+ inload: Updating models +

+ inload: Profugon Iratus gets a refit +

+ 'Done is better than perfect' is a phrase I trot out every so often – hackneyed or not, I think there's a lot of truth in getting models completed rather than hemming and hawwing about the last touches. Doing your best is definitely admirable, but not if it's getting in the way of a sense of satisfaction in a job well done. This is particularly apposite for miniatures in acrylics, as the medium's perfect to come back and update to update, tweak, improve or fix. +

+ Profugon Iratus back in the workshop +

And that's exactly what I've done here, replacing an old conversion with a 3D printed part. I was in two minds about the conversion – a combination of a Warlord head top with the bottom of a 40-scale Knight:

The new part is a 3D print of a classic Reaver head that GW have clearly lost the STC for. With a new Reaver kit now out, complete with a new plastic head, I was hoping to see their take on the classic long-snouted look, but – alas – it's another minor variant on the existing ones.

Fortunately the community have come to the rescue, with a series of beautiful variants that have been variously available from Cults3D, Battle Bling and currently, Vanguard Miniatures [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. This particular version, with the wonderfully over-the-top chainsaw face close combat attachment, is called the 'Champion'.

I've been painting this up while waiting for washes to dry on my Tempestus Maniple – I find the relief of actually completing something really helps when you're stuck into a long slog.

The scheme is that of the Vigilants (Legio Maximal) the pet Legio of the Maximal Fire team. The Titan was painted up as support for my Salamanders at one of their events, which detailed the battle for Nabed-Paleae, their Legio homeworld. I thought it would be a shame for there to be no Titans from the Legio involved, so wanted to paint one up for theme. 

The white and orange scheme with black banners denotes he's (probably) a Loyalist – the Traitor contingent has orange and black armour, with white banners.

Once dry, I simply popped off the old head and glued the new one in place:

... and he's all ready to walk in the service of the Emperor. Little updates like this can make all the difference. While I was pleased with the paintjob on the original, since these conversion bits have become available, I've been tempted to replace my conversion with one. The conversion was my version of the original – but I think the 3D sculpt beats mine into a cocked hat.

+++

Here are some more glamour shots of the finished model. The variant armour is by the multi-talented (and very nice chap) @argo_jasonm, who you can – and should! – follow on Instagram.

+ inload: Corsair Gambit part III +

+ The Corsair Gambit part III + 

+ I've had a very busy and very enjoyable few days of gaming, hanging out with friends old and new. Saturday was spent with Baraqu droog @seneschal_werhner at Maximal Fire's The Corsair Gambit event for some Epic: Legions Imperialis fighting; and Sunday and Monday was with the PCRC, including a 2nd ed. 40k game. I'll froth about the latter game in another inload, so here's a very quick overview of how the Corsair Gambit played out. +

+++

+ Salamanders and Legio Maximal +

As you can see below, I did manage to get everything painted up in time (hooray), though not quite as polished as I'd have liked (boo). 

The event itself was brilliant. Two games over the course of the day was a good shout for 3,000pts. Epic: Legions is an old-school game that rewards time spent on it: the rules are too byzantine to crash through three games easily, and there's the very practical aspect of moving models from one board to another. To put this in context, at Beachhead, I had five Titans and their terminals to move between games. Here, I had upwards of a hundred, and that's with a sixth of the army taken up in a hefty Warlord Titan.

I also had the good luck to spend time with two great and gentlemanly generals, who made the gaming really enjoyable. Please excuse the lack of pict-captures – there was already a lot going on, and I wanted to focus on enjoying the games!  

First up was Grant's lovely Dark/True Mechanicum, which were supported by a Warlord and Reaver:

The mission involved capturing three objectives, one of which was removed each turn. This shot, from the Mechanicum's table side, shows the end of turn 1, I think. I'd managed to get a foothold on all three objectives, largely thanks to the manoeuverability of the Space Marines.

There was a good mix of forces at the event, with all three big forces (Marines, Guard and Mechanicum) appearing on both sides, along with a healthy sprinkling of Titans and aircraft. 3,000pts really lets the visual side of the game shine, particularly since everyone had really pulled out all the stops to make some great-looking armies.

The Warlord, Consequens Indevitatus, was downed in this game on turn 1 without firing a shot – to our mutual amusement – which gave me an uphill battle. It turned into a real back-and-forth struggle, with the speed of the marines allowing me to adapt to the changing battlefield; while Grant's ponderous Mechanicum were unable to put their (substantial!) power where they needed to be, as the objectives thinned out.

