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I like how that grav-Rhino is going, but I can’t help but feel that thruster should be bigger or that there should be more than just one on each side. What if you did a piece that sits on the angled top surface that adds another thruster?

Everyone deserves a chance to fly.

Damn, posting can be such a mixed blessing. I’m always hungry for input, but sometimes the internet gives input that just causes a feedback loop in my own overthinking. Now I’m rethinking the anti-grav Rhino concept. I’m not going to scrap it by any stretch, but I think I want to reconsider some elements now. Jeez, thanks internet! With your forcing me to seek excellence. *gives a snooty face* Fine… *wanders off muttering* … I’ll make it even better…

But seriously, thanks for the comments and feedback. Like I always say, I can’t do every suggestion but it all gets considered and it all adds to the final results.


The casting masters are pretty much finished for the next round of kits, but a few small parts might need a reprint for quality control.

Two litres of the new high-resolution grey resin that the makers of Solus were working on is on the way in the next few weeks. It should arrive just in time, as I’m almost out of my first litre of the red resin I’ve been using up to this point. Getting Solus dialled in and learning how to get acceptable results consumed quite a bit of my first batch of printing resin, so I expect this next batch to go much further towards making actual casting masters for production parts. It’s also going to be much easier to work with and photograph since the red simply washes all the detail out; sometimes it makes it possible to overlook minor flaws that I clean up in preparation for mould making, and that’s never good.


Here’s a close up of the Predator all dressed up with nowhere to go, as it were. I’m very pleased with how well it’s all coming together.

I’ve quickly remembered that I don’t have an unmodified Predator in the studio; the original armour kit required changes to the turret and sponsons so it looks like I should get my hands on a new Predator sprew so I can showcase future kits properly. It’ll finally give me a reason to assemble and paint the current kit for a third predator in my Black Legion collection, so it’s not like it’s a bad thing. And with rumours of some more Chaos releases in the coming year, I guess the timing isn’t too bad really.

Mould making is ongoing so expect to start seeing the first casts for these kits showing up reasonably soon. Once I’m happy with the results of this first set of armour then I’ll get the Imperial friendly Mk.2 into production. With the feedback and input that came back when I showed the concept 3D models I’ve got a few ideas I want to try on the mutated Mk.3 concept, so that series is going back to the design table, but the Mk.4 should be easy enough to have followed up after the Mk.1 and Mk.2 are in production. Some other version of tracks will also start showing up once I’m happy with the results of this first set. I’m also itching to try some enclosed sponsons and perhaps some exotic weapons systems for the Predator chassis, but if I do that it’s very tempting to do a custom turret as well. I better be careful not to fall down the rabbit hole with the Rhino/Predator chassis, since I need to turn my attention to the Land Raider and Storm Raven… and Knights, don’t even get me started on Knights… so many wonderful opportunities! *shakes his head* Focus! All in due time.

Awesome things going on here matey !

Any idea when the Arcs Heavy sheild generator kit will be available again? I'd love one for my Zone Mortalis / necromunda set up

 Subtle Discord wrote:
I’m also itching to try some enclosed sponsons and perhaps some exotic weapons systems for the Predator chassis, but if I do that it’s very tempting to do a custom turret as well.

Sonic weaponsssssss ...

Also +1 to that AdMech reveal! As delicious / badly needed as your Chaos vehicle upgrades are, for some reason it's the AdMech stuff that really gets me excited. Probably because it reimagines or extends parts of a rather limited range that I personally want more of. (Your dragoon upgrades back when still get me jonesing for a super dumb walker spam list O_O)

Thanks for the feedback. There's a larger update coming soon but I was so pleased with how these Kastelan bits were turning out I figured a teaser image wouldn't go amiss.

The Arcis Shield Generator will be returning in the near future; I've got 14 plasma globes sitting on a shelf waiting so you can be sure that I'm serious about getting the kit back in stock. A while back GW discontinued the Vengeance Weapon Battery kit that was used as a base for the generator so I need to fill those gaps with my own components. Now that Servitor Solus is in the studio and I've got it dialed in and producing great results I should be turning my gaze back to the Arcis soon enough.

