Armiger84's Long March (Legio Tempestus, House Malinax)

[Armiger84]

Ok, it's about time I put some of my finished work up here.

 

I started painting Legio Tempestus back in June 2019 for a local escalation league, scrambling to get 1000-1250 points together ahead of a start date in the first week of July.  As things played out, I was the only person to complete all six weeks of games, but it's probably an understatement to say I was hooked ;)

 

 

So, why Tempestus?  Well, waaaaay back in the day Bell of Lost Souls did a Horus Heresy supplement, and one of the guys painted up a Reaver in Tempestus' colors.  I loved the retro blue armor & shard camo look.  Painting lots of checkers & shard camo was going to be a personal technical challenge, and I figured I really wanted to go retro for my Adeptus Titanicus force for that nostalgia feel.  

 

I've been adding to this force off and on for about 8-9 months now, with two more Reavers in WIP and a Warbringer planned too.  After that, I may bulk out my House Malinax auxilia a bit more, but once that's about rounded out, it'll be time to work on some Loyalist scum for an OpFor.

 

Without further ado, here's a walkthrough of everything I've painted to date, in order of descending scale!

 

I.  Warlord Titans:

 

 

The boys, scanning for targets.  Magnets at the neck, shoulders and biceps for ease of part swaps.

 

 

Stormbringer is my latest titan, and I'm pretty happy with what I've been able to do with this guy.  In my mind, the overall battlegroup Princeps Senioris rides to battle in this Warlord, leading his forces and crushing the forces of the False Omnissiah.

 

 

Kingslayer was my first Warlord and sixth titan overall.  As with the pattern you'll see below, first titan of the series gets the split carapace scheme.

 

II.  Reaver Titans:

 

 

The first two Reavers I've painted, with two more on the way!  Everyone's magnetized at the elbow, carapace, and neck so I can easily swap around weapons and even cockpits.

 

 

My initial plan for the escalation league was a Venator Maniple, hence turbolasers and a volcano cannon.

 

 

My fifth titan.  I knew I would be doing close combat Reavers eventually, but for my initial force, I wanted to go heavy on ranged gun platforms.

 

 

III.  Warhound Titans:

 

 

*TEMPESTUS* let the dogs out (sorry; I couldn't resist).  I magnetized the weapons at the elbow where the ball sockets click into the guns, but left the heads attached since I couldn't really swap them easily.

 

 

The first pack I deployed.  You'll note that in addition to the split carapace, every Warhound has its left shin split between checkers and shard camo.

 

 

I wanted to be able to pick out my Warhound packs easily on the battlefield, so Warhound #3 was the first to get a white cockpit and a full shard camo carapace.  This makes it a bit easier to represent Mantellum Fulmen, Tempestus' character titan, as well.

 

IV.  House Malinax:

 

 

More on these guys later.  The Acastus can swap weapon arms, but the missile pods are locked in place, as are the secondary guns.  The Cerastus Lancers are mono-build; I didn't really see the need for Acheron or Castigator builds yet, and I'll definitely be using ~2-4 Lancers often.  I'm proud of how I built the Questoris - you can't swap the secondary stubbers & meltaguns, but I magnetized everyone at the elbow and the carapace top, so when I finally get around to painting power gauntlets and missile pods I'll be able to run any and all gear combinations :)

 

V.  Objective Markers & Battlefield Assets:

 

 

"Hey, you know what would be cool?  What if I made tokens to represent Titan-Hunter Infantry, Forward Observers, or even Scatterable Mines...?"  Yeah, those were fun projects.  Also, I decided to convert Aeronautica Imperialis hex tokens and Adeptus Titanicus bunkers into numbered objective markers for use with Graham Sanders' Matched Play Missions (see his Claws & Fists blog here).  I went a little overboard - I think I only needed four - but hey, why not?

 

So if you made it this far, thanks for putting up with my amateur photography skills and for taking a look at what I've done to date for Legio Tempestus!  I'll be adding to this as I get more engines painted, and we'll see where this goes!

 

 

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Loved this stuff on FB... Good to see you here :)

[Dosjetka]

These are fantastic! Love the shard camo: has avery nice retro feel, like you mentioned. :tu:

 

Keep it up!

[Mandragola]

This is a great looking Battlegroup. Welcome to the board.

