Bombots

 Today the title is as accurate as obscure, I guess.

A pic might be of use?

Not really? Well, maybe I'll have to tell you the whole story then. Once upon a time...

Last summer mighty Curis from Ninjabread managed to produce these beauties:

Follow this link to the post

These are Bombots, as described on the Rogue Trader Manual:

Cute and cool, aren't they? The thing is that Curis said that he had to cast a few sets, so he most likely had a few spare copies. Some other fellow Bloggers had already shown more initiative than me, and in fact got some of them. I can recall Axiom from Magpie and Old Lead and Jason Fulford from Rogue Heresy, but if I'm missing anyone just let me know!

Well, long story short, Curis is quite a nice, generous bloke, some emails were written, a parcel was sent, fucking Brexit delayed it and involved some harmful extra payments and finally it all takes us to the first pic on this post. So let's move on!

My own!

 

Even if they can be used by quite a number of different factions in a RT setting (Mechanicus, a Rogue Trader, mercenaries and bounty hunters, Space Marines...) they had quite a military grade vibe to me. I decided to paint them mainly grey, so they have an Imperial Guard looking, yet would be still neutral enough to be used by anybody else (even Orks? Hmm, that would be something to see)

Recklessly painted in grey

Still grey!

"Ex-ter-minate". Ehm, no, sorry, those were those other guys

 Grey and black, so a true classic Imperial Guard pattern. I thought they needed a touch of colour, and of course they needed checkers...

It's not Rogue Trader without checkers!

The bar codes on the back are decals from some Imperial Guard box

This is how they look next to stardard 28mm minis:

The commander is supervising the Bombots with the assistance of the Enginseer

Now I have to confess a thing. Curis was kind enough to offer me more than a set, so he could get rid of all his remnant bits (Oh  please, where do I have to sign).

So I've painted a second set, for a pal who was also interested in these

Bad news is that I'm afraid I took the last copies :(

They've been extremely nice to paint. I love when someone takes the time and effort to get those old RT illustrations and turn them into real minis. I bet there's a market niche for that!

Not-Adeptus Mechanicus adepts

 Another couple of Astropolis minis today. Oficially named "Spaceship Engineers", they have a strong Adeptus Mechanicus vibe, I really couldn't see anything else. They had to be dressed in red, of course, which meant that in fact there were few decisions left to make this time.

Trust me, I'm an engineer

This is my precission tech-calliper

 

I think that if I changed that tool with some kind of tech-spear/axe/weapon of your choice, it would made a decent Skitarius or a bodyguard for a Techpriest, something like that. However I liked the mini as it was. He doesn't look flamboyant as a real high rank Techpriest, he looks more like a simple adept. I guess I could use this guy as an Enginseer serving in the Imperial Guard, but for the moment I'm leaving it open.

Let's have a look at the other one:

You do prefer that mask to may true face, trust me

This is my travel cloak. The other one is on the laundry

 

This one has quite a strong post-apoc looking to my eye, but I think he totally fits in my RT-aesthetic stuff. If you think of it, there are not only Techpriests all over the Imperium to perform each and every function. Their temples are served by lower adepts, who also serve the Omnissiah wherever they are required. I think these two will fit in my long forgotten ongoing mining town board, a small fringe settlement40 where the words of Terra and Mars are but mere whispers.

40K AdMech Daft Punk

 

Just a size comparison pic. Well, I see I have some work to do to give any coherence to bases. But you get an idea:

Statuesque, Astropolis, Colony87, Astropolis, Hasslefree

 

And a final shot of the Astropolitans so far:

With ten minis more I could make the cover for a Codex

I'm getting comfortable with this updating rate, making progress little by little but having minis actually finished. I don't know what will I bring next, so stay tuned!

Not-Imperial Guard new Leadership

 I understand today's title is confusing and misleading. Well, as it is the whole blog, so you should be used to by now.

I backed the first Astropolis Kickstarter campaign (man, it really was in 2016?? Oh my) and apparently I've neglected my duties for some time...

OK, better late than never, I'm starting this batch right now. I'll be painting packs of more or less similar minis, little by little. I guess in pairs or small groups. First two will be the Captain of the Astropolis and the First Officer. Though those are the official names of the minis, I got quite particular vibes from both of them...

