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.

Ever so slowly getting some paint on this chunky boyo. No real weathering, freehands or battle damage yet, but getting the basic look down in the right direction.

Love the marines in there for scale!

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Love the marines in there for scale!

Thanks, got to show off them mighty thews in scale

Wip wip wipety wip, damn if this thing doesn't test one's motivation to finally cave in and consider getting an airbrush

Then again, where there's a wip, there's a way (left, right, left, right...).

Wait, you're doing is with a brush? Haha, oh dear. Nice progress anyway!

 Boringstuff wrote:
Wait, you're doing is with a brush? Haha, oh dear. Nice progress anyway!

Yeah, 100 % traditional sweatshop work here

Sensational work on the Titan! You’ve somehow made what looks like some mindless automaton with a gun for a head look really dynamic. Looking forward to seeing what you do with those classic banners now!

 gobert wrote:
Sensational work on the Titan! You’ve somehow made what looks like some mindless automaton with a gun for a head look really dynamic. Looking forward to seeing what you do with those classic banners now!

Cheers gobert, I did indeed try to convey something more impersonal with this walking idol of inevitable doom.

Banners are someting of an open question at the moment. I have a hunch of burning skulls, black sunbursts dawning on dead worlds and so on, but then again I've also recently run across this awesome technique where you use postal stamps of classic paintings as banner basis so who knows. Might go for freehand just for the kicks or edit something suitable baroque if I can come across any marks like that

Other than those and, decals and weathering, this beast is getting somewhere close to finished in the near future and I can take better pictures for y'all.

Huh, surprise tacticals got painted before finishing the Warmaster. They are easier to carry around for social events and casual painting, I guess




Cousin Stunty for scale, hoping he'd become a real boy one of these days too.

Motivating the Warmaster's painting, today I wrote the scenario for our annual Mega-Titanicus. This time it's going to be on two tables, with ~12 or more expected players and plenty of fender benders in the making.

On one table, we've got an all out assault from the traitors agains a fortified siege line. On the other table, we've got a nearby island full of airfields and logistics, pumping support to the fight as it suddenly comes under attack from the other traitor force that marched under the waves to take it down. Some fun little interactivity there, we'll see how the battle shakes out as supplies and bombs fly down from the second table onto the main fight.





Me and my camera will be happy campers, regardless

Stamps as banners sounds really cool, but so does sunbursts over skulls and dead planets! Good luck getting them all done for the mega battle, looks like it should be a cool event

Cool distraction with the death guard, their orange eyes work well.

Thanks gobert. Turns out I ended up with neither option, but such is life

But still, it is done!

COR AUT MORS!

Excidium Ultimum, the Ultimate Ruin, Warmaster of the Ashen Gods, marches to war engines and weapons blazing. Pretty happy with the freehanded checkers, lines and banners, hadn't done those for a long time.




She's escorted by the XIV legion, who are certainly not the bigger people in this relationship.



Some close-ups on the legs. I'm satisfied with those checkers and especially with the knee-joint NMM.




The Grav Imploder is running pretty hot.



Freehanding banners was something I haven't really done, though not that different from regular acrylic painting I did a lot of as a teenager. It was fun... and thus something I'll probably have to do more of in the future, oh dear.




Naturally there are people about on machines of this size. You can spot one in the armpit and another loading the mortars on the shoulders.




Since legio Favilla is my pretentious art project, I also tested using a 0.1 mm pen to put some latin phrases in as appropriate (works, but reaaally didn't like ti stay put when the varnish was applied. Whoops).
- On her front armour the scrolls read "Solvet saeclum in favilla / Heaven and Earth in ashes ending", part of Dies Irae that inspired the legio's name in the first place.
- The skull pile banner reads "Mors certa / Death is inevitable".
- The bleeding heart has the battle cry "Cor aut mors / Heart or death", an ultimatum to submit and obey or die. Your money or your life, but cooler.
- The burning planet with a sword in it reads "Mors tua, vita mea / Your death, my life" in reference to the legio's purpose as an ultima ratio formation that is only sent to the fray when diplomacy breaks down so badly that the opposing side needs to be erased from the galactic memory in its entirety. By the death of their enemies, Mankind asserts its perceived manifest destiny to rule the stars.

