Hello chaps, carrying on my humble efforts on the Rogue Quest project that Asslessman and Axiom kicked off, I would like to present my fifth 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

This time, I and very happy to have ticked off the ‘Ranger’ category… I picked up a lovely post-apocalyptic sculpt from Moonraker’s ‘future skirmish’ range, and did a bit of chopping & weapon swapping to bring her into the Rogue Trader universe. I added a lasgun from one of the IG tank kits, (I really like the folding stock!), plus a scope and a new barrel to create a convincing sniper rifle. She also got a Dark Eldar left arm with a wicked dagger in a reverse grip. All in all, she looks like a very accomplished huntress to me, and I went with a subdued colour scheme to accentuate this. The only real colour was the red Yasser headscarf… the detailing was a pain in the buns, but worth the effort I think.

So, Devana was looking pretty awesome, but she still didn’t look quite right… something was missing, but then it occurred to me – she needed a hunting dog! A quick bit of Google-fu turned up the rather spiffing ‘Unity Counsel Stim Hounds’ from Anvil Industry. I only wanted one, but £12 for 4 is a bargain! I ordered some up and ‘Hound’ was born. I admit, Hound was originally a ‘she’… A quick bit of GS work turned Hound into a ‘he’, just so I could say that at that moment in time, my sculpting was, quite literally, the dog’s bollocks :-)

Anyhow, here’s a few pictures of Devana and Hound, and some more with the rest of the RogueQuest party:

And here’s her story:

“Devana is a gifted killer from the Imperium-abandoned world of Utrel Secondus – a savage world of warring techno-barbarian clans that picked over the shattered remains of crumbling hive cities and mechanicus forge-cities. As a youth, Devana rose to prominence within her clan as a peerless hunter of beasts, men and mutants, ably assisted by her faithful beast ‘Hound’. Eventually, by the age of 14, her skills brought her to the attention of clan chieftain Gaxton, who invited her to join his personal kill squad. Devana gladly accepted Gaxton’s offer, for to be a member of the Chieftain’s kill squad was a prestigious position – little did she know how this decision would shape her destiny in ways she couldn’t imagine.

Chief Gaxton was a reasonable man, (if such can be said for the savage chieftain of a post-apocalyptic barbarian tribe!), but Gaxton had sired a son of twisted malevolence. This son, Melsin, was of an age with Devana, and was a sadistic and vicious creature. He pursued Devana’s affections, at first with flattery and gifts, but he was refused by the girl. Frustrated, Melsin tried increasingly bold approaches, until the fateful night came when his patience snapped and he tried to take by force that which Devana would not give willingly… Melsin tried to rape her, but Devana was a fighter of superb skill. A single strike with the hilt of her dagger burst one of Melsin’s eyeballs within his skull. Screaming, he ran to his father, claiming that Devana had attacked him without provocation, and so Gaxton had Devana seized. Out of fairness, Gaxton demanded her side of the story, and was unsurprised to hear of his son’s attempt at rape. Gaxton was nothing if not fair, so he had his son gelded, (for he had other sons to carry on the bloodline), but he was also honour-bound to have Devana’s eye put out as punishment for her assault on his family. Devana was banished from the tribe and was left to wander the wastelands, yet Gaxton bore her no malice, and so he allowed her to take her hunting dog for company, and her favourite rifle for protection.

For many years, Devana made the most of her new life – collecting bounties on fugitives and mutants, trading salvaged tech at wasteland trading posts, and becoming an expert survivor in the process. She would spend months at a time in the wilderness, exploring and hunting, always moving, and ever alert to opportunity. It was on one of these treks that she discovered a set of hidden catacombs in the western desert, and during her investigations, she discovered an exquisite scarab created of an untarnished silver metal… She had never seen anything like it, and knew that it would raise a small fortune if she could find the right buyer. She marked the location of her find in her memory, and headed east for several weeks until she reached the nearest trading settlement. After many days of asking around for a suitable buyer, Devana was put in touch with a galactic trader – a so-called ‘Rogue Trader’ from the semi-mythological Imperium of Man. The trader’s name was Arturo, and he offered Devana a fortune in exchange for the scarab. Once he held the machine, (for machine it was), in his hand, he fixed Devana with his gaze. He told her that what she had discovered was both a relic of a long-dead civilisation, and a harbinger of the destruction for her own… Devana had unwittingly discovered a Necron tomb, one of hundreds that spanned the planet, and which had been showing power surges that Arturo had been observing from his orbital void craft over the last few months. Arturo made Devana an offer – join his crew and leave Utrel Secondus now, or remain and die as the Necron’s awoke and re-took their planet. Devana didn’t believe Arturo at first, and so Arturo convinced her to lead him to the catacombs that she had discovered. The journey was a brief one in Arturo’s atmospheric landing craft, and once in the catacombs, Arturo used strange technology to navigate much deeper into the tunnels than Devana had dared to go. After hours of walking, they entered into a vast chamber that contained thousands upon thousands of skeletal robots, stood sleeping in silent ranks. Arturo explained that Devana’s entire world was built on top of thousands of similar chambers… millions upon millions of these undying warriors, just waiting to rise up from the earth and re-take their world. Finally convinced, Devana agreed to leave with Arturo, providing her faithful companion Hound could be saved as well. Devana integrated well with the crew, and now adds her formidable scouting and infiltration experience to the team.

As for the Utrel system, Arturo alerted the nearest imperial outpost and provided the scarab as evidence, as well as his own vid-feeds from the catacombs. The sector was subsequently quarantined by the Imperial Navy, pending conclusive evidence of Xenos activity. Two years later, the system was overrun by the rising Necron dynasty of Hepmatak… The fate of the human inhabitants is unknown, but with the system scheduled for exterminatus, their fate is already sealed.”

So, there we go, RogueQuest entry number 5 (plus doggy!), and another member of Arturo’s crew. I hope you like her folks, she’s certainly one of my favourites! Just so you know, I’m about to take a week away from painting, (and therefore blogging), but I’ll be back as soon as I can with my next effort – a rather special ‘Cleric’… I’m excited about him already!

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:

Nice organ!

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! :-)