The game ended up being decided on secondary objectives, and was a narrow squeak for the loyal Salamanders. A very fun game indeed, and a great army and opponent to face.

+++

Game 2 involved the Salamanders surrounding and attempting to capture three central objectives, while the Imperial Army held them off. Commanding the traitors was @Tetsugakhan (go check out his awesome painting).

This was a bloodbath from the beginning, with huge damage done to both sides from turn 1. Solar Auxilia have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and the sheer number of superheavy tanks and artillery was daunting to face. 

The variety in this army made it great fun to play against, with a real feel of combined arms. As with Dark Mechanicum, I'd never played against Solar Auxilia, and they were a treat to fight against. Events like this give me a great opportunity to actually play games, and so it's lovely when you get to play cool new armies against cool people on cool tables.

This shot sums up the visual appeal of Epic: Legions for me – tanks, troops, titans and aircraft all in concert. You'll be pleased to hear that Consequens Indevitatus gave a bit of a better account of himself in this game, contributing to clearing out the central bastions, and surviving everything Tetsugakhan's air wing could throw at him!

This game ended in an honorable draw owing to time, with both sides exhausted!

+++

A really enjoyable event, so thanks to Johnny and Alex from Maximal Fire for organising it, and to all the players involved. The narrative ends with Nabed-Paleae falling to the traitors... so we'll see what the future holds for the Vigilants!

+ inload: Legio Maximal background and the Warlord Titan 'Consequens Indevitatus' +

+ The Wages of Sin +

+ In which we look at a Lucius-pattern Warlord Titan, scribble down some notes on Legio Maximal, and consider whether to fight Eldar or Orks first. +

+++

+ Who are the Legio Maximal? +

The Vigilants (Legio Maximal) are the brainchild of the Adeptus Titanicus and Legions Imperialis podcast Maximal Fire – hence the name – who ran a contest to explore the background of their Titan Legion, and their surrounding domain. My entry seemed to catch their imagination, and I was lucky enough to win a lovely pile of loot! 

A YouTube video on the background for the Vigilants, or Legio Maximal, can be found on the Maximal Fire Podcast channel in this vid-link [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] (go subscribe!), but if you prefer written content, here's the text:

+ inload: Legions Imperialis Corsair Gambit painting +

+ Drake Hunters – 5th Company Salamanders +

'The 5th has a reputation of destroying large enemy constructs and alien horrors. Its members specialize in slaying the salamander drakes of Nocturne. As a Reserve Company, they rarely fight together but instead are used to reinforce other companies during campaigns. In battle, they favor acting as mobile weapons platforms instead of static defense and use a large amount of Dreadnoughts. They also make extensive use of attack craft and heavy gunships.'

– Codex supplement: Salamanders

***

One of the great appeals of Epic-scale gaming is that you can easily make armies that feel like armies, throwing whole companies into the conflict. If you're into the pseudo-historical side, there's a lot of fun and creativity possible in designing colours or markings or campaign banners that fit well into the established material. 

Codex: Armageddon [refcapture={ABOVE}] has a few variants and ideas in yellow, while this artwork shows a yellowy-orange pauldron for the 5th. In the post-Primaris landscape, the 5th Company is a definite orange, rather than yellow with orange shadows, but that's part of the fun of painting your own models – you get to choose.

The Salamanders don't have anywhere near the amount of background lore and artwork as the 'Big Chapters', but there's still a huge amount from which to draw inspiration. With that said, if you want to be really strict and 'rivet-countery', I think the Salamanders aren't a great place to start, with lots of retcons, overlooked details and contradictory information. 

As I've noted in earlier inloads, I think regarding the lore as 'true for a certain period of time' is about as good as you'll get. Of course, that also makes them a great place to start being creative!

+++

As you can see, I've painted these marines to have yellow pauldrons with black Legion/Chapter icons. Having different markings on these figures to the rest of the army (which are green with black as a secondary and white details) is very useful from a practical point of view – it's easier for everyone involved to distinguish formations from one another, and is also more interesting for me to paint, keeping me engaged. 

The Epic scale makes it easy to handwave a great deal of otherwise curious wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff and allow these figures topull double duty for both HH-era and Armageddon-era gaming; but I still find it fun to make something that'll fit neatly in both – after all, this is a collaborative hobby, so I want to make sure that those who lean harder into the 'historical' side of Legions Imperialis/Epic aren't too offended. 

It's partially for that reason that I picked yellow as the heraldry colour. It's got precedent in both HH and 40k eras as an accent colour, and helps to make the base green pop. 

