Adeptus Mechanicus - Myrmidae Centurius painted

I recently sat down and re-thought the overall aesthetic for the Ad-Mech army and penciled together an overall army plan. With Archmagos Strandax being mounted on a spider-esque lower torso, and the intention for the heavy weapons teams to be a spider style weapon carriage and a ballisterai minder using some other Blight Wheel miniatures, I was reminded of a model I'd cobbled together ages ago...

November 2009, in point of fact. The current edition of the Cult Mechanicus codex continues to include the Divisio Myrmidae Centurius Assault Engines - in the previous incarnation of the Ad-Mech I'd built one from a Defiler kit, and this test build ended up sitting on a shelf for three years. In the current edition the assault engines are now a monstrous creature and since I felt the size of the Defiler was a bit overboard, I figured this slightly smaller version would work a treat. I happened to have several more boxes of the bits that went into making the one above, so I cranked out another two!

 

The Centurius is armed with a Heavy Conversion Beamer and a rather fearsome close combat weapon, and have the option to exchange the CCW for another Beamer, so I figured two fire support Centurions and one Centurius Ultima would do nicely. A friend of mine was kind enough to donate a couple flying bases, which worked out well.

 

The twins are designed for heavy fire support, and will generally lurk in the backfield attempting to lay down long range fire to take advantage of the particular effects of the Conversion Beamers. They also have the option of upgrading to a Helical Targeting Array, giving them the Interceptor and Night Vision traits, meaning they are a threat to any encroaching Deep Strikers. Although they give up the dedicated CCW weapon, they are still no slouches in melee, with three attacks at S6, coupled with the monstrous creature rules.

 

The 'sergeant' of the Centuria is given the "Ultima Pattern" upgrade, giving it a +1 to WS/BS, and Mechadendrites for an additional +D3 attacks. While it doesn't actually have more wounds or a higher toughness, I thought some leg armor would help him stand out a bit.

 

All in all a fun set of models to build and paint, and I think the sizing is more appropriate for its stat line. They're not small, by any means, but it's not enormous like the one built from Defiler kit.

Ave Omnissiah!

Adeptus Mechanicus - Myrmidon Assault Engine Mk. II Complete!

Got a little brush time in this weekend and finished off the detailing on the Myrmidon Assault Engine. Some white cog-wheel edging and some hazard striping and job's a good 'un!

The hazard stripes were a last minute addition. I thought that the red/white/gold with a blue spot color just didn't make a model this large 'pop', and adding the yellow/black stripes gave the model a bit more presence.

Only 5 Legio Cybernetica Robots to go and the entire 3000 point army will be complete, with nearly two weeks to spare before the game. Feels good!

Adeptus Mechanicus Army review

I recently played a game with my Dark Eldar against SirBiscuit's Grey Knights. The game was great fun, but we didn't attempt to document an actual battle report. Following the game I threw down the gauntlet for a rematch. I, as many of you know, am primarily a hobby gamer whereas SirBiscuit is definitely a tournament player. That being the case I suggested a "WAAC Powergamer vs. Fluff Weenie" match at some point in the future. As an avowed Fluff Weenie, I offered to play my Adeptus Mechanicus, and figured that I'd pull the models out of their various boxes and shelves and see exactly where things stand.

It turns out there's a touch over 3500 points assembled and in various states of painting. There's still quite a bit lurking in pieces in the Closet of Doom, but I was pleased to note that of what there is assembled, there's really not all that much remaining to be painted. While I was at it I realized there were several units that I've never actually taken pictures of. Time to remedy that!

In addition to the previously-completed Archmagos Veneratus and Archmagos Prime and his Tech Magos Cabal, I have a fair number of other techpriest models that I've collected over the years. Enough in fact for another Archmagos Secundus and Cabal.. You can't really have TOO many Tech Priests after all!

