This missive is to let you know that for the time being, my 5 P&M blogs (Mantis Warriors, Bad Moon Orks, AdMech, Halloween themed Chaos and 30k EC) will have all their updates appearing on a single blog (my “Rebuilding the Mantis Warriors” blog… which will get a new name). Why? With my interests so scattered across multiple armies and terrain & the fact that I’m just not painting at the hundreds of figures a year rate that I used to… I’m not making enough quality posts to keep 5 different blogs going. I’ve got a few die-hard friends and supporters that still post… but not enough to build or maintain the community that has always been the strongpoint of my threads in the past.
If my circumstances change and I start painting enough to warrant re-opening one of the specialist threads, I’ll do so... they aren’t closed, just inactive. In the meantime, as of today (Feb 11th, 2017) I’ll be making all of my P&M posts (for all armies) on what has always been my “home” on DakkaDakka, my Mantis Warrior thread. I hope you’ll join me there for the latest updates!
Here’s the link:Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
Thanks!
Gits
And so it begins...
At the moment this is kind of a place-holder for work to come, but since I actually made my first purchase today I thought I'd start the blog. I expect work to begin within a week or two.
My plan for the army is simple. A healthy number of Skitarii infantry of various sorts, backed by a house of AdMech associated knight titans. A good friend, Ramos Asura of Rollin' All Ones painting service will be taking care of the knights. My job is to deal with scads of infantry. Normally I'd balk at this... but I love the way the Skitarii look, so am really looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to painting something that isn't yellow or green.
So, this should be fun, finite and fast. I need more projects like this in my gaming life.
Haha. Sorry about that but, it's not everyday you make a new blog. I can't wait to see what you do Gits, the Admech kits are wonderful. If I had the spare money, I'd buy several just for bits. I know you mentioned troops in the above but, I don't suppose you are you getting a Dunecrawler by chance?
Edit: So Ramos is doing the knights? I can't wait to see em.
Further update. I've chosen House Taranis for my knight houshold, thus will be doing Mars skitarii to match them. I really hope to pick up the first of my troops today. We'll have to see if they come in.
Picked up my first two boxes of skitarii this evening. Should get most of the rest next week if everything comes in as it should. So nice to see so many of you post that I don't hear from all that often. Thanks guys, I appreciate the support!
So nice to see so many of you post that I don't hear from all that often. Thanks guys, I appreciate the support!
no support... just envy...
and...
Picked up my first two boxes of skitarii this evening
from a foreigner point of view...it always bemuses me this figure of speech, as if the floor is littered in the good old states of A. with boxes of miniatures...
Picked up my first two boxes of skitarii this evening
from a foreigner point of view...it always bemuses me this figure of speech, as if the floor is littered in the good old states of A. with boxes of miniatures...
Ah yes, the US... home of rampant, unbridled capitalism. Not only are the streets paved with gold but they're littered with the exports of every nation on earth (mostly China). While it does make walking difficult (which is why so many Americans are obese) all you need do is shuffle around and you'll eventually find what you're looking for.
My ultimate goal is 3 boxes of skitarii and 4 or 5 boxes of ruststaklers/infiltrators. I think I've got enough credit at the local shops to get that without having to spend any cash. I do have to start studying the codex very carefully and deciding exactly what I want to build out of each box. Also have to think about my paint scheme. Not the colors as much as how I'm going to do it.
Yes. Most people are looking at them as an allied force. I think I can make a go of it as a stand-alone force using the infantry and titans... but then again I'll just probably get my a$$ handed to me like usual.
Ah yes, the US... home of rampant, unbridled capitalism. Not only are the streets paved with gold but they're littered with the exports of every nation on earth (mostly China). While it does make walking difficult (which is why so many Americans are obese) all you need do is shuffle around and you'll eventually find what you're looking for.
that made me chuckle quite a bit...
i see myself submitting to my desires sometime this year... when i get a job... i probably will be over them completely^^... also it would give a good excuse to make lots of cool titans from scratch...
have you thought about a cool scheme already?... you´ve been always a fella for cool vibrant schemes...
Yeah. I'm doing Mars pattern for the skitarii and House Taranis (which is Mars-associated) for the knight titans. Ramos Asura is doing the Knights for me... two normal and a knight lancer. I'm sure they'll be brilliant. When he get to them I'll have my colors worked out so we can paint to match.
You can probably expect vibrant colors. I'll leave the realism to others who probably do it better. In the grim darkness of the future there are only BRIGHT, ELECTRIC COLORS. Yeah... that's it.
You can probably expect vibrant colors. I'll leave the realism to others who probably do it better. In the grim darkness of the future there are only BRIGHT, ELECTRIC COLORS. Yeah... that's it.
That's how I paint as well
Looking forward or seeing this project. I love your mantis warriors so I'm sure these will be done to a tee
Ok gang, I need some advice. I'm especially looking for comments from the more accomplished painters out there.
I have a choice to make when it comes to painting the dozens of infantry figures for this army. I'm not talking theme or color choice... I'm talking methodology. For the most part, these figures are going to be some version of steel and red. I want to paint these well, but I also want to paint them quickly before I lose my momentum and they get chucked into the pile of things that I should be painting but just don't have the time to paint. So I need to come up with a rather efficient strategy for getting the models painted without compromising quality.
Here's what I came up with...
A) Airbrush base-coat the metals, wash, highlight, bam... done. Then hand paint the red (cloaks, armor plates, etc).
B) Airbrush the red (which I think will be a much faster way of getting them to look good), then hand paint all the metals.
I'm leaning towards A as I think it'll get the best results the fastest, but I'm very open to opinions and even suggestions of a "C" or "D".
Really hoping for some feedback here guys... this decision will effect everything that follows on this blog.
I am neither an accomplished painter, or an airbrush user, but am going to toss in my two cents anyway!
Painting red by hand sucks. I’ve yet to get a pot that covers worth crap, so it always takes multiple coats to get something looking vaguely nice. And it always drives me crazy. Metals are easy to do by hand and get to look good. So if I were you, I’d go for option B.
You might have a different relationship with red paint, so YMMV.
One of the features in the codex is the ability to field your Rangers or Vanguard in units of 10; which gives them access to 3 special weapon types. The downside to this is that the box kit doesn't come with any additional duplicate weapons. The Trans Arqubus is great and I wish I had access to more. Being perfect vehicle killers with 2D6+4 Armor Pen with relentless is awesome. The Plasma gun is a nice MEQ killer, but alas you get only one in each box.
You might go with a squad of Vanguard and put both PG in them while doing a Squad of Rangers with both Trans Arq. You can always run them in 5's if need to cover more targets.
RS and INfil I probably run them in 10 and use them as Deathstar hunters or to tie up tough units. The Helm on the Infil's lower the stats of your opponents so on most normal units you may get to go first. With the Transonic blades you should cut down MEQ's easily.
Well, since I plan on buying 3 boxes of skitarii infantry, that should give me a full set of each specialty weapon. The plasma guns are pretty suicidal, though if used carefully with the right war doctrine they might prove really effective. Still pretty circumstantial though. I'll pick up the dex again tonight and continue reading. I only got through the fluff section and fluffy unit descriptions before I had to set it down. You can buy bits on e-bay to make up for what you're missing, but the prices are insane at the moment. You're almost better off just buying another box and building what you need from that.
Can you airbrush both, by masking, I'm not familiar with the kit, so I don't know how difficult it would be. Airbrush the metal with the cloth masked off then airbrush the reds touching up the metal after?
Subbed, and definitely looking forward to some bright red!
Honestly the figures are ' Necon warrior' thin. I'm guessing masking might be more work than you want to get into. still we will be suprised and amazed. We expect no less!
You might be right about the bits. Still I can hope they do a better job on making options available in future Kits.. sorry did that sound right? oh.. too funny!
