The Black Maria - An Inquisitorial Transport

I've wanted to make some sort of special forces vehicle for a little while, and had originally bought the Zinge Industries APC conversion kit for my Imperial Guard Kill Team. But it had sat, assembled and unpainted for a couple of years. Having recently completed my Inquisitorial Commandos, I figured I could dust down the APC and paint it up for them.

The Ragged Stranger - an Ian Miller Inspired Scavvy

Back at the start of June, 28 Magazine launched an exciting painting and modelling challenge - to create a model inspired by the artwork of Ian Miller. I'm a huge fan of Ian Miller's artwork - as anyone who has ever opened a copy of Rogue Trader, Slaves to Darkness or Ratspike inevitably is! If you're not familiar with Ian's work, I urge you to check out his website www.ian-miller.org.

++THE IAN MILLER 28 MAG CHALLENGE++

It is with great pleasure that we announce the first ever 28 Mag Challenge open!

The challenge is to create anything inspired by the artwork of Ian Miller. It could be Dark Age of Sigmar, INQ28, a single miniature, a unit, trees, fish, weird buildings – anything you want to make, as long as it is clearly influenced by the artwork of Ian Miller.

Choose Your Own Adventurers #13: The Navigator

Following on from cheetor's lovely Squat miner, it's my turn in the 'Choose Your Own Adventurers' series.

According to Wikipedia (on the subject of Theosophical beliefs) "humans had in far ancient times an actual third eye in the back of the head with a physical and spiritual function. Over time, as humans evolved, this eye atrophied and sunk into what today is known as the pineal gland...by extending an "etheric tube" from the third eye, it is possible to develop microscopic and telescopic vision."

I suspect on the basis of this, and other spiritual beliefs, the concept of the Imperium's Navigators was born - after all, they have a third eye and can see weird stuff!

The Big Lad - Sarjent Blas Gaspar

As any noble is aware, a loyal bodyguard is pretty much a pre-requisite. Yes, you certainly need a number of anonymous household troops to lay down firepower and march around noisily. Yes, you also need the slim, quiet dangerous retainer - the one with mis-matching eyes, a penchant for blades, and numerous advanced skills for removing unwanted people. But what you really need, is the kind of statement bodyguard that shows everyone who is boss. The big, heavily muscled brute who can crush skulls with his bare hands. The man-mountain who can absorb firepower without armour, and still keep on coming.

A bodyguard like Sarjent Blas Gaspar, in fact.

 

40kthulhu: Chapter 4 - Old Friends

Something had possessed me to buy that oval stone, even though the very thought of it repulsed me. It sat now, in my pocket, like a malevolent toad in a damp hole. I pushed it out of my mind and paid new attention to the day's task: meeting the holo-vid recordist, Wyld.

I glanced at my wrist-chron - I was late! I swiftly made my way through the alley ways of Urkar to our pre-arranged meeting place at the Queen's Oasis - a well known kulfee house, with a reputation for high quality and exotic blends.

40kthulhu: Chapter 1 - The Object in the Bazaar

CHAPTER 1 - THE OBJECT IN THE BAZAAR

It was the morning after the sandstorm and the air was thick with tiny particles suspended in the air of the low-G zone. This was what had given rise to the vibrant trading hub at Urkar, just a few leagues distant from ancient Kahire. Merchants, smugglers, traders and many others besides made the most of the gravitic anomaly with both atmospheric craft and space-borne shuttles. In spite of the low visibility, the air above the landing pads was stacked high with craft, impatiently waiting their turn to land.

I had travelled to Urkar at the behest of my old professor, Kendry Mascharino. He had been sent a message from one Soloman Wyld, a junior holo-vid recordist for one of the Magnum Popula publications. According to Wyld, he had recorded some unsettling images at desert ruins near Kahire. Knowing my interest in unusual phenomena, and my studies in the subject, Professor Mascharino had been good enough to charter me an air-car south.

 

 

The Red City of Yowbin - a Gaming Day (Part 1)

"I'd like to run a gaming day at my place" said Graham. "I'll build the scenery, you bring the models."

 

"Sounds great" I said, "Just tell me when!"

 

And that's how myself and Chris went to Graham's house, to play games with Graham, Stuart and John. Our morning game was an Inquisimunda session, played on the Red City of Yowbin...

 

+++Imperial Briefing (extract)+++

A long range Imperial Exploratory drone has been sent down to the planet's surface. It transmitted a blurred picture of a being of unknown origin, seemingly gliding above the ground with the use of wings.

 

Inquisitor Dirske is ordered to make planetfall on Yowbin and locate the beings as a matter of utmost urgency.

++++

 

Three factions make planefall into the Red City - Inquisitor Dirske and his team, a Tech Priest and his Imperial Guard detachment, and a mysterious corporation faction.

 

The Red City

Gang Warfare - Necromundan Spiders Kill Team

As a general rule, I'm not that keen on buying painted figures. Apart from a very few exceptions (such as gifts from friends), I prefer to paint my own figures - I like the process, and the ability to interpret colour schemes and overall look.

