HORUS HERESY: Adeptus Mechanicus Castellax Battle automata maniple - more work in progress

HORUS HERESY: Today I am showing you my weekend´s work in progress on the Adeptus Mechanicus Castellax Battle automata maniple. 

Working on the maniple is really truely quite time consuming, as I need to salvage my bits boxes for multiples of the same part (3x, 6x, etc.) in order to build three identic Castellax robots at once.

In the meantime I have mounted each of the Castellax Battle automata on a scenic base, the multi-posable legs I built worked very well allowing for some dynamic poses, like the one Castellax stomping/pinning the Space Marine down with his foot.

On this weekend after lots of trial and error, I finally came up with a nice, sturdy solution for the arms and particularly the hands. Though they are not fully detailed yet and will get more rivets and armor plating, I quite like the brutal look of them and the pincers. The arms have underslung Bolters or Flamers, the later not shown here. The arms parts for the remaining Castellax are mostly built and now need to be glued together. The assembled Castellax is not glued yet, just stuck together.

 

The gun on the back is a Mauler pattern Heavy Bolter. It is removable and fully pivots in all directions. I will not glue those guns into place, which allows me then to swap them out for other heavy weapons as needed. At the moment my plan is to build at least one to two Darkfire Cannons and probably Multi Melters as well.

 

Next up is finalizing all the remaining arms and to add more details to the torsos. It still needs to bulked out with cables and various bits and needs rivets too.

Last picture is a scale shot of the Maniple, as you can see they have grown pretty big now and are distinctively different from a Space marine dreadnought in looks.

That´s all for today!

Cheers

invivos

HORUS HERESY: Land Raider Achilles Alpha Pattern - Work in progress

HORUS HERESY: Today I am showing you some work in progress pictures of my newest project, a Land Raider Achilles - Alpha Pattern for my Imperial Fists Legion. 

I started this project just yesterday when I chose to recycle a leftover Land Raider kit. Some of the  parts of this particular kit were already used into the construction of the Spartan tank like the tracks, guns, etc. First I started with building the basic tank, than I scratchbuilt the forward track covers using leftover parts. After this I removed the entire orginal Land Raider top and replaced it with roof parts from a Space Marine Vindiactor tank. 

So far I am quite happy with the current built progress and the look of the tank, next up is to finish the tank´s front armor, after this I intend to scractchbuilt the sponsons. Stay tuned! :)

Cheers

invivos

HORUS HERESY: Imperial Fists Legion forces

HORUS HERESY: Well as I promised I am showing you some pictures of my recently built Imperial Fists Legion forces during the Siege of Terra, Horus Heresy.

Currently the Legion encompasses 5x plastic Cataphractii Terminators from the Betrayal at Calth box. The models are very nice, but full of tiny rivets everywhere which makes cleaning the models from mold lines and flash a little bit of a pain and tiresome... However assembled they look quite nice and knightly. I decided to follow the idea of the (Cataphractii) experimenting with prototype weaponry as described in the Horus Heresy fluff, hence I armed one of them with a custom Assault cannon. I also added a combat blade to each of the Combi-Bolters to make them look even more deadly in close combat. 

To accompany the Terminators I have also decided to build the Contemptor pattern dreadnought from the same box as an Imperial Fist one. Therefore I filed down the front and added an Imperial Fist symbol, changed the leg stance for a much more dramatic pose, exchanged the combi-bolter in the left arm for a heavy flamer plus tanks and finally made the Kheres assault cannon interchangeable. This gives me the option of arming the Contemptor differently without using any magnets. The torso can also pivot and be removed from the hip. All in all I really like this model a lot, it has a lot of charisma and the assault cannon fits to the theme of the Cataphractii Terminators.  If you look closely on the base there is a small shrine of skulls, probably built by some World Eaters legionary...

To have some basic Space Marine legion troops to accompany the Cataphractii and the Contemptor I "recycled" some really old Mk7 Space Marines from various kits, even some from 2nd edition Warhammer 40.000 :-) The new 32mm bases really make even the old models shine. Since I have rebased the lot from 20mm bases to this new base size I still need to add a bit of rubble to the bases. 

I am thinking of expanding this force to about 1000 points, a commander is in the works and I might use some vehicles from my existing range for the Imperial fists. Plans are also to have some breacher units in the legion, built from Mk4 armor. Below is a group shot of the Imperial Fists Legion so far.

Well that´s all for the moment! :-)

Cheers

invivos

Happy New Year 2016!

A Happy New Year 2016 to all of you out there!

In the meantime I have started to work on my 2nd Horus Heresy themed Legion, the Imperial Fists. So far I have assembled a 5x men Cataphractii Terminator squad and the Contemptor Dreadnought from the Betrayal at Calth box plus some older MK7 Space Marines, which I intend to use alongside the rest of the Imperial Fists Marines as they are depicting a force during the siege of Terra when the Mk7 was already in (limited) use.

I haven´t been able to take any pics of the Imperial Fists lot yet, but will do so hopefully on the weekend. There is a good chance that I´ll try to build a Rogal Dorn primarch too if I find a suitable base model... :)

So stay tuned!

Cheers

invivos