Any ol' ion, any ol' ion, ION OH-ION!

Yeah. This is a bit of a weird one. A tribute to an early 90s commercial with a Chaz and Dave style jingle that has been a constant earworm of mine ever since my childhood.

Hammerite Metal Paint.

The advert had three or four knights in different coloured armour dancing about a junk yard, painting each other in coats of rust resistant paint. For some reason this image has always made me chcuckle and has stuck with me down the years.

You may also be familiar with Alternative Armies Ion-Range which includes the Bob Olley sculpted Retained/Crusader Knights. I first picked one of these up years ago and always liked the combination of bulky armour with rudimentary tech. I started painting him up as a bounty hunter for use in Necromunda style skirmish games, but a seed of an idea was growing and I never finished him, with a mind to picking up a couple more at some point in the future. Which I eventually did.

So, now I have three bulky knights-in-power-armour types in need of a colour scheme and a this damned earworm I need to get rid of... let the early 90's mash up commence with the Hammerite Bountyhunter Brothers!

This was the first one I got and which spawned the idea. The green came first, I was convinced one of the knights in the commercial was green, but it turns out I was wrong. I didn't let that stop me though!

I can't actually see this pose in the catalog page I linked to above. Does anybody know if it is a later or variant release?

Again I couldn't see tihs exact pose in the catalog, but this looks to be a variant of Crusader Marine 3

I kept the leather brown and blue-grey colour scheme for the equipment, lookingto both tie the models together and emphasise the low tech nature of their kit, hinting at replaceable parts and vulnerable spots.

Pretty sure this pose is Crusader Marine 11 from the catalogue above

The decision to stick to the blue-grey for the back-pack doesn't work as well with this one as an individual, but I wasn't going to change it as it would mean the models didn't tie in as well as a group. I'm happy enough with how it came out.

Obligatory group shot from CCTV footage of the refinery fire at Glaz-prom in Sub-sector 7, shortly before all those Scumniks got shot up over in Sub-sector 6 last month...

I just hope this little side project, years in the making and finished earlier this Summer, exorcises that demon earworm of a jingle!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Where did the summer go?: Prince August and Scenery September painting challenge updates

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a post complaining about the British weather and our lack of sunshine. In fact I'm writing this and pootling about taking photos of models in the garden whilst enjoying beautiful early autumn weather.

No, this is one of those posts where the author realises they haven't posted for months and really should do something about it. But that is because I have been busy, see!

On top of all sorts of family birthdays and weddings and stuff, and a new role at work that has me seriously considering how to invent time travel, or one of those time twister things from Harry Potter and the Over Committed Academic Timetable (my personal favourite), I've also visited the special Childrens TV Exhibition at Bristol's M Shed Museum where I saw these absolute diamonds of yester year!

The original Tracy Island made by Anthea Turner on Blue Peter! If anyone else is late with their Scenery September Challenge, then there are some good tips from Anthea in the video ;)

And even better than that...

One of the original Eye - Shields from Knightmare!!! I fucking loved that show. My mate Alex 'The living legend' Corrigan was on it. Season 3 Epsiodes 15-16. (Video here - Their bit starts at about 18.20 and carries over to the next episode)

Alex is also behind the awesome Mr Thunderwing Youtube channel which brings you all sorts gaming inspired delights, and has a Deviant Art page featuring all sorts of Transformers related stuff that is well worth a look at if you are a fan.

Anyway, I've also been involved with two monthly painting challenges/themes - Middlehammer's 'Prince August' (paint a noble of any description) and 'Scenery September' - and although I've managed the odd post with terrible mobile pics on the fb group, I've not managed a blog post about either during the relevant months. So this is by way of a catch up:

Firstly, for the 'Prince August' theme I chose two 'High Elf' nobles. Yeah, yeah I know they are actually Wood Elves. Plus, they are probably more Oldhammer than Middlehammer, but I painted them up for use in my WHFB4 High Elf Army, so I think they just about count on both fronts. I also posted pics on the Middlehammer fb group of a 'Nubian Prince' from Prince August themselves, that I'd only very recently finished as a general D&D/Fantasy noble NPC or whatever. So not painted up specially for the theme, or even during August... I think I'm giving myself about 5/10 for fit to brief this time. Anyway, here are the same awful pictures I posted on fb:

Terrible quality moblie WIP shots

My High Elf Lord and his loyal Bodyguard, Jon bon Jovelf

This was my second ever Prince August mini - the casts can be a bit soft it seems, but this was a lovely scultp to paint.