Awesome.

It is gorgeously painted, based and posed, but the missing head subtracts a bit for me. But I'm not into Titanicus lore

That is a glorious titan. The only critique I have is the bottle cap really jumps out at me and throws me out of the mini. Maybe it's because I work in a factory with bottle caps everywhere, so perhaps it's subjective.

I went back and skimmed the thread, but I didn't notice a reason why it lacks a head. Is that something in the Titanicus lore that I'm missing?

Besides all that... wow, that is a beautiful mini.

Great job!

Amazing result, just so many great details packed into this monster - the checks, that sexy knee joint, all the glow effects, the banners, the crew

I'm a fan of the searchlight head, ironically I think it adds an air of (dark machine) sentience to the titan that a more standard head wouldn't necessarily.

Boringstuff wrote:Awesome.

Illumini wrote:It is gorgeously painted, based and posed, but the missing head subtracts a bit for me. But I'm not into Titanicus lore

bbb wrote:That is a glorious titan. The only critique I have is the bottle cap really jumps out at me and throws me out of the mini. Maybe it's because I work in a factory with bottle caps everywhere, so perhaps it's subjective.

I went back and skimmed the thread, but I didn't notice a reason why it lacks a head. Is that something in the Titanicus lore that I'm missing?

Besides all that... wow, that is a beautiful mini.

Great job!

Boss Salvage wrote:Amazing result, just so many great details packed into this monster - the checks, that sexy knee joint, all the glow effects, the banners, the crew

I'm a fan of the searchlight head, ironically I think it adds an air of (dark machine) sentience to the titan that a more standard head wouldn't necessarily.

Cheers y'all! Glad you like the chunky bugger that I'll get to use maybe once per year

Regarding the head (damn if this wouldn't be funnier in Finnish, where "main issue" translates literally to "head thing"), do note that the titan isn't headless, but it lacks a human face. The searchlight head is still the size of a tank. The facelessness is partially due to my incessant need to tweak the models so they're unique items, which also includes occasional techno-weirdness, but partially it is also thematic. The Ultimate Ruin isn't exactly a subtle name and being the biggest bird in this rooster for now, is to be seen by our enemies more as a faceless, impersonal force of nature than an individual machine. If you're staring at this monster, you're staring at the glare of the uncaring cosmos for the brief remaining spark of your pitiful existence before it all dissolves in ashes forevermore.

Mega-Titanicus, ahoy!

As previously mentioned, this time the annual big god-machine brawl at the club would happen on two tables (scenarios shown in this thread above): one main assault on an Imperial fortress supported by a nearby island's airfields. In total, we had 14 players each commanding their own maniples, 8 on the walls and 6 on the island. 67 titans and three plucky knights participated in the mayhem, some of them also cycling in again as reserves. I tried to remember taking pictures every now and then, but playing and being the main rules guy to ask certainly make that task harder when intensity racks up and people are trying to wrap things up by the end. Thus, pictures are mostly from the first half of the game.

Twilight at the Gates of Unity.

"The traitors are closing in by the hour, the fools. Our hearts and walls shall hold fast against their rage, imposing as that might still seem. Let them come! Let them smash themselves against our lines, let them bleed themselves dry if they so eagerly wish to die this day!"





Three maniples of legio Favilla's engines, bolstered by one of legio Defensor, stood ready to break the traitors' storm. Lighter Warhounds and Reavers ranged on the flanks while the super-heavy Extermigus force was warming up its engines at the main gates.







Arraying against them, god-engines of legios Fureans, Damicum and Krytos were stomping forwards through the desert heat. As rockets and aerial bombs started to fall like raindrops from the darkening skies, the battle was joined.





In scant moments, the first defensive line before the city was overwhelmed and despite their hard resistance, the armoured elements of the XIV Astartes legion were taking a pounding. Not willing to concede more ground, the defenders sallied forth to keep the attackers at bay further down the field.



