Legio Fureans Reaver Chimaera Invicta

 I present the Legio Fureans (cognomen: Tiger Eyes) Reaver Titan "Chimaera Invicta". Literal translation "Unconquered Chimera". 

This is the first, of what I hope will a small maniple of Tigers Eyes engines. At least, that's the plan anyway. The Tigers Eyes scheme is proper old school original Titanicus, with a storied history going all the way back to the late 80's and the games first edition.
Re-imagining some of these classic photos, I think, is going to be a bit of an ongoing hobby themes going into 2025. I still find it incredible I am painting the spiritual successors to miniatures I started collecting thirty-seven years ago.   

The palette for Legio Fureans has evolved a bit since the photo above, but the core yellow and black elements still remain. The modern Specialist Games artwork has reduced the intensity of the yellow to something a little less eye-searing, and the repeating flames motif is now more prominent on the armour.

I do love the original scheme though, and it really pairs well with the super saturated purple of the Emperors Children, making this one of my favourite photos from White Dwarf. Unlike the Metalica and House Krast photo, I'm not attempting to reproduce these engines exactly. I'm just drawing inspiration from it.

I absolutely will be linking up Fureans with the third legion however!

The palette

Confession time. I didn't write any of it down. That's not actually unusual for me, I often just grab whatever colours feel appropriate at the time. With Legions however I'm 'trying' to be a bit more organised and record the methods and palette used, even if I then change it. At least I have a log of what I used and why. With this Reaver however, I failed to do so unfortunately. At least not in any detail.

What I can recall however is the pre-shade was grayscale to Tamiya white. This is my 'go to' for high colour value schemes, especially for warm colours like reds or yellows. I then added a pre-shadow of flat earth and a colour application of GW Imperial Fist Contrast yellow until I got a satisfying saturation of yellow.
The highlight for the black on the head is GW Daemonette Hide. 

The decals came from the Adeptus Titanicus transfer sheet for Legion Fureans. At the time of writing, I believe this is still available from Games Workshop. These I added after the base painting step before any detailing or weathering was done. That's so I can paint 'over' any decals to make them look much more integral and less like something stuck on at the end.

The banner is ridiculously over-sized for a Reaver. I offer no apology. It's just part of the mind-bending scale of Titans in general. Especially from the perspective of a lowly Guardsman. These are God Engines and any banner should be equally awe-inspiring and terror-inducing in equal measure. 
I printed the initial design based on a classic banner of yore and then hand coloured, added custom decals and weathered using pencils, pigments and airbrush. It's actually one of my favourite processes as it's entirely organic. I have almost no plan or idea for the banner when I start and stuff just gets added as I go until I think it looks cool.

Weathering is a mix of sponge chipping plus brush refinement using Rhinox Hide. Rust and sand coloured pigments around the feet and streaking grime from a water soluble burnt umber oil paint. Finally a matte varnish to keep it all sealed in.
The weapons are all magnetised, so I can swap the Warp Missile, Melta and Las-Blaster for more mission-specific loadouts. Or at least I'll be ble to when I paint some suitable 'mission-specific' options. I guess they can go onto the backlog.

 Future Fureans?

Oh yeah, for sure. As I mentioned I'd like to expand them to at least a maniple, even if a small one. My main objective is to use them in Legions Imperialis as part of the traitor side of the Imperial Siege. But equally I want them to be usable in Titanicus as well. I've a fairly well developed idea what I want the traitor forces to look like, inspired by the old photo at the top of the post. That at the very least means a Warlord along with one additional engine, possibly two.

This will definitely not be the last time I paint yellow armour. Hope you like it. 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Replicating Reavers

Image
I have a small confession to make. Although the Warmaster I showed last update was a passion project rather than part of a specific event army, it does belong to a project in a sense. Let me elaborate. This picture from Titanicus and Space Marine era White Dwarf features some of those iconic Metallica engines I mentioned in the last post, as well as a Knight banner of House Krast and the studio's Blood Angels. So, I'm thinking wouldn't it be cool to re-imagine this force using the amazing plastic kits now available in Legions Imperialis?  Feels like a project I could really get behind. Some of the detachments I've already painted now I think about it, much of the Blood Angels for example. There are a few units I would still need to add, such as the Proteus pattern Speeders and whatever the heck is behind them (still trying to figure out what infantry unit that is from the photo). There is no Imperator unfortunately, but I think the Heavy Warmaster 'Interfector Trium...
Read more

Happy New Solar Auxilia Year

Image
Well, we survived 2024 it appears. Although I have managed to pick up a bit of a temperature after the New Year festivities. I'll take that as nothing more than a small blessing from Nurgle. Firstly Happy New Year to the handful of you that follow my erratic painting exploits. I hope you managed to get some hobby, or even better gaming in over the festive break? I'm kicking off the next solar orbit with some loyalist Auxilia. This lot have been on and off the painting station more times than I care to admit over December. I just could not settle on a palette and theme I liked. The original plan was I was going to do them as traitor auxilia to ally with the Emperor's Children and legios Mortis and Fureans. I tested out a gold and purple scheme that worked ok with the Emperor's Children. It was a bit fiddly, but worked ok. Thing is I just wasn't feeling it. Then the Mechanicum and Dark Mechanicum units were revealed, at which point I pivoted. Dark Mechanicum will make...
Read more

Priscus Interfector Trium

Image
I present the Warmaster heavy Titan 'Priscus Interfector Trium' of legio Metallica (cognomen Silver Skulls). I felt this engine needed a venerable name, not just because it's a Warmaster class, and frankly that should be reason enough! But also because it was painted to honour a legend of the game; "old three skulls". Wait, you've never heard of it? I don't blame you. Until quite recently, when I was thinking how best to paint the Warmaster, I had entirely forgotten the studio Warlord that inspired the palette actually had a name. You see, back when I was really into Epic during second edition Space Marine, there was an iconic battle report between Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers. Legends of the game. The battle was a fight between Craftworld Eldar (Alaitoc) and the Imperium (Blood Angels). Featured in White Dwarf, it was re-printed in 1993 as part of the compilation book 'Space Marine Battles'. It was one of my favourite articles. The studio armi...
Read more