Happy Wednesday folks, sorry it has been a while since I last posted – it has been a hectic couple of weeks! The big news is that I finally finished my Rogue Trader conversion, so yey! He’s based on the LE10 Power Armoured Trooper, and was one of the most complicated and detailed conversions I have attempted… more on that here & here.  From a painting perspective, I was really inspired by the Inquisitor pictured in the Book of the Astronomican, and I tried to capture some of that vibe. My chap got white undercoat, and then the bulk of his power armour was coloured with yellow and brown inks, before I went to town on the freehand… I was right at my painting limits at this point! Then it was time to pick out the ridiculous amount pipes, cables, equipment and souvenirs that are festooned around his armour. The helmet face plate was glossed black, and after a few iterations I settled on a flaming red for his crest. A final round of tweaking and weathering was applied to bring him to this point:

And here’s the fluff:

At 42 years old, (standard Terran), Arturo Lamina is relatively callow for a Rogue Trader. He grew up on Feston III, a second cousin within the privileged Familia di Lamina – the hereditary ruling family within the sector. Traditionally, members of the Familia work their way through numerous positions within the administrative and military hierarchies of the sector, developing their political, martial and leadership skills as they progress… Arturo showed little inclination for such a life.

Wayward and rebellious as a youth, he was seconded into many roles within the administration, but his wilful disregard for tradition and propriety led to several embarrassing incidents. Eventually, he was posted as an officer within the PDF in the hope that this would ‘straighten him out’, but this plan backfired. Instead, Arturo used his rank and system-wide access to facilitate a profitable archeotech smuggling and drug running enterprise. This endeavour eventually came to the notice of the authorities, and the Familia were forced to intervene in order to prevent a scandal. By rights, Arturo should have been tried and sentenced to life a penal colony, but the Familia were able to use their influence and wealth to avoid a trial. They managed to secure Arturo a Rogue Trader Warrant, (through exorbitant bribery, blackmail and politicking), thus exploiting a legal loophole which allowed him to depart Feston III with his liberty. Of course, an abuses of power of this magnitude is impossible to completely hide, and such nepotism is fuel to the fires of opposition on Feston III, so the Famila had no choice but to excommunicate Arturo. He was gifted a small interstellar craft, along with some traditional weapons and heirlooms, and was duly ejected from the Familia to begin his new life – a situation which suits his wild and reckless temperament very well.

We join Arturo at the start of this journey, as he drafts forces to his service and begins to explore his new, (and greatly expanded), boundaries. There are many pitfalls to negotiate as he struggles to adapt to his new calling, for the path to success as a Rogue Trader is perilous indeed…

So, there we have it! I hope you like how he turned out – I’m pretty chuffed with him from a technical perspective, and I’m glad to get him finished… and not a moment too soon! He’s going into his first action this evening, against Inquisitor Emeric & Co… wish me luck!

Hi folks, quick photo dump today – I finished my Rogue Trader build last night, and I’ve had a forced redesign on the sword following an ‘incident’ that involved a 3 foot nose dive onto a solid oak floor. The original sword was a write-off – fiddly resin bits all over the place, completely un-repairable. Amazingly, I didn’t even swear, and at least the legs stayed on…

Anyway, once I had recovered, I had a good rummage in the bits pile and knocked up with a cool samurai-esqu AdMech alternative which I quite like. I was a bit stuck on how to attach it, but ended up experimenting with a little mechanical grabber thingy that holds the sword out of the way at the back, but pivots up for the Trader to grab when needed. It’s a bit of a novel approach, but I think it looks quite cool and gives the model a good silhouette… I don’t know if the photos do it justice, but hopefully you get the idea? As an added bonus, the sword is detachable for painting & storing :-)

I also added a few other bits and bobs – a scanner, some relics, more grenades, a roll of parchment – (no doubt his Trader licence), and a purity seal. Phew! He’s all tooled up and ready for anything! Now, just a bit more GS to smooth out the joints and it’s time to get painting!

Happy Tuesday folks! It’s been a hectic bank holiday weekend, and my painting mojo has been a bit lacking since finishing Tick-Tock. Instead, I have been working off and on to put together a Rogue Trader – possibly my most ambitious miniature conversion to date! I knew that a) I wanted to use a classic Oldhammer model as the base, and b) I wanted him to be in Power Armour (as per the description of a Rogue Trader in Rogue Trader). I also wanted him to be well tooled up, and wanted to try and capture some of the freedom of expression we see in the Inq28 community. I basically wanted a little bit of everything I love about the hobby encapsulated in one model… no pressure!

It would’ve been much easier to start with a modern PA model as the base, but I’m stubborn when chasing a vision. So… the first thing to decide was a solid Oldhammer base for the conversion. Rogue Traders are famously independent and even flamboyant, so I knew that I wanted an unusual suit of armour to start with. After some musing, I decided on the LE10 Power Armoured Trooper by Bob Naismith from (I think) 1986. I absolutely love this suit, it’s gloriously bonkers and the perfect starting point for a Rogue Trader in my humble opinion… In fact, it’s so cool that I hear it was the inspiration for the newish Forgeworld Mechanicum Thallax! (Thanks Paul!)… The only problem with the sculpt is the teeny little ‘Kermit the Frog’ legs…

See what I mean? Teeny! As much as I hate the thought of chopping up a classic model, they just had to go…

So, after much soul searching I took the plunge and booked my LE10 in for surgery. A pair of Mk8 Marine legs (from the original ‘Errant’ sculpt, 1991?) were sourced & dry fitted. I had to really bulk out the thighs & knees with GS to make it look ‘right’, and my undeveloped sculpting skills were sorely tested! After much head scratching and faffing around, I arrived at this point:

Once I was happy with the proportions, I spent some time stripping the paint off the legs… (yeah… really wish I had done that first JB!), and filing the GS as smooth as possible. I also started adding bits and bobs to the model – some Imperial iconography, grenades, and a badass sword. I also found space for a cool space feather, (no doubt some valuable and exotic trophy), and a funky plume (a nod to the picture of Rogue Trader ‘Jeff Zuckerman’ in the book of the Astronomican). I also added a 32mm base. So here he is at the moment – still some way to go, but hopefully you get the idea:

Well, that’s it for now. I hope you chaps & chapesses like the direction this guy is going – the project has certainly got me excited! I’ll be working more detail onto him over the week, as well as continuing through my ‘in progress’ painting pile. Hopefully I’ll have some updates for you fairly soon ;-)