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…