+++

+ Roll call +

What have we got here? I had sufficient models to put together 9 Tactical stands (by drafting in sergeants, the odd veteran and squad banner bearers, you can have five on each stand and still stretch it), 2 Plasma Support squads and 2 Missile Support squads.  Besides that, I put together a Command stand, too, with a converted banner bearer and a Terminator Sergeant standing in for the Officer. I like a bit of variety in the HQ models.

I think it's important to remember that these are 8mm models, and meant to be fielded en masse. Detail and precision aren't necessarily your friends here, as they'll stretch the time needed to get your forces on the board. Sometimes, 'fair and finished' is the goal, rather than jewel-like individuality.

As an example of what I mean, looking at a stand chosen at random reveals the hideous daubings importance of abstraction at this scale. I think the freehand Salamanders symbols on the pauldrons do a pretty good job of evoking the drake's head Legion icons, and when seen at actual size, the effect is fair. Nevertheless, they're far from perfect. Where you decide you want to strike the balance is worth thinking about in your plan... just don't let your aspirations stop you from getting started.

+++

+ What's next? +

These infantry mark the last in the list for this coming weekend; fittingly the reserve company being used to expand and plug gaps in the line of battle.

That leaves the vehicles to polish up and the Warlord to paint. I'm feeling quietly confident about this, as the tanks are nearly there. They'd be fine to field as-is, but I think an evening's spit and polish will do wonders to bring a sparkle to the battlefield.

To do, then:

• 6 Land Raiders
• 6 (well, 7, as there's an extra) Land Speeders
• 4 Rhinos
• 2 Kratos (Kratoi?)
• 3 Predators
• 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts

... which sounds like I lot, but as you can see, isn't too arduous:

These have all been basecoated, washed, had the blacks and metals picked out, and basically need the decorative metallics (the bronzes) added, along with the tracks and markings. Should – cross fingers – be relatively quick.

Which leaves the elephant in the room, Consequens Indevitatus, Warlord Titan of the Vigilants. The base, thank the good Lord, is done; and the metallics laid down. 

It's now whether I can make a good stab at painting the rest of it over the course of two evenings, while also not falling asleep at the event!

But is it an event if it's not a caffeine-fuelled-late-night-painting-the-day-before-deployment event?

+++

+ inload: Salamanders reinforcements for The Corsair Gambit III +

+ Combat Strategy +

+ Salamanders reinforcements for The Corsair Gambit III +

+ Another Epic-scale campaign event is coming up – the closing part of Maximal Fire's Corsair Gambit. You can get a ticket here [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], if you fancy joining in. Having taken the Salamanders to the first two, I wanted to be there in the closing stages, too. +

+ Into the Fires of Battle! +

+++

+ Plans and preparation +

The event pack notes that the game size has increased to 3,000pts, so I've got some building and painting to do – though in a pinch I have plenty of Epic Ultramarines and various Titans that can fill in some space, so the pressure is off. Nevertheless, I'd like to have a nice cohesive army, and it'd be good to round off the Salamanders and apply some of the lessons I learned at the previous events. 

You can pick up on the previous panic-painting sessions here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], if you're interested in what the rest of the army looks like.

Long-time inloaders will know I like to build campaign-specific stuff for events like this, and since the fighting is taking place on the forgethrone of Legio Maximal, Nabed-Paleae, I'm planning to take a Warlord Titan. The points restrictions for allies (no more than 30%) mean that I'll have to replace Profugon Iratus, the Reaver who spearheaded the previous campaigns, but I do want to make sure that there's at least one Titan from the Legio there, fighting for its homeworld.

+++

+ Salamanders +

While a Warlord Titan will gobble up a significant amount of points (and also help to keep the number of Detachments/Formations down to help with game speed), I've also got some new Space Marines to paint. This is a mix of infantry and armour:

I think Epic-scale games looks best when there's a combined arms approach, with a range of everything from infantry, armour, aircraft and War Engines involved. Happily, GW's new FAQ for Legions Imperialis has addressed quite a few of the bits I disliked about the base ruleset, and has gone some way to rein in the strength and flexibility of infantry.

Nevertheless, what Space Marine army doesn't have lots of Space Marines? I had some Marines left on-sprue from previous events, so it's time for their time in the sun – and guilt-free, as they'll now behave more reasonably than their super-speedy previous incarnation. On the blocks are:

• 8 stands of Tactical Marines
• 2 stands of Plasma Support Marines
• 2 stands of Missile Support Marines
• 2 Command stands.

