Mustering Legio Astraman

With the recent Warmaster Titan build for Adeptus Titanicus, my urge to paint something was rekindled. But to be honest, with the big move ahead, a larger project (in terms of more miniatures) wouldn't be the sensible choice now.

I went once again through my collection of Adeptus Titanicus models and split them into two maniples, this one being the loyal one, covering the following models.

• 1x Warmaster Titan (not pictured)
• 1x Warlord Titan
• 1x Warbringer Titan
• 2x Reaver Titans
• 3x Warhound Titans

Making sure to not miss any mould lines, clean up glue spots and gaps, I went all over the models with a cutter and file. And I got a lot of 5x1mm round magnets, 6x2mm and 3x1mm, to magnetize some of the parts, for a bit of variation but mostly for transporting purposes (I expect this to be one of the few army projects to be used outside of my own gaming facilities).

For the Warlord Titan you can use 5 by 1 mm round magnets for the weapons, both arm and carapace. They have a good fit and seamlessly integrate into the kit. With the arm weapons you get the benefit of having them moveable. For the carapace systems you wouldn't need them implicitly, as they stick pretty well to the body, but just to be sure.

On some kits a bit of gap filling was needed, for example on the back of the Reavers. Unfortunately the Reaver weapons aren't designed in a way to work with magnets right away, you'll need to drill / modify them. But the carapace weapons can be mounted with 5 by 1 mm round magnets as well. Battle Bling offers modified arms as resin prints that have mounts for magnets.

The main weapon system of the Warbringer is large enough to simply stick to the body (unfortunately not swapable with the new Belicosa Volcano Cannon upgrade, you'll have to build one or the other), but the AA guns can be magnetized as well. The Warbringer and Reaver share the same size of weaponry, yet only the Warbringer weapons have a mount for magnets. The more you know!

The resin upgrades by Forge World cover the mounts for magnets as well, but aren't as flush / tight as the plastic mounts, so make sure to align those properly before the glue settles or add a bit of putty / green stuff.

A side effect of putting the parts this early on magnets is that I can use that during painting. So instead of glueing the parts with a small drop of super glue, I can simply put them on something metal.

Back in 2018 I made a colour mock-up what I would like to do with the loyal titan legion, and after tinkering about and getting feedback from my wargaming buddies, it seems that Legio Astraman would be a good fit.

The decision for Astraman felt prior to the release of Crucible of Retribution, so I was caught by a paint scheme that looks a bit more yellow, like the superb 28mm Warlord by Sensei Swag.

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In the meantime, Games Workshop darkened the Morning Stars a bit, reducing the yellow by a lot and replacing the blue chevrons by dark grey / black ones. For comparison the Warlord and Warbringer in the updated colour scheme. A lot darker, and by far from the "original" late 80s / early 90s look of Legio Astraman.

While I'm still doing the tour for missed mould lines and gaps, I already gathered a few paints. I want to go for a mute approach, not a bright green but something along the lines of olive drab / military. Think the P3 colours might be good fit, and want to go for a darker blue instead of the black chevrons, keeping it closer to the old school approach.

Fluff on the Legio Astraman is not as deep yet, but a few information are known.

Title: The Legio Astraman Ordo Titanica
Militaris Grade: Primus
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Graian Mechanicum
Warden Domains: Graia (Forge World), Nalindeer, Nanrzo VI, Rarendeer Station
Cognomen: The Morning Stars
Allied War Houses: Moritain
Allegiance: Fidelitas Constantus

Fidelitas Constantus fits quite well, as I want them to have tie-ins with my Imperial Fists (better said, I want my retro Imperial Fists running around their bases). The Morning Stars is a decent nickname, not as over the top as others. Didn't find much about Graia yet, but the manufacturing stamp looks neat. I'm just not that sold on House Moritain as an allied Knight house. It looks a bit to much like Baratheon for me taste, but the colours remind me strongly of the old Space Wolves. So I might either swap the colours for something more Fenris look, incl. the iconography (that'd bring the advantage of using Space Wolves decals with it) or go for an entirely different house.

And while I was working on the preparation for priming UPS finally delivered. After 4 months UPS finally delivered. 4 Months, this package is in Germany since the end of January and UPS customer service was not much help, simply repeatingly asking me to be patient, not fulfilling delivery date after delivery date until it simply stuck in the past.

With things that I order for myself, that is not a big problem, I have enough to do, but with review samples this is rather annoying. In that box for example were the Cerastus Knights Atrapos that I now can finally cover in a review ... months after their release.

So, expect some primed and base colours on the models along with the next review on an Adeptus Titanicus kit.