Life On Mars – Part 8

It’s almost the end of 2021 but before the year is quite over there’s just enough time for a final visit to the scoured and irradiated surface of Blessed Mars, the Forge World Prime and home planet of the Adeptus Mechanicus. All year I’ve been trying – with great success I might add – to complete at least one new model for the army every month. With this being December I decided to push myself to finish up the part-painted squad of Sicarian Infiltrators that I started back in the spring. Having managed to get them done before Christmas I turned my attention to a couple of larger models. 

Back in October I painted a Cybernetica Datasmith, the specialist tech-priests charged with responsibility for the limited of robots deemed permissible under Imperial law. Now it’s time for two of those robots, the mighty Kastelans, to stamp their way out of the hangers.

Here’s the two of them towering over their master.

This brings my year on Mars to an end, although I still have several other Adeptus Mechanicus models that I’ll be working on next year. Things will probably slow down a bit with this army though as there are various other projects I’m wanting to concentrate on over the next little while. However before we do that let’s remind ourselves of how the army has grown over the past 12 months. Back at the end of 2020 it stood at a trifling 4 models – 2 of which were borrowed from Blackstone Fortress.

Today however the Martian host has grown significantly and stands ready to put the fear of the Omnissiah into all those who oppose the superiority of the red planet.

And with that we come to the end of another year, although there’s just time for me to treat you all to a lovely round-up post looking back at everything I’ve been doing in 2021 – something I’m sure you’re all agog to read. Of course, first of all I’ve got to actually write it but I’ll try to sneak it in before the year is out…

Life On Mars – Part 7

There seem to be a lot of assassins around here lately don’t there? From the elves who spring out of the shadows of the Mortal Realms we return to the murderous cyborgs that stalk through the forges of Mars. With the end of the year fast approaching I wanted to finish off the squad of Sicarian Infiltrators that was on my desk before we get into 2022 and whatever that brings.

First of all we have the last of the standard Infiltrators that make up the rank and file…

… and then we have the Infiltrator Princeps who directs their murderous activities.

With these two done I can pat myself firmly on the back with another squad completed and ready to join the ranks of my little army.

All things considered I’m very pleased with how my Adeptus Mechanicus collection has grown in 2021, from a mere handful of miniatures at the start of the year to something that can now justifiably be called an army. I’ve still got a couple more models I might – just might – be able to squeeze in before New Year rolls around, and I’ll certainly be putting together a retrospective post with plenty of group shots. However as I’m going to be busy catching up with friends and family over the next little while I’ll take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas. Have a good ‘un, be wonderful to yourselves and your people, and I’ll catch you on the other side.

Life On Mars – Part 6

Time for this month’s first visit to the polluted surface of Mars. I’ve spent this year working away on my Adeptus Mechanicus army for Warhammer 40k, challenging myself to add at least one model to the collection every single month of the year. Now that we’ve reached December my aim is to finish off the squads that are still incomplete so I can head into 2022 with a fresh slate – and hopefully ready to work on plenty more of the Omnissiah’s faithful.

Way back in May I painted up a Sicarian Infiltrator, the spidery part-machine assassins that scurry from the shadows to give anyone who threatens the forge worlds a damn good murdering. Now I’ve finally got around to painting up two more.

The other two models which will complete the squad are assembled, undercoated and lurking on the edge of the desk so all being well I’ll get them done before the end of the month.

Life On Mars – Part 4

In between painting all those beards this week I’ve also been chipping away at the second half of the Skitarii Vanguard squad. Now they too are finished and ready to march across the red sands of Mars.

This half of the squad also contains the Vanguard Alpha who leads them into battle.

With these five done the whole squad is now complete, giving me a second unit of troops for the army.

This just leaves me with the Onager Dunecrawler to paint to complete my self-imposed challenge of painting the entire Start Collecting box in a month. It’s about half done at the moment so I’m going to be concentrating on it over the weekend.

The Chances Of Anything Coming From Mars… – Part 4

As promised last month I’ve set myself the goal of adding at least one model to my Adeptus Mechanicus army every month in 2021. Having managed sod all with this project for many a long year I then managed to knock out a series of miniatures in the first few months without really trying. Allow me to delude myself that this was not in fact a fluke and is instead proof that the tide has turned at last for the followers of the machine god. With April’s offering seeing my first squad of Skitarii rangers growing tantalising close to full strength I decided that my first task for May would be to get them up to ten models.

As well as two standard rangers above I also painted up this trooper with their rather fancy looking Transuranic Arquebus.

Whilst I was about it I also went back to the very first two Skitarii I painted for this project and repainted the various cables in yellow rather than green, in order to tie them in to the rest of the squad. I know it’s a minor thing but the Omnissiah demands attention to detail in all things!

With that done here’s the whole squad ready to march forth in the name of Sacred Mars at last.

That’s not all I painted this month though because, infused with the motive force,  I also managed to paint up one of the gloriously weird looking Sicarian Infiltrators.

I’d quite like to tackle some more of these soon but I’ve not actually built the rest of the box so they may or may not be putting in an appearance in June. Equally I have a couple of Electro Priests sitting on the painting desk so I might make them next month’s offering instead – and of course it’s always possible that I find the time to paint something else for this project in May although the way work looks at the moment I wouldn’t count on it – as ever watch this space!

The Chances Of Anything Coming From Mars… – Part 2

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.

Blackstone Fortress: Daedalosus

Working on the servitor X-101 got me thinking about the sons of Holy Mars once again, and the fact that I haven’t painted anything for the glorious birthworld of the Mechanicum since back in April. Despite how much I know inside I love tech-priests and their ilk I still seem to have a bit of a mental block when it comes to actually painting them. Still, whilst I’ve got Blackstone Fortress on the brain I can always kill two (servo-)birds with one (radioactive!) stone and paint Daedalosus, the wandering tech-adept who can be taken as part of the band of adventurers venturing into the fortress.

I know I’ve slowed down a bit on getting Blackstone Fortress painted since I completed the original boxset, although this last week has done a little bit towards setting that right. We’ve got out of the habit of playing it since we discovered Warcry – although I paint plenty of other things that never see a gaming table so I don’t really see why that should make any difference. Still I would like to get the finger out and get everything else painted for it (especially once the wintery weather puts me off from being outdoors more than I strictly need to!). I’m still in two minds about buying the final expansion, Ascension. On the one hand the new Guardian Drones look amazing, we’ve enjoyed the game and it makes sense to complete the collection and finish the adventure. On the other hand the price feels a little bit like they’re taking the piss – safe in the knowledge that lots of people have been hooked by previous expansions Games Workshop are charging a bit more than I, without the box open in front of me to take a proper look at its contents, feels it really deserves. I may yet save up for it but it’s not the only thing GW are trying to tempt me into buying right now. I’ll think about it…