2018 Yearly review... Yes, I know, I know it's late!

I feel like I can't get the blogging monkey off my back until I do this, so here goes, even though it is now February.

1. Add at least 2000 points spread across both my High Elf and Orc and Goblin armies by the end of the year. No, but I don't mind because I played more games of WFB in 2018 than I ever have before with the painted Orc and Goblins and High Elves that I do have. This included 4 games of WFB5 in 2 days at the excellently enjoyable Middlehammer meet up at BIG in Bristol back in September 2018.

I did get some minis painted towards this goal but nowhere near the 2000 pt total.

Eltharion on 'Storm Wing' drew the ire of Chris from Macrocosm by wiping out his Chaos Dwarf artillery :)

2. Finish the main Rogue Quest Project and any associated side projects currently planned.Yes! This goal was achieved back in XXX although it took me until XXX to write the blog post. I do now have more Rogue Quest side projects, some already completed some pending, but that is all good and a sign of a happily expanding project.

More to come from Inquisitor Halleck and his crew of dangerous misfits in the year ahead

3. Complete an all metal (or primarily metal) conversion. 

"This should involve actually cutting into lead! Drilling and pinning, and filling with green stuff. All things which any hobbyist worth their salt should be proficient in, and which I've never had a huge amount of success with, prior to a half a decent fix on a broken Trolls leg earlier this year. I'm reasonably confident, though not very skilled with converting plastic, but working with metal will be pushing my modelling skills."

Although I'm not sure I completed an 'all metal' conversion (plastic will have been involved) I'm very proud to say metal work including cutting, drilling, pinning and filling is now becoming a standard part of my hobby practice, and one I enjoy far more than I ever thought I would. The salvaged War-bot I put together for my Star Bastards project is probably my favourite example of drilling and pinning style conversions. What has become clear however is my green stuff/sculpting skills need A LOT of work.

A teaser for a future post about my Star Bastards project, completed last spring so you should see it around 2021 at this rate

4. Run the Middlehammer Legacy Project for a second year.
Yes! The Warband of the Weird and Wonderful was a great success and as I sit here now writing this in February it reminds me that we should do another one... soon!

Two warbands worth of chaotic craziness from the Middlehammer community - let's do it again!

5. Sell or trade more minis, games, and rule books....Listen, I'm just going to let this pledge quietly die in the corner after four straight years of being unfulfilled. Hush now... It will be better for everyone if it just goes quietly.

So what did I get done?
Well, loads of gaming for one thing, and a fair bit of painting not already shown here, but not much blogging. Here's a list of blog posts either in draft or yet to be started:

Crisis in Caledor parts 3 and 4
Star Bastards
Middlefest
Orktober 2018
Kit-bash Challenge
Rogue Quest - level 7

Hopefully sorting this post out will help me kick start the blogging action again and some of those posts will actually get published!

And what are the plans for 2019?

Well first and foremost, more gaming! Fellow Middlehammerer Ben and I have just launched the St Valentine's World Massacre WH40K campaign and we will be playing our first game next week in Bristol. I'm also signed up for a game of WH40K 2nd ED at BOYL this year so that ambition finally looks like becoming a reality. Then there is the meet up planned in Exeter in September with some of the same crowd from the WFB5 event in Bristol last year, so that should be a good craic too!

Phlegm Greyhorn and his raiding party with two 'Beasts of  Nurgle' (from the Grenadier 1983 Call of Cthulu line)

Apart from carrying on with the monthly painting challenges on the Middlehammer group I'm also taking part in the very excellent Old World Army Challenge with my Nurgle Beastman Warband. It's going to be quite a challenge but I'm already really enjoying it and thee is some absolutely fantastic looking work from the other challengers. I heartily encourage you to check it out!

Well, that's the plan anyway. Now let's see how the hobby muses distract me this year :)

Rogue Quest Level 6: Human Paladin

Yikes! This post is ridiculously overdue - I've had him painted for 6 months but just haven't found the time or energy to write the post. Maybe it is because I've had so much fun with this project that I just don't want it to end? Even so, bearing in mind the project started for me in March 2016, this is definitely a lot later than I had planned!

Rogue Quest centers around building an adventuring party in the style of D&D or Warhammer Quest, but for the Rogue Trader Universer. It has definitely been one of my favourite projects since getting into the Oldhammer scene, and I highly recommend you check out these fantastic blogs where the idea originated!

LeadPlague 
Magpie and Old Lead
Leadballoony

For Level Six of my Rogue Quest project I had always planned to paint the RT era Inquisitor with Power Weapon model as my leader, and I knew I wanted him to be a Paladin.

Rogue Trader: Forces of the Imperium from WD118 (October 1989) - Credit Stuff of Legends for the pic/info

Not only does this conform to classic D&D tropes around which characters end up 'leading' adventuring groups, but it continues with my policy of having as many of my characters as possible also having some spell casting ability (he will be joining a Squat Bard, a Wyrd Beastmaster Druid, an Eldar Ranger, a Xenos Rogue/Psionic, and a Cybork Barbarian, the only one of the group without some form of casting ability in D&D terms)

The rest of The Unit waits for their boss at the rendezvous point, he's typically late...

