Thursday, January 30

+ inload: Varnish, transfers and acrylic paint +

+ Heraldry and battered metal boilerplates +


+ The casting of propitious runes and god-engineering stumbles onwards as the time creeps closer to the Beachhead deadline. Today's inload looks at transfers on Titans, including bimblings on varnish. +

+++

+ Titan Maniple +


They're getting there. Slowly but surely, every day brings completion that little bit closer. I just hope it's in time! One weekend and sixish evenings to go, and still plenty to do to get them as I want.

With that said, they're at least playable at this point, so let's push panic to one side and enjoy the last steps. This inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] has struck-through text to indicate which steps I've completed since then, and as you'll see it's mainly the banners left to go – though those will be finishing touches done after the oils washes are in place.


+ Transfers in place on the shoulder, ready to be softened in and integrated. +

+++

+ Adding transfers: theoretical +

I've used transfers here and there on different models and units, but generally prefer to freehand markings, as I enjoy the focus it brings me. For this project, however, I wanted to shake things up and try something new – and combining transfers and oils is something that I've rarely if ever done.

Having decided I was going to do it, I then needed to choose whether to use the iconographic or hyper-realist designs from the Metalica transfer sheet. I was really torn on this. On the one hand, the simpler icons seem more akin to practical markings to be used on an engine of war... but the more complex, detailed versions are more akin to devotional artworks that might appear on religious icons.

Since a Titan blurs these roles, I decided that it made sense to use the simpler stuff for more practical purposes: squadron marking and faction equivalents, which would be consistently placed lower down the Titans, so allies can quickly assess things in the fog of war. More complex, realistic artwork would be reserved for higher up the Titan, where such finery primarily serves decorative and heraldic purposes rather than practical ideas.


+++

+ Adding transfers: practical +

The process of getting transfers on is fairly simple:

_i +Preparation+  Paint your model to a finish you're happy with (e.g. highlighted and shaded).

_ii +Protect+  Apply a varnish – I used Winsor & Newton Professional spray varnish (matt finish) [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. Gloss is probably better for this stage, as it creates a smooth, glassy finish that means the transfers lie as flat as possible. However, I didn't want to splash out for a second can of varnish, and I want a matt finish eventually.

_iii  +Wetting+  Cut out the transfer (including the backing) and dip into the water pot. Let it get soaked, then place it on your palette while it loosens itself from the backing.

_iv  +Solution+  Use a brush to paint Microscale's Microset solution [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] over the area you want to apply the transfer.

_v +Placement+   Bring the transfer and backing up to the area, and use a clean damp brush to gently slide the transfer across into the correct position. Try to avoid any bubbles.

_vi +Patience+   Allow to dry thoroughly. The transfer will now be in position, but will look glossy and the edges will often be obvious.

+ Transfer in place after stage vi – note the reflection of the light, and the circular shape of the transparent backing. +

_vii +Repetition+   Apply a second coat of Microset, working outwards from the centre of the transfer, and leave to dry. The solution softens the transfer and helps it adhere to the surface.

_viii +Integration+   Once completely dry, use a clean brush to apply Microscale's Microsol solution [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] over the transfer. This partially dissolves the transfer, helping it to settle onto the surface and look painted on.

_ix +Sealing+   Once that's completely dry, apply a second coat of W&N spray varnish, and allow to dry to finish.

+++

+ All over bar the shouting +

That brings us to this stage (well, step 8), and as you can see, the transfers now look more settled in. Of note here is the effect that varnish has on the metallics – the matt sheen kills the reflectivity of the metallics. The result's not unpleasant, but it's worth bearing in mind if you've spent ages working on the metals. For these, they've deliberately been left as basecoats so that I can develop them later on.


It's worth noting that transfers and freehand painting aren't mutually exclusive, and nor are you restricted to the designs on the sheet. The example above is a very simple example of this – before the transfer on the left knee (right of picture) was applied, I painted on a yellow circle that would fit within the cog shape. Since part of the transfer is clear, the yellow shows through and looks like an integral part of the design.


Key to my plan is that the designs evoked (or even matched) the original inspiration – another reason why I went for the simpler, more iconic designs from the sheet for these parts.

 


For the larger areas on the Warlords – the big shoulder plates – I've instead gone for the more detailed versions. Still in two minds about the decision, but he who hesitates is lost, and all that. Steel Hammer, above, has this large Legio symbol on his shoulder, and a similar variant on the other side.


Old Three Skulls, being rather larger that the original, has received some additional nods to his name – a trifecta of skulls on the shoulder in the same arrangement as on the original's weapon banner, and three smaller yellow skulls running along the cockpit.

