+ inload: 2nd edition gaming – Genestealer Cult versus Steel Legion on Armageddon +

+ Turbulent Priests +

+ 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 battle report +

+ 'To arms!' A Clamavos of the Church of Cosmic Wisdom broadcasts an emergency address by the Cult Magus to the faithful of a particular diocese. +

... Nor were the back lines of Armageddon, far from the greenskin threat, reliably safe. Ghazghkull's invasion had thrown law and order into disarray, and the planet's criminals, terrorists and heretics emerged to make good on the disruption. Stemming this inner corruption fell largely to the Defence Forces of the individual Hives and Mega-factories – though where more severe or grave threats emerged, elements of the Steel Legion were deputised.

Such was the case with the Church of the Cosmic Wisdom, a previously innocuous sect of seeming anchorites centred upon a spire of Hive Acheron. During the ork invasion, their true nature as a powerful Genestealer cult emerged, forcing their hand.

Their aim was eventually revealed to be the capture one of the hive's spaceports and ensure the Patriarch and as much of the cult as possible could make good its escape in the chaos of war. With the ports locked down by the Armageddon military, this led to inevitable conflict.

– The Later Histories of Armageddon: Hidden Conflicts

+++

+ Today's inload involves a few notes on a fun evening of gaming with Bob Hunk. We'd arranged to meet up to play a 1,500pt game of 2nd edition 40k after dipping our toes in again at Stuntwedge's house a few weeks back with a game of Tyranids versus Space Marines. +

+ With some more points on the table, we decided to swap over to Genestealer Cults against Imperial Guard. +

+++

+ General thoughts +

I confess to not taking any notes, so the 'report', such as it is, is more a collection of scattered thoughts – but I hope the pictures (a combination of my own and Bob Hunk's) at least offer something nice to look at! 

This isn't a general review of the second edition 40k, but I did want to highlight what a lot of fun we had with this battle! It felt refreshing to have the complexity baked in to the core rules, rather than layered onto a very stripped-back system, and I'd forgotten how immersive it feels, and just how many odd (and amusing) things can happen in second edition. Bob Hunk commented on how it felt good to just know what the result was once you rolled the dice – no re-rolls, no surprise cards or stacking rules – and I agree completely. It feels intuitive in a way that a lot of modern games don't; the older simulation approach being largely replaced with more abstract, speedier rules.

With that said, I didn't miss the constant back-and-forth to the rulebook to find odd outlying cases – and while I like the more discursive, conversational tone of the 2nd edition rulebook over the 'legal manual' framework that is most modern GW game rules, it was a pain in the backside to actually find answers to things, and we ended up glossing over quite a bit in the name of getting on with the game, or stumbling over the answer to something while looking up something else.

Fundamentally, of course, that's an inevitable result of coming back to a game we last played anything like regularly nearly thirty years ago. It felt simultaneously very familiar and very strange – and happily ended with both of us keen to do some more 2nd edition gaming.

+++

+ The Armies +

Having played a 1,000pt game, we thought we'd go to 1,500pts this time, and bring in some more unusual or specialist units. 

+ Steel Legion 7th Army, 707th Regiment +

‘General Grünhold came to command the ‘High-and-Dry’ 7th Army Group, taking the reins from General Marlen as Commander Dante’s reforms were enacted and the Steel Legion as a whole prepared for the ambitious counter-offensive envisioned by the Astartes.

‘Known as ‘Asbach’ – though not within earshot – the General’s nickname stemmed from his supposed similarity to the old Helsreach distillate: short, bitter, fiery, and best faced as swiftly as possible.’