On the attackers' right flank, the ever-destructive Krytos took to razing the local infrastructure. With one accurate shot of its quake cannon, a Warbringer of the God Breakers blew up years worth of aerospace logistics efforts.



Meanwhile, on a nearby island the XIV's artillery and airfields were busy providing support to the distant fight. Little did they know that there were hidden forces encroaching on their position by the sea-floor, as two maniples of legio Magna and one utterly corrupted group of legio Omina's monstrous creations soon broke above the waves. However, the attackers would soon find themselves surprised as well but the amount of defending titans on the supposedly lightly manned island. With a pull of the trigger, the air soon filled with projectiles and a bitter firefight erupted.





Some headway is made onto the beach under heavy fire, hijacking the goods being delivered to the traitors' cause. On the western end, the Astorum bring the pain as Magna's lead units bite and hold onto their targets. In the middle, Xestobiax' line holds the traitors' advances. In the east, Omina's daemonic Warhounds spit otherworldly fire and slag Solaria's leading Reaver while pouncing to take one of the airfields under their control.




At the gates, Damicum's Regia maniple advances under their shared shields, with the Warlords protecting their Warhound batteries hiding nearby behind their wide frames. While such a concentration of voids is impressive, it is not so impressive as to withstand a sustained broadside of Favilla's Extermigus and in short order their shields are violently popped one after the other. Damicum leaders order a full spectrum screen to be fired before them, giving them a second to breathe as the Ashen Gods are left scrambling for visibility. With two claw-equipped Warlords and one Warmaster eyeing each other at danger close distances, there is a careful and calm dance of death taking place in the middle of the exploding warzone.



Next to this, on the Tiger Eyes' flank the loyalists are taking a bit of a beating. Though the Ashen Gods' Hounds get some deadly support from the Extermigus at the walls, they are still out of their weight class fighting a delaying action against corrupted Warlords leading a Mandatum pack at their heels. First engine kills are sounded on both sides as Warhounds start popping under the deadly hail.




Legio Defensor takes initiative and courageously surges forth to hold the second defense line against the Krytos Extermigus. With the screen blocking visibility to the Damicum line, Favilla's heavy engines lend their aid to the Defensor's cause. Shields are shredded across the battle line and fires are starting to flare up over the engines, yet casualties are thus far fairly light.



Barely out of the gates, the Defensor Reaver has taken massive fire from the God Breakers. Finally, guns glowing hot from uninterrupted return fire, its legs buckle under the machine's weight and it slumps down, silenced but grabbing the doorframe to the last. None shall pass!



As the Nova Guard seems to be falling on hard times, Favilla positions to push forwards to relieve the pressure. With their Warmaster, Excidium Ultimum, at the second line, it isn't falling to the traitors' clutches anytime soon.




The struggle for the beachhead continues, but it is becoming apparent to the traitors this isle has been more strongly defended than they were led to believe. Never ones to give up, though, they press what momentum they have to hold onto their gains. Surely they were going to get reinforcements soon, right?



At the main gates, Krytos' Warlord Braccus Rex is under heavy bombardment. As it pushes more power to what remains of its soon dying void shields, its belligerent machine spirits lurches forwards with unexpected speed, bringing the beast close enough to pummel the Defensor Hounds with its fist. Turbolasers raking its armour, the Warlord grabs a hold of its assailant and rips the Hound's head clean off as sparks and burning fluids splash on the glassed sands.




At the defenders' left flank, there is aggressive manoeuvre warfare going on with Reavers and Warhounds jockeying for position. Pushing through the Krytos fire with melee engines is costly, but ultimately manageable. The flanking Hounds, however, are a deadly threat.



Legio Omina's Warlord, Lux Aeternis, had proven to be a particular headache for the Solaria defending the now lost airfield on the island's east end. Corrupted beyond measure, it was nearly undying even under constant barrages, yet it would not be enough. The Hounds around it would be torn down and, thus left alone, it too would succumb in time under the harrying trio of Solaria's bloodthirsty dogs.



