It’s been the best part of twenty years since I started banging on about wanting to paint an Adeptus Mechanicus army, almost six years since miniatures for them were released and nine months since I finally got a couple of Skitarii painted. For that matter it’s also been one week since you looked at me, cocked your head to the side and said, “We need to talk about Mars” and five days since you laughed at me saying “The Omnissiah demands you get your shit together and paint His legions!”. Anyway, at long last my two Skitarii have been joined by two more.
Really I should have painted another to round out a squad but the uncanny powers of Tzeentch with which I’ve been tampering over recent weeks have clearly addled what was left of my common sense.
I’m not going to pretend that more of these will follow straight away, I’ve got more Tzeentch and the Fembruary challenge lined up which I want to concentrate on, but I am determined that after that I’ll give the armies of Sacred Mars the love and attention they have been denied for so long.
January 22nd, 2021 at 12:44 pm
Smashing good work! 😀
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:15 pm
Thanks muchly! 🙂
January 22nd, 2021 at 1:26 pm
When a chap says he is going to do something he generally does, so what if it takes 20 years, 6 years or 9 months. The thing is you’ve been true to your word. Look brilliant mate and will be interested to see what you have been keeping up your sleeve for Fembruary. 🙂
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:17 pm
I know right, I say this to my partner all the time – “If you ask me to do something and I say I’m going to do it, that means I’m going to do it, you don’t need to nag me about it every three months!”. Does she listen though? Anyway, glad you like them mate! 🙂
January 22nd, 2021 at 4:46 pm
looks great! the trick is to have ongoing projects.
January 22nd, 2021 at 9:31 pm
Cheers! Ongoing projects are something of a speciality round my house (although for some of them getting them to actually “go” at all can be the real issue…).
January 22nd, 2021 at 6:35 pm
… a million to one I’d say 🙂
January 22nd, 2021 at 9:28 pm
Ha! Sometimes the odds don’t feel that good I can tell you, but I’m working on it!
January 26th, 2021 at 7:40 pm
Beat me too it 😁
January 27th, 2021 at 2:35 pm
“But still they came!”… Very bloody slowly in my case mind you!
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:48 pm
If i have to wait another 20 years fir you to get to the next couple, I am more than willing to wait. Job well done man
January 23rd, 2021 at 10:42 am
Thanks man – I’ll try not to keep you waiting quite that long though 🙂
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:22 am
These came out looking nice! I think you did a great job on the ridges of the plasma rifle, in particular. I like Adeptus Mechanicus too and I just haven’t found the model from their faction that worked out for me. I tried doing something fancy with the Electro-Priests and a Tech-Priest Dominus and I wasn’t able to finish either one sadly. Maybe one day I’ll get around to it, though probably not any sooner than you will get yours painted up, I figure 🙂
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:16 pm
Thank you! The plasma glow was surprisingly easy, I gave it a couple of coats of contrast paints (which colours you ask? Errmmm – I can’t remember exactly, one green and then one dark and blueish in the deeper areas). Gave it a moment or two and then ran a finger lightly over the ridges to lift the paint off and leave a natural highlight. Then it was just a case of tidying up and emphasising the highlights.
They’re lovely models aren’t they, but the sheer number of details can be quite intimidating. I reckon you could do some incredible work with them if you felt so inclined though, and I could certainly use the inspiration if I’m going to get this project up and running. 🙂
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:38 pm
Sounds like great technique to me 🙂 I don’t think I’ve tried to paint a plasma weapon before. It’d be a good painting exercise to do that one day 🙂
Haha, I’ll keep that in mind on future Adeptus Mechanicus projects! I would probably choose an unlikely color scheme if I tackle one of their models again. The scheme you used is VERY popular with that army for some reason 🙂
January 24th, 2021 at 10:58 am
That’s ‘cos it’s the best colour scheme mate! Why would anyone choose to paint their models as coming from an inferior forge world when they could paint them as the legions of Sacred Mars itself? 😉
January 23rd, 2021 at 10:11 am
Miniatures are like good wine or cheese, the longer they rest in a dark place the better they taste! Or something like that.
In any case, I know the feeling of picking up a mini and not quite remembering where it came from. The better it feels to finally paint it up.
Really like the weathered metal look in combination with the the red. The subtle glow effects on the weapons also add interest.
Only thing I would suggest is to increase the contrast of the red cloth a tad, should you revisit them or paint another batch.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:26 pm
Cheers! I’ll keep that in mind about the wine and cheese, in that case I’ve got quite a few models that are maturing nicely! 🙂
Yeah, the red’s come out look a bit stark hasn’t it? It’s got a bit more depth to it in real life but the light for taking pictures isn’t great at the moment (I won’t get into excuses but one of the lamps is out of action). That said I’ve learned a lot about painting large areas of red cloth from each of these so hopefully future ones will improve on that front as well.
January 23rd, 2021 at 4:18 pm
Another option, that doesn’t require crazy wet blending or glazing skills, is to build up successive texture layers. In your case you start with a dark red and layer fine horizontal strokes were the highlights are. You can always glaze it down again, if it is too stark. Basically what I did with Nienna’s cloak in my other post, but not after highlights have been applied, but instead as a way of highlighting. I post a video link later, that explains it in detail.
January 23rd, 2021 at 4:51 pm
There we go: https://youtu.be/OqlXC0r6rsM
January 24th, 2021 at 11:01 am
Yeah I do like that effect, makes the surface feel more textured and organic. For me it’s perfect for cloth and skin, sharper highlights are better for hard surfaces. Guy in the video presents it well, I’ll check out the rest of his stuff – cheers!
January 24th, 2021 at 12:03 am
Very nice
January 24th, 2021 at 10:48 am
Cheers! 🙂
January 24th, 2021 at 2:00 pm
Those are superb- I do like the classic red look on them.
Cheers,
Pete.
January 24th, 2021 at 6:28 pm
Cheers – it’s a classic for a reason isn’t it! 🙂
January 26th, 2021 at 7:40 pm
I was thinking the same thing. Lovely classic paint job.
January 27th, 2021 at 3:03 pm
Thank you! Usually I like to do my own thing with colour schemes but I really can’t picture the Ad Mech in anything other than lovely Martian red. 🙂
January 31st, 2021 at 3:13 am
I know nothing of the lore, but the red knocks me out!
January 31st, 2021 at 10:14 pm
Thank you! In brief, in the background that colour scheme is associated with Mars, the homeworld or “capital” of the faction. Other subfactions have settled other planets and have their own colour scheme, and of course you can always make up your own planet and your own colour scheme. The studio models are all painted in the Mars colour scheme, and it leads to a bit of banter. Some would say that painting them in that colour scheme is something of a cliché to which I would retort that they’re just jealous because Mars is clearly the best planet and armies painted in other colour schemes are clearly second rate. 😉
To be honest though, I too just really like the red colour scheme, I think it suits them a lot so it wouldn’t really matter which planet it “belongs” to, it’s the one I’d go for. 🙂