– The Later Histories of Armageddon: Heroes and Villains of the War

+ Grünhold and aides-de-camp, addressing selected Regiments of the 7th Army Group prior to them being cycled out of the front line to recuperate in Acheron. +

Characters (up to 750pts)

• Imperial Guard General 'Asbach' Grünhold – 65pts + Wargear card: Bionic Eye (5), Bionic Arm (5) and Bionic Leg (3) (He's been in the wars!)
• Tech-priest Engineer – 30pts
• Commissar – 40pts + Power sword (6)
• Command Section – 75pts + power sword (6) and bolt pistol (2)
• Command Section – 75pts + power sword (6) and bolt pistol (2)

Squads (at least 375pts)

• Tactical squad – 100pts + Veteran sergeant (10) + Heavy bolter – (10) + Plasma gun – (6)
• Tactical squad – 100pts + Missile Launcher (30) + Grenade Launcher (10)
• Tactical squad – 100pts + Missile Launcher (30) + Grenade Launcher (10)
• Tactical squad – 100pts + Missile Launcher (30) + Grenade Launcher (10)

Support (up to 750pts)

• Space Marine Captain – 90pts + Boltgun (3)
• Space Marine Tactical Squad – 300pts
• Leman Russ Battle Tank – 205pts

+++

+ Church of Cosmic Wisdom +

The Cult Magus makes his presence known.

Characters

• Patriarch (72) + Hypnotic Gaze (20) + Catalyst (40) [132]
• Cult Magus (107) + Displacer Field (20) + Force Staff (10) [137]
• Cult Icon Bearer (45) + Sword (1) + Mesh Armour (3) [49]
• Neophyte Leader (10) + Needle Pistol (5) + Power Sword (6) + Carapace Armour (7) + Frenzon (5) [34]
• Acolyte Leader (9)  + Psychic Mastery Level 1 (25) + Scanner (1) [35]

Broods

• 12 Purestrain Genestealers [336]
• 10 Neophyte Hybrids (90) + 2 Hand Flamer (12) + 6 Swords (6) + 4 Power Fists (40) [148]
• 10 Acolyte Hybrids (80) + 1 Power Maul (6) + 9 Autoguns (9) [95]
• 10 Acolyte Hybrids (80) + 1 Chainsword (2) + 9 Shotguns (18) [100]
• 5 Acolyte Hybrids (40) + 2 Heavy Stubbers (20) + 2 Grenade Launchers (20) [80]

Support

• Leman Russ [205]
• Goliath Truck (counts as Chimera) [140]

+++

+ The battlefield and deployment +

We got into the swing of the game itself nice and quickly, with mission determined through cards. The Steel Legion ended up with Dawn Raid, which meant I had to get an above half strength squad into the Church's deployment zone; while the Genestealers got The Assassins, meaning they'd have to decapitate (literally and figuratively) General Grünhold ...

The board looked like this, and with the higher strategy rating, I could look forward to deploying second and (probably) going first. As it happened, I had a strategy card (Forced March) that allowed me to deploy units 18in onto the table – very useful for my mission, though the wisdom of advancing towards Purestrain genestealers is perhaps questionable...

Units deployed this way had to be set up before the opponent, so I used it to get a squad into a good firing position on each flank, and a combat squad of Salamanders in the centre. The Church then deployed as shown below, and with their positions now clear, I got to set up the rest of my army:

The opening turn saw the Goliath and broods in the centre advance on the Salamanders. Space Marines aren't quite as superhuman in 2nd as they later became, so the Salamanders quickly grew to appreciate the cover they were skulking in as the Leman Russ (the 'Lovely Girl') opened up on them. Fortunately, poor maintenance meant two of the heavy bolters fired fitfully, then jammed; and the battle cannon missed

+++

Over on the right, the Steel Legion advanced on a large building held by the Cult. I wanted to comment on this flank of the battlefield, because it's a good example of what I mean by the game feeling more 'realistic' – we had soldiers advancing into scant cover on an otherwise exposed position, then laying down fire on a dug-in enemy. 

The cover from the building meant that the small unit of Genestealer cultists was able to hold off twice their number of infantry – and it was only the presence of a Leman Russ battle tank that enabled a squad to flank the building in the closing stages of the game.

... of course, realism only goes so far... the highlight for both of us was the Magus' Displacer Field successfully saving him from a lucky shot – only for it to bring him back into reality outside the building, leading to a long plummet to the cold hard ground: ouch!

