+ inload: Painting Legio Tempestus Stormlords +

+ Storm brewing +

+ [inloadfeedVAL={plans for a Legio Tempestus maniple, and some painting colour theory}//] +

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The PCRC are off to Warhammer World! In a few weeks! And I've decided to paint up a new Titanicus maniple!

...which means, after the initial excitement fades, I need to get planning and painting – gulp! 

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+ Theoretical: so why a new Maniple? +

Not that I ever need an excuse to paint more giant robots, but this Tempestus project has been bubbling away at the back of my mentat-unit for a while. In building the 40k-scale Scythian [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I've felt that my approach to painting might benefit from a little more planning and experimentation, and what better place to try things out than on a mini version of the Titan? 

Secondly, it'll help dig into the backlog of poor unpainted God-Engines spoiling for war; and thirdly it'll give me some Traitors to face off against my Metalica Titans [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] for classic 'red vs blue' games – ideal for anyone who wants to try out the game.

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+ A change is as good as a rest +

With that in mind, I want this maniple to have a notably different approach to the Metalica one. That was a Fortis maniple: heavy Titans that benefit from sticking together. This Tempestus maniple will be led by the models that are ready to paint, and I'll then work outwards from there to give the maniple an identity.

Because I tend to prefer simple, robust and reliable approaches, at the moment I'm considering either an Axiom or Precept maniple. Both have minor benefits to Command Rolls and/or Orders, which is easy to keep track of. Both also include a variety of Titan types for interest. 

With a fringe benefit of being easy for new players to understand (in case they're used for teaching games), I hope this maniple will also let me play around with some weapon loadouts based purely on 'rule of cool'. My Metalica Titans were an homage to the 90s studio ones featured in various battle reports, and so the weapon choices were dictated by the originals. Here I can just have fun with stuff that's dubiously effective, but awesome and leaning into the fun of Adeptus Titanicus.

With a Warlord, Warbringer Nemesis, Reaver and Warhound to play around with, this is a great opportunity to try fielding more of the newer weapons that weren't around in the initial release. I've had great fun with the graviton guns on my Metalica Engines, and think it'll be fun to try some newer stuff.

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+ Practical: Painting the Stormlords of Legio Tempestus +

The first on the blocks are a Warhound, Urtica Morifolia, and a Reaver, Faultfinder. These are testbeds for the Legio Tempestus scheme I'll be using on their bigger-scale brother, Scythian (time allowing there'll be a mini-me Scythian included in this group).

These were already primed black with the metals picked out, and I've established the blue with Prussian blue (I'm using Golden fluid acrylics for this basecoat).

'Proper' Prussian blue is a rich, deep inky blue that – unfortunately – doesn't show up very well on screen. It has the pigment code PB27, and has slightly greenish undertones. It's used in oils and watercolours where it's intensity, transparency and richness makes it great for glazing. 

In acrylics, however, it's usually use a hue (that is, a combination of other pigments that closely match the inspiration) made from phthalocyanine blue, because the pigment doesn't play well with the binder. That's the case with this Golden acrylics version, which uses: PBk9, PB15:0, and PV23 in combination. 

What does this mean? Well, all paints contain impurities – that's why mixing lots of colours together tends to result in mud. If you use paints that start with lots of pigments, there's more going on and it's harder to get clean, vibrant mixes as certain pigments start to overpower others or combine in unexpected ways. That's not normally a problem for everyday painting – particularly if you want a grimy, earthy feel – but I'd quite to to try getting a nice intense blue.

I'd usually add yellow to highlight Prussian blue in oils or watercolours because of its greenish undertone, but because the Golden acrylics version is a hue that contains a violet pigment (PV23), I think adding green will make things murky. 

Adding white will make it chalky and lose the transparency. The combination of pigments in the Golden acrylic Prussian blue means it's semi-transparent, rather than transparent... which means that it's not quite so good for glazing. This combination of things gives us a dilemma!

Fortunately, the nature of acrylics means that we can layer things cleanly, and that's the approach I'm experimenting with here. I'll leave the Prussian blue as a vivid underlayer and build up the blue gradually with 

Faultfinder here has Citadel's Macragge blue layered over the Prussian blue. Annoyingly, Citadel – like most miniature painting ranges – don't publish their pigment codes, so we're forced to rely on our eye. I think that Macragge blue is based on cobalt blue, which is a neutral (neither red-leaning and warm nor yellow-leaning and cool) blue. That means I can add pretty much any lighter-toned colour to tint it without muddying things. White is the safest option, but that will reduce its saturation, making it more of a pastel.

