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Tag Archives: Conversion

Makin’ Xit Great Again

14 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by Alex in OldHammer, Scuplting, Wolf Time

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

Conversion, Oldhammer, Painting, Rogue Trader, Sculpting, Wolf Time

Greetings Terrans – exciting news today! After 8 months, I have completed Rulko and Kulo to finally finish all the Orks for Wolf Time! First up, let’s take a look at Rulko, Captain of the Guard. From the Book of the Astronomican:

“Rulko is the new captain of the guard following the execution of the traitor Gort. Rulko is a nasty ‘stab-in-the-back’sort of Ork. He prefers to advance his cause by underhand dealing rather than by actual fighting. He is armed and equipped as follows:

Powered armour. Flamer. Bolt pistol. Chainsword.”

And here he is:

I used another classic ‘Ork-in-Power-Armour’ as the base model for Rulko, but removed the power glove & replaced it with a metal Painboy arm (donated from Doc Spleenripper!). I over-sculpted the arm to match it to the rest of his power Armour, and did the same with the Doc’s saw to make it into a Chainsword. Finally, I sculpted on a wee Bolt pistol, and converted his main gun to be a Flamer (including fuel tank on the back). It’s all quite subtle work, and I think Rulko really does look like a ‘proper’ figure from that period. He doesn’t really look sneaky as per his character description, but really, how sneaky can an Ork in Power armour actually look? I painted him up predominantly red, and with less weathering & rust compared to the other PA Orks – I figured as Captain, his kit would be better maintained than the other guards.

 

Now for the big guy – Governor Kulo himself! From the Book of the Astronomican:

“Kulo is in charge of the whole base, the whole island, the whole damn world. He is a merciless, murdering maniac, and thus well cut out to run the planet. Kulo has become justifiably paranoid following several unsuccessful assassination attempts, and now prefers to rule Xit from the deepest and most secure level of Castle Kulo. He is enormously fat, and wears two suspensors just to enable him to walk normally. His maximum move is 4”, which is never increased (to charge etc.). Kulo is armed and eqiped as follows:

Conversion field armour. Stasis field armour. Two suspensors to offset personal weight problem. Two bolt pistols. Power-glove. Neuro-disruptor.”

Hmmm… Fat, megalomaniac, paranoid, political survivor extraordinaire, names buildings after himself, bit of a cunt… I don’t know why, but Kulo just reminded me of someone. Here’s how he turned out:

As you can probably guess, the current POTUS was the inspiration for this mini, and the opportunity to poke fun at the big man was too good to miss. Old RT used to be full of political commentary, (Ghazghkull Thraka famously being a mangling of Margret Thatcher for example), so really this is a nod back to those times. I hope none of my American followers are too offended – it’s just a bit of fun.

Appropriately for the head honcho, this was a very involved and complicated conversion… I started with an old Judge Dread Fatty, and added the shoulders & head from the Evil Sunz Nob from the ‘Ere we go range of Orks. His left arm comes from the mini I used for Rulko, and he has twin Bolt pistols mounted on the power glove (otherwise, how would he ever be able to use them!?). The right arm was donated from a damaged LE1 Space Orc that I picked up on the cheap – note the delightfully small hand ;-) I also changed the gun out for a new Neuro-disruptor from the Harlequin mini. Next, I added a backpack from an ‘Ere we go Mega Armoured Nob, and started adding cables and other gubbins to the mini. I wanted the backpack to look like some sort of primitive life support system for Kulo, as well as the generator for his Powerglove. Finally I sculpted on a few details – more suitably sized feet, collar & (power) tie, baseball hat, pouches, a holster & doodabs.

Paint-wise, the armoured bits were a mix of grey and black, rust and gunk. I went with the classic power-dressing blue trousers, white shirt & red tie, and the ‘Make Xit Great Again’ hat finishes the look. The Neuro-disruptor was a faff to do – I’ve never painted a crystalline gun before, so it was a bit of an experiment… I hope it works!

Here’s Kulo with his Captain, just to show the size difference between the two. Kulo is obviously a hefty lad, but I don’t think he’s so big that he looks out of scale:

Finally, here’s a group shot of all the characters from the final scenario:

 

And that completes all the Orks for Wolf Time! Want to see what a full set of Wolf Time Orks looks like? Of course you do :-)

 

Now it’s time to start the Marines, so I’ll be in another building & prep phase for a while & I won’t be posting for at least a week. Next time I do post, it’ll be all about the Space Wolves. Haarooo!!!

