Mars Ascendant

[Vel'Cona]

Wow, you got those done FAST!  Nice work, as always  :)

[brother_b]

Your force and speed of painting are very inspiring! Great job. Also the giant head terrain piece made me laugh. I like it!

[Prot]

Wow. I can’t believe how nice those look and how quickly you got them done.

 

Here I get home from work and decide to put in as much work as I can and then I see this.... I don’t know if that’s super motivating or utterly deflating! Lol

 

So are they your own house? Or do you use them as some existing house?

[Heliomanes]

Thanks, gents!

The "big head" piece of terrain actually has a golden plaque reading something like "Lord Solar Macharius". Love it.

Prot: Oh, I hope you're not deflated. I got them on a friday, and had an event the following monday, so I decided to get them done as well as I could in that time. I've painted quite a few models for this force though, so I get through the steps pretty quickly if I have the needed focus. Audiobooks are a big help too.

On my Castigator you can see faintly on his left shoulder plate that I've written the name "House Malachim". I've also tried to add some flavour, like golden animal skulls for the Skitarii champions, Dragoons and some of the Knight Engines, and golden peacock feathers. In my headcanon, this is the union of many Skitarii clans under House Malachim - but you can still see that they come from different places and structures. The rangers and balistarii are clad in whiteish colors, while the vanguard and dragoons are clad in black, for instance - and they have enginseers from these competing backgrounds, while the Magi and their cybernetic constructs are clad in Holy Red, to signify that they are beyond the tribal factionalism of the clans.

This creates a trio of colors that you can see in the knights - white, black and red - which corresponds neatly with the Titan Legio I want my Knight House to be bonded to by ancient pacts - Legio Atarus.

[Heliomanes]

I've been kitbashing a new Magos Dominus to better suit my tastes and how I envision the aesthetics of my Forge, and thought I might snap a few pictures of the leadership while I'm at it. Hope you enjoy them.

[Heliomanes]

Grabbing this image with me from the previous page for the sake of illustration.

With the new codex, I'm a bit unsure what to do with my current prefered army composition. I've played with the Porphyrion and two Warglaives, and then an added Stygies fast attack detachment with ironstrider engines. This seems problematic, due to the big drop in command points. Any suggestions? Should I get the two warglaives to eat their cereal and evolve to knights gallant, perhaps? Or maybe I'll have to drop the big guy altogether? Help me out here, brothers.

I've pretty much landed on using House Krast. A feral nature, close ties to the Mechanicus, bonuses to melee - and with the unique warlord trait, a potential big bonus to the Porphyrion in rerolling 1s to hit, seems like a good fit. I struggle more with army composition, for now. How would you play something like this?

[Clingy]

Very cool knights. So your formation actually inspired me to go for a Porphyrion. I’m not sure what you could tweak to make things better but asthetics wise it looks amazing. March of stompys and striders! Is there slim hope they flip flop on the CP restrictions for the bringing baby knights to a SHD? I’m hoping so as it seems a daft decision with very little reason behind it. Thankfully GW seem quite good at listening to feedback so hopefully someone influential will steer them in the right direction

[Stray]

+1

 

That last photo is really evocative. The mini's are posed so well for it buddy, looks superb.

[brother_b]

This is definitely one of my favorite threads. Great job all around, I have been inspired for my 2nd TPD after I do the standard.

 

Nice stuff all around.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent works.

[Heliomanes]

Thank you so much for the support, brothers. Greatly appreciated.

I've been fiddling a bit with some more Kastelan robots and a kitbashed Tech support while waiting for the new knights. Hope you enjoy them.

[Prot]

Love the old school 'Cylon' like eyeline. :tu:

[Trixie]

Only just found this thread =O,,,,fecking love that Porphyrion one of my favourite big toys ever and yours look great. I especially love the little forward operator guys on the base with the range finder equipment, great addition to the model. Very very tasty.

[brother_b]

Yes! They look great. I wish I had a steady enough hand to try that visor style painting on the robots. They look amazing.

[Heliomanes]

You are very kind, fellow adepts!

Trixie: yeah, the Porphyrion is an amazing piece of kit. Surprisingly easy to assemble, and it's so rewarding to work on. Just a quick wash and some drybrushing and all these lovely details pop up. FW did an amazing job, and I can't recommend the kit enough.

Brother B: Oh don't be discouraged, it's quite easy actually - you just have to put in a few steps putting in another shade. You're going from a mix of black and red, to red, to a mix of orange and red, to orange, to a mix of orange and yellow, to yellow, to a mix of yellow and white, to a dot of white. This is much easier to do with a wet palette. Mine is made out of a lunch box, some cotton and a sheet of food paper. You make the cotton wet, and put the sheet on top. This gives you a surface to blend your paints on, which keeps them from drying up.

When I do the eyes they are messy, but that doesn't matter too much, since the overlapping layers add to the effect if they are a bit uneven. Then I clean up by doing another layer of black, cleaning it up to a more or less neat line. Finally I add a layer of hardcoat/gloss varnish. I can do this whole process on two robots in less than 10 minutes, and I'm a clumsy bastard, so have at it.

[General Strike]

How did I miss your stuff?! These are sick, I love that dark iron color

[Marshal Reinhard]

Love the color palette and especially the metal on those robots. Also, that's a crazy techie that. Really eye catching headsensor.

[Heliomanes]

Thanks, gents! Let me know if you want me to provide a recipe or a quick tutorial for anything.

