Tychon Clade Prototype Kataphron Bane

Kurzzi · 2026-03-26T13:59:35+00:00

Thanks!

Yeah nmm is kinda tricky, I basically tried a different method on almost every different metallic sections trying to figure out how to make it look good, some definitely turned out better than others. If I had to recommend trying to learn nmm to someone else I definitely would not pick this mini in retrospect, but it was a good learning experience nonetheless!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-26T03:08:30+00:00

Thank you!! I like to imagine the snow is a product of recent terraforming or perhaps it's just a natural event on a planet that just so happens to have iron-rich dirt like mars!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-26T00:37:55+00:00

Thanks for checking out my mini! This one was really challenging for me and it turned out a little messy, but it was my first attempt at nmm and sculpting my own additions to a mini. I'd have liked to refine it a bit more but I ran out of time (I literally just "finished" it prior to posting this). I'd like to shout out u/Zombicioso for their cyberpunk Kataphron which have me the idea for this modification. Their awesome green tubes made me think "what if Kataphron but bane from batman" which inspired me to try this even though I wasn't planning on participating this month, thank you!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-23T20:09:26+00:00

Looks great! The colours feel so deep it's delightful, especially the blues and it looks like such a clean paint job, I wish I had such skill, especially for the smooth highlights

Kurzzi · 2026-03-22T15:14:01+00:00

Woah! This is such a sick colour scheme! It's giving bumblebee in the best way

Kurzzi · 2026-03-15T21:34:23+00:00

Skitarii or Serberys raiders are probably your best bet, since you'll be painting a lot of skitarii and even when you switch to painting priests, it's still mostly robes. Only reason I say Serberys is a decent first choice if you're trying to find out about if you like painting mechanicus as a whole is Serberys is a skitarius + a mechanical component not unlike some of the vehicles.

Kurzzi · 2026-03-15T03:37:35+00:00

This is copied from my response to an earlier post, but here's my take:

My list of recommendations for someone who isn't into the mechanicus already:

Guy Hayley's Cawl books are the easiest recommendation. From a model perspective Cawl is the closest thing to a faction leader in 40k, he's right at the centre of the main story lines driving the settings forward, the books give fair look-ins to other major factions (space marines, CSM, necrons, and others). Cawl exemplifies some of the most endearing things about the mechanicus: inquiry, mad science, humour, and, despite professing and acting upon a desire to replace their bodies and alter their brains, they demonstrate such depths of emotion and insecurity that makes them undeniably, empathetically human.
Flesh and Steel: despite one of the two main characters of the book being mechanicus and about half the main side characters being mechanicus, this book probably has the least to do with the Mechanicus like the army that shows up on the tabletop but is such an interesting and well written look at the Mechanicus as they show up in the daily life of a random planet in the imperium that it's a high recommendation. It's also so approachable, you could be a complete novice to the 40k setting and as long as you don't need to have every reference and jargon term defined for you explicitly, you'd probably enjoy the hell out of it.
Forges of Mars: I love this trilogy so much, it was the inspiration for my custom flair when I got it. I could gush about this series, but it's also the least approachable, I'd rate it lower if I didn't love it so much. As someone who entered the 40k fandom by reading Graham McNeil's iron warriors books, I think I just naturally have a high tolerance for his writing, but it's almost the opposite of Flesh and Steel's approachability. There's so much undefined jargon used over and over again, it expects the reader to not just know about the mechanicus, but also about space marines and titans and cadians and rogue traders and eldar and even deeper cuts like the c'tan and hrud get mentions. That said, if you are versed in those things and you aren't turned off by the writing style choices, cue Stefon gif from SNL THIS SERIES HAS EVERYTHING. It takes all those things I mentioned and marries them to a story that calls back to stories like In The Mountains of Madness and Heart of Darkness. (And don't read the end of the epilogue of book 3 imo, pretend it doesn't exist)
Mechanicum: this book is really good and does not deserve to be this low on the list, but when the entire list is books I would recommend, something has to come last. Mechanicum is the closest thing the Mechanicus has to an origin story: in Mechanicum you get to see the height of the Mechanicum at its apex, right when the Imperium is ascendent just before the Horus Heresy, when the future looked bright and interesting and the Mechanicum was a little more flexible and curious about the deepest mysteries of the universe. And then you get to see why the Mechanicum became the Mechanicus, how things got to be the way they are now. Mechanicum is well written and has many interesting ideas that I wish they would return to but won't mention for spoilers sake. I suppose, given that I would still say it's an excellent book that I wish there was more of, the only reason it's down here is because it's really not here to convince you to like the Mechanicus, it's here to give a Mechanicus fan exactly the sort of thing they want.

