Weekly Waffle #370 – Exo armour
15th March 2025
For this week’s Weekly Waffle I thought I would give you a bit of an update on my trip to the Big Smoke last week and then get onto the hobby update. We had a really nice weekend with lots of sightseeing and some really good food. All in all a very nice weekend.
Spent the first evening at Covent Garden where we had a really nice meal and a few drinks. Saturday was a walk along the Thames followed by an afternoon at the British Museum. Then in the evening we went up the Shard to get some fantastic night time views of London. We came home on Sunday but not before visiting the contrasts of Battersea power station and Buckingham Palace. All in all it was a really nice weekend and topped the batteries up.
So now I’ve got the cultural update out of the way what do I have for you on the hobby front. Well I’m sticking with the general feel of the Leagues of Votann, or Squats as I prefer to think of them. But I’ve gone back to Necromunda with some Exo-Kyn. These are Ironhead Prospectors who wear Exo-suits which allow them to conduct deep-core mining across the Ash Wastes and the Sump Seas.
With an Exo Master leading from the front the Exo-kyn extract rare ores and minerals from the most perilous regions. These are then sold to the hives for significant profit. These leaders are adept at both mining and defending against any threats the wastelands can throw at them. Equipped with powerful tools such as the Excavator Hammer, Rock Saws, Hydraulic Drills and Storm Welders. They can turn these tools into formidable weapons when the need arises. Seamlessly balancing combat and mining operations.
What that means in hobby terms is more orange, and more magnets. Because there are lots of arm options within the kit I wanted to build them up with some flexibility. So that meant that each arm option has been magnetised so that I can switch them out based on what is needed for a game. There are two of each option, Excavator Hammer, Rock Saws, hydraulic Drills and Strom Welders. Which is quite a lot to paint up. It’s also a lot of magnets although I have to magnetising things didn’t work quite as well as I would like. TH placement of the magnets is ok but because they are the same ones I used for the heads they aren’t the most powerful. So some arms work better than others. But they are all usable.
One thing that was a challenge with painting these guys was how I was going to paint so many arms. Because I have been doing all of the early painting stages with the airbrush I had the issue that I could only paint one set of arms in this way. Otherwise I was going to be painting the bodies multiple times which just wouldn’t have worked. The solution turned out to be really easy and is one of those things that I’m really happy to share. Although to be fair I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this and a lot of you will say you have been doing it for years. But if you haven’t then I think it’s a really neat and easy painting hack.
I painted the bodies and one set of arms as normal and then simply wrapped the body in a single layer of cling film. This means the other arms still fit on the body using the magnets and I could then paint them as normal. This saved me a lot of time trying to figure out how to do with the brush something I had been doing with the airbrush. For me I can’t tell the difference between the first set of arms I painted and the subsequent sets so it’s a technique I’m going to store for later use. I’m thinking it could be a handy way of painting cloaks so may get some use when I get round to painting Kill Team in the not too distant future.
With all of the airbrushing complete it was then onto doing a lot of the same steps that used on both the Prospectors and Hearthkyn. Which was adding some more refined shading and highlighting to pick out key details on the minis. I have again magnetised the heads so that it allows me to add either an open face helmet or closed face helmet, which I think again really changes the feel of the mini and gives some nice options when fielding the minis. And the helmets also bring in the much needed blue to the min.
I’ve used the arms as a way of bringing in some more blue by painting the ‘hand’ section of each arm in blue. For me it keeps the feel of including both colours, which in turn ties all the minis together as being from the same faction. But it also does it in a way that I think fits in with the unit. Just going for painting the shoulder area in blue or simply leaving the heads as the only blue could have worked. But to me this just adds that little bit of extra interest. Each unit then has its own feel and it’s not just a process that is being followed for the sake of it.
The other thing that I have done differently with this unit and was something of a risk is this that I’ve tried to add some battle damage. Not a lot but I have added some. Some basic chipping and scratches. My approach at this stage was very much less is more. Rather than wrecking a perfectly good paint job by getting to greedy. Slow and steady wins the game, or that’s what I’ve been telling myself.
I have to say that I’m happy with how they have turned out. The little chips that I added to the decals just add a little bit more and for me take things up a level. It obviously now means I’m going to have to find the time to go back and chip up everything else I’ve already painted. Just to keep everything consistent. Although I’m not going to do it immediately. I’ll do it for everything going forward and slow time retro everything else.
Overall though I’m happy with how these guys have turned out and I think I’ve pushed or maybe nudged, my painting up a little bit. So if I can keep doing that I would like to think there will be a noticeable difference by the end of the year. But what do you think of these guys.
You can see more Leagues of Voting miniatures at my gallery here
That’s it for this week. I don’t have any more trips planned at the moment so updates should be back on a weekly track. I’m slowly working my through my pile of grey shame and not adding to much to it. So there will be orange on the horizon but I am going to mix it up with a few odds and ends along way. Until next week, keep safe, have fun whatever you have planned and I hope to see you all again next Saturday.
