Third House on the Left - The Final Prototype 40k Building

Back in 2018 I managed to acquire two prototype hardfoam 40k buildings. They've been a staple in my gaming collection, and I've thoroughly enjoyed using them. About 18 months later, I was lucky enough to source the third and final prototype building from this set. Typically it has sat in a box until last week when I decided I wanted something quick and fun to paint up.

Cowboys and Rayguns - Dracula's America...IN SPACE!!

There's something innately cool about cowboys. Perhaps it's the swagger or the lawless lifestyle. Perhaps it's the cool hats and low-slung six-shooters. Possibly it's the jangling guitars and tolling bells accompanying the tumbleweed. Or it could be the high octane jail breaks and train robberies.

Needless to say, when Osprey published their Dracula's America ruleset last year, it got lots of folks I know pretty excited. After all, what could be cooler than cowboys plus vampires.

Cowboys plus vampires IN SPACE of course!

It is not a huge leap to transpose the whole game of Dracula's America into a science fiction setting. After all there's precedence for space cowboys - just look at Firefly, 2000AD's Lawless series and, er, Bravestarr. Not to mention that Rogue Trader has a bit of a frontier tinge and Necromunda was pretty much the Wild West too. 

So you have a nice, intuitive, fast and simple set of rules, with a variety of factions available. You have a bunch of people who would like to make some space cowboys and would like to yell 'Varmint!' across a table at each other.

Dracula's America in Space (DAiS) was born.

Home Sweet Home - Prototype 40k Buildings

I was lucky enough to acquire lovely a pair of buildings recently. What makes these interesting is that they are hardfoam prototypes from the early 2000s, produced by GW when it was looking into the terrain market. They were produced at roughly the same time as some of the terrain that saw release, including the 54mm scale Imperial STC Habitat for Inquisitor. I only have two of the three buildings that were prototyped - the third has a circular tank on the roof.

My buildings appear to have been scratchbuilt from plastic strip, textured plasticard and plastic kits, then cast in hardfoam resin. They came to me ready primed and ready for a splash of paint.

EDIT: Riot pointed out below that the smaller of the two buildings was featured in the pages of the 'How to Make Wargames Terrain' book, published by GW in 2003:

Adeptus Arbites APC

Adeptus Arbites wrestle with rioting citizens.

I suspect that if you had to specify a riot control vehicle for your local law enforcement outfit, the sort of thing that would spring to mind would be a wheeled APC, perhaps with a turret mounted watercannon. Possibly with a dozer blade for clearing out barricades and shunting aside burning wrecks.

Something like one of these:

A few years ago, I used my Adeptus Arbites in a couple of games. I didn't have anything suitable ready to go, so I picked up a marginally over-scaled but cheap toy police vehicle (with sound and light action). This vehicle has seen a fair bit of use in games which require swift deploying of Arbite troopers. It can even be operated by Jokaero. The flashing lights and nee-naw sounds are of course, a bonus.

Shadow War: Armageddon - Completed Kill Team



This Wednesday evening sees the start of my gaming group's Shadow War: Armageddon campaign. With that in mind I've finished the 9 models required for my starting Kill Team, with an additional Guardsmen to bring me up to full strength. And a right dirty-looking crew of scumbags they are too!

 



Kill Team Quinspirios Alpha - the 'Ripperjacks'

Shadow War: Armageddon - Ratling Sniper (by Kev Adams)

A short-statured ratling sniper draws bead on a renegade noble.

 

Nearly two years ago, I attended the excellent Bring Out Your Lead event, hosted at Foundry. One of the many attractions was to have Kev Adams sculpt a new face on a model in exchange for a charitable donation. I was wholly underprepared, but managed to find an Imperial Guard ratling. I tasked Kev with sculpting my face on the wee little chap. I am 6' 4" (193cm), so a diminutive ratling seemed rather ludicrous and therefore highly appropriate!

The Monastery of the Benevolent Listeners

Only a few short weeks ago I made a nice new piece of terrain in the form of a fringe-world homestead. I happened to suggest it might also make a suitable Astropathic Monastery.

And then it just so happened that Asslessman was writing a scenario for a game between my friend Graham and myself. "An astropath temple would be cool to have" he says, "your dome/temple with statues and other things around would be grand".

Now I happened to have some statues already that I've used in the odd scenic set-up:

But they hadn't really been properly finished off. Time to sort out the statues and "other things" and turn the homestead into a temple.

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'

 

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?

Dastardly Abul Goldberg Strikes Again!

If you flick to the rear pages of the Rogue Trader rulebook to browse the scenario generator, you may find your eye drawn to a name which keeps cropping up.

"Abdul Goldberg stole your ship off you - the poker game was rigged and you're sure he put something in your drink."

"The authorities chased you all the way to the spaceport where Abdul Goldberg was waiting with the getaway ship, however the double-dealing rat had done a bunk..."

You get the idea. Abdul Goldberg is a mysterious antagonist who is repeatedly used as a plot point for scenarios. This underhand, double-crossing swine appears to be a mix of crime lord and smuggler, undertaking nefarious deals on the wrong side of the law.