While Chaos will always be my primary passion, the main muse that got my studio going, and a core subject for the studio going forward, for me personally Mechanicus is very compelling and hard to ignore; lobotomized and mechanically augmented humans strapped into macabre robotic constructs to act as wetware is just so Grim Dark, what's not to love?. Right now the Mechanicus components are smaller personal projects that I'm doing to test the capabilities of Solus but I have every intention to release them as kits for the studio at a future time. I'm trying to keep my focus on rebooting the current selection of kits in the shop while adding some to fill gaps in the selection and once I've completed more of that I'll be turning my focus to newer subject matter such as Adeptus/Dark Mechanicus and Xenos. Right now my idea is to keep tinkering with deigns in the background so I can have good range to work on together, rather than tossing out this-or-that concept in a piecemeal way.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Your new projects look fantastic!

Please make some Knight parts.

Give Legio some competition. https://www.facebook.com/groups/legiomodels/

I'm working my way up to Knights. I promise that I'll get to them, but I need to get other foundational kits in place before I can turn my attention to them. First the Rhino/Predator chassis, then the Land Raider chassis, and then I'll look toward the Storm Raven and Knights... and ...?

Will you be making "realistic" (regarding width, ground clearance, etc) tracks for Rhino and Land Raider chassis? Land Raiders are especially badly in need of that.

+++ Comm-Link ∙ Active +++ Authentication Protocols ∙ Accepted +++ Data Downlink ∙ Ongoing… +++ Operational Status Update ∙ Standby… +++

 Frozen Ocean wrote:
Will you be making "realistic" (regarding width, ground clearance, etc) tracks for Rhino and Land Raider chassis? Land Raiders are especially badly in need of that.

I wouldn't completely rule it out if there's enough interest but right now I'm going to focus on more straight forward conversion kits. You're right, especially with the Land Raider, I can see the potential to boot the ground clearance a little bit but for now, I want to focus on replacing the old straightforward Land Raider Tracks and then maybe I'll consider something more ambitious.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
An update from the studio should follow shortly, but right now it’s mostly about casting up what’s ready to get things stocked up so I can concentrate on the next round. I’ll show some more of the new kits and how they’re turning out and hopefully by then I’ll have a new 3D model or two to go along with the update.

For now, several months of no painting finally made me snap over the holidays as CA 2018 finally pushed me over the edge. I didn’t even pick it up but my digital codex got updated with the new points and I had already planned on changing my current list from 1,850 to 2,000 so the more points the better! Since I’ve I’ve been collecting AdMech for several years building up to this project I’ve got some more units waiting in the wings and now a few of them can get pushed on to the main stage. Always a glutton for punishment, I’ve added another 20 bodies to the list with another unit of Vanguard with three Plasma Calivers and a unit of Infiltrators with Taser Goads and Flechette Blasters; I’ve got an idea… let's paint a Dominus, an Enginseer, the Vanguard, the Infiltrators, and a unit of Dragoons all at the same time! What a great idea! *Subtle’s nose begins to bleed profusely*


Hey look! It’s a Dominus (and his subsequent parts)… on a stick. I wonder what flavour he is? Silly question, naturally he’s [/i]Dominus[/i] flavor.

Errr… so yeah, I’ve got the preliminary colours and cleanup done and I’m just getting started on working up the highlights. Since they’re singular models I decided to focus on the Dominus and Enginseer first but I haven’t gotten as far with Mr. tall, dark, and hunched bio-mechanical monstrosity here. Eager to see a proper HQ finished to put out at the front of the current army progress, I can’t wait to get back to work on him this weekend.



If I’m going to add 20 more bodies to the list I’m committed to getting them up to speed quickly so I can get my attention back to the big stompy stuff.

Mostly blocked in and cleaned up both of these squads are going to be getting their wash treatment very soon. Beyond the fact that they’re actually assembled and to this point this quickly (which for me is actually saying something) there’s not much to see here yet. Expect to see these squads get finished up before I move back to the bigger models. *Eyes the Onagers* Soon…


One of my favourite models in GW’s entire line, the act of building and painting a Dragoon/Ironstrider really does try to make you hate it.

