[WIP] 1905th Solar Auxilia: Rust Scorpions

[Audemus]

http://i.imgur.com/pUV90uf.png

 

 

Alright as I'm painting now, I figured it was a good time to get this thread going as having a place dedicated to my Solar Auxilia Cohort will keep me painting when I start to lag some.  I'm actively working on the fluff portion of the cohort and I'm hesitant to say much beyond the obvious that the Rust Scorpions were founded based on the Ash Scorpions who perished at Port Maw.  That story really stuck with me as I was reading through Conquest and I decided that I wanted to do something in memory of them, without copying them.  The fluff will reflect that and should be ready in the next day or so but as I was painting tonight...well I'm always eager to share what I'm painting.

 

I've been holding off on painting the Veletaris that I've received primarily because I need to be able to hold a base to paint smaller figures due to a medical issue with my hand shaking, it used to be absolutely horrible and was the reason I gave up on painting when I was in my 20's but it has become a lot more manageable lately.  As I have a ton of resin bases on order that I haven't received yet, I didn't want to glue these amazing models on to plastic bases and then have nothing to put on the nice bases when they arrived.  So I compromised and just barely glued some of them on to their bases (one literally fell off his base because the primer was holding it to tight when it dried) and put my color scheme plan into action.

 

Please keep that in mind with the painted figure below as the base is intentionally untouched specifically to make sure it's as easy as possible to uproot him when his real base arrives in the next business day or so.

 

Here is the mock up I did in photoshop when putting together the colors, I wanted to keep a grey/light grey armor like the Ash Scorpions but then use browns, khakis, and reds to differentiate the uniform due to the "Rust" portion of their name.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Y5SJM2U.png

 

While I'd intended to keep a dark tan/brown for the padding, while I was painting I actually used some of the Doombull Brown that I rarely touch and worked some red into the leather which plays nicely with the rust theme without overpowering the figure...or at least I think it does. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/XUVxIlR.png

 

C+C is always welcome so please let me know now while I'm doing mock ups if you think something doesn't work.  I'm not thrilled with the wood of the gun stock but that's really more a matter of not having any Mournfang Brown on hand so I fudged it a bit using some other colors that don't quite work as well.

 

The army itself will be Volkite focused and will be an armored cavalry unit; much like it's namesake the intent is to get close inside of armored transports and strike hard.  While Leman Russ Incinerator and Malcador Annihilators provide heavy weapon fire for the Dracosans. 

 

Once I finalize the color scheme and receive the resin bases, I will knock out the current Veletaris Storm Section relatively quickly and then it's a waiting game with the mail man.

 

In the mail currently I have the following models:

 

Dracosan (x1)

Veletaris Storm Section (x2)

Solar Auxilia Tactical Command (x1)

 

Ideally, I would like to have a Dracosan for each Storm Section and then work on the Incinerators with a Malcador at the end to create a functioning force.  At which point I can have fun with things and put together some of the Veletaris Axe guys, who I hope are available at that point, and maybe play with a super heavy tank...but given the fact I have two of them already, I might incur the wrath of my gf if she sees another monstrosity like that or the Marauder come in the mail. 

 

I'll be working on my fluff for now while I wait to make sure there aren't any horrible issues with the color scheme that I might be missing.  I'm really OCD about color schemes and maintaining them so it's important to work things out now to avoid issues later.

 

To put it in perspective here is a slightly out of date army shot of my guard force that's now over 4K points.  Consistency creates a unified force on the table in my opinion and damn it if I'm going to lose, I can at least lose looking good!

 

(See that yellow spotlight on the Hellhammer, I hate that thing so much you just don't know...I just have never put it on the table so it's in some voodoo blind spot until I see it in a picture!)

 

http://i.imgur.com/yTkPGkf.png

Edited September 1, 2018 by Audemus

[Lord Blackwood]

Yer 40k  boys look fantastic  absolutely brilliant work.  And your 30k  Concept / test figure looks sick too. 

Edited October 18, 2015 by Bladewolf

[Audemus]

Yer 40k  boys look fantastic  absolutely brilliant work.  And your 30k  Concept / test figure looks sick too. 

 

Thank you very much!

 

Well, I have decided to move forward with the scheme and took the other loosely glued and primed figures to my paint tray for an evening of Netflix/Hulu and painting.  The first half of the Veletaris Storm Section is now done and I'm glad I've got this broken into 5 man increments as the FW miniatures have so much more detail on them that it's easy to let things slip by when working in assembly mode.  It's much easier to correct in such small groupings than if I tried to tackle all 10 at once.