When I saw the Captain I didn't envision a naval officer in charge of a space ship. On the contrary, the pose, the uniform, the riding whip... I only could see an early 20th Century Cavalry officer! With that idea in mind, I went that way:

Quite awful pic. Why are the boots focused and the face blurry?

This is absurd. The rear view looks better than the other one. Sigh

 

I guess I can use the mini as an Officer of the Imperial Guard, but of course he's in need of either a cyber-horse (or a masked horse like the Krieg ones) or a command tank. Wow. That will be a decision for another day.

 

Let's move on the other mini, the First Officer. Come on, face it, it's plainly a Commissar of the Imperial Guard!

Again, my phone camera thinks the boots are more important than the face

It is a Commissar, there's no point in saying otherwise

 

Not that I'm really in need of any more Commissars, you know...

My own army of Commissars

 

Well, let's just see the two minis along:

I hate to ask this, but... do we even have an Imperial Guard army to lead?

 

Ahem. In fact I currently don't. I used to have one, but I sold it ages ago.

Maybe is it time to start a new one?

 

Oh, crap.

Lich Sorcerer

 Another single mini today, but a totally different one!

I got this Lich Lord from a kickstarter campaign by DieHard Miniatures (please go check their web in case you haven't. They have some awesome oldschool-looking miniatures!)

Like this one, for exaple

At first I was unsure of how to paint it. I made a few failed experiments, in fact, but I didn't find what I was looking for. Essentially because I didn't even know what was I looking for!!

All my attempts were mildly old school looking, but it took me some time to realise that I simply wasn't comfortable with the palette I was using. It was too colourful, there were too many colours and they were all too bright. I was making the mistake of confusing old school with colour explosion.

When I came to terms with myself I took a deep breath and simply painted by instinct. I was subconsciously expecting this Lich to look dark, so dark it was. But that doesn't mean grimdark. Well, let me explain with pics:

If I left it this way it would be grimdark

But different variations of the same colour made me feel better

I felt more comfortable this way, using only green. I had been using green, red and blue, and there was not a single combination that worked for me. Once I finally had an idea of where to take the mini, it all was pretty easier.

As an obvious powerful sorcerer of old, his ragged clothes had to look somehow rich, so I improvised some embroidery here and there.

Not too original, but worked for me

I finally thought this was taking me somewhere

I think he's even smiling, feeling fashionable

I think you should see more hues of green than the ones appearing in the pic!

The green lich sorcerer finally looked like this:

Boo!

How on Earth I made the camera focus on the feet but made the face blurry remains a mystery to me. I'm just noticing as I write this post.

Not spectacular, but enough for my skills

 

So let me show him alongside the other Undead character I have:

Undead leadership

Maybe I should start an Undead army?

 

Well, I don't think I'll start a new army anytime soon, but... what is time to such eternal creatures?

 

 

PS: I'm editing the post to provide a scale comparison shot. I'm afraid I'm just using what I have at hand, i.e. a HeroQuest mini, a Bretonnian (so you can see how the Lich stands beside a cavalry unit) and a Space Marine (i.e., the scale of all things warhammer):

Confusing and incoherent pic

It's maybe slightly taller than classic minis, but fits in perfectly, so I'm totally recommending it!

Time to let Ol' Painless out of the bag

 Once I've finished the monstrous Gargant, I'm clearly in the mood for much smaller stuff. I can't face another large project right now, so I believe I can take the opportunity to paint single minis or any other kind of standalone project.

My palette cleanser today will be this "Ace" by Hasslefree Miniatures, a mini that have been waiting for some time to be painted:

No, not Blain. Ace, I said

 

I've heard that Hasslefree has been experiencing some delivery issues for some time now, but to be honest, it's been quite a long time since I last placed them an order (you know, my mountain of shame doesn't allow it) and I always got the best of them.

Whatever the case, the sculpt is simply magnificent, as usual. It of course resembles Blain from the Predator movie, though it's not an exact replica of the character.

I tried to get it as close as I could, so it meant those 80's Woodland fatigues:

It took me like two or three tries to get a green I was comfortable with

 

Painting camo is always tricky. If you do it right, it will work and you will see a blurry object with no definite shapes (as that's what camo is supposed to do!). But you can't forget that you are painting a mini and that it should look good and distinctive on a board!

I most likely won't achive neither of both goals

 

I used a soft green on all the other gear. It makes some shapes recognizable, I hope, but the camouflage itself is still there.

