Adeptus Titanicus – Legio Astraman Ad Arma Pt. VI

The deadline is coming closer and I am in the focus zone to get a maniple of my Legio Astraman painted. That's the reason why some of the other content that is in progress, has been on hold, but more on that in the sum up of January.

So what's the status?

Battle for Uulda III is next weekend (hosted by Broncofish) and I am on the guest list among other wargamers (Poom, Lord Leonatos, The Prophet of Fire, AuxiliaryMirelurk, Hive Citizen) who I know from their projects and internet fame for quite some time but never met in person. So that is something that I look up for as well.

As arriving there with unpainted miniatures would not be an option, for several reasons, I grabbed my mood board and favourite paint pal and picked up the brush again.

First step was to bring the Warhounds as far as possible, to make them ready for a wash. I didn't go for a full body wash, but more of a selected black lining.

At this point, I needed to write down the used paints, so I can ensure the continuity through the Legio.

• Green Armour Panels - Citadel Base Paint Death World Forest
• White Armour Panels - Citadel Base Paint Corax White with Army Painter Warpaint Matt White Highlight
• Blue Stripes (and partial decors) - Citadel Base Paint Night Lords Blue
• Metal parts - Army Painter Warpaint Gun Metal
• Gold parts - Army Painter Warpaint Greedy Gold
• Plasma Coils - Army Painter Warpaint Deep Blue
• Lenses - Army Painter Warpaint Pure Red with Warpaint Lava Orange Highlight
• Wash - Army Painter Dark Tone Wash

While the discussion about the point sizes of the matches started, I went through my stock to see if I needed to boost up what I had in mind for that weekend (I plan on using 3 Warhounds, 2 Reavers and a Warlord, with the option of a Warbringer if I finish him as well). I do have quite the stock here, meant to build a second titan legio - Legio Magna - along with two supporting Knight Households, one for each. Yet, the Legio Astraman is not finished, I do have a Warmaster Titan, a Direwolf Scout Titan and unbuild Sinister Psi-Titan, along with the knights of House Moritain. The later will receive a sub-sector of their reign / alternative paint job, moving them closer to the vintage Space Wolves colours.

Anyhow, that's unlikely to fit the already tight schedule for Uulda, so I'll focus on the Reavers and Warlord, and if I manage to get it done, the Warbringer as well. I decided to start with the trim, so grabbed the primed armour panels and got to work. This took me all evening. The greedy gold isn't the most covering paint, and I probably would recommend adding a yellow-ish brown either to the colour or as a primer, for better coverage and giving the option to thin it down as I currently have to go for a rather thick coat to make it properly work.

I tried painting the rims after the solid colours, but noticed I had a harder time creating a clean result compared to painting the trim and then filling in the interior. So I went this way.

I pushed the Reavers as far as I could the last days. White Scar made a big difference, as it covers quite decent with 2 thinned down coats. Still have to be careful to not create drying edges. At this point I learned two things - get an airbrush for these kind of projects and don't assemble to much, the individual "build groups" are far easier to paint. As for the airbrush, I already scheduled a consultation with PK-Pro, as they offer various bundles, and I'll see him at Tactica in a few weeks.

While the titans will receive weathering and such, I want to use decals as well. Unfortunately my chosen Legio Astraman, isn't provided by Games Workshop / Forge World with a decal sheet of their own (unlike for example Kritos) and the regular sheets that are part of the boxes are a bit ... minimal to put it words. So I went through my decals and thought I might find something with the Bretonnians, not bad, but not exactly what I was looking for. So I started up Corel Draw and recreated the insignia of Legio Astraman, so I can create my own decals. But why are you not painting? I needed a palette cleanser, and yes, these decals won't make it in time but I will create a A5 sheet of the icons and its variants and will provide them - along with banners - as downloads for free.

This is the current status, I'll finish the armour panels on the reavers with a priority, so that I can add the washes and then move on today towards the Warlord. I want to do proper bases, these will not be empty and sculpted a bit, so this might take some time next, which I have to schedule in.

The progress of this along with pictures from the weekend will be posted on my instagram - Chaosbunker.