Mechanicum Thallax Unit

I've always wanted to create a Mechanicum force. In the back of my mind I imagined it would be scratch built and modified models running as space marines, probably with contemptors since I always thought they'd make nice Legio Cybernetica constructs. That's why my first two got painted red. 

So when GW finally created an Army List in their expensive set of Horus Heresy books it was time to eBay the Imperial Fists, buy the books (because they're so pretty!) and take the plunge. The start point arrived earlier this week. 

I have to admit that, sadly, it's far better than anything I could have created. But also it fits with what I had in mind. I'm looking forward to painting them up, if not actually playing a game with them. I'll lose. I always do. 

Chaos Decimator Daemon Engine - Part 2

Well the rusting, flaking paint job kind of worked. I think it may not of helped that it didn't show up as well as it might underneath the main colour I ended up applying. Yes, I did go with purple. Partly because I couldn't think of a better idea for my Chaos colour scheme. Red and black is so last year.

The Chaos Decimator Daemon Engine

Don't ask me why I bought it, I don't even play chaos! I guess I'm just a sucker for a pretty model, and I really like dreads even if I'm not that big a fan of the general design of the other mecha in the 40k universe. The tanks are a bit naff in my opinion. Everything just seems a bit chibi, if that makes sense! Plus I'm unlikely to be playing it ever at this rate, so it's purely eye candy.

But, as I said, I do like a nice walking suit of armour and when ForgeWorld released the Decimator Daemon Engine I ordered it the next time I was down in Nottingham.

So I wanted to do something different with the paint job and I thought a chipped paint finish would be a good idea. A bit of youtube research on the hair-spray technique later and I had him all rusted up.

Contemptor Dreadnought - Double Team

The second of my planned three Contemptors (don't ask me why three, I don't actually know) is now complete:

Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Episode 2

Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. Now in red!

I've pretty much put all other gaming projects aside now to paint the Contemptor Dread. I might even have given up on the Dwarfs altogether, but that's another story! It seemed a bit of a shame to just leave the dread in a drawer when it's such a nice model. So over the last couple of days I had a go at doing a half-decent job. Combined with that I'd picked up sets 1 and 3 of the Vallejo pigments and I was desperate to ruin a model as soon as possible. I realise that's a bit of a conflict, wanting to do a decent job and deliberately trying something new on it, but that's just the way I roll...

I'm particularly happy with the base! I have no idea what that stuff is oozing out of the pipe, and I guess it doesn't really matter. The pigments are actually great fun to use. I think it fits nicely with my desire to make things look like they have actually been in a fight. I wanted this guy to look like he'd kicked and punched a few walls on the way to the front. The oil and rust effects look a little better from a distance, but I think he looks used, yet carefully maintained between scraps!

This could be the start of a Legio Cybernetica force, I just haven't worked out the fluff yet. Plus they don't have robots in 40k any more, which is a bit crap!

All in all I'm quite happy with him, and since Forgeworld released a bunch of extra weapons for them just recently I can see myself picking up one or two more. I think I'll call them Babydoll, Sweet Pea and Rocket...

Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

All the bits for my contemptor pattern dreadnought finally arrived after Forgeworld kindly shipped me the missing shoulders! So today I put him together:

The quality was pretty good. Not too much flash, went together easily enough and only a few small bubbles to fill in. One slight issue is the fact that the shoulders come with the body rather than the arms. The simplest way to magnetise the arms is at the shoulder as I have done here:

But since you only get a set of shoulders when you buy the whole body there's a problem should you buy any new arms with the intention of magnetising them for swapping. You're missing the shoulders for your spare weapon arms. I'm not sure if this is a deliberate oversight on the part of GW. If it is then it seems a bit of an insult to customers. You could try and magnetise lower down the arm, but I think it would be a lot harder to pull off successfully.

Anyway, since there are no other contemptor pattern weapon arms at the moment it's not such an issue! I do want to try and convert a couple of autocannon arms for him at some point though.

My next decision is the colour scheme. I really want to paint him red, but don't fancy starting another space marine army to put him in! I'll have to come up with some fluff...