Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I am starting (have started actually) a sizable project where I am building an Adeptus Mechanicum force which will range from the Skitarii, imperial knights, and a few super heavy vehicles and walkers. My plan is to make the weapons magnetized and swappable so that I can play them in 30K and use them as a counts as Imperial Guard + Space Marine force in 40K.

I do however need some advice;

My first question is are what are the "famous" skitarii armies, their history, and color schemes. The only ones I can seem to find are the red and copper color scheme which I believe is the one garrisoned on Mars. I don't care if they are loyalist or heretical I am more interested in the options.

Connected with the previous question are there any particularly interesting campaigns or battles which could inspire the basing? I prefer the bases to tell a story however I am currently stumped on the story for this force.

Of the forgeworld Adeptus Mechanicum model line which of the models is closest to being the size of a centurion? The ones that look close are the Castellax and Myrmidon however it is difficult for me to tell without the models. Does anyone have these models to compare? I believe that the Myrmidon are close to centurion size and the Castellax is dreadnaught size.

Can anyone figure out what a Thanatar Siege-Automata would work for as a counts-as in 40K. As far as I can tell it is closest to a dreadknight.

Is there any good counts-as in 40K for a Thallax cohort? I need an excuse to include them.

My current models I have and am going to use for my counts as are;
*Toughest Girls of the Galaxy for my skitarii; Hyspasists, Sagitarii, Balisteria crew, Cataphractii crew, Praetorian Storm Trooper level, and more human like Tribunes.
*FW artillery is being used for the Balisteria; so thudd guns, earthshaker and medusa heavy artillery carriages, sabre defense platforms, and tarantula sentry guns. However they no longer sell manticore platforms. Does anyone know whether I can find some of these or are their alternative models that work well? The weapon would be workable by making the chimera mounted version removable but what is a good mount for this?
*FW and GW vehicles will be used for Cataphractii however does it make sense for them to have the eagle or will these symbols need to be removed and replaced with AdMech symbols?
*I am currently planning 2 GW imperial knights, 1 Dreamforge leviathan crusader for use as an imperial knight, 1 lancer, 1 castigator, 1 acheron, and 1 magaera for my imperial knights. Any other suggestions?
*I already have a very nicely painted (blue and steel color scheme) mars pattern warhound titan. So I probably wont get another or repaint. However if there is a reason I definitely should (perhaps another of the patterns is iconic) please convince me to go bankrupt...I mean make this investment .
*I am also planning to avoid getting a reaver as the pts are so high I never get to play it. However if there is a good excuse then I would have to reconsider.
*I am planning to use Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers with bolters to act as Praetorians that have been modified to the level of SM scouts (which they will be used as counts-as). However, I cannot seem to find anything that would make good AdMech that are at the level of Astartes in power armour and terminator armour. I also already have a DA and GK army so I am pretty sick of the power armour and terminator models from GW . Somehow though I am not sick of the vehicles?

Thank you very much for reading this and thanks for your consideration. Sorry for asking so many questions in a single OP. Bad forum etiquette but I wanted to keep this together so please excuse me.

I feel like you could get away with making the automats and cohorts count as Tau

There roughly battlesuit sized IIRC.

 Desubot wrote:
I feel like you could get away with making the automats and cohorts count as Tau

There roughly battlesuit sized IIRC.

Yeah, I guess I could do that but you start getting so far into counts-as you risk loosing the opponent. I also have a modest Tau force already...though admittedly the Thanatar would make an incredible Riptide with some jets taken from a flyer mounted on it's shoulders.

My Techpriest Auxilia were created by green stuffing cloth in place of SM shoulder pads on a box of Dark Angels Veterans. Worked perfectly.

From there I cut the round knobby vents off the shoulder pads and replaced them with a spotlight and servo arm for each guy.

 ansacs wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
I feel like you could get away with making the automats and cohorts count as Tau

There roughly battlesuit sized IIRC.

