Modelling Workshop: Rob Hooper’s Coaching Inn and Stables from White Dwarf 143

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About eighteen months ago I read WD 143 and thought to myself how fun it would be to make the Coaching Inn, and so i did. And it took me the whole of the eighteen months! Admittedly I did a little bit here and a little bit there: some cutting one day, some glueing another. Little by little my Coaching Inn came together. I don’t know that Rob Hooper did any more of these Modelling Workshop articles, and I don’t know that the person who edited this article had any experience of writing or following modelling articles, because there were bits that were hard to follow. A lack of photos didn’t help. I mucked up a couple of bits by not having the right gear, and a couple of bits by being too slapdash in my measuring, and another bit by missing the instruction altogether. I learned a lot along the way, and have already started my next vintage WD modelling project. I really enjoyed this one and am proud of the outcome despite its imperfections. Next stop: Lustria!

The Threshing Touch: the warband of Inquisitor Gravet Rūm

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Inquisitor Rūm is an all action, shiny-armoured death machine. She and her warband are a very visible reminder that the Emperor’s reach is long, and his grasp is crushing. As an Ordo Hereticus warband their role is seeking out heretics and rogue psykers within the Imperium. As such they are well equiped for fighting, for psychic battle, and for research. Rūm herself is a battle-psyker, and wields a force axe for getting up close and personal. Her team includes a number of powerful psykers: the pink-haired witch Yuromka who affects a wild and feral disposition but is really as disciplined and cultured as any Inquisitorial agent; the personable Gratbogs who is maternal and ordinary but sucks the secrets from your mind without you even realising; the Squat Chandra, an ancient abhuman from a dead planet; and Waul, an unassuming middle-aged man with a talent for prediction. But there are times when a less subtle strike is needed, and so Rūm has a team of military experts too: Aliki is an Astra Militarum captain who has been on secondment to Rūm for many years; Veza was one of the leaders of a counter-uprising against a cult who had taken control of his home planet and was recruited by Rūm following her investigation of the cult; Olaye’s crimes are not known by any in the warband, what is known is that seeks to atone. Then there is Enginseer Wittel, who is not actually an real enginseer but a tech-thrall gifted to Rūm by a grateful tech-priest and whose genius for adaptation has got the warband out of more fixes than they can count. With Wittel comes Sweetie, a felid-based warmachine he put together one afternoon. Finally is Rūm’s datasmith Korber and his ‘children’ Chang and Eng, a pair of servitors who assist the savant. Korber looks like an ancient tech-thrall but don’t be fooled, he’s a crack shot and his exo-unit contains a power-field generator strong enough to punch through a wall.

Waaagh! Nikkaz – Grot Bandits

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Three posts already this year, not bad going. I don’t feel like I’m getting more leisure time than I was, I still feel overwhelmed and unable to cope, but I’ve clearly been able to do a bit of painting and modelling so that’s something. There are so many things I want to do, so many projects and protests and archives and DIY and learning and books to read and hobby ideas but no time to do any of it.

So Waaagh! Nikkaz. Nikkaz obviously has ambition, ten grots is hardly a waagh! These goblin pirate miniatures are lovely, proper oldhammer-esque. I’ve thrown in a few properly oldhammer grots too and another Makari as I seem to have Makaris out the wazzoo! No Ghazghulls, mind, just Makaris. A nice fun little project, and now I’ve only got four more squads left until I’ve painted every squad in Freebooterz.

Veteran Squad Moleab

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I’m still alive, as busy or busier than ever but still getting to slowly grind out some finished miniatures. Here we have a Sternguard Veteran Squad, intended as a part of Chapter Master Melmoth’s honour guard. I used Contrast paints mostly, and the grey is much lighter. I think next time I am going to use the normal Mechanicus Standard Grey and use the Contrast paints to shade it. This is the Armour Through The Ages resin reprint of old lead miniatures and has recently been on Made To Order. This surprised me because I hadn’t realised it had been taken off sale in the first place. Its a bit sad when things you’ve bought have been removed from sale and them brough back again as classic one offs! Nice to get it painted finally. I really wanted to paint the Thunder Warrior, a mini I had when I was a lad. Its a proper 80s mini that should really have been painted in neon colours! I hope you are all staying Covid safe still. Its not over, and it might cause your immune system to go crazy and disable you, even if you’ve been vaccinated.

Genestealer Cult Land Train

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Oh my how busy I have been recently! Caring duties, union activities, an ongoing rat invasion that we just cannot seem to shift, buying and selling transformers on the internet to try and bring in some money, and of course firework season (in our house we call it canine nervous breakdown season). Eveything is fithy, many things are broken. The outside is moving inside via giant lurcher paws. What an Autumn! Instead of my usual three painting projects I am down to a single project, plus I am slowly working on the coaching inn from WD 143, and working through my giant tub of sprues to turn them into miniatures ready for painting or selling.

This is a land train that I picked up on Kickstarter a while back. It looked great on the internet but up close I wasn’t that impressed. The 3d printing grain was far too large, leading to smudged designs and a generally cheap look. The plastic didn’t stick properly with superglue, pva glue, plastic cement, or carpenter’s glue. Bits are always threatening to break off. In general I would not recommend it. But when I saw it I remembered a piece of art and some flash fiction from way back, about some raiders who attack a caravan and get a nasty chaos genestealer flavoured surprise. So I had to have it! Since this was made there is now an official Warhammer equivalent, the Cargo-8 Ridge Crawler. Though a Ridge Crawler and two carriages would be over 120 quid!

Kid appeal on the tabletop! Transformers Bumblebee

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Some time ago I showed off a Megatron miniature that I had painted, now to go with it I’ve finished a Bumblebee too. These miniatures are based off the G1 cartoon so are very simple and uncomplicated. Nice and easy to paint, but I’d like something a bit more gritty. The cartoon was never my bag, we just didn’t ever see it over here really, or it was on at 6.30am or something silly like that. I prefered the Marvel comic Uk stories and art which child me felt were more serious!