Arrows of fortune...

 Greetings once again Oldhammers...

I have managed to squeeze a few more minis before the turn of the year.

This time they are a deliberate group, a new mini-faction for my Euphoria setting. Although they use many of the same colours on the models I haven't used a particular colour scheme for them. Instead tying them together with an Arrow emblem that all of them have in several places.

So I present the Broad Arrow Gang, a small mercenary outfit in the lawless badlands of Euphoria, hiring themselves out to carry out a variety of jobs for anyone who needs some discreet muscle for any purpose.

First up the gang's leader, Simeon Kolchak.

His arrowhead symbol was source of the gang's emblem.

Although generally known as "Colonel Kolchak" or just "the Colonel" there is currently no substantiated evidence to prove that he has ever held that rank either in the Imperial Army or any Planetary Defence Forces.

 

Kolchak formed the Broad Arrow Gang gathering various often disparate associates and welding them together through force of personality.

Next we have Pirosteq Balveda, one of the first recruits to the gang.

She has a tiny arrow on her eyepatch, and a white one just visible on her gasmask...

Balveda lived a rough life as a scavenger in the Euphorian badlands prior to being recruited by the Colonel. She is renowned for her almost miraculous skills as a healer and for her uncanny ability to not be where you thought she was a minute ago...

 

Next up is Lancelot Ponsonby-Wilberforce (some may recognise this model since I actually painted him a while ago but decided to add him to the Broad Arrow Gang and gave him some arrow symbols).

An eccentric individual known for his singular attire who has wandered the badlands for years, how the Colonel convinced him to join up is unknown. If you are looking for information then Ponsonby-Wilberforce is your best source, there is seemingly nothing happening on Euphoria that he doesn't somehow find out about.

Then we have Amos "Breakout" Conrad.

 

 

"Breakout" Conrad is an individual infamous in the Euphorian underworld for his ability to inevitably escape custody no matter how securely he is imprisoned. Having recently escaped from a cell within the Euphorian Arbite Precinct itself he appears to have signed on with the Broad Arrows.

 

Tried to make it look like the arrow was made of metal studs.

Hiro Gishima is the next member of the gang.

 

Attempted a different method of painting skin on this one.

 This muscle-bound brawler is much more sophisticated than his primitive attire and attitude would suggest, speaking a number of alien languages and knowledgeable about variety of obscure subjects. Rumour says the gang found him wandering half-mad in strange ruins out in the badlands, however no such ruins are recorded in any official records, so this is almost certainly an urban legend.

The final member of the gang is Skabbers, the Ratling.

Originally he only had the arrow on his cap but I decided he needed one visible from the front.

A highly successful handler of illicit goods moving on and off world the diminutive Skabbers was "recruited" by Kolchak after attempting to scam the good Colonel over a shipment of fake Charadonian Fungus Beer. His natural talent for marksmanship has lead to him providing covering fire for the rest of the gang.

Have started work on a few more Colony 87 models I got from Crooked Dice.

Till next time.

Cap'n Smyrk

Planetary immolation...

Greetings fellow Oldhammerers, hopefully you have all had a good [seasonal holiday of choice].

Due to the current moratorium on the traditional seasonal visits to sundry family members I have actually been painting some more miniatures.

I have several in progress forming a new mini-faction or gang but I also painted up another of the old mercenary/adventurer ranges that I wasn't including in the new group who I have managed to get finished.

The ever popular (and overly dramatically named...) Worldburner. This time I decided to try and replicate the scheme he is wearing in one of his two artistic appearances in the original Rogue Trader rulebook (on page 172).

Some artistic license was required as only part of his top half is actually in the picture.

I'm pretty happy with how he's turned out and how close I managed to get to the base picture.

Still working on the others but might get them done before the end of the year, we'll have to see.

Anyways a Happy New Year (preferably better than this one anyway) to you all.

Till next time.

Cap'n Smyrk

Orctoberfest 2020

So after a bit of a break from mini painting after my uncharacteristic burst of activity earlier on the year I have got back into it for Orctober...

As is now traditional for me I realised what the month was without having come up with a clear plan on what I was going to do.

Thus I decided to just paint the last power armoured Ork I had lying around (helped by the fact that he came attached to his base and primed) to finish off a unit of five.

He is painted in the same basic scheme as the earlier power armoured Orks, although I tried to give a heat scorched look to the muzzle of his plasma gun.

Better view of his Bad Moon emblem, one of my better attempts at free hand

And finally a group shot with the full five Ork mob.

Til next time...

 

Cap'n Smyrk

Aren't you a little short for a Tempest Scion (or whatever it is they call Stormtroopers in 40k these days)...

Anyway I've done some more painting on a number of minis since my last post.

First up are the remaining members of my original Necromunda Escher boxset to go with the heavy I showed last time.

And a group shot of the whole gang.

But my main effort (getting back to the title) are three more of my Star Wars inspired models for my scenario idea. These three round out the faction including the crew of the Perennial Sparrow. 

First we have Olken Binobe, last surviving member of Mystic Knights of Deij.

Still yet to master painting white

Discovered that it was quite difficult to fit his backpack with all the gubbins on his belt

This model was the actually my original inspiration for the Star Wars inspired minis back when I first saw it. Took some years to actually acquire one though. The armour colour comes from the source character's get up in the Clone Wars series.

Then we have Binobe's new apprentice, known to Hanz as the "Kid".

When I started looking around for a suitable figure for this part I couldn't find any in the old Rogue Trader ranges that really worked for me, so I started looking further field.

First it occurred to me that the character is from a desert world. Then I thought that the Van Saar enviro-suits look a bit reminiscent of the get up worn by a group of desert dwellers in a certain other Sci-Fi setting (the David Lynch film version at least). Given that that setting is itself a major inspiration for 40k (and probably also Tatooine in Star Wars as well) this seemed highly appropriate and this is the result.