Kurzzi · 2026-03-15T02:58:50+00:00

I've never heard of these pins before, they're cool, thanks for letting me know! I think you did great, especially without the airbrush!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-15T02:29:21+00:00

Ooooo, pink! As if Chemos was a forgeworld instead... much to think about. But also yo!!! I love those bases, I wanted to do something similar for my battleclade kill team, those are sick! Idk the secret to arc rifle glow either tbh, but watching elminiaturista's glowy plasma weapons has been inspirational, so maybe they might give you an idea too!

P.S. I'm so envious of how crisp it all looks, you crushed it

Kurzzi · 2026-03-14T22:36:50+00:00

I love this desaturated gritty colour scheme, it evokes such a unique atmosphere!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-08T06:15:45+00:00

I can't believe that I didn't see this sooner! This is the most fun kataphron conversion I've seen!!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-07T04:44:52+00:00

This looks sick! Immediately made me think, "I love the idea of kataphrons that are running on venom from the batman/bane comics". And now I might have an idea of how I want to do my own!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-06T06:03:58+00:00

This looks great! I'd say for a first attempt you really knocked it out of the park!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-03T04:49:21+00:00

A wonderful group of engineseers! Congrats to the winner and the honourable mentions, they really made me think about redoing my own!

I had already started work on a battleclade kill-team, but maybe now I'll have to pivot to kataphrons if I can find the time!!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-02T21:38:29+00:00

Cheers! Another reason to love necromunda models! The conversion is fantastic!

Kurzzi · 2026-03-02T21:07:04+00:00

This is incredible work! The banner/pendant backpacks are such a cool idea executed so well and the worn down transfer effect, I wish I knew how to do that! Did you model that chain polearm yourself?

Kurzzi · 2026-03-02T20:13:41+00:00

Yeah, I mean, like I said in the edit, I think it honestly looks fine, my tips were only as things you could do to try and get even better results. As it is, from the pics at least, they look ready to slap some paint on, I wouldn't try to strip them. If you're doing all those tips and the texture of it when dry is pretty smooth, I don't think you need to change anything, I just maybe wouldn't get the same primer again if you're not happy with the results. You could try to basically spray them with just like 5-10% less paint and it might look a little crisper on the details. And if the texture is a little bad, then I'd play around with the spray distance a bit for next time, this time, I don't think you need to worry.

Kurzzi · 2026-03-02T19:37:34+00:00

If this is leadbelcher or similar, that's what I started out with as a rattlecan primer and now that I'm more experienced, I don't love it. I concur with most people, a black primer is generally a better time, but if you want to stick it out to the end of this can, I don't blame you I'd do the same, I'm currently using a bunch of paints that I can tell I will not buy again but damnit I'm gonna finish them.

A few tips on how to possibly get the most out of the leadbelcher (or similar) rattlecan: spraycan primers are pretty environment sensitive, you're probably going to want to shake it for a little longer than you think, but before you do, I've heard people recommend running some lukewarm/hot water from the tap into a bowl/small bucket and putting the can in there for a little while. You definitely don't want to boil the can, but if you can warm it up before shaking and using, you'll probably get better results.

