+ inload: Building Objective Markers for Adeptus Titanicus and Legions Imperialis +

+ Mission Briefing: What Are We Fighting For? +

+ In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war... But what exactly is it we're trying to achieve? +

+++

Like terrain, objective markers are often left as a bit of an afterthought – abstract tokens or templates, left 'til the last minute rather than built as part of the army. Nothing wrong with that – and having something obviously not a miniature or a bit of scenery is good for clarity. 

Nevertheless, since I'm going to an event, I wanted to add a little something to the immersion, so I've made some little modelled markers to represent various objectives. I've tried to theme these around the objective concepts from the Adeptus Titanicus Matched Play book, which will be in use during the event at Beachhead:

• Three objective markers for primary missions: Secure and Hold and Salt the Earth
• Three objective markers for primary missions: Asset Protection and Defend and Extract
• Titan Honour Banner for primary mission: Honour thy Forebears
• Two markers for secondary mission: Deny Them

For example, from left to right here you can see an Secure and Hold objective – a supply crate, guarded by a heavy bolter team while the big Titans arrive to defend it; and two Defend and Extract objectives – important personnel. These are a Magos from Metalica, and a Steel Legion Senior Officer. 

... and here's another Defend and Extract – a critical Astropath (in the sense of being important, rather than disagreeing with your choice of decor). Alongside that are two tokens for the Titan Hunter Infantry stratagem. I'm not 100% sure on whether I'll be taking this for the event, but it's useful to have in the back pocket. 

This raises the question of how I – and more importantly the other player – can distinguish between objective markers and tokens, and that's largely going to come down to the painting. I'll likely do something with the base rim; perhaps some text. The point is that they'll be distinguishable at table height, rather than having to lean down to see whether a 8mm tall figure has a particular gun or not.

Another shot of the Titan Hunting Infantry (foreground, left and right). You'll note that these are on tall (i.e. not Legions-style flat bases) 32mm bases, to fit the AT stipulations. I went for the raised bases to help distinguish them from LI infantry, to future-proof things for an eventual Epic-scale Steel Legion army.

+++

+ Building the markers +

The models themselves are small-scale Steel Legion figures that I had printed for me, intending them for an Epic-scale Steel Legion army for The Ashes of Armageddon project [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. Alas, the printer did them rather too large, so the integrated bases don't fit in the recesses of the bases I had, and – more annoyingly – they tower over my Marines and orks, just enough to niggle and bump any enthusiasm for getting them built and painted.

They've thus lurked, unwanted for their intended purpose, and itching at the back of my memcoils and angst-gland every time I open the Cupboard of Shame Opportunity. It's such a terrible shame, because the prints are beautiful quality (certainly can't fault that!) and the sculpts are absolutely perfect. Varus, the sculptor [+noosphericexloadlink embeeded+], is such a talent, and these little models are absolutely exquisite, capturing all the detail and character of their 28mm cousins [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+].

Anyway, this seemed the perfect opportunity to use them. While slightly too big to look right against other Epic: Legions Imperialis armies, the sheer size of the Titans masks the scale discrepancy. Secondly, their slightly over-large size means they'll read better as the relevant Objective, and if I do ever manage to get the army printed at a size I'm happy with, these over-sized figures on raised bases will stand out beautifully as objectives there, too.

And that's another advantage of making scenic, themed objectives. No matter how themed you make them, you'll find that they end up being surprisingly versatile, and useful in all manner of places.

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The practical side of building them was simplicity itself – smear some acrylic texture gel [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] on a base, embed the figures, use a sculpting tool to work the gel over the integrated bases to hide them, then pour on some play sand.

The crates, pillars and bunkers (you can see a couple lurking at the back of the picture above, which will be my Asset Protection objectives) are from Battle Bling [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], proving just how much these tiny elements can change a base of infantry into a mini diorama.

