The Dude and his Kitty

I'm certain I'm not the only hobbyist that has a stack of partly painted or assembled miniatures sitting on shelves or in boxes. My stalling point is generally post-conversion - I'll have an idea for a figure (and often a gaming need), but then plans change and I end up with a converted figure waiting to be painted. Sometimes they wait for a few weeks. Sometimes it's several years!

Today's figure was built sometime in late August or early September 2018. I had a spare head from an Imperial Guardsman I'd converted for my Dracula's America in Space crew, and Ukko from Foundry's 2000AD range that I'd picked up at Bring Out Your Lead 2018. The resulting pairing gave me a rather fun NPC (instantly referred to as The Dude):

I suspect the contents of the bottle are cheap, nasty and very strong!

The Rolling Messiah (Colony 87 by Crooked Dice)

When I handed over the reins of Colony 87 to Crooked Dice a few years back, I didn't know what to expect in terms of the future range. Happily Karl has thrown a load of hard work and magic at the range, and grown it beyond my imagination. The Rolling Messiah from the Market Folk set is a brilliant example of what I always hoped the range would be - characterful sci-fi civilians that simply don't exist elsewhere.

Genius Intellect and a Powerful Psychic Mind - The Professor

I had planned to paint this figure up as one of my Five Parsecs crew, but I got halfway through before running out of time. Since then he'd been stuck part-painted on a shelf, waiting patiently for me to finish him off. Happily, I had a few hours yesterday evening, so it's another figure in the 'done' pile. He's the sort of figure that really appeals to me with his non-combatant / Professor X look.

There's Nothing Worse Than a Squat With a Clipboard...

I have found it a bit tricky to get hobby time over the last couple of weeks, but I wanted to complete something to feel like I'm still actively hobbying! I figured the best option was to grab something quick and easy out of my WIP pile. The figure I selected was one I had converted in 2017 with the intention of using as a dwarf Blood Bowl coach. I never made or painted the team, but held onto the coach to repurpose as a squat storesman or similar.

Vendors and Their Wares

If you've read this blog for a while, you're probably aware that I like a nice sci-fi civilian model. It's been a little while since I last painted any, but over the last couple of weeks I've been working on a project to paint up some nice new bits of scenery and set dressing. The first part of this project is a trio of vendors and their goods. I settled on a carpet seller, a tech merchant and a general food seller based on the models I had to hand.

L-R: Astropolis, Crooked Dice (Colony 87), Crooked Dice (Colony 87)

Walking the Dusty Trails - a Wasteland Trader

After clearing up my hobby space last week, I found a couple of relatively old unfinished projects. I decided to tackle one of them and get it finished, rather than put it in another box to be found in another couple of years!

Gamma World 'Woman Adventurer'

Every so often I spy a random figure on ebay that really appeals. Most recently it was a female figure in an asymmetric dress with a blaster pistol. I checked with the seller who assured me that it was 28mm scale, so I risked a couple of quid and bought it.

When it arrived, I was a little disappointed as the figure was closer to 25mm in scale. Some research revealed that she was a 'Woman Adventurer' from the Grenadier Gamma World range. Although a tad too small for an adult female, she could, with her round face, represent a young girl. So I painted her anyway!

Those space amazons are becoming quite a menace in many fringe settlements.

Doing It For The Kids

I've always wanted sci-fi civilians to use in my games, and even more niche, I wanted some sci-fi kids. When I was working on the third wave of Colony 87 miniatures, I had John Pickford sculpt me a pair of really cute little sci-fi kids. It's great to see these finally released through Crooked Dice.

I decided to paint up the pair and to add a third kid whilst I was about it!

L-R: Colony 87, converted Midlam Miniatures, Colony 87.

The Workshop and the Mechs

I've painted up another pre-production adobe building from Fogou Models to add to my growing town. This time I've decided to theme it as a mechanic's workshop to give it some narrative and to inform the accessories.