Navigator Fogg & ‘Kulo’s Cook’

10 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by Alex in OldHammer, Scuplting, Wolf Time

≈ 31 Comments

Tags

Conversion, Rogue Trader, Sculpting, Wolf Time

Greetings Terrans, I have another Wolf Time update for you this morning – I’ve finished Navigator Fogg, and an un-named cook from one of the sub-plots… Let’s start with Fogg – from the Book of the Astronomican:

“Like most Orkish navigators, Fogg is a psychic. Orks navigate by a crude process of intuition and primitive divination. So long as they stick to relatively short warp-jumps this works well enough. However, there are occasional accidents, like the one which has stranded the Charadonian fleet in the Wheel of Fire.

Fogg has a psychic mastery of 1 and a psi-level of 10. He is able to use the hammerhand, mental blow and steal mind abilities. Fogg has the following weapons and equipment:

Flak armour. Mesh armour. Bolt gun. 2 bolt pistols. 1 vortex grenade.

 

So, as a proto-Weirdboy, I had the perfect opportunity to include one of my all-time favourite minis from the Ork range – the Warphead Weirdboy from 1991. I added a suitable right arm & left upper arm, and then sculpted on sleeves, a brace of holstered pistols & the left forearm & hand clutching a bomb:

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I wish I had done a better job with the left hand – you can’t really see the vortex bomb from a natural viewing angle, but I promise you it’s there:

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In terms of painting, I wanted to make Fogg quite flamboyant, so went with bright yellow & purple as the main theme – I love his snazzy yellow boots! His hair got strongly emphasised, as did his crazy eye, complete with subtle glow effect. Other than the slight gripe with the too-subtle vortex grenade, I’m really happy with this guy, and I think he reads well as a crazy-assed psyker!

 

Now to explain ‘Kulo’s Cook’… There are a number of sub-plots in the final scenario of the Wolf Time campaign, and one of them refers to the cook, (no spoilers!). I wanted to have a few of the sub-plots in my back pocket for when I run the game, and while it isn’t necessary to have a mini to represent the cook, but I thought it would be fun. He doesn’t get named in the scenario, so I’ve christened him ‘Gore-den Ram’s-Eye’:

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Ram’s-Eye already had his cleaver, so I just needed to sculpt his chef’s apron & hat, and his right forearm & cooking pot (complete with squig gribble-stew). I didn’t give him a gun, (he’s more of a skulker than a fighter), but I’ll do a bunch of kitchen squigs for him to fight with in-game. I hope I get enough players to warrant using him!

Here’s one last pic of the two together:

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And that’s me for today! Just  ‘Captain of the Guard, Rulko’ and Kulo himself to finish :-)

Salute 2019, paint brushes & Doc ‘Bits’ Spleenripper!

08 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by Alex in Mag Bellum, OldHammer, Scuplting, Wolf Time

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

Conversion, Painting, Rogue Trader, Sculpting, Wolf Time

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? It has been a bonkers weekend for me, and this is a pretty eclectic post as a result. First up, I had the privilege of attending Salute this weekend – as a trader! I was helping out my pal Mark (Heresyofus) on his Mag Bellum stand, along with Ed (aka E.J. Henries of Malific Design). It was a real eye-opener being on the other side of the table, and was brutal on the voice, (I completely lost mine), but wow, what an experience! We didn’t sell much, but we got a whole lot of positive feedback on the Mag Bellum system, and on the prototypes for the next phase of the product. We also learned a hell of a lot about running a stand in the process, and we will certainly be better prepared next time! It was also great to spend some time with Mark and Ed – great company & we had a proper good laugh, (Ed faking an orgasm was a thing of absolute beauty). Here they are, looking tense (Ed?) prior to the punters coming in:

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The rest of the show mostly passed me by to be honest, but I did get to say hi to a few pals from the OldHammer scene, (Geoff, Paul, James, the Wargames Foundry team), and I got to say a quick hello to Annie from Bad Squiddo too. Dave ‘The Imperfect Modeller’ kindly stopped by to say hi – lovely bloke, great to meet him & put a face to a name! He had some of his minis with him too, so I had the bonus pleasure of seeing some of his work in RL – (the photos on his blog really don’t do him or his minis justice at all!)

