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Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






During the imperial campaign to retake the supply depots on the karautschian highlands, the Astra militarum made use of a staggering number of infantry regiments, quite a few of those being penal guard to wear the enemies down before the final, decicive strike. Among those were several regiments of Beastmen, drawn together from all over the imperial space and thrown into the meat grinder, as their status as accepted abhumans became more and more fragile and thus there place amongst the ranks of Terras defenders more and more questionable. None the less persistent in their fury and eagerness for battle, few survived the finally succesful campaign and found themselves too little in strength to form even a single regiment. As happened before with other formations, the Thoth Askaris who where also present made use of their special granted right to fill up their losses with remaining stragglers in warzones, that were not requested by other, more prestigous forces. As one can imagine no one was eager to take up a hundred penal soldiers, not even to speak of them being abhumans. Yet coming from a backwater planet and not being really knowledgable about the ways of the Imperium, the Askaris did not really understand the meaning of either fact and just saw some fellow guardsmen that might be a great addition to their own figthing strength. The Beastmen Sergeants in charge realized that this transfer would also mean a switch from a penal into a normal regiment and were more than eager to agree and sign any paperwork the Askari Commanders were dropping their way. And when those papers finally arrived on the desk of the Administrativum clerc in charge, the fact that those were ABHUMAN PENAL soldiers must have gotten lost somewhere along the way, so that 254 former beastmen of penal legion five were struck from imperial record while "254 Guardsmen of the 3rd Brokan Longhooves" were orderly transfered and integrated into the Thoth Askaris, never to be heard again.

Of course sooner or later this had to come out, but luckily for everyone involved it was Inquisitor Lady Natasha of the Ordo Barbarus who first realized what had happened there and found those battlehardened veterans a more than welcome asset for her own means, keeping a protective hand above them from now on. In an instance of cosmic irony she even managed to get them some excellent equipment and glossy black armor from surplus stock of the famous Ventrillian nobles along with caches of high quality shotlases stamped on Thoths weapon forges themselves for export to this incredibly rich regiment.


Finally finished my Victoria Miniatures Beastmen Veterans. Right in time to see Veterans leave the Codex, lol. Anyway, the "heavy stubbers" are Victorias VERA guns and were intended to count as heavy flamers (I can see those hitting nearly everything as long as it is near). The shotlas were designed by myself and can be found here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4804581. The current file has slightly broader gun barrels but they are still significanlty narrower than those of a normal Cadian gun. BUT: they have three... it's something. These were intended as shotguns.
Now with Veterans going the way of the Dodo I decided to repurpose them to being Inquisition Acolytes with Hot-Shot lasguns (the shotlas) and Voidsman rotor cannons (from the Astra Cartographica Voidsmen datasheet... the inquisition should get these) led by an axe+plasma pistol Acolyte. Therefore I gave them some cool looking armor in the scheme used for the Ventrillian nobles in the 8th Edition codex. Also as kind of an intergalactic pun, that out of all regiments these dregs of the imperial guard could have gotten their equipment from, it had to be the rich boys
I experimented on the bases a bit with Valhallan Blizzard. The first intention was to get some effect like dried salt, but it looks more than snow on badlands. Still nice though and something new amongst my collection



I also redid the base for my heavy mortar using a 3D file I bought in a bundle, I think from Makers Cult (but I'm not sure anymore). I edited it a bit to cut out the 25 mm bases for the crew and some space for the Mortar weels. Excuse the too bright second picture, but overall a nice result

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/10/25 17:32:18


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Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







Those beastmen turned out quite nicely I like the black and gold armour, really fits for an inquisitor's bodyguard, even if the guards are rather unconventional themselves
I think the shotlass and VERA guns. A fair bit of firepower there!

The remodeled base for the heavy mortar and crew looks really handy. Nice work!

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Managed to finish a bunch of dudettes for the Tallarn looking side of my force. Most of the minis are from Victoria Miniatures Desert Scorpion line. The Multilasers are a 3D design by myself that I got printed:

Platoon Commander with Command squad (don't mind the double vox, my other Command Squad lacked one)


Infantry Squad (the vox is just the GW one cut down and glued together slightly differently to fit the mini better):


Missile Launcher teams:


Multilaser teams:



The story behind the last minis is, that I'm not a big fan of the massive and heavy looking infantry based heavy weapons of GW. And I love Multilasers. So I designed a kind of "light machine gun" multilaser including a power station. The later is an idea I had that in my mind would be pretty nice for Guard: its basically a transportable pack where you can slot in the squads lasgun charge packs (with enough wriggle room that the size 3-5 difference mentioned in one of the Gaunts Ghost novels doesn't matter). Additionally you have a little charge indicator (the green and yellow dots on top) a powercable to either use the charge packs to power a Lascannon/Multilaser or the other way around charge the packs with an external source. And two "clampy thingis" where you might put a starter cable and charge them from a car battery.


And last but not least a size comparison. As you can see the Multilasers are much lighter then the GW stuff.


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Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







Nice work Pyro I really like the multi laser heavy weapons teams. A very cool addition.

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






First Minis of 2023 finished:

a couple of priests:




the third one is at least "inspired" by this pic from the 8th edition Guard codex:



Next: a classic commissar. I tried to paint the dead Eldar a still glowing hole from the plasmapistol into his forehead. Thanks to Captain Brown for the Eldar parts by the way




and last but not least a Beastmen Hero to lead my Victoria Miniatures Beastmen into battle. Funny enough I was looking through the 8th Edition Codex/Index options looking for an IG unit that is allowed to go double power axe and indeed the Commissar that went to legends could. So that's what he will be. Should be motivating enough to have this guy screaming at you to charge.
The sliced up T'au is also from Captain Brown. As far as I read T'au have blue blood, so that is what I tried to do there on the base. The axes are painted with Greenstuff Worlds Cobalt Blue Chameleon Color shift paint. The foto doesn't really give them credit, but they look really shiny!