I've used the same red and blue colour scheme on some other generic NPC types so they can come together under Prince August's leadership to form a rival Adventuring Party if needed.

Secondly, for Scenery September I decided to do a combination of very simple scatter terrain and a couple of renovation projects for my desert set up, as not only this is getting a fair bit of use at the moment due to where we are at in our D&D campaign, but the set up needs a bit of work to be able to field a decent Fantasy or 40K battle, so this would help.

This ruined wall section really should have gone in the bin, but it has defied the odds to have survived over 20 years, so I gave it a new lick of paint and the best flocking it has ever had. Still looks like low grade polysyrene badly polyfillered to some floor tile. Because it is.

My 4 year old son helped paint this. I was very chhuffed. Sadly the aquarium plants I used turned out not to be artificial and started to die once sealed with milliput. You can actually see the white mold growingon some of it. So immediately after this photo was taken I cut them off and it is now a tree stump, or possibly a termite mound.

I've included this piece (which I made months ago so not part of the monthly theme), based on idea which I saw replicated on both the Oldhammer and Frostgrave pages, because I think it is a great idea and because it had a starring role in our most recent D&D game where it was guarded by these two Middlehammer era Bloodletters who were masquerading as Fire Salamanders. It's just a slice of coloured agate you can pick up in those crystal stalls in markets, set on its edge in some milliput and flocked with some sand and painted up to match my desert scenery, but when I put that down and told my players they were faced with a mystic portal to the elemental plane of fire, it certainly gave them a focal point. Sometimes scenery is just there to be scenery, or to be functional providing cover or an obstacle, but sometimes it can drive the narrative.

Strangely, that is what I think this piece might do. It is the simplest piece I did, absolutely nothing more than flocking with sand and painting in various shades of brown, but the underlying shape of the flimsy plastic watch packaging, which is what it is, now looks like an ancient piece of mechanical stonework, where if you put enough weight on the cross shaped button, the stone recess shifts and the treasure is revealed! I'm planning on working that in to both my D&D game and when playing 'Heroquest' with my 4 year old.

The strange lichen pile/camp fire looking thing is one of the renovation jobs I was talking about, bits salvaged from a larger piece beyond saving. I need more scatter terrain!

I also decided to do a very simple 'hut-in-a-swamp' in anticipation of a future scene/location in D&D. The basic paintjob is finished and shown below, but it is still WIP really as I'm now working on a mushroom garden around the two slime pools at the side.

As always, the themes have helped keep momentum going on projects that might otherwise stall. I'm planning on doing two, yes two!, projects for Orctober - a unit of 30 Night Goblin Archers (WHFB4 Plastics from the original box) and a Bloodbowl 'conversion' (not really converting much, possibly nothing in fact) for my Rogue Quest project. I've also got a back log of half finished blog posts that I plan to put up as soon as I can, so I hope you pop back to see those too. Thanks for reading :)

Mini collecting driven D&D campaign or D&D campaign driven mini collecting?

This is where most of my painting efforts go these days. Not into finishing off long standing army projects, or even starting new ones from the leadpile that has started growing alarmingly again since last year. No, I have been painting to order, and to strict deadlines in some cases, for my D&D campaign.

Not just that, I've been buying/collecting models specifically to fit the PCs and certain NPCs and monsters. This has not only involved Oldhammer-esque models (Citadel, Grenadier and Ral Partha are all in the mix), but also exploring what's on offer from newer and current ranges.

