Rotstalker no.II

I had so much fun with the first ruststalker that crafting another one was unavoidable. Here's a (very) work in progress shot: 

Haven't decided on the right arm...  Might use a kataphron gun arm like on the other guy, or something more organic - a mutation of some sort. We'll see...

Necrotic Rotstalker

Painted up this one in one go last night. He was an absolute joy to work on so the hours simply flew by.

Quite pleased with the result as well - probably the model I have made that comes closest in look to Karis utterly brilliant evisorators. Steal from the best!

He'll be the main top hechman in the Rotten Mechanicvm crew I'm planning. I've dusted some burnt sienna powder on some of the older nurgly cyborgs bases as they will of course be part of the crew. I like the look - the cold and neutral hues of the miniatures really pop against the warm red. They had a tendency to blend into the base previously. 

Here you can see the Necrotic Ruststalker along with his cronies and their shiny new bases. 

. 

Hereteks

Work continues on the nurgly techpriest. Managed to fit a cataphractii breastplate on his torso which really helps bring him into the 41st millenium. 

I've also undercoated the plagueborg with the patented three-layer technique: black basecoat, brown 45 degree spray and a final grey zenithal dusting. It's really effective and provides an interesting natural foundation for the paintjob. If used for batch painting one could finish an army in no time with this method - you'd only need some drybrushing and a few washes to finish basic troops like a clanrat or a necron off. 

Dominatus Chaoticus

Today I stopped by my local games store and left with two kits I've been eying for a while: 

Inspired by PDHs awesome slaaneshii slaughterpriest conversion (which can be  viewed here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/757625-size%20comparison%20.html) and set on creating a different looking Dark Mechanicus Techpriest I started splicing the two kits together. 

Here's an early bluetacked sketch:

There'll be loads more stuff added of course - vestigal arms, mechadentrites, greenstuff cowl, lots and lots of wires among other things. Obviously a muscular techpriest, however chaotic, sort of goes against the archetype, but that's sort of the point - the idea being that he's mutated and enhanched his own body using arcane technomantic  genecraft. 

I'm rather impressed by the slaughterpriest  - it's the first AoS miniature I've bought. A beautifully sculpted kit, cleverly cast and surprisingly easy to put together. 

And boy if he isn't big! Here you see him next to a human sized plague cultist:

Excoriator Servo-drone

ex·co·ri·a·tion

 (eks-kō'rē-ā'shŭn), 

A scratch mark; a linear break in the skin surface, usually covered with blood or serous crusts.

[L. excorio, to skin, strip, fr. corium, skin, hide] 

Gribbly

I got some great feedback yesterday following my post about splitting up the mechanicvm warband to create a narrative of sorts. 

As many of you said the best way is probably just to keep on producing minis and sort them into "imperial"and "radical" afterwards. Let the chips fall where they may so to speak.

One particularly great comment came from Henry South, who suggested I´d do a small gribbly of some sort after all the giant robots and more human sized models. 

So without further ado, allow me to introduce the Excoriator Servo-drone. Henry, this one´s for you...

Revised Symmachus

Made some minor bug fixes on the splice seer. Think he works a little better now.

Splice-seer Genator Symmachus

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Splice-seer Genator Symmachus. 

I see this guy as real mad scientist type. His vile techno-thaumaturgical experiments, among them the splicing of human and xenos biologies, has drawn the attention of both the Ordo Xenos, the Ordo Machinum, the mechanicvm itself and, alarmingly, the rogue inquisitor Carax. 

I really liked this conversion, but painting this mini was unfortunately a frustrating experience.  All the little bits sticking out of him made huge areas very hard to reach or at least get a good angle. This made me rush things a bit - it simply wasn't much fun so I just wanted to get it over with. 

I might go back to add a little more finish to some details, but for now he's done. 

Oh well - he turned out pretty good anyway, just not as good as I had wanted. 

The wierd blue miscolouring in the last picture is due to shadows from a secondary lamp. 

More machine now than man...

Loads more machine as a matter of fact!

After a brief hiatus due to vacationing in France's lovely Bordeux region, I've finally finished the Actaeon Heavy Assault Servitor (Jaeger just didn't sound '40k' to my ears). 

A close-up of the tilt shield: 

And here it is next to a skitarii for size referance:

Now I'm going to go back to crying quietly into my pillow - trying to come to terms with the complete and utter disaster that is the Age of Sigmar book. 

I really tried to stay positive to the last and push away my initial sceptisism ( after all I forked out 55 euros for the damn thing ) but after having read the book I truly belive GW completely dropped the ball with this one. 

There's admittedly a few interesting ideas in there, along with beautiful photos and a few really nice illustrations.  However those are quickly overshadowed by the poorly edited and ponderous, inept writing. Also the confusing lack of an actual games system and general lacklustreness of the tome makes it the least appealing GW product I've ever had the misfortune to come across.  

Warhammer needed to change, but this was certainly not the way to do it as far as I'm concerned. It really feels like the "Phantom Menace" moment of the tabletop world. 

Jaeger paint phase

Halfway there with the Jaeger. 

Here he is along with his ragtag band of mekanoid compatriots:

Jaeger class Heavy Servitor

Apart from some minor details like purity seals and such, I'm calling this bad boy done. 

Gotta admit I'm pretty darn pleased with this one. Hope I don't mess it up in the painting stage...

Jaeger progress

Work on the Jaeger class Heavy Assault Servitor is slowly, but steadily, progressing. 

Here he is next to a human sized servitor for scale: 

I'm really starting to like this guy... The addition of knight thigh armour as shoulder pads gives him a different silhouette - closer to Jes's old colossus robot sketch. That was always my favourite 40k robot design. 

Danger Inquisitor Robinson!

I recently managed to get my hands on one of the new kastellan robots quite cheaply through a bitz seller. 

It is quite a clever kit but however much I try I simply cannot fathom why Jes Goodwin chose to stray so far from the established imperial design pattern with these guys. While I do appreciate the nod to classic sci fi it has been taken a bit to far here - without the aquila on the chest plate one would never have been able to guess it was even a 40k model.

In other words - something had to be done to bring it back into the 41st millenium. With that in mind I  started playing around with the kit trying to make it look more like imperial tech ( and less than a jolly space robot from the 1950s ) and have arrived at an early mockup. 

I've tested a lot of different heads for this guy - everything from bretonnian peasants to grey knights. Here's two of my current favourites:

I will of course fill in the beveled screws and sculpt more traditional bolts and add lots of other details. Stay tuned kids!

The Lights of Perverted Science

=I=

 + all that we have known and cared for, 

will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age
made more sinister, 

and perhaps more protracted, 

by the lights of perverted science +

- Winston Churchill

=I=

(pardon the Churchill-quote, but it felt oddly fitting...)

Ironfather

Just a quick update to prove I'm still alive and that I'm doing stuff... Almost done with the Ironfather ( my second take on the subject as a matter of fact).

Here's a quick shot of him next to the naval officer for scale. 

- edit -

Replaced the servoarm with a slightly more imposing one.

March of the Cybermen

I've got a lot of complex mechanicvm conversions on my desk. Sometimes however, one feels like painting something a tad simpler so I threw together a classic gun servitor out of some random parts I had lying around. 

I then promptly went ahead and painted him:

I also cobbled together this naval officer out of one of my abandoned Rogue Trek redshirts and some skitarii parts:

I think he'll be next - a short break from gribbly mechanicvm stuff...

Speaking of those, the splice-seer magos is done: