Astropolis Enginarium Crew

Another group of Astropolis crew members, this time the the crew of the mighty ship's Enginarium. No starndard GW techpriest here, although I'm looking around for servitors (oh hallo Wargames Exclusive...) to bulk out their numbers a bit. 

Moltar the Rubricational Fluidicist's role may seem minor, but a lot of oiling, fueling, and decanting needs to be done, especially since the engines are the size of office buildings. I need to het some tanker servitors for him somewhere.

 Line Machinist Zeff is probably the most commanding looking of the bunch, although he's not in charge.

Plasma Joiner Beta-Upsilon-7-7 started life as a Kroglogg alien, which I neither needed nor wanted, but like the other Kroglogg he found a new life as a boiler-suited heavy. Festooned with a power fist and a triple-plasma array, he's more than capable of handling himself in a fight. 

One of my favorite models in the series, Chief Coordinator Czenk and his servoskull Czerno see that the things on the engine decks stay in motion, even when monsters and cultists are trying to muck things up. Also the most at ease of the crew at dealing with the Chief Enginemaster and other command staff, due to his professionalism and seeming unflappability in the face of a crisi. Not sure what he'd do in combat; perhaps provide individual buffs and bubble effects to the rest of the team?   

Material Acquisitions Explorator Caldo sweeps the abandoned decks in search of salvage for use on the engines. The Astropolis is so massive and old that it's cannibalizing itself, and Caldo has to be careful not to work something loose that's still connected and running.   

Galvanic Arc Felicitator Heck is inexplicably the most popular among the ladies. Many attribute it to his ability to cook, while others say it's his boyish charm. 

If Conduit Separationist Kohl's not snapping something off, he's beating living shit out of it with a hammer. This brutality belies the fact that he's a talented technician and very adept at micro-circuit rejoining. Does the most work with the upper level tech crews throughout the ship. 

IN28: The Procession of St. Sebastian (Complete!)

Every year in the town of Bruegelburg on the planet Brabant Prime there is a festival to commemorate the victory of the Dark Angels and the 10th Belgic Fusiliers over the forces of the Great Enemy. The planet, long settled by the Fusiliers, has seen peace and prosperity until only recently, when a cult began to gnaw at the edges of society. Posing as immigrants, they had skulked their way into town in ones and twos, plying the foul beliefs to the weak minded and the perverse. Their foul worship would culminate in a profane summoning ritual to be held on the night of the festival, ushering in a new era of depravity. 

The Herald, the Child, and the Knight

Little Elsa, only nine, was praying in the garden of her modest home when a vision of the Emperor appeared to her.

"Elsa, thou shalt be a vessel of my light." He said in fatherly tones. "Take up the arms of the past and lead my people. Burn the foul heretics from the village." 

Young Bert, who favored her, became her knight, and took up his father's bayonet and pistol. Tom, who had practiced his horn for many an hour, now blew notes louder and clearer than any man twice his age. 

The more people she told, the more were filled with holy fervor. First, her playfellows, then her parents, then their friends (seasoned veterans of the Imperial Guard long since gone to seed). Their weapons slumbered behind the oaken doors of the provincial armory, but had been maintained day by day with care. On the night the procession was to take place, many revelers flocked to the structure to arm themselves without questioning why. 

Sister Hester, Willing Bess, and Old Gert

The Lamplighter's Guild set aside their customary candlepikes to take up the flamers they once used during the crusade. Roasting the heretics alive with blessed promethium, their high voices joined those of others in singing hymns to of illumination in His Holy Name. 

That they shirked their usual duty tonight was no matter. The lamps along the parade route burned brightly with the great flames of faith. 

Sire Flatley, Mister Goodfellow, and Tig the Midget

The Huntmaster's Guild took up arms as well, and with great voices voiced the Emperor's holy wrath. Like unto the assault marines of the Astartes they where, falling upon the evil ones in great leaps and bounds and cleaving them asunder.

"Who gives a child a chainpike?" "It's quite alright, old fellow.  You see, he's forty-six."

Their armor was wood and cardboard. Their horses, cloth. But the carnage they wrought would gladden the heart of any Astartes chaplain.

See now, the holy procession. Hear the hymns of victory, the horn of triumph!

At last the bones of the Saint were brought forth from the blessed reliquary, and the procession moved up the high street, swinging toward the ruined quarter with its profaned church, already teeming with heretics striving to dim the Emperor's light. A servo skull floated about the four bearers and their priceless charge, the sweet incense hedging out the foulness of the unbelievers and filling the air. 

The bearers represented the four Pillars of the Imperium. To the fore, the Astartes leading the way on their crusade through the lost worlds, bringing the Emperor's light. 

Following in their wake, the Adeptus Mechanicus, bringing inexorable progress with their industrial might.  

With them, the Ecclesiarchy, arming the people with the sword of Faith and girding them with the armor of Contempt.

Moving them ever forward, the might of the Imperial Guard, undaunted and unyielding to the last. 

The Saint himself was bedecked in the livery of his chapter; the green and bone of the Dark Angels. He bore the Lance of Atragon, a weapon that lay low a mighty demon of Chaos, even as the fell beast smote him down. As the revellers drew near their goal, the holy bolters roared to life, scything down the followers of darkness like so much rotten grass. The lance flared brightly with the Emperor's light as the reliquary and its bearers surged forwards, its pointing finding home in the reeking armor of the foul sorcerer. 

Since the events of that blessed night, a new victory is celebrated every year on the night of the revels, and pilgrims have since flocked to the town. A new church has been erected where the ruins of the old one stood, and voices therein are uplifted in thanks and praise to the God-Emperor of Mankind. 

And little Elsa? Well, that is another tale.....

Heresy Hunter Dominators

So Wargames Exclusive continues to out GW GW, and this economical set of armored inquisitorial sisters is no exception. They're selling for 14.99 euros separately and 34.99 euros as set, so I recommend buying them before WE figures out they're giving a mini away. I've just finished the outer two, having painted the center one as soon as I got it and forgotten about the others until recently. Shame on me, because the other two are excellent as well. 

The detail on these things is just stunning, especially the longsword-toting center girl with her commanding pose. 

The Shieldmaiden gave me real pause until I found how easy she was to drill and pin. That enormous shield and forearm has a socket that's perfect for paperclip pinning, and the light durable resin weighs next to nothing, so it turned out not to be an issue. Of course, I don't plan on transporting her around on a regular basis either. 

I mean, look at that bloody big thing. It's wonderful. If it were cast in glorious metal it would weigh a ton and be an utter pain to keep attached, and I would love it anyway. 

Her backpack, alas, didn't get the same loving treatment as the Swordmaiden's did with its book and purity seal. The sculpting isn't very deep on the =I= and wings, so the paint just sort of sits on it. The pipes align pretty well with the sockets on the legs, however, just as with the other two girls, and didn't require any reshaping. 

Dual-Swords Sister's weapons and their positioning also concerned me until I realized her sculpted base included contact points to support them. If they sold these choppers as bits I have no doubt they'd make their way into many a conversion. 

Here is where the resin fails, however; the pommel of her lefthand one came off. It was more or less easily reattached, however, but I wish they'd sculpted it flush with the top of her hand. On the right you can see the little bit of resin between the top of her gauntlet and the pommel, and that's just enough for the thing to pivot under pressure. Ah well. 

Genestealer Cult Hunter.....

When the purple-skinned muties came for his mom and sister and killed his dad for fighting back, the kid decided to get even. 

He never said whether or not he enjoyed it, but boy, was he ever good at it. 

Vostroyan Trade Delegation

The Vostroyans sent a trade delegation to the Brabant system in order to open negotiations for access to the agri-world bounty. Little did they know that the placid town of Bruegelburg would see events that would reshape the sector.....

These lovelies are a combination of Lead Adventure's lovely characterful sculpts and GW's plastics, and went from inspiration to completion in no time. 

Lady Ksenia is a powerful psyker whose abilities are both enhanced and tempered by the psychic crown she wears. While Uncle Sergei (left) is nominally her Firstsworn Bodyman, his first duty is to kill her with that relic blade if something terrible tries to manifest through her. Uncle Mistislav, to the right, has the real business acumen in the family, but is nominally only an advisor. His servo skull has a plasma pistol built in to keep things honest.   

