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!

State of the Army - a difficult reassessment...

I've been agonizing over what I was going to do with the Mordian 7th, as far as bases and (recently) paint schemes go. The army has been collected and painted over the course of 5 years or so, and when I'd first picked up the brushes I decided on a grey and red scheme and urban-themed bases as that scheme would tie in with my Ad-Mech army and I could use the infantry as Tech Guard as well. Technically speaking however, that's not the right color scheme, and has been one of several things that have nagged at me about the core infantry of the army for years.

According to an old 40K Compendium entry about the Mordian 7th, "One of the popular motifs is to line the official black flak jacket with crimson (taken from the red linings the gang wore inside their leathers on the Hive World). This is said to show that 'in the darkness, blood will flow' - it is also taken to mean that even in the most difficult of situations one should take heart and act with valor."

The Hellhound was painted up in a black and red scheme, and honestly I like the way it looks much more than the grey and red I've been doing. At that point I had to decide if I was going to continue on with the army as it was, or whether I wanted to scrap the bulk of the infantry and start anew. I've opted for the latter.

The army is going from this:

To this:

Why am I doing this? First and foremost, I enjoy building and painting models more than actually having finished models. Sure it's fun to play a game with a painted army, but at that point it also takes up a lot of permanent storage space. Starting anew means that I can implement all the little ideas that have come up over the years but were too late to do, as well as freeing up some much-needed space in the Closet of Doom. I opted to trim the army down significantly as well, opting to cede the King Russ tanks and much of the remaining heavy support to the Ad-Mech army, as the Mordian 7th is intended to be a predominantly infantry-centric army. The only vehicles assigned to the army at the time of the Pacification of Flotis III were a pair of Sentinels and two Rhinos attended to by a small detachment of Tech Priests.As the Guard aren't allowed Rhinos I'll be doing a couple more of the alternate-style Chimeras instead, and as the assault troops aren't allowed Jump Packs, they'll instead be equipped with Grav Chutes and carried into battle by an Imperial Navy detachment of Vultures and Vendettas. I'm quite looking forward to approaching the army in a bit more of a "historically accurate" sense, and actually has me quite enthused to get started!

Now a bit of blatant self publicity:

I decided I'll sell off the core of the infantry company as well as several other models to help fund the re-build - We'll see how that goes I suppose. Unfortunately ny base policy is not to ship overseas due to several bad experiences, but if you are interested in the models and live outside the US or Canada feel free to contact me through the eBay message system. I'm tentatively open to the idea of overseas bidders provided they have a solid bid history.

Cheers!

Da big, bad, biker boyz!

A bit more progress on Da Orks over the last week - I decided that I'd take some time and finish up the Nob Bikers. I'd purchased the Ork Warboss on a Bike from Forgeworld as the model is just beautiful. On the other hand though, while I do like the look of the FW Nob Bikers, I find them to be prohibitively expensive, so I built mine out of the bits that come from the GW plastic warbikers.

The warboss is a seriously imposing model, and I really liked that they included a terrain base to go along with it. The model was missing a bracket for one of the mudguards, but rather than write them for a replacement for such a little bit I just made one out of plasticard and called it good. Once it was primered you can't even tell the difference.

I did make two specialist Nobs that aren't available via the regular plastic kits. First up, the requisite Painboy. I used a few bits from the Trukk sprues and build an 'Urty Syringe out of some plasticard, a slugga and some guitar string. I also included a Grot Assistant on a little fighting platform - he carries the anasthetic (in the form of a big club)!

Lastly, my favorite of the models, the Waaagh Banna. I wanted to build him in such a way that he really looks like a raving loon, so instead of sitting in the saddle, he's standing on it, steering with his foot and shouting. It worked out pretty well - he looks like a lunatic!

With that, I'm deciding what project to work on next, I think it may be time to swing back over into the Ad-Mech and work on the Scions of Mars for a while...

Ruzzbot - Proxy Battlewagon, Part 2

Spent some time finishing up the Ruzzbot - I kept it fairly simple, going for the 'less is more' approach on a vehicles of this size. I think I may end up weathering the edges a bit more, it ended up looking a touch too 'clean' on the upper portion of the hull.