~6550 build and painted
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Made in au
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







Nice work on some really nice characters, I like the old school priests.

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Two more minis I finished:


a Jokaero as companion for my Inquisitoress:
That model was really cute and fun to paint. I experimented a bit, using Greenstuff World Chrome paint on the metal parts, Chamelon Color Shift Paint (Darth Blue) on the eyes and blue fluo paint on the glowing things on the body.
I also had the idea to add a "holographic display" he just summoned up, made from some transparent plastic sheet. On that I painted a screen, some writing and some buttons with fluo paint, so that all of it glows under UV light. You get a hint of it in the lower right pic, even though my cellphone camera can't really capture the effect. But believe me it looks pretty funny.


Rogue Trader Jakob Georg Anton Fugger the older

An adventurous rogue trader from an old, well established family active in the segmentum pacificus. His dynasty came to considerable wealth by repeatedly lending money to various planetary governors - and finally seizing profitable mining rights, real estates and in one case all worldly belongings down to the last undershirt when their debtors failed to make their mortgage payments in time. When the Night of a thousand rebellions broke out, they lost access to some of their possessions due to uprisings, but could dampen the impact a bit by levering their pull in the Imperial Administration and seizing all assets of some of the rebellious - or overthrown - planetary governments. When Thoth as one of the very few affected systems remained loyal and became a staging ground for the imperial counteroffensive, Jakob seized the initiative and offered his trading fleet, including several mass conveyors and armed Q-ships to supply the Loyalist forces and transport Thoths armies to their deployment zones. This was helped by the fact that he was already the main shareholder of the large refuelling facilities and repair docks in the orbit of the gasgiant Zaori - a venture he has meanwhile bought up completely.
While not without risk of losing this massive investment should the balance tip towards the empires foes, his gamble has been extremely lucrative so far. He has also become a valuable asset and even personal friend of both inquisitors present, a relationship based from both sides on necessity, personal favor as well as sympathy.


This one is from Victoria Miniatures. I love the little ape holding the gun. I wanted to make him REALLY flashy and colorful and the contrast paints did a good job with that.
The name is a reminiscence to a german dynasty of medieval bankers and traders that on one point were a serious powerfactor in european politics. The given names are from three notable members of the Fugger family.

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Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Bagwas lore from page 1 of this threat:
Spoiler:
Thoth 1 – Bagwa
Classification: Industrial World (in construction)
Population:
992.M41 (before the night of a thousand rebellions) approximately 20.000 Adeptus Mechanicum personnel, 100.000 Servitors
50 M42: 40.000 AdMech personell, 300.000 Servitors, 200.000 Skitarii
100 M42: 100.000 AdMech, 600.000 Servitors, 400.000 Skitarii


Being a rock planet about 70% the size of Venus, Bagwas orbit around Mawu is tidally locked, separating the planet into one side of eternal night and one of neverending day. Its atmosphere is composed predominantly of nitrogen and carbondioxyde with only traces of water therefore lacking any presence of clouds. Together with its mineral composition being rich in silicium and rare earths the planet is incredibly suited for solar power generation. After the system was conquered by the Macharius Crusade, accompanying Adeptus Mechanicus forces established a small outpost on Bagwa, mostly consisting of Servitors and tasked with the construction of concentrated solar power plants and photovoltaic cells and facilities to produce those. Furthermore the infrastructure to support a yet to be founded industrial complex on the night side was planned to eventually turn Bagwa into another forgeworld. The refounded colony on Thoth was ordered to support this outpost to the best of their ability in anticipation to have a powergrid ready within one decade. Complying with this task everyone involved got to work even after the Segmentum Pacificus fell into the Macharian Heresy after the saints death. Being isolated again from the imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicum mission expected to make use of the finished power grid never arrived. Puzzled about what was expected from them and concerned about potentially being punished for not following imperial orders, the rulers of Thoth decided to just continue plastering Bagwa with power plants – and the Servitors did not contradict anyway. By the time contact to the Imperium was reestablished a century later, getting rid of the surplus power had already become a problem and the grid was on the brink of breaking down due to the enormous amount of created energy. The build-up was slowed down and the forgecomplex planned so long ago finally build, focusing on the production and charging of power cells and the armaments for Thoths regiment.

But as the established power resources still exceeded the demand manyfold, Nac1r - the Magos send to the Thoth system and given free hand to regulate the Adeptus Mechanicus affairs in the region decided to instead try his hand in an ambitious endevour to terraform the 3rd planet of the system, Oya. Even though most of the technology used in the dark age of technology to change planets in incredible ways to make them habitable for mankind was lost, leaving the Adeptus Mechanicus with such limited tools as century or even millenia spanning atmospheric changes to heat or cool them, Nac1rs calculations indicated that all the frozen world in the system needed was some “significantly hard punches”. This led to the construction of a series of giant Macrolasers on Bagwas night side, pointing towards the outer system, with the first being finished and starting firing only a couple of years before the night of the thousand rebellions. Should Nac1r succeed in his endeavor, the system might be completed by another fertile world, ready for colonization – not a small gift for a simple backwater system, but truth be told, the magos purely undergoes it for his own curiosity and ego, eager to count himself amongst the few that could claim to have achieved such a feat since the golden age of mankind.