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+ inload: Red for the Iron Skulls +

+ Painting Titans red +

+ Thought for the day: Words of praise will never perish; nor a noble name. +

+++

A weekend spent painting – mainly a bathroom, but also found some time for miniatures. Old Three Skulls here shows what I've been doing; namely shading and highlighting the red. This was an enjoyably painterly process, and involved making up a pot of Xereus Purple and Scorched Brown with plenty of flow enhancer and clean water. This made a very fluid paint that I could apply before wet blending it out. 

Once dry, I turned to highlighting. I based the mixes on Mephiston Red (matching the Colour Forge base spray I used), and added Azo yellow (Yriel yellow is a good equivalent) and Army Painter Mummy Robes to brighten. Highlights were added sparingly, as the overall tone should be nice and rich – I'm aiming to approximate the colours below across the maniple. 

This image is from the AT books, and shows the current look of the Iron Skulls: a much deeper, richer red than the WD-era models that are the inspiration for the project. Finding a balance between the two is fun. The red in the illustration is very rich, and I'll be relying on oil glazes to bring some of that warmth and vibrancy to the finished result.

+++

This shot shows a detail of the red at this stage. It's not as clean as an airbrushed effect, but to me that's a positive. I admire the cleanliness of airbrushing, but I personally like a bit more visual texture in the result as it adds both realism and a sense of age and presence. 

You'll note that the metals have got a a bit mucky during this process, and that's one of the reasons why I'm leaving them 'til near the end to polished them up. The other reasons include the fact that varnishing will knock them back anyway, and being raised, they're most likely to catch errant brushmarks during painting other things. By leaving them 'til near the end, they'll have built up a natural patina from washes, glazes, oils etc., and some highlighting will then add some depth. It will also allow me to tweak the overall tonal impact a bit – if the overall model has become too dark and moody, I can add some visual pop with lighter-toned silver.

+++

+ What's good for the goose is good for the gander +

Of course, it's all very well coming over all artsy for a standalone model, but if you want cohesiveness in an army colour scheme, you need to be able to replicate it. That's why I made a pot of the purple-brown shading mix, as it would let me get the same effect on all five models in the Maniple (and why I record the details here, as it will let me try to match it in the future!)

The curved carapace armour plate here on Carnivora shows the different between the highlighting on curves (more diffuse, not going to such a bright tint) and on the edges (where the paint marks are very fine and go to a very pale pinky-cream. The pink tinge will be reduced by a yellow glaze later at the oil stage, so painting like this requires you to hold your nerve a little and trust in the process. The glazes will also help to blend in the paint, reducing the harshness a touch.

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+ What difference does it make? +

All of this begs the fundmantal question – what's the point in shading and highlighting? The answer to that is a sense of scale. By exaggerating the tints and shades, we can simulate how light falls on a very large object, giving the illusion that this model figure is huge.

A pict-capture's worth a thousand inload-entry subpackets, so here's a before and after:

 

Hopefully you'll agree that the second picture looks less toy-like, despite fundamentally being the same.

The other point is demonstrative. It's nice to put some effort into something and have something to share – and having more visual interest means there's more to chat about. Flat colours look striking and effective, but beyond the impact of the scheme, leave little to chew over. The idea behind having a full gamut of tones is that it makes it easier for the viewer to picture the model in context – though as you'll see above, the flipside of this is losing some of that cleanliness and immediacy of the impact. I personally favour this earthiness, but there's no doubt the an airbrush or finer wet blending is the way to go if you want to retain cleanliness and vibrancy.

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Pontificating aside – I'm still very much a journeyman painter – I'll need to keep up the pace. Not long to go, and all the visual interest in the world will be spoiled if they're not at least somewhere nearer being finished!

The red shading is complete on all five, and the highlighting on three. I'll finish off the highlighting, then move on to the black and white areas.

+ Remember Jardingris! +

+ inload: Metalica plans and preparation +

 + Toll the great bell once! +

+ Painting progress +

+ Sound the chime to rouse the Machine Spirits to wakefulness! +

+ I'll need to come up with a suitable Maniple name... +

When I decided to paint a new Titan maniple for the Beachhead event, I was aware that it was a pretty big task, and so it's proving! So... much... trim. 