However, once I finally got hold of him (and as JB from Leadplague noted, this guy is so Rogue Trader he has it written on his tab!) I was actually a little baffled by how to paint him up to both keep him in sync with the rest of the party, but also give him his own sense of character.

He got a grey base coat for his armour and then very nearly went in the stripper for me to start again. I just couldn't find my mojo to paint him, and the mould line in his head that I had tried and failed to do much about (I was too worried about smushing his already pretty smushed features) was really beginning to bug me.

It was only after I decided to paint the mould line like it was a metal plate in his head (he does after all have a bionic leg, so has obviously been in the wars a few times) and finally got some paint on his face that it clicked for me. He looked a bit like Patrick Stewart! The film and TV references suddenly fired across my neurons and I was painting him with renewed gusto! A character was at last forming in my mind. Bonus nerd points if you get all the quotes/references:




The exact circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Inquisitor Leondegrance Locutus Halleck and his young protege remain a mystery, but the report the data adept had complied included a number of interesting pict captures and audio recordings that had caught the readers attention.

**** COMMENCE FEED ****


**** 34.268.M41. Segmentum Obscura. Planetoid Borg2366 ****

The man in dark grey power armour approached the boy in the alley. The youth had fought viciously, and well, but he was done letting him play rough with his agents. This one had been marked for recruitment, and he could certainly see why.

Inquisitor Leondegrance Locutus Halleck extended his mind at the same time as he extended his hand. His quarry resisted the mental pressure, another sure sign of his potential.

Finally the boy slumped down against the wall.

"Resistance is futile." Halleck intoned. "Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service the Inquisition."



**** 164.272.M41. Segmentum Obscura. Ordo Xenos training facility, Planet Arrakis ****

Two figures in black body gloves duel with powered blades and blocky, shifting energy fields. The two clash repeatedly before the larger figure seems to lock arms with his smaller, quicker opponent.

As their fields fizz and spark against each other the blade of the larger, older man patiently breaks through the younger man's defences.

Halleck: "The slow blade penetrates the shield."

Aspirant Arturos: "Would you really have drawn my blood?"

Halleck: "If you'd fought one whit below your abilities, I'd have given you a good scar to remind you."

Aspirant Arturos [laughing]: "I don't believe you!"

Halleck [smiling wryly]: "You may test that assumption at your convenience."



**** 201. 272. M41. Ordo Xenos Fortress Monastery 'Excalibur' ****

Leondegrance: "I saw what I saw! The boy drew the sword. If a boy has been chosen, a boy shall be the new Master!"

Inquisitor Uryenes: "NO, I challenge that!"

Sir Ector, Vet. Sgt. Eagle Warriors, on secondment to the Deathwatch: "The sword has been drawn!"

Uryenes: [to Leondegrance] "Are you with us, or against us?"

Leondegrance: "Against you!"

L to R: inquisitor Leondegrance Locutus Halleck, Inquisitor Uryenes, Death Watch Vet Sgt. Sir Ector of the Eagle Warriors. This pict was captured just before the argument turned to what was the best colour to paint your bases, when things really got ugly!

**** 201. 272. M41. Ordo Xenos Stealth Cutter 'Enterprise' ****

The footage shows a handful of frames of grainy internal security footage before the pict cuts out, presumably as the ships stealth field was engaged.

Inquisitor Leondegrance Locutus Halleck [in command of the ship]: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Make it so. Engage!"

**** END FEED ****


"And there have been no confirmed sightings of either ex-Inquisitor Halleck or the ex-Aspirant Arturos Pendragon in the intervening years?" The man in the command throne intoned in a voice much softer than his hulking terminator armoured frame would suggest, but no less menacing.

"No my lord, only rumours of rumours. The most promising seem to indicate that he has gathered a team of operatives and works to his own purposes in the outer rim and beyond. Of the youth there are not even those scant tidings." The Adept bowed so low in apology its cowl brushed the floor.

"No matter. Now that I am Master of the Ordo in this sector we will soon hunt down our renegade brethren. The old Master was mistaken in not pursuing the matter as soon as I brought it to his attention immediately after the incident. I will not make his mistake."

Turning his attention back to the adept in front of him Master Inquisitor Uryenes smiled a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"You have done well adept. You may go back to your duties knowing you have served the Emperor's purpose."

He waited long moments for the adept to bow and retreat across the expanse of polished marble flagstones between the throne and the great arched doors to the audience chamber. As the booming echo of their closure subsided Uryenes activated his comm link.

"Lieutenant. Have your men escort the adept to the Apothecarion for mind wipe, and then send my Interrogator to me. You will be going on a little hunting expedition I think."
 

Rogue Inquisitor Halleck leads his team off on their next adventure across the stars!

