It is only a few days until Indomitus is with us and I can get my hands a vast legion of undying robots. Whilst waiting for new the Necrons to arrive I've made steady progress working through my existing models, aiming to finish as much as possible before 9th lands and I have many more distractions!
My focus has been primarily on assembling a Ghost Ark that I mentioned in my previous post. I had planned to assemble it as a Doomsday Ark, but I made an early mistake in assembly, committing me to the dedicated transport variant. The kit is really cool and I have long admired the novel design of the vehicle that stands apart from many other 40k tanks.
The other unit I have worked on is 9 bases of Canoptek Scarabs. A little bit of scouring eBay, and a generous donation from the seller of the Ghost/Doomsday Ark sprues, resulted in me sitting on 100 of the (soon to be obsolete) plastic scarab models. Using the current 4 per 40mm base that would be 25 bases of scarabs, many more than I would ever consider running in a game. To mix things up I decided to pile high the little critters and create some truly massive 'swarms' of these miniature robots!
Ghost Ark
This model is great. But it is also a crazy kit to not only assemble, but to paint. Really, really, crazy! To avoid maddening levels of frustration I planned to heed the advice on the instructions and make up the various sub-assemblies, paint the individually, and then assemble them all into the final model. I quickly realised that my "broad strokes" painting approach would require me to paint much more than I thought before assembling the tank. I've counted over 40 pieces currently undercoated and in various stages of painting on my hobby desk...!
Canoptek Scarabs
36 of the 100 scarab models I managed to acquire. These were soon joined by another 64 to make the full 100! Then it was just a case of experimenting with different configurations for stacking them onto their bases, aiming to create flowing masses of scarabs that looked like they were moving forward and rising up to attack an enemy!
When it came to painting them I reduced the amount of gold and teal I used, and instead focused on the silvered steel to emphasise the simplistic and low-status role the swarms play in the army. This feels to me a better approach than some Nihilak Dynasty swarms I have seen where the blue/teal colour tends to dominate the model. These were all painted up within a day of spraying them, so a great success and fine addition of 6 PL to my growing force of painted models.
I'll be back at the weekend with a few photos from Indomitus and a rough plan of where my August painting will take me!
Proper swarms of Scarabs! I have a minimum of six per base, but I love the mounted look you have. Might scour eBay for cheap 'old' ones. My new bases in Indomitus may be cut up and put on my existing 16 bases, I don't envisage gaming with more than 16 bases! The Ghost Ark killed me line highlighting - recommend drybrushing the individual ribs and tidy up after. I haven't yet built my Doomsday Ark because of that!
ReplyDeleteThese swarms are 11 (one has 12) scarabs per base. I did consider waiting for my Indomitus scarabs and then adding them on as well, but fancied getting these done as a mini project. I might look to double up the new swarms though - recreate the shot from the New40k video of them streaming towards the Imperial lines!
DeleteThe arks... yeah... I HATE line highlighting at the best of times! Drybrush with metallics on the edges of the gold should be easy enough as you say. Here is hoping it doesn't break my sanity! :D