+++

These mid-game shot of the battlefield shows how the genestealers overwhelmed the Space Marines in the centre. This skirmish threw up lots of cool twists – a lucky shot from a missile launcher (just out of shot at the top) killed the crew of the Goliath as the Space Marines advanced, sending it slewing into the Salamanders and crushing one... after which the dazed cultists hopped out and hosed down the Marines with autopistols, downing one (the shame!), before the hand flamers opened up, sending the remaining three stumbling around on fire!

+ 'No resistance to flamers in this edition, Imperial lap-dog!' +

The lone survivor, still burning, was eviscerated by the Patriarch's brood as they redeployed from the north into the centre. 

The Imperials were thoroughly outmatched, outnumbered and outclassed here, and the Command HQ and surviving Space Marines raced to get into position to anchor the centre and prevent the battle turning. 

With the brood realising the threat, the cultists turned their fire on the surviving Salamanders, but as the heavy stubbers jammed, only one fell – who was swiftly patched-up and returned to battle by the Command HQ's medic (who had clearly paid attention at the 'administering first aid to allied superhumans' session).

+ The 707th Command HQ advance behind Lieutenant Nomix Nor'Jagan and a combat squad of  his 2nd Company Salamanders +

+++

This shot shows the state of play at the end of the third turn (I think), with honours largely even. The Steel Legion had pulled ahead slightly in VP, though I think this was rather a quirk of the number of single-wound characters present in the Genestealer list than any reflection of my tactical ability.

+++

With time pressing on, the final turn saw the Imperial Guard advance reach the deployment zone, securing their victory – although as you can see, the prospects for an extended fight did not look to be in the Steel Legion's favour!

+++

+ Aftermath +

All in all, a great deal of fun – and the flexibility and granularity of the army-building was fun to see. I never saw hand flamers or needle pistols or so forth fielded in the 90s, so to use these rules alongside a mix of classic and modern models (and notably Bob Hunk's always beautiful armies) to get the best of both worlds  – was a treat.

The game has already got me thinking about more battles and ideas, as it just lends itself so beautifully to narrative gaming. Will Grünhold and his allies report the infestation, or attempt to suppress it themselves? Where will the Cult strike next?

You could bring in an Inquisitor whose carefully-laid research has been upended; the local Arbites demanding to know what all the gunfire is; or perhaps some ork-genestealer hybrids to tie into the broader Armageddon campaign?

...and that's just this particular setting. One of the great joys of playing this now, rather than 30 years ago, is that we've both got access to loads of different armies, so we can hop around the astrography and history of Antona Australis as we please.

+++

+ inload: Cassus Belli, Imperator Titan +

+ Cassus Belli, Imperator Titan +

'How like a god he is, that ancient machine, primal of his kind, the Imperator! His mighty fists, massive like two towers of destruction, laden with the doom of mankind's bitter foes. He watches over us now as battle joins, and in his shadow we shall advance upon our enemies and defeat them.'

+++

I have very kind and generous friends, and Lucifer216 is the master of artifice that has granted the Legio Metalica this magnificent creation. Even bereft of his upper towers, he's the biggest model I've ever worked on. He was 3D printed and given to me assembled, as shown:

... which meant I had little to do in terms of construction beyond a little gap filling. For this I used greenstuff, using the blade end of a modelling tool to cut and place small strips, then the blunt end to smooth and shape it.

The cold, hard, unforgiving light of day shows both the results of my cack-handed efforts, and some of the minor print damage. The material is pretty sturdy, with some flex, but the detail on the digital sculpt is perhaps a bit fine to translate well – this is the reason the towers are missing too: Lucifer216 found that the filigree of the stained glass windows simply didn't print well.

He's suggested substituting the towers with the Civitas Imperialis spires [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] from the Titanicus range, which I think's a great idea.