The good news is that I'm finally getting to the end of the base painting. This has involved lots of subassemblies, of which I'm thoroughly sick; and so it's been a welcome milestone to be able to glue the [+SCRAPSHUNTERRORABORT+] things together at last, resulting in what you see here.

+++

+ Painting plans +

+ Here's my plan for getting these over the line. [+APPENDEDIT: I'll  be striking through bits that have been done since this inload was initially posted, so you can see my progress. +

_1  The next stage for all of them will be adding the black stripes to the white plates, and add some highlights and initial shading to the base coating. This will include panel lining, where appropriate. I'll use a purply-brown for the red, and a blue-grey midtone for the white.

Trying to visualise the eventual colour balance is a bit tricky – I know the oil washes and varnish will mute the colours somewhat, but I'm still having to force myself not to grime things up at this point. For this reason, the highlights probably need to be a bit brighter and pinker than looks right – as the yellow-tinged glaze/filter will warm it back up and bring it back to a neutral red. That's the theory, at least.

_2  After that, I'll add the transfers. Once those are in place, I'll varnish to protect the transfers – I'm still undecided on whether to use brush-on varnish to topically protect the transfers, or an overall spray.

_3  After that, we're onto the oils. My plan is to use burnt umber and raw sienna to bring some warmth, richness and visual texture to the large flat plates, and help the transfers sit in.

_4  I'll then switch over to the additional bits and bobs, so the oils have plenty of time (ideally a week or so) to dry/oxidise. These additional bits are:

• Titan banners (between the legs)
• Weapon banners
• Terminal name plates – courtesy of Obsidian Forge [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]
• Three objective markers for primary missions: Secure and Hold and Salt the Earth
• Three objective markers for primary missions: Asset Protection and Defend and Extract
• Titan Honour Banner for primary mission: Honour thy Forebears
• Two markers for secondary mission: Deny Them
• Three markers (one Primary, two Secondary) for secondary mission: Glory and Honour
• Six markers (one Shield, one Spear, two Alpha and two Beta) for secondary missions: Priority Assignment and A Matter of Honour.

_5 Polishing up the detail. This is basically everything else – but given a lot of the weathering, detailing and so forth will have been done previously, this should (touch wood) mainly involve polishing up the bases.

Quite a lot to do... Pass the brown paper bag for hyperventilation practice! I'll have to have a think about how I'll do the various markers.

+++

+ Specifics +

+ For quick reference and as an aide memoire, here are my notes for what specific details each Titan needs. +

This retrohammer project is an affectionate update, rather than a direct translation. As noted in earlier inloads, some of the weapon loadouts are now illegal or non-existent, so I'm having to make some concessions to modernity. The same will apply to the details of the painting. I want things to be recognisable, but also to take advantage of the larger, more detailed models. To that end, I'll be adapting bits here and there – these notes should flag the sort of decisions I'm making.

First up is Steel Hammer, Titan of Princeps Prime [sic.] Kurtiz Mannheim, who carked it during the Second War for Armageddon (whisper it low, but these are 40k-era Titans sneaking into a Heresy event).  As the only Titan without a studio equivalent, I've got a lot of freedom here. 

• Black chevrons on shin, stripes on shoulders and above head.
• Update left arm weapon – and redraft list! Shave points to bring in plasma?

Carnivore has had a name tweak to Praeterita Carnivorus. Evocative of the old name, but with a bit more over-the-top pomp and grandiosity of the modern game, it translates roughly to 'Past Carnivore', or 'Carnivore of things past' – a pun I couldn't quite resist. It's also a reference to the Victorian-era polymath John Ruskin, for reasons I'll expand on below. Praeterita was a sort-of biography; an elegy of a lost past – which seemed a fittingly pompous adjunct to this backward-looking project.

