More Adeptus Mechanicus: Ruststalkers & Inflitrators

We have more Adeptus Mechanicus today. Looks like a nice sized release for the Omissiah worshipers.

I'm not as big on the Infiltrators, in part because the heads remind me of the Privateer Press Convergence, but I am pretty fond of the Ruststalker leader mini. Come to think of it, anyone could use convergence minis for Mechanicus models. It's not as grim-dark, but it'd be a pretty easy to turn a few into special characters at least.

 

Sister of Battle Test Mini & Ivory Tutorial

Early this month there was a "rally" to show support for Adeptas Sororitas by purchasing SoB minis at 8amon March 4th. In theory that'd create a sales spike, and demonstrate that there were people interested in seeing new Sisters of Battle minis.

I did my part, and bought a Sister with a Multi-Melta (because everybody loves AP1) and a Seraphim with hand flamers. They were delivered last week, and I thought I'd try a new color scheme. Here's the result:

I don't have a name for the Order yet, but they look like

The color scheme is borrowed/stolen from Stahly over at Tale of Painters. He originally used it to paint up a Blood Angels Sanguinary Priest conversion. I've found it to be a nice, neutral, off-white. My other method, like for Deathwing terminators, is warmer, with a yellowish cast. This also happens to be faster (no waiting for washes to dry).

The Method is simple:

1. Prime White
2. A solid layer of Pallid Witch Flesh
3. Line shadows with Karak Stone
4. Highlights with a Pallid Witch Flesh mixed with White Scar,
5. A final highlight of White Scar

I like this method for a few reasons, namely, It's quick, easy to retouch, and looks sharp. I was able to paint the armor, robes, and some of the metallic bits in a single sitting, so painting a whole unit of these ladies shouldn't take too long. When your armor uses washes in the painting process it can be difficult to go back and fix mistakes, or areas where you've overpainted, but with these basic steps it's easy to recover. I had several areas where I dripped black wash, but it was repainted in no time.

I spent a while deciding what color to paint the robes. I liked the look of my Hospitaller from 2013, but I thought black might end up looking better due to the cooler shade of ivory. Even after I'd finished painting the robes I was uncertain. The off-white and black together had too much contrast for my liking. It wasn't until I added the metallics that I found myself liking the combination. Now I can see a while army in the same scheme.

~Muninn

Adeptas Mechanicus photo leaks have arrived

I've just saw these and I had to share. White Dwarf leaks for the new Adeptas Mechanicus range. I'm not sure what they all do, but I like 'em. I already want the Skitarii Rangers.

A Week in the Life of Muninn

Quick real life news: I've been accepted into a graduate teaching program at a local University, so starting later this month I'll be working toward becoming a middle/high school teacher. May God have mercy on my mentor teacher.

Back to your regularly scheduled nerd post.

Now that the Night Wolf commission has been sent off to its new home I've been able to shift my focus to other minis.The most pressing project is painting characters for my newest D&D game. There are five PCs in all, and for once it was easy to find minis for all of them. I still have to purchase two of the minis, but one is already painted, and two others are prepped and ready.

I was even able to save a bit of money by finding Bones versions. I still hate the floppy, warped, bendy  weapons so I swapped them out.

This ranger is Reaper's Deladrin, female assassin, but the swords come from a pair of loose GW Lord of the Rings elves I found at one of my game stores. The blades are a little long for short swords the character is supposed to wield, but I think they look pretty good.

This one was a little harder. The character concept is a Bard bowman, and there aren't a lot of non-ranger human bowmen minis on the market. I found this guy, Reaper's Eando Kline (not yet for sale), amongst my recent Bones kickstarter minis and decided to fill his empty hand with a bow. You can see instead of pinning the bow in place I just cut away the back of his hand and glued the bow in place. I then used greenstuff to replace back of the hand.

Finally, I've also been getting ready for this May.

My May Mini challenge is about 2 months away, so I've been prepping all the minis I might want to paint. If you recall, the challenge is to complete 31 minis in 31 days. This will be my 4th year of the challenge, but somehow I still have a ton of minis to choose from.

You can see there are a lot more than 31 minis here. Part of that is because I like to have backups. I set out a plan for which miniatures I'd like to paint each day, but sometimes work goes long, or the kids get since, and I need an easier mini (the servo-skull in the lower right hand corner, for instance). So I won't be completing *all* of these minis, but any of these minis could be completed in May.

One big change this year is that they're all Games Workshop minis. It's still a rather eclectic mix of minis. There are fantasy, 40k and even a few Specialist games represented. I've owned some of these for almost 20 years, but there are a few I purchased a few weeks ago.

There are a few conversions too. Here's an Amber Wizard I completed a few nights ago. I'm happy with how he turned out.

The upper body comes from the Empire Deathclaw box, the legs are from a Chaos Marauder, and the top of the staff is taken from the Empire Battle Wizard box. Aside from the obvious kitbash I also has to reshape part of his cloak because it was modeled to look like it was hanging on a high-backed saddle. I also trimmed the gem from the back of the snake staff. Ideally, he'll get painted during "Fantasy Week" in May.

Hope you enjoy the little preview of things to come. It should be a busy month.

~Muninn

Support Sisters March 4th

A few days ago I posted a little article regarding my hope that the Adeptas Sororitas get some much-deserved attention from Games Workshop, and today I see there's a grass-roots movement to get the company's attention.

The idea is simple: According to the facebook page, "Gamers will simultaneously purchase a model (or more if you wish) from the Adepta Sororitas range via the webstore in order to show GW that the community continues to enjoy sisters and that a new range is viable. Games Workshop is a business and if there is one way to make a business take notice it is by doing something unexpected with their sales figures."

There seems to be a bit of a backlash about this "rally." Some think this would hasten their "squatting" since it'd help clear their stores of old metal minis. Others say it's pointless, since the rumors say Sisters are already in the works. I doubt both. Ideally, by creating a sales spike it'd show the potential money-earning potential of the line. Regarding the second argument, GW's newest weekly sales model seems fairly fluid, and allows quicker changes to the release schedule. I'm (personally) expecting the Sisters to get their update next Summer, but maybe this cash mob could get them bumped up in the schedule a bit.

For those of us on the Pacific coast, the idea would be to make your purchase at 8AM. I will likely be purchasing a heavy weapon and a flamer, since there are never enough special weapons in a box. We'll see if this actually goes somewhere.

~Muninn