Tau Pathfinders Additions - Wargames Atlantic Spider - Hasslefree Maxine

When I was painting the Giant Spider prototypes for Wargame Atlantic I was already envisioning adding one to my Tau 40K Kill Team. I was a big fan of the old Alien Legion comics back in the day (essentially a sci-fi Foreign Legion mishmash of aliens of all sorts) and I like the concept of Tau auxiliaries.

The base of the conversion is of course a Wargames Atlantic giant spider. The kit includes sci-fi faceplates, bionic legs, and a weapon arm. I swapped in a Tau pulse rifle and aerial, some greenstuff (I wanted him to have a second grasping claw, which the kit lacks), milliput for the cephalothorax armor, and some plasticard. 

I also dug through my backlog and pulled out Hasslefree's Maxine- who I never believed was human and has a suspiciously Tau-like gun. 

The entire Tau kill team so far:

The Giant Spiders kit is pretty sweet, I was really happy to get my hands on the plastics! Here's the sci-fi version I painted for Wargames Atlantic for comparison:

Rogue Trader Inquisitor with Banner - Inq28th

My Inquisitor for the month is Rogue Trader era miniature- one of the ones with the peculiar armor. As I may have stated in an earlier post,  I did not care for this pack of Inquisitors back in the day. I find myself changing my opinion as I paint them again though!

I decided to up the ante a bit on this guy and included one of the oldschool banner poles, using thin foil for the fabric. The image is based on a Byzantine icon. There is a purity seal on the back, with a decal from Forgotten Chapters.

The grimdark guillotine is made by Kromlech. I'll do a future post on the Kromlech terrain- I think it is pretty great for a dismal Imperial city :)

Thanks for looking!

Eldar Light Spacecraft Build

I've been working on this project for quite some time. I first conceived using an Imaginext toy I commandeered from my child for a spacecraft several years ago. I originally intended to use it as a Retro-Raygun Valkeeri craft, but I changed my mind several months ago when working on some Rogue Trader Eldar. Acquiring a 3D printer had also opened up some possibilities and jumpstarted the process. 

The base model was an Imaginext "Freeco Bike".

I liked the way it looked rotated 180 degrees, and planned to add some fins and stuff in order to '1950' it up a bit. While working on the Rogue Trader Eldar I thought I wanted a flyer for them, and revisted the Imaginext toy. Once I committed to it I enlarged and printed off a sail from a Battlefleet Gothic Eldar model I found online. I applied some filler to hide print lines a bit, messed that up,pulled it off the model, and printed a second one. 

My son, who plays Eldar, hooked me up with some vehicle bits and some Scatter lasers. I added some more small organic shaped egg 'pods' to the ship to tie the look together. Milliput, combined with a lot of sanding, blends the sail into the fuselage.

I used an airbrush to get the base tones down and to apply the distinctive stripes found on Rogue Trader Eldar.

It stayed in this stage for about three months until I had time to apply the finishing touches.

 Thanks for looking!

Fantasy Princess

A fantasy princess that I bought a few years ago. I picked her up at the same time as another miniature I was far more interested in- which, ironically, still hasn't seen paint.

The miniature is 'Katerin Weisz' from White Knight. She's going to be part of a 40K project, believe it or not.

40K Adventurers - Navigator - Forge World - Astropolis - Trolls Under the Bridge

While I was rummaging through my box of Astropolis miniatures in search of the Squat technicians for my previous entry, I rediscovered some of the other weird figures in that range. Some of them struck me as being useful for Navigators or their entourage, and I decided to tackle the 40K Adventurers Navigator for the succeeding project entry. As usual, I wanted to make a group of it, so I painted all the navigator types in my collection. 

First up, the official GW Navigators. 40K Adventurer (1988), Forge World Horus Heresy Navigator (2014), and Espern Locarno (Blackstone Fortress, 2018). Espern was already painted, back when I did the Blackstone Fortress set.

I based his color scheme (and the group overall) on two of the Judith and Holofernes paintings by Lucas Cranach. 

 

 

 

I purchased this miniature from Trolls Under the Bridge a couple of years ago, and he patiently waited until now to join his fellows.

Lastly, we have the four Astropolis miniatures that I felt fit the theme. They could be full fledged Navis Nobilite, or perhaps tech-adepts that specialize in the psychic wards and force fields that protect the Navigator from the effects of the Immaterium. I gave one an Adeptus Mechanicus cog stripe to reflect his training. I absolutely love the one with the optometrist 'phoropter'. Such a weird and characterful idea. The two with tablets have decals from the excellent Forgotten Chapters Kickstarter.

All in all, I really like the miniatures in this group- although I feel that the sculpting styles do create a bit of disparity and they don't mix as well as some of the other strange pairings in my collection.

Squat Mining Crew - Mining Robots - Astropolis

When I was looking for some Squat crew for my mole mortar mining group, I made a trade for two crew that originally came with a Thudd Gun. When I primed that last group, they hadn't arrived yet. I knew if I didn't get to them soonish it would be a long time.

 

I also dug out some robots I picked up from the Emporium of Rogue Dreams Facebook group and modified two of them into mining bots, using Kromlech bionic arms. The original stock version is painted in an Adeptus Mechanicus scheme. I also painted two squats from the Lead Adventure 'Astropolis' range, and a diminutive character that I believe is from Simtac. He's clearly not a Squat but is such a good pilot, the rest don't ask :)

 

 

The full group so far. I have a dozen or so more soldier types to add later.

 

 

Iona Starkiller and Piscean Warriors - Sarharduin

I've had these miniatures sitting half-finished on the desk for at least three months. "Iona Starkiller" from Hasslefree Miniatures, and two "Fishman" Warriors from Knightmare Miniatures. The first is obviously an Eldar psyker and the fishmen are modern versions of the fairly rare (if not rare, at least pricey) 1987 40k Piscean Warrior. Apparently the new name for the fishman faction is Sarharduin.

Usually, any significant delay in getting something painted is because I don't have a good color scheme picked out. I decided to try for a wolf eel look for the Pisceans, but the 'clothing' and gear eluded me for a long while. I decided to try a dark wetsuit vibe, with coral/shell colors for the backpacks and details.

Pretty happy with the result, I'm glad I didn't go in half-cocked. In my headcanon Iona is a vehemently anti-Terran Eldar corsair, and the Pisceans are a mated pair that owe her a life debt for saving their colony.

Inquisitor Solomon Lok

Catching up on the one-a-month Inquisitor project with Solomon Lok and retinue, produced by Forge World. He's an Ordo Xenos inquisitor, with a lot of detail.

My favorite of the bunch is the stenographer-skull. It was pretty delicate, being resin, but I managed to avoid breaking it. I used a decal for the text.