Like the previous Fogou adobes, from the last couple of posts, this building is genre neutral, with minimal wall details. To make it fit into my setting and work as a convincing workshop I've added a corner pipe, vent, air conditioning unit, light and little lean-to (all Fogou accessories). I also added a Crooked Dice generator to the roof and the door sign from a short length of plastic strip.

A Duo of Marauder Citizens (#makeatrish)

Over the last couple of months, ex-Marauder and Citadel sculptor Trish Carden (previously Trish Morrison) has been sharing a host of memories and pictures of many of her sculpts on Facebook. This has revealed that Trish has been responsible for many more classic figures than many people believed. As a celebration of Trish's output, the Oldhammer Facebook group has run a painting challenge titled #makeatrish. Below is my entry.

The Alien Delegation Arrives - Space Slann

A pair of officials waited nervously in the disembarkation hall. They ignored the pilgrims, merchants and leisure travellers. They were here to greet a more distinguished visitor. The diplomatic talks with the xenos emissary, Barcoon Krobosh, would profoundly impact on the future prosperity of the Colony.

 

Newly off the painting table are a trio of aliens which have probably evolved from amphibious ancestors. First up is Barcoon Krobosh, the Amphiran Emissary from Colony 87 miniatures. This wonderful high-ranking alien was sculpted by Michael Anderson and is bedecked with ornaments of office.

Sentinel Power Lifter - Rogue Trader Style

You may recall that some years back, Forgeworld produced a nice little variant kit for their Sentinel walker. The Sentinel Power Lifter was essentially a fork-lift for the 41st Millennium, and very nice it was too.

The Sentinel Power Lifter

My hazy memory tells me that while the standard plastic Sentinel kit was £15, the Power Lifter was only £17, which made it great value. I used to own one. I decided I had no use for it. I sold it. When I wanted one again, FW had discontinued it, and the kit is worth a fortune on ebay.

So back in 2014, I decided I would make my own retro version of the Sentinel Lifter, more suited to a Rogue Trader setting.

'Xhonni' Xhonzhon & Tsalli - Alien Fighter Ace



Interstellar and interspecies wars are undeniably characteristic of the 41st millennium. Some species rouse themselves to galaxy-spanning war with humans, Eldar or Orks. Others confine their attentions to small scale skirmishes contained within a single star-system. Mercenaries bolster stretched forces in return for coin. Space pirates seek plunder from the chaos.

 

The Starfighter pilot known as 'Xhonni' Xhonzhon is renowned throughout the Tamahl Sector as a brilliant pilot for hire. A member of the largely peaceful Batbayari race, Xhonzhon has incredible spatial awareness and fast reflexes that belie his endomorphic physiology. These are perhaps psychically or biochemically enhanced by the unusual orange-furred cat-like pet, Tsalli. His rugged heavy Starfighter 'Corona' is superbly armed and equipped: in the 73 minute Collar Ring action, Xhonzhon claimed 32 confirmed enemy Starfighters destroyed. Xhonzhon has a history of found supporting oppressed minorities to overthrow dictatorships, even in some instances offering his services for free. For a just cause, and assuming he can be found at the nearest pilot's dive, maybe the best Starfighter ace in the sector can be tempted to sign up.

 

Rebel pilot Neela Zhorabi attempts to persuade Xhonzhon to join the cause.

Doing Some Heavy Lifting - SFD Giant Robot

In the 41st Millennium, circa 1987, Citadel decided to release a limited edition set of Giant Robots. Your imagination goes wild at the thought. These things should be ogre-sized at least. Or possibly, if they have been named correctly, giant-sized.

SFD Giant Robots (image from Stuff of Legends).

It is possible that Citadel created these figures for a Battletech licence (or perhaps a similar in-house game), because in actuality, these giant robots are anything but:

'Scavenger' is barely larger than the Eldar Ghost Warrior or Paranoia robot!