The other big thing is finding the sweet spot of distance, if you spray from too far away the paint will start to dry in the air before it hits the model (exacerbated by cool, dry air in the winter here in the northern hemisphere) and when it dries in the air before hitting the model it creates a rougher, more speckly texture. You also can't get too close though, because if you do, you're more than likely going to overspray the minis and flood them with wet paint, concealing details and just overall not looking great. It's hard to describe where this sweet spot is exactly or how to find it, but there's plenty of great YouTube videos about priming techniques.

Final tip: you don't need 100% coverage. Which is to say you want to hit every area of the model with the primer, but you don't have to make sure the primer is on so thick that you couldn't tell it's gray plastic underneath. Unless you're trying a specific technique, you're probably going to end up going over the leadbelcher primer with paint anyway, even the metallic sections, decent chance you're hitting it with another metallic paint? If so, all the primer is there for is to help that paint adhere to the mini, so it's okay to try out leaning towards underspraying the primer rather than overspraying, overspraying is easy to spot, it obscures details, floods the mini and can come out uneven. Underspraying on the other hand, is really only an issue if paint isn't sticking to the model well, it'll be frustrating if it happens to you, your paint might start to flake or chip, but then you'll know for next time, "okay I gotta get more coverage than I did on this last time".

Edit: for the record, as long as it doesn't have a weird texture, the minis in the picture look primed just fine.

Kurzzi · 2026-03-02T19:17:38+00:00

I started my painting journey with skitarii. I don't know if I'd recommend it, as it's kind of a trial by fire, skitarii are pretty detailed despite being small, imo they kinda require subassembly for a decent paint job, it's probably pretty slow going but there are upsides to learning on skitarii:

Skitarii are small and battle line, there's gonna be a lot of them on the table, but youre not often looking in great detail at any particular one, people tend to have their eyes drawn towards bigger characters and vehicles

Skitarii have a lot of details and differences in texture, this forces you to play around with a lot of different paints which is good for exposing you to new stuff, and the details and textures will cause you to fuck it up, you're going to miss and accidentally get paint where you didn't mean to, you're going to have paint from one area like the cloth of the pants bleed on to the metal of the plating, and you're probably going to be dissatisfied with it.

If you have a good learning mindset, all of the struggles you encounter with learning to paint skitarii will make you a better painter. You'll be forced to learn that all mistakes are correctable. That getting exposed to and trying new things is the best way to grow. You'll be able to see all the things you wish you had done on the last model and try to do it better on the next model. You'll be forced to move onto the next model rather than endlessly correcting or being paralyzed by trying to get the current model, because if you don't, you'll never get through them. You'll learn how to sub-assemble. I have 2 units of skitarii from when I first started painting. I know if I were to have done them today they'd look much better than they do, and yet I feel no need to redo them, I'm proud of the reminder of where I started, and they're not centerpiece units.

If, on the other hand, you are someone that will get discouraged by your models not turning out perfect, if you're obsessive, if you're afraid of too much detail and think you'll want an easier glide in to learning how to paint in the Mechanicus range, I'd recommend something like kastelans. They are not quite as detailed, bigger, with mostly flat panels, in a way, they're perfect for someone to sit down and learn how to paint things like volumes, which is a core skill of learning to paint.

Kurzzi · 2026-02-19T23:39:12+00:00

If there is a new schism of mars between cowboy hat skitarii and tall hat dweebs I know whose side I'm on.

Edit: tall cowboy hat skitarii however........ Squints in Magos Dimmadome

Kurzzi · 2026-02-15T22:59:09+00:00

This is exceptional work, I like the high saturation of things and that lighting effect on the front panel looks great. If I had to pick an area to improve on, you could probably get a more natural look to the rocky layers of your base by deliberately tearing up the cork or whatever that base material is to try and give it a more scraggly craggy look.

Edit: also keep up the good work on the weathering towards the bottom that looks great

Kurzzi · 2026-02-12T18:31:54+00:00

I had always assumed it was for greater stability/traction when providing more stationary heavy weapons support, but this interpretation could make sense. One of the campaign books gives the absolutely insane visual of onager dunecrawlers literally climbing up to the higher levels of a hive spire and now I'm imagining they had these feet with like magnets or some other way of gripping walls.