+++

+ Painting nameplates +

But it's not all transfers. I've also been doing some building and painting. First off, I built Fors Clavigera an alternative missile launcher to better evoke the Barrage Missile Launcher of the original.

The old models used the same weapons for carapace and arms (rather than having specific mounts for each), so as you can see below it's quite ungainly. I wanted to ensure it evoked the idea of the original, while having a similar feel to the other modern weapons.


I built it with a bits box dive. At the base is a magnetised Apocalypse Missile Launcher connector, so I can still swap it out if necessary. The mounting is from Battle Bling, and the larger parts are from the new Imperial Guard big artillery piece – one of the super-lascannons. This was trimmed down and carved into a shape to evoke the original. 

The upper armour is from a Reaver Power Fist – I cut the central part away and married them together, while the part with a cable near the front is a Reaver close combat weapon upper arm. Finally, the missile piece itself is a Leagues of Votann (new squats) piece, given to me by TrojanNinja (thanks!).


I sprayed and basecoated it, then popped it in place to see how it looked. You decide – does it look about right?


Elsewhere in the maniple, Praeterita Carnivorus (Carnivore to his friends) has had the armour and lenses of the cockpit painted, ready for oils and trim:


You'll also note here that I opted to add a yellow transfer rather than paint his groin completely yellow (as in the original). Just like the alterations to the carapace stripes, I thought this was a better, less distracting compromise between the original and the retrohammer remake.



And I also spent an enjoyable few minutes painting the chequers on Old Three Skulls' Power Claw:


This involved little more than thinned Scorched Brown paint, a fine-pointed brush, and time. I'm still in two minds on whether to continue the chequers over the 'knuckles' or not. What do you think?

+++

+ Painting nameplates +

I also started putting the base paint down on the nameplates. These are from Obsidian Forge [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], and will sit on the magnetised terminals that I made for the force, so it's easier for both me and the other players to track which Titan is which.

The first stages I've taken to paint them are:

_i  Apply a brown undercoat – this gives a nice warm undertone.
_ii  Stipple Balthazar gold over the whole surface. Make sure you get a nice thin coat over the whole surface, including in the recesses within the text.
_iii  Work Seraphim Sepia wash into the recesses, leaving large areas clear.

+ End of stage _III +

More to come soon!

Monday, January 20

+ inload: Metalica marches on +

+ Rifling through the databanks +

+ Making progress on the Titan maniple involved digging through some Retrohammer reference material to find some alternate angles on the Titans. Today's inload looks at challenges and opportunities of this approach. +


+++

+ Stripes are very in this season +

The work this weekend revolved largely around the white areas – shading them down and adding depth, then adding the freehand stripes. This is most obvious on Steel Hammer, as the warlord has the largest and most prominent areas of these. I'm very pleased with how these areas look, and I think this level of detail is (at last!) starting to bring the project together. 


In practical terms, the white areas were brought up to a level I was happy with using diluted Dawnstone (a pale grey) to provide the shading. When shading white, I try to remember not to take the shading tone too dark, and to restrict it to a smaller portion of the area than I would for (say) the red. That helps the area to remain nice and bright, which can then be emphasised with nearly pure white edge highlights. It's doubly important on areas that are white and black to keep the white above an overall mid-tone, or everything will blend in together.

+++

Painting stripes

Freehand stripes can seem a bit intimidating – it can be hard to visualise how broad the stripes will need to be; you need to consider how many you want to include, and how they'll fit in the space; and working them on curved or irregular areas adds further complication, as it's easy for the line to go for a wander if you're just going straight in with paint.

Using masking tape is one solution which ensures nice clean straight lines, but I was a bit concerned with how it would interact with the paint I'd used, weakened as it was by the use of flow enhancer.

+ Old Three Skulls flashing a bit of ankle. The red piping works quite nicely here – a fun touch from the original inspiration +

For these reasons, I decided I'd just work freehand. I used a sharp HB pencil to gently sketch in an outline. This let me ensure the width of the stripes would be consistent, that they ran across broken areas cleanly, and also let me preserve white areas I particularly liked.

These initial pencil marks were made very lightly. Once happy, I dabbed them with Blu-tak (a putty rubber would be a better choice, but adhesive putty is fine) to remove excess graphite, which can otherwise muddy the paint. Not really a problem with black, but good practice. It makes the marks less obvious, so if you do go a bit squiffy, the pencil marks don't stand out.

The stripes themselves are simply Contrast Black Legion. I'll come back to highlight them later, applying the opposite rule to the white above – i.e. only highlight to a midtone.

+++

+ Inadvertent launchblessing protocol +

It's traditional to smash a bottle of champagne on a new ship as it's launched, and presumably something similar is still maintained by the ritual-obsessed Adeptus Mechanicus.