I got my players to help choose their own minis, and these ended up coming from two suppliers I was previoulsy unfamiliar with: Darksword Miniatures from the US, and Spellcrow from Poland. I was really happy with my purchases from both.

Our Paladin, Erin aka 'Biff Thundermuffin' by Darksword Miniatures

The sculpt our Paladin chose couldn't be more perfect - Male Warrior with Bastard Sword by Jeff Grace, aka 'Biff Thundermuffin' (so christened by the lady who painted the example on the DS webpage - not the name of our PC!) Our Paladin has some delusions of grandeur, and the other players agreed this guy was the perfect target for them to knock off his self righteous pedestal.

Our Bard, Briar -  by Darksword Miniatures

Our Bard also chose a mini from Darksword. There were a few other DS minis in contention, and arguably the mini is too big for our diminutive half-elf songstress, but the sculpt is such a good match for the original PC portrait we chose that in the end she was the natural choice. Female Bard with Lute is another Jeff Grace sculpt, inspired by the original AD&D art work of Jeff Easley, and fits the old school 80's vibe of our campaign perfectly.

The Darksword minis are cast in pewter and are very fine. I appreciate where the models have been cast in seperate pieces this has been done seemingly to allow easiest access for the painter more than anything else, but they were still very fiddly to put toegther, and needed more metal work than I was prepared for. I'll know better for next time, and there is going to be a next time as I also ordered minis to represent some key NPCs (as yet unseen in the campaign!) at the same time, and they are going to be a right pain in the arse when the time comes to paint them.

Thia aka Human Female with Sword  - by Spellcrow Miniatures

One of our players is a no-nonsense Blacksmith's apprentice named Thia. I say no-nonsense, she is actually a dangerous psycopath, but we love her anyway. The model we chose from Spellcrow (Human Female with Sword) is a very sensibly attired young lady with a massive sword. This fits our Thia perfectly. I painted her up in dull browns and metals, to fit her background in the forge. I sometimes worry she doesn't look as well finished as the others, but even that resonates with the character, so I'll be leaving her as she is. I did eventually add some broken skeleton bits to her base in honour of one of her early in game triumphs, and that has given the mini some more presence on the table.

Joradin aka Drunk Dwarf by Spellcrow Miniatures

Also from Spellcrow is our Dwarven Cleric, Joradin of Moradin. He is an alcaholic, and not just in your typical "I'm a Dwarf all I do is drink beer and eat rats all day" happy-go-lucky kind of a way. No, he has a serious case of 'Unknown Tragic Back Story' which has led him to the far less attractive and more self destructive path of drinking to seek oblivion. Sadly, he is still a dwarf, so oblivion takes quite a long time and the journey can be both hilarious and explosively unhygenic. The Drunken Dwarf from Spellcrow was the winner from a number of strong contenders, they really do Dwarves well in Poland it seems (noting Sciboar minis too, of course).

The whole sorry bunch of them... including Bruce the ever flatulant Moorhound

Here is the party together. This must be after their first dungeon together (mixed results, but at least they got a bath while they were down there, where one of them found a shiny ring!), and after Thia almost beat a farm boy to death with her bare hands because he accidently bit the top of her finger off, as they've been joined by Bruce the elderly, very deaf, and even more flatulent Moorhound (represented here by a plastic wolf from mid 90s GW). Joradin's base has now been painted up with some flagstones, but the little sod spilt beer all over them in a big puddle. Still, it adds character so I've left it.

Baskillion the Blackblade (25mm Sturm Brightblade from Ral Partha) and the Tramilar Guard (WHFB4 Plastic Empire Halbediers)

As the group finally made it to the Duchy of Tramilar (we started the campaign with a modified version of the AD&D Fighters Challenge II, before moving on to a modifid version of the Wizards Challenge II, all set in the lands to the west of the Principalities of Glantri in the Mystara setting) I needed some Ducal Guard so I finished painting up a small unit of WHFB 4th Edition Plastic Empire Halbediers. A friend had painted the first one (gold breast plate, now used as the sargeant) nearly 20 years ago, and I'd always intended to paint the rest to match. The deadline of the impending D&D game and the desire to use 100% painted minis finally gave me the impetus to get them done!