This rear shot shows the repairs made to the plasma reactor breach. Note I've left the gap in the doors; it just seemed fitting – a  good space for a techpriest, perhaps? [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]

+++

+ Painting +

There's no avoiding that this is a huge model, so I thought the best bet was just to get stuck in – otherwise he's going to lurk intimidatingly forever!

He's received a black undercoat, followed by brown and red zenithal sprays.

A scale shot to show the size of the beast:

+ inload: Primed and ready to go +

+ Guardians ready +

'When there is no other way, the perilous path is the only road to salvation.'

 +++

The Alaitoc Eldar army progresses, and so I thought I'd share what I've got so far. Before getting stuck in, however, I'd like to draw your gaze to a precious relic from the early days of the Internet, and still going strong, David M. Donachie's wonderful Eldar language guide  [+noosphericexloadlink+]. It's a wonderful example of fandom done right – a really useful, free resource quietly created and maintained by someone sharing their enthusiasm. (Go buy his books!) It's proving very handy indeed in helping me to create authentic-sounding Eldar terms and names, so the squad names etc. gratefully draw from this resource.

+++

+ The Guardians +

Craftworld Alaitoc appeared as one of the example schemes on the back of the Eldar Guardians boxed set (RTB17, according to Stuff of Legends), but there was very little written about the Craftworlds in terms of how they differed from one another. That would develop organically over the next few years, but fundamentally there wasn't anything special about Alaitoc at this point. They were a blank slate, created to help provide an example of the broader Eldar background covered in White Dwarf 129.

+ The back of the RTB17 Eldar Guardians set – complete focus on the colour schemes, rather than any background lore. +

... which is actually really refreshing to approach. Today it seems like every corner of the 40k galaxy, massive as it is, has been thoroughly mined and developed and explored, pushing the sense of exploration and mystery to the very boundaries. For the record, I don't think that is the case – the galaxy, after all, is a very big place... but either way, it's nice to look at an army that is more concerned with the core Eldar concept than a particular niche within that.

On with the show! The original army list has four squads of Guardians in, and I've now got three up and running, with the bits for the last one on their way:

+ Guardian squad 1: Catu Dyann Erathi +

Translating as nothing more notable than 'First Guardians that are purple', Dyann Erathi are a basic Guardian squad, with their default lasguns. The squad leader has a shuriken pistol and laspistol, and the last member has a melta gun. 

As explained in earlier inloads, in translating things to the modern period I've tried to evoke the poses and a few key details, while adding some extra little touches. In particular, the streamers and sashes of the originals are minimised on the modern sculpts, appearing only as little arm bands. These will take the purple colour of the originals, but in a more subtle way. The squad leader's top knot/tuft will make a nice new place to pop a little of the colour.

+++

+ Guardian squad 3: Tirtu Ionandyann Arithi +

The caption on the original text says pretty much what I was going to, and also hints that the name translates to 'Third Guardians of Battle'. I toyed with using the prefix 'Jov'a' (better) as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fact that Shuriken Catapults were clearly the better choice for Guardians in the early editions – probably why Battle Squads were limited – but thought the phrasing above rolled off the tongue better.

The squad leader has had a gender swap here, mostly owing to parts available: the new Guardian box has proportionally more female members than the metal hybrid box. Still, I think this change is a good one as it saves us having two identical squad leaders – the same sculpt was used as the leader for both this and the close combat squad below, so I thought I'd tweak one a little further to bring in some variety. However, to balance this, I've tried to get the pose evocative of the original, while making the most of the increased dynamism. I think the use of the old weapons helps to sell this, too.

I just want to note how pleased I am with how the old shuriken catapults work on the new models. The smaller size goes a long way to giving them a slightly more realistic, retro feel.

+++

+ Guardian squad 4: Kantu Ukendyann Addani +

The 'fourth proximity-Guardians in white' are the squad that diverges most from the originals, and that's due to me wanting to make these close-in specialists more mobile and dynamic. Nevertheless, I hope that some of the poses still evoke the originals. It's more of a loose riff than the others.