A mess of greens and stuff

 

I finally made the kneepads, boots and weapon with different shades of black:

The Ol' Painless

Little else! Here you have the final result:

 

I have to say I was much happier before I saw the pics full screen, it makes all the mistakes awfully apparent :D

Anyway, quick'n'dirty job, so I'm happy with what I got. Let's get a comparison shot

Wait, are these two even the same scale?

I'm quite satisfied with having painted anything in kind of a week's time. It feels strangely good! I guess I'll paint a few more standalone minis before I come back to full units or whatever. Who knows!

Ork Gargant 28mm finished

 It is done.

I've finally ended this project. Closure! Party!

You last saw this thing like this:

Coming from this post

So I had to do the box and the banner. Not minor endeavours, trust me. But with Mork's help (or maybe Gork's), it was achievable.

WARNING. TONS OF PICS AHEAD.

Let's go for the box!

This was the raw piece

First thing to do was primer spraying it all over in metal:

Still looking like two fruit boxes

Weird boxes though

 When the air in the room was breathable again, like a couple of days later, I begun to paint the inside. Sorry, I forgot to take pics of the WIP. Not that you are losing that much, nevertheless, as I didn't want to overdo this part. I painted some random colours on random pieces and dirtied it all over. Some Ork glyphs and some hazard stripes are the only thing that required a little bit more attention.

Quite an oversized garage, isn't it?

I'll make better stripes for the next one. Sure

 

I left the explosion of colour for the outer sides. First stage was applying the raw colours. here you can see the box from all the sides:

 

So clean that it hurts. Let's get hands (and everything else) dirty!

 

Working on this monster has been kind of challenging. I couldn't put it on the table, as it's way larger than my workspace. Painting it on the floor wasn't quite an option and I didn't have a proper stool or another similar surface. So I had to keep it between my knees, holding it under my only light source (I can only paint in the late, very late nights, and I can only count with this gooseneck lamp)

Painting against the adversities

But I finally came to a result

Then I just added some tiny details here and there

 

Here you have the finished box:

Some close-ups of a few details:

I started using the horned skull here and there and now I have it everywhere!

 

Apparently this Gargant was raised by Sir Allen Apsley. It raises questions

Glyphs and checkers. RT power!

Oh, and blue flames, just to not make them black

Main entrance

Upper view

 You can see I left the handle unpainted. Just a practical matter, as I would eventually end with all the paint on my hand!But I think it works in its original grey.

 

Now that we have the box, the final item to finish the project is the back banner. If you remember, my pal Rinahe had already made the relief, so it wasn't just a plain sheet of paper; it had all the items on it

Hard to see, but I'll solve that in a minute

The original source is of course this beauty of old:

There was really no point in painting mine differently, so I simply used the same colours. Here you have this step by step:

Main basic raw colours

I used watered down Contrast paint directly on the paper to represent the fabric of the banner. It's the same colour I used on the Gargant itself, so it all would look coherent:

It's a DIN-A4 size paper, BTW

Same process on black, to represent the fabric

Then red

And finally white, the hardest one to achieve

Now I only had the face of the Bad Moon left:

General idea of what I wanted

Iyanden Yellow Contrast paint again

Rest of the colours

If you zoom you'll see the threads in the eyes or the toof, for example

General overview

Slightly weathered and on the banner pole

So this is it.

Be ready to witness the glory of Mork. Ye all praise his Orkiness.

Ladies, gentlemen et al., BEHOLD.

Behold, for this is Morkstroke, and he is the bearer of doom, altar of Mork, holy glory of his name:

Seriously, look for the Orks on his shoulder for scale reference

I honestly don't know what else to provide to give you an idea of its size

Here you have it next to his home:

Should I have painted the box yellow? Hmmm...

Properly stowed

The banner has its place too

Storage is the main concern when you deal with such a beast, so the solution my pal Rinahe provided me is quite clever and solves most of the problems. Of course you still have to deal with room enough for two fruit boxes together! But it's quite easier than needing space for the Gargant totally assembled.

I'm most happy with Morkstroke, you can bet. It's been one of the largest projects I've faced so far and it's taken me roughly more than a year (with other projects involved, of course, but a year no matter what). I think I'm in dire need of some smaller projects just to breathe fresh air again. I have no idea of what will I paint next, but I guess I'll try some regular 28mm minis (I have plenty of those!).

I hope you've enjoyed the Gargant project as much as I have!