If you thought it was fiddly to build, just wait, it’s just as fiddly to paint! And despite it all, I want to build like… nine more! Such an awesome model. Still far from finished, they’ve at least got a good start, and it’s only three of them, how hard can it be, really? *Eye twitch*


Here’s a close-up shot of some of the custom 3D printed components that I did for these Dragoons, for anyone who might be interested.

One layer of primer and one layer of Vallejo Magic Blue is all that’s on the parts in the above image. The large flat areas were sanded with a 600 grit soft sanding stick but none of the trim or lettering was sanded because it was just too hard to even try. Since they’re only 20 microns thick/tall any layering or stepping from the printing process that might be noticeable before paint all but vanish once it’s on. Simply marvellous. Solus, if you weren’t an electrified appliance filled with toxic chemicals I think I’d kiss you; but since that is the case… fist bump? *Nods* Fist bump.



To close some image of the over-the-top Enginseer who’s just about done his preliminary paint job. Mmmm… loving… the… blue.

I still need to do a few more highlights here-and-there and a bit of cleanup in a few spots but for the most part, this little kit-bash can be called done for now. As with the rest at this point, there is still decals and weathering in the future but I want to do those as a cohesive process on most of the starting army at once. He was intended to be used for another purpose, and then 8th happened, so he’s a bit over equipped now that he’s back to being a lowly Enginseer again. He’s a 30 point pushover, but he’s a badass looking 30 point pushover.

Ok, as always, thanks for looking, reading, and liking. Input, feedback, inquiries, and general hobby related ramblings are always welcome. Any overlooked comments warranting a reply will get one with my next update.

+++ Comm-Link ∙ Active +++ Project ∙ Kastelan 2.0 +++ Preliminary STC Alterations ∙ Complete +++ Data Downlink ∙ Ongoing… +++ Status Update ∙ Standby… +++

Too regular to be a Deffrolla... Too round to be Adeptus Astartes... Not enough glowy bits to be Necron... Too chunky for Eldar... Not enough spikes for Chaos... No guns for Astra Militarum...

I know!

It's for the Tau!

Proper Kastelan meat cutta

Nice to see you getting some paint in too, and here's another for the Dragoonstrider spam

Always great to see what you do.

Enginseer may be a wee bit OTT but at least he looks pretty cool - might have to steal the setup myself!

Along with painting and casting over the last few weeks, here's an update from other corners in The Dark.


In the spirit of the MK.IIB sponsons for the Land Raider I wanted to make armoured sponsons for the Predator as well.

I ran into a snag with the Predator armour plates once I got a new Predator kit in the studio, so that had me looking at the designs I was working on again… and then I got distracted by this idea… and just couldn’t stop once I got started. It pulled me away from the problems I was actually looking to fix, but this is the result so it’s not really a bad thing.


Always one who likes things to be functional if possible, so they do rotate 180 degrees.

I tried to do my take on a Las Cannon and Heavy Bolter that takes the elements that they have and tried to alter them to make them familiar but unique; I like to think I pulled it off. Naturally, they’ll be modular so the weapon systems can be swapped and that also opens the door to more exotic weapons systems in the future. Expect to see these pop up as a prototype at some point in the future.


This first iteration works to improve the Kastelan model (if I do say so myself) but it’s just not seamless enough.

It’s the right idea, but they just feel tacked on, because they are. So, while I wanted to keep these conversion bits simple I just accepted that it needed to be more elaborate than this.


The ammo drums (Boxes? Crates? Hoppers?) turned out nicely, but the ammo feeds met with some difficulties.

I modelled the ammo drums to emulate the shoulder/back mounted Phosphor Blaster. Their fit and scale seem perfect first try, so that’s one small step in the right direction.

The ammo feeds on the other hand… turned out to not be as flexible as I was hoping. They’re a bit thicker than the material I used to test how well the 3D prints can bend when heated, and I managed to make them far too long, so they broke as I tried to get the extreme bends. I almost pulled it off but even when heated very warm, hot even, it was almost there and then… *Snap!* I’ve since shortened them for the next try and the whole ordeal had me looking at the design completely differently.