So! Now we have a full party, a plot, and an ever expanding list of dramatis personae - some from my existing collection and others still to be cast (i.e. others which present an excuse to buy more minis!), and the Rogue Quest project turns out not to be finished after all! Huzzah!

Plans are afoot for more NPCs and bad guys, and a narrative game of some sort for these epic space faring adventurers is looming large in my mind.

Thanks for reading this far! Stay tuned for Space Skeletons and Zombie-Cyborg Ogryns in the next exciting installment of Rogue Quest! :D

Rogue Quest Level 5: The Cybork Barbarian

Waaggghhhh! Watch out! Its Buzz-Saw the Cybork Barbarian - the long over due fifth member of my Rogue Quest project. Follow the link for the rest of my Rogue Quest posts, which also include links to the original three projects whcih inspired me - well worth a look!

This is far from my best paint job, but even so, getting decent pictures of him has been a complete nightmare :(

It feels like I have had him finished for an age now, as I had to rescue him from the slipping ever further back in the painting queue as part of my efforts for the Mayday Mayday! 2017 painting challenge, and this post is almost as delayed as he was! Sadly the paint job is a reflection of his languishing for ages and then being a bit rushed, but it felt good to get him finished at last.

The model is of course a Blood Bowl Cyborc, and when it came up for trade in the Oldhammer group in late 2015 I offered up some RT Eldar guardians as a swap, enthusing with the vendor about my plans to convert him for 40k. The thing is when I dug the Eldar out I realised they were more than a bit dubious (too heavy, very shiny and soft detail, with some solid bits where there should have been gaps). Disaster! I was going to have to pull out of the deal. But wait! The vendor decided to send it to me anyway, no longer bothered about a trade!? I guess he really liked my plan of what to do with it? My only recourse was to offer him all three dodgy guardians, which after seeing pictures of he was very happy with anyway! So, everyone was a winner but it was also an early encounter for me with the generosity of the Oldhammer Community. Apologies for the slightly mundane anecdote, but it's another reason why when I came to start the Rogue Quest project a few months later, this mini in particular had some Oldhammer resonance for me.

Anyway! The Cyborc Barbarian needed some inspiration, but some of the obvious 'cyborgs' we might be familiar with from the big screen simply didn't fit what I was looking for here.

Has form as a Barbarian... but no.

Also no, but I like the internal glow thing...

I have to say I struggled for inspiration really, so decided to just crack on and paint him. I toyed with the idea of giving him a suitably orky, yet also period Rogue Trader, gun, but none of the options I tried seemed to work, and to be honest the appeal of the sculpt when casting him as the Barbarian was the bionic-chainsaw arm. More in keeping with the traditions of the D&D/Warhammer Quest Barbarian for him to eschew missile weapons anyway.

I decided that he was going to be red. Very, very red. Not only is this because he may double up in my 2nd Ed Ork army, in which case he will likely be an Evil Sunz Nob, but also because it is the spot colour for the Rogue Quest party, so having a big block of red in the group will hopefully tie in but also have some visual impact.

WIP shots

I have used some of the other colours seen more prominently on other members of the party again (the dark green on the shoulder/elbow/knee pads on his right side, and blue-grey on any exposed tubing or pipe work) to tie him in and break up the red a bit, but not too much! I gave him a purple lip, old school style, which I was happy with, having ummed and ahhed about it, as it gave his face a bit more character (I tend not to do it for 40k orks, but might start). The purple also picks up on a colour used elsewhere in the party so serves that purpose too. The metal work is a mix of bolt gun metal with black wash, to keep things looking oily and smoky, and tin bitz/shining gold to give it a bit of a scrap yard feel.

WIP Shots (rear)

It was only after I had him mostly painted up that I found his true oldhammer character. His half metal face and his boiler-reactor on his back powering his chop-shop bionic chainsaw arm were all very Orky, but there was something else now that reminded me of something far more cyborgy/roboty. The ABC Warriors from 2000AD!

Now we were getting somewhere! That reactor on his back is surely powered by something highly unstable!? Radioactive even!? I wasn't entirely happy with the oily look over the brass of the boiler/reactor I had originally gone for so the ABC warriors link and the chance to go atomic was too good to miss, so I went for some vibrant radioactive green Object Source Lighting (OSL). It's only my third ever attempt and I'm not amazingly happy with it to be honest as it got a bit heavy in places, but very happy with the way it ties in the paint job with the character.

The ABC Warriors link also confirmed the choice of name that had been running through my head. Buzz-Saw it was!

It's probably appropriate to have a suitable 80's soundtrack at this point:

"Waaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh! Dis is Brillliaaaaaannnnnt!" shouted Buzz-Saw the Evil Sunz Nob from the back of his brand new Nobz Bike accelerating towards the fortified line of humies. His mob of boys crammed on to two Buggies and a War Track could eat his dust now that he had his turbo charged engine to play with!

"Come on Parka!" He bellowed at the ork steering. "Hit da Big Red Button!"
VVVVVRRRROOOOOOMMMMMMMSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHFFIIIIIIiiizzziizizizizizizizziiz CRACK! BANG! VOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!

