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Today was an arm day, finally got my plasmas and fists done (and spent an inordinate amount of time just posing them around making "swoosh" sounds, khem). Now to make more carapace guns and I might even have decent midfield Lords in use soon.

















As ever, enjoy

Like the detail such as the symbols on the guns.

Undercoating that DIY warhound from ages back, and an Acastus.

We've slowly got back into the game and now agreed on 750 points, as we just don't enjoy 1000+ games. So we now have a Venator maniple, a household and taking the previous support banners for the maniple and put them towards a third force.

That warlord looks amazing Sherrypie! Can't wait to face it in combat

Dagany wrote:
That warlord looks amazing Sherrypie! Can't wait to face it in combat

Thanks, challenge accepted

Anyone working on things, or is this my show for the time being

Last year's Acastus builds finally done, except for the still drying chemical pool which will be a lot greener in a few days. A quick and refreshing job after the Warlord, these took all together about half the time the big guy required. Now if they'd just get on with the nerfs so I could actually field these chonky bois without feeling like a bad man

Great to finally see your collection of Acastus.

The last Acastus with it's foot in what appears to be a liquid vat. How did you go about making that effect?

SamusDrake wrote:
Great to finally see your collection of Acastus.

The last Acastus with it's foot in what appears to be a liquid vat. How did you go about making that effect?

Yeah, that one is striding through a chem pool wall and the liquid rushes out. It's just Vallejo water texture, which will be clear in a few days after it dries. The underside is painted deep green and if necessary I'll give it a few washes afterwards, adding another layer on top if it contracts. Experimental, this.

Ah, I see.

Would you mind showing an update when its finished? Would like to see it.

Sure, it should be okay by weekend. That stuff really should be applied in thin layers, but ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

Looking forward to it.

Speaking of our most badass AT unit, I've been painting'n'gluing the second Acastus for my brother's Knight household. The house is just quick black'n'ledbelcher, and still need to add armour plates, and rocketpods for the Quezzies.

Our DIY-Hound is now fully undercoated black, but not sure how to proceed with him. The plasticard bits do stand out, so I might just keep them pure black and just paint the official pieces. Given the black'n'silver of House Galatea(one we made up), I think Legio Mortis would fit in, and a bit of red will make it stand out from the Galatea Knights.

Bases need doing so I might use baking soda for a finer look, given the scale.

Got Shadow and Iron with three Warbringers from the post today, we'll see if they get done at some point of this year :d

So my new AT starter arrived today. It is a really nice box. Also, I didn't realize it had the alternate reaver weapons sprue. Nice!

...but the box doesn't have the assembly instructions for it xD. Not that it was all that hard, but still.



I shall call it the "Meet and Greet"

Quite scary to see an angry melta reaver charging head on!

Love the charging pose.

But gah! Get those barrels drilled on the lasers!

It looks great, my set gets here on Monday.

Albertorius, how much cutting did that pose require?
Not looking to bite your style just want more dynamic than most of the poses I've seen.

Patriarch wrote:
Love the charging pose.

But gah! Get those barrels drilled on the lasers!

Why would a laser need a barrel anyway? Shouldnt it be more of a lense or something?

Soulless wrote:

Patriarch wrote:
Love the charging pose.

But gah! Get those barrels drilled on the lasers!

Why would a laser need a barrel anyway? Shouldnt it be more of a lense or something?

The lense is inside the barrel, which protects the system. Just like in most laser pointers

Racerguy180 wrote:
It looks great, my set gets here on Monday.

Albertorius, how much cutting did that pose require?
Not looking to bite your style just want more dynamic than most of the poses I've seen.

No cutting whatsoever. The range of movement of the Reaver allows for it with no issues.

Of course, it looks more awkward from other angles, but still, I like it ^^.

More battle reports (and reduced pictures, click open for proper resolution)!


Having painted some new models, they of course needed to take to the field and we hit off with a bigger narrative game from Shadow and Iron, a 2500 vs. 2000 point scrap at an agri-sprawl. Dagany had about 2100 points worth of engines with him, so Astorum took the defensive role of a fighting retreat under Favilla's onslaught. I hadn't actually thought about my lists beforehand, so in order to not waste time I just used an improvised custom legio off the top of my head that I will soon be refining a bit for proper effect: ability to swap a Warlord in, Vulpa's disruptors for melee goodness and elite magos for a bit of repairs. Didn't even take a fourth item, all important bits were in and normal stratagems weren't in use in this narrative scenario anyway so what the heck.