Not experienced super experienced, but I have good luck with hand painting GW reds. Granted, it'll be multiple layers (ie, base, layer 1, layer 2, highlight) but I'd doubt you'd be satisfied with a single layer of color anyway.
Actually SL, I think you've got to give it to them for at least making one of each option available in this kit. In the past, they've had kits that did not included the listed options, and even kits where the listed options were not available at all! This is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. Though it would be nice to have an official way to buy the extra minis from GW rather than having to go through some third party.
As to airbrushing & reds...
I don't think I'll have any issues with hand painting reds... if I can do yellow, I can do red. To some degree I'm pretty sure I can wet blend the effects I need with the red, plus it'll allow me to do some things (like highlighting & shading the individual cloak folds) that I'm not sure I have the control for with an airbrush on that tiny scale. Those are my thoughts anyway. I am willing to be convinced otherwise though... my mind (such as it is), is still open.
If you are trying to cut down on effort it depends on how you do your metals compared to colours.
For me, I'd likely airbrush the red (and have just tried out my new airbrush on red today) and then hand-paint the metal.
This is because my metal technique is really simple and easy: Base black, then gunmetal, wash black (or brown), then dry-brush silver. Done.
Painting colours, I go all in for wet-blending and layers and layers of paint. And that's a lot more effort than my metals.
Airbrushing would save me more time on the colours than on the metal (due to them being so quick anyway).
On the other hand, as you mention the shading on the cloaks, It can be done with an airbrush, but you need that control (I've not tried that kind of thing with an AB yet, so can't help).
Maybe try 2 test models. Build two similar models and paint them in the two possible ways and see which is quicker...
Been reading a lot of Skitarii discussion. I think I've formulated a plan for my infantry troops. This may change as I get more info... but it seems sound for now.
6 units of troops
- 2x 10-man skitarii vanguard units, stock. maybe with minor improvements to the sgt These advance with Titans giving them protection from annoying assaults and pounding infantry with their guns (and they're cheap)
- 2x 5-man skitarii ranger units w/ 2x arquebus each (sits on objectives and provides supporting fire)
- 2x 5-man or 1x 10-man skitarii vanguard w/ maxxed out plasma or arc weaponry (follows behind titans as rear-guard with teeth)
Can be done with 4 boxes. Not sure of points cost, but I think pretty decent for 40 infantry.
Add knight titans, the rest goes into rust stalkers & infiltrators. One of the vanguard units can be pulled if the need to points to boost the RS/I.
Well, slowly but surely I'm accumulating my modes. These things (meaning any of the skitarii infantry) are like gold out here... nearly impossible to get!
I just realized how ridiculous the poses on these models are. I can just see them vibrating, shaking and wavering unsteadily as they walk... like any second some bolt is going to come loose and they're just going to collapse into a heap of scrap!
Well, slowly but surely I'm accumulating my modes. These things (meaning any of the skitarii infantry) are like gold out here... nearly impossible to get!
I just realized how ridiculous the poses on these models are. I can just see them vibrating, shaking and wavering unsteadily as they walk... like any second some bolt is going to come loose and they're just going to collapse into a heap of scrap!
Supposedly. I'll reserve judgement on any new units... but my "vision" is skitarii with Knights in support. That could be changed by awesome figures or rules though. We'll see. Sorry the blogs taken so long to get going, I've had a heck of a time getting figures and I really want to finish some other projects so I can throw myself into the skitarii without worrying about a back-log of half-finished projects.
Well, slowly but surely I'm accumulating my modes. These things (meaning any of the skitarii infantry) are like gold out here... nearly impossible to get!
I just realized how ridiculous the poses on these models are. I can just see them vibrating, shaking and wavering unsteadily as they walk... like any second some bolt is going to come loose and they're just going to collapse into a heap of scrap!
Eh, they look good to me. I've been binge watching Clone Wars so they remind me of the droid commandos. I'm just imagining them stepping out of landing a triple front flip.
For the normal troops I would assemble minus the cloaks.
Black prime metal.
White prime cloaks.
Airbrush separately.
Tape-off inside of cloak and hit outside with red.
Wash with darker red (some flesh based wash?), milky wash of base red with a drop of white on larger raised areas, highlight with a dark orange.
Metal: spray from underneath a brief blast of a rust based metallic, zenithol highlight from above with a dark metallic, quick burst of silver.
Use a sepia (brown) wash over it all, edge highlight (dry brush) with the darkest silver you can.
Detail as you see fit... thinking black/yellow hazard stripe might be good but not to get confused with cult of redemption scheme.
This is my plan.
<edit> Just read "Lords of Mars" got a whole different outlook on hound titans now.
Being in the shadow of one of these is still not a comforting thing...
Gitsplitta wrote: Very interesting Talizvar. I'll keep that in mind when I'm getting ready to begin my models.
I am rather... torn.
My main skill is brush painting but the diffused painting of airbrush is too fast and too good to argue.
The cloaks I think will mainly see brush for highlighting but the metal I feel must be done by airbrush.
Oddly in theme of machine precision with human craft.
Gitsplitta wrote: The plasma guns are pretty suicidal, though if used carefully with the right war doctrine they might prove really effective.
In the 6 or 7 games I've used them in so far, I've only had one die, Doctrines or not, and that really only happened cause I got the dreaded Triple One to hit.
I'm planning on airbrushing the red myself. I was going to airbrush the cloth and metals, and have them separate...but I kinda got overzealous and started building a lot.
Well guys, here's what I'm waiting on... getting two more boxes of skitarii rangers/vanguard (on order), getting 3 more boxes of the infiltrators/rust stalkers (also on order), finishing my GK allied detachment (only one model left to paint), finishing my Space Wolf allied detachment (small handful of models to paint and/or modify... most of which are fenris wolves so they should be easy), finish my second dev centurion squad & build 1 scout biker.
Now, I know that sounds like a lot, but since I don't yet have the AdMech models I want before I begin... I'm really just filling time. When I get the missing boxes of skitarii, I'll finish up whatever small busy-work project I'm on an dive right in!
dang.... i hoped it would be a new release... FW always stands for very pricey stuff... good stuff but i am not that fond of resin in the first place... what a pitty...robots in that size and in plastic... that would be brilliant...
Viktor von Domm wrote: dang.... i hoped it would be a new release... FW always stands for very pricey stuff... good stuff but i am not that fond of resin in the first place... what a pitty...robots in that size and in plastic... that would be brilliant...
Hey Vik, I meant they were BASED on the FW bots... not that they WERE the FW bots. I'm sure those are plastic & a new release.
I thought I was doing so well only getting one Imperial Knight... <sigh> darn wallet is going to get pretty empty.
Plastic kits of those big robots will be cool, seems so different than their normal bits all over the place: it is like they remembered that armor and covers may need to be added for the delicate bits.
Still not sure I like the tracked lower body guys but it may grow on me.
I have not changed my mind on the walker tank: I really like it, even more so as the anti-aircraft fire-hose of doom.
Those new plastic robots are based on the old Rogue Trader Castellan robot design and bring it up to date nicely. I still prefer the FW take on the design that ended up as the Castellax though
Don't they need to flail their arms while yelling that too? Or am I getting mixed up with Stan, the used coffin salesman again?
A nice scenic base should be able to hide most of the electronics and some wiring/speaker hidden inside the torso/legs means the sound is located correctly.
I actually had Ramos put the breaks on building my two normal knights... if the new knights are AdMech associated, I'd rather use my knight bodies for those. I'm sure I'd pay a premium for the conversion bits... but even then the money saved not buying the extra bodies would be worth-while.