Besides this rather glorious purpose of the machinery, it has not slipped the attention of Thoths rulers that the macrolasers could as well – with only slight modifications – could crack Thoths crust and devastate the systems capital planet, should they ever give the Adeptus Mechanicus reason to do so. Confronted about it, Nac1r pointed out that this is merely a possibility as a last act of defiance, should the system ever fall to the heretical forces of the arch enemy, but nonetheless it remains clear that Thoth is well advised to keep on their Forgeworlds good side…


The fledging forgeworld of Bagwa, the planet closest to the systems star has seen a significant influx of population over the last decades since the night of a thousand rebellions. Just like Thoth for the Imperial Guard, Bagwa was amongst the few Forgeworlds in the segmentum pacificus that remained completely loyal and on top of that was not reached by the renegade forces attacking Thoth 993 M41. As the system became a staging ground for regrouping local loyalists and imperial forces send to quench these rebellions, Bagwas slow paced construction had to be kicked up a notch. Thousands of refugee Adeptus Mechanicus personell resettled on the planet, while various Forgeworlds send Skitarii cohorts on Mars decree to bolster the defenses, as Bagwas defence force was minimal. Concerned by a possible negative impact on production numbers, stability (and more than that their own influence) the native AdMech elite took care to thoroughly reprogramm the arriving Skitarii to ensure their pure and undivided loyalty to their new Forgeworld, erasing all ties (and memories) to their origins. A move that was at first opposed and protested by the aforementioned Techpriest refugees. But after some weeks these protests faded away after a series of meetings with the ruling Bagwa priests that led to an unforseen rise in patriotic feelings of the newcomers to their new home. While supervisors from Mars immediatly suspected some data editing going on, they let it slip for now, as they agreed on the efficiency of the matter.
Thoths rapid rise in population after the reestablishment of contact with the imperium and introduction of more advanced medical and agricultural technologies has also provided a well needed increase in Servitors to maintain and expand the planets infrastructure.

Bagwas history was always closely tied to Thoth and both worlds remain closely engaged with each other. While there were some tensions after the creation of Bagwas Megalasers, sticking together against external dangers in the last decades has improved relations again. Externally Bagwa sees itself as devout servant of Mars, even though the red planet was oblivious of the small Forgeworld for most of its existence - and will likely be again as soon as the Segmentum is pacified and Thoth returns to being some insignificant backwater system.

The planet itself is tidally locked to its sun, dividing it into a baking side of everlasting day that houses giant complexes of solar power generators and a night side that is slowly being covered in forgecomplexes to use the generated power. Due to the intense solar radiation and the elemental composition of the planet, the atmosphere is highly radiated and "life" is mostly lived in underground bunker complexes and environmentally sealed buildings. If they had to mention their most valuable contribution to the Imperial cause, most tech priests would choose the high quality armored glas lenses for Space Marine power armor and optics. But from the point of the Administrativum it is something else. Bagwa has only limited capabilities to build heavy armor like other, more well known worlds, but its natural ressources paired with almost unlimited energy makes it perfect for the production of ... the humble lasgun and its powerpacks. Billions of lasguns, lascarbines, laspistols, shotlas, and longlas are stamped every year, while the powerpacks produced, charged and delivered might reach that number every week - with ever increasing numbers.
An oddity at first sight is, that there is no specific "Bagwa pattern" of lasgun yet. Instead the Forgeworld possesses the STC of almost all commonly used variants and their powerpacks which are produced in variable shares. This has become rather sought after, as the rift through the galaxy has made it difficult for some regiments hailing from the imperium nihilus to get spare parts and replacements for the weapon patterns they are used to.

Only recently the development of a Bagwa pattern lascarbine has begun, with a focus of low maintenance, low production cost and an integrated powerpack-adapter. The later is another Bagwa specific product that has started to win quite some favor amongst Imperial Guardsmen, as the adapter allows lasguns to use off-sized charge packs from size I-VI. Another such innovation (or more an old STC that is just not produced outside of Bagwa) are so called "power stations". Basically a portable device the size of a suitcase with 10 slots for lasgun powerpacks (with size adapters of course) and a multi-inlet/outlet that can be attached to all kind of powersources from a car-battery to a plasma-reactor as well as serving as a powersource for squadweapons like Multilasers or lasguns. The device allows a squad to either charge their powerpacks from external sources, redistribute charges from full packs of a non-fitting size to emptied packs of a needed size or use their lasgun-powerpacks to fire heavy energy weapons.
Furthermore Bagwa also produces a relatively high number of Multilasers, that are a prefered heavy squad weapon of the Thoth Askaris.

The Symbol of Bagwa symbolizes their homeworld, with its light, sunbathed side to the left and the forgecomplexes on its right, dark side. Within the night side remains a symbol of an old Adinkra dialect from Terra that stands for ingenuity, wisdom and creativity.



To be continued...



Edit: I want to imagine my dudes as Rad saturated Forgeworld, as I found that most interesting from the Codex. Lorewise I'm still sonewhat undecided with the numbers. I'll have to dig a bit more into the lore to get a grip on population size on Forgeworlds and I have no idea if a billion lasguns a year is hilarious too many or pitiful few. It's intended to be significant but not enough to be imperiumwide famous.

And here are some first minis for this subforce:




This was mostly a color test and I might still deviate from that a bit. But overall I'm satisfied. The robes are dark purple with some plume highlights, the pants and the hat of the dominus this tourquoise shade and a lot of the brighter things are painted with Greenstuff world fluo paints. Especially the eyelenses and cables. For now I did them in orange, but I consider switching to pink. The bases were pretty fun too. Here I used Doomfire Magenta contrast paint paired with fluo paint on top. And the darker purple parts are Marthian Ironcrust with the dark purple contrast paint I forgot the name of. I considered painting the white cogwheel stripes you can see on most Skitarii artwork, but that would just be too much, as they are reeaaaaly colorful already. And damn, these minis are detailed. Took me a month to finish them.
Edit: also I like the radium carbines, lore and role of Vanguard, but prefer Ranger heads, so I just mixed both. I like the look and who cares whats in my collection

Here they are under UV-light:



This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2023/03/04 19:48:26


~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
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Made in au
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







Wow. really nice work, the UV paint looks really cool and the overall scheme really seems to work well. The firey purple theme works much better than I'd have ever considered

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Thanks Oldmate, I'm also very satisfied with the result.
By the way: I finally did an updated 9th edition head count of my collection and the points really did go up quite a bit. So I'm well over 8000 points already. + over 300 points of Admech. Onwards to 10.000 I would say...

