Those Scouts: Riders

Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse / to the old town road

Slann trading contingent, feat. Ometeotl the Outrider

wastelander horseman

Once again, these are hardly civilians, despite the fact that I continue to group these miniatures together under that tag. I suppose I will eventually call this setting something else - maybe if I finally paint any of the terrain I'm accumulating.

These two are mounted scouts; the one a baseline human, riding his actual horse across the desert sands. The other is as far as we can get from that, being a space frog riding a space velociraptor. 

Those Animals: Wild things

 A handful more critters for the desert.

small local fauna

I've painted a handful of small creatures to sprinkle around the gaming table. The lava dog thing comes from Northstar, the rest from an indie company the name of which I've misplaced. They sure are cute, though.

armadillo analogues

lizard analogues

thingies

some kind of heated-rock monster?

Those Mercenaries

 A collection of local guns.

not exactly civilians

Today we have a handful of armed figures for the civilian project. At this rate, I'm basically recreating Gorkamorka (and yes, that is a spoiler for something planned soon), albeit with fewer orks.

scout

A classic Rogue Trader adventurer sculpt and as such as been done by many many others, which is part of why I wanted to buy him. He's been on my table for ages, as I wasn't sure how I wanted him to come out. Some of the off-whites came off a bit too close, so I'm not totally happy with him, but still - he looks pretty good to me.

I like to think of him as the best of the scouts for hire, preferring to keep to himself in the deep desert. His use of a shuriken pistol and apparently uncanny insight into the trackless wastes gives him a reputation as half-Eldar, despite the genetics making that impossible. Right?

old bandit

Another RT adventurer! Jason has also painted him up, but I've gone for a weather-beaten old raider style for him and his weird pistol.

I think of him as old friends with the scout - not as good at guiding clients through the wastes, but way more vicious in a melee with the mutie raiders and slaver tribes that might waylay a caravan winding through the cacti-spheres.

Madeline and Maximillian

"Mad" Madeline and "Max" Maximillian are a couple of local gunslingers. Sometimes raiders, sometimes caravan guards, sometimes just mean bastards. Always hired as a pair.

These sculpts were from a Facebook group and I was able to get some of the initial run a little while back - but thankfully they're now available at Crooked Dice as the Mannix Twins. Real joys to paint, and a lovely classic vibe.

Lastly, and finished only a few minutes ago, we have Ms Lovely Day.

Ms Lovely Day

No need to point out her inspiration! You can also get her via Crooked Dice (can you tell I did an order recently?). I've painted her up as roughly inspired by her origin, but she fits in with the rest of these gunslingers although slimmer, possibly teenaged.

It's a beautiful sculpt and fun to paint.

I undercoated some more civilians today, but also go back to work tomorrow, so we'll see if my painting time shrinks substantially. Stay tuned, desert wanderers!

Those Renegades

 Just a couple of perfectly ordinary civilians...

Magos Biologis, Mechanicus

This is a medic from North Star Military Figures's Stargrave releases. I'm going to be putting together a different team to play the game, but this saturnine fellow is perfect for my civilian project, even if he's a little more armed than usual.

His weird tech greeble fits into the Rogue Trader aesthetic, and while the blue gloves hint at a different science fiction setting, marking him as an unpleasant sort of fellow. I see him as a low-ranking Adept Mechanicus who screens the citizens for genetic deviance, hence the red collar. He also works perfectly as a Rogue Doc in Necromunda. Multi-use!

Heretek, poss. former Mechanicus

Also from Stargrave, this I gave this hacker a goth aesthetic. I was tempted to freehand a cool skull on her jacket, but her cyberpunk tech greeble makes that too hard, and I'm very lazy.

I see her as a heretek,* running local hacking jobs for a reasonable price. They aren't all towering monstrosities of cybernetic cables and whirring gears, blaspheming with cogentities as scrapcode gods. Some of them are just folks who break open the cases and tinker without the proper rites.

I'm not sure if Necromunda18 has a specific role like this, but it would be easy to design scenarios around her! I wonder if her deck would let her hack Spyrer-style suits, or maybe even servitors.

That's it for this entry! I'm working on some more civilians and am very close to finishing an army for a different skirmish game...

Those Who Herd

 Another set of miniatures done a few months ago (August!) but which I've not posted here.

grim ol' One-Eye and his rot sheep

I love this sculpt so much, available from Old School Miniatures. Unlike most of the civilians I paint, this herdsman and his nightmarish rot sheep are intended for wetter fantasy or science fantasy settings - I can see them lurking on the outskirts of Mordheim, on the muddy fields of #turnip28, or even being warded against the Emperor's lackeys by my 40K Death Guard.

More photos under the cut.

Match Recap: Uzkulak Udugs frozen out of victory on a frosty afternoon

  UZKULAK, ZU. -- A brutal offence is the best defence - but sometimes even iron and steak isn't enough.

The exhibition match between the freshly minted Saphery Strikers and home-mine heroes the Uzkulak Udugs ended in a crisp 2-2 draw on Sunday 08 August. 

part-way through setting up

We take you to our commentators, Jim and Bob...

Those Who Work, Those Who Pray: Steel is Stronger Than Flesh

 I've had these finished for a while, intending to do a larger post with them. But I haven't updated since June, so let's do them now.

the Mechanicus has many tools

Here we have three new civilians from three separate ranges. More photos below the cut, including of the building.