 

The other day, I broke this philosophical approach when I bought this set of 6 figures on ebay, listed as an Imperial Guard / Necromunda gang:

 

Ebay auction pic.

The Mystery of the Ivory Statues - An Inquisimunda Game Report

Inquisitor Verhoeven mused over the facts. A renegade former Inquisitor, going by the name of 'Drosk'. A consignment of Xenos artefacts being sold by unscrupulous black market traders. Furtive Eldar traders sighted in starport bars. Apparently, even the local Adeptus Arbites had started to take an interest. This was going to require further investigation.

Inquisitor Verhoeven as played by cheetor from Sho3box.

Rogue Trader Ptolome Jones as played by antipixi.

Imperial Snatch Squad Aranea as played by @Curis.

Silwon Fisk - the Water Seller

With four of my Helsreach mercenaries painted up, I wanted to spend some time on the Water Seller they would be guarding. The Water Seller will be my Journeyman in the Ash Wastes rules - the leader of the gang, travelling across the wastes in his crawler, looking for previously untapped sources of water.

 

The Water Sellers in Carl Critchlow's Logan's World illustrations (Rogue Trader rulebook) have a very distinctive look. They are fat, and heavily tattooed, with baggy trousers and wide waist sashes:

 

 

The Blind Leading the Blind

Did I mention before that I'm quite fond of Astropaths? I think I may have! It's been some months since I made Mother Cantor Mechthild, and I facing adding to my choir. Fully enthused, I painted up a pair of new Astropaths - Precentor Peyter and Astropath Fraites.

Precentor Peytor accompanied by Astropath Fraites.

 

Navigator Ryaph of House Saq D'os

Back in 1973 a certain Richard O'Brien wrote a musical called the Rocky Horror Show. In 1975, the stage show was re-worked into a film called the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Reviewed as "tasteless, plotless and pointless" in 1978, the film (and musical) have since gone on to be considered cult classics.

 

Why am I writing about the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Because Richard O'Brien played the part of Riff Raff, manservant to the alien transvestite Frank N. Furter. And Riff Raff looks like this:

 

Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

 

Fast forward a handful of years, and in 1987, Citadel release a licensed range of figures based on Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion novels. Jes Goodwin sculpts many of the range, including Tanglebones, manservant of Elric, the Melnibonean Emperor. And Tanglebones looks like this:

 

Image from Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki.

 

Notice the resemblance?

Storytellers and Mystics - Eldar Bonesinger

Jes Goodwin tells us with some authority that Eldar Bonesingers are mystics, psykers and priests to wraithbone. A Bonesinger is a "creator of [the starship's] wraithbone skeleton" and also a storyteller who recounts "the stories of those in the spirit stone[s]."

Eldar Starship Crew concepts by Jes Goodwin, published in White Dwarf 119.

Bonesingers therefore appear to be a combination of bard, priest and engineer. Creator of Eldar technology, link with the dead and an important conduit in terms of cultural continuity. In short, they are interesting characters with more depth than the future-delving Farseers or war-psyker Warlocks.

It made sense that my Eldar Pirate warband should include a Bonesinger, not only for the practicalities of caring for their ship, but also as a moderating factor to the warlike and wild crew.

Rarely does Lriael Spellsister set foot on the surface of any planet, so occupied is she with caring for the Wraithbone core and superstructure of the Shimmersand Hawk. Indeed, few of the Free Company seek her out, for she sings to the dead and wild souls do not wish to be reminded of their own mortality. 

 

Man Skirts ARE In Vogue - Tal Newblade, Eldar Void Pirate

The problem with playing in an Inquisimunda (or Necromunda) campaign, is that you keep on earning money. You keep on wanting to spend it on new gear and new additions to your warband. Which means new models. OK, it's not really too much of a problem, but it does require some effort. A fortnight ago, I rolled up a free addition to my warband, by virtue of holding a settlement as part of my territory. Our campaign GM agreed this should be a basic Eldar character (a Rating in the Void Pirates list). I went away and rummaged amongst my Eldar spare parts and damaged figures, and put together this guy:

 

 

Tal Newblade is a rash youngster (a mere 93 years old). Considered to be somewhat hot-headed and impulsive by the rest of the Free Company, Tal is easily marked amongst his fellows by his rather garish fashion sense and unnecessarily flamboyant wargear.

 



 

Elfman and the Fishdog

I've painted two pretty much unrelated figures over the past week. The only thing they really have in common is that they're needed for future games: a new Eldar figure for my Inquisimunda campaign, and a companion model for my 'Space Riders' RPG character.

Fishdog
'What on earth is Space Riders?', I hear you ask. It's a Rogue Trader themed RPG I'm currently involved playing online with a group of gaming buddies. My character is Fim, a rather moribund Piscean Warrior. We'll be playing a physical game of RT in a few months time, and need to represent each character, plus a companion, on the table. Happily, I painted up one of Obscure Creator's fishmen about 18 months ago, so I just needed to source and paint a suitable companion.
  

I've had a swamp hound model from Four A Miniatures sitting in a box for ages, for just this very purpose. I gave him a very quick paint job using a neutral skin colour to contrast with the more brightly coloured Fim.

