Legio Solaria Warhound “Deum Lucis” was the second of the pair of warhounds I started the battlegroup with late 2020, but was then forced to park the project when work and covid put all hobby on a hiatus. Along with her sister engine “Venator Eium Gloriosum” this, with the exception of a single Reaver carapace test piece represented my entire Solaria force right up until mid 2021, but it was enough to keep me motivated that when the opportunity permitted I quickly 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 with part built naked god engines littering the workshop all over the place.
Luckily, once I got the next pairing complete things moved along rapidly.
All weapons are magnetised to allow flexibility with future loadouts. What I chose for the event was very much sub-optimal and that was a very deliberate choice it being a narrative event. I wanted the battlegroup to look like it had gone through 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 about it and the fun of rolling at the end of the game ti see 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 and popular combo of Vulcan Mega-Bolter and Plasma Blastgun. Things got a bit more eclectic with the next two, but that’s the topic of another post.
To theme the base a little more I modelled some ruins with the newer plastic kit and a few extra details to make it look really broken down, something I feel isn’t done enough especially with interior structure and fallen masonry. You can never have too much rubble! I also added occupants very deliberately mixed from a range of ‘Epic’ scale Imperial Guard releases from over multiple generations. I painted them with a similar drab palette even though they were clearly from different regiments to represent the ‘scratch’ companies assembled from shattered units and hastily thrown together in defence of the outer palace 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.
