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These tanks both look awesome and are awesome on the table. I think four is enough, even for the Covenant of Ruin!

I have some Mastodons in the queue, and will definitely get some Saturnine units and Fellblade/Falchion/Glaive squadrons, but my main priority for Legions Imperialis for now is building out my Dark Mechanicum army, so stay tuned for updates!

Here is the latest edition to Legio Crassus, my homebrew traitor titan legion. To be honest I am not an enormous fan of the Dire Wolf as a miniature, which unlike the other titan classes, is neither posable and nor very detailed. Still, I think it will be useful, and I will try to fit it into my list for my next game of Legions Imperialis.

I magnetised the carapace weapon and the two hydraulic arms which hold it in place, so I can switch out the weapon (you get three). The arms and waist are push-fit, and I will leave it that way to keep it easy to transport.

More photos below the fold.

I have just finished the last base of battle automata for my Dark Mechanicum. I think it’s fair to say that these tiny, multi-part models are about as hard to build as it gets. But they look great!

More pictures below the fold.

At the moment, Legions Imperialis and BattleTech (plus the occasional game of Space Hulk or Gaslands) are absorbing all my hobby time and interest. For now, 40K, with its neverending treadmill of new editions and new codexes, and constant churn of “meta”, holds little appeal for me and most of my gaming friends. In fact, over the summer I actually put both my 40K armies (apart from my Reaver) into cold storage as they were just taking up space.

But when GW announced a new model for Vulkan He’stan, Forgefather of the Salamanders, I decided to pre-order it, firstly because I have never been very happy with the version I painted more than a decade ago, but also to give myself a palate cleanser after more than 18 months of only painting 8mm miniatures.

As he is a figurehead character for the Salamanders army, I decided to put a bit more than the usual amount of effort into him, and I am quite pleased with how he’s turned out. Definitely an improvment on what I was able to achieve back in 2014!

More pictures below the fold.

Unless you’re playing a pure Collegia Titanica list, it’s rare to take more than one titan in the average game of Legions Imperialis. But the game I’m playing on Thursday is just such a game: four players (2v2), 4,500 points per player! So I have plenty of space in my list for a few titans.

This prompted me to pull my finger out and finish these two, which have been in my pile of shameopportunity for a few years. I will be taking a list consisting of a Warlord, two Reavers and two Warhounds, supported by Dark Mechanicum stalkers and an assault force of Word Bearers (we’re relaxing the 30% rule on allied forces).

It should be loads of fun, and I will report back on how the action played out!

More pics below the fold.

During A Sector Ablaze I realized that I was getting frustrated by a lack of suitable counters for void shields and wounds. It’s very easy to just put a dice down to indicate the remaining void shields or wounds on a model, but then how do you distinguish between them if the model has both? Having an unambiguous symbol reduces the mental load of playing the game.

So I created these, using my laughably poor 3D design skills, using bits and pieces taken from Cults and printed them on my Anycubic Photo resin printer. They have turned out quite nicely, although it took a few iterations to get the design how I wanted it. They painted up quite well, too.

Top-down pictures below the fold.

After 48 hours I’m more-or-less recovered from the physical and mental onslaught of A Sector Ablaze, however I’m still struggling to find the words to describe it. So rather than writing an essay, instead please enjoy this photo diary, which begins below the fold.

I had a fantastic time, despite several calamities, and despite only managing one draw and four losses, I had loads of fun. It was also really cool to meet online acquaintances face to face, notably Tetsugakusan (aka Miles), TKEPaints (aka Rick) and The Unrelenting Brush (aka Chris), whose work has appeared on this site before ([1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]). I was lucky to have four* very pleasant and very good opponents, who were very nice while they wiped the floor with me.

I did not have the best start to the event: upon arrival at Warhammer World I realised that on my way out of my house, I’d left behind a box containing a Warhound titan, and the Xiphon Interceptors and Forward Operating Bases I mentioned in my last post! That left my lists in disarrary, and did not enhance my calm. However, after five minutes of swearing I was able to rejig my lists (made more difficult because I’d only brought the models I thought I was going to use, which gave me very few options) and get back into the swing of things.

I was also very, very lucky that another competitor, the estimable John, lent me a Warhound to replace my missing model, which made a huge difference.

If you’re interested, check out the campaign pack and the missions. I wasn’t a big fan of the secondary objectives (or of secondary objectives in general) but I quite like the Battle Honours, although I think if I were going to do something similar, I’d issue laminated cards at the end of each game to reduce the amount of paperwork players needed to do. But these are minor complaints.

Anyway, enough of the waffle. Photo dump below!

In about 72 hours, I will arrive in Nottingham, ahead of the start of the 2-day narrative Legions Imperialis event, A Sector Ablaze, happening this weekend at Warhammer World.

As a lifelong fan of the Epic scale, being able to participate in this event is a dream come true, and I have been getting progressively more hyped about it as the date of the event has drawn closer!

I have been busy getting the Covenant of Ruin ready for battle. This has mostly involved painting new models to replace the 3D-printed models I started out with, for example, these Xiphon interceptors:

While I was at it, I also finished off this pair of Fire Raptors:

Participants in the event have been asked to produce a pair of custom objective markers representing Forward Operating bases. These are mine (still a WIP):

Apart from finishing my objectives, I’ve also got to finish lists (I need four), pack a bag, and re-read the rulebook so I don’t make a total arse of myself on the day.

On the slim chance that anyone reads this who’s going to the event, drop me a line, let’s hang out!

Now that the Covenant of Ruin is at a healthy size, I decided to branch out a little bit, and so I’ve started on a small force of Dark Mechanicum to accompany them.

The first models are these Stalker Constructs. They are painted to be quite similar to my Necron constructs - the idea is that this particular Forge World has delved a little too deeply into the data vaults associated with the Dragon of Mars.

These are lovely models, but boy, are they fiddly to build and keep in one piece during painting. They have tiny contact surfaces to the bases as well, so I suspect they will need some maintenance in the future. They look awesome though, and I hope they expand the range.

More pictures below the fold…

Earlier today I finished the latest batch of models for my Word Bearers and thought it would be fun to put them all out on parade and OH MY GOD I HAD NO IDEA HOW MUCH I HAD DO I HAVE A PROBLEM.

More pictures (and a video!) below the fold.