Monday 17 March 2014

Mechanicum WIP 4


Gday Guys,

Keepy here with the last WIP for the 1000pts Mechanicum army project. During this post we cover weathering, oil washing and decal application on the Castellax Battle-Automata and Thallax Cohort. So without further ado lets get to it!

So back to our hundreds of parts on sticks - I gave one of the models a test coat of an oil wash over gloss and it come up a treat. There is a tutorial to using oil washes here.



Test oil on the Carapace only

I also applied decals at this stage - An affiliation to the Sons of Horus on the black pad with squad markings and Mechanicum on the right. There is also a serial number on the chest


Decals were applied using Micro Set and Micro Sol so the line of the transfer looks less apparent. Make sure you gloss up the surface before applying as this helps for a better adhesion and seamless blend into the model. I have used some less used Sons of Horus iconography to represent these being attached to the 63rd Expedition and have been given a sutle mark to show support to the Warmaster prior or during the Istvann III campaign. They will make a great allied or embedded force to compliment my Sons of Horus legion.

I did a test of chipping with Mechanicum Grey and Leadbelcher using the sponging technique and it came up rather well. For a tutorial on sponging head over to Macca's post here. All the weathering was done before the oils but after the decals were applied, this ensures that damage goes over the top of the decals for a more realistic effect.


With the oil test done it was time for some weathering on the whole fleet before more oils could be applied

Weathering, decals and oils done on the carapace only

Fresh oil coat

Test model in progress


The whole Castellax fleet weathered

Oils to come next

Oil coats done

Castellax basically done, just need a matt coat to dull down the gloss and retain detail

Thallax detailing done

Thallax decals done, about to apply damage and oils



I was really pushed for time to get these done for a tournament in time, so to accelerate the oil drying process (which usually takes about 24hrs) I tried a bit of experimenting and put them in a fan forced oven. Really. Don't go over about 50 Deg C and check it constantly. If the temperature is too hot you will start to smell burning resin, take them out immediately! My minis escaped any damage despite being a bit soft and bendy and after about 4-5hrs the oil was dry enough for me to finish the models.
In the oven!

Hurry up and dry!


With all the components painted and finished it was time to assemble to force en-masse. Much cutting of toothpicks from models, each part had to have the paint removed from the joining points so the parts would stick together. If this is not done then the paint will just peel away and your model will fall apart.

Finally off the sticks and onto the base. I ended up with a mountain of toothpicks by the end of the build


Well that's all for this post, I am getting together some high res photos of the Mechanicum force, I was pretty blown away with how well they turned out.

Thanks for dropping by, as always your comments and criticisms are welcome.

Cheers


Keepy

Links:

1. Mechanicum 1000pts List
2. Mechanicum WIP 1
3. Mechanicum WIP 2
4. Mechanicum WIP 3 - Basing
5. Mechanicum WIP 4
6. Mechanicum 1000pts Completed!



16 comments:

  1. love the pioneering 'oven technique'!

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    1. Tip for young players: Don't leave the oven up high and unattended as drooping and possible ignition of models may occur! To be honest I thought I set fire to the house but at very low temperatures with a fan force oven it works a treat and you can set and forget

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  2. Shit son your robots and cyborgs are so mega! I posted some photos of our game in this gallery they might help spur your memory for battle report purposes: http://m.imgur.com/a/owkDd

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    1. Haha thanks man! That was an epic game we had in Zone Mortallis, so many spare parts laying around the corridors by the end of it. I would love to borrow a couple of your photos if that's cool

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    2. Yeah of course man! They don't do any justice to your miniatures though.. It was definitely a really fun and brutal game! The subtitle for the tournament should have been: WRATH OF THE MECHANICUM!

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    3. Yeah! I knew Castellax Battle-Automata were good but dear god they are nigh unstoppable. I don't think I will be building anymore of them!

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  3. Yeah I think in small points they're super rough but once people start taking awesome heresy units like ten man melta support squads or sun killer lascannon squads and shit they won't be as super great. No one used rad grenades as far as I could tell, they're so epic! Reduce Castellax toughness to 6 then mass krak grenade and melta bomb them. There was hardly any power fists or thunder hammers too.

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    1. I actually said the same thing to Keepy, he of course wouldn't inflate my ego with an answer to my 10 man destroyer squad with twin-rad missile launchers and sicarian combo (Sicarian is amazeballs for dealing with thallax/castellex, 9 Heavy Bolter and 6 twn-linked rending auto-cannon shots on an AV 13 platform ftw). I am really looking forward to the post tournament battle reports and the pics.

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    2. lol. I agree the destroyers really are the key to chipping them down, but I faced 2x Sicarian and they did bugger all. 3+ saves for the 4-5 wounds they did, maybe take a wound or two. Ill crack out the battle reports over the next week for you all

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    3. The Sicarian is for the Thallax, I didn't make that clear, as the Thallax only have 4 up armour saves. Destroyers with a Moriat is very scarey, especially if he if Salamanders could take him cos' then he'd be rocking twin inferno pistols!

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  4. And at the end of the day, THE FLESH IS WEAK... Never try and put biology up against technology! If Mars was running the Crusade, there would have been no heresy!

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  5. Hey Keepy, I forgot to ask on the weekend, where did you get your mechanicus decals from? They're awesome and I want them :)

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    1. Never mind, found them on the iron hands decal sheet.

      I really hope they get their own set soon.

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    2. Yeah I need Ordo Reductor ones so bad!! That's the reason my dudes have no symbols!

      I'm hoping they flesh out the Ordo Reductor list and make it a full list with proper Myrmidons and siege artillery!

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    3. Haha yeah on FW Iron Hands transfer sheet. Expensive to buy just for those but hey, its what I wanted!

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