Trust the Mutant

"Beastman bad. Bad Beastman. Dirty. Emperor no like.
Beastman love Emperor. Give blood to Emperor, Give heads to Emperor. Say sorry."

This is the quote that got my attention in the original 40K Compilation army book.

Beastmen not being soley in the "badguy" forces was one of the coolest parts of Rogue Trader 40K. Beastmen being mutants, should be available to Imperium forces commanders, afterall, Psykers, Ogryn, Ratling and Squats are all tolerated by the Imperium to certain degrees and they are all mutants of varying degrees?

So with sadness it was, that after 2nd Edition, I came back to find that along with deleting my beloved Squats, that Games Workshop had also forced a rather sad and bland state upon the Imperial Guard as a whole.

But not in MY vision of 40K.

So here I present you with the Beastman Mutant Acolyte from the Radical Ordo Malleus team. He has a name, but I'm at work and for the life of me I can't remember it. (Think it was Marvin or Normon or some such.) I'll write a little background info on my next post cos he's a cool and rare character type (I think) for an Inquisitorial Cell to take so a proper job reason for this deserves a little more work.

Took two sessions to paint him, so he's pretty quick and dirty. I felt that a true mutant needed some not-human eyes, so I went for the red, though now I'm thinking I'll go back and add a little watered down orange and a black pupil or something? (And yes, I know the hazard stripes are pants, but after doing and re-doing them, I ended up saying "feck it" and decided he'd painted them himself to explain their rubbishness.)

*if he seems a little shiny, that's cos I've yet to give him a layer of Clear Coat.*

Bathing in Blood WIP

A long time it’s been. Much gotten done, I have not. A break for the soul is good, no?

(Don't worry, my crap Yoda impression is done with.)

Truth be told, it was good to get back into the paint mode again these past few days and I’ve been rolling along nicely. Not on my own projects though, but working to kick out the couple commissions I have sat on my desk.



“Commissions?! Why this bloke barely paints better than tabletop!” I hear you say. It’s true, it’s true. But there’s lazy people out there and for some reason one came to me wanting his figs painted so he didn’t have to. No monies involved though, more bartering for comics and some other things.



So what is it that’s been worked on – well, Draigo, Lord High Pickle Features of the Grey Knights. Now, I’m not one to rant, but I am one to write falsehoods, so let me tell you my thoughts on Grey Knights in general. No, not from a silly 40K gaming perspective, (though that will be included in a wee form.) but from someone who’s been following this hobby on and off since Rogue Trader was first released and I bought my first pack of IronClaw Squats some…. Lots of years ago.



The Grey Knights were first released in White Dwarf as a mythical super-secret part of the Inquisition – a Space Marine Chapter created to combat that which even normal Space Marines had trouble taking down. This is back in the day when the fluff had it that Chaos, the Warp, daemons and other such sticky nonsense were not preached about in the churches and cathedrals of the Imperium. There wasn’t even the slightest whiff of them at all. Space Marines even, knew little to nothing (Librarium aside.) of the Warp and it’s dangers aside from – “It’s bad. Don’t think about it.”. Those who had the misfortune of being in contact were either destroyed, turned into servitors or mind wiped and reprogrammed to serve again from scratch… and that’s just the Legio Astartes! Normal citizens were usually destroyed outright due to the risk of them inviting (Unwittingly or otherwise) a Chaos incursion upon the systems of mankind. Preachers, Deacons, Cardinals and all of the other Ministorum dignitaries just stuck to “Worship the Emperor, despise the Xenos”. The End.



So here we are, with Chaos as the great enemy that only the highest echelons of Man’s military and religious might had knowledge of. Sure the Inquisition were there to root out the evils that went along with Chaos and it’s nasty ways, but sometimes that just wasn’t enough. Sometimes even their nasty torturing, brutal ways couldn’t finish the job – enter the Grey Knights! Space Marines even more highly trained than regular Astartes and e.v.e.r.y o.n.e a Librarian to boot! Powerful enough to take on Greater Daemons and have a chance of winning. They looked like normal marines in Terminator Armour, but with way more decoration and with these kick arse superduper halberds with bolters stuck on – it was awesome! Their army entry was for armies to be able to take ONE squad and just by that, it made them special, elite, badarse.



Fast forward to 2011 or when ever it was the latest codex came out.