I've been playing around in battlescribe now that the new codex is here, and collected a smattering of first drafts - anything from purely competitive to fun and fluffy, depending on what my opponent is looking for or what kind of an event I'm attending. Do you have any feedback for me? What do you think? I've also made a few versions where the Porphyrion is switched out with a Castelan - which frees up a few points - but I'll need to buy a Castelan.... Choices, choices....

List 1; Competitive. Knights, Cawlstar and Guard battery.
2000 points

Knight lance; Either Krast or Taranis.
Gallant (2+ armor, 4++)
2 Armiger Warglaives

Cawlstar - Adeptus Mechanicus with mixed Forgeworlds.
Spearhead detachment.
Belisarius Cawl (Mars)
Datasmith (Mars)
4 Dragoons (Stygies)
2 Kastelan Robots (Mars)
2 Kastelan Robots (Mars)
1 Neutron Onager (Mars)

Guard Batallion;
Company Commander, Kurov's Aquila
Company Commander, Grand Strategist
10 Infantry
10 Infantry
10 Infantry

List 2, Semicompetitive? Cawlier Cawlstar, Porphyrion and Guard battery
2000p.

Knight auxilia;
Acastus Knight Porphyrion (4++ and rerolling 1s)

Cawlstar - Adeptus Mechanicus
Spearhead detachment.
Belisarius Cawl
Datasmith
2 Kastelan Robots
2 Kastelan Robots
2 Kastelan Robots

Guard Batallion;
Company Commander, Kurov's Aquila
Company Commander, Grand Strategist
10 Infantry
10 Infantry
10 Infantry

 

List 3; Fun for the Fun God! Knight lance and Admech batallion
2000p

Knight Lance (Krast)
Acastus Knight Porphyrion. (4++ and rerolling 1s)
Questoris Knight Gallant. (2+ armor save and optional - maybe Landstrider? )
2 Armiger Warglaives

Admech Batallion (Stygies)

Enginseer (Necromechanic)
Enginseer (The Omniscient Mask)
 

3 Dragoons

5 Rangers
5 Rangers 1 Arquebus
7 Vanguard

[Prot]

List 1 looks like more fun to me personally, but I think all were going to see is Astra CP farm which kind of saddens me. It’s not like the AdMech have enough stuff going against them. Lol

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Again, excellent work.

[Heliomanes]

I've been fiddling with a Knight Gallant this weekend in between grading an enormous stack of papers. Not quite finished with either yet - let me know what you think. Any suggestions on how to improve him?

[Stray]

I adore that face plate. Looks a lot like a fencing mask... think I'd be far to tempted to put him in a ridiculous pose (en guarde) if I had one of those O.o

 

Lovely work Helio - really like the weathering especially.

[Clingy]

Thanks, gents! Let me know if you want me to provide a recipe or a quick tutorial for anything.

 

I've been playing around in battlescribe now that the new codex is here, and collected a smattering of first drafts - anything from purely competitive to fun and fluffy, depending on what my opponent is looking for or what kind of an event I'm attending. Do you have any feedback for me? What do you think? I've also made a few versions where the Porphyrion is switched out with a Castelan - which frees up a few points - but I'll need to buy a Castelan.... Choices, choices....

 

List 1; Competitive. Knights, Cawlstar and Guard battery.

2000 points

 

Knight lance; Either Krast or Taranis.

Gallant (2+ armor, 4++)

2 Armiger Warglaives

 

Cawlstar - Adeptus Mechanicus with mixed Forgeworlds.

Spearhead detachment.

Belisarius Cawl (Mars)

Datasmith (Mars)

4 Dragoons (Stygies)

2 Kastelan Robots (Mars)

2 Kastelan Robots (Mars)

1 Neutron Onager (Mars)

 

Guard Batallion;

Company Commander, Kurov's Aquila

Company Commander, Grand Strategist

10 Infantry

10 Infantry

10 Infantry

 

List 2, Semicompetitive? Cawlier Cawlstar, Porphyrion and Guard battery

2000p.

 

Knight auxilia;

Acastus Knight Porphyrion (4++ and rerolling 1s)

 

Cawlstar - Adeptus Mechanicus

Spearhead detachment.

Belisarius Cawl

Datasmith

2 Kastelan Robots

2 Kastelan Robots

2 Kastelan Robots

 

Guard Batallion;

Company Commander, Kurov's Aquila

Company Commander, Grand Strategist

10 Infantry

10 Infantry

10 Infantry

 

List 3; Fun for the Fun God! Knight lance and Admech batallion

2000p

Knight Lance (Krast)

Acastus Knight Porphyrion. (4++ and rerolling 1s)

Questoris Knight Gallant. (2+ armor save and optional - maybe Landstrider? )

2 Armiger Warglaives

 

Admech Batallion (Stygies)

 

Enginseer (Necromechanic)

Enginseer (The Omniscient Mask)

 

3 Dragoons

 

5 Rangers

5 Rangers 1 Arquebus

7 Vanguard

Nice lists

[Stray]

You could switch out a company commander in your battery for a Psyker. Costs about 5 points extra or something, but you'd get a deny the witch without losing anything from the battery. Seems like a worthwhile upgrade to me given the tiny points difference.

[Heliomanes]

That's a good idea, Stray! They have access to some buffing powers that could provide some utility for the rest of the batallion too. And I'll have an excuse to source up the Imperial Navigator model from FW.