Old World Army Challenge: Failure State

 Hello, friends. It's been a few months since I posted. This is partly because my non-hobby world has gotten real busy resulting in an absolute lack of hobby stuff. The other reason is that some of what I was working on was posted over at the Old World Army Challenge site.

a to-do list

Unfortunately, I have fallen and now lie in the Field of Bones. Quite the ignominious end to my third Challenge. I did manage to get some fellows finished though, which you can read about in detail at the OWAC site. I figure I might as well share them here!

After Action Report: Mortem Sororibus

Saint-Saëns was an unremarkable planet, part of a string of systems that had existed in relative peace for several centuries despite their proximity to the Maelstrom. Saint-Saëns (Tithe grade: Solutio Secundus) was an especial jewel of the sector, an ancient world that had served the Emperor for over four millennia. The ruins of pre-Imperial ruins dotted the more civilised places, nestled within the proto-Hives and bustling horizontal cities clustered along the world's river-analogues and alkaline oceans.

Vicchièneche, a chief city
Note the early Imperial ruin, c.700M38

The oligarchical Triarchy maintained the ancient ruins in the interest of history and culture; some wild places were left intact, the better to reflect the glory of the emperor (and allow for the feudal lords' hunting). Saint-Saëns was a place of peace and beauty, a rarity in the grim darkness of the Imperium of Man.

In the early years after the Great Rift, the world fell into fire and doom. The Death Guard had come.

plague zombies pour from the industrial district

Hear Ye! Disturbance in the Dömplatz

Last weekend saw a frightful disturbance in the shattered ruins of the Dömplatz, in southern Mordheim. The cathedral square - already shattered by a multitude of meteorites from the Comet - was invaded by two warbands of nightmarish creatures, squabbling to secure the shattered square.

the Dömplatz

Long-since denuded of the obvious wyrdstone shards, the surviving buildings around the Dömplatz  were rumoured to hold stashes of the cursed rock. The great cathedral that once dominated the south-western corner had been obliterated by the Comet; the font still retained an eerie green glow that even the monstrous avoided. Instead, the warbands sought to secure the two towers in the north-west and west, the graveyard to the south-east, Shallya's abandoned shrine in the east, and the eerie tower of Morr that loomed in the north-east, the memento mori carved into its stonework now laced with terrible new meaning.

Servants of the True Emperor

Pijavic ‘the Impious’ von Carstein and his band of cretins, murderers and shambling horrors sought to secure at least the graveyard and the abandoned tower of Morr. The first would allow Jakob Karg new sources for his grotesque sorcery. The latter amused the vicious little sycophant.

The Crowgor's Herd

The Crowgor sought to despoil the places sacred to Man, to feast on the bones in vault and scrawl the nightmarish sigils of his people across the high vaults of the Mannish gods. Also, he bore grudges against the grey-limbed humans after last time.

Match Recap: Despite turmoil on the pitch, Uzkulak Udugs defeat Skälsbërg Skreechers 2-1

 UZKULAK, ZU. -- Even bringing a screeching owlbear mascot onto field isn't enough sometimes.

Luckily for the newest Chaos Dwarf team out of the Great Skull Land - a region producing a number of great teams this season, including the Uzkulak Juggernaughts - their coach had the tools to handle the flailing mass of teeth and claws.

This Sunday saw the Uzkulak Udugs take the field in their first home exhibition game against the newly-reformed Skälsbërg Skreechers, coached by the infamous LMW.

the two teams line up!

Project: Blood Bowl - Chaos Dwarfs

 I did actually buy Blood Bowl in the 90s. I might have even bought my favourite team; I don't remember. Like so many things, I gave away or sold these things as I moved to university, keeping only my Empire army and a few bits.

Luckily, Games Workshop reprinted them a couple years ago. I finally started painting them for the new ruleset and...

watch the sulphurous, vile avian!

..finished putting the finishing touches to the bull centaur blitzers last night, so the whole project is done! That's quite satisfying, even if did lead me to procrastinate from my Squats commitment until dangerously late in the month...

At any rate, below the cut for more photos of this tusked mob as well as some team name ideas!

After Action Report: The Crystal Fields of Kallix-7

 The seventh spheroid of the Kallix system - planet is too strong a word and dwarf planet implies that the system holds something larger than irregular rocks and swollen balls of unpleasant gasses - is a horrible little rock. It has managed a thin, dreadful atmosphere, a coating of the worst kind of lichen life, and is home to some of the better laser-focusing crystals in the Deep Periphery.

Crystal fields of Kallix-7
Note the caustic lochs created by crystal subduction

Today, it was also the home of a pitched fight between a company of the 1st Canopian Cuirassiers and the pirate company known as Lord Ethan's Exiles, a savage sometime-mercenary brigade that operated in deep space.

some of Lord Ethan's Exiles

A surprisingly well-equipped force, the pirates came with the equivalent of a reinforced company including an entire lance of heavy tanks and aerospace support.

1st Canopian Cuirassiers

The Cuirassiers had only the one company, but they were hardened veterans, and including cutting edge Magistcracy 'Mechs such as an Eyleuka EYL-45A and an Anubis ABS-3MC, both piloted by veteran pilots.