Grey Knights… have a codex, an army book of their own. WTF? Weren’t they supposed to be this super secret, rarely, if ever, seen uber elite daemon-hunting force that offered the services of A SQUAD to those forces in the direst need of help against the forces of Chaos??? O, so that’s changed then…. Now they are a whole army of their own and… o right, now everyone knows about Chaos, they fight Chaos regularly without penalty and they get up again to do the same next week. So Grey Knights are now as “Special” as Paris Hilton crotch shots or news that the economy has gone bad. Again.



I no longer like Grey Knights. At all. I don’t like their ridiculous huge storm-bolter-on-wrist armours. I can’t stand how much decoration is emblazoned on their armour. And I can’t help but dislike how GW allowed the codex author to completely take all that was cool and special about them and then to completely feck it all up. It saddens this old 40K fan’s heart, almost as much as when Games Workshop ret-conned my beloved Squats, citing “Space Dwarfs” are stupid – yet continuing to embrace stupid pointy hat Space Elves, atypical Space Orks and other direct translations from their fantasy line.



Rant over.



Here’s a WIP of Draigo per the customer’s specifications. He’s doing the basing, which is fine by me. Just the banner to go.

I've also managed to get a little done on my Raven Guard Land Speeder, but that's a post for another blog and another time. Hope to have another update sometime this weekend!

Promises promises

Wrote a little while back that I'd show my small painted Guard section and to be honest, forgot just how small the amount of painted figs were. But here they are regardless. Hope you like. They are the troops of a personal army belonging to a Rogue Trader of House Draquon. As well as the stuff pictured below, I also have about 7 or 8 infantry, veteran and/or heavy squads of both Rogue Trader plastic Guard and metal and plastic Squat models. I used the idea that the Trader Prince had rescued the dwarf contingent from a Tyranid threatened base during the Squad purge. So lots not pictured below. One day I'll look into buying them a tank or two. :)

Also there is a small WIP of what I've been adding a little lick of paint too for my =][=munda project.

Commander Isiah Tholme, Pay Master Scheiner (Commissar) and Gorrt, Mutant Standard Bearer and Trusted Protector of the Lord Trader Draquon's family crest. The Commander will probably end up being a 3rd Pay Master.

Armaud Destrierre, trusted Astropath on board the Lord Draquon's trading vessel,  Sergeant Lorch, overseer of the Beastmen Penitents and Ukko, Gretchin member of the Ratling sniper squad.



This squad was my tester squad for the Burgundy and cream scheme. I like it as it seemed the kind of thing a showy Rogue Trader would have his ship bound troops wear.

Squat command group with unpainted beastmen penitents in background. Squats will be stripped and repainted as they have a 14-year-old-me paintjob right now. :)

Trying to fit these Grotz in the list. Was thinking some sort of veterans or bodyguards to the Rogue Trader.

Creed model is my Rogue Trader along with his Command group. The two "white" no arms figs will be removed I think and added to a normal infantry squad so I can fit in the above Grotz. The Fleet advisor will be stripped also in order to be painted in the correct colours.

Washed out pic of (Left to right) Ratlings snipers, 2nd Platoon command, Catachan squad who will be painted as ship's hands and the start of another infantry squad.

Why so much infantry? Well, fair question, seeing as how tanks are the thing right now with Guard. but I always LOVED seeing pics of the masses of RT guard marching across a battlefield with titans in the background and little else to help them aside from their numbers. So I always wanted a Guard force made in such a way. All praise the meat grinder!

Lastly a wee WIP of what I've been painting of late. (Commissions aside.)

Cheeky Sod

I've not been very good at sticking to my plan of updating at least once a week.

A hobby funk had descended upon me and my will to paint whithered like a frog's leg in hot oil. So basically, no painting, no work, no updates.

But.....

There's light at the end of this rotten tunnel. Last night saw in a recharge in the ol' hobby cells (Due to a demo game being run tonight.) and I found myself up late desperately painting the badges on Renzer's coat and other details, glueing the arms upon the Kroot and setting my targets upon the next poor plastic sap in line to suffer my brush lead attentions.

So keep the faith whoever's out there, there will be more coming soon with a small report as to how the game (Nurgle Coven vs Rogue Trader Cerw) went. Can't promise pics of the game though as I've little scenery to show right now, but that will change in time.