Gitsplitta wrote: I actually had Ramos put the breaks on building my two normal knights... if the new knights are AdMech associated, I'd rather use my knight bodies for those. I'm sure I'd pay a premium for the conversion bits... but even then the money saved not buying the extra bodies would be worth-while.
The new kits are the same as the old ones, just with an extra sprue with the fist, chaingun, carapace weapons, meltagun and some cosmetics.
Sorry Verviedi.... I've been lurking and absorbing everything I can from the other AdMech/Knight threads that you've either started or are a great contributor on. I'm very anxious to actually start building or painting something. I might break down and start this weekend... however I get my boat out of storage on Saturday so I may be preoccupied screaming around on bodies of water... threatening fish with my lures, etc.
OK, so it's a couple of those extra sprues I'll be after... along with everyone else!
Gitsplitta wrote: Sorry Verviedi.... I've been lurking and absorbing everything I can from the other AdMech/Knight threads that you've either started or are a great contributor on. I'm very anxious to actually start building or painting something. I might break down and start this weekend... however I get my boat out of storage on Saturday so I may be preoccupied screaming around on bodies of water... threatening fish with my lures, etc.
OK, so it's a couple of those extra sprues I'll be after... along with everyone else!
It's fine, man! If you ever need any Ruststalker/Infiltrator bitz, I have wayyyy too many Transonic weapons, heads, Power Swords, and Stubcarbines to know what to do with
One of the things I've been working on over the last few days in finishing up a GK Dreadknight to go with a little detachment I'm working on to augment my Imperial lists. The interesting thing is that my GK are actually deep red in color... rather like the AdMech. So I airbrushed the big guy red, then have been painting in all the metal bits.
What a monumental paint in the a$$!! This has absolutely decided how I'm going to paint my skitarii. Airbrushing the metals first all-the-way. Problem is that while you're painting the metals, if there are any accidental over-paints on the airbrushed red blend they're nearly impossible to fix. The texture of the airbrushed blend just can't be duplicated by a brush (at least not by me) so I ended up greatly modifying the red on the DK in order to make my repairs less obvious. Since I'm confident with my wet-blending, I know I can get the red bits on the skitarii done well and reasonably fast, and if I accidentally paint red onto some of the metal bits, it'll be stupid-simple to fix as the metallics won't have the same blending that a normal solid color would.
I'm getting antsy.... we'll see what models (if any) make their way into the shop today. I might end up starting a unit a bit faster than I'd originally anticipated.
LOL! No Matthew... I'm an A#1 Language is language whether its letters or dollar signs mate, motyak... I honestly didn't think it would take me this long to get rolling. My apologies for the misleading thread.
Yes. I'm punishing everyone for no longer posting on my Mantis Warrior blog as much as they used to... Just because *I* don't post there either is no reason to suddenly stop! - Dance post-monkeys... dance!
OK, you guys have shamed me into starting one of the boxes of sicarians. I'll probably do these straight, just to see how they go together and look in person before I think about conversions. I'm a little hesitant when it comes to converting because these things are so small and wiry that they may be extremely difficult to pin or convert without it being disruptively obvious. But we'll see. I'll open the box this weekend. I've also just realized that the army I've been pushing to finish for an upcoming tournament is never going to get done in time... so it takes the pressure off considerably.
Snagged this from a Knight thread I'm following. The original post had more pics but I didn't want to steal his whole post, just the one pic that showed pretty much exactly what I'm going for in this army.
Warhams-77 wrote: I made some snapshots of the artwork in the digital preview samples
As I've commented on before... I'm going with the basic Mars pattern. Purely for aesthetic reasons.
@War Kitten: Thanks for posting here sir! I really appreciate the support & I hope to make it worth your while very soon.
@Master Azalle: But... but.... I love having your as a reader!!!
@endtrans: Love the monkey...
@Edreynaline: That's.... kind of embarrassing actually. The front page is run by bots driven by traffic. It's because we've all been so chatty that it's there. I haven't hit the front page in a while, funny that I get there without actually doing anything!
No, I just happened to see the photo with the Knights & skitarii running around their feet. That's what I'm aiming for. The problem with scenic bases like that is that in most of my games, they'll make no sense at all. I'd rather go with something that looks cool but is more opponent-neutral.
Hey gang. Feel I owe you an apology for not getting things going as I'd promised. I thought I'd finish up this dreadknight I was working on early this weekend & then dive into the sicarians, however it's taken me much longer to finish the DK than I'd hoped and I really need it done by Wed (gaming night locally). I expect to finish it tonight (I'm just on the basing and some extra purity seals and such), after which (probably Thursday), I'll be opening up the sicarian box and getting that project rolling.
Thanks for your continued patience. I sincerely hope this will be the last non-substantive post on this blog.
Hey!! I just realized I got Modded! Cool... that's never happened before. Thanks motyak, I'll watch my spelling from now on!
Nothing too exciting, but I did get the main metal done as well as the black of the inner clothing. They'll perk up soon as the red is next.
The real boggle is the basing. After having seen many variations, I think I've come up with a plan. Unfortunately I don't have the right sized grit, so I may have to wait a while before I can base them (it's on order but I'm not sure when I'll get it). This is a test of some different ways of treating the base. It's a variety of washes and glazes. Think I have a couple of good options available. In the mean time, the figures are OK to paint without their bases so I can still make progress.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Got some red on one of the models. Decided to highlight to a dusty pink rather than orange. Sorry about the fuzzyness but it's late and I'm just trying to get a pic up so you can see where I'm going with it.
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Last update for the night. I cleaned up and tweaked the red & gave the metal bits a black wash to smooth everything out. Much happier with it now. Will post pics tomorrow night as I work my way through the rest of the squad.
about the basing... there was a tut on basing with eggshells made by flying poo...maybe worth a look for you if you´re after that cracked earth effect from mars...?
and good to see some paint finally slapped on the models...
i think from my vantage point..the basing currently reminds me too much of tomato soup to actually comment in a supporting way...sorry^^
and...is that model three legged???...never realised that yet...
Looking good so far Git's, for basing on my Sisters and Knight i finished off with Dark Red Ocre weathering powder from Vallejo to give the bases a nice dusty finish.
Lord I hate flash, close-up photogrophy. I can still see lines here that need to be cleaned up but I swear to you they are completely invisible to the naked eye. Looks better though. Should have this figured out fairly quickly.
In terms of the basing... it's got to be something simple that can be done quickly on dozens of bases, so anything using eggshells is out. I'm actually not trying to do a strict Martian base as I find it highly unlikely that the skitarii would ever actually be fighting on Mars itself (which I'm sure no longer has any deserts and is completely built over into a machine-world). My thought is to have reddish grit and rocks that are reminiscent of mars, but that are heavily vegetated with green plants as if the skitarii are fighting on some alien world, trying to reclaim long-lost STC machines or eliminating a threat to a near-by forge world. The green vegetation will also give a wonderful contrast (both in color and form) to the red, mechanical AdMech models.
adding a bit of green to the mix is a wonderful idea! and yep... most unlikely that there will be a war on mars itself... as it is a heavy protected planet if there ever was one^^
and i think you only get trouble taking pics because of the busy background... in terms of paintjob the model looks promising!
Well, looking at the paint jobs that GW did... they went to an orange... which I usually do to be honest. However I thought that in this case it might be nicer to hang to the red side of the spectrum rather than adding yellow. Besides, I just picked up this dusky pink color and I wanted to try it out!
Made some good progress on the rest of the squad last night. I'm trying to simplify the painting process as I look down the line to scads of rangers & vanguard. So far, so good. Should have a pic for you tonight.
Sorry guys, late night last night & gaming tonight. I'll have some pics for you by Friday at the latest. Imagine the squad will be nearly done by then.
Not tonight. Still tweaking my MW/GK list. I think I have something that's pretty decent. Not comparable to a true "competitive" list, but far more competitive than the fluffy drek I usually like fielding.
