Mandragola’s Legio Astorum (and Mortis and stuff)

[depthcharge12]

Honest opinion? I say stay with the traditional or use a spare warlord head. Reaver looks a bit small.

[Dark Bjoern]

Honest opinion? I say stay with the traditional or use a spare warlord head. Reaver looks a bit small.

I agree looks a bit like a shrunken head.

[Mandragola]

Fair enough. I don’t think it looks shrunken IRL. It fits quite well with the bit of armour above the head.

 

Anyway I’ll have another think. Thanks.

[Fajita Fan]

The Warbringer head looks bad IMO and both the Warlord and Reaver heads are better. 
 

 

Just photoshops I made to mock these up but I like the Reaver head myself. 

[noigrim]

For the sake of variation put a different head

[Mandragola]

For the sake of variation put a different head

Well actually I’ve usually tried to keep the same type of head on all my Astorum engines. Lucius is supposed to be pumping titans out like nobody’s business so I want them to look a bit mass produced.

[noigrim]

Lucius is also supposed to have their iwn patter of titans so don't let the fluff limit yoy

[Mandragola]

No risk of it limiting me, don’t worry. I think I might give my first warbringer one of these heads too if it works on this one.

[Mandragola]

No risk of it limiting me, don’t worry. I think I might give my first warbringer one of these heads too if it works on this one. I do think they’d produce all their titans to the same basic design though, including the heads.

 

Rather contradicting that, I’m quite interested to try and make a Lucius class Warlord. A warhound and/or reaver too, maybe. If I can get hold of a Warlord skeleton sprue somehow I could go to town on it with plasticard. Big job though.

[Fajita Fan]

Is the skeleton the same between the two variants? It's just the armor that's different?

[Mandragola]

Well no, not really. I think the Lucius is a totally different beast. But building the skeleton would be hard!

[Mandragola]

I've been away for the weekend so no hobby time, but some thinking time. That thinking has been on the subject of Lucius pattern titans.

 

A Warlord might be doable. The main body is a shape I can make from plasticard fairly easily, as it's all flat panels. I think I can make the head relatively easily too, probably based on the one that looks kind of like a greek hoplite's helmet. I've got a couple of those spare. 

 

The Lucius head seems odd though. It's got a styling much more like the Mars class titans, with all the fancy trim and stuff. I'm therefore wondering if I should have that all over a Lucius Warlord or not. It's never been the style for them, but is it now? 

 

Sidenote: the Lucius Warhound is now gone from the FW online store. Maybe they thought it didn't fit with the current aesthetic. I wonder if the Lucius pattern line has been essentially deleted from canon.

 

So I could make one, but should I? Would it look wrong with my Mars class stuff? What do you reckon?

 

[depthcharge12]

I really like the above head and you might be able to figure out a 3d print but there is what I would call a “Lucius Beta” head file out there that I printed mine from.

 

It does actually have more styling detail than you would think. I think a full blown Lucius warlord would be meh, but the head looks awesome on the mars pattern titans:

Here’s pre painted, you can see the detailing:

And the finished product:

[Fajita Fan]

I think the regular head that comes with the Bellicosa Warlord and that one with the "tusks" in the plasma/fist box looks so amazing, I've never cared for the Lucius pattern look like most of you (except for the chunky Warhound is awesome).  If you're going to use plastic to make Lucius pattern Warlord armor then I think you could adapt the top of a Mars pattern head with some Chaos marine or AoS bits to build up the lower part of the face.  Getting the head 3d printed in resin would be your safest bet, they're probably on Shapeways but expensive.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[Mandragola]

I won't be using any 3d printed stuff. I'm considering using the hips and some other bits from a redemptor dreadnought that I've had on sprues since the Imperial Fist box set came out a year or so back. I don't think I'm going to put it together any time soon, though the moment just before a new edition appears might not be the right time to make that decision. It looks like Invictors are still quite a lot cheaper and better though... but enough about 40k.

 

An issue I've always had with Astorum is that they're from Lucius, so they ought to be using Lucius titans. They clearly don't though, in any recent images I've seen. All the warhounds in the Vraks book are Mars class, for example. Maybe the Lucius class design is post-heresy, or maybe it is no-longer canon at all. In fact the Lucius Warhound (which I've never really liked) is gone from the FW site.

 

My best option is probably to save myself the effort of scratch building a Warlord in a design I've never particularly liked. When I'm thinking sensibly, I feel like my best option is to not buy any titans right now, as I've got 17 already, several of which aren't finished, and a new edition of 40k is imminent. I really don't need to be adding anything more to the queue.

[splayedpaintbrush]

If you're going for the boxy design then in my opinion you should keep the head looking like the original. The FW Lucius head has so much trim in comparison to the original design. There again I guess we're talking about designs in completely different scales. The 40k scale head has lots of real estate to detail.

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/XsJVuYbqAeFe9Hv5A

 

 

Personally, if you're not keen on the design, then don't bother. There will always be something you have more motivation to do than a project that only half jingles your bells so to speak.

Edited July 6, 2020 by splayedpaintbrush

[Mandragola]

Yeah I'm shelving the Lucius Warlord idea, at least for now. Going to try and finish some projects instead of starting a new one. Don't know if I'll stick to that, but it's a nice idea!