 

I am really hoping the resin bases show up tomorrow as it is killing me leaving them on these plain black bases.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/hdXQgWl.png

[Audemus]

...and the first bit of fluff has arrived.  It's 7:23 AM and I haven't slept, so it got a basic proofreading and while I don't think there are any glaring errors, please let met know if you run into a spelling error etc. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/SofNVp0.png

[God-Potato of Mankind]

By the Emperor I love it all.

 

The fluff, the colour scheme and the dank FW models.

 

I reaaaaaally like the orange glow, it really really works with the muted colours of the armour and fatigues. It's quite a menacing glow to have on a Volkite weapon too, warning you of imminent choom!

 

How are you doing the glow, if you don't mind sharing? :)

 

[Charlo]

Choomin' great dudes!

 

Really like the colours :)

[Kriegriss]

epic work man

[Sol_Invictus]

Looking good!

[disease]

aaaaaaannnndd

 

Subscribed

[Audemus]

By the Emperor I love it all.

 

The fluff, the colour scheme and the dank FW models.

 

I reaaaaaally like the orange glow, it really really works with the muted colours of the armour and fatigues. It's quite a menacing glow to have on a Volkite weapon too, warning you of imminent choom!

 

How are you doing the glow, if you don't mind sharing?

 

 

 

Thanks!  I sat around with a bunch of left over Skitarii weapons trying to get the red for the Volkite weaponry right, so it's really nice to see that someone likes it.

 

Base Coat: Khorne Red

Dry Brush: Mephiston Red

Glaze: Bloodletter

Dry Brush: Wild Rider Red  (Only on the coils and sides of the coils, avoid the bottom as much as possible)

 

It usually takes two passes with Wild Rider Red being done very lightly before it looks right, I could do it in one pass but I am doing my best to avoid being to aggressive and knocking out the darker red/orange at the base of the coils.

 

The models are actually a bit more blue'ish than I had intended but that's a by product of Nuln Oil and Dawnstone, which I discovered working on my Guard army.  The really nice thing is that I can dust them with Celestra Grey and it mutes the blue while providing a dusty/battle worn look on the armor.  So it works out and I have a good throttle for controlling the color without risking any post-completion mishaps that could cause a repaint over an area and thicken the paint.

 

Choomin' great dudes!

 

Really like the colours

 

The CHOOM! will be strong with this force and while I'm not entirely sure my strategy for them is sound, I can guarantee it will be hilariously fun.  Four Dracosans blitzing forward and disgorging three Veletaris Storm Sections and a House Retinue Guard of Veletaris Power Axe wielding maniacs led by the Lord Marshal.  They will be supported by assault force of Leman Russ Incinerators engaging MEQ's, while a Malcador Annihilator provides cover fire against heavy armor and an outflanking Leman Russ Annihilator Strike Force hits them from behind.  It's a pincer attack of lascannons with Volkite Chargers and Demi Culverins Chooming everything in between.

 

That's my initial strategy for these guys and while it requires the Power Axe Veletaris to be released, I have plenty to work on in the mean time.  I have a test Leman Russ Annihilator that I built using bitz and it just needs a few colors to be altered before I want to post it over here.

 

Now if only they would add a spinal mounted A10 style Demi Culverin to a Thunderbolt with Culverins in the upper nose slots for dive chooming excitement, I might actually order one of them...one can dream!

 

 

epic work man

 

Thank you very much!

 

Looking good!

 

Thanks! 

 

I will be out of town later this week but I will knock out the resin bases and then re-post with an updated image once those nasty little temp black bases are gone.  Now the mail man just needs to cooperate and deliver the damn things...

 

The fluff will receive an update in the form of a field report to Lord Marshal MaSade hopefully later today, I would usually do replies as well but I hesitate to take MaSade's voice as he is an established character and I don't want to make assumptions when it comes to his personality.  I may end up having one of his subordinates write back now that the Lord Marshal has been informed of the Rust Scorpions existence, as their method of creating a cohort was mildly rebellious and definitely not endorsed by the upper military hierarchy. 

 

The Ash Scorpions should have been absorbed and reformed in another Solar Auxilia Cohort...not renaming themselves and taking off to the far end of the sector.  Then they broke further rules by gathering up refugees without official orders and dumped them on a world known for being extremely dangerous; only to be put through a rigorous and deadly training regime and losing a large number of them in the process.  Something tells me that outside of the desperate times during the Heresy, MaSade would blast their Rogue Trader transport into itty bitty rebellious pieces the moment it came into local space near Agathon. 

