1000 Point Mechanicum Heresy Army List

So here's the army list of what I went and bulk purchased in one go! I didn't have a clue as to the total points until I got it home, and it turns out I've got a quite nice chunk in the bag already.

HQ-
Magos Dominus on Abeyant, armed with a Rad Cleanser and Volkite Serpenta.
He's the stock Magos out at the moment, and such a great model.

Troops-
Thallax Cohort, armed with two lightning guns and one photon thruster.
An easy troops choice, and didn't fancy going for the multi-melta option just yet.

10 Tech Thralls, armed with Las-Locks.
A strange choice, being very expensive in monetary terms but ridiculously cheap in points. But they look so cool!

A Castellax Class Battle-Automata, armed with Mauler Bolt Cannon.
Since it's a non-compulsary choice I only went for the one so far.

Fast Attack-
3 Vorax Battle Automata, one armed with an Irad Cleanser.
The new kids on the block!

Well that's what I've got so far and comes to the grand total of 610 points. To edge it closer to the 1k mark I'm definitely adding in...

Heavy Support-
Thanatar Class Seige-Automata.
It's an absolute beast and a very nice looking kit.

That leaves me with around 150 points left, and this is where my decisions become a little less easy. I've narrowed it down to two choices...

Another Thallax Cohort.
Pros- Easy on the wallet, and would give me a very solid troops base.
Cons- Already duplicating squads at such a low points level. Not exciting to paint another unit.

A Krios Battle Tank.
Pros- Stunning kit. The lightning cannon is a monster.
Cons- Is very expensive on a points/pound comparison to other choices.

So there we have it. If you've got an opinion about my list, and the impending choice please drop me a comment, it would be very much appreciated!

Heresy Ultramarines Paint Scheme Dilemma

I've always painted my Ultramarines in a dark blue. In the current GW paint range I'd use Kantor Blue. This never turned out too dark on my 40k army.

I haven't done an awful lot of work on my 30k army, but I have basecoated a lot of it in the Kantor colour. Before the wash it looks great, but on the few minis I've washed they come out so dark, almost black!

Since watching Mark Bedford's speed painting pod at Warhammer Fest I'd been running ideas through my mind about how to get my army painted quickly. Then it struck me, I could maybe solve both issues, speed and darkness, in one go. GW make a can of Macragge Blue spray paint!

So I've painted up a couple of quick test models to make an actual comparison. The newer lighter mini certainly looks more like an Ultramarine and less like a Night Lord, and depending on how good this spray basecoat is it could revolutionise my painting. I've taken a few photos with different lighting conditions so you can see the difference, and all opinions and feedback would be greatly appreciated, cheers.

Mechanicum Castellax Class Battle-Automata

I'm on a roll at the moment, and am really hoping I don't reach burn out by the time I get the whole army painted! The Castellax is the bigger brother to the Thallax and so I already had my method sorted in my head and actually managed to get him finished in the space of one night!

I went for a basic armament this time around, keeping the Mauler cannon and bolters, and while I'm quite happy with the pose I'm going to get a bit more adventurous when I come to fleshing out the maniple.

Mechanicum Miniature Monday - Thallax Cohort

Last weekend was the very first Warhammer Fest, and Forgeworld had a number of pre-release items on offer. I was very tempted to go for the beautiful Solar Auxilia section, but in a moment of madness I went for a small allied contingent of Mechanicum instead.

These Thallax are the first models I've finished for the fledgling force, and I think it's the fastest I've ever completed something for date of purchase to on the shelf.

They were a treat to build, except the power cables, and didn't need very much clean up at all. All that's left to do is apply some mechanicum transfers, but it seems that FW don't make a sheet, and I'm not prepared to buy the Iron Hands one just yet!

I'll be trying to get more of my army finished asap and probably won't wait for Mondays to roll around to post them, and I'll put up a post about the list I'm thinking about which would be awesome to get some feedback on!

Back once again...

Well it's time to get my arse in gear and actually do some blogging. Those of you who read my last post about returning to writing will be wondering what happened (maybe). Essentially we actually had quite a nice summer here so most of it was spent out in the sun having fun, but now the nights are growing longer I'm returning to the hobby with fire in my belly and a brush in my hand.

