Under the Brush: Legio Tempestus Walks

Legio Tempestus walks! Er well, Legio Tempestus has been walking for a while now. This is another project that was long overdue for a post. These titans were finished in early 2020, before the covid-19 pandemic had officially hit my area. Practically a lifetime ago!

I was immediately interested in Adeptus Titanicus when it came out in 2018. The models looked amazing, but at launch there was only the warlord titan and knights available and the cost of the starter box was more than my wallet could bear. I did play a demo game ran by a friend using some of the 2018 models as well as some older models in his Epic 40k collection. The game was a blast! Later on in 2019 when a friend had come across some extra models and an extra copy of the rules I took the chance and bought in. Later in 2019 GW released the much more affordable starter set with reavers, warhounds and cerastus knights. I bought one of those as well, which is really a great set if you’re looking to get into Adeptus Titanicus.

Despite its small scale, these AT models are the biggest miniatures I’ve built and painted to date. Each one has taken more steps to build and paint than I have done on other miniatures as well. Typically I build a mini, prime, paint, base and done. I never both with sub assemblies … until these guys!

I started building the warlord at the end of October 2019. If memory serves me, I started by building the base out of cork, plasticard and brass rod. I followed along to a tutorial, but where that tutorial was is lost to me. Then I built the skeleton of the warlord and magnetized the arm and shoulder weapons. The great fun about Adeptus Titanicus is swapping out weapon options like you’re playing around with an action figure. Boys and their toys, eh? I won’t go into details about magnetizing, there are loads of social media posts, blog posts and video tutorials out there you can research. Suffice it to say, the warlord is made to be magnetized. The reaver takes a lot more effort.

This isn’t meant to be a tutorial by any means so I didn’t take photos of every step of the process. I zenithal primed the warlord skeleton and the weapons separately. After doing the zenithal prime, I airbrushed the armor panels with Vallejo Game Color blue ink and Citadel Apothecary White contrast paint for the respective armor panels. Then I used Silly Putty to mask the armor panels and I did the metallics by doing a zenithal spray of Vallejo Metal Color magnesium, dark aluminum and silver. After removing the silly putty I painted the trim, fixed mistakes, picked out some elements with Vallejo Tinny Tin and did some heat damage effects on the weapons by spraying Vallejo Game Color yellow, red and purple inks with my airbrush.

At the same time I was working on my warlord, I was also working on my reaver titan. I was trying to go for that classic Jes Goodwin reaver titan illustration where the titan is straddling a little canyon while some space marines move between its legs. Again the base was built from cork and plastic card.

The same process was followed as far as priming and painting goes. Then I started to work on painting the armor plating. I painted the armor plates while still attached to the sprue. I did a zenithal prime for the front, but went ahead and base coated everything from the back in dark silver colors. Then I painted the armor paint blue and white/gray with my airbrush as mentioned above. Then I carefully painted the trim on all the panels. There’s definitely a lot of trim on these models, but I found it wasn’t too challenging when the armor plates were still on the sprue and the Vallejo Metal Color range is like painting with melted butter which helped the process quite a bit.

After the panels were painted I applied transfers and began to weather the panels. Did I mention I tried out several new techniques on this project? This was the first time I used my airbrush for more than just priming, the first time i did any kind of weathering, the first time I did an oil wash and the first time I’ve used enamels. Back to the process, I sponged on Citadel Rhinox hide for some battle damage and then highlighted the chips. Then I gave the panels an oil wash, I feel like this really made the colors more richer and deeper. The cleaning and drying process for an oil wash takes a bit of time. Mostly the drying part.

Next, I sprayed on AK Interactive Streaking Grime and cleaned them up with mineral spirits and a cotton swab. Again, there are other and better sources of information on how to use enamel paints to weather your miniatures, so I’ll let you go find those on your own. The result is something suitably grimy for war machines thousands of years old doing battle across the galaxy.

Once the panels are all dry from the enamels it was time to remove all the panels from the sprues, give the metallics a couple highlights and paint over the sprue connection points and then glue on to the titan skeleton. I painted up the bases separately and then glued the titans to their bases. The bases were painted using a combination of Secret Weapon Miniatures washes, primarily the stone and concrete colors. I also did some enamel streaking grime on the bases too.

The warhounds were done a bit later after I bought the newer starter box, but they followed the same process. I didn’t strive to achieve the same levels of height as on the warlord and reaver titans, but I am particularly fond f the broken wall that the blue warhound is striding through.

And here’s WIPs of the warhounds. As is, I have myself a complete maniple to play Adeptus Titanicus. Not at the highest point values, but enough to have some fun. I still have one reaver and two cerastus knights to build. I was kind of sitting on the second reaver to see what the rules would be for possessed titans that were hinted at, but with the announcement of the warmaster titan, daemon titans might still be a ways away. Maybe I should get those remaining models built and painted because even if I don’t pick up a warmaster titan, I’m sure my friends will and more models will mean we can play at high points levels.