The new Guardians kit come with lots of variation in poses, so I was spoiled for choice here. Hopefully you'll spot some similarities with the originals.

+++

+ Characters +

I also took some time to build Warlock Lorith, the name coming from a quote in the 3rd edition Codex:

The original, alongside the as-yet unstarted Farseer...

... and the update, alongside the Dark Reaper Exarch I started in this inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], who now revels in the name Marithiyon, which literally translates as something akin to 'Skull removed from'; a very loose translation of the orginal 'Skulltaker'. He now has a proper web of skulls, taken from the original model and pinned into place. I bent the chain a little to add some more dynamism.

For the Warlock, I used parts from the new Warlock kit (this torso matches the original lead figure) along with a head, staff and pistol from the Corsairs Kill team. Some of the details from the psyker match the Warlock very closely – from the details on the helmet to the hand holding the staff/spear.

+++

Bubbling under, we have these gunners and support platforms. A bit undecided on how to approach these, I shall have a think...

+ inload: Alaitoc Eldar +

 + Visions of the past +

+ Refreshed by a visit to the Metalican Titan-forges, I've found myself on a bit of a hobby buzz at the moment, and have started afresh on some older projects. I'll look in some closer detail at these over the next few inloads, so today a simple overview. +

+++

+ Alaitoc Eldar +

A slow-burning project, my Alaitoc Craftworld Eldar [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] have received some love recently as I finally got my hands on the last few bits and bobs I needed for the next two Guardian squads. Coupled with that, my old Skumgrod Bob Hunk and I have been tinkering with some 2nd edition 40k gaming, so the fires are up.

The project as a whole is unapologetic wallowing in nostalgia for me, and a personal modelling and painting exercise rather than anything else. As with my Blood Angels, these are an homage to a particular studio army (WD138 this time), and the aim of the project is very similar: to answer the question, 'What would the army look like using modern materials?'

+ Resizing Dire Avengers +

As the Dire Avenger below demonstrates, the overall answer is 'not that different'. I've mentioned before how Jes Goodwin nailed the Eldar look and feel first time. The conversion work for my plastic Dire Avenger was centred around getting the older Dire Avenger kit to fit alongside the more recent releases. While subtle, the new Eldar gain some height through longer abdomens, and have broader and deeper chests than the older plastic kits (Guardians and Dire Avengers).

The retrohammer update

The original

I therefore took the new Guardian as the basis, using the combined torso and legs piece and back piece. These had the shoulder pads removed and replaced with the larger, pointier ones from the Dire Avenger kit. The other bits are either simple kitbashing or very minor trimming and fiddly bits, like the back targeter vane and taking the sights from an Avenger Catapult and popping it on the Guardian Shuriken Catapult. 

This last detail is worth noting: I've used the original (now very small) Shuriken Catapult on the Guardians, so decided to use the new Guardian Shuriken Catapult in place of the larger Avenger Catapult in order to minimise the apparent jump in size.

The result is a nice proof-of-concept, though I'm tempted to use the Dire Avenger arms for subsequent models, as they've got some additional forearm detail. The whole process reminded me a lot of what I try to do when 'truescaling' Space Marines, as my aim there is to end up with a model that doesn't draw attention, because it doesn't look like a conversion. My hope is that the Dire Avengers will fit in right alongside the rest of the army (which otherwise uses the new sculpts), and be a cohesive, coherent part of the army as a whole.

+++

+ Updating Guardian Close Combat Squad +

The first couple of these were polished off two years ago [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], but the squad is now finished. As elsewhere, I've tried to evoke the originals through parts choice and pose, but have made some slight changes to take advantage of the modern materials. 

The originals are lovely models, but being identical to the other Guardians, they've got the same rather braced, static poses. I decided I'd use the running poses from the new kit for this close combat squad, which helps distinguish them from the Guardian squad (with lasguns) and Guardian Battle squad (with shuriken catapults). 