I pressed a 25mm Ral Partha sculpt of Sturm Brightblade from the AD&D Dragonlance saga, into service as the Captain of the guard and the Duke's Brother-in-law Baskillion the Blackblade. The paintjob on the mini is not mine, and is apparently unfinished so happens to have a black sword and shield - so I made that a feature of the character. This was possibly the first element where I allowed the features of the miniature to dictate the features of the NPC in game. I was in a rush, needed a painted mini, and it was easy to incorporate that elements into the story. I didn't need to, nobody would have questioned the unfinished mini if I'd just left it, but I've always enjoyed the creative exercise of  blending different inputs and source materials into a D&D campaign - it is one of the main attractions for me in being a DM - so tying in features of the mini or its paintjob to the description or storyline was just another variation on that theme. Nothing novel in that of course, but we've so rarely played D&D with minis over the many years of paly (where as this campaign uses them heavily though not exclusively) that it has not been something I've had the chance to do very often. It certainly got me thinking...

'Uncle Trap' is still waiting for them...

One NPC who I painted to a deadline for a particular set of possibilities in game, but who has still not been used(!), is Uncle Trap the gaoler. The mini is Narg the Torturer from Hasslefree. He's like a cross between Big Daddy and the gimp from Pulp Fiction. Luckily I've not had this happen too many times and most of the models I've painted specifcally to order have played their part and been appreciated, but I do hope they end up doing something naughty and end up in clink soon.

'Sturm Brightblade' (not authors own work) - 'Hazlik' from the RP Denizens of Ravenloft set - 'Unknown' 25 mm pre slotta (not authors own work) - Narg the Torturer by Hasslefree Miniatures

NPCs from the court of Tramilar. Uncle Trap/Narg the Torturer is on the right, while Captain Baskillion/Sturm Brightblade on the far left stands next to Numis the Court Wizard aka 'Hazlik' from the classic Denizens of Ravenloft box set by Ral Partha. I'm not sure of the provenance of the third chap, he's been doing service as Duke Ormath of Tramilar (and recently he's been moonlighting as a halfling tavern keeper and Rogue) he came to me already painted in the same batch as Sturm, but he's not the same style of casting as you can see from there bases. If anyone knows who he is please let me know!

Something else which D&D allows for is a more agnostic approach when it comes to scale. I primarily use 28mm minis, but am happy to incorporate 25mm and 30mm ranges. Partly of course this is because all minis are only supposed to representational anyway, but in D&D with it's wide range of playable character races and body types, the different scales in minis can help indicate whether an NPC might be halfling, or half-elf, or just shorter or heavier set than the average. I feel this all adds to the melting pot effect, and gets away from all the minis being so uniform as they might tend to be if only using models from my existing Warhammer forces for example.

'Damsel' - 'Vampiress' - 'Banshee' from Ral Partha's Denizen's of Ravenloft Box Set

More minis from the Ral Partha Ravenloft set. Very basic paintjobs served a purpose here. The figure on the left is the Damsel. In game she represented Ariela the snobby and naive daughter of the Duke, who had been kidnapped and held in a ruined tower guarded by a wyvern. We played the session where they rescued her on scrap paper with pencil drawn maps, so no minis for Ariella or the Wyvern at that stage. Anyway, by the time they get her back to Tramilar they realise that nobody believes her to be missing. The Duke's daughter is still around town, but the Duke has been taken very ill. Enter mini #2, the Vampiress from Ravenloft. Note the purple dress (belonging to Ariella's dearly departed mother, seeing which sends our travel stained heroine into a frenzied rage!) and the small white bird in her hand. In game the imposter was a Swamp Hag named Zharta the Witch, and when the party finally forced her to reveal herself I repalced the Vampiress with mini #3 the Banshee. Note the purple dress again. I deliberately down played the differences in the clothing on the minis and painted the dresses a fairly flat but rich purple to emphasise that it had been Zharta the Witch all along...