I'm well and truly settled into the new man cave, and I've managed to amass even more miniatures to slap some colour on to. So there's going to be plenty of painting updates flashing up as and when I get projects finished.

So what have I really been up to? I went to Warhammer Fest the other week, and there'll be a write up coming soon. I've splashed out of a small allied contingent of Mechanicum for my heresy army. I decided to totally ditch any attempt to get into Fantasy, I've already parted with my Tomb Kings and the Dwarves are going up on ebay tonight. Trying to find the time for two systems, let alone three, was just getting too cray cray and to be honest the fantasy setting never grabbed me in the same way that the 40k and 30k universes have. I saw Guardians of the Galaxy which is a serious contender for best marvel film ever (sorry avengers). Believe it or not I'm still trudging through Angel Exterminatus, but I'm determined to have that finished before the week is out. I've stopped buying White Dwarf Weekly. Ten quid a month isn't a lot of money, but the format just wasn't working out for me. I'm still on the hunt for vintage issues though to complete my set.

In the pipeline for the blog then I'm going to refresh the look of it, to breath some new life into it, I'll be trying to complete models at a steady pace, and hopefully there'll be a few battle reports coming soon. I also want to get back into my creative writing but now I don't have to commute to work there's less time for that strangely!

Anyways, I've rambled on for long enough now. There'll be a miniature monday coming up in the next few hours, so stay tuned, and thanks for bearing with me!

Miniature Monday - Termagants!

Hey everyone, so it's been a very long absence from blogging. This wasn't intentional, life just got massively in the way and I've had to move house and deal with a dislocated knee. But I have managed to find the time for some hobby in the middle of all the commotion!

I'd bought a few Termagants to help out a mate with a paint scheme, and had four of them left, so i got to thinking what would be the quickest easiest way to get them painted up. Then inspiration struck, why not try a Sin City style scheme, keep them black and white, and use that new blood splatter paint over the top of it. Here's the finished results...

They were really quick and easy to do, but this is not going to be the start of yet another army, it was just getting something done to feel like I'm making progress on the backlog! Also, I know it's not actually monday, but it's a catchy title, and it couldn't wait because I'll be reviewing WDW in a bit!

Forgeworld Open Day 2014

Another year and another insanely early morning, not helped by the clocks going forward, how rude!

So we set off at about 6, stopped for a McD breakfast and got to Lenton for about half 9. We were about a 1/3 of the way to the front in the queue which wasn't too bad. We ended up chatting to the chap who won the painting competition. Check out his amazing Apothecary on the FW blog.

After queuing outside for ages, we got let in, given a free Imperial Armour 5 poster and a Mechanicum pin badge, then proceeded to join the sales queue. It moved quite quickly and we were through within an hour. I managed to restrain myself, picking up the Horus Heresy book 3, a relic Contemptor and a set of legion MkIII marines.

Then it was onto the design studio. It was very much the Heresy show, with very little new stuff on show for Fantasy or 40k.

I'll dump all the photos here, then at the end I'll try to remember all the cool intel I got from chatting to all the designers and writers...

Thanatar- Cass Seige-Automata 

Salamanders Firedrake WIP

There was so much amazing new stuff, and even more to come at the Heresy Weekender. Here's what I can remember of what was said on the day...

• Back at GD2013 Daren Parwood said he'd made another Riptide variant but it's been shelved for now.

• Blake Spence has started to design two Riptide variants though. One is carrying a huge two handed gun. The other one, more likely for release, is a close combat one with a big shield and extra thrusters and intakes for lots of jump shoot jump shenanigans.

• Daren did say he'd made a cockpit upgrade kit for the GW knight but really doesn't know if it'll make it into production.

• Talima Fox says that Imperial Armour 4 2nd edition is already on the boat back from the printers.

• Andy Hoarre is currently working on IA13, warmachines of Chaos.

• Egdar has finished Mortarian, and Tony might've let slip that another Primarch might be finished too.

• The Land Raider chassis has been reworked so that the awful track pieces have been moulded onto the sides of the hull, like the sicaran!

• Alan Bligh says that the order of the next three HH books is still undecided, but we should have one by the end of the year.

That just about wraps it up. It was another awesome day from the FW team, and always worth the cost if you can make it.