WHAM!

It was ironic that after his boys scraped the remains of him and his bike (and his unfortunate driver, Parka) off the side of the imperial bunker after the battle, they sold the whole mess back to the same Mek Boy Buzz-Saw had bought the lethally exuberant squig fuel injection system from in the first place. It was poetic justice that Buzz-Saw's first act when he 'woke' in a murderous pain filled rage, was to eviscerate that same Mek Boy with his new chainsaw arm...

"Whoops." Buzz Saw reflected once the haze lifted. Da Big Boss was not gonna be happy. Who was going to service his pneumatic prosthetic... male prosthesis!? He thought it best to leave town sharpish.

Sadly, the Mek Boys half finished work on his cybork brain made Buzz Saw very vulnerable to hacking by unscrupulous techs. He ended up being controlled by a gambling cartel, slugging it out as the heel in the Gladiator Pits. It was there that the leader of the unit saw his potential and had his Xenos agent negotiate his purchase, and his Squat Technician do as much as he could to stabilise his cybork brain systems - while establishing more secure proprietary controls at the same time.

His rage is no less at being controlled by a bunch of high falutin' imperials and their weirdo buddies than it was in the pits, but at least now he is expected to win when he fights! That's enough. For now...

The ABC Warriors link also threw up some inspiration for another part of the my Rogue Quest project which I had languishing on the painting table. These clan Escher gangers (well juves mostly) were also painted up as part of my Mayday! Mayday! challenge, and will serve as NPC gangers. This image from the ABC warriors seems to tie everything in together perfectly in my mind. Rogue Trader/Confrontation - 2000 AD - Necromunda - Rogue Quest :)

"Kristine Kochanski and two noobs from the Cherry Bombs gang were waiting for a deal to go down in an out of town junk yard when they were surprised by the living dead!"

"No man, I swear that's the real scuzzlebutt, we've all heard the stories from the desert nomads, but Konchanski and her girls swear blind they saw walking corpses! Bullets did little or nothing to keep them down!" 

"Suddenly this giant Ork-robot thing appears and smashes through the skeletons and rescues them, coz they was all outa ammo! But he's got this radioactive green glow see, that makes him seem more dangerous than the skeletons he has just pulverised!"

"Then just as suddenly as he appeared, the murderous green glow in his robot eye dims, and other figures emerge from the gloom, including a Squat with what looked to be a control device for the previously berserk Cybork."

Sitting in the corner of the bar keeping her head down, but listening to the old soak try and barter their tale for another drink, Kristine Kochanski ran her mind back over the meeting with 'The Unit'.  They'd followed the squat tech, walking the Cybork along like some lobotomised monster, until they'd come upon a camp deeper in the junk yard. They saw the Xenos chick they'd set up the deal for the stolen codes with, and to be fair she'd paid them the credits they were due, but then they were distracted by the noise of the two maw-beasts barking at the Xenos spine-critter trapped inside the laser fencing. Konchanski remembered how much she had disliked the realisation that another Xenos, an Eldar possibly? had a bead on her with a snipers scope. The tell tale red laser sight giving him away, she swore intentionally, putting her firmly in her place. 

But it was the strange enigmatic leader of the group that caused her the most discomfort. His sudden presence like a painful blank in her mind. His image like a black silhouette. All she could remember were his incessant questions about the corpses. Had they seen such things before? Heard of them then? Where? Where do the nomads say they come from? And more than anything else, his insistence on one individual in particular, the need to find him, the absolute imperative over all else. He MUST be found!

"Has anybody seen this man!" The voice rang out in a commanding tone, bringing Konchanski out of her reverie. She was surprised to find she was on her feet and that the voice was hers, a scroll thrust out in front of her depicting the man the Unit were seeking. The man responsible for the walking dead. The Necromancer!

Thanks for reading. Hope this has got you looking forward to the sixth and final(!?) instalment of my take on the Rogue Quest project where we finally meet the mysterious leader of The Unit, and possibly even the emerging villain of the piece, The Necromancer! Insert feeble if well meant pledge 'not to take so long between instalments next time' here ;)

Rogue Quest Level 4: Xenos Psionic/Thief

Well hello.. won't you come on in, take a load off, and meet A'Rhea LI, Xenos Psionic Thief and the fourth instalment of my take on the Rogue Quest project.

You can find out more about the concept behind Rogue Quest by checking out my first three party members here, here, and here, but as always I implore you to check out these guys and the three Rogue Quest projects that inspired me to give it a go myself:

LeadPlague
Magpie and Old Lead
Leadballoony

So, A'Rhea LI, whats her story?

In terms of her role within the party, I've found myself tending towards the same preference I have in online RPGs and am choosing Characters/Classes all of whom have some 'spell casting' type ability in D&D terms, even if this only kicks in at later level in some cases. As a DM and a player I'm a big fan of the potential that a combination of Rogue and Spell Caster presents. The classic example of this is the Illusionist/Thief in D&D and I see A'Rhea LI in that vein. The other great thing about Rogues is all the skill points, so A'Rhea LI has some decent tech savvy to boot. The small 'communicator device' on her wrist boasts some custom electromagnetronics to help her gain entry where others would keep her out.