[Sherrypie]

Welcome aboard! Great showing, they look beautiful and pristine in their retro camo. Perhaps a bit too pristine in that environment, with such pure white toes...

[Fajita Fan]

I saw these on IG and I love what you've done making them look regal and detailed.  

[Master Ciaphas]

Very lovely! Great to see such nice models, all painted up! 

 

Kudos!

[Armiger84]

Thanks guys!  I really appreciate all of the feedback.  A lot of social media feels like throwing images out there into the void and hoping for some sort of response.  I figured it was about time I pulled everything together, 8-9 months into painting, and put the force forward to a gaming community.

 

These are the first really big models I've painted with serious room for details and shading (my Suturvora engines don't count; gunmetal isn't hard to shade, and going for flat black carapaces doesn't offer a whole lot of room for exploration), so each batch of titans has been a bit of a learning experience.

 

I need to go back over the force after I finish the next Reaver or two and clean up some lines & shading a bit more, smooth some spots out, and maybe try adding a little more wash around all of the rivets on the trim.

 

I really do want to try my hand at weathering, but frankly I'm a little intimidated by the thought.  I think after the cleanup pass I'll get everybody clearcoated (yeah, I know, should have done that sooner but it's been a wet autumn and a wet winter so far here), then toy with adding some weathering powders around the feet and some heavily diluted drip staining to the carapace plates in places.  Definitely starting minimalist on that and stopping when it feels good enough.  On one hand, Legio Tempestus is one of the Triad Ferrum Morgulus, so I could easily see them being proud and haughty, and making a point of marching to war resplendent in their colors (especially the portion of the Legio that sided with Horus & the Fabricator General), but at the same time, a 30 meter tall walking fortress should be kicking up *some* dust...  There's good repair, and then there's pristine, and very little military hardware fights while looking pristine.

 

I also plan on adding some scrub to the bases as well, get the bases to look a little more badlands and a little less wastelands.  Finally, nameplates are coming, I just need to give that some consideration before ordering (and decide whether I'm keeping brown base trim, or going to black/dark grey).  Naming an engine is no small thing, after all.

[Fajita Fan]

 

 

I really do want to try my hand at weathering, but frankly I'm a little intimidated by the thought. 

It's the only thing I thought was missing unless you were going for the just-walked-from-the-dropship look but maybe try weathering some AT terrain first?  The hard part is weathering 100' titans differently from 20' mechs, I should think mud clumps and rust streaks would look different at those scales.  You've obviously got the skills, those look great.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[Mendi Warrior]

Wonderful stuff! It is an impressive sight!

[schoon]

First - excellent work. The cammo is particularly good.

 

Second - I think they might look even better with a bit of additional weathering. A light oil-based wash might do wonders.

[Armiger84]

WIP time!  Managed to prime the Warbringer back on Monday, decided to lay down the base metals on the endoskeleton & guns... and then slowly got it caught up to the Reaver this week.  Finally finished laying down the trim basecoat last night and touching up the armor panels, so it's time to wash all the armor today :)

 

 

That should set me up to work on layering the trim and finish the panels hopefully on the earlier side this coming week.  Then it's the bronze, brighter steel, camo, checkers, and bases :)

 

With luck, I might be done with these guys next weekend.

[Mendi Warrior]

Nice progress 

[Interrogator Stobz]

Very nice!

Any chance of higher res pics for better viewing?

[Armiger84]

Very nice!

Any chance of higher res pics for better viewing?

Working on that.  I've run afoul of B&C's image size restrictions a few times, so I've been messing with finding the right upload size.  As I finish stuff up I'll make sure I get some closer shots too.  While everything here is a thumbnail, they should all click through to a higher-res gallery photo, at least.  Definitely let me know if there's any issues with that!

 

More WIP shots!  I figured I might as well put more of it here rather than in the Titans of the Heresy II thread.  I managed to finish the trim over the weekend and finished layering on the whites last night.  Hoping to knock out the checkering later today on the leg armor, Reaver carapace, Warbringer shoulder caps and close combat weapons, and then move on to bringing up the blue.  After that, there's going to be a lot of shard camo going onto that Warbringer's shoulder armor/gun shields.