The lower arms of the model attached in such a straightforward way it’ll but begging to have a complete component created.

Especially now that I’m much more confident in the abilities of Servitor Solus I’m not going to be intimidated by any kinds of curved surfaces.

So I modelled the ‘nub’ of the Kastelan arm as accurately as I could and then I created a collar around it; now I can make adjustments to that little collar that’s embedded at the start of the process if I want to tweak the fit at all. I’m getting quite good at achieving solid accurate fits but I always want to leave room for adjustments.

Then I wrap the overall shape of the object I want to create around that collar before I get to cutting out the form and creating the details with many cuts, extrusions, offsets, revolves, and mirrors. In this case, after many hours of all that you get the Rotary Heavy Phosphor Blaster…



I know that I’m a little bias, but that looks pretty darn seamless to me. Yep, that’s a Blaster that can do Protector Protocols.

I wanted to embed the barrels more into the arm but I didn’t want to take away from the look that they’re supposed to be air cooled and they were just too large to fit neatly. So as a compromise I shortened the length of the upper part of the arm and added the armour plate to offer some protection for the weapons (and something that could be used the swat and bash in a pinch) while still leaving them exposed for looks and quasi-functionality.

I even think I managed to split it up in such a way that it should be easy enough to cast. At least there are several spots on surfaces that are hidden when it assembles that are good candidates for the main pouring gate and vents. The Kastelan bots and Onager walkers are the last units I’m working on in my current list so you can expect to see these given physical form in the very near future *Crosses fingers for the fit* and I think you can guess what you can expect to see not too much longer after that. The changes I’ll be doing for the Onager won’t be too elaborate but they’ll still be lots of fun to make and should really tie them in with the Dragoons I’m working on.


I really planned to paint last weekend but then I fell down the rabbit hole with this project and came out the other side with this!

Punchy, snippy, and choppy, all in one! While this is a small version for the Kastelan bots I fully intend to do larger version suited to other appropriate chassis. This interlocking counter-spinning blades with a scissor action has been an idea bubbling in the back of my brain for quite some time. I thought it would find its way into reality on a Knight (Yes, that will happen, I promise) first but after how well the tiny little buzz blades turned out for the Dragoons I figured the idea could scale down easily enough.


Wait, did he say scissor action? YES! Now open up and say ”AAAWWWWW MY GAD I’M GETTING CHCHCHOPPED IN HALF!!! BLARAARRRGGH!” *Gurgle sputter squirt squirt squirt*

I’m quite pleased with myself and how all this comes together. Again, I think the components have goods spots to attach casting vents and it’s all articulated so the builder has complete control over the pose of the weapon. Oh, and it looks frightening and utterly menacing; I can easily picture at least 5-or-6 ways, singularly and in tandem, that these could be used to brutal effect quite suitable to a 40k battlefield.

I don’t even have any Fist Kastelan bots in my list but these turned out so well they might just force me to get a few boxes just so I can build some. To say I’m eager to see these new bits go from digital to physical would be an understatement but I’m going to hold off until I’m using Solus for more studio prints. These are still a personal project that will come together as a line of kits I’m going to add to the shop in the future once all of the kinks are worked out and the selection is large enough. Once I’ve got a few more Mechanicus components complete I should also have more of the current backlog behind me, but time will tell how it’ll all pan out.

As always, thanks for reading and following along. Comments, questions, considerations, and general hobby musings are always welcome. Now go build and/or paint something.

Looking truly awesome.

Wow, that was all even more impressive than I was expected Reworking the cowling on the Kastelan arm was smart, certainly brings the new gun into the design nicely.

Also holy crap, you're building an enormous version of the saw-fist for a knight?? Yesssss ...

Question that came to me - why are you trying to bend the 3D prints (ammo belts) again? If you are casting them in resin, surely the resin will be more flexible? (Or I guess you could print them in the “correct” bend or bends)

I was actually thinking, "Why not 3d print them articulated?" but then I remembered that you're gonna cast them afterwards and that wouldn't work too well.