The hand in the pouch is really evocative of the Thief class, reminding me of the old AD&D 2 rule that Rogues had to try and keep one hand free as much as possible, preventing them from using most two handed weapons, but allowing them to pilfer items at random!

The paint job is not my finest, and these photos don't show up the contrast between the light blue-grey (which ties her shoulder and knee pads in with the webbing worn by some of the other party members) and/or the dark blue of her jacket and the green of her skin, so she looks a bit drab here. I'm annoyed with myself for taking the skin shade too dark. I should have thinned down the last wash of green ink and I've lost a lot of the classic 'Grey' Xenos look she had earlier in the process. It was a learning experience however.

Limitations aside, she does tie in really well with the rest of the group whilst still having her own identity by making much bolder use of the red spot colour. I deliberately voided any purple this time, as I don't want that to become too much of a theme colour for the Xenos elements within the unit. Her equipment was painted up in standard issue cammo green and brown leather to suggest that it has been picked up in a PDF Surplus store somewhere.

I like the relatively low-tech but still obviously Sci-Fi elements, that ties it in nicely to the RT universe in my eyes

The mini is from CP models Sci-Fi 'Hired Guns' range. They are supplied with alternate Human and Xenos heads (which reminds me, I must find where I put the human female head I didn't use... that sounds really bad when you read it back to yourself). I loved the classic look of the Xenos head, but wanted to bring her more into the Rogue Trader universe, so upgraded her pistol to an over sized Laspistol from an early GW weapons sprue.

The original pistol was carefully removed and has already found it's way on to another model that needed a bit of TLC.

The hand in the pouch is a brilliant touch and what absolutely sold me on this sculpt. For me it is an important tie in to the classic D&D/Warhammer Quest Thief class she is portraying, but would serve to emphasise her more 'special ops' role in any force.

I also really appreciate the femininity of the sculpt which has been achieved without losing a sense of functionality about the equipment. I played this up by giving her a little red dress in the Unit spot colour. With the role that I see her playing as both an infiltrator and a spy, the bright red might at first seem incongruous, but I want her to be a bit of a femme fatale, with a hint of Gangster's moll about her past, so she gets to keep her red cocktail dress and uses her psionic abilities to make up for any loss of camouflage.

"Don't mind me boys, just passing through on my way to steal all your stuffs!"

"My name is A'Rhea LI... please... I..." the words appeared in his mind as his harsh demand had appeared in hers.

"WHY DO YOU STEAL FROM US!?" The words came like a psychic assault, battering through her well practised defences, painfully extracting the truth forcing her mind voice to say the words.

"I... I need to raise funds to get off world. Fast. Last job went bad. They're on to me..." She fought to keep from blacking out under the strain.

"How did you get through the perimeter without triggering the lasers? The words were not as painful this time, though the voice still held a tone of command that A'Rhea could not resist.

"My bracelet, some security counter measures of my own design, and a simple planting of a noise in the Eldar's brain, exploiting the fact he had sensed something amiss to send him off in the wrong direction..." Her mind voice was cut off. She could feel the other mind probing deeper. Even her breathing seemed like it was being controlled. She'd never felt psychic power like this before and didn't care to again.

"Impressive. Most impressive. You say you need to get off world. What if I gave you that opportunity, and an offer of employment to boot?"

"I... I'd say I was interested, but..."

"Yes?"

"But I have a debt to pay first. A friend who helped me, who will suffer if they are caught by those who follow me. I need to get them out of town first." There was a long silence, followed by a sense of release of pressure in her mind, her lungs, her muscles...

"Very well. If you can rejoin me here in 3 hours time, you shall have you passage off this world and gainful employment that will suit your specialist talents. Although, you should bear in mind that we will of course be improving security with immediate effect. It appears we've had an unfortunate breach you see..."

2.68 standard Terran hours later A'Rhea LI stood at a porthole watching the rapidly disappearing speck that was Nate's Point as the Unit made it's way off planet and on to the next job.

A'Rhea LI's Mag-lock decoder bracelet does the business for a second time

Sven is left scratching his beard after the laser fence posts are disabled again, even after he remodulated the control algorithms from the default factory setting!

Bonus Laser Fence Posts!!!

I'm really chuffed with the laser fence posts/sc-fi objective markers. I wonder if anyone recognises what they are? The release of the latest film in a certain franchise might give you a clue.

That's right! They are made out of the front end of Corellian Corvette Blockade Runners out of StarWars Kinder Surprise eggs stolen from recovered after being discarded by my children. I've rescued a few potentially useful bits from the ships that came with these weird over sized plastic heads sticking out of the top of them. Luckily both C3-PO and Princess Leia giant heads came with Corvettes, so I have plenty of them, but it was actually the engine pieces that originally caught my attention - they look like multi-launchers for vehicles, or maybe sentry guns? More on them another time possibly.

