Hello chaps, carrying on my humble efforts on the Rogue Quest project that Asslessman and Axiom kicked off, I would like to present my fourth entry. As a reminder, the brief is to build a six-strong adventuring party for Rogue Trader/Confrontation, where each member portrays one of the classic dungeon crawler tropes:

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Fighter
• Magic user
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue/thief

I went for the Bard category for my fourth effort, and there was really only one model that I wanted to use here – a certain Mr. Kelos Longfinger from the RT402 Eldar Command Group. I managed to track him down thanks to the Oldhammer trade network, and I was really looking forward to painting him up! Unfortunately, I really struggled with whole painting experience and it was difficult to summon much enthusiasm for poor old Kelos – he is what I would describe as a ‘soft’ sculpt – no clear delineation, not much detail/missing detail, and some very strange proportions… he isn’t called Longfinger for nothing you know – just check out his left hand! I found him to be a pretty unfulfilling model I’m afraid to say… I can’t even be bothered to make up a name for him, and just went with the catalogue name. Still, I persevered and got the job done, and he does make an impression… he’s certainly 10/10 in terms of being ‘Bard-like’! I went for an authentic Rogue Trader era paint job – dark grey-blue for the body, and a bright red for the helmet & key armour areas… (I was tempted to go with yellow, but I wanted to keep the group looking coherent). The squiggles on the helmet are a must for the period imo. Finally, I tried for a bonelike effect on the derpy church organ thing on his back and the harp… y’know, bone singers and stuff…        yeah…

Anyhow, here he is, see what you make of him:

And some backstory:

“Kelos, called the long-finger, was once a young bonesinger from the Milantos craftworld. He worked diligently at his chosen path, but unexpectedly began to develop a psychic foresight and precognitive ability that terrified the Farseers of Milantos. The reason for this fear was that Kelos only ever foresaw one event – the total destruction of his craftworld and the death of his kin. Kelos tried to convince the counsel of the validity of these visions, for he was certain that they were a true-sight, but these disturbing lines of fate were undetected by the Seer counsel and they began to view Kelos as an abhorrence.  The taint of Chaos was suspected, and he was banished from his world by the counsel. Alone and afraid, Kelos began to wander the stars while his kin thought themselves wise and safe… Weeks later, the craftworld Milantos was overrun by the minions of Slaanesh, its people destroyed, their souls consumed by She Who Thirsts.

Kelos felt the destruction of his world, and was distraught. Many months of mourning passed – his soul was a battleground where his guilt and shame waged war with rage and fear. At the end of this time of madness, Kelos emerged with a new sense of purpose and strength, for his premonitions had changed since the demise of his craftworld. He was now convinced that his destiny lay with the Mon-keigh, specifically, one Arturo Lamina, though the ultimate reasons for this were obscure to him. Regardless, Kelos followed the threads of fate that lead him to Arturo and finally caught up with him on the desert world of Frenos, where he found Arturo caught in a skirmish with a mutant desert tribe. Kelos was able to intercept several mutants that were in danger of outflanking Arturo’s position, killing the savages with a sonic/psionic weapon of his own devising, and so was able to swing the battle in the Rogue Trader’s favour. He introduced himself to Arturo after the battle, describing how fate had conspired to bring them together and how their destinies were intertwined. Arturo also felt the hand of destiny in this meeting, and so invited Kelos to join the Rogue Trader’s band.”

Phew, another RogueQuester in the bag, and another member of Arturo’s growing band of misfits… I hope that the next one is more enjoyable to paint!

Hello chaps, two posts in one week!! I must have my painting mojo back or something! Anyhow… carrying on my humble efforts on the Rogue Quest project that Asslessman and Axiom kicked off, I would like to present my third entry. As a reminder, the brief is to build a six-strong adventuring party for Rogue Trader/Confrontation, where each member portrays one of the classic dungeon crawler tropes:

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Fighter
• Magic user
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue/thief

For my third effort I decided to tackle the ‘Barbarian’ trope. Several reasons for this – 1: I wanted a fighter on the team, 2: I wanted a human on the team, and 3: I had just the model in mind – ‘Slasher’, the rather vicious and awesome looking Chaos Thug from top-right corner of this page of White Dwarf 82. She’s a cracking little sculpt, full of character and dynamic as hell. That said, I did have some reservations about using her… She is clearly having a wardrobe malfunction, and I really don’t like the childish misrepresentation of females in some Fantasy & Sci-fi sculpts… I decided to proceed because I don’t think that this model is in anyway ‘sexualised’, but just for the record, I want to categorically state that my choice of model is based on an appreciation of a fine OldHammer sculpt that is very much ‘of its time’ – it isn’t meant to offend or shock, and it certainly isn’t a result of any kind of misogynistic or sexist attitude on my part. That ain’t how I roll.

