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...

The Good, The Bad and The Bulky

The mechanicvm warband is steadily growing. So much in fact I´m starting to think of splitting it into two factions.

One "evil" faction led by Symmachus on a slippery slope towards heresy and ultimately the Dark Mechanicus, containing the more sinister models and one more straight shooting imperial warband. These will be led by an Inquisitor of the Ordo Machinvm (not yet constructed) hunting the wayward techno-heretics.

+ Symmachus Heretics - Skitarii Ranger, Sinistro servitor, Symmachus, Rossum Machine Cultist,  Latronicus Pugnus +

+ Ordo Machinvm Force - Delta Secundus, Imperial Navy Liason, Bellator Sicarii, Enfocer Assante, Gun Servitor +

+ Legio Cybernetica Support - Interitus Walker, Actaeon Heavy Assault Servitor +

 Whaddaya think? Is it more interesting to split them up for a more straightforward narrative - a fight between evil and slightly less evil? Or do one to keep them together for something more ambiguous - showcasing the many faceted face of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the darkness within?

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. 

Warhammer is dead! Long live Warhammer?

With the events of the Endtimes and the release of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar the setting that served as the cornerstone for the entire GW industry - the Old World - is gone. 

I, and I assume many of you, have very mixed feelings about this. 

I really do understand the need to change warhammer from a gaming perspective - a few years ago, inspired by the release of the 7th edition skaven book, I bought a box of stormvermin with the plan to start a skaven army (I absolutely adore skaven and hold them as one of the best concepts GW has ever come up with).

But after painting those initial 20 and then realising just how many more armoured rats I was going to have to speedpaint before starting to at least come close to a playable force, all motivation left me. 

Warhammer had completely left its roots as a fantasy skirmish game and had became a beast of a game with blocks of infantry rivaling the size of an entire 40k army. While it had a following of dedicated players the cost of entry was just too high for new and casual players. But was it necessary to completely rehaul the setting?

Well, I confess I do understand the need to update the world - as the entertainment industry has evolved the Old World feels a bit generic. I've always liked Warhammer well enough, but I love Warhammer 40.000. Something which seems to be a sentiment shared by many. And that, of course, is in many ways the reason for this reboot. 

There's a lot of very similar dark fantasy worlds out there - and the things not always seen in other fantasy worlds - like the 16th century puffy shirts of the Empire - are perhaps not seen elsewhere for a reason. The average thirteen year old given the choice between an army of bad ass armoured Space warriors and an army of toothless men with pantaloons and floppy hats is most likely going to leave the store with a box of space marines. I may think the Empire and Bretonnia has their merits now that I'm older, but I remember how godawfully boring I found them as a kid... (I played nightgoblins) 

And while I fondly remember the Old World I grew up with - the Old World of Warhammer Fantay Roleplay and Realm of Chaos with its strange mix of renaissance Europe, Elric, the brothers Grim and lovecraftean horror, the warhammer of today was already quite removed from that. 

Speaking of the classic roleplaying game, Warhammer was always at its most interesting in the small scale - like Mordheim. It sort of falls apart when it tries to be too big, too epic, like it has been trying to do for the last ten years. 

It's only about one small world after all. 40k on the other hand, works both on a small scale like in Necromunda, but it can get as big and epic as you like as it has a whole galaxy to play in. 

So back to Age of Sigmar. Does this new fantasy world have the potential to be as captivating as 40k? Well, sadly the background I'm reading in this weekends WD leaves me quite numb. The text doesn't have any artistry or flair to it - competely dead prose that doesn't invoke any awe or sense of grandeur (or sense of humour): " there Sigmar met a dragon. They became friends. They travelled the realms together" and so on. That said the idea of a more mythical, allegorical world isn't necessarily a bad idea. 

For me the concept of the realms could work written right. But - and  here's an important but, that hinges on wheather there's any actual people populating these realms. Downtrodden slaves to chaos overlords doesn't really count. You need the farmer afraid to send his daughter out for milk because of the beastmen lurking in the woods. The seller of fake relics or the common soldier facing monstruos horrors. The Old World had this in spades. And while 40k is often ridiculously epic and mythic and big, it also has billions of common people just trying to make a living - be they criminals, pirates, workers or administratii. Living worlds needs "normal" people other than the heroes to populate it - otherwise its not a living breathing world - just a setting.

The models for the new game are beautifully crafted - epecially the sigmarite general on his steed. After   having had a look at them in the flesh most of my initial apprehensions have evaporated. Also the artwork is beautiful. I have missed good art in GW products for a while and this is apparently what's been eating those resources...

Will GW succeed in gamble?  

Was it necessary to get rid of the Old World to reboot the game, or are they chucking the baby out with the bathwater? 

Will the Sigmarites rival the adeptus Astartes in popularity? Will people like me go from buying the ocassional warhammer kit for conversion to 40k models to start actual fantasy armies?

Only time will tell. Until then we'll always have Nuln. 

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.