... and that little white bird? Well that turned out to be the wyvern from the tower, polymorphed into a dove so it could stay close to it's mistress while she went about her dastardly deeds!

Marauder Wyvern - sans Azhag the Slaughterer, and still needing to be based.

The look on my players faces when I not only revealed the masquerading swamp hag in teh matching dress, but then hit them a fully painted and fucking massive Wyvern, was absolutely priceless. I'd worked faster than I'd ever worked before to get that beast ready in time for the big showdown. Even my wife recognised how hard I'd worked. Unfortunately, this was all the encouragement I didn't need! Now I needed to see that look on their faces again! I'd spent a fair chunk of change on minis specifcally for the game by this point, and the Marauder Wyvern was sourced specifically for the purpose (although it is also now the centre piece of my Orc and Goblin army, so a bargain really!). It was too late. From there it was a slippery slope and my painting and collecting took on a renewed verve. All for the campaign!

Blacksmiths' forge and Kitchen Stove

Next up was some 'Dungeon Furniture' from Black Tree Design. I saw a post on the Oldhammer fb page about a sale and ended up blowing my January hobby budget in one visit. Then went back for a second visit before the sale ended. Oh dear...

Forges and kitchens are a recurring theme in our game, so smith's set and a stove were obvious choices and have already seen plenty of use. However, I've still got lots left unpainted because this is where I started buying things just because I liked them, and then inventing scenes in the game that suit my purchases. Uh oh!....

However, I'm not convinced this is entirely a bad thing, as I do still have a strong vision for the campaign in my mind, and I'm only buying things which develop on some key ideas and themes. Couple this with tying in detail on models with detail in the campaign and it can actually help flesh out the detail, which in turn can take you in new directions in thinking about the story. It is a process of serendipity that I'm really enjoying.

Some desert based bad guys

One of the players has decided her character has a phobia of scorpions after an encounter at very low level. It's like music to a DM's ears! I went home after that session and bought a swarm of them, and a bloody great massive one just for good measure. I had to wait several months before I could spring them on her, but when I did her reaction (and that of the other players) was like DM's crack. There was no doubt that having the proper minis for the surprises I was springing on them was making the game better for everyone. This was going to get expensive.

Nekrophidian (Bone Golem) from Blacktree

Giant Scorpion from Heresy Miniatures

Scorpion Swarm from Blacktree Studio

A very political band of halflings have made off with the wheels from Joradin of Moradin's cart. The party have been occupied with other matters for the best part of a week now. Who knows where the little feckers have done with them by now!  This little lot (pun intended) are huge fun. I particularly love the saucepan helmets on two of them, and the shield design (a carrot in case you cant see) is my most succesful bit of free hand painting to date. In game they are bolstered by two other diminutive reprobates, but they were painted by someone else and will be going for a Dettol dip as soon as the campaign is over because I now can't wait to paint them myself!

Citadel Halflings, including Cedric the Ogre Hunter in the yellow cloak.

I just love the detail on the backs of these minitures, especially the folds in the floppy hat, and the crossed satchels on the chap on the end.

I've been painting a lot of bards. It comes from having a bard as one of our player characters as she needs some X-factor rivals and Pop idols to play up to! Currently chief among them are Ramon and Giselle, a pair of performers who have embarked upon a short tour sponsored by the mysterious Baron Felmoor (more on him, and other NPCs in a future post). The group meets them in the town of New Haven, where they also encounter Thore Ironclad, a dwarven master armoursmith. Thore is ably represented by the Dwarven Tavern Patron from Hasslefree. I ended up painting him in the week that Lemmy from Motorhead passed away and for me the mdoel bears a passing resemblance, so I painted hm up with that in mind. He has taken on the affectionate nickname of 'Not-Lemmy' in game.