There. Hopefully that’s that, and so, here she is:

With regards to converting Myrleia, I really didn’t want to change too much at all, as I didn’t want to detract from the savage nature of the figure. I took my usual approach to the base and swapped the sword for a chunky-looking Chainsword from the Chaos Marine kit, and that was it… she doesn’t even get a gun! Hopefully that’s enough to place her firmly in the 41^st Millennium, but hopefully not to the point where it takes anything away from the original sculpt. I painted her up quite roughly to be honest – lots of corrosion and ink washes to accentuate the primitive aspects of the model. The war paint was fun, as was the animal print on her top. Finally, I thinned down a little ‘blood for the blood god’, and blew droplets from a loaded brush… I imagine that the giant Chainsword would create quite a bit of mess!

Here’s her backstory:

“Myrleia hails from the feral world of Terme – a sparsely populated planet with a harsh atmosphere, right at the outer limits of the Imperium. Terme was a world forgotten after the first expansion of mankind, and the remaining humans have regressed to a roughly Iron-age level of technology. The population now comprises of scattered warrior-nomad tribes, who vie with each other for food and resources. Although nominally part of the Imperium, entire generations can grow old and died between visits from the Empire, which leaves the Termeans vulnerable to predation in general, and slaving raids in particular. Myrleia’s tribe, (the Azmaa), had the misfortune to be targeted for such a raid by Ork pirates, but, in accordance with their warrior tradition, the tribe resisted the slavers with all their might. Using their wilderness skills and survival instinct, they fought the slavers in a series of hit-and-run engagements over many weeks. They bled the pirates without mercy – striking unexpectedly, and disappearing just as quickly. In the end, the Ork pirate captain Grubnuz decided that enough was enough, and that the stinkin’ oomies weren’t worth the bother. With typical low-cunning, he decided to bait a trap so tempting that the entire fighting strength of the Azmaa would be drawn out, and then he planned to encircle and destroy the entire fighting force of the tribe and enslave what was left without resistance. However, Grubnuz did not suspect that his raiding days were numbered, and that an enterprising young Rogue Trader had tracked him down to Terme in order to claim the bounty on the pirate chief’s head.

Arturo Lamina arrived as Grubnuz sprung his trap, and joined the Azmaa in the fighting. The battle was brutal – the Azmaa eschewed the use of ranged weaponry as a matter of tradition, and the Ork raiders revelled in hand-to-hand fighting. Arturo and his hand-picked unit had no choice but to join the melee. At one point, he found himself fighting back to back with a young tribeswoman whose skill with a blade was nothing short of mesmeric. Where Arturo relied on his armour and powersword to defeat enemy, the young fighter used skill and speed to cut the raiders down. They each saved the other’s life several times during the battle, and as the last Ork was dispatched, they regarded each other with respect and gratitude. Without hesitation, Myrleia proclaimed a lifelong warrior bond between them, for among the Azmaa it was customary to form such a bond between warriors who had faced death together. Arturo tried to explain that he couldn’t stay with the Azmaa, but this did not dissuade Myrleia. Her honour demanded that she accompany Arturo, and so she left her tribe without a backwards glance and embarked on a new life among the stars. Her savagery, honour, and skill with the blade earned her a place as Arturo’s most trusted protector, and she continues to guard his back as he continues his rise as a Rogue Trader.”

So, there we go – a third Rogue Quest adventurer completed, and yet another cool character to join my Rogue Trader crew. Happy days! :-)

Hello chaps, carrying on my humble efforts on the Rogue Quest project that Asslessman and Axiom kicked off, I would like to present my second entry. As a reminder, the brief is to build a six-strong adventuring party for Rogue Trader/Confrontation, where each member portrays one of the classic dungeon crawler tropes:

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Fighter
• Magic user
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue/thief

For my second effort I decided to go for a magic user, and I admit that I was really torn on which way to go… I have a number of old RT psyker models to choose from, and I even have the entire Marauder Psyker Gang for Confrontation on the lead pile, but I really want to use this project as an excuse to paint the more unusual models in my collection… In the end I went for the excellent Slann model from the Colony 87 range (funnily enough, from a Kickstarter by Jon/Axiom!).