 

Thankfully they might just stand a chance of living a while longer due to the need for trained fighting men as this would be right before MaSade starts stomping his way across the Coronid Reach.

[Majorbookworm]

I've been 'following' your army on reddit, and didn't think it could get more awesome, but apparently i was mistaken.

[Marshal Rohr]

It's beautiful brother

[Olis]

The MDRC heartily endorses your Veletaris, brother. And 'Rust Scorpions', no less. A good name. 

Edited October 20, 2015 by Olis

[Audemus]

I've been 'following' your army on reddit, and didn't think it could get more awesome, but apparently i was mistaken.

 

Oh wow that's awesome!  I've seen some comments from people on B&C on Reddit but never had someone find me in reverse.  I'm glad you've been enjoying my work, it's been an uphill battle since I started painting again in April of this year; before that I hadn't touched a brush since 2000 and that was not exactly impressive work. 

 

It's beautiful brother

 

Thank you very much!

 

The MDRC heartily endorses your Veletaris, brother. And 'Rust Scorpions', no less. A good name. 

 

To be honored by the Deliverers of the CHOOM! is mighty praise indeed!  I can only hope my Rust Scorpions can turn their enemies to small piles of ash at a fast enough rate to meet your expectations.

 

 

Well, while today wasn't super productive due to work, my first set of bases did arrive and I've got the Veletaris on them now.  I was playing with a singular shaded coloring at first but then I got it in my head to paint the desert basin cracked ground in patches of two colors.  They might need another watered down wash to get the lines to show up defined but I'm fairly happy with the end effect looking like bedrock covered in crushed stone and sand/dirt.

 

As promised here they are on the new bases and the last picture will give you an idea of what the texture itself actually looks like.

 

http://i.imgur.com/CIvhWUW.png

[Audemus]

Alright, barring some miracle, this is going to be my last update until early next week.  I sat down with a Leman Russ that I cut apart some lascannons to make it into an Annihilator a few weeks ago but it was colored to match up to my previous color scheme and not the finalized Rust Scorpion scheme.

 

So after pondering about how to update the colors in the camo pattern to match, I got an idea and thankfully it worked out (I think!  If it didn't, please tell me. )  I took the first shot with my Veletaris in it so that I could use it as a color test to ensure they were matching up and everything looks good, I'm curious to see if you guys think they match up. 

 

Oh and I know the left barrel (when the tank is facing you) is a little low, I had to cut the autocannon housing apart and didn't see the slight slope difference between the two barrels.  It's really not noticeable except at eye-level and since it was basically a free Leman Russ, I wasn't going to argue with it!

 

1905^th Rust Scorpions - Leman Russ Annihilator

 

http://i.imgur.com/3EDRzCi.jpg

[God-Potato of Mankind]

Alright, barring some miracle, this is going to be my last update until early next week.  I sat down with a Leman Russ that I cut apart some lascannons to make it into an Annihilator a few weeks ago but it was colored to match up to my previous color scheme and not the finalized Rust Scorpion scheme.

 

So after pondering about how to update the colors in the camo pattern to match, I got an idea and thankfully it worked out (I think!  If it didn't, please tell me. )  I took the first shot with my Veletaris in it so that I could use it as a color test to ensure they were matching up and everything looks good, I'm curious to see if you guys think they match up. 

 

Oh and I know the left barrel (when the tank is facing you) is a little low, I had to cut the autocannon housing apart and didn't see the slight slope difference between the two barrels.  It's really not noticeable except at eye-level and since it was basically a free Leman Russ, I wasn't going to argue with it!

 

1905^th Rust Scorpions - Leman Russ Annihilator

 

http://i.imgur.com/3EDRzCi.jpg

 

Awesome. 

 

Shame you're going for a week. It would also sure be a shame if somebody was to steal your glowy volkite effect and use them on his own Veletarii :P 

[Kriegriss]

it worked fella rest assured it done worked good

[Audemus]

Awesome.

 

Shame you're going for a week. It would also sure be a shame if somebody was to steal your glowy volkite effect and use them on his own Veletarii :P

The more CHOOM! the merrier!

 

it worked fella rest assured it done worked good

Thanks!