This obviously changes the poses quite considerably, but I hope the choices I've made with the arms mean that the individual models are still recognisable one-on-one when shown alongside the inspiration. It's a tricky balance. There's homage, and then there's being slavish. I want enough freedom to change things for the better (or at least more to my personal taste) where I can. Otherwise, I might as well go proper oldhammer and just source the original models. A fun collecting endeavour in itself, but not what I'm after here.

Annoyingly, I remembered – after priming the first three – that I'd intended to trim the side vents on the helmets to give a slimmer profile and get closer to the originals, and so you can see how I've had to go back and scrape them off. The new members have since had their base texture added, and a coat of primer (Wraithbone) applied to the complete squad, so they're all ready for paint.

+++

+ inload: Steel Hammer of Legio Metalica +

+ Beachhead MMXXV +

+ If you've been inloading the recent datascreeds, you'll know that I've put all other hobby projects on hold to get a Titan maniple painted for Maximal Fire's annual Adeptus Titanicus tournament at Beachhead in Bournemouth. I was painting up to the deadline, but managed to take a complete maniple and accompanying themed markers down. This inload gives a very brief rundown on my experiences of my first tournament, and then we look at the models. +

+++

+ Beachhead 2025 in brief +

Not to bury the lede, I had a fantastic time. From gaming to socials to the overall event, if was really, really fun. I was a little apprehensive in going to a competitive event (my previous weekends have been narrative only), but I couldn't resist the siren call of the biggest Titanicus event in the world – and I was really pleased with how relaxed and friendly everything was. A very collegiate atmosphere with a mix of what were clearly old friends welcoming in newcomers like me; and all eased along by everyone being invited to bundle along for dinner and drinks at a pub round the corner – very much appreciated.

The event itself, smoothly run by Maximal Fire and sponsored by Battle Bling, took the form of five 1,950pt games. You can see the event pack here, if you'd like the nitty-gritty [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], but the take-away for me was how varied the forces were, and how little the expectations you might take from noospheric chat – 'tournament-pattern this', and 'such-and-such weapon is useless' – really applied to the stuff people brought. I half-expected to see the top tables populated purely with cookie-cutter lists, or very similar model choices, but things were very varied. Admittedly, I didn't scale the heady heights of the top tables – 13 was my highest placing, and with one win, one draw and three losses, I think I came 38th overall – but certainly my impression was that Adeptus Titanicus is a very varied game. 

So on top of all that, there was great prize support – lots of awesome trophies and cool prizes to be won, (including a Warbreaker Titan!) and little goodie bags provided by the organisers too. More on those in another inload.

Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend grabbing a ticket for next year – just leave one for me!

+++

+ Steel Hammer – Malleo Chalybis +

Princeps Kurtiz Mannheim – sometimes styled as 'Kurt Manneheim' in some Imperial records – was the commander of the Legio Metalica Titan Legion assigned to Armageddon during the Second War for Armageddon. 

Mannheim was obliged by his oath of loyalty to the Emperor to follow an insane order of the corrupt and incompetent Planetary Governor of Armageddon, Herman von Strab, to stem the onrushing tide of Waa-Ghazghkull, even though the Imperial forces would be outnumbered by more than three to one. 

Knowing it would be his final mission, Mannheim dressed in his best uniform, said goodbye to his wife and children and climbed aboard his Warlord Class Titan, Steel Hammer, with pride. 

[+Later Heroes of the Imperium, Vol MCMXX+] 

Themed around the Second War for Armageddon – and if you'd like to read more on that, check out The Ashes of Armageddon noospheric blognode – my M41-era Maniple sneaked into the Horus Heresy-era Beachhead games. I'd have felt a bit conflicted about this at a themed or narrative weekend, but as this was more of a pure gaming event, I laid my worries to rest. 

I've written at length in the previous inloads on how I've painted, so you can divert your optics and cerebromanifold to this noospheric flow-cascade if you'd like to dig deeper into how this Legio Metalica project has unfolded. Here, then, I'll just highlight a few little bits of the finished Titans that I thought you might like to see or that I'd like to wax lyrical about, and show the finished pieces as they appeared on the day.

