05 Thursday Dec 2019
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
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Just a quick update before I get to some juicy stuff later… Brother Russkikh is a lovely old Rogue Trader Chaplain which has some fantastic details on it but a horrible helmet. I did the best I could with the face but it doesn’t look very skull-like. I have to say that it looks better in the metal, as it were. The picture here is not very flattering at all! Oh well, its hardly spoiling my chances of getting called up for an invitational 😀
26 Tuesday Nov 2019
Posted in Eldar, Finished Work
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The Eldar of Craftworld Lugganath are considered savage and uncivilised by other Eldar. There are far more of them devoted to reaving and piracy than from other Eldar societies, and they are warlike and cynical, hasty and bloodthirsty. As the 41st millenium (by human reckoning) breathes its last, Arthmael’s Corsairs are struggling to find their way back to the spires of their home.
Eldar Corsairs are often young Eldar who have been blooded as Guardians in war, but who have not yet devoted themselves to the path of the warrior. They travel in search of new webway routes and entrances, reaving and stealing as they go, hopping from real-space into the webway and back again, acting as scouts and pathfinders for Lugganath society.
Arthmael led a corsair gang operating on the far Eastern edge of the Segmentum Obscurus, and was mid-way through a standard exploration expedition when the Great Rift opened. This explosion of chaos damaged the webday, destroying some paths, pouring daemons into others. Whilst Arthmael’s unit were not in the webway at the time, they have struggled since then to find a way back. Shortly after the opening Arthmael, a skilled and cunning Warlock, was killed by a ricochet during an attempt to gain entrance to a webway portal occupied by the Death Guard.
Since Arthmael’s death, the rest of the corsair squad has been whittled down by attrition in any number of battles with chaos and Imperial forces. They lack basic equipment and have been reduced to plundering human weapons and even food. They are squabbling amongst themselves, and becoming nihilistic in outlook…
I have never painted Eldar before, so this was a fun diversion. I used mostly contrast paints, which I am starting to get used to. The Eldar themselves are a mix of Rogue Trader Guardians and Third Ed. Dark Eldar. Bits of this work and bits don’t, but I’m fairly happy with it. I chose Lugganath because I wanted a nice bright colour-scheme, which it certainly it. One thing I never noticed before is that all the RT Guardians have cloths hanging from their belts. Could this be a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handkerchief_code? Considering that Orks called Eldar pansies I suspect it might be.
10 Sunday Nov 2019
Posted in Finished Work, Orks
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Like almost everyone in the old/middle/war-hammer blogosphere, I have been experimenting with Contrast paints over the last couple of months. Results are varied, not least because I’m not really a very good painter! Some colours and techniques are better than others, and I think that Contrast paints are a useful weapon in the armoury. I think that their advertised use is probably the best use for them – to speed up basic army painting so that you can get more painted models done and on the battlefield. This is important, because the New! Improved! Games Workshop keep releasing more cool minis than any of us can ever hope to paint even if we didn’t have a leadpile consisting of all the cool minis of the last 40 years and people are starting to feel helpless in the face of it all. Like, why would I bother to spend however vast amounts of money on the newest shiniest fuckiest uppest tank when I have shitloads of unpainted minis already. So they help get the minis painted quicker and make some space for a Chaos Knight or flying uber tank or something like that. I kind of want a Chaos Knight, and I was recently a victim of the flying uber tank (that has a lot of guns and helped me get swiftly tabled on my third game against a guy testing a competitive list and was very embarrassed about the whole thing) which made me think i needed one… So anyway, these Blood Axes are an excuse to try some Orky camo shading using mostly Contrast paints. I have resolved after this to return to my Freebooterz Army, lets see how that works out!
Oh yeah, I know I’m a bit late for Orktober, but these boyz are Orkses what I painted in Orktober so there.