Here's the inspiration:

• Paint left pauldron red.
• Black chevrons on right pauldron.
• Update right arm to laser blaster.
• Black diamond and skull on right knee.
• Black Opus Titanica symbol in yellow circle on right knee.
• Yellow striped carapace – though I'm tempted to make this a three-colour stripe (white, yellow, black) to put a bit of space between this and the modern Fire Wasps scheme.
• Yellow groin – perhaps with black transfer to avoid drawing the eye too much.
• Titan banner (between legs) – black skull and two small black kill markings.
• Moderatus banner (left arm): Legio symbol in centre on red field, surrounded by small black icons, surmounted by Opus Machina; all bordered in white and black chevrons.
• Nail icon to add somewhere, along with reference to Lycurgus and Fortune.

Ferratus Tertius is the furthest along of the group, and has served as a bit of a testbed for things. I'm pleased with how he's coming along, though I am erring towards swapping out the Gatling blaster for something a bit more visually similar to the vulcan megabolter, like Battle Bling's cyclone mega-bolter [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. You'll note that I've painted the head white, rather than silver, for increased contrast. Heraldically, I reassure myself, it still reads as 'Iron Skull'.

Ferratus Tertius

• Black diamond and skull on right knee.
• Black Opus Titanica symbol in yellow circle on right knee.
• Titan banner (between legs) – black skull and three small black kill markings.
• Moderatus banner (right arm): Legio symbol in centre on red field, surrounded by small black icons, surmounted by Opus Machina; all bordered in white and black chevrons.
• Repaint shoulder armour red.
• Key icon, and reference to Odysseus to be added.

Fors Clavigera is my modern take on Clavigera/Ferratus Primus, and the reason for the John Ruskin nod. Fors Clavigera is a series of essays he published, which outlined his social economics and proto-environmentalism. 

The reference is the three 'Fors' by which the working man could influence things: force, fortune and fortitude – which are symbolised by Hercules' club; a nail (of Lycurgus – of Sparta fame); and a key (of Odysseus/Ulysses) respectively. 

The names of all three of these items are derived from 'Clava' – and so this is a good example of how you can dive into a cool but throwaway name and invest it with a bit more gravitas (or disappear entirely up your own rear end!). Incidentally, it also means that Clavigera is feminine, making this a God-Engine following the old naval tradition of referring to ships as 'she'.

Of all these titans, Clavigera is the one that I think least resembles the inspiration, and so I'm going to try my hand at converting a barrage missile (as seen below), and possibly replace the gatling blaster with an alternative.

• Swap upper carapace for red; include white Aquilla.
• Chainfist to be painted red.
• Black stripes on shoulders.
• Black diamond and skull on right knee.
• Black Opus Titanica symbol in yellow circle on right knee.
• Titan banner (between legs) – Opus Machina and five small black kill markings.
• Moderatus banner (right arm): Legio symbol top centre on yellow field, surmounting black diamond flanked by Opus Titanicus symbols; all bordered in black.
• Club icon, and reference to Hercules to be added.

At the other end of the column is Trismegistus the Great, affectionately known as 'Old Three Skulls', who is simply plodding along.

• Powerfist to be painted with yellow and black chequers.
• Black stripes on left shin (after strengthening white field and red trim).
• Legio symbol skull on right knee.
• Yellow Opus Titanica on left knee.
• Titan banner (between legs) – to add?
• Moderatus banner (right arm): Three black skulls on yellow field with red border.

+++

+ inload: Post-Sanguinalia hobby +

+ New year and a reboot of the Visualiser Engine +

+ Reboot from start +

The appearance of a new Rubricist/autoscribe miniature (see below) seemed like a good excuse to look again at the visual side of the blog, so today you can see an example of what I'm thinking of rolling out.


Hopefully it's familiar enough that any long time Rubricists will know where things are, but a bit easier on the eyes. I've also restricted the old font (twelve years of which has made me inordinately fond) to the headings and bits of particular emphasis:

+ Like this +

... in order that the overall experience is a bit easier on the ol' occulobes. Happy to hear any thoughts or objections – otherwise, on with the show!

