+ inload: Age of Darkness +

+ Entering an Age of Darkness  +

+ Burn! +

+ Hobbying has been taking a back seat recently, so apologies for the break in astrotelepathic transmission. In getting back into the swing of things, I've been digging through my backlog. I always find that a better thing to do in the Spring, rather than at the start of the year – perhaps something to do with the better light. +

+ Anyway, on the horizon is a new boxed set for the Age of Darkness – or Horus Heresy setting. Lots of cool stuff that's hitting all the right retrohammer notes, like a sea of beakie space marines. In looking forward to that, I thought I'd dig through some of my work-in-progress Space Marine armies. +

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+ Sons of Simargi +

+ Probably the least likely to receive beakie reinforcements are my Death Guard, as they're made up of the gribbly (and awesome) Plague Marine sculpts. These have lurked since the start of the Covid pandemic – I hadn't really felt in the mood to remind myself of plague! – but it was good to go through and see that I'm a bit further along with them than I'd remembered. +

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+ Word Bearers + 

+ Definitely set mid-Horus Heresy, during the Battle for Calth, my Word Bearers likewise stalled mid-way through, though here that was due to the scheme being so similar to the Blood Angels I had been working on. I've been tempted to do a bit more red paint recently, so perhaps I'll dig through and start these up again. Oddly enough, I think the principle block is that they're a relatively small project – just ten or so marines and a Dreadnought. Too much for an evening, but not enough to be worth really dedicating myself to. +

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+ Salamanders +

+ With plans afoot amongst the Baraqu group for an Age of Darkness weekend over in Cambridge in September, I thought I'd see whether the muse would let me scratch an itch for Salamanders. The figure above is a loosely blocked-in tester for the army, which will use my trusty truescale marine tutorial [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] with a couple of modifications. +

+ For whatever reason, I've always had a vision of Salamanders as being slightly bulkier than other marines, and thought that using Heavy Intercessor legs might help suggest that. They'll require quite a lot of conversion and resculpting, and to that end, I thought I'd give casting a go. Hopefully I'll be able to share my findings here! +

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+ inload: Monumentalis – Warmaster Titan +

+ Warhorns +

+ What does every Titan Legion need? That's right, a Custodian Titan to bear the devotional bell and generally be awesome. I treated myself to a second-hand unbuilt Warmaster (a temptingly cheap bargain, as it had no Terminal), and wit hsome additional bits and bobs from Battle Bling [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], got started. +

+ I think basing is incredibly important in Adeptus Titanicus for two key reasons. Firstly, the Titan bases are enormous, and it looks really strange if they're just a flat, uniform texture and colour. Secondly, it's the easiest place to establish a visual scale – that is, you make the Titan look appropriately large by putting small things on the base. +

+ Here, I started by gluing a square of cardboard on one side to act as the pediment of a building. Big skyscrapers rarely rest directly on the surrounding ground, but on their own base. A little border or mount goes a long way to integrating a ruin like this (taken from my dwindling supply of Epic: 40,000 terrain). Once the glue had dried, I used a pair of scissors to trim the excess flush with the top of the base, then repeated the process to make a tiered step. When doing this, I find it helpful to think about the practicalities of scale. Steps that are taller than a human aren't going to be very practical for the inhabitants of the city. +

+ You'll also note the stone formation. I wanted to add some elevation to the base, as this helps with dynamics. I particularly wanted this Titan to be stepping down. The stone formation is simply two small pieces of foraged slate glued together. To help sell the scale, I've integrated them together with textural gel and sand, but left some areas bare. +

+ One key thing that often gets left off Epic-scale ruins is flooring. A little bit of cardboard – like this business card – goes a long way to fixing that.  This is simply glued in place, and a couple of extra bits added on top. Rubble is suggested by some sprue offcuts. +

+ Next I needed to put the Titan on! I started from the feet and worked upwards, dry-fitting repeatedly to ensure I got the pose I wanted. Few things in the hobby are more disheartening than realising you've glued an expensive model together in an awkward-looking pose. +

+ Monumentalis +

+ And talking of awkward poses... while I'm very happy with the overall look, the extreme positioning I'd done with the pistons meant that the smaller armour plates don't fit. [SCRAPSHUNTERRORABORT] +

+ With my other Titans, I'd dry-fitted the armour to avoid exactly this. Here, I'd decided to try some experimentation on painting and assembling. One part of this was the decision to spray the armour separately, to save myself some time later. Unfortunately, as I was under some time pressure, that meant the paint was drying while I was building. +

+ The result isn't disastrous, but I am going to have to go back and make some minor adjustments – frustrating, particularly as we're talking fractions of millimetres here! +

+ On the positive side, the Warmaster Custodiwn already looks the business in bright yellow, and the time I lose on the feet should be made up by the time saved on painting. +

+ In closing, what a glorious kit! As with the others in the range, the Warmaster is a stunningly well-engineered model. +

+ Pictured alongside a Reaver, the Warmaster's physical size is really something +

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