The final HQ choice is a Skitarii Consul and his unit of Protectors. The Consul is made from the body of the Thunderfire Techpriest (whose arms and servo harness were rendered down for bits), and the Protectors are a mix of Iron Hands and other bits. Each of them is heavily bionic, and I'm considering painting them up as Iron Souls from the Rusted comics.

The Explorator force is heavily influenced by the Legio Cybernetica, and includes two maniples of Robots. The first unit, Maniple Psi Phi has been painted for quite some time. The second maniple includes one each of the five original Robots, which I've dubbed Maniple Chi Xi.

I've had the Luminen unit painted for quite some time, though they still need to be based. For a small 6-man unit, the Electro Priests are a rather scary assault unit.

While I was at it I did a little more work on the Myrmidon - Finished up the reds and started blocking in the cog patterns on the leg armor plates. I'm still deciding where else on the model I'm going to add the cogs - I'm thinking along the top 'neck' armor would be appropriate.

There's only about 40 models remaining to be painted, and I'd like to be able to field an entirely painted army for the incipient battle report, so I'm gearing up to batch paint all the remaining infantry. Oof.

Myrmidon Assault Engine Mk.II, - Part 2

A little hobby time brought me to the conclusion that I ought to paint the Myrmidon and the Anathema simultaneously, and as such I spent a little more time de-chaosifying the model before taking advantage of a nice day to primer them both. After that, I got stuck in:

At the moment I've just got the initial metal and red undercoats down. I realized shortly after I started that my tank brush was nearly ruined, and the drybrushing didn't go as well as I'd liked. I'll be going back through and touching it up once I pick up a new brush.

I decided for a complete new cover over the leg and neck armor rather than try and cut the dozens of little triangles and spikes off. The new plates are thin card that was then soaked in superglue which forms a fairly serviceable plasticard when it dries.

This arm suffered from spotty drybrushing, but I'm planning on blocking in more of the arm and weapon with red to give it a bit more color. Next up, pictures of the Anathema in progress...

Myrmidon Assault Engine Mk. II, Part 1

One of the most intriguing units listed in the Tempus Fugitives Cult Mechanicus army list is the Myrmidon Assault Engine. The description lists it as an insectomorphic walker that carries multiple heavy weapons as well as a number of pneumatic claws for close combat. In my mind, it seems like Myrmidon is the construct that the Dark Mechanicus pervert into a Defiler, and as such I thought I'd try my hand at building one.

My first attempt was based on an old Robogear model, but it just wasn't hefty enough in my opinion. As such I trawled the internet for some inspiration and picked up a Defiler model to see what I could come up with.

I spent a bit of time over the weekend cutting and sawing and gluing and generally making a huge mess and came up with what I think is a passable first step. I liked the general look of my first attempt and I decided that I wanted to mimic the basic layout (under-slung Autocannons, one close combat arm and one heavy weapon).

The Myrmidon is allowed one of three options for a heavy weapon system - The ever-popular Graviton Cannon, a Conversion Beamer, or a Shockwave Cannon. Ultimately I decided on the Shockwave Cannon, as I have examples of the other two weapons on other models in my Ad Mech Army.

While the Defiler has a Daemon bound into it and is totally sealed, the Myrmidon is described as having a servitor (or Skitarii) crew, and as such I wanted to show a crew member poking his head out of a hatch.

It turns out the cupola ring from the Chaos tank upgrade sprue fits perfectly on the top of the Defiler (there's even gaps in the ring that match up exactly with one of the two cupolas), though I had to do some cutting and scraping to make non-chaos hatches fit on the other openings. Overall I tried to de-chaos-ify the Myrmidon, though there's still a lot of work to do on it (filling in gaps, maybe shaving down all the pointy bits on the trim which is going to be a major pain).

It ended up being a bit bigger than my fist attempt which I think is more appropriate. It certainly looks more menacing, and I'm sure that (like the Defiler) it will draw an inordinate amount of fire. On the other hand, any shots taken at the Myrmidon are shots that aren't going into other, more fragile, units! Still a lot of work to do, but it's definitely taking shape!