These won't add up to a huge amount of points, but will allow me to bulk up Detachments and give my marines some real sticking power around objectives. The Salamanders Legion special rule makes them very resilient morale-wise, and this will combine well with the Demi-Company Formation special rule, which makes supporting non-infantry better at supporting them when capturing objectives.

As you can see above, I have created a monstrous 'painting sprue' to hold the marines while I spray and paint them. To do this, simply snip off the extraneous supports, trim those below, and glue it to the remaining sprue so the models stand upright, in a consistent orientation. The two-part missile marines and plasma marines, some of which are oriented differently to the Tacticals, are cut off individually and superglued straight to the bit at the front of the painting sprue.

Once in position, you can prime with brown (I use Colour Forge's Hyrax Brown), then do a zenithal spray of Salamander Green – that is, keep the sprue at a consistent angle, and spray downwards onto the models, so the brown remains visible in the lower recesses.

The same zenithal spraying approach was taken for the vehicles, though since they're considerably larger, I also turned them upside-down and gave them a quick spritz with a darker green to suggest reflected environmental light. The additional armour units are:

• 6 Land Raiders
• 3 Predators
• 2 Kratos
• 5 Land Speeders
• ... and 4 Rhinos, which don't currently have a place in the list, but are on standby to fill in space.

The Kratos are that rare thing in my army – a unit that doesn't have any place in previous editions of the game, and are included slightly begrudgingly as the only Heavy Armour choice currently available to Marines. With that said, I like the models a lot more now I have them in hand, even if they do have the weird half-visible tracks that I find so odd about the newer Marine Armour (Sicarans likewise flashing a bit of thigh).

In terms of armament, I've picked one of each Kratos main gun – primarily to try each one out. These will be Command Tanks, and if time allows, I'd like to go to town on these a little bit with markings and freehand. The Predator squadron is armed with lascannon turrets and heavy bolter sponsons as a bit of a change from the others, which have the old-school autocannon turrets and lascannon sponsons.

+++

+ A minor rant on list-building +

You'll spot that I've got 'spare' Rhinos that may or may not make the list, and that's because I can't bring myself to write a formal list just yet. I find army building in Legions Imperialis a chore. There's loads of fiddly technical hoops to jump through – 'you must have X'; 'you can't have Y'; 'you're only allowed 30%' – but they don't really do much to rein in abuse, as the stories of LI tournaments attests, with armies made of hundreds of Missile Support Marines, Dreadnoughts and Warmaster Titans, with a scant few stands of Tactical Marines to make it legal.

Secondly, the divided nature of the army list across loads of books makes experimenting with lists more awkward; and then there are odd decisions of iconic units like Whirlwinds and Vindicators still not being out, or the Land Raider, the Space Marines' battle tank for forty years inexplicably being made into a Transport...

Oof. All exhausting, and another unnecessary bit of 'mental friction' that prevents people from picking up what is at root a very simple and fun game.

+++

+ Painting +

Once dry, I started painting both infantry and vehicles using the technique outlined in this inload: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. They're ticking over nicely, but I think I'll have to pick up the pace a bit to get them all up to scratch in time for the event. 

Of course, this is where future-proofing comes in handy, because I've got a pile of bases ready and waiting from the last big batch of Epic Salamanders I did – once the marines and Land Speeders are painted, it'll just be a case of gluing them in place.

Speaking of the Land Speeders, the squadron needs a sixth member – en route from the piractical forge-moons of eBay – and because the only ones I can find are pairs, I'll end up with six with the flamer and multimelta option.

It may be objectively worse than the plasma and heavy bolter variant, but who cares when I can indulge the pyromaniacal desires of my mean green Space Marines?

+++

+ What else is new? +

As you'll see below, there are some 32mm Salamanders awaiting a bit of painterly love.

Oh, and this...

+ inload: Personalising your Titans +

+ Tinctures and markings – adding detail to your Titans +

+ Profugon Iratus looms protectively over a supporting Salamanders detachment during the . +

+ The scheme and method I used for this Reaver are detailed in an earlier inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], but I hadn't had a chance to post up the Titan with the details and markings in place – so I thought I'd gather some thoughts on how to detail your Titans. +

+++

+ Theoretical: Why personalise your Titan? +

+ Titans have a will and personality of their own. The character and identity of each War Engine is unique, and is informed and shaped by the actions in which it walks; the Princeps that direct it; and the Legio to which it belongs. +

+ One of the Mysteries of the Adeptus Mechanicus states: 'The Soulless Sentience is the Enemy of All' – a half-understood lesson passed down by rote since the Age of Strife, when Abominable Intelligence nearly wiped out humanity. It is because they are invested with a sentience of their own that Titans are unlike mechs and similar giant robots in most other  sci-fi properties. No mere vehicles, the War Engines of the Collegia Titanicus are beings with a drive and character of their own. It's good to reflect that in your models. +

What's a Titan without a history and a name? Just a bit mound of metal.

