Post 400 giveaway!

This marks the 400th post to the Mordian 7th Regiment blog, and first things first today I want to thank all of you readers and followers out there - I truly appreciate all the support, advice, constructive criticism and kind words you've given me over the years! It really means a lot to me, and I thought I'd offer up an old legacy unit of mine as a thank your to commemorate the 400th post.

While going through the display cabinet my eye fell upon the original motorized rough riders I'd built years back. and since these were some of the very first conversions I posted when the blog began back in 2009 I thought they'd be a nice thing to give away.

Anyone who is a follower of the blog that posts a comment here over the next week will be entered into a drawing for them - these guys have been waiting to see some action for far too long! Thanks again for all of your support over the years folks, you guys rock!

In other news, this milestone ended up being a fortuitous conincidence - at this point, all of the non-apocalypse units in the army are now painted! I spent some time pulling everything out and snapped a family photo:

It's been a long road getting all of these guys done, and I'm really happy with how they've turned out. I have to get the Baneblade done by October for Feast of Blades, but I'm thinking that for now it's time to move on to another project for a while - new poll up in the upper right, lemme know what you guys want to see! While rooting around in the Closet of Doom I unearthed a whole mess of Iron Hands that a friend had mailed me prior to him moving overseas. There's darn near a whole army of 'em - just in time to take advantage of the new marine releases. My wallet cries out in terror!

Mordian 7th - 5th Platoon Rough Riders complete!

Happy Thanksgiving to those readers in the States today - among other things, I'm quite thankful for having the day off! Not having to go in to work at 6 in the morning, and having no other pressing demands (hooray!), I was able to finish off the Rough Riders this morning!

The Mordian 7th originally included an entire platoon of Rough Riders, let by Captain Hilts. While on extended recon patrol on Flotis III, the vast majority of the units horses were stolen (and presumably eaten) during a daring raid by Ork Kommandos. Captain Hilts led his men in a attempt to rendezvous with the rest of the regiment, afoot through Ork-held territory. Over two thirds of the unit were slain en-route by harassing attacks by Evil Sunz Speedfreeks, and Captain Hilts himself was savagely wounded after being set afire by an Ork Skorcha. Vowing to kill the Orks responsible and 'give them a taste of their own medicine', Captain Hilts requisitioned a number of bikes and several flamers, declaring he would forgo the stealth and range provided by riding horseback to the savagery and fire that he and his unit had experienced at the hands of the Orks. Captain Hilts generally hides his burned face behind a combination hood and rebreather, giving him a rather unsettling appearance. His hatred for Orks knows no bounds, though it's whispered among other units in the 7th that Hilts is every bit the savage now as any Ork, and that the 'breathing canisters' he uses contain not only oxygen, but Frenzon or some other combat drug..

I was worried that as all the bikes are identical, the whole unit would end up looking a bit monotonous, so I really tried to ensure the torso and arms for each model was significantly different. Overall I think it gives the unit a sense of motion and vibrancy.

The unit was designed such that it could be used as two 5-man units. The first half includes the standard lance-armed models and a sergeant...

...while the other half includes all the specialty models. A pair of flamers gives the unit a bit more anti-horde, while the other two models simply count as lance-armed guardsmen (well, discarding the remains of a lance in the case of the fellow on the far right). The masked man in the middle of the picture represents Captain Hilts, with his various tanks of combat drugs and an Ork Choppa. On the tabletop I plan to use him as a counts-as Mogul Kamir.

Another unit complete, and the Mordian 7th Painting Chart is turning green! Not looking forward to tackling the 35 infantry models in the 1st platoon, though. Oof.

Mordian 7th - 5th Platoon Rough Riders in progress

With a bit of a holiday weekend ahead I'm planning on finishing off the unit of Rough Riders that I pulled out for the Cavember contest that Col. Gravis is holding. It's been crazy with work of late, so I've only managed to block in the basic colors thus far - but hey, a little progress is better than no progress at all!