Ramon is also known as the Minstrel from Hasslefree. Giselle is the 'Gypsy' from the Denizens of Ravenloft set by Ral Partha.

A group of non-combatants painted/collected specifically to represent NPCs from our current D&D campaign

'Giselle the Bard' aka the 'Gypsy' from Ral Partha's Denizens of Ravenloft set

This guy is called Ramon. He's a douche.

Not-Lemmy

I've now got a farly good collection of various adult fantasy types (wait, that sounds wrong...), but every population needs some young 'uns, and they are particularly useful as victims/antagonists in a D&D campaign. I first saw these on the Orclord's Stuff section of Stuff of Legends, and had to get some. I was thrilled to find they are still available from Hasslefree. This bunch are a combination of the Medieval Kids and Village Kiddies sets:

'Medieval kids' from Hasslefree Miniatures line up to 'bat each other one' in the time honoured tradition of kids everywhere

In the blue corner!

In the red corner!

And looking on dissaprovingly from the crowd...

This one is definitely my favourite model. She could easily double as a Halfling Ranger

Very basic paintjobs, but hugely enjoyable to paint and play with. I'll be ordering more fantasy non-combatants from Hasslefree just as soon as I've finsihed painting the last lot!

Well, if you made it this far then thank you! I've actually had this post in draft form for several months, but have delayed publishing and have removed certain photos as I don't want to risk my players getting any spoilers of future encounters. No point going to all this trouble if I then give them a sneak preview of what's coming up and don't get to taste their delicious in game tears!

Stay tuned for further updates as our campaign continues :)

Brother Orlando - Rainbow Warrior

This week I've been painting a classic RTB01 Space Marine in the style of the Rainbow Warriors. A much maligned but endearingly remembered chapter of Space Marines from the Rogue Trader era that, for various reasons one might imagine, was phased out as the Grimdark (tm) descended.

I'm not painting it because of that though.

Asslessman from Leadplague started a brilliant tribute idea on the Oldhammer fb page for the community to paint Rainbow Warriors to show our support for the LGBTQ community in the wake of the hate crime (I hesitate to call it a terrorist incident, although that has clearly been an aspect of this case) of the massacre at the Pulse Nighclub in Orlando last week.

I was immediatley on board with this, but I have to admit I struggled a bit with the inherent and potentially distasteful irony of painting a man with a gun to commemorate and show my support for the victims of a mass shooting. I took the opportunity to ask my mum and her partner for their reaction when we saw them briefly for a family event this weekend.

My mum has been out for over 20 years. She is one of the bravest people I know. Her partner (her wife and my step mother) is an ex-Church of England minister. They have both suffered homophobic abuse and institutional prejudice in their lives and careers. They put their love first and they got married, but they had to leave the Church to do so. That broke their hearts. Gladly they have now found semi official acceptance from the Church, an acceptance they always felt was there from their congregations and communities... at least some of them. They've also spent their lives supporting the downtrodden and marginalised in various ways. I felt they were well placed to give me an honest reaction to this idea for a tribute.

Their reaction was positive. They immediately recognised what I was trying to achieve and it was me who quickly brought up the contradiction at hand. They agreed, but my mum very clearly said that her first instinct was that she was glad that the community was responding in this way. We talked about ways that I could have made the tribute more poignant. Removing the gun, placing it at his feet etc.

I also talked about my other idea for a tribute. If I had not gone with Brother Orlando, a close rendition of the picture from teh Rogue Trader rule book, I would have gone with a metal Mk6 Sgt. and called him Sgt. Stonewall, in honour of the struggle that the LGBTQ community have had to fight to get this far. They have had to fight, but they've never had to resort to terroism to get the message across. Love is winning them the struggle. Love is what is going to win against terrorism and hate, and that's what painting Brother Orlando was all about for me.

The pose is as close as I could get to the original picture in the RT rule book

The banner is not a faithful recreation, and was mangled by my 3yr old son before I even managed to get a pic, but I'm calling that wear and tear from the Love Parade. That gun fires party foam by the way.

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!