Servo skulls, while cool, are hard, as they generally have to be attached even though they float. Luckly Uncle Mistislav's hangs readily off of his hat and shoulder. I contemplated giving Ksenia her own skull, but opted to leave her unadorned.

Lady, Smoker, The Fat One, and Lincoln are from the Rogue Trader boxset, more specifically, the sprue purchased from eBay. I had some metal Vostroyans, but turned them into AdMech troops, so it was either turn them back or come up with new ones. 

I dig how GW went the extra mile and varied the body types with these. The way they cut the models to sprue them was weird, but they went together with little fuss. 

The Pack Ape is from Lead Adventure's Bruegelburg line, and, if you look closely, is a dude in a suit rather than a true servitor. It's a pretty awesome little model, and I cannot sing their praises enough as a minis company.

I added the baggage after the fact, of course, as the Vostroyans would want to bring silks and whatnot to show off at the trading table. 

Little Vanya, the standard bearer, was a fat-faced Bruegelburg kid with a miscast nub of a left hand, so I replaced it with a metal standard that used to belong to a Rackham Undertaker from their Cadwallon line. 

I like the way she turned out, and as I have lots of leftover kids from the Bruegelburg Fair Kickstarter, will definitely be making more of these. 

Also, if you know how to switch Blogger to Disqus commenting or something less stupid, I would love tips or a step-by-step.

WIP: Necromunda Terrain....

I wish they'd modeled the stuff in two layers: a pipes 'n' wires layer and a grate layer. Still, it looks great when it's finished!

So, other hobbyists who've worked on this, are you gluing yours static or leaving it completely loose and variable? I'm on the fence right now. Leaving it unglued (except for the large towers, etc) makes it easier to store, but big set-piece terrain is nice, too. Opinions?

WIP: Something for INQ28.....

After taking a break from 40k stuff and working with lots of mecha, the INQ28 Facebook group has inspired me to once again return to the 41st millennium. Haven't decided on a proper name for it yet, or whether it'll be accompanied by an inquisitor or more crazies, but it feels good to work on something like this. 

Deathwatch Task Force Artemis

Firstly, the Pathfinder is on sale. I'd have hung onto it. but I'm out of work right now and need the money more than the model. 

Minus their Dreadnought comrade (who was converted for a Dreadtober event in 2016) here are the two Kill Teams that comprise Artemis' anti-Eldar beatdown brigade. I made the mistake of trying out Armory's black primer with these, and boy is it a chalky can of shit. Never again, Armory. Never again. 

The Artemis model, while having an excellent pose (by the one sculptor at GW who understands such, suffers from design flaws that seems to be creeping into more and more GW models these days. Separate-elbow syndrome is no laughing matter, and requires drilling and pinning to be viable. I wish they would master the art of making tabs and deep sockets, or just plain sculpt the arm as a complete piece. His right also has feeder cables for his combi-flamer that, being plastic, are pretty much guaranteed to snap at some point in their lifetime. If you're going to have cables all over the place, just make a metal model, for pete's sake. I know it's no guarantee even then, but jeez. 

The Vanguard Vets have a curious mix of slow-hitting super-heavy hammers and the troopers with storm shields to take the incoming hits for them, which would be an okay combination if the squads weren't limited to five men. The eldar as present in the box are all close-combat monsters, and will positively ruin them in a fight if the marines don't get in a bunch of killing blows. These guys would be great against slow Xenos, but there really aren't any. Necron foot soldiers, maybe? 

The Sternguard are a bit better poised (I guess?) to gun down the flip-dancing space fairies, although it would've been better to have the shot cannon (and a full squad of 10) for gunning down those eldar skimmers. Ah well, at least the heavy bolterflamer's more than capable of removing the woussy elves from the field, albeit at close range where if it doesn't, the Astartes are going to get their asses carved into so much transhuman lunchmeat. I know, I know, I'm giving the eldar too much credit, but they're not going to face a whole lot of incoming fire from this bunch, which is essentially a half-squad's worth of guns. Why are the Space Marines always, always outnumbered? It's not like they're THAT good on the tabletop. 

Deathwatch Terminators...

I forgot how much I loved working with Terminators.  

Yes, the rest of the Ordo Xenos task force is building behind them. More to come.