~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
830 
   
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Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Finally finished some more of my Admech guys. Damn those dudes are detailed. I was hoping to finish them end of March and now we have May... Anyway here you go: a Manipulus for whom I'm still figuring out if I can come up with some nice background. I again used a lot of fluopaint from GSW. My photography skills are unfortunatly pretty bad and the pic doesn't really do him justice. But I'm pretty satisfied with him. The lower right pic is under UV-light


Also some Ruststalkers and Infiltrators. I might make the darker parts of the bases a bit darker and change the rims to purple. The lower pic each is under UV-light



I'm still considering if and which decals I'll use. Put I put that off for the future. I have some half finished Pteraxiis next, the bodies are finished, the wings get primed tomorrow or so. And I'm starting on a pair of Kastelan robots now...
Great things to come.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2023/05/08 09:06:38


~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
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Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







The colours work really well. Great work!

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Again something that took ages to finish, because those little AdMech buggers have so damn much detail... A unit of Pteraxiis, again mixed between both variants because I wanted to play around. I much prefer the skystalker heads, so all of them got those. The cool bases are from deadly print studios. I continued experimenting with GSW fluo colors, including on the flames, but that really didn't work out. I did the white and yellow parts in fluo paint, tested the look under UV light and it just looked really bad (Fluo white has a distinct blueish hue, fluo yellow a green one and overall it just looked dirty). Unfortunatly that was in a state where I could not easily "walk back", so I just left it. The eyes and some cables and tubes are still nicely fluorescent, but if I ever display them under UV, I might revisit the flame parts to repair that.

The wings have a chamleon color shift hex camo (which one can see on the left pic in the second line). It's much better visible on the miniature, but I don't have the foto equipment to catch that.

None the less a cool addition to my collection.


This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/11 13:46:16


~6550 build and painted
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Boom! Leman Russ Commander






I managed to finish a pair of the good old Robo-dudes. The cristals are phosphorescent crystals from GSW painted with contrast colors which is again a really cool product. One can illuminate them with an UV light for some seconds and they glow afterwards. Funny stuff. The bright green and pink parts are again GSW fluo paints. The alternative heads from Wargames Exclusive.
I tried out GSWs shiny black basecoat spray (which came on rather thick but that might be on me) and then added Chameleon Color Shift paints. Darth blue for the dark parts and then some stripes in Celestial Azure. The whole color scheme was a test if that would be a nice way to do the vehicles for my AdMech detachment. The result looks good, but I think I will go in another direction for further vehicles.
As the lenses are bigger than on the AdMech stuff I did so far I painted them with different fluo paints ranging from darker orange to yellow.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/16 13:53:10


~6550 build and painted
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Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







I do really like the blue black of the castelan's rounded armour, it's like a beetle's carapace on these things and different coloured fluids coursing through the mad assortment of pipes. It really suits the mechanicus. Really nice work!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/17 10:38:19


   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






To somewhat mitigate the constant struggles to supply the Askaris with dedicated tanks, the Forge complexes of Bagwa and Heavy industry konglomerates on Thoth itself have adapted to produce some of the less common Chimera variants. While those can of cause not compete with their corrosponding Leman Russ counter part, they provide the still young regiment with invaluable fire support.
After their first combat campaigns during the change from 41st to 42nd millenium, some valuable lessons were learned leading to some further adjustments. This includes a change from the more conventional Chimera layout with the turret in the front, to the less common central turret design, that gives the driver and gunner another hatch to exit the vehicle. Furthermore some variation of the established camo design was introduced for testing, as the classical one adjusted for dry forrest proved to be suboptimal. Future will tell which one will be kept.


The main variants are so far:

Chimerro Bagwa pattern
To provide the ability to reload the hunter killer missile under armor protection, two different patterns were designed, or rather drawn from the STC fragments available to the system. The variant produced on Bagwa includes a large revolver on the side, which contains three slots for missiles, the inner most open to the crew compartment for reloading.


Chimerro Thoth pattern
A more simplified solution was found on Thoth, were a small armored hatch was included into the turret roof, with the hunter killer launch tube adjusted to be rotated 90 degrees just on top of that hatch. Following that the crew can open it and reload the next missile. While this design provides less armor for the projectiles and somewhat compromises the stability of the turret roof, it is well liked since it is almost indistinguishable from the conventional Chimera.


Chimedon/Chimedicator
The well known variant sporting a smaller caliber Conquerer Cannon was also produced in a small test batch, before switching to the jokingly named „Chimedicator“ that is armed with a scaled down Eradicator Nova cannon. The weapon was also adjusted to be used as a howitzer for direct and indirect fire and provides some much needed fire power against entrenched positions.


Chimerrax Thoth pattern
The production oft he Chimerrax variant – usually armed with four Autocannons – met some problems. The STC fragments at hand where incomplete and the weapon smiths of the system were not able to replicate a working system for the ammo feeds. To adjust and use their strength, they instead „rediscovered“ a subvariant with four Multilasers instead. The stop gap solution proved quite potent against ligthly armored flying foes like Gargoyles or dark Mechanicus Pteraxiis while also being pretty effective when focussed on swarms of heretic foot soldiers on the ground. The tranport compartment had tob e halfed though to house the massive charge cells and condensators to provide energy for the laser array.




________________________________

Last but not least: a farewell to my "old" vehicle park that I recently thinned out to make more room in my vitrine.