+ Titans are individuals, and deserve some extra time and effort to reflect their nature. This is a key part of to their appeal to the painter and modeller. Quite aside from anything else, you'll only have half a dozen or so in your whole force, so you really can go to town and make a character out of each of them. +

+ Nameplates +

+ A nameplate helps to establish your Titan's legend. It provides insight into your Titan's background and makes it less anonymous to viewers. There are a few different places you can buy them, but I've always been slightly apprehensive about spending money on one only to find it doesn't quite look how I wanted. +

+ Alex and Johnny at Maximal Fire put me onto BattleBuilder, (battlebuilder.net) which launches today. The neat things about this option is that it lets you get things just as you picture them – it's got a live visualiser, so you can play about with fonts and styles, change the size of the base and look at it from different angles 'til you find the one that's right for you. + 

+ I'll be posting more about it in its own article – but suffice to say that I'm looking forward to adding a plate to Profugon Iratus – just as soon as I can make a final decision on style! +

+++

+ Practical: How to personalise your Titan +

+ The Titan Legion you've chosen will inform how you plan things. Nearly all Titan Legions have bold heraldic scheme. (If you'd like some general guidance, I've written about planning heraldic colour schemes before in this inload). Your details need to stand out, without covering things completely or muddling the overall impression. +

+ How much to paint? +

+ To ensure things don't get too fussy, I recommend that you leave between three-quarters and two-thirds of the base scheme showing – that is, leave a number of plates in the main colours of your Legio. If you've used parts with sculpted detail (like the kneepad of the yellow Legio Validus engine below), then count these amongst the detailed ones. +

+ Legio Validus engine on the left, Legio Maximal on the right +

+ Where to add the markings? +

+ Once you've decided how many plates to personalise, the next step is to decide which plates you want to add the markings to. Find a balance between in-universe narrative and on-table impact. These markings are there to boast of the Titan's prowess and individual history, so primarily need to be visible to the enemy – and as Titan Legions tend to regard their only equals to be other Engines, your Titan's most prominent markings should be at eye level to other Titans. +

+ There are, of course, exceptions. Your Legio may want to inspire their supporting infantry, for example, and so favour markings visible on the chestplate and lower legs – see above for what a Titan looks like to supporting forces. Generally, however, I'd suggest that you have the boldest markings on and around the carapace, as these are most visible to you and the other player during games, and to viewers when they are on display. +

+ Rear view – no markings; just the Legion's colours for easy identificaton by allies. +

+ Front view – the Titan's history and reputation laid bare for all to witness. +

+++

+ What medium to use? +

+ Two main avenues are open to you:(decals) and freehand painting. You can use a combination of these, but try to ensure visual harmony. It'll look odd to have super finely-detailed transfers with relatively blocky freehand, so unless you are very confident with your draughtsmanship, I'd suggest combining freehand only with bold geometric transfers, rather than the very fine ones available from GW and third party suppliers. +

+ I can thoroughly recommend transfers – both the official ones and third-party transfers are available, and the fine detail really helps sell the scale. They're also quick to apply and, being mass-produced, will provide great uniformity across a Maniple. +

+ If, however, you are hesitant about freehand, I'd thoroughly encourage you to give it a go. It doesn't have to be intricate or complex – straight lines are a great place to start, and if you're afraid even of these, then consider using low-tack masking tape to help guide you. +

+ The other advantage of freehand, of course, is that your imagination is the limit. This approach is ideal for creating a Titan Legion of your own. +

+++

+ Let's give it a go – bringing Profugon Iratus of the Legio Maximal to life +

+ This Titan belongs to the Legio Maximal. Here's the video on the Maximal Fire Youtube channel:

+ As noted here, the lore didn't include any mention of the colours, so after a bit of consultation with Maximal Fire's Alex (@peakethepainter) and with some excellent ideas and advice on @no_games_no_glory I adopted the orange and white of the website as the main heraldry. +

+ Black is used for the banners – and if you wanted to paint up a Traitor Engine from the Legio Maximal, you might try orange and black as the main tinctures, with white banners. +

+ As a base scheme, I used Grey Seer highlighted up to white, and Trollslayer Orange – but this is far from definitive. @no_games_no_glory suggested the following, which also looks great:

Primed- Colourforge Bone

Basecoat- Vallejo Rotten White fading into Vallejo Ghost Grey

The flames were-

GW- Mephison Red, fading into Vallejo Lava Orange and then into Two Thin Coats Yellow Flame. 