Thanks for the feedback and input! This is why I post, so I can get some fresh eyes on my progress to notice things I might have overlooked. Some comments in another corner of the internet had me looking at the redesigned Phosphor Blaster in an effort to make it a bit shorter.



The change is subtle, but I really like it. The original three barrels tacked on the model was 41mm from the tip of the barrels to the back edge of the armour over the elbow, the first digital version shaved that down to 37mm, and this final iteration has it down to 33mm. I want these to have proper long barrels because the weapon does have a 36" range and the derpy little barrels of the original just drove me nuts, just as much as the silly curved magazines. But yeah, I like them much more shortened even further and I didn't even need to make the radius any larger, I just 'pushed' the barrels into the housing as far as the component will permit and trimmed about a millimetre from the length of the barrel. While still long they're more compact and the proportions are better.

In this case, I'm trying to bend the 3D printed ammo feeds because these are just personal projects for now and I was hoping to just do one-off components to finish the design for my own use and then have them ready for future casting. You're correct though, I'm suspecting that I'm going to need to cast them in polyurethane resin because it'll be much more accommodating to the heat bending process. I don't want to print them already curved and bent for a few reasons; they'll be much easier to cast if they're flat and if they can be bent and shaped by the final builder that gives them complete control over the pose of the model; I have no idea if the builder will want both arms up, both arms down, left or right arm up.

And yeah, if my 3D printer was a Polyjet printer I might actually be able to print it articulated and it would actually bend, but it could never be cast with that ability; I say might because it is rather thin and wall thicknesses would be extremely thin. My printer can do amazing things but it's limited in what pre-assembled movable components that it could achieve. It is something I'm going to experiment with in the future to see what I might be able to get it to work in some cases.

Something to think about with Solus is that you don't necessarily have to have it printed un-attatched. You could have thin connectors in the joints that you then snap as you need to rotate them- if you have a bunch, they could even work to 'lock' the belt into shape after the fact.

Damn the weakness of this vessel of organic flesh! Again, I find myself sympathizing with Mechanicus logic and the idea of replacing and/or enhancing the fragile bodily tissues that we are confined to. A moderate injury has tossed a crimp in my studio work the last few weeks and wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could just remove and replace the ‘defective’ hand with something useful?

At the end of last year my household took in a new cat and he’s easily the largest feline we’ve ever owned. Oakley has had a bit of rough life so when he arrived he was rather aggressive but it’s nothing we haven’t dealt with over the years. A combination of firm-but-fair boundaries (using isolation as a primary punishment when required) and lots of unconditional affection will transform most aggressive animals into well-adjusted pets. However, it’s a process that takes time and it’s not perfect.

Long story short, after being with us for a few months and making great progress Oakley had a bit of a relapse and my attempts to coax him out of a room were met an unexpected attack and he gave me a deep bite on the outside edge of my hand near the wrist and he’s a big cat so he got me good; three of the fangs got nothing but soft fatty tissue but the fourth manage to get right in the tendon for the pinky finger and managed to hit a nerve and/or nick the tendon or something because damn it’s messed my hand up for several weeks. To add to the injury Grandpa’ Nurgle decided he’d add his blessings and naturally within a day it got infected and that even resisted the first round of antibiotics.

After two days of (mostly) solitary confinement and several more of giving him the cold shoulder Oakley and I are on good terms again. He really is a nice cat and I don’t hold it against him, he’s still adjusting and continues to mellow. But damn, for two weeks I lost my strength grip and could barely make a tight fist and I still can’t twist anything without pain so it’s stopping me from casting since I can’t properly close the pressure chambers. You’d never think you use your pinky finger that much until its injured and you discover that it’s involved in lots of lifting and manipulating actions. Seriously cat, my hands are important to me, I really don’t need them damaged.

However, I was spared my precision grip so I was able to hold a paintbrush so that’s what I’ve been doing damn it!



∙ Finally, something looming dark and bio-mechanical to stand at the front of the small throng of troops I’ve got going.

