40K Adventurers - Scum - Space Eunuch - Scout - Official - Colony 87 Governor

Introducing Imperial Governor Aegidius Ophatran and family.

When I selected the 'Space Eunuch' as my next 40K Adventurer, I started to think about who he would be grouped with. Although he's listed as 'Scum' on the advertisement, his base tab is labeled 'Space Eunuch', which raised a lot of question for me. Who would a space eunuch be guarding? Who is his master or employer? 

I decided to go with the Colony 87 governor and his wife, who I needed to paint again. I had painted a full set of Colony 87 about two years ago, and photographed it for Crooked Dice. They ended up wanting a set for themselves, so I sent the one I had painted and acquired a second one. Not a fan of painting the same mini twice, and I was a bit concerned I would be more sloppy the second time around. They're about the same, with a few minor changes here and there.

It is common for nobles of Ophatran Secundus to use exotic off-world barbarians and death-worlders for their bodyguards, the more distant the more prestigous. Aegidius has acquired two fearsome gladiators from the other side of the galaxy. I felt that the Space Eunuch needed a companion, and I found a tough-looking warrior woman (I think by the same sculptor!) in my pile of Cobalt-1 miniatures. Cobalt-1 miniatures are the spiritual descendants of the weird stuff found in the early Rogue Trader ranges and she fits in superbly. I gave them some tribal tattoos, and stuck to the red scheme found in the advert. I always loved that guy!!!

Aegidius's daughter is from White Knight miniatures. I picked her up several years ago with no purpose in mind.

Using the opportunity to paint up some of the other important personages that might be hanging around, I took on the 'Official' from the Adventurers range, and two more Colony 87 miniatures. I imagine them to be a high level Administratum liason and a member of the Adeptus Munitorum.

The Official has never been my favorite, mostly because I could never come up with a good color scheme. He reminded me of Carter Burke from Aliens, so I'll be using him as an influential representative of a shady mining concern. I decided to base his colors off the character, to what exent I could anyway.

Lastly, I knocked out the Scout. He's in the employ of Aegidius... for what, remains to be seen.

Getting closer...

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.