Finally is the faction's objective in my possible scenario. The Contessa Elia von Olderon, leader of a failed rebellion against the Imperium on the world of Nova Spero.

This is Romana from the old Citadel Doctor Who range. Although as she isn't on a slotta base I believe she is from the RAFM manufactured version of the range. I actually acquired the model years ago after seeing one on Axiom's blog but never actually found a use for her until now.

I deliberately tried for a warmer white in comparison to Binobe starting with a Bleached Bone basecoat rather than the Elf Grey I used for him.

Not sure what I'll paint next, possible start on the third faction for the scenario.

Till next time...

Cap's Smyrk

Odds and ends...

I have taken a bit a of a break from my Sci-Fi franchise inspired models to paint a few odds and ends recently.

Back when I started this blog I showed off a few re-touched versions of my Necromunda Escher gang, updated from their original slapdash paint jobs. I never actually got around to doing the rest of the gang box, so I'm currently putting that right. Three of the girls are still in progress but I have finished the Heavy.

Unlike the earlier models this isn't an update as she was never actually painted the first time round, a combination of laziness (I have to stick it together???) and because of a miscast that resulted in her missing the front of her right foot.

This time however I did stick her together and broke out the greenstuff for some gap filling and to replace her missing extremity.

Also I recently managed to acquire the last remaining Adeptus Arbite I needed (the 2nd Edition Champion model) and thought I'd slap some paint on him to get the Precinct finished.

I'm really quite happy with how his coat has come out. Will try and get a full group shot of the whole lot at some point.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

Human-Cyborg Disintegrations...

Greetings once more...

I've managed to complete another model in the past week. This one took a little bit of work but I'm pretty happy with how he/it turned out.

This is another member of the crew of the Perennial Sparrow, commonly known to Hanz as "Goldenrod". It refers to itself as Zi'Phreap'Yoah when not willfully misinterpreting the orders it has been given.

The definition on the right leg is better than this picture shows.

There are some green wires in his midsection that also don't show up here.

This was a freebie that came with White Dwarf back when the Necrons were first released that has sat in its blister pack for the last (god...) 22 years. I didn't find the Necrons particularly interesting at the time and thus didn't do anything with it. I finally found a use for it.

I even thought to take a few work in progress shots with this one.

Started out with a base grey

Then painted it silver, with some wash shading

Then brushed a vallejo bronze over the body and brass on the gun

In play Zi will be a Chaos Android harking back to the Necron's origins. I rolled up some random robot stats from the Rogue Trader book. I probably won't use the Compendium robot rules, given its actually a daemon, and I don't think they will work well in the confined spaces the game is intended for.

I wanted his gun to be something a little special without having to make up any new stats and not too powerful either. So I came up with the idea of randomising its effects.

Each time it fires roll a D6.

    1-2 - Fires as a Neuro-Disruptor.

    3-5 - Fires as a Graviton Gun.

    6 - Fires as a Plasma Gun (doesn't need to charge up but cannot be fired during the next turn).

This gives it some weird effects and most of the time it won't cause any actual damage, but occasionally it will be very destructive.

Finally a quick group shot of all my "Astral Conflict" inspired models so far.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

Scoudrels and Scenarios...

Following on from my sinister mostly bionic inquisitor I have painted a couple more models inspired by a certain series of "science fiction" films.

These models and more that I have planned are part of a plan I've been formulating for a while. This involves a (possibly solo-play) Rogue Trader scenario that I actually might be able play, inspired by the aforementioned film series.

This is partially driven by my lack of much in the way of terrain on which to play a game, and not really having any space to store terrain if I were to try my hand at making any. I do however possess a copy of the old GW board game Ultramarines, with its fit together board sections (as well as some additional ones from old issues of White Dwarf). As such the scenario involves using these board sections to play on.

Anyway these ideas are only partially formed at the moment, so on with the models. These are at least part of the crew of the Perennial Sparrow.

A pair of scoundrels

Firstly is Hanz Ollow, the captain of the Sparrow.

The colour scheme is based on his getup in the second film which fitted best with the clothes the model is wearing.

Complete with yellow trouser stripe

And his beastman first mate Broo'Chakka.

I tried to get some of the variation from very dark to bright browns on the fur, although its only really noticeable on the head. Originally I tried out a bone colour on the horns and hooves, but my shading didn't really work out and after checking out some pictures of actually goat horns and hooves I switched to a brownish grey base colour.

Tried a dark red drybrush over the teeth of the chain dagger.

Still need to acquire the model for one of the other main characters, if I can find one at a reasonable price. And some suitably well-armoured minions for the Inquisitor.

Till next time.

Cap'n Smyrk

Jabberwocky...

I certainly seem to have found a rich new strain of motivation for Oldhammer of late and have managed to continue painting up more models.

Although one of these is a bit of a cheat since it was technically already painted...

The first is a old C29 Jabberwock, a model that I have had for years (and previously seen in a previous post) the reasons it was acquired are lost to the mists of time.

It was originally painted in its somewhat eclectic colour scheme by my late elder brother and as such I didn't want to repaint it so all I've done is give it a few washes and some highlights (and a coat of varnish), eventually I'll probably mount it on an base once I have one of a suitable size.

Also painted this week was another Imperial Inquisitor. This one inspired by a certain other science fiction character. Although I bought the model especially for this purpose on seeing it up close I can't help thinking the designer may have also drawn inspiration from the same source...

Although not desperately visible in this image I painted the inside of his cloak a dark red just to reduce the amount of black on the model, for a similar reason I went with making the bionics metallic.

I'm currently working on Pilot Rav from the Adventurers range and Beast-Trooper Gaxt as a pair of roguish scoundrels.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk