordaxis. He does reasonably well with them but he's a very good player. They're definitely one of the harder Legios to use. Personally I wouldn't recommend one of the Legios with really severe limitations like this (or Audax that can only take Warhounds) for a first Legio, just because it's fun to try out all of the game's options.

 

So that leaves Fureans, who are awesome. One advantage they have is you get Fureans transfers with each titan. GW also makes a sheet of fancier ones, though right now it's out of stock. Obviously the main thing is that black and yellow flame pattern. The only real downside is that a lot of traitor players play Fureans, but that's fair enough because they're fun to play and look great.

[Forté]

Zach from Goonhammer has Mordaxis. He does reasonably well with them but he's a very good player. They're definitely one of the harder Legios to use. Personally I wouldn't recommend one of the Legios with really severe limitations like this (or Audax that can only take Warhounds) for a first Legio, just because it's fun to try out all of the game's options.

 

So that leaves Fureans, who are awesome. One advantage they have is you get Fureans transfers with each titan. GW also makes a sheet of fancier ones, though right now it's out of stock. Obviously the main thing is that black and yellow flame pattern. The only real downside is that a lot of traitor players play Fureans, but that's fair enough because they're fun to play and look great.

Cheers.

I've had a few reads of that Goonhammer Mordaxis article. Did put things into perspective.

 

Didn't realise Fureans were that popular. Maybe I've just not seen too many painted up (or perhaps wasn't really looking for them at the time). Yellow isn't the most fun colour to paint I'll admit.

[Mandragola]

It's worth mentioning that the traitor book shook things up a bit, with quite a few buffs for the weaker Legios. Krytos used to be awful, for example, but now have some quite interesting builds - particularly for Fortis. And of course there's the corrupted titans thing. Fureans are not great for corrupted titans as they're more likely to trigger the entity to do crazy stuff, and they don't get to decide what happens as much. I think they're probably the most effective of the traitor Legios but a few others have improved to get a bit closer. Ultimately though, any Legio you like the look of will be fun to play. 

 

My yellow recipe is to spray the armour panels wraithbone, separately to the skeleton (which gets either leadbelcher or more recently vallejo metal colour steel). I put a couple of layers of iyanden yellow on that and then give it some shading and highlights. For my Astorum I then do a blend through to wildrider red before I paint the flames on but you could just go straight to the black.

 

You can get templates for flames if you want to airbrush them on. Personally I draw on designs in pencil and then paint them. It's relatively easy to paint flames on but the tricky bit is getting the pattern right. I'd suggest practicing drawing them first on paper, then painting them on spare panels and only then putting them on the titan.

 

Have fun.

[Forté]

Cheers Mandragola.

 

Surprisingly, I don't actually airbrush and rarely use the current GW paints as I didn't like the consistency. Much more likely to use Vallejo Model Color or old GW. Have some oils too which I plan to use for weathering and maybe even spot filtering.

 

As for flames, I'll likely thin black paint (likely Vallejo or Golden liquid) with black ink to make it flow. Maybe even try using the rigger brush I have but I'll test that on something else first I reckon to get a feel for it. Has been at least 20 years since I painted flames.

 

Still having a good go through the traitor book which I picked up the other day. Do see what you mean about corrupted titans and Fureans. Could still be worth an experiment to see if any of the base mutations could help. Frozen Soul for example.

[General Zodd]

Cheers Mandragola.

 

Surprisingly, I don't actually airbrush and rarely use the current GW paints as I didn't like the consistency. Much more likely to use Vallejo Model Color or old GW. Have some oils too which I plan to use for weathering and maybe even spot filtering.

 

As for flames, I'll likely thin black paint (likely Vallejo or Golden liquid) with black ink to make it flow. Maybe even try using the rigger brush I have but I'll test that on something else first I reckon to get a feel for it. Has been at least 20 years since I painted flames.

 

Still having a good go through the traitor book which I picked up the other day. Do see what you mean about corrupted titans and Fureans. Could still be worth an experiment to see if any of the base mutations could help. Frozen Soul for example.

Fureans can make good use out of any of the mutations, as they don’t really have a specialism in one particular direction, apart from being better at longer ranged combat that most. The key thing is that they take double the Machine Spirit tests than anyone else does, which, when combined with the lower Command value of corrupted titans can be awkward, even with them rolling twice on the awakened entity table and choosing which one to apply. Overall, I don’t think they benefit massively from corrupted titans. Mordaxis, on the other hand, can really benefit. Firstly they can get Chitinous Carapace with no additional downside, they can take Pestilence Cloud which boosts their Legio rule to make it more useful, and which doesn’t affect other Mordaxis titans. Leaning into those Nurgley mutations can really make Mordaxis a very formidable force to play against.