Now the following are gone:
the bridgelayer, the bunkers, the Wolverine tank, the orky sentinel, the M4 Scott with Chimera turret, the GW Chimera, the Models and Minis wheeled Chimera, the Scylla tankette and the staghound-Tauros-proxy. Also 10 of my rough riders, the ones on GW cold ones and the Mongols.
May they serve their new owners well

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/09/03 08:51:16


~6550 build and painted
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Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







Loving the new paint scheme. And the new chimera is really really nice!

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Finished off a bunch of minis from Titan-Forges Amazon line which seems to be intended as Seraphon Proxies, but work well for Imperial guard I think. I apologize for the rather yellowish pics, the light around here is not really good for taking pics at the moment.
First a couple of dinosaur riders intended to serve as Deathriders or Rough Riders as well as Death Rider Commander:

Raptor Riders
Here I experimented a bit with the different contrast blue shades I have. Also worked in a bit of Catbarfs Coconut Crab style on the hind legs (even if one cannot see it very well here). The bases were made with Greenstuff world Aztec Rolling pins. I also like the effect of "Blood for the blood god" and used it on some weapons and claws.


Brutosaurus Riders:

a bit heavier cavalry. I wanted to try and paint them in a style similar to the european goldfinch, a colorful species from around here that I really like:

Also here is their officer "Jurassica, the first to charge" which is a pretty cool name under which it was sold, so I'll keep it.

Only downside to these models: the spears are reaaaaly brittle and are fixed to the body at the wrist which at least for my superglue is kind of a chalenge and they break of really easily.

Last but not least three minis that were sold as "heirs of Kong". I love them... they will be a trio of Bullgryns. My wife had the idea to give the first one a poor little Tyranid that he just ripped in half, including some guts sticking out, which turned out pretty cool. I also like the effect of "blood for the blood god" on his knuckles and chestplate

~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
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Boom! Leman Russ Commander






The next one was an MDF toy robot my daughter and me build to gether, but that she did not want to keep. So I decided to paint it up in a test color for vehicles for my Admech force and also add a 3D print of the Forgeworlds symbol. The half circle symbolizing the day side of the tidally locked planet and the half cogweel the industrial complexes of the night side.
My wife also added some LED lights, two on top and one at the "heart". And my local GW-shop guy gifted me a Carnifex head from the bits box which I put into the robots hands as if he had just ripped it out.
It seems to be knight sized, but I'm not into it enough to change the hands for the typical knight weapons. It's more of a little plaything for my collection, like a big brother for the Kastelan robots.





~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
830 
   
Made in au
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







The Gorillas and amazon dinosaur cavalry are really cool, pity about the brittle spears. You might be able to replace them with white metal ones from wargames foundry or the assault group (as they both make aztec weapons)

I really like the robot, and it sounds like a real collective effort! Props to the Pyroalchi family for an awesome project!
The carnifex head is a great addition.

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Some reinforcements again. I also found a lighting setup for my camera.

Datasmith:
I modified my paintscheme a bit compared to the other Admech guys. It's still very colorful, but damped down a lot. With much more blue glow where the others had bright orange and pink. Also played around with the metal trash on the bases (I think they are from Microartstudio, but I'm not completely sure about it) using different metallic colors, shades, Typhus corrosion and Ryza rust, this time leaving out the pink fluo paint on the bases. The lenses, blue tubings and greenish lights are still painted with GSW fluo paint and are shiny under UV.


Technoarcheologist
As one can imagine, I'm trying to "bring the band together". Only a Techpriest and Cawl are left I think. Really nice model and a joy to paint.


last but not least: a Cullexus Assassin. I originally didn't even want to buy one, but I was getting some Admech stuff via Ebay and the seller had this guy for 5 Euro on top so I though "meh, why not". I tried (more or less successfully) to replace the weird skull face with a blank smoth white surface. Mostly because I personally find that more scary than a smiling skull. Also worked a bit with glossy varnish and GSW fluo green. Overall nice result I think.

~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
830 
   
Made in au
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







Some really nicely painted Mechanicus characters!

The completely faceless Cullexus really suits an agent that is working in the employ of the mechanicus, especially when combined with your signature fluro hoses and tubes!

Again I love the weird and wonderful assortment of coloured hoses, pipes and tubes, it really lends itself to the cobbling together of odd and barely understood technologies, exotic materials and probably highly hazardous chemicals!

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






another bunch of finished minis, mostly from Titanforge.
A N'Go Primaris Psyker to go as leader for the bunch of Witch Doctors that sit in my vitrine waiting for a Wyrdvane Psyker datasheet to come up again. I find the blue-purple-red fabric works surprisingly well and the pose is pretty funny.



Of course the Tallarn half of my force also needs another Primaris Psyker too, so here comes old Hasrabal (named after an NPC from an RPG I play that he reminds me off). That giant turban was just awesome to see and I knew I had to have him. Also a cool pose to have him flying but still have his teapot nearby.


Then we have good old Sly Marbo. I just wanted to get one before he maybe gets replaced by a new model. His skin came around a bit darker then intended, but it is OK. I have to say though, I like Victorias female Sly a little more (in spoilers for comparison)

Spoiler:


Then a bunch of amazon characters from Titanforge. I got them for free on a larger order (the dinosaur riders I recently presented). So I had no real plan for them and just played around with contrast colors to see what I got. As they are 6 women with a distinctive style, I'll file them under "Triumph of St. Katherine" for my personal "what's in my collection" check list. If I find a nice, stylish looking, Aztec sarcophagus I might put them all on a fitting shared base.



As Oldmate asked: a size comparison of my different Ogryns and Bullgryns

from left to right: Titanforge, Mortian, Victoria Miniatures, Games Workshop, Atlantis Minitatures, Reaper Miniatures

~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
830 
   
Made in au
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot







I really like both Primaris psychers they both really suit the aesthetic and cultures of your forces, I have to say the combination of the spectacular turban and tea pot make the Tallarn fellow my favorite!