I’m quite satisfied with how he’s turning out and I’m particularly happy with the glow effect I managed to pull off on the Eradication Ray. I’ve completely fallen in love with the Transparent Vallejo paints I picked up a while back for doing really light staining of surfaces perfect for quick OSL colour build up that’s nice and subtle. It works well thinned with water and I also like adding a bit to some GW glaze to create nice bright stain with a little more body.

He’s still not quite done this first preliminary paint job since now that he’s assembled I need to go and add some OSL effects in a few logical locations and there are still a few final details I want to finish and/or get right. The glass globe on top, in particular, is something that I’m still trying to pull off; I want it to look like it filled with swirling/roiling smoke or vapours rather than a liquid and it’s close but not quite there yet. Not to mention I’m still not sure of the best way to pull off glass effects so I’m nervous I’ll muck it up once I get it to a point I’m happy with. Oh well, it’s not like I can stop now.


∙ I had planned on getting to these later but I’m happy to add some more close combat bite to the list if GW is going to give me the points to work with.

Happy to paint something that isn’t a Vanguard I’ve had no problem getting down to work on the Infiltrators and they’re very close to finished their preliminary paint job in these images. Figuring they weren’t holding weapons across their torsos like other models I glued the arms in place for the painting and if I had to do it again I think I’d keep them separate and assemble after; like too many models in the AdMech line there’s just so many nooks-and-crannies at odd angles that minimizing what you have to deal with is a good thing. I still want to add a few electrical spark effects on the ends of the Taser Goads, but beyond that, these are pretty much done, for now.


∙ The original plan was to have two Plasma Caliver Vanguard squads but they were toned down to Arc Rifles to trim some points.

But now Plasma’s back on the menu and I can take another full squad of Calivers and even keep the original Arc Rifle squad in the list for more bodies to push into the midfield. I guess it’s a good thing my pile-of-shame was up to the task of quickly filling the gap GW was so kind to provide. While I’m happy to have more points to work with I’m glad I’m close to caught back up by getting these new additions finished. The end was in sight and then GW just had to go and add to the workload. It’s a good thing I’m so taken with the Mechanicus line so it’s not too difficult to be forced to paint some more for a list.

Ok, it’ll be a few more days and then I’ll get back to casting to get some more stock back on the shelves, and then I’ll turn my focus on getting another round of new kits prepped for production. I still have a few more kits I need to get done for the Rhino and Predator before I get to work on the Land Raider and start reverse engineering the Storm Raven. And those who are keeping an eye on the Mechanicus bits, don’t worry, I’ll be turning my gaze to the Onager soon and then I want to start looking at the Armiger and Knight kits; once I’m at that point I’ll start considering how they’ll all come together to create the starting of a line for Mechanicus.

Thanks as always for reading. More to come. Stay tuned.

Yikes at your hand, glad it's coming back online. Too true on how an injury to a 'minor' digit really does seem to throw off the whole mechanism

But props on painting through the pain! The new mech bois look really good, probably the most your paint scheme has gelled for me

Good luck with the cat bite, one of the ladies I work with at the hospital got nipped and clawed by her indoor/outdoor cat and caught cat scratch fever. It’s a real thing. She was in our hospital for 7 days before being sent home and couldn’t work for another 6-7 weeks as the swelling in her arm was so bad she couldn’t use it to even pick up her car keys .

Looking forward to more kits. The delay may have been a good thing with new GW chaos kits coming out soon, so maybe the Emperor protects .

Least you're in Canada. Healthcare!

Luck on getting better soon.

Random hobby tangent! More important projects and duties? Bah! I’ve got a random kit-bash idea that demands my attention!

∙ I wanted a few more Arc Rifles for some small Ranger squads but I ran out; however, being an unsanctioned and unconventional Forge World I devised a counts-as solution.

I wasn’t keen on the idea of buying more Arc Rifles as bits for a 4 point piece of wargear, so I think this is a good compromise and they even look pretty good, if I do say so myself. If there’s one thing I’ve got now that I’ve built an AdMech army, it’s a ton of leftover arms and a bunch of Arc Pistols that had no other use. I’m going to see if I can bash an upgrade to their backpacks using some leftover Electro Priest bits to reinforce the concept.