Now that there's a bit of paint on, it's easier to point out what all is in the unit. For special weapons, I went with a pair of flamers, and added enough lance-armed models to drive home the idea that the unit is armed with Hunting Lances. The unit is led by a counts-as Mogul Kamir, but I have included a chainsword-armed model as well to act as a normal sergeant for smaller games. The unit also includes a standard, though much like the one in the veterans squad, it's just there for flavor and has no in-game effect. In the original Mordian 7th, there was an entire platoon of Rough Riders, including a mounted command squad, so in this incarnation I'm going with these are the last remnants of the platoon, and one of the men has managed to keep the standard aloft throughout their winnowing.

With a couple days off coming up, I'm quite confident that I'll be able to get them done in time for the deadline!

Cavember Painting Contest Expanded!

Col. Gravis is having a painting contest centering around Rough Riders based on a post from the excellent Col. Ackland regarding what he's calling Cavember - originally it was centered around Praetorian Rough Riders in particular, as Col. Gravis makes some spectacular kits for the army. I'm a huge fan of both the Praetorians and Rough Riders in general, so I have been excited to see the various renditions folks come up with. Recently however, he's opened the contest up to Rough Riders of any regiment which has given me some impetus to get a little more work done on my own Mordian 7th!

I've included a unit of Rough Riders in every incarnation of the glorious 7th that I've done all the way back to the RT era. I started off using the original Imperial Guard Rough Riders on horseback, though in recent years I've gone for a Mechanized Rough Rider on motorbikes instead. The unit above was from my 3rd-4th edition days, and were made from a combination of the old Dark Eldar jetbikes and various bits taken from the Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons sprues. The original how-to was on the GW site yoinks ago in the "Dok Butcha's Konvershun Klinic" articles they used to do. I posted a walk-through on their construction a while back here as well...

My previous version in 5th edition utilized the fantastic bikes available from Ramshackle Games and the unit I'm going to be painting up is built using much the same process as those shown above.

At the moment they're just assembled and primered, so they aren't all that photogenic thus far. With the contest just being opened up to a wider audience I've got my work cut out for me - only 12 days to go before the deadline, and with a full 10-strong unit I'd better get cracking!

Get your motor runnin'... Part 3

Work progresses on the guard, albeit slowly. Over the last few weekends I've managed to get in a couple games to test out the various tournament list ideas for GenCon, and I think I've got the final list more or less dialed in. The most recent incarnation includes a 7-man unit of Rough Riders, so I finally got around to finishing off the seven I'd gotten assembled so far.

Earlier this week the second batch of bikes arrived from Ramshackle games, so eventually I'll end up with two 10-man squads. There's a fair amount of painting left to do for the tournament list however, and I really need to buckle down and crank them out over the next couple weeks. GenCon will be here before I know it!

Get your motor runnin'... Part 2

Still working on building the proxy rough riders on Hornet motorcycles and I snapped a quick picture after primering the few I've managed to assemble. I decided to change up the hunting lances based on a post by John and Mike over at Santa Cruz Warhammer seeing as I had a number of rokkit bits left over from the Ork sprues.

At the moment I only have six of the ten models built for the first squad, as I ran out of the plastic rod I was using for the lances. The end result will be seven lancers, two meltaguns and the sergeant, and I intend to build a second squad once I have a chance to place an order with Ramshackle Games for another 10.

Lastly I'm planning on using a slightly modified version of one of the single-cast bikes with integral riders to create a proxy Mogul Kamir miniature that is better suited to the history of the Mordian 7th Regiment.The fellow that runs Ramshackle Games threw this miniature in with my order due to a slight delay in shipping, and with the addition of a helmet and removal of some of the more egregious 'evil' bits I think it'll work. I'm working on a suitable bit of fluff to explain his looks and equipment as they relate to the Mogul Kamir rules.

So far so good!

Get your motor runnin'...