23 Wednesday Jan 2019
Posted in Orks
The Freebooterz book is an amazing thing. It allows you to build almost any Ork army you want. All you need to do is pick a Warboss and his retinue, and a bigmob of at least ten Orks, then after that Freebooterz is your guide for making a fantastic army using whatever takes your fancy. The Outcast Retinue mob allows you to use a different clan to your main clan and still take whatever special rules that second clan has. Now, I haven’t got a main clan yet (though I have Goff and Bad Moonz clan Orks), so an Outcast Retinue is a pretty pointless thing to have. Still, the dice rolls were in, and an Outcast Retinue it was. I then rolled for a clan and it was Evil Sunz. But I’ve just finished a red, vehicle-based mob! An Evil Sunz Retinue offers you two Meks (and their associated odddbitz), plus cheap vehicles. But we’re not going to do that! This Retinue is missing all the things that make it an Evil Sunz Retinue! Mostly, this is because almost all my minis were already packed for my house move. One day I’ll add a load of vehicles to it, I’ve already bought one of the cool new Ork vehicles (did I say this last time, I love the new Ork vehicles, but I hate the modern Ork minis and flufff), and I will add a couple of tanks or something. The looted rhino (counts as a battlewagon) came in a lot I bought a few years ago and is a rough and ready conversion that didn’t need a lot of messing with. I cleaned up the paint job, added a few more bitz and some weathering and hoped that covered up the worst of it. The story behind this retinue is that a telly-porta accident seperated them from the rest of the clan, leaving the warboss, the boyz, the wagons, the runtz, and all the perks of kultur somewhere entirely different to the retinue. Following a period of adjustment, during which Big Mek Gorrunt ascerted his domination through a judicious use of a giant power klaw, they are now back and looking for a scrap. As any Ork knows, a wagon and a bike aren’t enough speed for Evil Sunz, they need more vehicles and they’re willing to fight for them!
01 Saturday Dec 2018
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Next out of the leadpile is a rebuilt Rogue Trader dreadnought. I do like these models, whether long or short of leg they really feel like an archaic machine. The face on the sarcophagus is great, giving a sense of the inhuman and megalithic! It feels like quite a dramatic mini, considering how slab-like and immovable the sculpt is. That’s the sign of a good sculptor, I think. You can imagine this pulverising its way through a battleline, small arms fire bouncing off it and power-fists laying low anyone who came near! This particular one has been rebuilt. The left side (facing the dread) has had the circular shoulder piece replaced by green stuff as it was missing. One of the bolters was also missing and has been replaced with a standard bolter. Due to the lack of detail this is a challenging mini to paint, and I think I did OK considering how average my painting skills are.
26 Friday Oct 2018
Posted in Finished Work, Orks
Hello everyone, its Orktober again, and its nice to see so many people painting Orks in celebration of the happiest time of year. GW have done well, releasing some properly Orky vehicles and a new game that I might pick up if I find a spare ninety quid at some point in the near future. My Orktober has mostly been spent packing boxes, as I am moving house, and indeed country. I am moving to Caerdydd, where they speak a different language. What’s Welsh for “more dakka, ladz!”??
My contribution to Orktober is one that I’m not really very happy with. To use a common expression, “they’re a bugger to paint”. Four 2nd Edition warbikes, and a tiny RT warbike. He’s the yoof, on his practise bike! Actually, the RT bike was a pleasure to paint, but the plastic ones not so much. I simply don’t think that they are very good minis. The scale is better, but they feel like a cheap children’s toy rather than a finely detailed collector’s model! I also had to repair and rebuild them, all of them being scrap from the bitzbox. I think I did alright but compared to some of my previous Freebooter mobz I don’t get the warm glow of success!
Never-mind, its all a learning curve. I present to you Magog and his Bad Ork Bikeboyz, the only survivors of an Evil Sunz warband who were wiped out by Space Marines. They survived because they drove right through the Marines and off into the distance, more into going fast than shooting. By the time they calmed down, turned round, and found the battle again there was nothing left of their old warband. Now they’re Freebooterz, willing to fight in exchange for food and fuel.
25 Tuesday Sep 2018
Posted in Finished Work, Imperial Guard
A relic of years passed when Land Speeders were a support choice for the Imperial Guard. this is a lovely miniature that was a pleasure to paint. I’m pleased with the way this turned out, I think the crewmen especially came out alright. I was least pleased with the tiny repair job I did, replacing a missing under-slung bolter with a plastic bolter from a modern Space Marine tank. I decided not to put any iconography on the Land Speeder so that it could be used as either a loyalist or traitor army, depending on my mood.