Yeah, I guess I could do that but you start getting so far into counts-as you risk loosing the opponent. I also have a modest Tau force already...though admittedly the Thanatar would make an incredible Riptide with some jets taken from a flyer mounted on it's shoulders.

Then next closest thing is SM with Dreadnoughts and Centurions. and troops as scouts i think.

My first question is are what are the "famous" skitarii armies, their history, and color schemes. The only ones I can seem to find are the red and copper color scheme which I believe is the one garrisoned on Mars. I don't care if they are loyalist or heretical I am more interested in the options.

There aren't any documented in official GW fluff as yet as they don't have models. Feel free to create your own or just go with the regular Red/Brass Mechanicus scheme which looks boss.

Connected with the previous question are there any particularly interesting campaigns or battles which could inspire the basing? I prefer the bases to tell a story however I am currently stumped on the story for this force.

Standard Mechanicus tropes are defend the Forge World / Fight for the Archaeotech. Which pretty much sums up most conflicts involving Mechanicus in 40k. Are you going to be an explorator force or are you defending your FW? I usually just go for urban rubble as it fits the general theme of 40k instead of rolling fields. Industrial bases tend to be a great solution.

Of the forgeworld Adeptus Mechanicum model line which of the models is closest to being the size of a centurion? The ones that look close are the Castellax and Myrmidon however it is difficult for me to tell without the models. Does anyone have these models to compare? I believe that the Myrmidon are close to centurion size and the Castellax is dreadnaught size.

Castellax are roughly the size of centurion, they're not as big as dreadnoughts. Myrmidon are roughly the size of Tau Battlesuits. Thallax are slightly taller than Space Marines.

Can anyone figure out what a Thanatar Siege-Automata would work for as a counts-as in 40K. As far as I can tell it is closest to a dreadknight.

It's slightly bigger than a Dreadknight. I just use it as itself in 40k (Mech are reasonably balanced for 40k) or as an Imperial Knight.

Is there any good counts-as in 40K for a Thallax cohort? I need an excuse to include them.

I proxy my Mech as Tau for tournaments and no-one seems to mind.

My current models I have and am going to use for my counts as are;
*Toughest Girls of the Galaxy for my skitarii; Hyspasists, Sagitarii, Balisteria crew, Cataphractii crew, Praetorian Storm Trooper level, and more human like Tribunes.

Could work, although you're mainly working from imagination here since there's no official Skitarii models and they tend to vary wildly between forge worlds.

*FW and GW vehicles will be used for Cataphractii however does it make sense for them to have the eagle or will these symbols need to be removed and replaced with AdMech symbols?

Mechanicus are distinct from the Imperium as being an entirely different race that's just closely allied with the Imperials, so prepare for lots of conversion work.

*I am currently planning 2 GW imperial knights, 1 Dreamforge leviathan crusader for use as an imperial knight, 1 lancer, 1 castigator, 1 acheron, and 1 magaera for my imperial knights. Any other suggestions?

I don't think you'll ever get to use all of them at once, but having them altogether in the same scheme could be cool, especially if you match it to your Mechanicus force.

*I already have a very nicely painted (blue and steel color scheme) mars pattern warhound titan. So I probably wont get another or repaint. However if there is a reason I definitely should (perhaps another of the patterns is iconic) please convince me to go bankrupt...I mean make this investment .

Seems one is mostly sufficient. You could also follow the scheme for your skitarii as they mostly provide support for their Titan Legion and will have the same colours.

*I am also planning to avoid getting a reaver as the pts are so high I never get to play it. However if there is a good excuse then I would have to reconsider.

A Reaver is its own reward?

*I am planning to use Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers with bolters to act as Praetorians that have been modified to the level of SM scouts (which they will be used as counts-as). However, I cannot seem to find anything that would make good AdMech that are at the level of Astartes in power armour and terminator armour. I also already have a DA and GK army so I am pretty sick of the power armour and terminator models from GW . Somehow though I am not sick of the vehicles?