Sailing the 7 Galax-seas

Antolio Etcheverria de Dios Otero Antormarchi in all his finery. I really had to force myself to paint this bugger and it shows. (But I wanted the Rogue trader Crew finished.) And so, with him done, my first player team is ready to go forth and search for plunder amidst the storylines in my head. For some reason the camera couldn't take a good pic of his eyes and so they look like pants, which they actually don't in real life. What's a mediocre painter to do?

Any who might remember Hersus Vorden, the 3-armed mutant illegitimate son of this fellow, may well recall the mutie had orange scarves/bandannas? Well, they are directly related to the poor dissociated youth's attempt to show his loyalty to his father and match Antolio's sash.

Enjoy!

And to celebrate the completion of the Rogue Trader Crew, here's a group shot of how sexy they think they are!

Mercs (part 2 - Completed!)

More fast and dirty paint jobs on the remaining Mercs and now they are as done as they are going to get.

First up the leader of the squad, Lieutenant Sayyid, a man who thinks himself some sort of nobility and really doesn't do much for the squad outside of posturing and jutting out his chin. The men do not take him all that seriously and for some reason, he doesn't care either.

Next up is the lazy Corporal Cointreau. Frequently seen sat on his fat arse and sipping Moonshine from his "secret" personal canteen.

Private Singh was the recipient of a nasty collection of talon slashes in a skirmish with the Kroot in the Gratner System 2 months ago. His wounds weep even to this day.

Private Singh is showing his loyalty to the unit with a tattoo of their designation on his baldy head.

Private Lopez is not in the Sergeant's good books right now and so has to lug about ammo for future engagements.

Nervous Private McGee is the unit's youngest member and thusly the gopher and ammo-boy. Just one... stray.... shot....

Specialist Killgor carries the unit's Heavy Stubber. For being such a small fellow he has a big personality and is a favourite with the ladies at Angel's Tavern, the unit's off-duty watering hole.

(This bloke had no legs so I had to green stuff my own. Not great, but better than I imagined I could do.)

Private Nas is a strange bugger with google eyes and the other troopers find his sense of humour and singing irritating all to hell. He does wear some nice dungarees though.

Lastly there's Private 1st Class Cadoogan. Always with the full face helmet this one, but one hell of a fighter and the Sergeant's favourite to clear out bunkers cos he know's Cadoogan gets the job done. Little do the unit know though, trooper Cadoogan's first name is Vera and she has great reasons for not joining the boys in the rooms of Madame Juliette's boudoire.

And a group shot. I think they look pretty cool together.

Upheaval

House has been topsy-turvy of late as we had construction workers tromp about our upstairs tearing up carpet and laying down laminate. With this came the contents of every other room being stored in my hobby room, thusly leaving me no space to work on my projects.

I did get a delivery of two boxes of these...

... and I managed to cut and trim one box worth which only took about 8 hours... So many little pieces....

But stuck together, the set makes for a rather nice multi-level scenery option for future =][=munda games and once I get around to cutting and trimming the 2nd box, I think I'll have some really cool looking stuff.

The workmen are now gone and I finally got to paint last night whilst watching the 3rd disc of Justified with my wife. ALL of the merc squad members are now completed! Again, fast and dirty paint jobs, but they are tabletop worthy and ready to die in the name of the Throne Geld (Monetary unit in most 40K systems btw).

Also got to get some work on the Space Marine Commission a work mate has asked me to do and that's about 25% done.

As far as the =][=munda teams are concerned, the Tau Firewarriors and Stealth Suit remain at 10% completion and the Rogue Trader Prince at around 25%. (I think I will get on with the RT Prince next though as the rest of his Crew look lonely without their leader.)

*Pics of my recently finished figs will be in my next blog entry, hopefully in the next few days.*

Mercs (Part 1)

Sergeant Carlisle and Private Jorgen "Bonce" Lund (nicknamed Bonce cos of his large head) of the Mercs NPC unit. These didn't get the usual love and were painted fast and dirty as I just wanted them done so I could spend more time on the player teams.

Gut Rot

This is the 2nd Squat from the Nurgle Coven, Claus brother of Gunter. An evil little git with a severe case of gut-rot. Claus likes getting up close and personal so he can blast away with his scattergun.

And a close up of his fat-boy's wee piggy eyes.