Similarly, on other fronts it would prove to be too much for the attackers. Toppling on top of their objectives, broken but unbowed, many of the Magna's engines would meet their doom before accepting the reality of their failure. Many names would be added to the list of the lost - Baleful Edict, Ironbound Empress, Scourge of the Faithless... all lost in the cause of the Lupercal, now lying as scrap on the beaches or driven to the sea by the vengeful loyalists.




While the situation at the island was noted on the fortress as some air strikes and bombs also started landing on top of the defenders, there was no time to lose focus. Damicum's charges against Excidium Ultimum left much to be desired, ending either short or as mere scratches. The middle of the board soon descended into total mayhem: the Iconoclast sawed one Warlord in half, engines toppled on top of each other, nuclear reactors began blowing up sky high in succession as the Reaver Damnatio Memoriae began backing away from it all guns blazing. Other maniples of Favilla and Fureans poured their regards into the mix as well, plasma and volcano shots blooming their midst. Soon, the Damicum Regia would be no more and their straggling reinforcement Warhounds entering the battle would not fare much better.

(That's all the pictures I ended up taking, having to then keep up the game's pace.)

Over the second half of the battle, casualties kept racking up but the dogged defenders held their ground. With occasional reserve Warhounds making their way to the fight, the Nova Guard managed to keep their gate unconquered (though the walls were reduced to rubble and the important buildings behind them once more razed by the God Breakers) while the Iconoclast Excidium Ultimum, full of secondary systems and redundant bits as ablative armour, kept frustrating the attackers by refusing to die. The hulking engine hadn't had shields for the last three or so rounds, but kept blasting away at anyone foolish enough to come close until the very end of the fight when it was at last brought down by the Fureans Warlord who cut its legs with a macro-gatling salvo. With such setbacks and the failed capture of the support island laid against them, the traitors were ultimately repulsed and thrown from the walls. 75 % of the important infrastructure lay in ruins, walls had huge torn down sections in need of urgent repairs and the whole sub-city near the entrance was irradiated enough to make it unlivable for the next century, but hey, that's what victory smells like here.

Loyalist victory!

On the whole, the event ran pretty smoothly at roughly an hour per round pace with the two tables mostly in sync (the smaller island being a bit ahead, unsurprisingly). Scoring was given for destroyed engines and held ground, ending up as a 760-550 victory for the defenders. From a scenario writer's perspective, this is fine as the three defence lines were all worth 50 points every turn and basically one or two stronger turns for the attackers could have flipped the game considering in this particular instance the attackers had a bit of a harder time than they ought to because of the situation at the island.

While the battle at the gates felt pretty equally matched, I regret not having the time to look at the forces arrayed on the island table more carefully before things swept onwards. Such is life sometimes, when you're busy setting up the stuff, preparing to play yourself and answering everyone's questions. While careful balancing isn't exactly the main concern for big multiplayer games that are swingy to begin with, it turns out that the attackers on the island were about 1500 points short and as any military can tell you, attacking against superior numbers usually isn't the best of times. This meant that while the island situation was meant to begin with a loyalist edge and turn into a traitor asset as they take ground and get more reinforcements than the defenders, in this particular game it didn't go that way. The traitors got in, but were outgunned and subsequently rolled very badly for their reinforcements, turning the situation into a bit of a massacre. From what the players told me, it was still a fun massacre, but something that was still mechanically somewhat doomed from the early game onwards. Amusingly enough, the people at the table realised this like two turns in instead of checking after the initial player allotment, but I do still take some of the blame for that for it would have been easy to throw a couple of dozen extra knights I had with me at the traitors' disposal as well if I'd realised what was going on. But eh, at the end of the day it's a mega-battle full of moving parts anyway.