I also had the chance to have a brief natter with John Blanche, (gasp!). I’ve met John before, but only very briefly, and I was a bit too star-struck to say much on that occasion! It was great to have more interaction with him this time, and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing him at BOYL later this year. I also met & had a really good chat with GW designer Maxime Corbeil – wow, what a lovely guy! His enthusiasm for his work is just brilliant to see, and he’s such a cool dude to chat with.

On a personal level, the highlight was probably bumping in to Kev Adams. We had a good talk about sculpting, and I got to show him some pics of my attempts at Ork power armour –  I was quite nervous, but he was so kind and positive! He gave me loads of encouragement & some top tips on how to do a better job of edging and detail, so it was brilliant to meet him again & so decent of him to take the time to give feedback and advice. He really is a top bloke.

It was also my Birthday over the weekend, so my only purchase at Salute was a slightly indulgent paint brush set from Artis Opus – I used some B’day money I received from my folks, so thanks M&D!!:

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I had a quick spin with them last night, and they are bloody lovely to use… Not revolutionary, but they are certainly nicer in the hand & more accurate than the brushes I am used to. I also saw a demo of their new KickStarter Drybrush set, and I had to completely revise my view on what you can do with a drybrush… I saw a piece in hand that was so subtle that it almost looked like airbrushing. Seriously guys, go check Artis Opus ‘D’ series on KS – it’ll blow your socks off! Needless to say, I’ve now backed that project for an early Christmas pressie to myself ;-)

Speaking of painting, I did manage to finish one of the characters for the final scenario of Wolf Time in amongst all the chaos! Doc ‘Bits’ Spleenripper is the first out of the blocks – he’s basically a proto-painboy. From the Book of the Astronomican:

“Doc is fond of ‘experimental surgery’, as many of his patients have discovered. It was whilst cleaning his chainsword that he lost his right arm, and whilst many surgeons would have taken this badly, ‘Bits’ merely saw it as an opportunity for further experimentation. His arm is a marvel of Ork bio-engineering ‘know what’. It doesn’t work all that well but… by grumblat! …it’s impressive.

Doc’s arm is bionic and includes all the gadgets listed below. To represent the fact that this piece of technology is rather haphazard, roll 1D6 immediately before any phase of hand-to-hand combat:

1 – the arm goes wild, attacking any randomly selected model within 1” (including Doc Spleenripper himself)

2 – the arm simply fails to work for that combat phase

3-6 – the arm works normally

Doc Spleenripper is armed and equipped as follows:

Flak armour, Mesh armour, Bolt pistol

Plus

Bionic arm: Chainsword; Power-glove; 4 Jokaero digital lasers.”

So quite a specific and tricky modelling challenge! I started with an ‘Ere we Go era Painboy, (the one with the surgeons mirror to match the artwork from the book), and I looked around for a suitable bionic arm to graft on, but I really couldn’t find one that worked for me so I ended up having a go at sculpting one over a wire frame. I wanted it to look like it would work as a hand/power-glove, yet have a chainsword that could be extended out as required. I also tried to suggest some digi-lasers on the knuckles as well – not the easiest of things to represent! While I had the putty out, I just did the left arm as best I could, and sculpted on one of my ‘standard’ bolt pistols:

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Paint-wise, I kept to a blue theme for his scrubs – for reasons that will become apparent in the near-future. I also deliberately added less rust & gunk compared to the Ork Guards, but I did slap some ‘Blood for the Blood God’ around to really push the crazy surgeon vibe. Finally, I added a suitably ‘Painboy-esque’ glyph to the back plate – back plates & glyphs aren’t strictly a Rogue Trader thing & came a bit later, but I thought it a nice nod to the Doc being the first example of what has since become a standard part of Orky law.

I’m really happy with how the Doc came out – there are probably a few things I’d do differently if I were to do him again, but he certainly fits the brief admirably I think. I’ll be continuing to finish the remaining characters this week – they are all basecoated & shaded, so it’s a quick evening on each to highlight, add detail etc. You can expect a series of smaller posts as the week progresses, and hopefully the Orks will be finished by the weekend!

Onwards and upwards :-)

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