+++

+ Battle Builder Nameplates +

I've added names to models before – long time inloaders will remember by formative Blood Angels from the 90s, and more recently my Blood Bowl team, Chaunterwick Unathletic, got Blackletter freehand names and positions on their bases – but generally I prefer to treat bases quite plainly, to help frame the models.

The monolithic and highly-revered nature of Titans, however, seems to deserve something more – and so I've used Battle Builder's [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] name plates for this maniple. If you haven't tried it out, go give it a spin – the interface is very intuitive and fun to use, and certainly helped me to avoid analysis paralysis: you can see immediately exactly how the nameplates are going to look on the bases. There's even a discount code for first-time users.

In painting these, I wanted to strike a balance between the names being clear to see, but not so eye-catching that the nameplates distract from the Titan itself. I opted for a gold frame, black field, and a (necessarily!) quick and simply reflective effect, which I thought was evocative of the design style of the 90s. This was achieved by painting the letters with Balor Brown, then painting the upper and lower quarters of each letter with Averland Sunset, then the very top and bottom with Mummy Robes (Bleached Bone/Ushabti Bone).

The result then clearly stands out from the base, but since it uses very similar colours as those of the base itself, it doesn't draw the eye too much.

+++

The little Steel Legion troops and pillar are included to give a sense of monumental scale to the Titan through visual contrast. The paint scheme is a simplified version of that used for my 40k scale Steel Legion – you can inload the datascreed here: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+].

+++

Considering how experimental and quick everything was, I was pleased with how the transfers, varnish and oils all worked together. I think all of these techniques and approaches have given a Titan maniple that both hangs together well, and doesn't look completely out of place alongside my other forces. 

The armour plates here are available from Battle Bling – you can read my thoughts on the Reaver equivalents here – and were designed by the mighty @argo_jasonm. 

Also of note in the above picture are the void shield generators, which are painted with my new favourite paint, Runelord brass, and then a touch of Nihilakh oxide to give a weird greeny glow. Very quick and simple.

+++

The Graviton Ruinator is based on the Armiger Gravity Pulsar from another third party designer/seller: Taro Model Maker. Very nice quality, and sufficient detail to work well on a big (albeit small scale) model like Steel Hammer.

Talking of armament, Steel Hammer benefitted from having very little existing information on him – the little blurb at the top detailing his Princeps' last command is pretty much all that exists. Except that Steel Hammer is a Warlord, there's no further info. What could have been unsatisfying for a retrohammer project like this actually proved to be a lifesaver. It allowed me complete freedom in terms of appearance and equipment, and from a gaming perspective, gave me a blank slate to load him out with guns to cover weaknesses left by the rest of the Maniple.

As things turned out, he was the only Titan of mine that survived all five games! I had lots of nice comments about the maniple, too.

As well as showing off the back view of Steel Hammer, I think this shot illustrates the dynamism of the pose. This is set off by the banners, which were made from the foil from a wine bottle capsule (and what more excuse do you need for a glass?)

+++

... and here he is in all his pomp and glory, ready to stride the stars and bring the wrath of the Emperor to the benighted fools that oppose Him-on-Terra.

While my gaming prowess proved lacklustre (and full credit to all my awesome opponents), Steel Hammer and the rest of my Iron Skulls maniple created stories, (mostly) survived to fight another day, and most importantly, was great fun to play with.

+++

+ Objective markers +

As well as sharing the finished pictures of the other Titans over the next few posts, I wanted to kick off with these objective markers I made for the event. The first picture represents the three markers you need for ‘Secure and Hold’ – doubtless critical materiel for the ongoing war.

The second picture shows an officer of the 7th Army alongside an Astropath and a Magos from Forgeworld Metalica – all critical personnel for the 'Defend and Extract' mission.

… and the final picture shows two Titan Hunting Infantry teams, so the Steel Legion can pop up and threaten any Gargants.

