The Mandragola Dynasty emerges

[Captain Coolpants]

Finished guy looks good! The red and the glow really work to break up the white. What sort of base are you thinking?

 

And the blade looks fine! I'm pretty bad at that whole affect, so i can't really give advice on it aha. I get so frustrated trying to do it. Alllways mess it up somehow.

 

I've also never built wraiths, but i do have some on order, im going to build them upside down to make them look like scorpions instead (or attempt to anyways lol)

Edited April 13, 2021 by Captain Coolpants

[Mandragola]

Thanks. Yeah I'm quite pleased with how the Warriors are coming out. And very glad to have 20 of them nearly done.

 

Upside down Wraiths sound interesting. I think it could work fairly easily, depending on how fussy you are. Turning the legs the other way will be simple. However the body and its armour plates are curved downwards slightly. Not a problem if you're happy with the armour to be on the underneath, but otherwise it could be. And the tails have flat spots where they stick to the base, which would probably need some filling.

 

I'm not totally sure how I'll do the bases. My plan has been to do mud. However, lots of the models have these bits of girder and stuff sticking out, which suggests more of an urban environment. So maybe something like Astrogranite debris would be better. I don't have any of that though. I think maybe if I shaded it with agrax and left little brown puddles (flat bits of base with wet effects on) they could look like a long-ruined city. But maybe I want it to look recently-ruined, and like my army's responsible!

 

Speaking of my army, I've been playing around a lot with lists. This is my favourite one today. It has quite a lot of scary units in I think, though not many people available to do stuff like actions, which could potentially be an issue.

 

Eternal Expansionist Battalion

 

Catacomb Command Barge

Gauss Cannon

Res orb

Enduring Will

Voltaic Staff

 

Chronomancer

Veil of Darkness

 

5 Immortals (Gauss)

 

20 Warriors (Reapers)

 

20 Warriors (Reapers)

 

6 Skorpekh Destroyers

 

6 Skorpekh Destroyers

 

C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer

 

3 Wraiths

 

3 Wraiths

 

9 Scarab Swarms

Edited April 13, 2021 by Mandragola

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The models are well-painted.

[Mandragola]

Thanks. I got a bit more work done tonight. Added glow to all the warriors and did some touch ups here and there. The unit is now complete!

 

I had a bit more of a go at the Chronomancer’s bronze bits too. Not completely convinced bronze is the way to go but it’s interesting.

[Mandragola]

Took a few photos of my completed units.

 

The "army" so far comprises a Chronomancer and 20 Reaper Warriors.

 

 

The warriors are painted in kind of a basic way, but I think they work ok as a mob. Not too bad for my first ever "horde" unit.

 

 

This guy is pretty weird. I'm not 100% sure I've got him right, as there are maybe too many colours here. Not too bad though.

 

 

I've also been thinking about my Overlord and I'm forming a vague plan on how to kitbash him. I think I'm going to base him mostly on an Indomitus Lord but with a modified pose, holding the Voltaic staff in one hand and a res orb from the CCB Lord in the other. I think I can make a cool Voltaic staff with one of the Void Dragon's heads, which has a load of lightning on it. Just needs some kind of stick, so probably the one from the CCB.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work.

[Mandragola]

Well, I managed to get hold of a couple of this guy, from my local GW. Lot of hassle to get there twice just for this Cryptek, but since he's the only option for a technomancer without a cloak I thought it would be a good option. 

 

 

Quite a nice model. He's a bit less dramatic than the other Crypteks, which I quite like. I might convert the second one into an alternative Chronomancer I think.

[Mandragola]

In between complaining about the state of our codex, I've done a bit of actual work on making my army.

 

First up is this... thing. If it sees the table it'll be used as a Transcendent C'tan. In all honesty it's come to exist through me having some interesting bits of spare stuff, rather than any real plan to use a Transcendent C'tan, but all the bits seemed worth using. I think the result is suitably odd. What do you reckon? Should I try and create a lower jaw for it?

 

 

 

Edit: I did of course mainly steal this idea from the Skeletoran Dynasty. I say "mainly" because I'd actually bought the endless spell set to get hold of the lightning for my Psi-Titan's base, and had already clocked that this thing could potentially be sort of necron-y. Getting the skulls set with the big weird skull was then the catalyst to actually gluing things together.

 

I've also got myself a copy of the combat patrol and some more Lychguard. I'm slowly working my way through building everything. Here is my full 10 man Lychguard unit. The only marginally interesting thing about these guys is that I had foolishly used a couple of sets of legs up in an attempt to give marines bionics, meaning I then had to add some grey stuff to some old spare necron warrior legs ("why didn't I just use those for the marines?" you may ask). I don't think you'll be able to tell I did this (especially in this shot, where it's all hidden by a shield), so mission accomplished.

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by Mandragola

[Prot]

Oh yea, I love that paint stick. It's been a blessing for me. Mine has so many layers of paint on it, it looks like a boat oar. 

 

Looking good! Keep up the great work. 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Paint stick is great. Makes doing squads a snap so long as you’re careful to hit the undersides.

[Mandragola]

Bah! You build a bunch of models, do a comedy conversion and all anyone wants to talk about is the stick! 

[dice4thedicegod]

That’sa paint stick? I thought it was a half built ghost ark?!

[Miek]

Bah! You build a bunch of models, do a comedy conversion and all anyone wants to talk about is the stick!

Hehe that reminds me of a joke where a guy was trolling a seller on eBay by repeatedly - using different accounts - trying to buy an object in the background of the item's picture (completely ignoring the item itself).

 

Your Lychguard kebab inspires me to do the same; I only have 5 of these guys and have yet to assemble most of my indomitus stuff.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Miek

[Prot]

As tempting as it is to continue the stick schtick, as far as the C'tan it is a great, creative conversion. I just like the original model quite a bit. In all honesty when GW does a limited special sculpt for a store opening or whatever, I thought for sure it would be the generic C'tan. I keep thinking it was on the books since it was never really released properly and it is potentially the best option for the points. Sorry for going a bit O.T. there. 

[Mandragola]

Yeah I like the actual model too I definitely don't like it enough to field an Obelisk though, and I had these bits kicking around with no other obvious use. I'm not sure I'll ever use it, especially since I've got the Nightbringer and Void Dragon both awaiting construction/conversion.

[Mandragola]

Well this has been a very dead plog for a few months. Maybe it's time for a spot of reanimation. This has definitely been provoked by the balance datasheet, which suggests that Necrons might actually be made into a reasonably effective army. I have to say I was getting a bit despondent about them, and about 40k in general, seeing things like turn 1 capitulations.

 

I've been putting paint on my unit of 10 Lychguard. Relative to the warriors they have a bit more red, perhaps indicating their higher status. They'll also have some bronze bits here and there, as well as the metal joints. So there's quite a bit more to do, but here's what they look like so far.

 

 

I like the colour of the fleshtearer red I've used on the shields and shoulders here but I think it's going to need some touching up. One issue is that the shoulder pads have a join running through them and the contrast paint runs into it, which looks bad. And some of the plates on the shield are just a bit too big for contrast. That said, I could definitely see myself ignoring that at first and just getting these guys battle ready. They've arguably lost out somewhat in the update, as their Core keyword is now far less unique. I think they'll still be a useful unit but I'm glad I only bought 10.