The Adeptus Mechanicus Project: Episode II

[The Hoff]

Hi everybody,

After a very long period of silence (and focus on other projects), I am finally shaking off my torpor and starting work on the Adeptus Mechanicus again.

Drawing inspiration from a number of recent projects I have seen here and abroad, including the work of Mato Noupa and Boltman (from Bolter and Chainsword), I decided to start work on a heavy support choice.

While I realise that this amounts to jumping on the bandwagon , its a great idea and I have made my own tweaks to the design.



A quick rundown of construction,

The head and upper are scratchbuilt from a variety of plasticard and rod. The engine grills are from a photoetch set for a 1/35 Tiger tank. The engine underneath comes from the landraider interior.

I dont think I need to tell anyone where the legs can be obtained .

Still to do: The landraider exhaust will fit into the back section (once I win lotto and can fork out $90 for a kit that will effectivly become useless).

The guns of course! This will proxy as a Russ for the time being, so a battlecannon and 3x heavy bolters are the order of the day. Both are in progress.

Crits and advice welcome as always,

Sing praise to the God of all Machines!

[The Dragon Reborn]

very very nice!, does this mean you are going to finish the army? if so I have been waiting for this day a loooong time!

cant wait to see more

[TomKamakazi]

Holly Crap!!!

You don't mess about when it comes time to take out the scalpel and the needle files do you? That is without a doubt the best Knight I have seen. Very nice concept for the head.

Are you planning to tie the coulour scheme in to the rest of your mechanicus force. or does this bare it's titan company colours only?


EDIT:
What are the ideas for the weapons? A rack of 3 heavy bolters for one arm and a battle cannon for the other perhaps?

[The Hoff]

Originally Posted by TomKamakazi

Are you planning to tie the coulour scheme in to the rest of your mechanicus force. or does this bare it's titan company colours only?

Thats a good question,

I think all the vehicles will receive similar treatment. I chose the Shadow grey because I thought red would be too garish (and too Chaos like), and catachan green doesn't really suit the Adeptus Mechanicus.

I have tried to represent a machine on a protracted campaign, so it parade ground heraldric colours have been painted over in a more pragmatic camoflage scheme. Notice the large amounts of rust and grime that suggest it has been in the field for some time!

[TomKamakazi]

Originally Posted by The Hoff

I have tried to represent a machine on a protracted campaign, so it parade ground heraldric colours have been painted over in a more pragmatic camoflage scheme. Notice the large amounts of rust and grime that suggest it has been in the field for some time!

I did notice, and I very much like it. It's a good colour. You're right red would be too garish accross the whole model. The hereldric shield on it's leg might do well as a bit of a tie in too.

If you're not keen on buying a whole land raider, you could look into a bunch of ork big shootas for exhaust. The Warbuggie model has lots of little enginey bits you could stick there too, and I think they're only about AUD$30.

[Rabid Bunny 666]

The Hoff returns!

awesome work there dude, that thing rocks

[ZAChos]

or get a f/w heresy raider that has an extra exhaust stack made of resin.

by the way,

HOLY MOLY!!!

[sheep]

Very nice, as i said the other day.

I love all the detail in the torso section, and the head is spectacular as well.
You've just convinced me to do more work on my "finished" Knight before posting pictures.

I'll take it out of your hide in DOD later.

Cheers

Sheep

[malika]

That's one hell of a way to make a come back! I suggest you make the weapons similar to Mato Noupa's knight!!! Hey you joined the ASP board right? You chould perhaps post those pics there too, it would be great to have some cool modelling stuff showed off there!

[major_panic]

Welcome back, brother Hoff! And may I say, amazing work as always!

Could I suggest a banner or hanging flag of some sort bearing your AM army's colours? Although if the camouflage is central, then the shield will probably do...

[The boyz]

Wow that thing is awesome Hoff, brilliant truly brilliant. I love the shape and design of the head. Brilliant paint job aswell.

[baneful]

yeah i feel it needs a banner mate, other then that it is amazing.

Still up for a challange at g'con? or do you wanna have a battle after the 1st day is over?

[frod]

That's truly awesome especially the head, as far as the exhausts go all you need to replicate the landraider ehausts are a couple of lengths of either metal or plastic tube a bit of plastc card and a drill, much cheaper than buying a whole kit

[The Hoff]

Yes, a banner is a good idea

Ill need to order some FW fine scale chain to hang it from, but I have been meaning to get some of that stuff for ages. The large banner from the SM command squad box would fit rather nicely between the legs.


Ill also go over my plans for completion of this army.

My eyes recently fell on the new Vostroyans coming out soon, and this has changed my plans somewhat. I have pre-ordered two platoons of these guys, so they will form the bulk of my infantry with minimal conversion. These are the Tech Guard regulars.

The Command squad will still be similar in fashion to my original Ad.Mech troopers, with the appropriate bling.

The original converted models will be put aside, and I will begin work on an improved converted troop type to represent the Skitarii, which will be represented by hardened veterans and Grenadiers on the tabletop. In this way I will not have to produce such large numbers as in my original plan.

One Enginseer with maxed combat servitors and another with maxed gun servitors will fiull the remaining elites choices.

The Knight (Leman Russ) will be joined by a pair of more conventional Basilisks.

So doctrines so far are:

Carapace armour
Enginseers
Grenadiers
Hardened veterans.....and something else.

This adjustment came about both becuase it will be easier to achive, and becuase I fell in love (in a totally plutonic, non sexual way ) with the Vostroyans as soon as I saw them.

[Darkseer]

Rejoice brothers!

The second coming of Hoff is at hand.

[malika]

How are you going to model the Vostroyans? Are the Praetorians still going to be included in your army?

[The Hoff]

The Vostroyans will be largely unaltered. I considered the possibility of cutting (/carving/hacking/tearing) their hads off and sculpting hoods on them, but metal minis do not facilitate such conversion.

Praetorians will not make it intoo the revised list, unless I represent them somehow in a command squad or Inquisitorial retinue. Ill give it some thought, in any event my original design for the Praetorian was never entirely satifactory, and difficult to produce as well.

[tagsta]

oh my god! the knight is so awesome!!! how did you do the carapace/toes ? do you have WIP shots?

[sheep]

I would suggest Special weapons squads, hard hitting and small, and allowing for great conversion ops.

Cheers

Sheep

[Wulf]

Great news indeed with you being back on track!

I, and everyone else , was following your latest thread with alot of interest.

The Knight is fantastic! The best version of the Defiler-based walker that I've seen so far. The bird head gives it a ton of character. How are you planing on ditribute the weapons?

I can totaly understand you going for Vostroyans to cut down the necessary workload on you basic troopers. However I think you should really consider giving them hoods as you mentioned. The Vostroyans do look great as they are but they will be used quite frequently as quite many people have fallen in love with them. And with all the work you've put into this project it would diminish the impact of the army somewhat if the bulk of the force are out of the box miniatures. I realise that it demands some work but with only modifying the heads instead of scratch building entire models you've saved yourselves alot of work already. And working with metal isn't that demanding as long as you only do headswops and alterations and not try to alter the pose of the mini or something more involved lite that.

Good job! Keep it up! I simply love it!

/Wulf