Very nice so far Gits.
Highlighting in pink is an interesting choice, but it works! Red/orange does get a bit boring after a while when everyone does it...
Gitsplitta wrote: Not tonight. Still tweaking my MW/GK list. I think I have something that's pretty decent. Not comparable to a true "competitive" list, but far more competitive than the fluffy drek I usually like fielding.
Your reference to 'gaming tonight' using ' my MW/GK list' is on this blog.. It's all blurring into one giant blog..
Good luck tonight.. Look forward to the battle assessment!
I often use pink (more accurately, the base red with added white) to highlight red. Sometimes I do use orange. It just depends on how I want the red to look in the end.
In fact, the BA Terminators I painted recently were highlighted with a mix of red, white and yellow. Was a sort of "salmon" colour. Not good for large areas, but worked well for highlights that were not as cold as pink, but not as warm as orange.
now that looks beautiful!...what´s the middle flower object made from? snow flocks? that´s a basing design even fitting for the missus on mothers day ... no honestly... it looks like a sharp contrast between brutality and beauty and calmness...
GiraffeX wrote:Looking very nice Gits, I like the basing. Whats a tazer gode?
The thing in his right hand.
Viktor von Domm wrote:now that looks beautiful!...what´s the middle flower object made from? snow flocks? that´s a basing design even fitting for the missus on mothers day ... no honestly... it looks like a sharp contrast between brutality and beauty and calmness...
That's exactly what I was going for Vik. It's actually the same type of thing as those large tufts of grass (which are brilliant)... except that it has little bits of color on top that make it look like a flowering plant. Made by Army Painter and available at your local hobby retailer (unless it happens to be a GW store... then your just screwed).
Nice looking death cyborg murder machine. With a floral base. I need to pick up some of those flowers myself. The plan is to base my Eldar defending a maiden world, and that’s the kind of detail and mood I’m trying to capture. Not every battlefield has been churned into mud and ash yet, particularly when the infiltrators are just arriving.
Infiltrator squad #1 is finished! Might have a couple of extra final touches but I'm happy with them for now. I opted out of the bright red cloak for the alpha because it made no sense at all for a stealth-based squad. Hope you like them!
Feel free to comment and vote. Be nice to see some AdMech up on the Gallery page!
That effect on the taser goads... brilliant! May need to steal requisition that once I start work on some AdMech stuff (assuming I have taser goads in my army)
@dracpanzer: Thanks drac, I think two 5-man squads of rangers on on tap next... so at least I can start fielding them as an allied detachment.
@SJM: Bases were critical to get right with these figures. I think I did OK. Red rock to compliment the figure and be reminiscent of Mars... green plants to contrast & keep the red from overpowering everything else.
That effect on the taser goads... brilliant! May need to steal requisition that once I start work on some AdMech stuff (assuming I have taser goads in my army)
Verviedi wrote:Really liking the glow effects!
Thanks gents. I could be encouraged to do a quick tutorial if asked. It's a very simple method and gives great results.
You know.... I was going to do a step-by-step with photographs.... but this method is so simple that I don't think it even needs pictures. Please note that I believe this method works best on round or cylindrical objects. I have not sufficiently tested it on other shapes yet to know how it will look.
Gits Glorious Glow Effect for the Perpetually Lazy
Taser Goads
Step 1: Paint surface with a thinned, white paint. You want it to go on smoothly but not so thin that it takes more than 2 coats to cover the surface to a clean white. Let dry *completely*!
Step 2: Take the GW glaze of your choice (I've used both the blue and green so far) and "flood" the area with ample amounts of the glaze. You don't want to be painting a thin layer on here, you want to inundate the surface with ample amounts of glaze so there are no artificial streaks or differences in pigment density.
Step 3: Take a clean brush and draw down the pools of glaze that will form in crevices or the lower parts of the area. You don't want to draw them down completely.... but what you're aiming for is to have the glaze "stain" the whites in the high areas and only accumulate in the cracks, crevices and edges. You can then take a wet brush and carefully thin any accumulating blue on the tops of the flat surfaces (like the tuning fork), or where you want the glow of the rods to be the most intense. This needs to be done immediately after applying the glaze though, as if there is any delay the glaze will start drying in place and the removal of the excess glaze will leave rings and streaks, ruining the effect. This will give you the most natural highlight if you can pull it off (thus you can ignore "Step 6"). If not, simply go to "Step 4".
Step 4: Let dry naturally. Do not use any type of artificial drying aid (hairdryer, etc.).
Step 5: If desired, take a very fine brush and run a *thin* line of blue wash (which is darker than the glaze) in the very deepest recesses to accentuate the darker shade. You want this last line to be very thin & not really ride up on the main surface at all.
Step 6: When completely dry, take some thinned white (same as the thinning you used for the original coat) and paint a single, long, thin line along the top of the uppermost tube as a top highlight. I also edge highlighted the upper edges of the tuning fork bit with a very thin line of white. You can also "white out" any unfortunate accumulations of blue glaze on the tops of flat surfaces that you missed in the glazing phase.
If all goes well, it should end up something like this.
Lenses/Eyes etc.
Step 1: As above. Be sure to paint the inside of the eye socket or fixture that's holding the lens (so the glow extends beyond the lens/eye itself).
Step 2: Lay flat! Flood with glaze & draw down with a clean brush until the center of the lens is exposed (if the lens is convex). If the lens is concaved, draw down until the outside edges are exposed.
Step 3: Let dry naturally.
Step 5: If desired, add a little bit of a darker wash around the outer ring of the lens... be sure to only get it in the deepest recesses (as with the taser-goad).
Step 6: If desired, you can add a tiny spot of white to act as glare from the lens surface in an upper (for convex) or lower (for concave) corner of the lens ... HOWEVER... if your dry-down of the glaze worked correctly... you're lens should be providing it's own, natural highlight.
i actually got every word! and that´s saying something... text tuts always are a wee bit complicated...(for me...) sounds as if i should try that... it is a nice use of glazes... and it is a method that cant so easily be ruined like when you paint coat on coat for glow/lenses effects ...hmmm...thanks matey!
Check out my Mantis Warrior blog Vik. I did the same effect on the grav amp for my centurions. That effect isn't completed yet (still needs a bit of white on the raised areas) but you can see that it has more than one application.
Just checking in. Haven't had any hobby time in over a week, and probably won't until tomorrow night at the earliest. Still, I hope to finish up my marine project by the weekend so I can start the next skitarii project on Monday. I did pick up a couple of the tracked servitor boxes, have the AdMech HQ and dex on order. I really look forward to getting back to adding substance to this blog again. Once I start fielding my skitarii, I'll probably do some little battle reports too.
I'm not sure. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. First I have to make a playable skitarii list. That means rangers, vanguard and another squad of infiltrators at the minimum.
Thanks graven. I haven't moved this army forward as fast as I'd hoped... but it will get 80% of my attention as soon as I can finish off the cents & bastion. We're going to have an escalation league starting soon at my FLGS so I've really got to get crackin' if I'm going to get to 500 points by the time it starts.
Not robots, just the look of the skitarii, fits (minus some cables) the look I was after for the Cartel that neutrally ships things as well as escorts or provides cargo fleets for others. For a price!
But yes, Mantic made a nice goofy movie into a game, and for that,
Finally have cleared my que enough to get back to these guys full time.
Local club is running an escalation league beginning in early July (I think). If I produce two, 5-man ranger units with arquebus and add them to my already painted infiltrators... I'll have a nice little 500 point army to start off the campaign. The escalating nature of the campaign means that I should be making regular updates to this blog from now on.
To keep it interesting, I'll do the guys in small groups. First the long gunners, then the regular guys & finally the alphas.