The Kinder-Corvettes have annoying wholes where the giant heads connect the two halves, so they got a slap of milliput to fill them in, which then also got flocked to make it seem like the posts are a bit more embedded in the ground.

Anyway, they got such a simple treatment with the paints that it's not worth repeating in detail, because there is no detail, but they do the job admirably I think. It's precisely because of how simple they were to make that I like them.

The MDF bases are actually 27mm off cuts from Dave the Scenery Savant, no good for basing models (or objectives for that matter) for gaming purists, but handy enough for this.

I kept thinking about the sonic towers from Lost whilst I was making them. I wonder if Sven the Squat Tech-Bard might be able to hook these babies up with sonic emitters and program them with the Brown Note?

I also like them because I definitely wouldn't have got round to making them so quickly after having the idea if I hadn't been doing the Rogue Quest project, so it's another case of being spurred to more productivity by Oldhammer projects and blogging.

The next level of Rogue Quest has also spurred a spin off project! A villain no less, not the Big Bad, you understand, but definitely a... Bad? But that will all have to wait for the New Year (well sort of) as I'm going to be working on finishing off my entry for Deadcember 2016: The Quick and the Dead between now and the end of the year. That and the drinking. Let's not forget the drinking.

Stay tuned folks :)

Rogue Quest Level 3 - Eldar Ranger

Say hello to Kelechi Iheanacho*1 - Eldar Ranger, and the third installment of my Rogue Quest Project, seen here with an unknown Xenomorph known colloquially as a 'Spine Critter.'

Kelechi comes face to face with the Spine Critter in the rocky wastes outside Nate's Point trading post

*1 Back in the day*2 AVP Shaun had a tradition of only playing Elves in my D&D campaigns, and with one notable and campaign spanning exception, he named these elves after members of the Nigerian national football team. This 'Eldar Ranger' has been named in honour of that tradition.

*2 It was a Thursday.

Rogue Quest is a project to produce a band of 6 Adventurers that match the classic D&D/Warhammer Quest character classes, but for the Rogue Trader universe!

Check out my first two party members here and here, but far more importantly check out these guys and the three Rogue Quest projects that inspired me to undertake this project!

LeadPlague
Magpie and Old Lead
Leadballoony

When playing PC games in the Baldurs Gate, Ice Wind Dale or Ruins of Myth Drannor series I almost always tend towards choosing a Ranger for my main hero, often Half Elven (I know, I know, cliched or what?), and when thinking about the Rogue Quest party I settled on an Eldar Ranger pretty easily. I definitely don't see him as the romatic wilderness hero on this occassion however. My own D&D campaigns have featured a number of memorable Elven Rangers over the years, nearly always played by AVP Shaun, and therefore nearly always had some dark and twisted element to their character. I see Kelechi very much more in this second category. Way more Rogue Trader that way, and every good adventuring party needs some internal strife I reckon!

As I commented to a fellow Oldhammerer while I was in the process of painting him up, I was surprised to find the sculpt (Scout 05) had been in production since 1991 as I'd always associated it with the 2nd Edition Eldar, but then that was obvioulsy a transition period looking back. The fact that it stayed in production for so long is no surprise. It's not necessarily an absolute Jes Goodwin classic, but for me it is an example of the quality that suffused all his work on the Eldar.

I also like the way his longcoat is swept back and his left hand is hovering near his holster, which gives it a bit of a gun slinger type feel

There are some things about the finished model I'm happy with. I think the colour pallete works well, I'm happy with the 'wraithbone' sniper rifle, and the way the red hair band really pops out as a spot colour and serves to tie him in to the rest of the unit when you see them next to each other.

Wait! What's that? A Spine Critter you say?

However, there are some things I'm not so happy with. Although the colour pallette works, the green and purple mean he looks far too similar to the alien Maw Beasts and Spine Critter. On the one hand this serves to link him more to his alien quarry than his fellow party members, and maybe gives a sense that the green and purple is almost like camoflage for a xeno-hunter. On the other hand, when you see them all next to each other it looks like they are the only two colours I have in my paint rack.

Kelechi has used his ranger skills to find the only remants of giant sea creatures in the otherwise barren landscape around Nate's Point

I'm also not happy with the basing. This model was actually completed a good few months ago now (only this blog post being unfinished has prevented me from posting) and was one of my early forays into anything other than flat painted bases. I'm not saying I'm against overhanging scenic bases, but here it serves little to no aesthetic purpose (i.e. it looks crap! :) ) and is a barrier to playability. I imagine I'll rebase it at some point.

Anyway, what do we know about Kelechi Iheanacho the Eldar Ranger?

Kelechi kept himself very much to himself and rarely said anything other than to confirm orders and offer politenesses without any warmth in them to his fellow party members. He said he was from a nomadic clan of  Exodites whose home planet had slowly turned from a colonised paradise into a deathworld. Dragon riders who would hunt the savage monsters of their world to keep their people safe. Well, that would certainly explain his expertise in tracking and taking xenos prey alright, but something about that explanation never did sit quite sit right with Sven.

