Legio Solaria Warhound Deum Lucis was the second of the pair of warhounds I started the battlegroup with.However, I was forced to park the project when work and covid put all hobby on a hiatus. Along with her sister engine “Venator Eium Gloriosum” and a single Reaver carapace test piece, this represented my entire Legio Solaria Warhound engine force up until mid 2021. It was enough to keep me motivated though, so when the opportunity arose, I built out the rest of the force to paint in bulk. In retrospect, I’m not sure I’d do that again as it turned out to be a lot ‘messier’ than I anticipated. Part built semi-naked god engines littered the workshop for weeks.

Luckily, once I got the next pairing complete, things moved along rapidly.

Magnetic ordinance

I magnetised all weapons to allow flexibility in future loadouts. What I chose for the event was very much sub-optimal, and that was a deliberate choice. The event being narrative in nature.

My goal was to make the battlegroup look like it had undertaken a “needs must” refit after the retreat from Beta Garmon back to Terra. Salvaging weapons from the battlefield and re-fitting war engines for future engagements was an integral part of the original games campaign system.

It was actually one of the aspects I dearly loved and the fun of rolling at the end of each game. Seeing which laid low engines and equipment could be salvaged from the wrecks. This was even referred to briefly at the end of the book ‘Titan Death’. That being said, ‘Deum’ was configured with a more conventional combo of Vulcan Mega-Bolter and Plasma Blastgun. Things get a bit more eclectic with the next two, but that’s the topic for another post.

Ruined it

To theme the base I modelled ruins using the current plastic kit. Adding a few extra details to make it look really broken down. Something I feel isn’t done near enough, like including interior structures and fallen masonry. You can never have too much rubble! I also included occupants very deliberately mixed from a range of ‘Epic’ scale Imperial Guard releases over multiple generations.

These I painted all in a similar drab palette even though they were from different regiments, to represent ‘scratch’ companies assembled from shattered units and hastily thrown together in defence of the outer walls. Things were pretty dark and desperate for the Imperial defenders at this stage in the siege, and I really wanted to include them in the story telling on the basing. You’ll see more of this with the Reaver in particular.

Considering the palette

To provide contrast with the earth tones but still create the appearance of once majestic imperial structures I used a palette consisting of deck tan and an ivory white for the buildings. To make them part of the battlefield I heavily chipped into the ivory with a slate grey and used pigments and washes to add dust and ash streaks to the outer and interior brickwork, blending them into the arid earth so there was no real demarcation between the broken buildings, shattered masonry and surrounding wastes. This really helps give the god engines scale and places them into the battlefield.

More of the Imperial Hunters to come and I’ll talk a bit more about the weathering process on the next pair of Warhounds.