Both sides had artillery barrage representing violent storms in the area (which also gave each unit a 1/6 chance of being Quaked every turn), as well as titan hunter infantry running around. The Astorum side also had some sneaky thermal mines. In the chaos of war, both sides could put Warhounds in ambush that would then jump from the shadows second turn onwards when they wished. While the objective of the game was to smack the other at least 500 points harder, burning hatred between the leaders of the battlegroups meant double points were awarded for felling the overall commanders aboard Iram et Lumen and Memento Mori. Astorum had a strong Fortis maniple supported by two hidden Hounds, while I took two Ferrox maniples supported by two Acastii pairs (which I houseruled to lose their Blasts and not be able to aim, because no way am I using their normal rules from an already stronger position).


Deployment was agressive: the defender could put their stuff anywhere on their table half, the attacker on theirs over 8" from any enemies. Astorum deployed close to the front, which on immediate hindsight might have been quite optimistic given the amount of fists running in their general direction, but this was partly due to the fighting retreat that meant that Astorum had to be closer to their table edge from turn three onwards and any lost ground meant reduced tactical options. With that said, Favilla gleefully strode to meet the haughty Warp Runners.







Storm clouds cracked and shields sputtered as the fight began. Infantry didn't really do much in the whole game, as both sides kept sending their troops to counter the other's as Astorum command realised they didn't have time nor room to spare for any lost shields.





We have been informed by a most unrealiable narrator that good guys use blue plasma, red is for baddies. This is obviously false propaganda.







The opening maneuvers are limited, as the Warp Runners take this moment to either shuffle backwards out of charge range or throw some politely missed melta shots towards the Favilla line that starts to encircle the right flank. Ruina Superborum did get a little scratch on Cyntar Volta before its retreat, however, which it then followed next turn by running it down entirely through thermal mines that almost blew its legs off underneath. As Volta crashed down in flames, it let loose with all its guns and unfortunately singed Solem Ignem next to it.





As the first god-engine came crashing down, two Astorum Hounds leapt up from their hiding bunkers near a factory house in their backlines, letting loose on the midfield.





On the right flank Memento Mori had been denied a charge on Proudstrider, as the sandstone hill had crumbled under its weight. Frustrated, it had sated its war lust by mauling the brave Reaver with Edax Rerum and the supporting knights so badly, that it was finally brought low by a thunderbolt from the heavens above... and naturally turned around, firing blindly into Iram et Lumen as it fell.





In the middle, Iudex Ultionis sped up and charged Solem Ignem, ripping its wounded legs off in one go. As the mighty god of war stumbled backwards, tossed around like a broken doll, it let out one last cry of defiance and, nomen est omen, blew up like a raging star. With so many engines packed near, bits of armour and molten metal spattered everyone.





Wounded, but still standing, Iram et Lumen tried to bring Iudex Ultionis down but was ultimately not quite succesful before Memento Mori waded through the bedrock up on the hill behind it, power fields humming around its hand as it flexed its claws in anticipation. Though the Astorum Hounds acquitted themselves well, one blasting Ruina Superborum apart and the other finally felling Iudex on top of the burning slagheap in the canyon, they could not hope to stem the tide alone. Memento Mori stepped forward and rammed its fist through Iram, crushing its spinal superstructure and sending it toppling down through the pulverized buildings nearby, war horns blasting in triumph over the noise of the storm. As Eclipsor was subsequently taken down by longrange lasfire from the Acastus, the surviving crew of Crudelis Ortus beat a hasty retreat.





Brutal! The close quarters deployment meant the Clawlords could get stuck in pretty quickly and given that in Ferrox they hit on 2+ rolling 15+d6 for armour (ie. criticals on 2+ anywhere), those charges straight up murder things. Astorum's straight frontal deployment was perhaps foolish, but such are the wagaries of war and much fun was had by all. Including bystanders, always keep an eye out for recruiting more folks into the fold


Regarding Acastii, I felt they were pretty good with these changes. Flexible, not oppressive and pretty nifty additions to an already dangerous titan group.