You can see in the pict-capture below the effect of one layer of thinned Macragge blue on the top part of the the rear panel (top left of the picture), and the untouched underlying Prussian blue on the lower part. It's a bit blotchy at the moment, so it'll need another layer or two of highlighting to get a smooth finish.

Once that's done, the plan is to go back over the whole area with glazes of Prussian blue to enrich the colour, knock back the chalkiness and bind the area together.

I can then varnish the area and apply any transfers, before re-varnishing and applying oils for weathering. 

+ Gaming +

Sharing the picture of a Warhound with a turbolaser and inferno gun raised some eyebrows from Omricon, but as these are magnetised, I'll be able to play around. At the moment I'm thinking pairing shield-stripping Swarmer Missiles with a Graviton Destructor would make Urtica Morifolia a versatile hunter. 

Both have a high long range (38in and 40in), meaning the Warhound can hang back to support the other Titans or dart in opportunistically. At closer range, the Swarmer has a negative modifier, but if it's getting that close the plan will be to push forward under the targets' shields and use the graviton to make things awkward. Crucially, neither weapon is draining, meaning the notoriously short Warhound reactor track can used for movement and shields.

I will probably pair Urtica with Faultfinder on the field, as the two Volcano cannon build is probably going to struggle to defend itself!

+ 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... +

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+ [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.

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+ 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 +

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+ 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!

+ inload: Red for the Iron Skulls +

+ Painting Titans red +

+ Thought for the day: Words of praise will never perish; nor a noble name. +

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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.

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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.

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+ 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.

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+ 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.

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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! +

+ inload: Legio Metalica plans and preparation +

+ Delving into the depths +

+ Onto the planning tables +

+ With the theme of a new Titan maniple in mind, I've been enjoying musing and planning. Key ideas for the project are:

• Cool poses
• Using Retrohammer schemes on modern models

+ The posing we've looked at in the previous couple of inloads, so today I'll focus on the research for the old paint schemes. +

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+ Planning a Maniple +

+ Battle Titans – Warlords, Warbringers and Reavers – are my jam. Now Adeptus Titanicus is at a mature stage, I'm coming round to Warhounds and Knights, but I definitely know that I want to field as many Battle Titans as I can fit into the 1,950 points limit for the Beachhead event. +

+ My research therefore started with looking up the old Titans.  I vaguely recalled a battle report having Reavers in. After a bit of noospheric scouring I stumbled upon this precious node [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] which links all the Epic articles from White Dwarf. +

+ Armed with this I could check out the articles, roam the noosphere and gather all the data I needed! +

+ The results +

+ This is the initial list, with the Titans drawn from battle reports in issues 179 and 184, plus the Warlord Old Three Skulls, featured heavily in the Space Marine 2nd edition launch, and Steel Hammer mentioned in the Second War for Armageddon background.  Here's a rundown:

+ Warlord 1 +

Steel Hammer – Malleo Chalybis 

• Free armament

+ No pict-capture of a model, therefore, for our gallant Princeps Senioris, but on the plus side, I've got completely free reign with Steel Hammer's armament. +

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+ Warlord 2 +

Old Three Skulls – Tricranium the Great 

• Gatling blaster
• Power Fist
• Volcano cannon and vortex missile

+ Tricranium the Great, or 'Old Three Skulls' to his mates, was the Titan used to advertise Space Marine 2nd edition (SM2). One of these came in the box; a reuse of the sprue from the first edition of Adeptus Titanicus (AT1). The studio paintjob – by Mike McVey, is lovely, and there's lots here to provide inspiration for a modern twist on things. +

+ In terms of armament, the arms are no problem: a macro-Gatling and Arioch Titan Power Fist Claw are perfect modern updates. The carapace, however, is a bit more problematic. Neither the Volcano cannon nor Vortex Missile is an option for Warlord carapace, so we'll be seeing Tricranium being fielded with something else – at the moment I'm leaning towards these old-school Apocalypse Missile Launchers for retro appeal. +

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+ The Reavers +

+ Four Metalica Reavers make an appearance in three different battle reports. The first was WD#160, where Mark Watts led a then-unnamed Titan, freshly-painted by Neil Hodgson of the 'Eavy Metal team, into battle in the Assault on Barbarius (against Richard Helliwell's Alaitoc Eldar, for the record). +

+ The second was WD179 in Inferno, the promotional battle report for Titan Legions, between Legio Metalica led by Jervis Johnson and Waaagh! Hargluck led by Andy Chambers. The same Reaver appears here, now accompanied by a pair of others (and the Imperator Cassus Belli). +

+ The three gain names:

+ ...and a fourth Reaver appears in WD184's Abomination!, a battle between Ian Pickstock's Imperial Guard and Gav Thorpe's Tyranids. Lots of lovely Knights and two Warhounds, too. +

+ The new Titan is on the top left-hand side; the three are referred to throughout as 'Ferratus Primus, Secundus and Tertius' – I won't copy the whole thing here, but here's a taste. +

+ For obvious reasons the battle reports re-used models as different characters in-universe, so happily I've got at least one potential name for all four Titans:

• Reaver 1: Clavigera/Ferratus Primus
• Vulcan Mega-bolter
• Chainfist
• Barrage Missile 

Clavigera/Ferratus Primus

+ Not an easy loadout to translate to the modern game. The Chainfist is straightforward, but the Barrage Missile Launcher no longer exists, and the Vulcan Megabolter isn't an option for Reaver arms (for some reason). Gatling blaster seems a simple change; and an Apocalypse Missile Launcher could work for the carapace. +

+ I might look at strategems or wargear to see if these can be updated – something that changes the way a Missile Launcher or Gatling Blaster behave in some way might explain things and offer a modelling opportunity. +

+ It's a shame that the modern Volkite Eradicator is carapace only, as this low-strength, shield-stripping, high rate of fire weapon would otherwise be a more creative way of updating things. +

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• Reaver 2: Carnivore/Ferratus Secundus
• Multi-launcher
• Turbo-laser
• Turbo-laser

Carnivore/Ferratus Secundus

+ By far the easiest to bring into the modern game; this is simply a case of using an Apocalypse Missile Launcher on the carapace and Laser Blasters on the arms. + 

+ Since there's not much to say on him otherwise, here's a good opportunity to talk about things common to all four: firstly, the banners, which provide some good inspiration for updating. Secondly, I've just noticed that the three Reavers painted later all have white heads – perhaps an intentional nod to the 'Iron Skulls' Legion name? +

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• Reaver 3: Castigator
• Turbo-laser
• Gatling blaster
• Warp Missile

Castigator

+ Annoyingly, the oldest Titan, Castigator, seems to be the trickiest to find good pict-captures of, though happily most of the details are there. From what we can gather in the White Dwarf, this model was painted first, and you can see that he's slightly different to the others – I suspect were painted in a group as they're so cohesive. Castigator has gold trim (unlike the others' gunmetal), and his head is red rather than white. +

+ It's worth noting that not only are details like this perfectly in keeping with the varied and heraldic nature of Titans, it's also all grist to the mill of inspiration. I want to evoke the idea of these models, rather than rivet-counting obsession. Let's face it, despite Adeptus Titanicus players tending towards the older side of the hobby, I very much doubt anyone will recognise my resulting models unprompted! +

+ Weapon-wise, Castigator is another easy fit in the modern game. All of his weapons are simple updates to the modern equivalents: Laser Blaster, Gatling Blaster and Warp Missile. +

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• Reaver 4: Ferratus Tertius
• Vulcan Mega-bolter
• Inferno gun
• Plasma cannon

Ferratus Tertius

+ Spoiler warning for a twenty-odd year old battle report, Poor Ferratus Tertius gets downed by a faceful of alien goo that pretty much melts his legs off! +

+ Weapons-wise, Ferratus Tertius is the most problematic of all: none of his weapons exist for Reavers in the modern game, so there are a few options. The heat-based Inferno gun could be reimagined as a Melta Cannon (also having the advantage of providing some much-needed finishing punch to the group); a conversion of this using parts from the new Warhound Melta Lance might be fun. The Vulcan Mega-bolter will have to be treated as for Clavigera at the top – and given the awkwardness of this, I think I might simply use the excuse to swap things out for something completely different and otherwise lacking to the Maniple in-game, like a volcano cannon. +

+ The Plasma cannon on the carapace no longer exists, but it does offer a great opportunity to swap in a modern weapon like the Graviton Destructor – something different would be fun, and the silhouette is evoactive of the bulbous plasma cannon... +

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