Happily, the Emporium of Rogue Dreams Facebook group embraces just such characters, and has run a competition to create a version of Abdul for use on the tabletop. As no images exist of the villain, this has allowed folks to delve into their creativity and produce their own, very personal version.

I started with the head. I wanted my incarnation of Abdul to be characterfully someone you shouldn't trust. After playing around with some options, I dug out an old Citadel Corsair of Umbar who had the requisite look. I then went off-piste and turned up the militaristic Traitor General from Citadel's 2000AD/Rogue Trooper line. With the addition of a small pet, this was the resulting conversion:

My Abdul is not an all action gunslinger, but a wily, aging smuggler. He doesn't get his hands dirty, but operates a network of fixers, and hires muscle for the inevitable enforcement work.

Heavy Resin: Epicast 'Eldar' Vehicles

Many of you will be aware that in the early to mid-1990s, a number of companies produced licensed upscaled versions of the 6mm Epic vehicles and war machines in 28mm. I've already blogged about some of the Eldar vehicles, including Knight Titans and Tempest Super Heavy grav tanks.

A few weeks ago I posted a scenic picture of my Eldar Void Pirates. In the background was a sleek black Eldar vehicle:

The vehicle in question is one of three vehicles designed and produced by Epicast, for use alongside Eldar armies. These vehicles, unlike others in Epicast's range, were not upscaled Epic designs produced under licence, but were created to their own design. Here's a brief overview of the three Eldar vehicles produced.

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.

 



 

Prepare for boarding action - Imperial Navy Armsmen Priestman and Stilley

There are many occasions when a naval officer would need a pair of henchmen. Hired muscle, guards to a vital control centre, jailors, sentries...the list goes on. After painting up my Fleet Officers a few weeks ago, the logical next step was to make some goons for the officers to order around.

 

 

Bubbling to the surface of my mind were the two soldierly chaps standing to attention in the Martin McKenna illustration below.

 

The base models for my Armsmen were the PR11 Imperial Guardsmen (commonly known as 'Cadian at Ease') - these were promotional figures available at several Games Workshop events in the early 2000s.

PR11 Imperial Guardsmen (image from Stuff of Legends).

Sometimes girls go for the short guy - ratling genestealer hybrid

Back at the end of October, a painting and modelling competition was launched over at the Father's Hall Facebook group (home to all things relating to genestealers and their romantic associations with the human race). Between now and the end of November, participants are being invited to make and paint a new genestealer hybrid. The rules of the competition are:

 

1. Submit a finished hybrid, any generation, any race.
2. Post images of the model prior to priming and once finished. All models must be new work from the start of the competition.

I've been slowly collecting enough genestealer hybrids to make a small force at some point in the future, and the competition seemed like good motivation to make and paint a hybrid in a test colour scheme for the future force. And then I read the rules again: "any generation, any race."

 

I thought, 'I wonder if I could make a ratling genestealer hybrid....?'

 

Holding that thought, I hit ebay and snaffled this cool little fella - a weird pre-slotta halfing oni demon (he later had his horns removed and a slotta-tag added, becoming an Oriental Halfling):



 

 

Interstellar goods inbound - Spacelords starship crewman

Reg 'Pops' Dwight has worked as ground crew for the Orange Star Line for 36 years. He started his career as a lowly baggage monkey, before launching on a steep trajectory that now sees him employed as Senior Steward (Stowage). 'Pops' Dwight is responsible for all incoming small goods from Orange Star Line vessels - it is his role to check and track, liaise with onwards hauliers or end customers, and, most importantly, ensure that local import taxation is applied at least accurately, preferably inaccurately - in the Orange Star Line's favour.

 

Rogue Quest Level Two: The Barbarian

If you're not a reader of JB/Asslessman's Leadplague (and why not?!), you're probably asking yourself right about now:

"What on earth is Rogue Quest?"

A good question indeed! Rogue Quest is a little project that JB and I are jointly working on, to port the a classic Dungeon Adventuring party into a sci-fi setting, using Rogue Trader and Confrontation influences.

Confrontation artwork by Tony Ackland

Between now and Christmas, we have both taken it upon ourselves to steadily build 6 person-strong adventuring parties, set around the classic adventurer archetypes:

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Fighter
• Magic User
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue / Thief

JB kicked the project off in style with his gritty fighter with custom-sculpted head by Kev Adams. This week, it's my turn to share the first member of my Rogue Quest party.

2D to 3D: Creating an Eldar Adventurer

This is probably the last post for a few weeks as I'm heading off on holiday later in the week. I've managed to squeeze in one last project before I go however. This time it's a rather self-indulgent recreation of a character from the Rogue Trader rulebook, specifically the un-named Eldar Adventurer on p188:

"This is Coruscant calling..." - Astropath Syl Moor



Although Citadel have only ever produced male Astropaths, it goes without saying that there must be female psykers with the right attributes for the function. Indeed, the ancient crone-like Astropath Moma Parsheen is a notable character in Ian Watson's 'Inquisitor' novel.

 

My latest Astropath, Syl Moor, is an attempt to redress the balance. I envisage her as one of the more inately talented Astropaths in the service of the Imperium - able to comprehend and intepret messages, rather than just repeat them parrot-fashion.