So... here we go. Painted, drybrushed metallic & then washed. They'll get two light metallic highlight dry-brushings & then I'll start the actual work on the main colors.
Well, it's not a particularly good list... I know that. But it was the easiest way to get to 500 points. It'll shape up quickly enough when I start adding vanguard & knights.
Escalation is played over multiple games. Start with a 500 point game, then 600, 750, 1000, etc growing off the same army. It varies in the strictness of the growth. Some dictate you use the same units and add in others, some just the same codex.
In the case of our gaming group, this is going to be a long-term campaign... one game a month, starting at 500 pts and going up by 250 points per month. You can of course play it with an existing army, but these are kind of geared towards getting new players going on their armies or giving us old farts some motivation to paint new armies.
Thanks. I'll have to finish the squad (at least to a minimal level) by next Wed... so you'll be seeing some pretty significant updates between now and then.
I don't claim it's good... but it's doable in the time allotted and it's actually pretty flexible for 3 tiny units. Making progress on my figures. Hope to have the armor and inside of the cloaks finished by bed time.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I made decent painting progress last night. Got the underside of the cloaks and pants done and just started the outer surface of the cloaks. Hope to have a photo tonight for you of the progress.
Hey gang. The ranger group is almost done. I'll post a pic tonight.
Played a practice game vs. my son's Necrons last night to get ready for the opening round of the escalation league.
I had...
5 rangers, 2x arquebus, alpha w/ conv field & the re-roll the objective thingie
5 rangers, 2 arquebus, alpha w/ conv field (Warlord)
5 infiltrators, flachette & taser, alpha w/ conv field, pater radium & digital weapons
He had...
Tranzyn
Cryptek
5 tessla immortals
5 tessla immortals
3 bikes w/ 2x S6 templates (cant remember the name of the gun)
Bikes were my biggest issue as they doubled everything in my army out. Got a charge in with the infiltrators early on a squad of immortals w/ the cryptek & wiped them. The very next turn one bike hit the unit with one S6 blast and killed 4 out of 5 infiltrators. That's pretty much the definition of a glass hammer. Luckily the surviving infiltrator spent the rest of the game scoring objectives leading to a modest maelstrom win. Scouts didn't do much, though they did take out a couple of the bikes by the end of the game and scored objectives for me. I do like their basic guns. I'm not sure that the the arquebii are worth it vs infantry (they aren't bad, but they're nothing special), however the armorbane (I think) they have will be useful vs. the light vehicles I might see in the early stages of the campaign. Given the army I'm starting the campaign with, I don't see that I have much choice but to field them (and I do love the way the figures work).
I love the infiltrators... I just wish they were T4 so they could hang around long enough to earn their points back.
Yet another crappy phone picture, but this is what I'm reduced to at the moment.... I did figure out how to get photos off my camera again, so when these are done I'll post some proper pics.
To be honest, these were a lot harder to paint than I anticipated. Still have some minor details to put on and the greenery on the base, but these are done enough to field in our club game tonight. I'd hoped to have them done by now, but I didn't want to rush them. Even with that, I wouldn't call this my best work... which is more than a little frustrating considering the amount of time I put in on them. Hopefully now that I have the pattern sorted out, I can work on refining my technique on future models.
I'll be sure to post again tonight after my little army has been "field tested". I know Yorkright has been snooping around the blog, hoping to get intel. Here you go... Infiltrators are fast and hit like a ton of bricks, then evaporate. Rangers are meh. Not horrible... just meh. Ten of them with their basic guns would be much better, but for obvious reasons (time constraints) I went with the small squads with the arquebus.
Thanks guys. I feel a little better about things. Took my lunch hour and meticulously wrote down all of the special rules in places where I could easily find them. I think that'll help a lot when it comes to tonight's game. The trick will be trying to keep things alive long enough for them to actually do something.
My army was hopelessly outmatched by the two opponents I faced and would have been vs. most if not all of the armies that were present.
First game was against a beautifully painted Khorne demon army. He had a group of 8 bloodletters, 3 bikes, 8 hounds and a jugger lord. We played some kind of modified maelstrom mission. Here's our deployment.
The lord and hounds/beasts moved into MY deployment zone on T1 to claim a maelstrom objective, bikes zoomed around claiming maelstrom points for objective markers. My turn 1 I smashed into the lord's unit with my infiltrators who eventually (2 assault phases) killed 7 hounds and put 4 of 5 wounds on the jugger lord before dying. Bloodletters deep struck into the ruins and were immediately shot off the table by my rangers. Chaos bikes ran around scoring objectives until they got bored and wiped my left-most ranger squad with a combination of shooting and assault.
The jugger lord and solitary hound went after my other ranger squad. I managed to kill both (after taking casualties of course), but the lord was then immediately replaced by a bloodthirster, which then wiped my last squad, tabling me.
While it may sound like a close game, it was never close. My opponent was scoring twice as many maelstrom points each turn as I was, and the greater demon could have tabled my army all by itself.
In game two I played Tau. They just shot me off the table. Don't think I caused a single casualty.
Well, the little insignia is a decal. I just did the border on the cloak.
Here's how the arquebussiers turned out. I can say that I'm happy with the way they look on the table, but I'm not the least bit satisfied with the paint job. It was painful from start to finish and they really don't hold up well at high magnification (as you can see from the first pic). I'll have to take a completely different technical approach on the next batch. They look fine at arm's length though... so I can live with that for now.
Big addition to my AdMech forces... not painted by me of course but still, they were a part of the plan from the beginning! Ramos did an amazing job on these and the cool shield on the Lancer was a real collaborative effort between the two of us. He did all the hard stuff of course, I just contributed ideas.
It's also a time where those of you with weaker computers may want to look away. Serously, I think this is the largest chunk of photos I've put on here in a good long time!
seriously? how can anyone give up on you if you provide such pics...?
that clockwork shield is the essence of awesomeness!
iirc that shield is otherwise hollow? just a frame... and now it really looks substantial and menacing brilliant work! of course does my praise for cogs have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as i am biased completly whenever such things are concerned that lend towards steampunky feel! ^^
and the crisp paintjob on this phalanx of knights is brilliant too!
so i gather you have paid ramos with your firstborn for this treat then?...or at least a kidney of yours^^
one little detail tho... i think the white part f the skull headed faceplate could have benefited from a slight wash to bring in a bt of more definition to that piece...but i am merely bickering here^^
I'll wait to see them in-person I think. Not sure that everything Ramos did actually translates accurately in photographs, mine often don't.
The original FW shield is (at least to me), kind of a joke. Ramos and I were discussing this and we decided to work from a historical perspective... so the shield & spear poses we discussed had medieval origins. This is a Norman shield (typically used on horseback), but it seemed like an excellent fit with the knight's stature. I'm very pleased that I was able to contribute several ideas to Ramos that he was able to incorporate into the shield design, but in the end... it's all his brilliance and effort that made it into a reality (as well as contributing several key ideas of his own).
I'll get back to finishing up my Ranger squads ASAP. Just been too busy at home in the evenings to make much progress on any of my painting.
Finally getting started on the remaining rangers for my two squads. Took a ridiculous amount of effort to get them to this point (two airbrushing sessions, washes, tints, yadda-yadda).
Thanks guys. They don't look anything like the other rangers I painted for the squad, but I decided that airbrushing was going to be necessary in order to get things done in an expedient fashion. I tried brushing to pink, which is where I originally wanted to go, but I was afraid it was looking too washed out and, well... floofy. It's a little on the "OMG, orange!" side at the moment... but by-and-large I like where the cloaks are and have learned some subtleties that I think I'm going to keep for other projects. I may try one more glaze to see if I can bring the orange down a tone or two... then we'll see where we are. After that they get painted the rest of the way weather I like them or not.
