In The Shadow of Gods - DuskRaider’s Dark Mechanicum

[DuskRaider]

The Pavoni Syrbarite. A cautious tale of the bonds of loyalty to the corrupt. 
 

Founded during the Age of Strife before the Unification of Mars, those who would become the primogeniture of the Pavoni Syrbarite were the disparate survivors of the Martian wars which saw the destruction of the planet’s terraformed atmosphere. 
 

Finding shelter and a means of defense in the shade of the God Machines that would become Mortis, the Pavoni survivors would repay their saviors with the raising of guardian phalanx formations to protect the Titans from boarding action and sabotage, a tactic that would give inspiration for the creation of the Secutarii Hoplite. Thus, the Pavoni Protectorate were formed. 
 

This symbiosis would continue through the Unification of Mars and the gifting of Pavonis Mons to Legio Mortis by the Fabricator General as a foundation for their Fortress City and a homecoming for the descendants of the Pavoni survivors. Constructing vast Forgefanes to support their Titan brethren as well as strengthen their own forces, the Protectorate became a Taghmata proper. Post-Pact of Morbidia, the Protectorate took the moniker of Syrbarite, finding inspiration from the ancient myth of the Syrbaross, a three headed hound guarding the gates of Hel; each head represented by Legio Mortis, the Pavoni Syrbarite Taghmata and finally House Morbidia. 
 

The Syrbarite’s organization was quite unique when compared to their counterparts throughout the Mechanicum. Founded originally as the proteus of what would become the Secutarii, this Order would become the most powerful of the Forgefane Taghmata. Furthermore, the Legiones Skitarii would find itself as a subdivision of the Secutarii, whereas in most cases these two Ordos would be separate with the Skitarii usually having a monopoly of power over their Secutarii counterparts. 
 

The next largest Ordo of Pavonis Mons was Reductor. Lending itself to the modus operandi of the Legio Mortis, the Titan Legion had demanded that the Ordo Reductor play a large role in their campaigns across the galaxy. When conducting purgation missions, Pavoni Reductor would often times even outnumber their numerically superior Secutarii counterparts and thus their Synod representatives held a high seat in the Forgefane. 
 

Finally, the Ordo Cybernetica.  Founding itself as a bonded Taghmata to a Legio, the Pavoni Syrbarite had placed an emphasis on infantry above all else. The Ordo Cybernetica was a late creation Order and thus was significantly smaller and less powerful than its counterparts in the Ordo Reductor and Legiones Secutarii. While the Forgefane had the capability to mass produce Automata when needed, the power and strength of the Cybernetica waxed and waned depending on the campaign needs, but always found itself at the bottom of the internal power struggle. This would begin to change in the dark later days of the Great Crusade…

 

 

Well, here we go… I have to start out by apologizing for the quality of the pictures here. I just can’t seem to take good pictures with this iPhone, light box or not. I actually picked this damn phone up because I was told it takes the best photographs, but I’ve been pretty disappointed with it. 
 

That out of the way, I had been thinking a lot about the lore for this faction. My original plan was to paint these up as Forge World M’Pandex to keep with the theme of bringing my 40K characters and elements back to their origins, but unfortunately GW has never given us an official color scheme for M’Pandex… the Forge Wprld itself isn’t even shown on the inside map of the Rise of the Dark Mechanicum book which is very odd. 
 

I found myself kinda lost after realizing I had no material to use to ensure my scheme wouldn’t be invalidated until I remembered the Secutarii. Fun fact , the pictures of the Secutarii on the old Forge World website are actually that of Legio Mortis. I decided to take that idea and kind of run with it. 
 

The idea of a bonded Taghmata isn’t exactly a new concept, it’s existed for quite some time now, but in most cases there’s really no actual lore for them. Other than the scheme shown one the Secutarii, we never get a single mention of Mortis’ bonded Mechanicum forces as far as I know, so I came up with my own idea. We do know that the Legio had a Fortress City in Pavonis Mons, an actual mountain range on the surface of Mars. No clue what happened to it Post-Heresy, though I do hope that’s something that is covered in the Scouring series…
 

The backstory may seem a little all over the place, I’ve been coming up with ideas for months now and it’s kind of just an amalgamation of all of that jumbled together, but I hope it gets the point across and their significance to the Legio. 
 

I’m currently working on a number of Constructs to join with what I have finished. As of now, I have 3 boxes of Stalker Constructs and 2 boxes of Serperos in the process of being painted with one more box of each sitting unassembled. That will give me a decent starting point for the army, with the plan to probably double my current number of Constructs and triple that of my Infantry. These will be the backbone of my force: Constructs, infantry and Titans. When they release the tanks, I will grab some of those as well. 
 

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m hoping to have the Constructs finished within the next week or so, depending on how much time I have to devote towards them. I’ll make sure to post more janky photos of them when they’re done!

[Malice Jr.]

These are well painted, very clean work. A solid imposing colour scheme you've executed across your force based on tidbits from GW, which is such a fun way to connect your models to the setting. 

 

May I ask how you did the bases? Its such a nice white marble look.

[DuskRaider]

Thank you!

