Imperial Guard regiments raised on Forge Worlds or planets under direct control of the Adeptus Mechanicus are commonly known as the Skitarii or Tech Guard. The Cult Mechanicus are the keepers of all technological knowledge and the Adeptus Mechanicus build and maintain all equipment throughout the Imperium from the simplest Lasgun to the massive Battleships of the Imperial Navy. For this reason the Tech Guard is often better equipped and have access to more advanced weaponry than regular Imperial Guard. This include advanced technologies such as Plasma weaponry and Robots and the unique creations of the Centurio Ordinatus. Most importantly is however that the Tech Guard act in support of the Adeptus Titanicus -The Titan Legions.
Tech Guard organization is quite similar to regular Imperial Guard. Formations tend to be smaller and the proportionate ammount of vehicles larger. The command staff includes the usual Officers, Commisars and Psykers but also representatives of the Cult Mechanicus in the form of Tech Priests and Enginseers. Another important difference is the option of including Knights in the army. Knights are special one man "mini-titan" suits built by the Adeptus Mechanicus which they trade for natural resources from Feral Worlds. In times of war the warlords of the Feral Worlds will send their Knights to aid the Adeptus Titanicus and Tech Guard where they fulfill much the same role as a Battle Tank in the Guard . A special branch of the Adeptus Titanicus is the Centurio Ordinatus. Ther Centurio Ordinatus maintain and operate the unique and powerfull Ordinatus machines. The Ordinatus are seen as the pinnacles of creation -living embodiments of the Machine God. Each Ordinatus is unique purpose built to fulfill a certain task in a certain campaign from which it takes its name. Among the best known Ordinatii are Ordinatus Armageddon, Ordinatus Golgotha, Ordinatus Mars and Ordinatus Priam.
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I thought
I'd do something special for the command stand of my Tech Guard. The
two Tech Priests are based on the Tech Marine model. I trimmed off
most of the powerarmour to make the mini look less bulky. Then I sculpted
on the robes using Green Stuff. For the hoods I made a thin piece
of GS and placed on top of the model's head. Then I pressed the sides
down for get the right fold. The Standard bearer is the Marine Captain
model. Again trimmed down considerably, removing the cape and power
sword. added the standard and a sculpted robe. The Robot has been
shortened a bit and had the gun barrels drilled out. A bit too much
work for the regular robots but I think it looks better shortened
-more in line with the bulky Space Marine Dreadnoughts. Finally it
was all stuck on a large round base. |
The Tech Guard infantry is some of my oldest infantry. When I bought the SM2 box back in 1994 it came with both Marine, Orks and Eldar infantry. I never really caught on with the eldar so they were used as IG proxies. When I decided to re-paint the army as Tech guard I took extra care to trom the pointy bits off their heads properly. The fact that they stilll carry shruiken catapults instead of lasguns is well... Let's just call it a different pattern lasgun... Just don't tell the Inquisition!
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The
Support weapon platoon is annother oddity. Eldar with Space Marine
Devastators! During the repainting I tried to trim down the Devastators
a bit so they wouldn't look so out of place.
Painting Tech Guard Infantry is really simple:
White undercoat, a coat of red and a wash of black. Then paint shruik...erh...
lasguns metal and paint faces and hands Bronzed flesh. Since the
infantry was Eldar minis I've had to improvise a bit with the faces.
I tried to make it look as though they were wearing a helmet.
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Robots
are another fun side project. I never really liked the rules for them
in SM2. The Robots were given a program -a series of orders- at the
beginning of the game which they had to follow. The models aren't
great either but with so many of them in my bits box I had to figure
out some way of using them. Though originally an organ under the Legio
Cybernetica the Tech Guard seemed like the obvious solution.
For the paint job I game them a black undercoat
followed by first a drybrush of scab red then blood red and finally
a highlight of blazing orange. I also added some squad markings
using a 0.2 mm pen. Dead easy way to add detail and definitely an
investment worth the money! It can also be used to blackline panels
on tanks. The modet is based on two mk1 Land Raider hulls
stuck together. I made the Plasma Annihilator from an old Space
Crusade Dreadnought Plasma Cannon with a bit of wireing added. The
rear end of the vehicle is just odds and ends from my bits box and
even a row of paper clips! A final touch to the painted model was
to add a few Adeptus Mechanicus transfers to the sides. |
Plasma weaponry
is among the most highly sophisticated technologies used by the Imperium.
It is notoriously unstable and only a few Forge Worlds maintain the secrets
to its construction. The tremendous ammounts of power needed to fuel these
werapons mean that they are most commonly found on Titans and Starships.
However a few armoured vehicles mounting this type of weaponry has been
produced.
The Stormblade Supper Heavy Tanks mount a stripped down version of the
Titan Plasma Blastgun. Early incarnations of the vehicle supported this
fearsome weapon with various types of missiles mounted on the outside
of the hull. Unfortunately this configuration made the Stormblade very
vulnerable to even light arms when engaged at close range so production
was put to a halt. A few Forge Worlds continued to develop the design,
combining it with elements of the highly successfull Shadowsword and Baneblade,
to produce a tank capable of dealing with titans, armour and infantry
with equal ease.
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The Leman Russ Executioner mounts a light plasma cannon instead of the standard Battlecannon. The Executioner is a rare sight on most battlefields as the technology is very difficult to maintain or reproduce but the plasmacannon's usefullness against armour and infantry alike makes it a highly treasured infantry support vehicle. The camo pattern I chose for the Tech guard tanks was supposed to reflect the conditions found on a Forge Owrld. I started with a shadow grey drybrush over a black basecoat for a good ash waste colourscheme. The zig zag camo pattern was then painted on with scortched brown and terracotta red to make a good colourfull contrast to the grey. |
The Leviathan Mobile Command Centre it deployed throughout the Imperial Guard as Regimental HQ. In addition to these units the Tech Guard of course has access to pretty much all equipment in the Imperial arsenal. -After all THEY manufacture it!
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