Twas the weekend before Christmas

This is my favourite weekend of the year. Simply because I know I only have a few days left at work before I can truly unwind and enjoy the holiday spirit. Although it's a bit frenetic, you know, last minute stuff to organise and all that, I managed to sneak a good slab of painting in today.

Not only are the first loyalist formations of Solar Auxilia game ready, but also the armour colours are now on the first of the Metalica Reavers. This is evidenced by the quite noticeable spiking of the workshops air scrubbers from all the Tamiya I've blasted through the airbrush today. This is why I use a decent respirator!

 Can literally see what time the colours went on. So that would be pre-shade for lunch, then the reds early afternoon, before stripes before tea. Totally worth it.

 I've added the decals I want, these I always add as early as possible so I can blend them into the underlying scheme. I don't worry about damaging them during all the handling while I paint, they have a protective coat of varnish over them. All looks a bit garish under the light of the workshop window, but confident will come out fine when finished.

Plan to spend a few more hours today adding textures and different tones to the metallic areas, and if there's time make a start on the dreaded trim. This I think will be my holiday project. 

Old epic

As you may have noticed, I'm on a bit of a nostalgia trip with all of these war engines, and epic in general. I've been hammering away at Heresy and Necromunda so much in 2024 I want to do something that takes me back to my early hobby years.

I've been holding onto these original Space Marine era detachment cards for must be over thirty years now. They have come so close to being thrown out multiple times, but I get so much pleasure looking through the different units, I couldn't bring myself to.

Given the nostalgia this whole project has kicked off, I've decided to not only hold onto them, but treat them to a proper storage box and source of future project ideas. You heard that right. I plan on doing a lot more of this in the future, possibly even breaking out some of the older infantry units and races. 

The Tyranid cards are noticeable by their absence. I have them, don't worry. But if you remember them from when the Hive War supplement box was launched, the cards are a very different design. That's going to be an amazing project to tackle some day! 

Next Reaver

Planning for the second of the Reaver trio is well underway. This is the one with the carapace Barrage Launcher. I tested out a few ideas using the spare warhead design for the Swarm/Shudder missiles in the new Warhound pack, but in the end I went with a printed option after finding a design I liked. It's intended to be an alternative Warp Missile launcher I think, but I feel it could also pass as a kind of multi-munitions cluster missile of some kind. I'll stick with it for now and see how it looks. 

It's also nicely chunky and echoes some of the design cues from both the warp missile launcher and apocalypse launcher. Another reason it appeals.

Reading matters

Dan Abnett has been top of my reading list this past couple of weeks. After wrapping up 'Interceptor City' (which was highly worth the wait by the way! No spoilers, I loved it), I discovered a Gaunt's Ghost book I hadn't actually read believe it or not.

 This is a rare pleasure. I must have read the other Ghost books at least three times over and never realised I'd missed this one somehow. Happy days. That solves what to read during the festivities.

So that's my hobby weekend and pre-holiday painting all wrapped up. So I'll leave you with an appropriately festive verse I 'prompted' GPT-4 to come up with. I wasn't disappointed. 

(PS: It also came up with an even funnier 'Heresy' one for the traitors. But I liked this one better). Happy holiday hobbying. 

Twas the Night Before the Omnissiah’s Call

'Twas the night before battle, and deep in the forge,
The reactors were humming, their power to gorge.
The servitors stood by their stations with care,
Awaiting their masters, who soon would be there.

The Enginseers toiled in the data’s warm glow,
While Tech-Priests intoned sacred canticles low.
And I in my robes, with my cog-etched staff,
Had just settled my mind to decipher the math.

When out in the vastness arose such a din,
I adjusted my optics and checked power in.
Away to the viewport I strode with great speed,
Summoning the noosphere to fulfill my need.

The void, it was lit with Mechanicum fire,
As Titans prepared with their weaponry dire.
When what to my augmetic eyes did appear,
But a massive Warlord, a god-engine revered.

With a Princeps enthroned, so calm in command,
I knew in an instant it was Legio’s stand.
More sacred than catechisms, their engines they came,
As the vox-spoke declared each Titan by name:

“On Ignis Ferrum! On Lux Praetoria!
On Mortis Ferrata, and Bellum Victoria!
To the lines of the traitors! To the heretics' gate!
Purge them all clean, let none escape fate!”

Like plasma bolts streaking through star-lit night,
The god-engines surged with their power alight.
So onward they marched, their banners unfurled,
To bring ruin and wrath to the traitor-held world.

And then, with a roar, I heard from the main,
The engine’s Machine Spirit, wild and profane.
As I turned to my cogitator, circuits alight,
Through the blast doors strode Mars’s war-plight.

He was clad in red steel, his augmetics aglow,
And his servo-arm bristled with tools for the foe.
A manipulator claw hung at his side,
And his chanting invoked the Machine Spirit’s pride.

The whir of his gears and the grind of his gait,
Told of wisdom and power no flesh could relate.
Yet around him loomed Titans, vast and arcane,
Each bearing the Omnissiah’s holy disdain.

He spoke no command, just linked to the Throne,
And the Warlords obeyed with a power all their own.
And laying his hand on the manifold’s sprawl,
He blessed the engines to answer the call.

But I heard him intone, as the plasma did blaze,
“Glory to the Omnissiah, now and always!