 

The bases are actually pretty simple. It goes as follows:

 

1. Prime black

2. Stipple on Rakarth Flesh, making sure the black is still slightly visible. I use one of the large Citadel Scenery brushes. 
2. Stipple on Ishabti Bone. 
3. Stipple Deepkin Flesh. You can go light on this and make the bases a little darker or go slightly heavier to add more brighter finish. I know this color seems weird since it’s greenish, but the result is actually more of a white when blended with the others. 
4.  Panel line the cracks with Agrax Earthshade

5. Paint the rim Abaddon Black 

 

Thats it! Obviously things like the Aquila and road sections are different, but even those aren’t too difficult. The road section is just Abaddon Black stippled with Stormvermin Fur. The Gold Aquila is Gehenna Gold washed with Seraphim Sepia and given a light drybrush with Auric Armor Gold. This all makes for a simple base scheme that’s easily replicated and can be done en masse. 

[Interrogator Stobz]

Inspiring stuff brother!

Both paint and fluff are fantastic!!!

[DuskRaider]

5 minutes ago, Interrogator Stobz said:

Inspiring stuff brother!

Both paint and fluff are fantastic!!!

Thank you, brother.

 

I’m really bummed out about the quality of the pictures, the black is actually highlighted up with a gradient of Incubi Darkness gradually mixed with Administratum Grey. I wanted to do something similar to what I do with my Legio Mortis, but instead of Vallejo German Grey I opted for something Incubi Darkness to give them a “same but different” feel. Same with the red on the larger models, but that’s done more as I had with Mortis (base Khorne Red, gradient with Mephiston Red). 

[Interrogator Stobz]

Yeah, black is really hard.

But there's plenty of bling and other colours to make the minis pop.

[DuskRaider]

When the God-Machines of Legio Mortis marched out from Pavonis Mons to crush those loyal to the Imperium on Mars, they were not only accompanied by the Legions of Syrbarite Taghmata and their machinations, but something far more sinister… Silicus Anima: Abominable Intelligence. The opening of the Vaults of Moravec heralded more than just the scrap code infestation of the noosphere, but the advent of Abominable Intelligence Constructs, the likes of which had not been seen since the Age of Dark Technology. Vast throngs of self-aware automata skittered, flew and crawled its way through the gates of the great Fortress of Pavonis Mons and in search of unsuspecting enemies across the surface of the Red Planet and well beyond, adding their malicious intent to Mortis’ cause throughout the galaxy. 
 

Well it took me a while, but I’ve finally finished my first batch of Constructs for my Dark Mechanicum army. These proved to be a challenge, not just by their numbers but the at times frustrating nature of GW’s design choice for things like trim (or lack thereof). 
 

I decided to try something different with these, since we’ve been introduced to a brand new classification of weaponry: Exo-Planar… Warp guns. They’re Warp Guns. I used magenta to emulate the colors of the Warp, blended out to a white at the tip to show the concentration of aetheric energy. I think it contrasts well with the otherwise dark scheme of the force. 
 

A lot of various metallic shades were applied to these that I normally wouldn’t use to try and convey the use of exotic, maybe even alien materials that were utilized in the construction of these fell machines. 
 

I also attempted to give each a unique design for their scheme, giving them some individuality as I would with my Titans while still keeping uniformity throughout the army. Black as the base color, red accents found here and there in unique patterns and various combinations. This is especially true with the Serperos, who are less in number though much larger than their Stalker counterparts. 
 

This batch represents two boxes of Serperos and three boxes of Stalker Constructs. With these finished, I have two more boxes of each along with the Infantry and Triaros contents of another Mechanicum Battlebox (I gave the Automata to my son) and one further box of Infantry to paint and I will be calling this complete, at least until the tanks are released (someday). However, I’m currently in the process of painting the Legio Mortis Titan of Legend, Penumbral Reaper… something I’ve been meaning to create for years now, but have finally decided to partake in the project. 
 

Anyhow, enough rambling. I present to you my Pavoni Syrbarite Constructs:

 

[Crablezworth]

Last shot is my fav, so cool to see a swarm of them together but also nice having the titan legion for scale, the matching bases are icing on the cake :) 

 

I'd love to see an environmental shot of them on your board 

[DuskRaider]

4 hours ago, Crablezworth said:

Last shot is my fav, so cool to see a swarm of them together but also nice having the titan legion for scale, the matching bases are icing on the cake :) 

 

I'd love to see an environmental shot of them on your board 

Oh yeah, I love the idea of these and the Mech units swarming around their Titanic counterparts. I’ll eventually get shots of them in a game if I ever convince my lazy friends to actually play again. It’s like pulling teeth just to get some of these jamokes to even paint their models. 

[BolterZorro]

Superb: I hope that we see a updated family picture with the dark mech troops as well.

[DuskRaider]

2 hours ago, BolterZorro said:

Superb: I hope that we see an updated family picture with the dark mech troops as well.

Thanks! The only problem with that is I’m running out of real estate in the light box as it is. I was tempted to try and jam all of my Mortis Titans in there with the Constructs, but the Titans alone barely fit. I may have to just take a picture on my kitchen table or RoB tiles or something.