Amazing stuff here Gits. Been a bit behind on browsing the thread, but the Knights are top job!
As for the admech cloaks, they look great! I need to get that pic-snapped in my mind, as i plan (started buying already) a Cohort Cybernetica and an Ironstrider Cavalieri formations. Plus a nice diorama for all
Hey guys... thanks for the well wishes and comments. Very sorry I haven't responded before now. Summer's kind of a weird hobby time for me. I do lots of gaming but for some reason I have a heck of a time forcing myself to do any kind of painting. Then I feel guilty posting without having anything new to show... so it's kind of a vicious circle.
@ciuncky: Hmmm.... hadn't thought of that. Interesting idea, thanks!
@Ice: When I finish those rangers and get the basing done on the knights... I'll post an army pic. Shouldn't be too long.
Yep…First outing pictures for the knights yesterday. More folks will see this here than on my blog so ….
Two player 1850 pt each armies. Knights and Wraithhost list vs Necron Decurion and CSM’s.
I only took a couple of shots. Gits took more. Here is a partial picture (camera phone) of what it looked like from our side .
What you are seeing is…
4 knights. 3 skatari inf.
1 WK ( all D )
3 Wraithguard ( all D )w/ WS, Farseer
Wraithlord
2 wraithfighters ( all D ) (not shown)
Necron and CSM counter attack turn. Beginning turn 3.
Went to turn 4….
By the end we (CSM and Necron) had 1 overlord, 3 NS, 2 Helldrakes ( most of which would have had to fly off the table on the next turn) an a CSM rhino on the table. We came close to taking out several knights but never managed to do enough damage to any one target.
WK wiped CSM Belakor(?) off with a D shot. Knights were crazy good in CC ( once in CC we could do nothing to harm them -AV 13/12/12)
We ended up with 5 VP and I believe they had 8 or 9. Misleading point total as without the flyers they would have tabled us.
We killed one Skatari unit, 1 wave serpent, 1 wraithguard unit and 1 flyer.
Very educational. Tough and nigh unstoppable. Not sure how to counter. Maybe go for more VP but all the knights were Obsec. Hummmm.
Git got some more pic’s, More in the moment shot that should be very narrative, Stay tuned!
Sounds like a really fun game, those Knights look amazing. The Lancer is a spectacular model, did you have the joy of constructing it Gits or was that left to Ramos? They need a hell of a lot of infantry now.
Automatically Appended Next Post: What I found out... Hell Brutes don't quite measure up to D in assault (they did cause damage though). Forge Fiends explode frequently and gloriously (I was rolling 6s like a mad man on my pen results). I was far from invulnerable, even with 4 knights and a WK on our side, my knights were down to 1,1,2 and 3 HP respectively. We won, but not by that much. They had 5 flyers we had no answer for (they had the advantage of knowing what were bringing without the reverse being true). We played long ways on an 8 foot table. It would have been much more brutal given a different deployment.
Last little two-cents...
In spite of all the D on the table (we were swimming in it between my knights and the Eldar wraith host that Yellowbeard was running), it was a close game points-wise. This was also in spite of the fact that our side got 4, single-strike D-weapon kills of significant targets (demon price, forge field & 2 hell brutes). I'm not sure what that says... but I thought I'd put it out there for you guys to chew on. (I'm not suggesting that D isn't crazy powerful... but it seemed pertinent to mention it.)
looks a very pretty battle too, nicely painted armies.
Game wise, I got to say (being completely ignorant of current rules and points etc.) I expected more models for them. Just seems a wall of Knights, verses not a lot. (totally not having a go at you guys Solar.) Just me I guess. Like you say Gits it was closer than you think looking at it. Just 4 lucky shots and you would be seriously in trouble with 3 of your knights down.
looks a very pretty battle too, nicely painted armies.
Game wise, I got to say (being completely ignorant of current rules and points etc.) I expected more models for them. Just seems a wall of Knights, verses not a lot. (totally not having a go at you guys Solar.) Just me I guess. Like you say Gits it was closer than you think looking at it. Just 4 lucky shots and you would be seriously in trouble with 3 of your knights down.
No Worries.. Point wise it was close till the end, then there was no chance. A good game, but not as much fun. Let me explain....
We played with our deployment being on the short table ends ( that was how the mission rolled ) and added two more feet to the table. ( this is what we commonly do for larger point games - 2x1850 pt armies per side.) Where the fault was is that our ( CSM & Necrons ) army composition wasn't able to handle all the LoW and GMC's. This despite knowing what they where bringing. So when I say it wasn't as much fun ( I guessing it was fun for them ), it was point balanced just not ' power level' balanced.
The first two turns were mostly moving for them. Waiting and pot shooting what little long range weaponry ( not a lot ) we had for us. By the 3rd turn ( the one from picture being the 1st half of the turn, was our 'Moment of truth'. The turn where we had to make our mark. We didn't. Once they got in to CC, our army composition wasn't even able to affect them and it was futile from there.
The fault was ours and they played it great. Still once the 4th turn started we could do nothing except tie them up. They had free range of the board. Yes we had flyers but they were in poor positions and not ObjSec so we weren't getting any more Vpoints. We could have gone with a few Super heavies ourselves, or got a bit more luck and taken a few of them out earlier. But Alas... didn't. Tough Lesson but an educational one.
Tough list to beat but like Git said ' not invincible'. We did pretty well considering we were only gonna get the 1 chance to pull off a win. The D from the Wraithhost is truly incredible ( very effective against Necron resurrection ( they cant!!). At no time did I feel they were pressured from us and we felt just the opposite. So IMHO, Less fun when only one side feels the challenged.
So learning... Have a bit more weapons capable of hurting them longer than the 24in. range ( they move across the table quickly). Either tie them up or get your own SH that can take all those D weapon CC attacks, Eldar Waithhost... don't let them get close either. Blow up the knights, their exploding should help do damage to everything they are around.
They are really fiddly and not anywhere near as much fun to paint as I'd hoped. Kind of a major chore actually. I did get my home-made tool for doing the crenellations on the robes working pretty well though, so I'll take that as a victory. I need to get these guys squared away in the next two evenings. We'll see how that goes.
All progress is good Git's. I have times when I find painting some minis really unfun then when you finish the basing they suddenly look pop and look really good.
nice one Gits. Have a box of these felllas waitingfor me in the cabinet....looking forward to building adn paininting them up soon. They do look really fiddly but can't be as fiddly as the Sydonian Dragoon....can they??!!!!
Thanks gang. Yes, very fiddly... not much room for imagination which kind of irritates me. Guns next, then backpacks, then basing, then glowy bits. Details (in gold) will come after that.
I'm up against a hard deadline... last time to paint is Tues. PM. So you should see something over the next couple of nights.
I took an extra shaper tool that I didn't need and cut a small trapezoid in it. For some reason the trap works better than a square (even though the shape you want is a square). It's a bit tricky to use because there's no absorption of the paint... you're basically blotting it on & re-filling each time or two... but with some practice it does a pretty decent job. Better than anything else I've tried in any case.
i bet that this method needs practice...amount of paint, pressure etc...looks interesting tho...i recently fell in love with these shapers for any wood work i do...to get rid of any surplus PVA glue there is NO substitute...
Color is a little wonky in this pic but I'm in a hurry this morning. Need to use them tonight so this is where they'll stand for now. Really only the backpacks and bases to do.
Looking good Gits! you've done a great job on the squad am I correct though in assuming that while you like the force, the models aren't floating your boat when it comes to painting them? but stick in there mate you've taken the first steps and finished these so far! and I want to see more!
Thanks gang! Rust Stalkers are next! Have the box out but it's got to wait just a bit as I have a marine project to finish first. I should have something to show fairly soon though... at least working on the build. I imagine even a small unit of 5 will take me quite a while to clean up and assemble.