+++

+ Work progresses on my Legio Metalica maniple for Beachhead. Just a month to go, and plenty to paint – yikes! +

Perhaps fittingly for raising God-Engines, it's proving quite the logistical task, as I've opted to part-build them, leaving sub-assemblies for painting. This is further complicated by the need to unpack and sort at the start of every session, and tidy everything away after each session, all of which eats into the available time. None of this is conducive to getting good pict-captures!

However, the good news is that the substructure of each Titan is now assembled and his its base coats applied – as in the example of Old Three Skulls above. I've used various dark metal mixes, broadly a combination of Black Legion Contrast, Leadbelcher, Burnt Sienna and silver calligraphy ink, which gives a nice muted old metal. Over this I've applied a variegated wash of Seraphim Sepia and Druchiii Violet (i.e. I add spots of each colour, and allow them to mix into each other on the surface, without intentionally mixing them too much).

The red is a coat of Mephiston Red over Colour Forge's Sanguine Red. While the spray coats well, a thin layer of paint applied with the brush helps to enrich the colour a bit. I want to keep it fairly vibrant, as I'm planning to apply some oil washes, which will mute things a bit.

+++

+ Lovely gifts +

Blessed fellow that I am, I was very pleased to get a Reaver for Christmas – already assembled, as part of the Iron Skulls above – and these chaps, too:

Regular inloaders may well remember the Throng of Nog, and the new plastic releases for classic dawi are right up my street. Delighted with this kit, which sums up everything I like about dwarfs. I couldn't resist a little conversion work; namely trimming down the headdresses so that the underlying structure of the crown/helms are a bit more apparent for this cyng/thegn.

The bearers are lovely little figures in themselves, with lots of cool details like a the hold's Book of Grudges (visible here on the bearer on the left), and a beer tankard.

+++

...and unrelated to anything except my love of cool sci-fi miniatures, I couldn't resist picking up these two, from the recent Inquisition set for Kill Team.

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inload: Painting the Partisans III – Red Fish

 + Sword, Plough, Trowel, Quill! +

+ Happy new year, all – and welcome back to another year of Death of a Rubricist. We'll kick off 2025 with some painted figures, my own contribution to the Hidden Armies challenge event (of which, more soon). +

+ Sporting one of my favourite colour schemes in the War of the False Primarch project, and bafflingly underrepresented (in my view), are the Red Fish, a partisan Chapter that are the creation of @eatdrinkdeath. +

+ The Hidden Armies challenge event, which finished just before Christmas, seemed perfectly fitting to give them a go – though in all honesty, I’ve been working up the courage to tackle them since pretty much the start of +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ got started, as there are so many neat little concepts folded into them that I wanted to include. +

+ The scheme itself is quite tricky to start – it’s based on the sockeye salmon, which becomes a vivid red. I’m not sure I’ve quite got the hue right, but I’m pleased with the pinky-maroon result. It’s a mix of Screamer Pink and Vallejo Black Red (Gal Vorbak red is a good alternative), highlighted up with the addition of Army Painter Mummy Robes (Bleached bone or the equivalent would also work). Over the top of this, I added glazes of Bloodletter Red, one of the old (and vanishing) Citadel glazes. +

+ Company colours are shown by a band on the right arm – a very cool concept that I’ve not seen anywhere else. @eatdrinkdeath’s example marines belonged to the sixth company, which had a yellow band. I followed suit initially, then changed my mind – I thought one-off models like this were a good opportunity to illustrate a different company. +

+ I opted for turquoise (Sotek Green, I think), as the Chapter has some Native American/First Nation themes threaded through, and I thought it’d work well with the rich red. Plus turquoise is a favourite of mine – and I never need much of an excuse to include it.+

+ The chapter icon is a lantern-jawed salmonid – the Red Fish of the Chapter's homeworld. The red circle is easy to lose on the deeper red field, so I added a little visual flourish of turquoise beads/dots – perhaps a personal honorific, or some form of squad marking. You'll spot similar dots and zigzags on the pouches and holsters of the two marines, which also look a bit like coarse Wild West-style leatherwork. +