“Hold this thing steady whilst I take a shot…”
11 Monday Dec 2017
Posted in Finished Work, Orks
Tags
40k, freebooterz, gretchin, grots, Orks, renegade runtherd, Rogue Trader, runtbot, super grots
All over Angelis there is a story that the runts tell each other, and it goes something like this…
So der was dis grot, right? An’ his master was hungry, but there was nuffin to eat in the whole place. An’ his master sez to ‘im, “Oi you orrible grot, get me somethin to eat or I’m gonna pull yer arms and legs off and eat them!” Now dis grot dint ave no teef, and his masters credit was no good. He tried nicking sum food, but he got caught an given a right kickin, and he sat down outside ‘is master’s shack and he had a bit of a sniffle cos he dint want his arms and legs pulled off. Then dis ork shows up and says ‘Ere, wot’s up wiv you little Stinka” and the grot looks up and sees the Runtherd what raised him and trained him and sold him to ‘is master. ‘Dat big git is gonna pull my arms and legs off and eat ’em, mister Skabnik boss,’ and e explained ’bout the teef and all that stuff. Now, the Runtherd in question was a bit odd but was alright, yer know, and ‘e’d had a few jars cos it was Gork’s birthday so ‘e was feelin’ a bit soft. An’ ‘e sez, “Dat bastard, dat would invallydate yer warranty. I’ll show ‘im.” And ‘e fishes around in a pile of scrap until ‘e finds a suitable tool, and then ‘e goes into the master’s shack and beats ‘im around the ‘ed with dis big old bell what he found, clang-a-lang-a-lang until the master is proper dead. Stinka der grot widdled himself with joy, it was der best thing ‘e’d ever seen. Den another ork showed up cos ‘e’d ‘eard da noise, and he said, ‘Ere what’s going on, why’d you beat his hed in?” So the Runtherd sez, “cos he was gonna eat dis grot”, and the new ork sez, “so what, i eat grots all da time, dat’s what dey is for” and the Runtherd sez “you ain’t havin no runts offa me then, Wortlug yer beggar”, and the new ork says “yer runts are crap anyway, they’z all weedy and no good anyfin cept eatin”. The Runtherd, he has a think about things, and then ‘e its Wortlug wif da bell as well, clang-a-lang-a-lang, and the grot runs to get Wortlug’s grots who all agree dat dis is da best Gork’s birthday ever. Den the Runtherd rounds up all da grots ‘e can find and says “come on lads, let’s show ’em who is weedy” and dat’s da story of how come we all got thrown out of Gorkamorka and ‘ad to become Freebootaz.
Something for the whole family to enjoy there, I am sure you’ll agree.
The whole gang.
I rolled a grappling hook arm, so this seemed like a good choice of figure.
rolling on the assault weapons chart I got a power shield. I don’t think there are actually any rules for a power shield anywhere in Rogue Trader, though I might be wrong. Still, it got rolled so it gets modelled!
A variety of early grot models. The two at the bottom left are Gorkamorka Rebel Grots, both of whom were missing arms. I figured that a Renegade Runtherd would be the only Runtherd who would fork out for bionics for grotz.
One has a power sword hand, the other has had his entire forearm replaced by a marine forearm with bolt pistol. Both, of course, count as grot blunderbusses!
The super grots have purple-pink trousers and green skin, and they hulk out.
Obviously a normal runtbot wouldn’t be able to protect super grots.. Not that I had a normal runtbot. This Epic 40k gargant seems to do the job. Fortunately ork machinery tends to come in one style and a variety of sizes.
Aka, Santork… I think this is a Foundry piece. I really am not sure I want to know what’s in his sack.
11 Wednesday Oct 2017
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Another quick update, from big marines to littler marines. The old RTB01s look piddly next to many of the new miniatures. I have to say that while I am not wedded to any particular scale I think that some of the modern miniatures are too big. I am not so much thinking of the warmachines, the super heavies and all that, but instead of the AoS giant figures, Nagash, for example, or the Verminlords. Too much going on, too big compared to the other models… and that’s quite apart from the price. Magnus and Mortarian are lovely miniatures, but £80+ is too much for me. Of course, the quality of workmanship is completely different, there’s no denying that. The RTB01s were the best they could do at the time and are really quite rubbish compared to the modern stuff but they were my childhood rubbish and that’s that!
This squad is a mixed batch of Oldhammer marines; you can tell these were hand sculpted, but that just makes them better!
Sgt Aden
Fourth Company, 2nd Squad
14 Tuesday Mar 2017
Posted in Finished Work, terrain
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So this is my latest piece of terrain. I’ve been working on it for quite some time, put it down, broke bits off, left it for a while, came back to it. The usual. My experience of model-making is limited, so this is part of the learning curve. My earlier buildings were quite basic, and I wanted to make something that looked a bit more like I’d given it some effort. I learned a fair bit on this. Firstly, that attaching heavy plastic bits to a light polystyrene base won’t last long. Secondly, I learned a fair bit about basing. You can, I am sure, see from the photos that I changed direction very early into adding sand and static grass to the base. Still, the next one will be better, and meanwhile this looks like the sort of place Rogue Traders hang out in. Hope you like it.