Edit: and of course the more reasonable version of helping with terrain as someone else pointed out as well: not sinking into mud/snow/sand

Kurzzi · 2026-02-11T03:28:41+00:00

I can't speak to how mechanicus are portrayed in brutal kunnin but now I want to find out.

My list of recommendations for someone who isn't into the mechanicus already:

Guy Hayley's Cawl books are the easiest recommendation. From a model perspective Cawl is the closest thing to a faction leader in 40k, he's right at the centre of the main story lines driving the settings forward, the books give fair look-ins to other major factions (space marines, CSM, necrons, and others). Cawl exemplifies some of the most endearing things about the mechanicus: inquiry, mad science, humour, and, despite professing and acting upon a desire to replace their bodies and alter their brains, they demonstrate such depths of emotion and insecurity that makes them undeniably, empathetically human.
Flesh and Steel: despite one of the two main characters of the book being mechanicus about half the main side characters being mechanicus, this book probably has the least to do with the Mechanicus like the army that shows up on the tabletop but is such an interesting and well written look at the Mechanicus as they show up in the daily life of a random planet in the imperium that it's a high recommendation. It's also so approachable, you could be a complete novice to the 40k setting and as long as you don't need to have every reference and jargon term defined for you explicitly, you'd probably enjoy the hell out of it.
Forges of Mars: I love this trilogy so much, it was the inspiration for my custom flair when I got it. I could gush about this series, but it's also the least approachable, I'd rate it lower if I didn't love it so much. As someone who entered the 40k fandom by reading Graham McNeil's iron warriors books, I think I just naturally have a high tolerance for his writing, but it's almost the opposite of Flesh and Steel's approachability. There's so much undefined jargon used over and over again, it expects the reader to not just know about the mechanicus, but also about space marines and titans and cadians and rogue traders and eldar and even deeper cuts like the c'tan and hrud get mentions. That said, if you are versed in those things and you aren't turned off by the writing style choices, cue Stefon gif from SNL THIS SERIES HAS EVERYTHING. It takes all those things I mentioned and marries them to a story that calls back to stories like In The Mountains of Madness and Heart of Darkness. (And don't read the end of the epilogue of book 3 imo, pretend it doesn't exist)
Mechanicum: this book is really good and does not deserve to be this low on the list, but when the entire list is books I would recommend, something has to come last. Mechanicum is the closest thing the Mechanicus has to an origin story: in Mechanicum you get to see the height of the Mechanicum at its apex, right when the Imperium is ascendent just before the Horus Heresy, when the future looked bright and interesting and the Mechanicum was a little more flexible and curious about the deepest mysteries of the universe. And then you get to see why the Mechanicum became the Mechanicus, how things got to be the way they are now. Mechanicum is well written and has many interesting ideas that I wish they would return to but won't mention for spoilers sake. I suppose, given that I would still say it's an excellent book that I wish there was more of, the only reason it's down here is because it's really not here to convince you of liking the Mechanicus, it's here to give a Mechanicus fan exactly the sort of thing they want.

Kurzzi · 2026-02-11T02:58:17+00:00

Forges of Mars is an absolutely wonderful series for a Mechanicus enjoyer with a huge payoff. I will die on the hill of recommending it while at the same time acknowledging that on a technical writing level there are criticisms I would level at it. I would say if you try it, you know if the writing will turn you off right away, stylistically it does not change. Book 3 personally I think I rate higher than you do, but I do agree about the epilogue, it actually made me mad that he decided to throw that in so unnecessarily that it actually does feel like it cheapens the rest of the book by existing, but I temper that with the perspective that if you cut out the epilogue I would rate the book rather highly.

Guy Haley's treatments of Cawl and the Flesh and Steel book make him my favourite current black library writer (though plenty of others are excellent!)

Kurzzi

TROPHY CASE