Personally, boy the Warmaster is a beast! Excidium Ultimum got a nice outing for its first game, crumped the Damicum Warlords, survived two armies worth of violence until the very last round and looked wicked striding on the field. Sure it's too costly and slow and stupid to use very often, but I like it in these over the top contexts. Next year, though, I need to make a fourth Warlord so I can finally run a full Extermigus without any Reaver-swap shenanigans...

Now THAT is a clash of titans!

SamusDrake wrote:
Now THAT is a clash of titans!

Indeed

It's really nice how well AT lends itself to bigger matches too with minimal tweaking, allowing for senseless numbers of machinery to hit the field while still keeping the game interesting.

Hell of a battle. Lovely photos as well

Wow! The terrain and minis are of an incredible quality. And you really match it with the great pictures and photoshopped backgrounds. These photos belong in the AT rulebook to inspire hobbyist.

I wouldn't know where to start, but AT deserves its own fanzine like the most excellent Warp Rift.

Awesome work

Spectacular!

Helluva battle! And so many great minis. Got me once again checking out AT

What a Titanic duel!

Fantastic shots, and thanks for sharing

Thanks y'all, glad to share the goodness

And yeah Boss, you totally should. AT is great both from the gameplay perspective as well as for the honking models crying out for lavish hobby attention. Best of both worlds in the GW arsenal

Last hours of 2022 draw near and while my hope for this year to be better than the last bastard didn't exactly pan out as intended all over the world, at least 2023 has plenty of room to improve on it

Hobbywise, this year had plenty of gaming and other events to attend again which took its toll on actually completing any projects but hey ho. I paint my stuff for playing, mostly, so I guess that's a positive problem alongside real life things like finally getting accepted on a PhD program So what've we got?

Hobby log 2022:

Built but unpainted:

- 12 redneck tech-cannibals (KT)
- 7 Talons of the Emperor (KT)
- 16 XIV tacticals (30k/40k)

Finished stuff:

- 8 quantum evangelists of the Dancing Circuit (KT)
- 3 Mechanicum Triarii (Epic)
- Scorpius (30k/40k)
- 14 bully-guards of a no-name small fry (KT)
- 2 tables worth of Kill Team terrain
- 5 XIV tacticals (30k/40k)
- XIV Moritat (30k)
- 2 Warhound titans (AT)
- Warmaster titan (AT)



So a bit under 40 models and two small tables' worth of terrain, granted some of those things were larger projects like the Warmaster but still. However, multiple cons, megabattles, demo games, friendly campaigns, kickstarting other people into project mode in AT and KT and so on were all great fun. May the fun continue soon, I have plenty of ideas bubbling in the cauldron when I get the responsible adult stuff in order.

Here's to 2023!

For a change of pace, using my DG as traitor forces for the forum narrative over at the Specialist Games subforum.

Epic: Armageddon, Siegeline scenario, a bit over 4000 points, Imperial Guard (Death Korps of Krieg) vs. Legiones Astartes (Death Guard).

Click them pictures bigger for details

****

Hive Ludeon, last surviving Imperial stronghold on Kennet Majoris. Last refuge of civilian life not carelessly bombed into oblivion by the reckless battlefleet above this wrecked, ruined land. Last hideout of cowards.

Gazing on its smoking spires made lord Styrix laugh, or at least gurgle in a manner interpretable as amusement. His men had encircled and besieged the massive mountain of buildings for months now, watching it die a slow death as their necrotic gifts worked their way into the life-sus systems of the city. But now, as their own fleet burned and fell into the planet's atmosphere as smoke-trailing showers of flame like beautiful, unnatural rain, they would need to capture it by force and dig deep under its void shields to fight on. They had hastily erected new earthworks and tainted the ground further back with deadly chemicals, expecting the Imperial dogs' imminent attempts at lifting the siege at the moment they'd gain orbital superiority. And lo, he did not have to wait long before the tell-tale palls of dust rose from the blasted horizon, signalling the arrival of the massed transports of the Imperial Guard closing on them.