 

I was weak last night and ordered a ryza pattern annihilator turret and solar auxiliary turret gunners...then this morning at the airport I get the shipping confirmation on the Incinerator. That's the fastest standard ship I've seen yet, considering I ordered it yesterday morning. Oh happy day!

[Knight of the Raven]

I've always loved the Solar Auxilia's looks, and after a few days of seeing the awesome armor of imperial soldiers in The Old Republic again, I must say I absolutely adore these veletaris stormtroopers and their color scheme.

[Audemus]

I've always loved the Solar Auxilia's looks, and after a few days of seeing the awesome armor of imperial soldiers in The Old Republic again, I must say I absolutely adore these veletaris stormtroopers and their color scheme.

Thanks so much! I've never compared them to storm troopers but now that I look at them I can definitely see it. :)

 

In other news I should not travel, I get bored...browse forge world...and convince myself to order something.

 

Current in the Mail List

 

Dracosan (x2)

Annihilator turret (x1)

Veletaris Storm Sections (x2)

Solar Auxilia Tactical Command (x1)

Leman Russ Incinerator (x1)

 

If I can get another Incinerator and a Malcador Annihilator things will be getting table ready. :D

[Olis]

If I can get another Incinerator and a Malcador Annihilator things will be getting table ready.

 

I think you know which one I'd recommend. :wink:

[Audemus]

 

If I can get another Incinerator and a Malcador Annihilator things will be getting table ready. :D

 

I think you know which one I'd recommend. :wink:

Oh an Incinerator is next! The second dracosan was difficult but I needed it to shepherd the smaller volkite safely into the CHOOM! zone. That will give me 2 tanks in each squadron, 2 dracosans to protect the thirty Veletaris, and the flexibility of using a Malcador or maybe a thunderbolt for support.

 

Wru volkite variant thunderbolts! Fast moving death rays in the sky!

Edited October 23, 2015 by Audemus

[Audemus]

Well this certainly took longer than expected but I've been working like crazy on non-painting related projects this week and finally I got to sit down and start painting yesterday evening.  I snagged a fully assembled Dracosan with a Veletaris Storm Section off ebay, unpainted and only primed, for a great deal and it showed up while I was out of town.  I will say it was a bit worse for the trip, the back extensions had broke in two places while it found its way to me and the gunner was worse for wear as well. 

 

I'm still working on repairing the gunner but the Dracosan I was able to get back up and running, which meant I also finally got to paint a relatively interesting Forge World vehicle.  The guns came magnetized already as well but as of now I've only painted the demolisher cannon, I'm not anticipating any amazing delays in painting the lascannons should I need them.  Also, the red shield-shaped metal plates on the door are going to become home to decals as soon as I can get them made...I promise I didn't just go crazy and slap red on things.

 

It should also be noted that the Lord Marshal and his retinue, along with another Veletaris Storm Section, have also found their way to my humble abode.  Thirty little Volkite Chargers sit happily ready for paint, though I think the Lord Marshal himself will be my next project and then finishing off my first Veletaris squad.  I've got a lot of painting to do that's for sure.

 

I played with the vehicle paint scheme just a touch on this, using Celestra Grey as the basis for the camo pattern rather than Administratum Grey, and I think I like it more as it provides a nice contrast against the metal components rather than all blending in.  Anyways, let me know what you guys think and ignore the poor gunner being missing as he is undergoing severe surgery. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/7iaXDH6.png

[Caillum]

This is awesome stuff man! Really awesome! And the 40k army is shiny too! :)

 

Gotta ask - does the Dracosan come with a Demolisher option, or did you make that yourself? FW site says nothing about one being included.

[Audemus]

This is awesome stuff man! Really awesome! And the 40k army is shiny too!

 

Gotta ask - does the Dracosan come with a Demolisher option, or did you make that yourself? FW site says nothing about one being included.

 

Thanks!  I'm pretty sure it comes with it as the option is very explicit in Solar Auxilia army list.  I'll be able to confirm that for sure when I receive my second one from Forge World themselves. 

 

Oddly enough the entire Veletaris squad was just in a plastic bag next to the tank and did not take any damage except 2 of them coming off the basic plastic stand.  Those rear pieces on the Dracosan were demolished when it got here, I had to piece them back together from three breaks clean through the resin on each one.  I'm just hoping they hold together when I eventually need to transport the little behemoth as it weighs way more than you would think and that's probably how it broke in the first place sliding in the box.  

 

Oh well I saved over one hundred dollars on the tank and the storm section, not to mention they were assembled and only primed, so I can't complain to much!