As this was my first warlord kit I spent a lot more time working out the sub-assemblies and best strategy for painting. I think broadly it is worth treating breaking the kit down into separate torso and leg assemblies, separate weapon arms and head. The armour plates I also treated separately as it allowed me to airbrush both underlying metallic frame and the armour without needing to mask either from each other. It also made it far easier to paint the trim. Oh there is ‘so’ much trim to do on all of these kits so trust me when I say your patience will be tested to its max. It’s worth it though.

Full ahead steersman, striding speed!

Warlords are gargantuan engines and built for resilience, not speed. They can soak up the kind of firepower that would fell a lesser engine. As such I really think they look at their best when the stride pattern suggests their immense weight pushing through the knee joins and hip-actuators. Obviously everyone should feel free to model their war engines however they like best, but I do personally find the ones posed with a more dynamic run to be less convincing for their supposed scale. Warhounds on the other hand is an entirely different circumstance, although even those I avoid making them appear like they are ‘sprinting’. Just personal preference.

At the time of construction and painting the legio specific colour decals hadn’t been released by Specialist Games, so I had to make do with the monochrome ones from the boxed set. Luckily I did have a full-sized War Griffons sheet from Forgeworld for my old Lucius Warhound and that had two smaller colour plates which literally just squeezed onto the carapace armour. That’s also why the markings are asymmetric, although I actually quite like that, it gives ‘Bellator Veritatus’ a bit more character.

I will do more Gryphonicus engines at some stage in the future, but not until after I flesh out the traitor Mortis engines and pluck up the courage to tackle legion Solaria once and for all. They are tested and I am happy. I just need to finish what I started and let them ‘walk’.