The Squat's xeno-linguistic and database had revealed some interesting results when his recordings of the Eldar's speech patterns were analysed, and his suspcions having grown over the few months that Kelechi had been with The Unit, were roused further when his snooping device identified the use of Pirate Argot in Kelechi's secretive exchanges with fellow hunters in the saloon at Nate's Point, on the trail of that damned Spine Critter.

When Sven quietly raised the Eldar's background with the Unit's leader back on board their ship, he received nothing but an arch smile and a raised eyebrow in reply. He decided to keep his concerns to himself, but would definitely be keeping a watchful eye on the so called Exodite Ranger.

Kelechi, for his part, kept silent as he polished his long and fragile looking wraithbone rifle, pretending his keen Eldar ears had not heard the Squat voice his concerns. As the squat walked back out to the hold whistling however, Kelechi's eyes were boring into the back of his skull.

 

The Spine Critter

This model was one that I came across when searching for alien animal companions late last year when I was preparing for the Rogue Quest project. At first I considered it as a possible companion for the Eldar Ranger, but in the end the model didn't fit that role, it's more predatory in aspect, and neither did the idea of an animal companion fit with the evolving character concept for Kelechi as a hunter and stalker rather than a nature warrior. Instead the Spine Critter became the perfect candidate as a target for The Unit.

To be honest, although I'm happy enough with the paint job I'm again not happy with my choice of colour scheme. In seeking to avoid it looking like an old school Genestealer dark blue/purple colour scheme I've ended up with it looking far too similar to the two Maw Beasts I painted up as companions for Doktor Krackpotnik (the Wyrd Beastmaster - Druid). At least I did a slightly better job on the purple highlights this time.

I really need to get a better camera if I'm going to keep doing this

It was only ever meant to be a basic paintjob, so I'm OK with how it turned out, from a not very sharply defined plastic cast, but the slightly shiny plastic did give me some problems and made me appreciate GW plastics a bit more.

The model is apparently from Galaxy Defenders published by Ares Games. I got a little card with the model which had some stats/abilities on it, so I decided this would make a good basis for it's profile in Rogue Trader.

M:6 Ws:5 Bs:3 S:4 T:4 I:6 A:3 W:3 Ld7 Int:5 Cl:7 Wp:7

1) Feral senses: ignore stealth - I'm interpreting this as an enhanced ability to sense hidden models, and an increased chance to detect models protected by things like chamelioline, holosuits, etc. and possibly and increased susceptability to sound/light/smell(?) effects.

2) Against single oponents the Spine Critter prefers to use it's claws and powerful bite (S4), but when facing more than one opponent it can launch it's spines in a short range area effect attack. I'm interpreting this as being equivalent to a handflamer attack (but without the chance to set things on fire), which the creature can deploy in a 360° arc once per turn in the shooting phase.

3) It's behaviour pattern leads it to prioritise targeting wounded models when charging/engaging in close combat.The Spine Critter must charge/engage wounded models first if they are in range/base to base contact (in order of most wounded first). However, the Spine Critter will not disengage from combat with a healthy oponent to charge a wounded opponent who is not already in base to base contact with it.

Dr Krackpotnik and his Maw Beasts have got the Spine Critter's scent and try to flush it out into the open for Kelechi to take the 'kill shot.'

4) Acid Blood - fairly standard for unknown xenomorphs. When the Spine Critter is killed it explodes with the force of its pressurised acid blood being released. I've interpreted this as a 2" blast marker with the effect of a flamer, instead of catching people on fire the lasting effect is whether the acid continues to burn (same dice roll/damage/save mod as a flamer).

5) It has some 'armour' - looking at the model, and thinking about various armour types and ratings in Rogue Trader, I think a 5+ Armour Save is about right.

The Critter is trying to escape the Druid's rabid Maw Beasts, but the Eldar Ranger has anticipated it's behaviour and steps out from hiding to take a simple ranged shot to the back of the creatures head.

I enjoyed expanding the project out to include some foes for my Rogue Questers and I've now got plans for some other obstacles or NPCs to go alongside future installments!

Rogue Quest Level Four is already painted (has been for ages!) so only needs a blog post to be written up. Expect that sometime around Christmas then ;)

Thanks for reading, and remember, take care of yourself, and each other.

Rogue Quest Level 2 - Wyrd Beastmaster Druid

Hi everybody! Meet Doktor Boris Krackpotnik - Wyrd Beastmaster Druid, and his two pet Maw Beasts.

There is no StuntCat - only Zhuul!

Boris and his mutts are the second entry to my Rogue Quest project. What is Rogue Quest you ask? The idea is to produce a band of 6 Adventurers that match the classic D&D/Warhammer Quest character classes, but for the Rogue Trader universe!