The fools were attempting to force a hole in their siege ring. "Let them try", Styrix mused and voxed an order to all available response elements in the neighbouring sections of the line. His infantry would buy them enough time. Stepping out of his command bunker, he observed as the dour marines of his warband settled in their positions heedless of the slaves digging them further. No shouted orders or fussing was needed, every man of the XIV already set on their tasks. "The Unbroken Blades endure. Come, lapdogs of the Corpse-God, break yourselves against the Grandfather's bountiful splendour."

****

The field is set. A road once led from the wilder lands into the city's outskirts, now blown up and fortified by the Death Guard instead.




Lord Styrix's command post is swarming with activity as men and trench guns take positions.




By the mined road, more men and maddened dreadnoughts shuffle to take on the forthcoming assault.





Led by the rolling column of Gorgons and the stomping Reaver titan, the Death Korps advance towards the contact line.



Gorgons, heedless of the puny trees in their way, smash through the forest to avoid missile fire from the defenders.



Heavy Macharius-tanks take the hillside and let rip against the trench walls, but come under counterfire from the mortars and retreat back on the road.



The titan barrels forth, lasers and rockets smashing into the first dreadnought talon. Deadly turbolasers punch through their ceramite like wet tissue.




On the flank, the deathriders and grenadiers struggle to march and instead diddle under indecisive leadership as the Russes speed through the burning wreckage of the first Macharius.



While the Krieg artillery was settling their Bombards in position just outside counterbattery range, the Death Guard spotted a fatal opening: while the airspace was certainly contested by plentiful fighter cover, there wasn't much of air deterrence near the ground except for one flak battery. As the callsigns of two screaming Thunderhawks appeared on Styrix' command display, a quick command to the mortars saw the Krieg flak suppressed to hell and back before the first Hawk plunged to the ground hotly tailed by two Lightnings. Despite small fires and scratches here and there, the Thunderhawk made it to its target intact and spewed forth terminators who made short work of the Bombards (just! The terminators rolled the absolute worst and barely won the fight through inspiring leadership and numbers ).



As the Krieg line advanced, the Reaver swatting aside the other dreadnought group as well, their rear got increasingly strung out and more openings appeared another Hawk to slam down through the patrolling Lightnings.



At the trenches, the reserves started arriving as zipping Sicarians sped up the road and brrrted a storm of bolts against the grenadiers who had snuck against the buildings before Styrix's fresh men charged in and mopped them up.



As the grenadiers were slaughtered, behind them the Russes opened on the plague lord's retinue and the deathriders charged. Though their explosive lances tore marines apart in the blood-soaked craters, on their own their numbers could not press through the pale and deathly line of power armoured monsters. Broken, the bloodied remains of the deathrides fell back.



At the center line, the ground shook and bunkers flowed as liquid lava when an orbital bombardment struck down from the crying skies. The targeting was not exactly spot on, only vaporising the last of the dreadnoughts completely and causing significant casualties in the surrounding infantry and mortar formations but it did signal the charge for the nearby guardsmen. One of their Gorgons had just moments before been immobilised by a lucky mortar round in the engine compartment, but still the Kriegsmen poured out of their rides and surged into the trench. After a desperate exchange of shots and blows, the surviving scraps of the Death Guard infantry retreated towards the second prepared line in disarray while the heavily depleted guardsmen couldn't enjoy their prize for a long, being themselves driven back in confusion by a furious direct-fire barrage from what remained of the battered mortars nearby.



As the Hawks and Lightnings duelled above and more Death Guard tanks started pouring in by the road, it began to dawn on the Imperial commander that they could not attain a sustainable foothold in time with this force. Seeing the situation for what it was, the assault was called off and withdrew with what assets they could to try again another day. However, with most of the orbital transports destroyed, who knew what they could even get to reconstitute...

*****

Death Guard victory!

Playing the long table was a pretty brutal experiment with the Siegeline scenario that requires the attacker to constantly attain more of their objectives lest they lose the momentum. The road and mostly mechanised forces could help, but the Imperial commander realised a moment too late how aggressively they should have been pushing from the start. Didn't help that one of their flanks basically went "plbbbt" on the first round instead of marching forwards