We also took a lighter 1500 matched game afterwards (sadly no pictures), which was interesting. He took a full Axiom maniple, I took one Ferrox (a WL, 2 R and a WH) with one Acastus with straight normal rules to see how they really perform. Both went for Engage and Destroy. I wanted to try out War Lust boosted movement for a first turn surge, which failed pretty hard since only my Warlord got Full Stride off and the rest failed their orders immediately, resulting in a less than ideal rush forwards into their waiting guns. Compounding this was a Scatter mine barrage, which resulted in a devastating hit on every single titan I had, because little explosives weren't going to stop me from blasting ahead. As he kept kiting my Warlord out of charge range and hampering my advance with more mines while I kept immediately failing my orders going forwards, things looked a bit grim but all was not lost. Running heedlessly through mines and laughing all the way to bank as only superficial damage was taken, Ruina Superborum withstood another Reaver's charge and slipped past to brutalize a Warhound behind as it was once again almost blown apart by thermal mines. On the other flank I concealed a shieldless Memento Mori with a LoS-blocking smoke pillar and maneuvered to threaten a charge in the near future. This actually realized sooner than later and one broken Warhound was kicked out of the way, though its pound of flesh was had as Iram et Lumen avenged it by smashing Memento against a hill with its own fist from behind. Funnily enough, this was around the time my luck had changed: while Ruina's charge hadn't killed the Warhound it targeted, said Warhound shot Ruina's legs off and managed to make it fall both on itself (killing it instantly) and their mostly untouched Reaver nearby. In its death throes, Ruina's fall managed to put three criticals on said Reaver and without wasting a second, it was then immediately killed by Aurora Terribilis' sniping missile launcher. All this time my one Acastus had been pumping a HORRIFIC amount of fire on the clumped opposition, regularily throwing such lines as "four hits on this guy, two on the other and one on that third" out there. This was taxing on the opposition's shields and gave me time to pump unfettered plasma and melta shots into Iram et Lumen from pointblank range, which eventually resulted in its death and the closing of the game with me a bit ahead. A good game and a surprising victory, even after Igot absolutely shafted for the first two turns by my orders and those mines.

Finished assembly & priming on 1/2 of the new starter set. Gonna try to get these painted by the weekend and the other half built in a couple days.

Here's a quick, tiny conversion I did. I didn't have the bits to make a proper mast/tower but a single column building worked fine.

I also didn't like how short the jib was so I extended it using the jib of a second crane.

Eventually, there will be a shipping container in there.

Awesome work Sherrypie! I really like the overall impression that you pulled together with your conversion and paint job.

 Stephanius wrote:
Awesome work Sherrypie! I really like the overall impression that you pulled together with your conversion and paint job.

Thanks! It's all in that cohesive chaos


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Carrying on, I tried to see if I could squeeze an engine out in a day. Almost, just battle damage, stains and basing to do tomorrow but Damnatio Memoriae is soon in walking condition.

Boom!







Damnatio Memoriae is ready to walk and burn some worlds! As the name gives away, this engine is called to war when no trace of civilization is to remain, sweeping the pages of history clean with atomic fire.







I had a lot of fun incorporating this idea into its heraldry:





Also, since Fajita Fan brought up Fureans some time ago, I was inspired to try some yellow:







...Never again, yellow is just horrible to paint

Bravo for the presentation, Sherrypie.

That looks killer!

Same with your warlord.

Thanks guys!

Next conversion project, because why bother painting the last one before starting another, is a psi-titan that'll be swimming in the dead by its feet...

Got my first Legio Mordaxis Warlord painted up:







That gives me my full Axiom Maniple, replete with Reaver feet the wrong way round:

OMG, gold and royal purple! Dead sexy my friend!

Agree, that purple is sweet and deep. Most regal.

On this front, my psi-titan is pretty much ready for paint.





Put some fifteen or so corpses on the base, both psychically fried and physically crushed. I'll probably put some dancing warp flames as a ring around the left foot, licking away at the piles of the dead.