Retro-styled Eldar Scout - Merne Darkbrow



With the ongoing development of my Eldar Void Pirates warband in my current Inquisimunda campaign, I needed a new recruit. I fancied making a character which had a bit of a Eldar Scout / Ranger vibe, but wanted the figure to tie in with some of the styling of the Rogue Trader Space Elves.

 

I delved around in my bits box and sourced a spare Space Elf and a gun-less Eldar scout from a previous conversion. I quickly mocked up the below concept:

 

Satisfied that the conversion would do the job, I set about the two figures with my saw, making sure to avoid damage to the slung helmet and laspistol hanging from the left shoulder. I replaced the shuriken weapon with a plastic Eldar lasgun, and added the scope from a modern plastic Dire Avenger. Then it was a case of covering the joins and repairing any damage with greenstuff.

 

Leading the Choir - Astropath Mother Cantor Mechthild

Over at the Ammobunker Inq28 forums, Commissar Molotov is running a monthly competition with the aim of getting folks motivated to make and paint something new. January is the first round, with a theme of Primus inter Pares - First Among Equals:

With it being the first month, it makes sense for the theme to be about being 'the first.' This might be an Inquisitor, on the brink of embarking upon his career - or a hoary old veteran hardened by a lifetime of horror. A Priest leading hordes of zealots, or an experience veteran leading a stormtrooper kill team. It could be an Imperial Guard veteran, the leader of a hab-stack kill-gang. Perhaps is might be wise to consider who the 'equals' are: perhaps your character might simply be one who takes a lead role in certain aspects - a wizened scribe who serves as one of his master's most favoured servants.

After some consideration, I realised that the obvious gap in my collection is a senior astropath. In the novel Blind by Matthew Farrer, there are several hierarchical ranks of astropaths mentioned - the one that seemed obvious to represent a senior astropath is that of the Cantor (or choirmaster). Very definitely a first among equals.

I turned to my box of unused figures and turned up this Bride of Frankenstein I picked up at Wargames Foundry from their £1 cabinet of miscellaneous figures. You can see I had already made a start in adding the archetypal Astropath's cane:

Archeo-Historian Henig Drosk

At the end of 2015 my Inquisitor, Henning Dirske, rather unfortunately failed to seize an important piece of Slann technology known colloquially as the Golden Phrogg. This was the climax of the Inquisimunda campaign that ran for most of the year. After the campaign, I decided that Dirske had been ejected from the Ordo Malleus for his rather irresponsible approach and significant collateral damage. Dirske was on the run, and feverishly hunting for an Eldar artefact (perhaps to try and win back his position in the Ordo that had rejected him).

Our group is due to start a new Inquisimunda campaign in a few weeks time, and although I've decided to use an Eldar warband, I really wanted Dirske to be represented under a new guise.

Grim-faced Archeo-Historian Henig Drosk recently arrived in the Tiberium system in search of ancient Eldar artefacts. He has swiftly made connections in the smuggling rings dealing in xeno-tech; often dangerous, often fake, definitely illegal. It is rumoured that Drosk is a man on the run - he has few credentials, he buys artefacts and information with cash or in trade. Some say he is in league with Eldar Corsairs...

Genetically engineered super trooper - the Afriel strain

Over the last 4 months or so I've been involved in a very entertaining Inquisimunda campaign (28mm scale Inquisitorial warbands played with the Necromunda rules). My warband, led by radical Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Dirske, is comprised of bizarre mutants and daemonic entities.

Dirske has proven himself to be a) cowardly and b) a pretty poor fighter. He now tends to take a strategic view of most engagements (i.e. hanging at the back and watching the others do the fighting!). One minor fly in the ointment, is that members of the warband keep on getting themselves killed. And I don't mean through bad rolls on the serious injury table either; I mean being eaten or obliterated in-game. Thoroughly, irreversibly, dead.

This didn't end well for Scrat!

Scrat, my first ratling assassin, was eaten by a draconid Hex Wyrm in dense jungles (whilst trying to steal one of its eggs) - see above. His replacement, Sneek, was eaten by an unknown monster which snatched him from the shadows. HIS replacement (Sculk), was killed by a haywire robot on a space station. Thankfully, ratling assassin #4 - Snak (note the name) is still fighting fit. Unfortunately, my poor, stupid, two-headed mutie Gron-Slom died in my most recent game. He was eaten by the same (or possibly related) monster that snacked on Sneek.

Techno techno techno - Meching up Aenur

There's a fun little competition been running on one of the Facebook groups I'm a member of. The basic premise was to take the model of Aenur, the Mordheim Elf Hired Sword, and convert it to sci-fi. Entries are starting to roll in before the 30th September deadline, and seeing as I've just posted my resulting figure, I thought I'd share it here too.

Evo over at Port Imperiale very kindly donated an Aenur for my attention. If you're not familiar with the figure, this is what Aenur looks like unaltered:

My initial reaction was to do something Eldar-y, but then I decided I wanted to try and push things a little further from the original figure. After some thinking, I put together a little visual mock-up of what I wanted to try and do, in the form of an Adeptus Mechanicus tech priest: