State of the desk; Mortalis, Dark Mech, Stormtroopers, Apocalypse

So the desk this week has had a nice tidy after a busy couple of days,

First things first, Mortalis. This was a real “I'm not sure what to paint next. Let’s paint that”, moment. There have been some ridiculously nice colour schemes for Mortalis. See here for the eventual aim (landing bay).

I went the route that suited me best. I wanted dirty, rusted and oiled, but with some semblance of unity. Black and silver looks great as the internal corridors of a ship, but with a little extra work I hoped I could add some more character to it so that it could be other things as well, a bunker complex, the bridge of a ship rather than the bowels, laboratory etc.

I also didn't want to take forever, I have 7 more of these sections to do.

So first I went and gave the wall panels a heavy painting of Bleached Bone, as there were still patches of resin release that hadn't quite been removed despite soaking overnight in half a bottle of washing-up liquid. Then over this a heavy wash Burnt Umber + White spirit.

Just to mention that Burnt Umber/White Spirit mix for a second. This is something I'm using more regularly now, as it’s a great little tool. I initially only used it to add weathering to vehicles but it is far more versatile (and cheap in bulk) to use across larger pieces like this.

Back to the Mortalis section, after the wash I then dry brushed the tops of the wall panels with White Scar, picked out any wiring that I had gone over and then gave it another lighter wash with the Umber mix to pick out the small dents. Over the very top of all of the Mortalis metal and the panels too another light White Scar drybrush.

I again dry brushed the lower portion of the panels where the grates are with pure Gehenna’s Gold, and gave them a heavier wash to really show the leaky panels etc.

Sponge weathering all over, Bronze effect on the top ‘wiring’ that no one in the Mortalis will actually see. Picked out the basic colours for the monitors and any buttons. The heavy bolts on each panel got a splodge of Gehennas Gold and the lights got a quick wash of very light green to complete when I start OSL on them.

Done, a bit over two hours total time, minus the drying times for the Umber mix.

On to some more randomness, I needed a more ‘fleshy’ Adept for the 30k Mechanicum that could act as one of the Lacyraemarta, to give that nice bubble of FNP goodness to all the lovely thralls that will be padding out the Mechanicum force. The emphasis here being his biological-interfering nature.

1. On this gribbly arm-weighted guy goes: an Ogre arm to show asymmetry.
2. Necron Legs for retro Mechanicus nod.
3. Part of an Ork Deffkopta for Chaos crudeness.
4. A metal chain blade from a Chaos Terminator to represent the adepts/surgical nature.
5. A bearded head from something empire-y for a bit of Chaos craziness.
6. The withered arm from a Mantic zombie for the self-experimentation.
7. A claw from a Mechanicus Kataphron for some reinforcement of his Mechanicum allegiances 
8. A tube-part for his eye from my watch parts bits box for more Mechanicus identity
9. Then some chopped up Tempestus frag grenades to act as 'injectors'

Then a green stuff cloak/rags to further emphasising the ragged/butcher-esque look.

This guy will match nicely to his colleague, who is more themed towards an Enginseer, hiding away among the lovely t5 Servo-Automata.

Next up, finishing up my Storm troopers. These had been sitting around waiting for some attention to be lavished upon them, in keeping with rest of the platoon these were given a basic colour palette and a simple bit of glow around the goggles. 2 are magnetised to help me add some special weapons to the mix.

My favourite detail on these are the flayed faces adorning their shoulder pads, I added a slightly more alien/esoteric flayed face for some added mystery.

These mix in nicely with the rest of the bunch too.

Lastly, games from the week. My 2.5k Mechanicum/Sons of Horus force against a pure (very pure in fact as it was all Forgeworld!) Sons of Horus force too.

Obligatory Artificer Armoured Sergeants duelling with Power fists shot.

Highlights from that include my Paragon tooled Praetor getting no hits on Abaddon in a duel to be insta-squished by response, and then Magos Draykayvic ending Abaddon as he chewed through of half my force in close combat.

A combined total of around 5 models were left on the board at turn 5. Heresy deathness!

Winners of the match for me again were the Myrmidion Destructors with Blinding Photon Thrusters.

A 5k apocalypse game was held as well.

Unfortunately, with Renegades and heretics being so cheap barely peaked at 3.5k with everything. So instead I went for a Guard force with a single Knight ally. Managed to get every single unit I own involved, right down to the three cyclops (killed turn 1) and all 6 permitted Primaris psykers for 5k.

We cowered behind cover as the Drop pods thundered in and held our own, see here is how to keep tanks alive (a bit longer) against Drop Pods

http://grudginglyread.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/astra-militarum-themes-correct-vs-fun.html#more

Aegis - Check

Hide their butts- Check

Insist on Night fighting - Check

Get that first turn - Check

Pad out your back field- Check

Interceptors – Check

Deploy everything!- Double check!

Everything but 250 odd points was deployed. New favourite tool as well – Camo Gear for tanks. +1 to cover save! Genius, behind an Aegis? 3+!

Won by only around 2 points but when you face the Adamantine Lance, new Mechanicus and plenty of Termies I’ll savour that victory.

Next up, tanks and more tanks!