One of my myriad plans is to convert all the rough riders for the Mordian 7th to ride Hornet motorcycles. To that end, I had converted a group of 5 from Dark Eldar jetbikes and various bits from the Cadian heavy weapons team sprues. While they turned out fairly decent, it was a very painstaking and thoroughly non cost effective project. I'd been poking around to see if I could find appropriately-scaled motorcycle models when I came across Ramshackle Games, who do a wide range of post-apocalyptic themed models - among which were not one, but two styles of 25mm bikes both with and without integral legs cast in resin. I thought they looked perfectly suited for my plans and as they were very modestly priced I placed an order for 10 bikes to see how they'd work. I got the package in the mail on friday and following a quick soak and scrub I brought them up to the hobby loft for cleanup and a test model:

My initial impressions of the models were extremely high - the bikes all came with separate handlebars, one set with integral hands and one set without. The integral hands are going to make the conversion process super easy - there's no shortage of appropriate cadian arms in my bits boxes just waiting to have their hands cut off and used for the riders. There was the shortest of delays in the order, but the owner was extremely communicative and kept me up to date every step of the way. In addition he threw in a couple extra models as well as a fantastic single-piece casting with a raider-themed rider built in. I'm thinking that with a few minor modifications it would make for a perfect proxy model for the Attilan rough rider special character who grants his unit all sorts of scary bonuses.

I did one test model to get a feel for how everything would fit together, and with just a couple blobs of greenstuff the torso and steering arm were complete. I took a bit of plastic rod, a spearhead and a couple small packs (to represent the explosive charges) and made up a hunting lance, though I still need to run a bit of wire down to the rider's hand and give the lance a proper pommel of some variety.


All in all I am extremely happy with these models as well as the professionalism of the company and I'm planning on ordering up another 20 to use for the other two squads I need to build...

By request: Mechanized Rough Riders

Much as I enjoy cavalry, I thought I'd do something different with the Rough Riders in the new army. I wanted to do guard bikers, and after poking around I decided to base them on a "Dok Butcha's Konvershun Klinic" article that used to be available on the GW:UK site (unfortunately I cannot seem to find the online article following the site update last year).



The raw materials to create the bikes is as follows:

• Dark Eldar Reaver Jetbikes
• Guard Heavy Weapons Sprue
• Guard Tank Accessories Sprue
• Small Wheels (I used the wheels from the old Guard heavy weapons platforms like these)

The main fairing of the bike is made from the body of a Dark Eldar Reaver Jetbike. I began by cutting out the jet nozzle from the rear of the chassis and filing it down. The front and rear forks that hold the wheels are made from the bipod and tripod legs from the Guard heavy weapons sprues. The front forks are from the bipod, and the rear forks are the two long legs from the tripod. Assembling this stage took a little patience, as it's fiddly and fragile.


Once I had the wheels, forks and frame assembled, I added an imperial eagle (or winged skull in a couple cases) to the front of the fairing, and used the head of the shovel on the heavy weapons team sprue to form the front fender. I also added a little stowage here and there to cover up the occasional gap and to add a little flavor to the bikes.


The riders were a bit of a challenge. I started by bisecting several pairs of cadian legs (as none of the existing poses would fit astride the bikes as-is), and then mixing and matching the left and right legs until I found pairs that would form the poses that I liked. I positioned the leg pairs spread astride the bike, and then filled in the gaps with greenstuff.


The torsos and arms were all adjusted through the use of a bit of greenstuff here and there as well. The 'pointing' right arm from the heavy weapons squad worked pretty well to hold on to the bike's handlebars, though to make things easier I did a couple riders either dismounted, or leaning on the bikes while they fired their weapons.

As fun as the unit was to build, one thing it is not is cheap. The parts (back when GW actually had a useful bits service) cost about $130 for the five-man unit. While I intend to build a further 10 man squad of bikers, I'm taking the easy way out and plan on utilizing the bikes with integral legs available from Ramshackle Games here. I have a set on order to see how they'll work, but as yet they have not arrived. My intention is to use the 5-man squad as the tank-hunting unit (they all have melta-bombs and include a melta gun), and the new 10-man squad will be more traditionally armed with hunting lances. Further updates to come once the new bikes arrive!