Less traditional is sloshing a glass of brandy all over your half-painted maniple as the ironing board leaps out from ambush behind the door, but such was the fate of these Iron Skulls. 


This cued a few minutes of frantic cursing, mopping up and rinsing them under the tap. Thankfully very little damage seems apparent. Aside from some odd purple sediment on Old Three Skull's missile launcher, where the alcohol or subsequent tap water seems to have reactivated the wash, there doesn't seem to be much permanent effect. Praise be to the god of machines that the combination of washes, contrast paints and acrylics proved largely water-resistant.

(You'll be pleased to hear the brandy glass survived, even if the drink itself was wasted!)

+++

+ Yellow +

Back in the 90s, super bright saturated colours and jewel-like impact were all the rage, so it's fairly predictable that the bright red Titans would have some equally vibrant accent colours. While I've opted for ash waste desert rather than verdant Goblin Green bases (great for complementing red, but a retro step too far for my tastes), I did want to include some of the more notable elements, like Old Three Skulls' bright yellow-and-black chequered fist:

This was achieved with a yellow ochre (Balor Brown, I think) base – the strong coverage gives a clean base, and it's easy then to layer on the more transparent bright yellow (Yriel yellow, in this instance) to get a good result. Once dry, a glaze of burnt sienna (Mournfang brown) was added to create some shading.

I assembled the power claw without the built-in vulcan mega-bolter for a couple of reasons: it niggles me that it doesn't have an in-game effect, but more importantly, leaving it off gives you larger armour panels to paint, which is going to be critical if the chequerboard effect isn't just going to look confused. 


Even as-is, I'm a little apprehensive that the chequerboard effect isn't going to look great on such a visually confusing area. Neverthless, in for a penny, in for a pound. Amongst the best bits of taking inspiration from older models is the enjoyable challenge of translating details like this onto modern figures, often much more complex.


+++

+ Return to White Dwarf +

When pursuing Retrohammer projects, it's good to keep your reference to hand, and check it every once in a while. I've spotted various bits and bobs on these Titans that I've interpreted incorrectly, altered inadvertently, or simply miscoloured.


The other lesson is that you don't have to match things exactly. Projects like this are meant to be fun, after all, and you should feel entirely free to balance making things 'authentic' with making it look cool to you. I'll count it as a win if the overall concept is clear and the homage recognisable, so I won't lose sleep over a particular panel being subtly different. 

For example, the heads of the original Titans are not entirely clear to me, from the photographs. I can't decide whether they're meant to be grey, white, silver or a variety across the Titans. 

Here I've leaned into the lack of clarity and decided that I can mix and match. I like the idea of the Iron Skulls having metallic heads, but then I'm not so keen on silver metallic trim on silver metallic plates – which is what I suspect was the thinking of the studio painters, too. Perhaps the heads are white as that's the heraldic way of portraying silver?

+++


Claviger's carapace is an example of making assumptions – I was convinced it was black and white, and even sprayed it white with that in mind, as you can see in this inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. After checking, I realised it was red; the black and white a figment of my imagination, or an illusion caused by the shoulder pads. Fortunately I had a spare carapace, which I sprayed red.

+++

+ White Dwarf 184 battle report: Abomination! + 

If you do want to match things, then having lots of reference is handy. Anyone who's attempted to copy a colour scheme from a single picture will quickly realise the shortcomings of only having one angle visible. Fortunately, these Titans were used in battle reports over the years, so I dug into White Dwarf 184 to see if I could clear up a few  elements that were unclear to me.


This shot of Claviger gives a clearer view of the shoulder armour, and reveals that they're chevrons rather than just stripes.



Carnivore here can be seen to have a single chevron on his white pauldron, too. 


The carapace of Carnivore is an example of a change I've instated. Rather than a halved carapace with yellow and black striping, I've opted for a band of striping, which combines both white and yellow: a nod to the original model while updating it somewhat to the new scheme, which barely features yellow.


Shots like this are invaluable for generating ideas – I had no idea that the missile launcher had an Opus Machina on the side, for example. It's just not visible in any of the other shots.


Keen-eyed inloaders will spot that I've updated the right arm weapon from the standard gatling blaster to this Battle Bling variant, which I felt was closer to the vulcan mega-bolter of the original.

+++

To bring this rambling inload to a swift conclusion, things are motoring along. I'm going to aim to have the Titans themselves varnished and ready for oil washes by the end of this weekend – after that it'll be getting a bit dicey that they'll be dry for the event!
+++

Thursday, January 16

+ 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.

+++

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.

+++

Monday, January 13

+ 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.

+++

+ 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.

+++

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! +









Thursday, January 9

+ 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.
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