[Forté]

Fureans can make good use out of any of the mutations, as they don’t really have a specialism in one particular direction, apart from being better at longer ranged combat that most. The key thing is that they take double the Machine Spirit tests than anyone else does, which, when combined with the lower Command value of corrupted titans can be awkward, even with them rolling twice on the awakened entity table and choosing which one to apply. Overall, I don’t think they benefit massively from corrupted titans. Mordaxis, on the other hand, can really benefit. Firstly they can get Chitinous Carapace with no additional downside, they can take Pestilence Cloud which boosts their Legio rule to make it more useful, and which doesn’t affect other Mordaxis titans. Leaning into those Nurgley mutations can really make Mordaxis a very formidable force to play against.

Thank you General Zodd (do I have to kneel?).

 

If I've read right, Fureans get a little control over the result of the Awakened Entity table so it's seems more like slightly controlled Chaos rather than a full loss of control.

 

Mordaxis do seem to benefit quite nicely from mutations and those template weapon toxins. I'm just not sure that it would counter the drop in maneuverability. Perhaps I'll think about a Mordaxis support titan with a Fureans maniple. Just have to remember to keep it away from anything that isn't Mordaxis.

[Forté]

Decision definitely made thanks to hitting a jackpot (or something close)...

Look like I'll be painting yellow and black with some flame patterns. Will likely prime any yellow sections with grey and do the old 90s trick of starting from a base of fiery orange. Has been a white since I did that last so I'll let you know how that goes :D

[Mandragola]

Nice work getting the transfer sheet. I'd reiterate my advice to get some wraithbone spray for yellow. It gives you a sort of warm base and it's somehow a smoother coat than a lot of other paints provide. I'm not sure why that should be but paint goes over it really nicely.

 

Regardless of the method, I look forward to seeing your results. Good luck.

[Forté]

Nice work getting the transfer sheet. I'd reiterate my advice to get some wraithbone spray for yellow. It gives you a sort of warm base and it's somehow a smoother coat than a lot of other paints provide. I'm not sure why that should be but paint goes over it really nicely.

 

It's smoother because it's a satin spray rather than matt. The closer you get to a gloss finish the smoother your paint. The problem there though is that your paint actually grips to the satin surface less than a matt surface which is why it's perfect for the Contrast Paint type which needs the smoother surface to help the pigment gather in deeper sections. Plus it contains brown which is a red based colour making it warmer than a blue based grey.

 

Sorry. Far too much colour theory in my head.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

For the flames, these are the usual answer:

 

https://www.anarchymodels.co.uk/hd22---hotrod-flames-21-p.asp

 

https://www.anarchymodels.co.uk/hd45---hotrod-flames---small-187-p.asp

 

I know you're not airbrushing, but my friend has had good results using stencils with sponges.

Also, don't worry too much about the corrupted titans going off too much on the awakened entity table. I've yet to see one do it yet. They're strangely more reliable than they should be in my experience! and with Fureans, you roll twice and pick the one you want.

Fureans are stupid good really, so good the Fureans player locally has retired his Extergimus list out of fairness.

[Forté]

@Brother Adelard, a stippling or drybrush would work with those too. I'm actually not worried about freehanding some flames and it'll be good brush control practice for me too.

 

Having that chance to choose on the Awakened Entity table (or rolling two dice and choosing for corrupted) does sound like much more control than most would get. Plus I've played Orks in 40k and Goblins in Blood Bowl so things going sideways can often be pretty amusing luckily. Helps that I'm not the greatest tactician and have a bad habit of not planning ahead

[Forté]

Painting happened (shock horror).

Well, actually a few painting sessions happened but I'm terrible for updating.

First up, like many, I got working on the inner metallic stuff. Even had a play around using oil paints to do an oil wash, some weathering, and attempted some dot filtering on the main black panels that I won't try to paint any flames on.

Not the greatest photos and I've a lot to learn about using oils.

I've also moved onto the yellow parts and being that I have a huge selection of paints (I don't), I was limited to classic 90's GW Sunburst Yellow, VMC Lemon Yellow, and VMC Ice Yellow. So, knowing how badly Sunburst covers and Ice Yellow is really more a pale highlight sort of paint, I went for the Lemon.

Now... I don't airbrush. Armed with a size 6 hairy stick I went to work, prepared for many, many (did I say many) layers over the grey primer. And, well...

...after about seven layers, and some heavy stippling with a big brush... I gave in and ordered a pot of Averland Sunset (mainly because so many on FB kept going on about it). Oh... and it may have been delivered by two Warhounds. No idea how that happened :wink:

So here is where I'm at. Orange blocked in and ready for some flames.

Still not a GW paint convert but it worked in about five coats.

I'll be sure to update once I've done some more. Looking forward to weathering this thing up after all the fancy looking stuff is in place.

Cheers for looking and I hope you're paints are behaving.

[Noserenda]

Looking good! Id certainly second some Averland Sunset, its seriously life changing for painting yellow :) 

[Forté]

You can see the massive colour difference between the two on the palette. The other yellows I have just don't contain enough white pigment to really give a nice opaque layer or five.

[schoon]

That's turning out nicely!

 

The orange is nice and deep.

[Forté]

Like an onion. All about layers