I have to agree I like Victoria's Sly Marbo a bit better too, I actually have one, I think I might convert her into a tank commander.

The amazons look great, sometimes it's good to have a handful of figures that you can experiment with. Indeed a sarcophagus and some assistant pterasaurs (instead of cherubs, rolling with the whole Amazon dinosaur theme) would be absolutely fantastic!

I'm not going to lie, looks like your three Ogryn proxies would rip the arms off an ogryn the way an ogyrn does it to a regular human. A real tough lot!

   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Finally finished the Serberys I have been working on through december. I got into a bit of a slump around the holidays with my birthday, christmas and new year in between. Therefore it took longer than expected. But as usually: hang in there and you reach the finishing line someday. And as this whole adventure is my way of unwinding after work it doesn't really matter if I need months for 3 guys anyway, does it?

I used the GSW fluo colors again and would claim I get better. I also changed my paint scheme for the armorplates following something I saw in my GW store: Retributor armor base, followed up by Flesh Tearers red Contrast and topped with Ardcoat. Gives a really nice red metallic tone that looks even better than in the pics in real life. From my fluff I just imagine the Forgeworld itself experimenting with different alloys to explain why my older AdMech dudes have matte, non-metallic armor plates.
I also switched the heads for the ranger heads, as I find those cooler, even though I wanted Sulphurhounds. The bases are again glowing as they hail from a rad saturated world. Doesn't matter if this doesn't exist in the army rules anymore, it was a cool background in 9th edition (or was it 8th?), it will stay in my book






Another thing: my daughter (10 years) showed interest in painting minis again (way back she experimented a bit with some tin-romans) and build and painted this funny dude here:

Recently she also designed a knight base with bushes and gamer grass and wants to paint some more "little plastic men... or horses... or dragons!". I want to motivate her a bit to try it out, partly because it shouldn't be a "boys only" hobby, partly because it would be cool to have one child interested in the same hobby as myself. So if any of you wants to leave her a comment on the pic, that would definitly make her day.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/01/20 20:33:52


~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
830 
   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






To: Lord Militant Ludovigo Piavozza
From: Departmento Munitorum Clerk 5th Class Pavel Dimetrowitsch, Segmentum Pacificus, Subsector Kappa

Subject: Briefing on local battle theater and regimento 2nd Thoth Askaris


Section 1: general adress


Congratulations on your promotion Lord Militant. May the emperor bless your command and lead your forces to victory.
As to your request I include the information requested by you within this briefing in the sincere hope that it will help you in your endeavors. Note that me and my subdepartment are fully aware of the current dire situation within the central rimward subsectors, but the segmentum HQ on Hydraphur have rated this battlezone a Gamma grade priority, while all available reinforcements are to be directed towards the northern subsector to protect the capital – Hydraphur itself. Therefore, no notable reinforcements are to be expected. Nonetheless I’m confident a commander as capable as you will be able to ensure victory, especially as your promotion would otherwise look a lot like a disguised death sentence layed upon a commander that made to much powerful enemies…

Section 2: current strategic situation

As you are aware the event referred as the Night of Thousand Rebellions in 992.999 M41 has plunged large proportions of the Segmentum Pacificus into chaos, with the battle lines only slowly stabilizing. Subsector Kappa, which you have been stationed to, is centered around the Thoth system, conquered during the Macharian Crusade (for a system description and historic briefing see files C12-D47). Unlike most systems in the vicinity Thoth remained loyal and successfully fought of 3 attempted smaller Chaos invasions during the last decades, with the help of allies from the Commonwealth (see files E7-E9). Due to the current situation the subsector around Thoth is partly isolated from the rest of the imperium and has become a staging ground for all remaining loyalist forces that are not able to reach the main lines. In accordance with Munitorum decree Eta 417-A-332 Thoth performed several emergency tithes to raise a regimento of adequate size to relieve pressure from the main imperial lines around Hydraphur, subdue neighboring rebellious systems and reestablish contact with the imperial main force (in this order of priority).
In contrast to usual Imperial practice, all regiments of the Thoth Askari regimento have been formed into a more or less cohesive army to be employed together.

Section 3: General Comments on the Regimento

The addendum “ 2nd ” in the regimento description is rooted in local history, to commemorate the first regimento that was raised in 741 M41 but was completely annihilated the same year by Hive Fleet Behemoth. During standard procedures, the separate regiments drop this number and only use their separate regiment numerals.
In accordance with the planet’s population the regimento is split between so called Maghrebians – decendants of Tallarn Guardsman that have been settled on the planet – and N’Go, the endemic population in a ratio of about 1:2. The Maghrebians act tactically rather similar to Tallarn regiments, specializing in desert warfare, but tend to not reach the amount of mechanization of this renown regimento. The N’Go hail from jungle regions and are rather adept at jungle warfare. Note though that Thoth is not a dead world and the N’Go therefore are no Catachans.
While the whole system is outright invested into providing equipment, weapons and ammunition for the regimento, the materiel situation is rather difficult (see the regiment descriptions in the following sections). Therefore, you should adjust your expectations regarding the combat performance of single regiments. Most notably is the inability of the local industry to produce long range cannons and large caliber high velocity ammunition in adequate quality and quantity, as well as a far underperforming output of Leman Russ Battle tanks. Instead, they have adopted a variety of Chimera based and locally sourced vehicles that are rarely seen in other regimentos as stop-gap solutions. Furthermore, a significant stockpile of Malcador and Carnodon tanks have been aquired by the regiment and are produced on world together with different patterns of the Macharius tank-schemata.
As another saving grace the planet itself as well as the local Forgeworld do have significant experience and production capability in las-weapons of all sizes, stamping 78.62 % of all lasguns of the whole Segmentum Pacificus, as well as autocannons, low velocity howitzers using Eradicator shells and missile launchers. In order to simplify logistics, all branches of the army try to focus on these weapon types, while plasma and melta weapons are so rare, that they are completely reserved to elite formations.


