The men/machines from Voss Prime

 

The Vox Prime welcoming committee. 

Recently Da Masta Cheef dumped a small Adeptus Mechanicus army on my lap (along with even more Orks which were dumped on him by Murl/Rob) which was a bit of surprise considering how many models there were. I'm thankful for these gifts even though I had no intention of starting up another Imperial faction. So while poking through them trying to figure out what was what, I decided to paint one just to see how I would like it. Sometime last year I found the 9th edition Adeptus Mechanicus Codex on sale in a 2nd hand store and picked it up for reference.  And the Forge World that stood out to me was the illustration for Voss Prime. The other color patterns were too red (after painting World Eaters I'm not keen on having another red army) or gray and drab (I have at least two armies that are gray also). And these guys have a sort of Howling Griffin vibe without being Howling Griffins.  I figured what the heck, let's give it a shot. 

I wanted to paint some of the long rifle models so I picked out a few "guys" that looked sort of interesting.  They had already had the painting process started by the Cheef, but just the metallic areas had been done so far. (Note: he gave me some of the ones he already painted as well, which you can see behind the foreground guys below). 

As prepared by Cheef. 

I selected a guy one night when I had a window of opportunity to do so,  and I jammed this model out. I used Khorne Red as a basecoat for the red side and Trollslayer Orange as the base for the yellow side. Being a Layer paint, it took three coats to get the coverage I needed for the Trollslayer Orange. 

Model 1, basecoated.

I used a subtle assortment of metallics on the armor and weapon, but much of the magic was done using Agrax Earthshade. Retributor Gold was only used on the filigree adornments that on the gun. 

Mid-coats.

I used the Vox Prime illustration from 9th ed Adeptus Mechanicus Codex for reference  and I colored this guy's lights and lenses to match that as best I could.  I put opposing lines on the robes hems as they were in that illustration but the idea of putting squared gear teeth on these lines just seemed way too daunting of a task for such a basic model, so I made them into crude triangles instead. This I thought produced the same vibe  without causing me undue stress and I think he turned out alright. 

Basically done.

But wait, there is another: I saw a video online somewhere recently that used an old technique that I knew about but never tried. This particular trick was to use pink as a base color with a yellow contrast paint over it. Curious, I went to one of my local game stores and got the yellow Contrast Paint (Imperial Fist, for you discerning connoisseurs) I needed. I used Pink Horror as a basecoat with a few highlights added by using a dot of white into a blob of Pink Horror. This coated way better than the Trollslayer Orange did on the previous guy. 

Model 2, pink basecoat for yellow finish.

The layer of Imperial Fist Contrast Paint turned the pink into a really vibrant and rich orange. However, the highlights I added proved to be a wasted step and Contrast Paint like to settle into the recessed areas. If I hadn't moved the paint around before it dried it would have produced the annoyed result of having my lowlights highlighted and my highlights lowlighted; not a result one would, typically, desire. 

Yellow Contrast over Pink.

By the way, I don't know who built these originally ( Cheef or Murl) but they were rather negligent regarding keeping the cowled Ranger heads with the Ranger bods and the helmeted heads with the Vanguard. So these Rangers have mixed up heads. In the end I guess only the guns matter as far as distinguishing who's who and what's what? 

Finished.

There are a few ninor touch-ups before I declare these two officially done. I  decided at this point to paint their bases dark gray to look like street rubble. My tyranids have their bases paintedl ike this also and they will complent each other if I ever get to a point where I can display them together. Also I want to. get my hands on some ad mech decals. I like what Cheef did with them on the guys he painted and the examples that GW show off in the Codex. 

Model 3.

Oh, and I painted a third guy. Now that figured out how to paint these guys, they kind of go quick. But I need to paint seven more to fill out the squad. But with Dreadtober 2023 starting, well, now, it may take a while to get back to these gadget-guys. But so far, I think they're fun, and a bit refreshing, to paint. 

Fire at the fleshies!