Sounds okay but they aren't very mechanicusy out of the box, you'd have to make some modifications or run them as Skitarii elite. Myrmidons make excellent Mechanicus elites.

Thanks folks. These are some really good responses.

the_scotsman wrote:My Techpriest Auxilia were created by green stuffing cloth in place of SM shoulder pads on a box of Dark Angels Veterans. Worked perfectly.

From there I cut the round knobby vents off the shoulder pads and replaced them with a spotlight and servo arm for each guy.

I don't suppose you have any pictures or links to pictures? I think I get what you are talking about but I have difficulty imagining the end result.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:There aren't any documented in official GW fluff as yet as they don't have models. Feel free to create your own or just go with the regular Red/Brass Mechanicus scheme which looks boss.

So my google-fu did not fail me it just didn't exist. That is kind of sad. I was thinking red, black, brass, steel color schemes. Somewhat dirty with moderate weathering. What do you think?

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:Standard Mechanicus tropes are defend the Forge World / Fight for the Archaeotech. Which pretty much sums up most conflicts involving Mechanicus in 40k. Are you going to be an explorator force or are you defending your FW? I usually just go for urban rubble as it fits the general theme of 40k instead of rolling fields. Industrial bases tend to be a great solution.

Industrial with alien and imperial battle debris would look nice. Do you think Tau or Tyranids would make better battle debris (I have some extra bits and pieces of both those and imperial models).

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:Castellax are roughly the size of centurion, they're not as big as dreadnoughts. Myrmidon are roughly the size of Tau Battlesuits. Thallax are slightly taller than Space Marines.

So Myrmidons are just a bit taller than terminators? Sounds like Castellax are definitely the counts as centurions option. Considering I have 2 different people telling me that Thallax work well for Tau (and I totally agree they are similar size jet pack units). I am going to have to seriously consider it. What do you all use for a commander model? I wonder if I could take my R'Varna and Riptides, wire them up with servo skulls and embellishments and make them "looted" mechanicum devises. I would then be a semi-heretical branch of the mechanicum then but I don't think I mind that.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:It's slightly bigger than a Dreadknight. I just use it as itself in 40k (Mech are reasonably balanced for 40k) or as an Imperial Knight.

So it is about ~8" tall? Nice, it would actually make a very nice looking imperial knight. It would even look semi WYSIWYG if I get the right secondary weapons and add an "energy blade" that can be magnetically attached (I did this on my second hand dreadknights as they didn't have great swords).

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:Could work, although you're mainly working from imagination here since there's no official Skitarii models and they tend to vary wildly between forge worlds.

That is kind of what I figured. Humanoid soldiers with energy weapons should pretty much work. The great thing about the mechanicum is that if you have 10 different patterns of the same weapon type it is still reasonable as they could be prototypes or different STCs.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:Mechanicus are distinct from the Imperium as being an entirely different race that's just closely allied with the Imperials, so prepare for lots of conversion work.

Right on, I pretty much figured. Does anyone sell mechanicum symbols like they do imperial eagles or is every one of them going to need to be painted on myself?

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:I don't think you'll ever get to use all of them at once, but having them altogether in the same scheme could be cool, especially if you match it to your Mechanicus force.

Yeah, fielding the entire range will probably not happen but the army will look boss and if I play campaign games it will be a cohesive force.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:Seems one is mostly sufficient. You could also follow the scheme for your skitarii as they mostly provide support for their Titan Legion and will have the same colours.

Oh, you didn't give me an excuse to get a jackal.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:A Reaver is its own reward?

but you did give me an excuse to get a reaver...you are trying to put me into eternal bondage to my credit cards but not bankruptcy then?

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:Sounds okay but they aren't very mechanicusy out of the box, you'd have to make some modifications or run them as Skitarii elite. Myrmidons make excellent Mechanicus elites.

Yeah, I think I am going to need to find a good vendor of prosthetic arms and legs for this project. Any good suggestions?

At least they are taller than IG so look somewhat "super human" and have higher tech gear.