 

 

Ignore the upside-down nature of the preview; it should be right-side up in the gallery at least

 

Finally, this guy served as a break from trim work Saturday morning:

 

 

I'd been meaning to get around to a fifth Warhound eventually, and figure out how I wanted to make it stand out as "Mantellum Fulmen" - the Legio Tempestus character titan.  Well, a buddy of mine with the right equipment had spotted this design online and decided to gift me a torso in exchange for all of the Epic stuff I'd been funneling his way, so Mantle of Lightning will stalk the battlefield as a blast from the past!

 

I like the idea of a Legio of the Triad Ferrum Morgulus still having a handful of ancient proto-patterns of Titans left in their vaults.  As for scaling, it's a slightly thicker, taller, and longer in the torso than the more standard "Mars" pattern Warhound, but it lacks the "saddlebag" heat exchangers of the more commonplace design.  Still, the profile's roughly close enough and I'm still using ~70-75% plastic kit parts here, so hopefully that won't really cause any problems in games.  The real question is whether I try building a drop harness for it too, to represent Tempestus' Combat Drop stratagem...

 

Edit:  and yes, initial build is dual plasma guns, because if I'm going to deep strike a Warhound into your half of the board who can first-fire both weapons, why would I settle for anything else? :D

 

If I can find a way to get another set of arms I might explore running 1-2 natrix shock lances though.  Bit of a gamble, but it could open up some possibilities too...

Edited March 31, 2020 by Armiger84

[Rabenga]

That's a pretty sweet retro warhound.... Looks like the original armorcast ones from back before they invented the internet.

[Fajita Fan]

 

Edit:  and yes, initial build is dual plasma guns, because if I'm going to deep strike a Warhound into your half of the board who can first-fire both weapons, why would I settle for anything else? 

If I can find a way to get another set of arms I might explore running 1-2 natrix shock lances though.  Bit of a gamble, but it could open up some possibilities too...

 

The Warhound flamers aren't awesome so I'm using those to build my harpoons. 

[Mendi Warrior]

I love the retro warhound, it is one of my favourite models.

Nice Warbringer and Reaver as well!

[Armiger84]

Progress!

 

 

Just have to finish missile tips, add decals, and do some work on the bases :)

 

Feeling pretty confident about making my vow at this point.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your Titans look most promising.

[Armiger84]

Update time!  I managed to finish bases and decals on these two last night, which meant it was time to set up a photography backdrop today :)

 

 

With that, Ironfist and Gatecrasher join Stormstrike for my Titans of the Heresy II pledge.

 

A couple more detail shots:

 

 

I try to make sure each titan's heraldry tells a bit of a story.  With Ironfist, there aren't a whole lot of battle honors on him, and his left knee is relatively plain.  Instead, the right shoulder is split between an oversized adeptus mechanicus / Mars badge and the outstretched wing of Legio Tempestus' stormbird.  Combine that with the ridiculously oversized Eye of Horus on the carapace, and this guy is screaming his loyalty to Mars, Legio and Warmaster at maximum warhorn volume... perhaps too loudly?  Is there some doubt lingering in the depths of the manifold?

 

As for the base, it's not super visible from this angle, but I tried to replicate the old AT artwork of the Reaver bestriding a mountain pass, with an army of Marines pouring through.  Except in this instance, the ground holds the overlapping traces of a company of armor that's passed through, and this Reaver's stalking after them...

 

 

Ahh, the Warbringer.  That booty... this engine's got heatsinks for dayyys.  The semi-braced pose works, and yeah, I attached the energy transfers to the guns the wrong way around AND glued them down solidly  .  The only way they were coming back off was in pieces, so instead I modeled the with the cables retracted.

 

So that rounds out this post.  Year to date I've cranked out four titans, which I think is pretty good so far honestly.

 

 

Last year I managed 7 titans for Tempestus, 3 for another project, and a dozen Knights, so I think I'm keeping on track.  Next on deck are the Warhound, another Warbringer, two more Acastus (Asterius this time) and if I'm feeling up to it right now a fifth Reaver and third Warlord to fully round out this project for now.  After that, probably some more Cerastus Knights when the Acheron/Castigator kit comes out, and probably another half dozen Questoris so I can field a full Malinax Household if I'm feeling particularly masochistic :)

 

 

[Mendi Warrior]

Excellent work!

The retracted cables is a good idea to solve the problem you were faced with.