+++

+ The addition of the gyrinx served two purposes – firstly, a nod to the Chapter creator's pet cats, and secondly a chance to say something more about the the Chapter, visually. The Red Fish are deeply embedded with the Delphurnean League, their pocket empire (and really more of a commonwealth), and so I wanted to have something that made this more of an action shot. The brief, after all, was for a diorama, so I liked the conceit of the Red Fish working hand-in-glove with the wildlife of their region. +

+ A few extra shots for your (hopeful) enjoyment +

+ inload: 10 days 'til Hidden Armies are revealed +

+ 10 days to go +

+ For those following along with the #HiddenArmies challenge event  [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] for The War of the False Primarch, there are 10 days remaining (though if your contribution goes up after the 21st, I daresay I'll find a way to slot it in). +

+ Today's inload looks at some Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten material – a mix of Partisans and Pentarchy. Haven't decided whether these will count as part of my own Hidden Armies or not just yet. +

+ Here then are a few odds and sods, and some notes: 

+ Death Eagle (I) marine. You can read some of their exploits in the War by following the tag here. Of all the Pentarchy, I think their very retro paint scheme (patchwork magenta and white) and their are-they-aren't-they background intrigues and repulses in equal measure. They haven't proven as popular as (say) the Carcharodons or Flesh Eaters, but those who have painted them seem to harbour a particular enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to painting up an example myself – I do love a bright heraldic scheme. +

+ Silver Star with grav gun. No particular reason behind this choice of special weapon beyond it lurking in my bits box for ages. Sometimes serendipity prompts things! +

+ A rather splendid character. Perhaps we'll see some more info on him in particular..? This command/veteran squad of Silver Stars has been a good opportunity to explore the Pseudolegion's decorative side – up 'til now they've been deliberately rather anonymous for narrative reasons, but as things close in on the False Primarch and his Astartes(?), I wanted to explore some more hints as to their origins. +

+ A banner bearer (or rather, a banner bearer-to-be, as I haven't got a plain banner yet. I was pleased with the floating laurel wreath on this figure. ++

+ Curved sabres have turned up here and there for the Silver Stars, and I needed another Sergeant or junior officer. +

+ Empty hands are something that I like to include in my armies – somehow it adds to the pose, to my mind. +

+ And a second Death Eagle, in arty monochrome as the base body is distractingly blue. A couple of decades ago, Mark VII helmets were use only as conversion fodder for me and the PCRC – how nostalgia changes things! +

+ ...and some flashes of the Silver Stars colour scheme and markings, if you fancy a little colour. +

 

+ inload: Red Fish and Reavers – painting in progress +

+ What's this? Painting? +

+ WIP, but getting there +

 

+ Oof. It's been months since I've managed to put brush to model, and what better way to come back than with some utterly unrelated projects – a pair of Red Fish marines for +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ and paint on Ferratus Tertius for my Iron Skulls (Legio Metalica) maniple, for The Ashes of Armageddon. +

+ Ferratus Tertius – pleased to meet you. +

+++

+ War of the False Primarch +

+ Dealing with each of these in turn, let's kick off with the news that new articles are going up on +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+, so go check 'em out – and there's also a painting challenge event, if you'd like to have a go. +

+ I even worked up a little infographic for it ... and a noospheric link for quick response: [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] +

+ I don't know about anyone else, but I find these challenges a periodic nudge to dig out models and just put a bit of paint on things. No great plans, no big army, no expectations. A lovely palate/palette cleanser (ho ho) that you can just lean into. +

+ Contributors have been so generous with their ideas and models and enthusiasm for the project over the past few years, I really want to make sure that I do my part and paint up as many of the various factions as possible. For that reason I've got a handful of unpainted Space Marines lurking in boxes – and yesterday I was seized with the urge to paint up a pair of Red Fish. +

+ Will this be my entry for the challenge? I don't know – and happily, it doesn't really matter. The point is just to enjoy painting! +

+ 'Sword, Plough, Trowel, Quill!' +

+ You can read the Index Astates for the Red Fish, or Marines Orcinus, here [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], and they're a beautifully imagined group. Very nicely developed, they rather resist a quick summary descriptions, but if you don't have the time to inload the link above, they can be seen as generalist marines with a pocket-empire modelled after Macragge. +