Section 4: Regiment Organization

Light Infantry

The vast majority of regiments raised on Thoth are light infantry regimentswhich make up about 80% of the total regimentos personell. The basic Thoth infantry squad is composed of 10 Guardsmen, armed with lascarbines and close combat weapons of various times (knifes, swords, spears, clubs etc.). Only about 20% of the guardsmen could be issued with light flak vests, but a type of at least bullet and lasgun resistant hardwood shield is rather common. While plasma and melta weapons are rare, each squad could be provided with either a combination of grenade launcher and light multilaser (equivalent to a heavy stubber) or a flamer and tread fether (a scaled down missile launcher) to deal with armored as well as infantry targets. 4 of these Squads, supported by a dedicated sniper squad and a command section including a vox caster form a platoon of 50 soldiers.
6 such platoons supported by an Ogryn and Rough Rider Squad form a Company, under a company command section including a preacher and a medicae team, 320 Guardsmen in total. Due to the limited amount of vox casters, the Rough Riders are intended as a backup to relay orders between the sections.
6 Companies form a regiment under a regimental command section under a Colonel and Major including a Ministorum Priest, Commissar and Junior Commissar with 1930 personell in total.
As demonstrated, the number of commissars is comparatively low while the Adeptus Ministorum presence is notable. Reports from the Commissariat so far paint a rather flattering image of the Askaris bravery and fighting spirit, with very little commissarial intervention necessary, as long as their religious needs are provided for by the servants of the imperial faith.
The infantry regiments themselves usually do not include transports due to the simple reason of not enough trucks being around. Instead 5 Regiments share a logistic company big enough to redeploy at least a single regiment within an acceptable time frame.



The numerically next biggest asset are the Askaris cavalry regiments, organized as light, heavy and mechanized cavalry.

Light Cavalry

Light Cavalry regiments not only provide the eyes and ears of the Askaris infantry but also a quick response force to stabilize a faltering flank or capitalize on a local breakthrough. Each is formed of 8 companies of 35 Rough Riders each, mostly armed with hunting lances, while some minor formations of lasgun and grenade launcher armed dragoons exist. Due to Thoths diverse megafauna and a significant intake of dispersed rough rider squads from other regiments, the species of mounts are rather diverse. While horses and horse like species dominate within the maghrebian regiments, the N’Go deploy amongst others fast reptiloid species, armored burrowing animals, ape like mounts that can traverse through the jungle canopy as well as bipedal birds with sharp beaks. All these have in common that they are well suited for jungle warfare and are able to at least partly sustain themselves from the local fauna if deployed within adequate vegetation, easing the logistic demands of such forces.
Each regiment is also complemented by a Support Company build from 5 platoons of 9 Support Sentinels each, a variant of the well-known unarmored Sentinel walker, armed with a large missile launcher for indirect fire as well as improved stabilizors to withstand the recoil. This brings the numbers up to about 1200 cavalry and 45-50 sentinels per regiment, with roughly 1 light cavalry regiment per 5 light infantry regiments.


Mechanized Cavalry

To provide heavier firepower to fast response forces, 3 light cavalry regiments are supported by a mechanized or heavy cavalry regiment, the former being predominantly present in the maghrebian regiments. Two Command Salamanders lead four companies, build from 3 Squads including a Salamander Scout Tank, two Tauros Venators and two Tauros Assault Vehicles each. The separate squads therefore has enough firepower to successfully skirmish and attack targets of opportunity but should refrain from engaging in prolonged firefights or against dedicated armor. Each Salamander includes a Vox-amplifier to provide better com-range and -reception for the infantry. These sum up to a total of 500 Guardsmen manning 52 vehicles.



Heavy Cavalry

N’Go forces instead prefer so called heavy cavalry regiments, which are composed of larger animals from Thoths megafauna. While those are significantly slower than a mechanized regiment, they can traverse much better through dense forests and jungles and are also independent from fuel logistics. The majority of used animals are mammals referred to as “Elephants” and manned by several Guardsmen armed with long power lances or in some cases multilasers and lascannons, while the animals themselves are formidable opponents in close quarters fights. 8 companies of 15 elephants each are supported by two heavy companies formed of 2x6 giant warbeetles. These Arthropoda surpass a Leman Russ battle tank in size and have been reported to successfully engage enemy tanks and Tyranid Carnifexes in close combat while also carrying a spezialized howda with two twin lascannons or twin multilasers each. Each regiment thereby is composed of 135 beasts and 500 cavalrymen.


Light Artillery

While the production of armored vehicles is yet insufficient, the inhabitants of Thoth did their best to provide at least some heavy firepower to their regimento by raising several light artillery regiments, with roughly 1 such formation for every 15 light infantry regiments.
The regimental command is formed by a Command Chimera and two Tauros artillery spotters with advanced telemetric and communication equipment as well as the necessary cogitators to calculate fire solutions based on the reconnaissance reports of other regiments. Two of the subordinate companies are intended for direct fire, including 3 towed heavy lascannons as well as 3 trucks with 3 Lascannon and Autocannon teams each.
Another 4 companies are intended to provide indirect firepower with 3 towed howitzers firing eradicator subatomic ammunition as well as 3 trucks with 6 mortar teams each.
A squad of 3 specialized support sentinels armed with skyspear missiles protects these assets from aerial threats, while a support element of 4 Tauros Cargo and 6 trucks carries ammunition.
In total this amounts to 500 artillerymen, 18 towed artillerypieces and 114 crew served weapons per regiment


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The regiments described above form a division in the mentioned ratio of 15 light infantry : 3 light cavalry to 1 heavy/mechanized cavalry : 1 light artillery regiment. Three such divisions form a corps, which also includes a regiment of Scions (usually Muan Mangooses), a Tank regiment, Artillery Regiment and as N’Go speciality an Amphibious Regiment.

