+ 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. +

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+ 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!

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+ 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.

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+ 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.

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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+].

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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.

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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?)

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... 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.

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+ 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.

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