+ The creation of @eatdrinkdeath, they're also refreshingly diverse, taking their recruits from hundreds of worlds with very different cultural traditions, and alloying them into making flexibility a key strength of the Chapter. They've got a particular subtle appeal, and I'd love to see more hobbyists made aware of them. +

+ In terms of painting, they're worked up from a white undercoat. I've used Seraphim Sepia on the legs, followed by Balor Brown(?) highlighted up to Mummy Robes. The upper body is a base of Vallejo Red Black, highlighted up with Screamer Pink and Vallejo Cold White... but I'm not quite sure it's captured the vibrancy I was after – hence why they're still WIP. +

+ I sat back and realised I was spending far too long going back and forth over them, trying to get the red right, so decided to call it a night. I think coming back with fresh eyes and properly dried layers should mean these polish up relatively quickly. +

+++

+ The Chapter also offered an unusual modelling opportunity, to tackle a female Space Marine – on the left here. I've used smaller hands, by using a Black Templars scout boltgun (the hands are in gloves, rather than gauntlets) and also reduced the size of the feet by trimming down the soles, which also reduces the figure's height a fraction. The helmet and chestplate have been reshaped – to soften the 'jawline' and to reduce the width of the upper chest respectively – though not particularly strikingly: as with the height, I figure that you wouldn't need a great deal of modification to accommodate the physical differences in power armour. +

+ The most complex change was to cut off the legs and reattach them at a slightly inward-turning angle. In concert with shaving down the groin plate and narrowing the thighs at the outer knee, this gives a slightly different posture, with broader hips. The final change was to shave down the shoulders, pinching in the arms and making them slightly narrower than the hips. +

+ The overall result, I hope, reads 'Space Marine' first and foremost – compare the two figures above – I think it's a nice quirk of the Chapter, but I wouldn't want the presence of female marines to overshadow the rest of the great development work of the Red Fish. +

+ The bold yellow band that runs down the arm is the company colour. Still to go are the other markings (not least the sockjaw salmon Chapter icon on the other arm), and then polishing and cleaning things up. The base is a stand-in for the moment, but I'm rather liking the semi-diorama effect of the two alongside one another. +

+ ...and a minor note to finish; I'm quite pleased with the eyes – I went with an amber approach. It's surprising how much adding the eyes can turnaround a frustrating painting experience; the model suddenly seems to pull in around them, and I find I can then better see what needs work. +

+++

+ And speaking of cool Chapters +

+ Here are some of the other War of the False Primarch WIPs, which I thought I'd share (in some cases again, in some cases for the first time). +

+ Headhunting jungle specialists, the Jade Talons , creation of @adam_james_creates end up making some rather dubious decisions late in the war... You can check out Adam's latest works on Instagram if you'd like a preview of their eventual fate. +

+ The Firebreak: Desert-walking ronin space monks who lost their homeworld (and most of their Chapter) early on. @dizzyeye.01 has come up with a really charismatic take on these Dark Angels successors. +

+ Cryptic, atomic, mystic. The Wormwood Sons of @K0rdhal are a fan favourite – a result, I suspect, of his awesome modelling and mastery of esoteric lore-writing in equal measure. +

+ ...and finally my own Silver Stars – and you'll not have long to wait to read their (sort of) Index Astartes. +

***

+ Ferratus Tertius +

+ ... and at the other end of the scale from very instinct-driven, relatively fast painting on the fly, I spent a very enjoyable evening starting the paint on this Engine in a very leisurely, pre-prepared (arguably too pre-prepared!) way. +

+ Lots of layers, close focus on just a couple of areas – the head and making a start on the upper carapace. +

+ Very pleased indeed with how he's turning out. I'm toying with bringing in some oil washes for this projects, but I'll see how they work out with pure acrylics before making the decision. +

+ The name plate is from Battle Builder – they're running a competition on Instagram (@battle.builder) for some free plates until the 17th, so go give it a try. +

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