 

Today I got a decent bit of painting done on the Warbringer though. Basecoat is mostly done and I've done the yellow/orange blend on a couple of small areas where it'll have flames. Fire actually won't be a major feature of this guy - I'll mostly do astronomical patterns and maybe some checks or stripes. All of that is still to be done.

[Fajita Fan]

I’m surprised you don’t like the Lucius Warhound, I thought that’s the better variant LOL

[Sherrypie]

While there's certain brutal beauty in the Lucius Warlord, I've always been iffy on the boxy Warhound. Too much like a box on legs, the rounded version is so much better in my eyes.

[splayedpaintbrush]

Back in 2000ish(?) when the metal Lucius warlord was in use for epic 40k I really liked its design, I also liked the Lucius FW Warhounds over the standard metal ones (there's two of each in loft somewhere) - I really did not like the FW Lucius Reaver though. But comparing them to what we have today they are seriously lacking. I've considered knocking up some Lucius style armour panels but really only because of nostalgic reasons. I just think the current Mars' are so much cooler - I'm giving serious thought to getting a FW one just for display lol.

 

Mandragola are the 17 titans all Astorum (or intended to be) just wondering if you've been tempted by other Legio colour schemes and/or having an opposing force?

[Mandragola]

Following an inquiry by the judges, the official count has been corrected to 18 engines. These are:

• 3 Astorum Warlords, fully complete
• 4 Astorum Reavers, mostly complete but in some cases needing to be based.
• 3 Astorum Warhounds, one of which needs basing.
• 2 Astorum Warbringers, one finished and one basecoated.
• Mortis Warlord Penumbral Reaper, awaiting basing
• Mortis Reaver, basecoated and based
• 3 Mortis Warhounds, awaiting basing
• 1 Psi-Titan, still in need of additional GS work before painting can begin. I've pledged to finish this for the current forum challenge thing, so I'd better do it.
   
• Oh and 30+ knights, which I occasionally think about painting. Vague plan to do these as hawkshroud, but little actual motivation to do so.

Pictures of all of these can be found throughout this plog.

 

I occasionally think about getting the new starter, as it's such a good deal. In theory it would probably make sense to add a 4th warhound to both forces and the Reavers and knights would be useful. I don't honestly feel that enthusiastic about painting more of those models right now though. The Warhounds could be done fairly easily so maybe I should just grab a couple of those instead of the starter, or I could get the starter and ebay the Reavers to make the Warhounds effectively free.

 

The better plan though is probably to wait for the Ryza book, see what new maniples (and potentially titans) become available, and make purchases to suit that. My Astorum can already run pretty much any maniple. I'm hoping we'll get a 5-Warlord maniple as those are the models I enjoy working on the most.

[splayedpaintbrush]

Respect! That's a fine list

I like the way the knights don't count either.

"Princeps, we've found our lost engine!

 

 

Oh and thirty something knights as well"

 

The starter is really good value, been thinking about another box myself - I just have to keep reminding myself to go check what I actually (in boxes) have before ordering any more. No where near your Legio size lol.

 

Be interesting to see what Ryza brings. I like the Warlord's myself, would like a Warlord only maniple but wow I can't help but feel it would need something to aid it against other maniples.

[Mandragola]

Thanks. I'd be happier if all this stuff was properly finished. I do keep slowly making progress though.

 

I find that I most enjoy working on Warhounds and Warlords. They're very different models. Warhounds are pretty easy to do and I like how you can go to town a bit on their carapaces, plus you can get nice running poses. Warlords are great to pose and I love the feeling of weight that they have - and the detail. I think the quality of FW's model design has clearly improved between the Reaver and Warlord, as the big guy is really far more detailed.

 

Reavers are kind of fine but I've done five of them and they're kind of samey. Plus the legs are a nightmare. And Warbringers are the least fun to pose, both because they can't really do a lot and the leg armour isn't at all forgiving.

 

Eventually I'll probably make myself a couple more Warlords. I'd like to be able to field a full maniple of five. There aren't rules for that at the moment though of course - fingers crossed for the Ryza book. I've really got more resin guns than I need though, so I could equip them all properly without buying any more from FW.

 

My Mortis force probably does need some reinforcement, at least in the form of another Warhound. The idea is to have a Mandatum maniple led by Penumbral Reaper and a Ferrox led by a Reaver. So I guess I could justify getting another couple of Warhounds, but the issue there is it's almost silly not to get the starter set.

 

Basically, every day I don't buy more grey plastic is a win. I need none of this stuff.

[Mandragola]

So it turns out that the 28mm Lucius Warhound has been retired. I didn't know that. I'm taking this to mean that the Lucius pattern titans are basically gone from canon, and I find I can live with that. If they don't exist then it makes sense for my Lucius-built titans to be the (much better, in my opinion) Mars class designs. All is well.
 

No painting today but I put another hexagonal building together.

[depthcharge12]

Nothing saying you couldn’t take the mars chassis and making custom built 3d/plasticard parts for it. You could do the double turbo lasers from the reaver and figure out a way for it :)