When I first saw the model, I immediately thought of him as a merchant or trader of some kind, but I started to look at him in a different light following a bit of light reading. In RT, Space-Slann are a thing… they are the Old Ones – former rulers of the galaxy, probable creators of many of the main species, and all-round mysterious & powerful doods. In Rogue Trader, they basically comprise of the ‘proper’ Slann that have withdrawn to an area ‘north of the galactic pole’ with all their mystical jizz-jazz, and the primitive remnants of their once-mighty empire in the galaxy ‘proper’. The ‘primitives’ had models back in the day, but I don’t believe that this was the case for the more civilised kind, (what with them being all reclusive and aloof…). The Colony 87 sculpt doesn’t look like a primitive to me, so the thought of him being a powerful mage from the more civilised and powerful Slann popped into my head… Ometeotl the Mage is the result:

I didn’t feel the need to modify the model in any way (nice job Jon!), so really this was a straight forward base & paint. I went for fairly muted blue body suit and a rich red cloak, and had a play with inks and metallics for the various mystical bits & bobs that he’s carrying. I thought long and hard about the flesh tone, but ended up settling on a really bright yellow & black spotted motif, followed by a good coat of gloss. There is mention of brightly coloured Slann as being ‘often extrovert, talented or especially noteworthy in some way’. I wanted to play with that idea, using the skin tone to suggest that Ometeotl is a frog with a great destiny…  Here’s the fluff:

“Ometeotl is young by the standards of his race, scarcely more than 3000 years old by human reckoning, yet for all his youth, Ometeotl possesses great power and foresight. His early centuries were spent meditating and practicing his skills in metaphysical manipulation in the vast temples of his people, safe and secure in the self-imposed isolation of the Slann. Yet, while most of his race were intent on looking outwards to new galaxies and dimensions, or forwards through time itself, Ometeotl always felt drawn to observe the galaxy that his ancient race had helped to create and mould. At some point, he decided that his mystical observations were no longer satisfactory, and he petitioned the temple elders for permission to live amongst the short-lived creatures below, for he sensed a critical turning point was approaching the galaxy as a whole. To his surprise, he was granted this permission almost immediately – in fact, the priests had long known that Ometeotl had a destiny to fulfil beyond their temple-world, and had been waiting for him to realise it himself. Their only problem was how to contain and limit the awesome power that Ometeotl possessed, for the galaxy was in no way ready to be reintroduced to the god-like ability of the Slann. Ometeotl suggested that he might have his powers artificially limited to reasonable levels through the use of arcane technology, and so a limiter was fashioned and incorporated into his flesh. Reassured, the priesthood agreed to Ometeotl’s request, and he was projected through unknown dimensions to re-emerge almost instantaneously in another part of the galaxy.

And so, Ometeotl found himself on a frontier hive world known as Jarman’s Folly, at the edge of the Imperium of Man. Almost immediately, the innate suspicion and xenophobia of the local denizens made life difficult for Ometeotl – humans were a fearful, greedy species, and many attempts to relieve him of property and life were made. With regret, Ometeotl was forced to use his powers to defend himself on several occasions, and although his powers were limited, they were still vast by human standards. He soon learned to stick to the more cosmopolitan areas of the hive, such as the spaceports, where exotic races were less remarked upon, but unfortunately, news of the strange xeno and his magic was soon spreading among the hive gangs. It wasn’t long before a notorious witch-hunter gang came looking for Ometeotl, intent on killing the alien as an abomination against the Emperor. Ometeotl managed to evade the hunters for many weeks, but was eventually cornered in a busy part of the port. With heavy heart, Ometeotl drew on his powers once again, and used them to destroy the humans utterly, all the time aware that such a public display would undoubtedly draw more unwanted attention. He went into hiding again, but sure enough, local authorities and Imperial agents were soon scouring the port for any sign of Ometeotl.

Fortunately, a young human ‘Rogue Trader’ called Arturo Lamina managed to find Ometeotl first, and convinced the Slann that he could help him to escape the planet in exchange for a few ‘favours’. Left with little choice, Ometeotl agreed, and followed Arturo to his landing craft. The Imperial authority carried by the Rogue Trader allowed them to leave without incident, and they soon docked with Arturo’s voidship and were underway. Ometeotl thanked Arturo, and in return Arturo asked the Slann to examine an exotic object that he had retrieved from the underhive on Jarman’s Folly. The moment that he held the object – a green crystalline cube covered in ancient Slann script, Ometeotl knew that his fate and that of Arturo were intertwined. Ometeotl agreed to study the artefact, on the condition that he could join Arturo’s crew. Arturo agreed – he had heard about how effective the Slann had been in dispatching his puritanical hunters in the space port, and ever the pragmatist, he knew that the mage’s powers would be a huge benefit to his ambitions. At the same time, Arturo also felt the call of destiny…”

So, there we have it – another Rogue Quest adventurer completed, and another cool member of my Rogue Trader crew in hand. Hope you like him folks, I might do a human next ;-)