Impressive work, Gits! Love how your models turned out, and the white cog stripes look as good as any decal!
The basing is cool as well, all that grass provides some much needed contrast. Even if i myself prefer the Mars setting, i have to say your yellow flowers provide a cool je-nais-se-quoi.
Thanks ciuncky. You pretty much nailed why I did it this way. I've seen too many really nicely painted AdMech that appeared lost in pure "Mars-style" bases due to all the red... so I went with a red base to reflect the Mars soil, yet added lots of green to complement the red and provide a visual break between the red of the figure and the red of the ground. The flowers are there to emphasize the machine vs. nature dichotomy of the AdMech.
I may end up toning down the red on the bases yet.... didn't really intend them to be such screaming red... just the way they seem to be working out. I think if I do a bit of random Delvan Mud (or whatever it's called now) washes through the red & perhaps some (random again) lighter orange highlighting of sections of the grit, the bases would appear much more interesting and varied.
It's been said before, but the addittion of the grass on those bases really takes them to a higher level.
Crenelated robes look ace.
And yes to go for a bit more depth on the red earth patches, ochre may be a highlight option instead of orange, to help keep the robes dettached from the ground?
Ochre, ocher: light brownish yellow to brownish orange.
Edit: Ninjaed; thanks, Ramos. And a picture is worth a thousand words... That's what I meant to say. A light brown or tan hue to the orange highlights.
If there's any doubt how incompetent I am at playing this game... you can watch this video battle report by Eiluj The Farseer. My little Skitarii force with knight back-up vs. some Necrons. It does feature the use of RiTides objective marker ModCubes though. We really like them.
Very kind of you Stonelessword. Unfortunately, all my blogs are on hold whilst I finish my Monster Mash, Halloween army challenge. But, if you'd like to check that one out as well, here is the link.
Skittari have been searching for relics in an abandoned city several hundred kilometers from Typhon Tower. Recently recovered data slates on a forgeworld have pointed to possible relics or STC's there, Mars has given orders that any "interesting " finds will be kept secret from local government and the Mantis Warriors. So far nothing of note has been found, a engineseer from the local PDF has been snooping around but no information has been shared. He was not there long before he had to report to a nearby imperial outpost.
A unit of Mantis Warriors scouts, led by a rather gruff chaplain had asked for 2 units of rangers to accompany them on maneuvers. The head princep had no choice but to say yes though it would slow down the search.
A hazy humid day has the crews searching a new site, servitors digging has scared up clouds of insects that buzz about. A group of Rangers note a small column of armored warriors heading towards the site, perhaps the Mantis Warriors have returned...
An alpha of the Skitarii rangers crouches upon a low rise, scanning the horizon and processing various wavelengths of data. As he sits motionless, scanning, processing, scanning, processing... a ranger approaches from the lee of the small hill.
This gave the alpha pause. The numerical and force projection disadvantages were overwhelming. They would have to abandon the dig site unless reserves could be summoned. But what could possibly get here quickly enough and with sufficient firepower to aid them?
"01010011 01110101 01101101 01101101 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001011 01101110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01110011" The alpha new there would be a cost for this summons... the households were readily available but demanded a price for their services.
"01011001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110000 01101000 01100001!" the ranger replied before wheeling and heading off to the communications array.
Unfortunately, I packed up my army this morning before photographing it. That is real binary above. You can plug it into a translator and you'll see the details of the story.
This is the latest in an ongoing series of battles between myself and Yorkright making up a campaign that started between his Blood Angels and my Mantis Warriors. Over the months since we've begun, the story has naturally morphed to include other armies that we own. We talk about the story and battles ahead of time and go so far as to share army lists in an attempt to assure competitive, interesting battles. It's been incredibly fun. Probably the best series of games I've played in my 25 years of 40k.
The story to date: Inquisitor Jaxeena is convinced that the Mantis Warriors are hiding a taint of chaos in their gene seed and is determined to obtained a sample for her own uses. The Mantis Warriors of course refuse to comply, so Jaxxena enlists the aid of the Blood Angels and mounts a series of attacks against a relatively isolated MW task force on the fringe of MW controlled space. After several bloody conflicts where no clear winner emerges, a captain of the Mantis Warriors is captured and placed into stasis. Before Jaxeena can evac her prize however, a Mantis Warrior scout force, with the aid of some Skitarii scout units mount a counter attack on the Imperial Guard base where their captain is being held. The attack liberates the captain from the stasis cube, but another occupant of the cube... a herald of Slaanesh is also released. The herald is slain and Jaxeena is captured and placed into her own stasis cube by the victorious Mantis Warriors. They believe she has been corrupted by the dark powers as the methods she has employed are well beyond the norm, even for an Imperial Inquisitor.
The Skitarii are here to provide protection for an Adeptis Mechanicus excavation of an archeological site thought to contain ancient technology. With the cooperation they received from the Mantis Warrior affiliated governor of the planet and their natural distrust of the Inquisition, it's not surprising that they provided aid to the astartes chapter.
This is where our current story begins....
Yorkright wrote: Skittari have been searching for relics in an abandoned city several hundred kilometers from Typhon Tower. Recently recovered data slates on a forgeworld have pointed to possible relics or STC's there, Mars has given orders that any "interesting " finds will be kept secret from local government and the Mantis Warriors. So far nothing of note has been found, a engineseer from the local PDF has been snooping around but no information has been shared. He was not there long before he had to report to a nearby imperial outpost. A unit of Mantis Warriors scouts, led by a rather gruff chaplain had asked for 2 units of rangers to accompany them on maneuvers. The head princep had no choice but to say yes though it would slow down the search. A hazy humid day has the crews searching a new site, servitors digging has scared up clouds of insects that buzz about. A group of Rangers note a small column of armored warriors heading towards the site, perhaps the Mantis Warriors have returned...
Gitsplitta wrote: An alpha of the Skitarii rangers crouches upon a low rise, scanning the horizon and processing various wavelengths of data. As he sits motionless, scanning, processing, scanning, processing... a ranger approaches from the lee of the small hill.
This gave the alpha pause. The numerical and force projection disadvantages were overwhelming. They would have to abandon the dig site unless help could be summoned. But what could possibly get here quickly enough and with sufficient firepower to aid them?
"01010011 01110101 01101101 01101101 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001011 01101110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01110011" The alpha knew there would be a cost for this summons... the households were readily available but demanded a steep price for their services.
"01011001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110000 01101000 01100001!" the ranger replied before wheeling and heading off to the communications array.
Unfortunately, I packed up my army this morning before photographing it. That is real binary above. You can plug it into a translator and you'll see the details of the story.
And two knights.... Before you pop a cork, the knights were part of "the plan", I would never take 2 knights in a 1250 point battle normally.
The Game: 1250 points Night Fight 5 mysterious objectives worth 3 ea at the end of the game STW, LB, FB
MW go first, both knights start in reserve as they had to be summoned.
Deployment:
Both forces deploy across the battlefield fairly evenly, the red arrows indicate the positions of the objective markers.
On the chaos far right, a forge fiend takes up position in a ruin.
Center right, a large group of Emperor's Children prepare to advance on the thin Skitarii forces.
In the center, a predator backs up the Lord and spawn, while on the far left a rhino loaded with CSM sits on an objective. There is a unit of 3 obliterators in reserve.
On the Skitarii right, a unit of 5 scouts hold on objective in a cooling pond.
The infiltrators hold up in ruin in the center of the board, able to quickly move to wherever they're needed.
The second ranger unit hold an objective high in a building ruin.
Turn 1:
The Skitarii stand pat, waiting for their reserves to arrive. Firing from the rangers on the right flank takes a single hull point off of the rhino across from them.
