I have always been fascinated by the forces loyal to the Machine god, from early imagery right up to the fairly recent Mechanicum book in the Heresy series. When GW announced they were doing the Skitarii and Mechanicum Codex books for the 40k universe, I had to jump in. Both limited Ed special edition codexes were soon ordered (in fact I recall I was in Jamaica of the first one and avidly checking the time zone difference to the 7pm Friday night pre-order slot!)
Then along came the WD issue with arguably the most broken formation of all time, and I knew I simply had to have that as my starting point for the collection! Not that I necessarily enjoy the broken aspects of some formations, but it included the need for just about 1+ of all the new releases except the Kastelan robots and Electro Priests. So actually, a great way to paint all the unit types up really.
A large order later from our friends at Wayland Games, and suddenly this all got real.
Working on the bases using the Mechanicum Earth cracking colour for various units, cork tile, stone chips, grassy tufts.
The two large ovals are for the Dragoon models, and the front 10 for the first Skitarii infantry. Simple, clean and effective. I am not one to go too mad on basing as I think it can detract from the models themselves.
In order to get triple weapon options for the units of 10 models, you need to buy 3 boxed sets. This annoyed me somewhat as GW these days has been giving ALL the options for a single kit in one set. The Ranger/Vaguard box comes with all the Alpha options, but only 1 each of the special weapons, for which you can take up to 3 if your unit numbers 10 models. Either way, I still got 3 sets so that I can have a play with all the options although the Alpha kit I just picked all the best bits, obviously!
All mounted on rigid card that fits in the air brush booth nicely.
Bit of a boring post at this stage, its just assembly and clean up work of course.
There will be 2 more posts of a similar style to follow before we get some to some actual painting!
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Interesting question and one that plagued me a lot during my build decisions. As a gamer first, and painter second, I elected to mostly build these fully. So the backpacks are glued on to enable me to start play testing to a level that was not something that looked like a proxy game. Its not that difficult to paint the cloaks with an airbrush, then go back over the metal works really. The bigger harnesses on the characters I have left off though for some ease.
I play tested my first game at 1250 the other night using the Kataphrons and Kastellan maniples though. And boy do these guys pump out a lot of lethal shots!
Skitarii Vanguards + Corpuscarii Electro-Priests = attack roll nightmare!
Did you actually assemble the legs/body/backpacks of the troops?
I've found that unless they're kept separate, painting properly the thighs and the interior of the coat is akin to a nightmare… same could be said of the backpack (as in most minis with a backpack strapped on), but mostly it's because I find it easier to bulk paint them independently.