I hasten to add this is not my brilliant idea! Check out my first post here for some more background, and be sure to follow the links to the three other blogs that inspired me to embark on this project:

LeadPlague
Magpie and Old Lead
Leadballoony

Although the Wyrd Beastmaster is a Necromunda model I felt the low-tech elements of the model fit well with the RT universe, and there was something that really appealed to me about the face in particular.

Strangely, in this picture (not my own) the white undercoat makes him look quite endearing, almost Santa Clause like...
This is not what the model conjured up in my mind!

As I sat looking at the model deciding on how I was going to tackle it, two characters were brought to mind. Firstly, Boris the Animal from Men in Black 3. A cracking villain for a family film, with a strong vibe of alien animal life running through him. Yes, Boris would be a good source of inspiration for my Druid, who I definitley didn't see as the benign tree huggng type.

Boris the Animal from Men in Black 3 - no spoliers in case you haven't seen it, but don't shake his hand.

The second figure the model reminded me of was Dr Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog games. It's the hair and glasses again, but also the non-traditional approach to animal welfare that would bring a different slant on the Druid character class.

Dr Robotnik (aka Dr Eggman if you are Japanese, apparently)

So, with those two sources of inspiration Doktor Boris Krackpotnik was born.

One of the big attractions with choosing a Druid, along with it being quite outside the traditional character or troop types seen in RT/WH40K, was the chance to add some alien animal companions to the party. One of the things that really sets Rogue Trader apart from later versions of the game were the alien flora and fauna included in the rules for the enterprising games master to spice up his encounters. Now I could have sourced myself a Gyrinx, or found something suitable to use as a Catachan Devil, but I stumbled accross some Dungeon Saga Maw Beasts, which seemed to match what I had in mind for Boris.

Maw Beast WIP

I went for a contrasting Purple/Green colour scheme as the beasts are essentially canine I wanted to emphasise their natures by having an alien colour skin/hair tone. I've probably been too conservative with the purple higlights again though.

The plastic was more flexible than I'm used to, though not as wobbly as reaper bones, and the mini was pre attached to the base, a bit fiddly to paint because of those two issues, but once the undercoat was on the paint seemed to behave fairly well.

Cracked paving bases were part of the the model. In the end I've just chosen to keep the brown colour to tie them in to the rest of the group, but not try and flock them as that risked loosing detail around the feet.

Boris is going to have a hell of a time getting him off that roof now that he has got up there. Stupid Maw Beats...

For Boris himself I took the first prompt from the colour scheme I used on Sven Spielboard my Squat Bard, using the sea green and uniform grey on the overalls and webbing, and brown-red ink blend on the skin for that ruddy look. I also knew I was going to be using bright red as the spot colour, so wanted to make sure that would stand out on the final piece. One of the main features with this model is the patchwork animal hide coat, and again I wanted to emphasise some of the alien animals that might be included, so chose a dark red and a vibrant green to pick out those patches made of scales or lizard hide, the rest was kept fairly natural and muted, with plenty of inking to keep it looking dirty and lived in. I reckon Boris sleeps in that coat.

Doktor Boris Krackpotnik - not your average Druid

The oversized stub gun and shot gun shells provide a nice visual tie in accross the model, the shells in the webbing at the front gave a chance to use the bright red spot coour, as did the empty shells woven into his hair at the back, Edward Teach style. His hair is supposed to be black, with a few grey hairs showing through, but as we all know flat black looks terrible on most finished models, so I went with a very dark blue in the mix and worked up with blue-grey highlights. I'm really happy with the finished effect as it looks dark and oily, but not unnatural. A final flurry of bright red on the sash on his staff and he was ready.

Here you can see the ful range of animals that died so that Boris could have such an impressive jacket. If I was a Maw Beast I'd watch out.

So just who is Doktor Boris Krackpotnik? Well that remains something of a mystery. Known but also feared in the hunting and farming communities of the small frontier world where he made his home, as a man who could help as easily in the birthing or healing of a beast as he could in it's tracking and killing, he was accepted by the local population even though he was not one of them. His true place of origin remains unknown.

Perhaps he brought his two fearsome Maw Beasts with him? For they were not native to the frontier world where he was recruited by 'the Unit.' however, they cetainly proved useful in capturing the dangerous xenomorph which had escaped a secure shipment, which the Unit had been sent ot 'neutralise.'

Boris made himself invaluable to the team on that mission, proving his worth in combat as well as his extensive knowledge of xenobiology and practical survival skills. More than this, his potentially psychic link to his pet beasts, and with other animals, was not unnoticed by the Unit's tactiturn but enigmatic leader.

When the offer to join them on further missions involving the hunting and capture of dangerous alien creatures was put to him, Boris accepted, pocketing the considerable fee with a toothy smile, but keeping his true motivations to himself...

Boris and his beasts are on the hunt for some elusive alien quarry - stay tuned for Rogue Quest Level 3 to find out what they are hunting!

The next two models for this project are already based and undercoated on my painting table, but the next installment might also feature some of 'the Unit's' elusive alien quarry! I feel like these guys need something to chase after...

So, thanks for reading and look out for Rogue Quest Level Three coming soon!