Artillery Regiment

As mentioned in the introduction, Thoth itself has almost no capability to construct adequate large caliber high velocity cannons, therefore preferring missiles and mortars as artillery pieces. Hence, each Artillery regiment includes (at least in theory) one company each of 9 Manticors and 9 Wyverns while another two companies are formed up of various barreled artillery including Basilisks, Medusas and Colossus, sometimes self-propelled, sometimes towed. These weapons were mostly integrated from dispersed units of other loyalist forces or are battle salvages and captures. While it is intended to phase them out in favor of Manticors and Wyverns to simplify logistics, the current industrial output of Thoth makes it unlikely this will be successful within the next decades.
Two Praetor Launchers per regiment form a heavy company for high priority targets.
A support element of Trojans, Atlas and Powerlifters completes the regiment and brings the numbers up to 500 artillerymen in about 50 vehicles.



Tank Regiment

The relatively few tank regiments of the regimento are led by a Command Chimera and two Command Salamanders each and are further compromised of 4 rather specialized companies. Tactically these regiments are rarely used as indepent forces but rather distributed amongst the infantry and cavalry formations to provide heavy firepower and solutions for problems that can not be addressed by these much lighter elements.
The A company of each regiment is meant for engaging fortifications and includes two killteams, each formed of a Malcador infernus, two Hellhounds and two Chimedactors – a locally produced Chimera variant armed with a scaled down eradicator nova cannon. Each killteam is sufficiently armed to engage a common traitor bunker section.
B company is used for tank hunting and also comprised of two killteams, each composed of a Valdor tank hunter, two Destroyer tank hunters and two Lascannon armed Carnodons.
C company provides more multipurpose firepower, including another two Squads with a Leman Russ Exterminator leading two Chimerrax – a local Chimera variant armed with a quad-multilaser-AA-array – and two Chimmeros with reloading Hunter-Killer-Launcher and a squad of tank grenadiers each.
The Regimentos few Macharius Vanquishers form the core of the heavy Company, each supported by two Malcador Annihilators. Due to the aforementioned issues, the Techpriests of the local Forgeworld are aiming to reconstruct an STC design of a Macharius variant armed with Heavy Laser destroyers instead of Vanquisher cannons which might reach the frontlines within the next year.
Finally the support element includes three Atlas recovery vehicles with mine plows, three Trojans and three Lamashu Minethrowers to impede enemy tactical mobility. Depending on the situation a Bridgelayer-detail might also be added to the formation which in total is made up of 500 tankers in approximately 50 vehicles.


Amphibious Regiment

A specific oddity provided by the N’Go part of the force are Amphibious transport regiments that provide additional mobility in wetlands, swamps and the ability to cross rivers and similar waterways.
They are composed of 5 companies, the first two including 2 Gorgon heavy transports and 6 Kelpy amphibious transports each. The Kelpy is a less well known STC design using a modified Chimera track-arrangement fixed to a blocky main hull and can transport about 25 Guardsmen, a Tauros or a Sentinel under at least moderate armor protection.
These are supported by a company of amphibious tanks of the Alligator schemata, which is based on the Kelpy and exchanges the transport deck for a Chimera turret armed in the Autocannon, Chimerrax-AA-array or Chimedicator howitzer configuration.
D company provides two sections of 6 Anakonda amphibious rigs each, which are able to form an approximately 150 yard long bridge strong enough to be crossed by vehicles up to Malcador pattern. Alternatively the amphibious rigs can be used as ferries to cross wider water ways in a single- (up to 20 tons, Tauros, Sentinels and Guardsmen), double- (up to 45 tons, Chimera patterns) or triple- (up to 70 tons, Leman Russ patterns) configuration. Only the driver cab is armored against small arms fire though.
Finally a support company of 10 heavy trucks carries a compliment of 100 large, inflatable dinghy boats with outboard engines to provide more transfer capability for infantry.
The overall approach of these Amphibious Regiments is to start of with the Gorgons which are able to land a first compliment of two Infantry Platoons even on contested shores, which are provided fire support by the Alligator tanks. The Gorgons heavy dozer blades are used to prepare the shore for the subsequent landing of the Kelpys, transferring the rest of a Company. After a bridgehead is secured, it is strengthed by further Infantry transfers with dinghy boats while the rigs start to build a pontoon bridge or stable ferry transfer. Overall a whole Infantry regiment can cross a river in under an hour depending on their experience.
While these amphibious landings do seem kind of anachronistic in light of usual support by Valkyries and other Imperial Navy assets, these are stretched to thin in the local sector and within the regimento to be an adequate option, therefore making these regiments quite important.
A small fleet of armed and armored brown water navy boats to patrol waterways is also under construction and will be integrated into the Askari force.


Three of these corps formed from the mentioned heavier Regiments and 3 divisions each are unified into an army of about 330.000 personell, while 3 armies each build up an army group of about 1 million Guardsmen. 5 of these army groups are currently tithed and supported by the planet, including 5 million guardsmen and about 3000 Regiments. Due to the recent, pronounced population growth on Thoth, a 6th Army group is currently organized and will be available within the next two decades.



For further information I refer to the rest of this dossier…

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2024/02/02 09:54:39


~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
830 
   
Made in de
Boom! Leman Russ Commander






Finished a whole bunch of thematic terrain from Archon Studios Rampart Terrain Kickstarter:
all parts:
Spoiler:



a three story building fixed together including selfmade floors
Spoiler:


backview including the floors:
Spoiler:


some details, including golden snippets for the walls and greenish toppers
Spoiler:


a couple of objective markers
Spoiler:


~6550 build and painted
819 build and painted
830 
   
 
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