Holiday Reinforcements - More Mechanicus Madness!

It's been rather cold and snowy here recently and I needed to take a breather from painting, so I thought I'd take a spin at building or converting something. To that end I decided to see if I could whip up something suitable for the Myrmidon Assault Engine described in the Ad Mech codex I'm using. I cracked open the Robogear box I received earlier last week and pondered the contents:

The model is in a slightly larger scale than 40k, it appears the pilot would be about half-again as tall as a guardsman. However, my hopes that it would be similar in size to a Defiler were not to be realized. No matter, the Myrmidon is described as being slightly smaller, more on par with a Penitent Engine or War Walker. The basic Myrmidon is armed with a twin-linked Autocannon and a pair of Dreadnought Powerclaws. As an option, it may replace one of the Powerclaws with either a Conversion Beamer, a Graviton Cannon or a Shockwave Cannon.

I rooted around in the bits boxes for inspiration, and came up with an old set of Starship Troopers "Grizzly" armor which I used for the torso. I like the helmet's look, as it's vaguely Roman with the T-shaped visor. A friend suggested that the legs left uncovered seemed a bit too spindly and "un-Imperial", so I whipped up some armor plates to bulk them out a little. It also hearkens back to the Defiler style plating. I decided to add a weapon from the Robogear sprue to act as a representation of one of the various upgrades.

I utilized some leftover bits from a Sentinel for the engine, and fitted it with an underslung twin-linked Autocannon taken from the innumerable Guard heavy weapons sprues I have lying around. The Powerclaw is fashioned from a Mortar, one of the lasrifles from a Chimera, an Autocannon ammo drum, and a couple blades from a Defiler leg. As I purchased two of the Robogear Spider models, I took care to use parts that are easy to find in my bits boxes, which will allow me to build another one of these almost exactly like it (though I may opt for a different weapon loadout).

It ended up being a fairly good-sized model, it's a bit taller than a marine dreadnought and significantly larger in diameter. I am somewhat stymied on what to do for a base however - The footprint is far too large for a 60mm base, but a CD at 120mm seems too large. I'm leaning towards leaving it un-based unless I can find an interesting 100mm resin base somewhere...

But wait! There's more!

I'd sold off a few superfluous models prior to Christmas and decided to use some of those funds to pick up another Knight Paladin made by a chap in Monaco, figuring it would be well after the holidays before it showed up. I was amazed at how quickly it arrived however (exactly a week from when I purchased it), and I was thrilled with the contents of the box. While I liked the sculpt of the first Paladin, and I'm well-pleased with it overall, I felt that this new one more closely captures the look and feel of the original Epic-scale models. After a session with the Dremel and a nice wash I set to building it.

I decided I wanted to do something a bit more structured and interesting with the base and rooted around in the Cities of Death bits to make a ruined step, with some miscellaneous piping and whatnot exposed beneath. I made some slime dribbling out of the large pipe using white glue and dripping superglue onto the top of it. The superglue reacts with the water in the white glue and it shrivels as it dries, forming a bubbly, ooze-like finish.

 

 On the back side I added some cabling and I'm planning on adding some purity seals here and there. Once it's primed and painted I'm going to add a kill banner to the Battlecannon. Not that it's going to be warm enough to primer anything anytime soon, so these will likely sit on a shelf for weeks until we get a day over 40F...

 

Lastly a side-by-side shot of the two Knights. They're very nearly identically sized, though the arms are just different enough as to look awkward if I try to mix and match between the two models. I do have an alternate set of arms for the painted Knight that I need to finish up (a Multi-Melta and Power Axe) that I need to finish that allows me to kit it out as a Knight Errant. Once I get those done I'll likely auction off the old knight along with the spare arms and just keep the new one, as I think it fits the look of the army a bit better.

...That and I'd likely get dice thrown at me if I tried to field two Knights in one game!