Thanks again to all the people I met, dined with and played against; it was an absolute pleasure from beginning to end, and thoroughly recommended.

Really reignited my passion for Titanicus, and I’m looking forward to sharing the Titans with you over the next few posts.

+++

+ inload: Oil dot filters +

+ Toll the Great Bell Twice! +

+ With push of button, fire the engine and spark turbine into life. +

+ Metalica walks. The sacred unguents have been applied and the necessary sacrifices offered up to the Machine Spirits of five Engines. Bar a few relatively quick details, the painting is all done, and it's time to start preparing for tabletop battle... +

 +++

+ [Insert heavy metal song pun here +]

+ Precision strike: cutting it close +

Two days to go, and as you can see above, the oils are on and drying. The nice thing about oils is their long working time. There's no rush, and no stress (well, no additional stress about timings!), so you can gently tick through the session, and find them perfectly workable at the end. I used a couple of techniques here: oil dot filters, and washes. 

The washes are done almost exactly as with acrylics: thin the paint down and apply with a brush. The main difference is that I suggest you use rather less oil paint than you would acrylic paint as they'll take much longer to dry. Oil dot filters, however, are a new technique to the blog, so here's the rundown:

+ Oil dot filters +

The purpose of this technique is to add interest and subtle variance to a flat area, creating a sense of scale and texture. The result is a little like a glaze, in that you are aiming to work over the area evenly (rather than to avoid/fill recesses, for example). It differs from a glaze in that you're not aiming for a flat colour, but rather a variegated result.

I started by squeezing out pea-sized amounts of burnt sienna, raw sienna, Winsor lemon, cadmium red, and lamp black oils onto a palette, then used an old split brush to stipple lots of small dots of the various colours over each Titan in turn. The paint was used neat, and the brush was dry. Rather than rinse it between colours, I simply wiped the excess away to keep the brush dry.

Once that was done, I swapped to a goat hair fan brush [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], as these are relatively cheap and sturdy. I loaded this with thinner (I used Sansodor [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]).

I then slowly and steadily drew the fan brush directly downwards over each panel in turn. This draws the oil paint downwards from each dot, softening and creating gentle streaks. At the bottom of the area, lift the brush away, wipe it on a cloth, and repeat until the effect is as you want it. The more brushstrokes you use, the more oils will be drawn away. The key is to work steadily and evenly, and always in one direction.

+ The finished result – compare this with the pre-oils version below. +

+ Strike to enlarge. +

+ Oil filter keynotes +

• Ventilate  Throw open a window. Odourless or not, solvents in the respiro-sacs aren't very good for you. 
• Cede control  When stippling, don't worry about an even effect or coverage. Slight variation across the surface looks more natural and pleasing. Likewise, having some dots containing more paint than others will give variety of tones in the streaks.
• Adapt  Remember that the Titan is not locked in the pose you've chosen, so look at the panel and decide on the direction before working straight down to the base. Rainfall and similar weathering will carry dirt and grease straight down whever possible, so consider where 'down' is likely to be for the majority of the time.
• Vary  You can also do oil filters in circles or more random directions to add interest to flat areas.

+++

+ The Maniple +

Here're a few hard-earned shots of the maniple as it currently stands:

+ Old Three Skulls +

+ Ferratus Tertius +

+ Fors Clavigera +

+ Praeterita Carnivorus +

+++

+ What next? +

I also worked a bit more on the nameplates from Obsidian Forge last night, too. Thinking more on it, I could have used oils... but given the time pressure, I decided to stick with my comfort zone of acrylics. These have been worked up with a combination of washes and drybrushing. I'd like to polish them up a little further, but as they're functional already, that'll depend on how the rest of the 'stretch goals' go.

 And to close, as I have the shots and haven't shared them, here's a close-up of the eye lenses on Steel Hammer (pre-oils in this shot)...

... and one of the back of the Titans, to show off how lovely and clean they were before I got stuck in with griming them up!