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.

In the navy

The mechanicvm needs to maintain close ties to the Imperial Navy for obvious reasons. So, having an ex navy officer close at hand in the warband should come in handy.

Here's a close up of his face - I tried to give him a hard-as-nails, grizzled veteran, look. He's a rugged space hero after all. 

Half a million souls

The Convertorum just passed half a million pageviews! 500587 to be precise. 

I think celebrations are in order! 

"Yaaay!" says the assembled mechanicvm warband. 

(image updated with embiggenable version)

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: 

Iron and flesh

The mechanicvs truly is the coolest thing GW has put out in a long time - and that's saying something considering their relentless release-pace these last two years. I'm in hogs heaven just mixing the new kits with stuff in my bits box and see what comes out. 

Here's two new ones - both based on old abandoned kitbashes:

To the left is a sinister splice-seer genetor based on a haemonculii concersion I never really liked. To the right the beginnings of an Iron Hand Ironfather - the Iron Hands feel like natural allies to the mechanicvm so I wanted to include at least one in the warband. 

Judge and hunter

Managed to squeeze in quite a bit of painting this weekend. Finished up the arbitrator and, as a bonus, a test skitarii ranger. The skitarii are amazing models - though, it has to be said, a tad detailed for rank and file models. Painting 20-30 of these guys is quite a daunting prospect. But the plan is to at least do a small squad of five or six and use the rest of the bits for conversions. 

Arbite:

Ranger:

I also finished converting the Explorator Magii who will serve as the leader of the warband. I really tried to conjure up the archetypical image of the classic cowled adeptus mechanicus prelate. Something strangely lacking in the new mechanicvm range - the new Dominus is of course an amazing model but a much weirder beast altogether. 

I am The Law

Finally got round to buying the skitarii troopers. It is, as you all probably have realised by now, an amazing kit with lots of conversion potential. 

The first model to come out of it is - perhaps surprisingly - not a mechanicvm character, but rather one of the most iconic imperial servants in the 40k universe. The Arbitrator - upholder of the Pax Imperialis.  

As someone who grew up reading Judge Dredd I've always wanted to take a swing at kit bashing one of these, and finally the skitarii provided an appropiate helmet. 

I'd also like to say thanks to Kraut Scientist, who provided valuable inspiration with his recent take on the subject. Cheers buddy!

Merc of Mars

My growing mechanicvm warband is bolstered by shady mercenary Latronicus Pugnus.

Hailing from the unforgiving hiveworld Croenen Prime, his loyalty isn't as much to the God Machine as to monetary gain and the access to advanced tech the mechanicvm provides. 

The Magos and the Merc

Here's what's on the workbench right now: 

A sinister Explorator Magos to lead the warband - based on the trusted chaos sorceror (my third sorceror conversion within one year...). He's flanked by a mechanicvm affiliated mercenary - the perfect operative for those less official archeotech-gathering missions...