Overall I'm happy with how it's turned out - at this point I'm considering what to paint up next. It's a toss-up between more Orks (likely the Stormboyz) or taking a crack at the Hypaspists for the Adeptus Mechanicus army...  Hmm.

Heavy Artillery - Manticore and Charybdis, Part 1

With the release of the new Deathstrike/Manticore kit, I knew I had to have one for the Mordian 7th. The first step was to determine what I wanted to build. The kit is unfortunately designed in such a way that you can only assemble it as the Deathstrike OR the Manticore, though I give them credit for designing a kit that gives us the option, it's rather ingeniously designed! I'd built a Deathstike carrier a while back and as potentially devastating as it may be, I found it to be a bit too random for anything but the largest of battles. So, Manticore it is!

The new kit was a breeze to assemble, and with careful gluing the missile rack can be raised and lowered, which I thought was a nice touch. I left the Storm Eagle rockets separate to facilitate painting, and am somewhat regretting not leaving the launch ramps separate as well, but I'll muddle though.

While I was at it I'd picked up a Whirlwind model for the launcher, as I regretted selling my previous Charybdis Assault Launcher (which I use as a proxy Griffon) and have been itching to build another one. I decided I wanted something a bit more animated with this one however, and decided to use a pair of missiles scrounged from the new Sentinel kit to represent it in the process of firing. I tried to sculpt a bit of flame from greenstuff, and will be using some orange or red clump foilage to represent some smoke billowing from the rear of the weapon system. I still need to build a hull for it, but while I was fiddling around with it I was pleased to note that the collar ring on the base fits the various Planetstrike weapon platforms. I may have to build a few more of these to build an ersatz Hyperios Air Defense system!

Ruzzbot - Proxy Battlewagon, Part 1

I spent some time working on the Ruzzbot - Holy moly was it a whole lot of Yellow! I started off by giving the whole model a fairly heavy dry-brush of Boltgun Metal and overlaid that with Blazing Orange and Fiery Orange on the parts that I intended to end up yellow. Once I had the oranges laid down, I went back over them with Golden Yellow, and did some extreme edges with Sunburst Yellow. I find that GW yellows are too translucent to cover properly directly over a black primer, but an orange undercoat has fair coverage and 'shines' through giving the yellow a nice rich glow.

Once I had that done I went back over the model and tided up the parts that I want to be exposed metal with Black and Boltgun Metal once again.

After that I started blocking in the various black flames and checkerboard patterns, though they still need highlighting. Plenty of detail work remains to be done as well, but it feels good to have the majority of it complete!

In game, the Ruzzbot is a counts-as Battlewagon with the 'Ard Case and Kilcannon upgrades, as well as a Reinforced Ram and 4 Big Shootas. The big claw is represented in game by both the Grabbin' Klaw and Wrecking Ball upgrades. I also wanted to include a dedicated-transport Battlewagon but opted to keep the points cost relatively low - 4 Big Shootas and a Deffrolla. It's intended for the Bad Moon Nobz so it will also need to get the yellow treatment!

Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator Force Psi Phi

Now that I have the Hypaspists assembled, I figured I should rummage around in the Closet of Doom and pull out all the various Ad-Mech units I've been hoarding over the years.

Once I got it all sorted out I realized it actually is a fairly good sized army. Plenty of infantry to hold objectives!

The two units of Imperial Robots provide an impressive amount of firepower, and several units of Servitors are always a plus. In the background is an unassembled Knight Errant, a half-assembled Biologis Land Crawler, and a Knight Paladin. The swarm of Servo Skulls are used to mark wounds and special effects during a game.

On the other side, the Tech Magos Cabal, a unit of menials, and a few extra Techpriests take up the fore, while in the middle rank are two units of Hypaspists, the Skitarii Consul and a unit of Protectors, and their Termite Tunneler Transports (say that five times fast!). In the very back is the Myrmidon Assault Engine and the unassembled Anathema Assault Tank (proxy Malcador Defender).

There are still a few units that I have planned, mostly on the Fast Attack side, but for now I'm going to focus on what I have assembled. I'm actually pretty excited to get the Hypaspists painted next, even though it'll be 23 of 'em at once. Ah well, it's only suitable to utilize the assembly-line method when painting models for the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Ave Omnissiah!