Trim

Base- Scale 75 Black Metal 

Highlight- Scale 75 Thrash Metal

+++

+ Now for the markings +

+ With the base scheme in place, we turn to decide on the markings. These can be split into two categories: patterns and icons. The former are things like chequerboards, dags, and so forth; the latter simplified shapes – everything from eyes to tridents to flaming swords. Both can inform the themes you choose to bring in. +

+ Most Legios have established common patterns – star charts, chequers, hexes, webbing etc. Where you don't have these provided, turn to the lore for inspiration. +

+ The Legio Maximal's Low Gothic name is 'the Vigilants', referencing their widely-spread nature and responsiveness across a large area. Speed and watchfulness are thus key themes. +

The half-chequers on the right-hand side of the head are done simply by drawing small tessallating right-angled triangles.

+ Patterning: Speed can be reflected through the use of zig-zags – which also nicely nod to Maximal Fire's new logo. Stripes would also fit in nicely. +

+ Icons: Traditional heraldry will often help you find something a bit more exciting than tired old Eyes and Eagles, so use reference where you can. This noospheric node [+noosphericexlaodlink embedded+] is a good place to start, for example. Browse or search for the quality you want to reflect. +

+++

+ Patterns +

+ The shoulder pad on the left-hand side of this picture shows a zig-zag break made with simple straight lines. +

+ The same principle is used on the kneepad here. For variation, you might swap the colours or direction of the pattern. Note also the repeated striping on the side of the carapace, where the zig-zagging is double. You might extend the pattern across the whole of a larger plate. +

+ Don't look on the trim as a restriction. Broken patterns – that is, where the overall shapes crosses a bit of trim – are possible, and help to ensure the Titan doesn't look too 'bitty'. The groin plate is a good example of this practise. +

+++

+ Freehand +

+ Returning to the carapace, you'll see a large freehand hare in the centre of the carapace. Having a single strong icon as a focal point can be striking. You'll also note a geometric shape (circle) with simple cutlass icon on the right-hand side. +

+ Why a hare? Not the most obviously vicious animal, but all the more notable for that. Hares have a traditional heraldic meanings of intelligence in warfare, and are also familiar for their speed and watchfulness – thus well-suited to the Legio's background. You could do something more  +

+ The cutlass, meanwhile, is a visual nod to the Corsair Cluster – the Legio Maximal's domain and area of responsibility. +

+++

+ Freehand text also falls under this category. You might choose to record a particular campaign, the name of a notable (or current) Princeps, or, as in this example, the name of the Legio's Forgethrone, Nabed-Paleae. +

+ Try different fonts for this – black letter or other serif fonts can be fun to try. +

+++

+ Banners +

+ There's an article on making your own banners on its way, but they are another fun opportunity for you to add some flavour. These – I  confess – were rather rushed, but the principles at play are worth highlighting. +

+ Here you can see the basic idea: a simple larger icon at the top, over a smaller split area that contains patterns or small icons. +

+ The banner between the legs represents the Titan itself, and contains the Titan's name – rendered abstractly, with dots and lines – below a lighthouse icon. Below the name band is the cutlass icon again – this time in white on black; and a series of dots on the right. This might indicate kill-count, or perhaps campaigns in which it's served. +

+ Weapons sometimes have Moderati banners, detailing the feats of the individual master of the weapon. These are smaller, and generally suit a simpler approach. +

+++

+ Personality and finishing touches +

+ It is intimidating to paint the first Titan of a new Maniple (or Legio!), but as you can see here, the process is easily broken down into manageable chunks. +

+ If you're struggling for inspiration on things like icons, the Titan's name can provide a starting point. It's also an opportunity to add a final finishing touch to your model – after which your Titan can start building its legend! +

+ This last point is why nameplates are a good idea for gaming. They remind you that you're aiming to tell a story with another player – so having the names right in front of you is a friendly way to help you both do so. Consider which is more immersive – 'Profugon Iratus targets the Dread Hellespontion with its turbo-laser' or 'My Reaver shoots its turbo-laser at your Warbringer'? +

+ Go Big, Go Loud, and Go Maximal! +