The chaos Lord and escort fearlessly move out towards the dig site (crater in the center of the table).
At turn's end, the chaos forces had made significant' progress in the center. The flanks decided to stand pat.
Turn 2:
The first knight arrives right on time! The infiltrators decide to re-deploy away from the Lord and his unit towards the left flank. Shooting ensues, not much happens as a result.
The obliterators deep strike right in front of the rangers on my right flank and eliminate them.
The Lord and company investigate the dig site.
The Emperor's Children move into a ruin near the center of the table.
... and shoot the crap out of the rangers on my left flank.
Turn 3:
The knight on my left flank moves up, shoots uselessly at a variety of units and then fails his charge vs. the infantry.
The second knight arrives and also shoots uselessly at the oblits. I figure if I can clear this objective, I can hold it the rest of the game while still providing fire support for the rest of the army.
The remaining two rangers consolidate on the objective in the building & the infiltrators continue to move forward and left.
The Lord and his gribbleys make a dash for the now nearly unprotected objective on my left flank.
The knight starts taking a pounding from plasmas, meltas and the like.
The other knight gets chewed on as well.
Here's how things stand at turn's end.
Turn 4:
The infiltrators finally make their move, and with the aid of some good dice rolls, assault the Emperor's Children.
The alpha challenges the EC sergeant to a duel.
Thanks to the careful application of the +3 WS, -2 BS bonus... it's a pretty one-sided battle.
On the right flank, the knight charges the oblits, is killed and goes nuclear... taking the traitors with it.
The knight on my left moves forward for some useless shooting. Here's where things stood at the end of the turn.
Three things of importance happen during the bottom of 4. My remaining knight gets brought down to 3 hull points by the forge fiend and the predator, the Chaos Lord makes his way to the ruin where my last two scouts are doing their best to be elusive. I lose one to shooting, only the alpha remains. Lastly the rhino that's been hiding in the far ruins on the left drops off it's marines to sit on one objective and makes a cross-table dash for a second objective.
Turn 5:
Up until this point (with the notable exception of the infiltrators) it's pretty much all been bad news for me. That's about to change. My wounded knight who to this point hasn't really hit anything with his guns... gives me something to cheer about.
The other thing of significance is that I believe the infiltrators managed to take out the last of the Emperor's Children.
In return, the predator manages to peel two additional hull points off of my remaining knight.. leaving me at 1. The Lord and retinue close in on my last remaining skitarii alpha.
The Lord challenges the Alpha with predictable results...
However... then something unpredictable happens... Oh joy.
Here's how things stood at the end of 5. We roll and the game goes on.
Turn 6:
My knight dashes across the backfield and assaults the predator that has been a literal pain in his behind.
... and yeah... as you'd expect.
Here's the view at the end of my turn.
The newly minted demon prince swoops down out of the tower to assault my infiltrators holding an objective.
The infiltrators fight valiantly but there isn't a lot they can do against such might. The alpha is killed & as the only figure in the unit with an invulnerable save, the conclusion is foregone.
The game ended at this point. A major victory for the Dark Forces.
The skitarii had been all but swept from the field. The lone knight retreated to his Household base to report the disastrous loss of his brother and the strength of the Chaos incursion. As he left he made the mistake of leaving the comm channel open, and was treated to the metallic screams of the infiltrators and they were ripped apart by the demon prince.
Awesome batrep Gitsy and both armies looked beautiful. Cool game. I think you skitarri need a war convocation. Honestly I think the skitarri and cult are overcosted and I think the War Convocation is the only thing that makes them competitive. That being said you were playing against a points inefficient army anyway as CSM are in world of hurt for points anyway. It was a good game and the CSM did a good job against two superheavies which could have been disastrous to them. Thanks for all the nice pics and battle report it was very entertaining man. Cheers.
I agree Eiluj, and I'm working on it. I'm farming out a bunch of stuff to Nerdfest and will finish the rest myself. Hope to have it all ready to go by some time this summer.
It was a really fun battle. I like the knights because they're not infallible and they aren't guaranteed to be dominant... you have to get lucky with them.
My games with Yorkright have all been a real challenge and a real joy. We think that in this case it might have been better if I'd started with one knight on the table on the other in reserve... but it wouldn't have really fit the story line we'd set up so I'm just fine with how things went. I didn't HAVE to put the second knight right in front of 3 oblits after all.
I was wondering at first about the knights in reserve and then remembered the storyline so it made sense to me fluffwise as they were being called in for back up. I liked the story and sticking with it in the game.
Great report Gits, as always an enjoyable game! Again I have to say sitting across the table from Gits is always a good time, he puts up with my story lines and makes them shine with his reports. Can't wait for our next installment, lets just say Blood for the Blood.. er For Sangunius!
Yorkright wrote: Great report Gits, as always an enjoyable game! Again I have to say sitting across the table from Gits is always a good time, he puts up with my story lines and makes them shine with his reports. Can't wait for our next installment, lets just say Blood for the Blood.. er For Sangunius!
Flippin' Vampire.... I have a stake with your primarch's name on it for you
I know I haven't posted in a long time... part of my annual summer P&M blahs. However, things have been moving forward at a considerable pace behind the scenes. Realizing that I really wanted to play my AdMech, but also realizing that it would be months before I was properly motivated to do them, I copped out and engaged Nerdfest09 to paint most of the remaining models. He did a brilliant job as one might expect, and now I have a very playable Skitarii/Cult Mechanicus list. Don't have the war convocation yet... just sent the last batch of models needed for that off to Nerdy. As it's only 16 figures, I'm hoping he'll be able to work them in soon and I'll have my convo for the fall tournaments.
For my part, I'm at least trying to put some of my own work into these models by doing a really nice job on the bases. I actually changed the way I approached them a bit from the skitarii infantry. I suspect they'll look nearly the same when done, but the new method is more interesting, varied and much more repeatable (as far as coloring the ground goes). I'm hoping to be able to start showing off finished models soon... but before I cover up the ground with greenery, would anyone be interested in seeing the bases as-is, with a little bit of explanation as to how I did them?
I’m always interested in the how-to’s of people’s processes. Bases in particular are something I just phone in. Seeing how someone who enjoys doing them gets results would be helpful.
Thanks guys... here's a few pics from the tournament the Saturday before last...
My army. Cult Mech CAD, Skitarii ... whatever you call it... and a knight. 1850.
Game 1 vs. a Tyranid list with 9 flyers. Yes, 9. Knew I was done for from the outset, but I did my best to put up a bit of a fight.
My only survivors... robots on the hill with HQ escort... sitting on a skyfire objective (the infiltrators next to them died).
Got slaughtered... but I did kill his warlord and didn't get tabled... so I called that a successful effort.
Game 2 vs. LoTD. Thought I had this one in hand early but it got very dicey as the game went on. Point-wise it was a lopsided victory for me, but that didn't reflect the reality of the game at all. Primary and secondary missions went right down to the wire...
Game 3 vs. Necrons (not optimized). Another game that looked really good in the offing then came down to the last Necron unit's shooting phase to determine winner of primary. Last rolls went my way, but a very fun and exciting game none-the-less. The knight really saved my hind-quarters, dashing all the way across the table and taking out a number of very bothersome units, including the nightbringer.
Last but not least... a shot from a practice game for this army vs. Solar_lion. His scouts are actually perched up on the 3rd floor of a ruin and I managed to figure out how to hang my knight up there with them.
"Lucy, I'm hooo-oooome!" (Most of you probably don't get that reference... sorry, I'm old.)
So nice to see so many of you post that I don't hear from all that often. Thanks guys, I appreciate the support! 
i think i am in love.....
but stick in there mate you've taken the first steps and finished these so far! and I want to see more! 