Hyams - The Story That Was Never Told

Over the last couple of years, ex-GW illustrator has shared many of his fantastic Warhammer and 40k illustrations  over at his Facebook page. I'm a huge fan of Tony's artwork, and am lucky enough to own some of his nice Eldar pieces. One set of illustrations that caught my eye when Tony first posted them, was a series of 5 images of a character called Hyams. From conversation with Tony, the illustrations were commissioned by GW Books (the publishing arm of GW in the late 1980s and early 1990s) to accompany a novel about Hyams - a hive ganger who has a dream that he should travel to Holy Terra. We don't know who the author was, any more details of the storyline, or indeed why the book was never published. All we have are Tony's wonderful illustrations and tantalising titles:

 

'Portrait of Hyams'

 

Tough Guys Don't Need Armour - Adeptus Custodes

With the release of the new Custodian Guard in Games Workshop's 'Burning of Prospero' game, I decided it was high time that I got on and painted up my Rogue Trader equivalents. The half-naked cloaked figures with tall helmets and spears you see below, are indelibly imprinted in my mind as the image of Adeptus Custodes.

 



These are Adeptus Custodes.

These are some kind of mega-armoured giants.

"Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling"

The village had no name, or perhaps it had been forgotten. It lay deep in the chaos wastes and had few visitors bar chaos hordes tramping south, or the occasional Carnival of Nurgle. Each and every villager bore the taint of chaos - the woodsman with axes in place of arms, the porcine butcher, the snake-skinned apothecary. Even the cattle had 6-legs and the sheep had fleshless skulls. Yet village life continued. The young and the strong strode off with bows and their father's swords. Left behind were the old, the lame, the mothers and the children, tending thorned corn, tanning cockatrice leather, building houses from giant bones.

Back at the start of the year, I began the 2016 Legacy Project on the Oldhammer forums. If you're not familiar with the concept, participants make, paint and donate a model to a pre-agreed theme. One of the participants then wins all of the models donated at the end of the project. We agreed that the theme for 2016 would be to create an imaginary classic Citadel range - C49 Chaos Villagers. We're nearing the end of the project, and I decided as organiser, it was high time I painted up my entry - the village piper.

I actually converted my figure back in January. He's based on the above piper from the Citadel Militia range, but his pipes are now somewhat more sinister being made from a child's corpse and bones (or a sleeping chaos baby if you prefer). I replaced his head with a squig and the right foot with one from a beastman. The resulting figure looked both sinister and a little bit comedic:

 

"I will buy with you, sell with you" - A Pair of Merchants



In the bazaars and merchant's quarter of Sandport, trade is king. Itinerant traders from the wastes barter with merchants from the Commerce Guild, off-world hauliers and smugglers. Food and spices, wines, cloth, metal, munitions, slaves, fuel, water, drugs and more; it is all available for the right price and the right word in the right ear.

 



 

Droning On and On and On and....

I'll be running a game for a few friends in a few weeks. As part of the set-up, I needed some drones (the purpose is secret for now, for fear of giving anything away).

I came across the very nice Dweorg Scout Drones by Gydran Miniatures and ordered three sets. I spent no more than 2 hours painting them up in the same colour scheme as my Engineering crew and the job was done!

A single squadron of three drones.

 

Recruiting for the Orange Star Line

Back in 2015 I painted up a few starport type civilians, including a couple of mechanics by Four A Miniatures and a Spacelords pilot and crewman. It just so happened that my good friend Graham is hosting myself and a couple of others for a day of gaming later in August. Graham's providing an entirely virgin cityscape for an Inquisimunda campaign, and asked if I could help by providing some of the figures.

"No problem!" I said, I've got dozens of figures, perfect for Inquisimunda, "what do you need?".

"An Inquisitorial themed party, (easy!) and some sort of human non-Imperial independent type band."

"Like an interstellar trading company?"

"That would be perfect."

I told Graham this would be no problem, and then assembled some of my figures. The trouble was, I had plenty of individual mercenary types, but no real coherent band that looked like an interstellar trading company. So I just bit the bullet and decided some new figures were in order, to complement the starport civilians I painted last year.

First up were a pair of Servitors (to lug cargo and the like around).