Re: All things Rogue Trader and Warhammer 40K (May 2022: SPACE DWARFS!)

[Suber]

Cool as always. The tiny details are just the icing of the cake.

[hubbabubba]

Very nice.

Huerta, as I assume you know is an allotment or area of land given over to growing food stuffs, so quite appropriate for the battle at the farm.

However, it's pronounced  with a wh as in where, hence the phonetic spelling in English would be closer to wherta. For this reason the 'the truth wherts' graffiti made me giggle.

Whatever, your crimes against Castillano can be forgiven as your pjs are lovely.

Why on earth would you choose the space crusade launcher over the real deal though?

[tomrommel1]

The fists are unbelievable good!!! Did you do the letters with a micro pen or a brush?

[Curis]

Huerta, as I assume you know is an allotment or area of land given over to growing food stuffs, so quite appropriate for the battle at the farm.

That's entirely accidental!  I've been scattering Mexican-flavoured names into my army as they're Crimson Fists (guy in charge Games Workshop named as  "Pedro Cantor"), so I named this man after Victoriano Huerta.

Why on earth would you choose the space crusade launcher over the real deal though?.

I've cannibalised all the RTB01 missile launchers for my Squats and Ultramarines down the years, so I had none left when it came to building this squad!  And I need specifically a Missile Launcher for the Battle at the Farm squad.  Few more Space Crusade weapons popping up in the future to inject an exotic flavour into the wargar.

The fists are unbelievable good!!! Did you do the letters with a micro pen or a brush?

Letters, tom, are just done with a brush.  Trick it to paint it out on a test surface, work out what the halfway point is and paint it with that as the starting point.  Winsor & Newton Series 7, size 1.

[tomrommel1]

thanks for the info

[Curis]

British comics lost an icon this week with the death of Carlos Ezquerra – the creative genius behind Judge Dredd and Johnny Alpha. Carlos’s character designs and universes underpin a lot of subsequent science fiction – including Warhammer 40,000.  Two years before Games Workshop gave birth to Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, they were dabbling with science fiction miniatures such as this trio of Strontium Dog characters.

Left to right: Wulf Sternhammer, Johnny Alpha, Gronk.

I’ve been painting this triumverate of bounty hunters with an eye on Warlord Games’ new Strontium Dog game.  Excitingly they can also be shoehorned into modern Necromunda with the recent bounty hunter rules.

The miniatures are from Citadel’s 2000AD range produced for the 1985 Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game.  Though technically Johnny Alpha and Judge Dredd inhabit separate universes, they have crossed over several times for reasons of awesome.

Johnny Alpha and Judge Dredd, Judgement Day, 2000AD #799.

The Rogue Trader universe borrows a lot of its overall look from Carlos Ezquerra’s artwork.  The amount of time and artwork the Rogue Trader rulebook spends on the (non-Chaotic) random mutations tables is testament to Strontium Dog’s influence.  There’s a lot of Strontium Dog wargear that pops up in the forty-first millennium too, such as gravchutes, stasis grenades and electro-mauls.

But wait – there’s more…

The Rogue Trader Mystery

There was a mystery for almost thirty years about the miniature that appears in a single murky black-and-white photograph on page 11 of the Rogue Trader rulebook.

The mystery figure, top left corner.

The figure never made it into production, appearing only in this photo.  Only in 2013 did details of the figure emerge thanks to Steve Casey’s Eldritch Epistles – it was a one of several Judge Dredd figures that had been converted and cast up in-house to playtest the upcoming Rogue Trader rules before actual miniatures had been made.

It was released a couple of years later by Wargames Foundry, so people like me and Rochie can paint and play with our own copies of this odd curio.

Inquisitor Ezquerra and Johnny Alpha.

I plumped for white and papal purple to spin the figure as an Imperial Inquisitor.  (It was tempting to paint him in green and yellow trousers, as if it’s Johnny improvising a disguise as an Imperial Inquisitor.)  He’s so wee. being from 1985 when sculptors tended to 25mm scale, that I built up his base to help him keep some sense of imposing Imperial authority over the rest of the Imperium’s servants.

More vintage Crimson Fists coming soon!

More of my miniatures at: http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread/

[JollyBob]

So cool, and so beautifully painted! 

I have those three SD minis myself, keep thinking I should paint them (bought new, still to do!) then seeing how tiny they are in comparison to modern figures and back in the box they go...

Inquisitor Ezquerra is a lovely tribute. Nice one.

[Brandlin]

I have those three SD minis myself, keep thinking I should paint them (bought new, still to do!) then seeing how tiny they are in comparison to modern figures and back in the box they go...

I think you mean "how overblown modern day figures are"...


thanks for the history trip and excellent paintwork though! :-)

[Curis]

Thanks JollyBob!  They are pretty wee for 25mm figures.  It's weird how the scale goes up over the course of the Citadel Judge Dredd line, and some of the later figures end up being over-sized for Warhammer 40,000.

Thanks Brandlin!

*********

Golden Demon!  Games Workshop’s prestigious painting competition I’ve dreamed about winning since I was an eleven year old boy.  Like the Oscars – there’s big statuettes.  Like the Nobel Prize – the winners are selected by internationally respected judges.  Like the Turner Prize – there’s a no contribution to the actual world of art.   It’s the ultimate battleground for miniature painters.  And these Sisters of Silence Prosecutors took home the bronze statuette at the Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Open Day.

Silence is golden (demon).

I spent three weeks of hobby time getting these miniatures from sprue to plinth, sweeping all my ongoing projects aside to focus solely on these Sisters.  The pressure of an immovable deadline and the harsh scrutiny of the judges meant I pushed myself hard to make the squad’s copper Vratine armour truly shine.

Prosecutors in early November, broken into sub-assemblies and looking intimidatingly unfinished.

The Prosecutors are each designed with one fixed pose – your only real choice is the way you point their head. Assembled out of the box, all have their Boltguns held across their chest.  Reposing is a challenge, but with lot of cutting, putty and spare arms I opened up three of the poses to make the squad more action-packed.

Silent.  But deadly.

I was itching to introduce a bit of component variety into the squad, such as a heavy weapon, or a fancypants sword for the Sister Superior, but the Index Imperium wargear options forbade it.  To get the squad to (silently) scream “LOOK AT ME” I added a massive banner from Wood Elf Eternal Guard kit.  The original detail has been carved off and sanded away so I could paint on my own Adeptus Astra Telepathica designs on both sides.

“Exigua est virtus praestare silentia rebus, at contra gravis est culpa tacenda loqui.”

I wracked my brains for a phrase to freehand onto the banner.  I considered Latin versions of “Enjoy the Silence” and “Hello darkness my old friend” – but tongue-in-cheekiness didn’t suit these dour space nuns.  So I found two high-minded lines in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria which translate as “Slight is the merit on keeping silence on a matter, on the other hand, serious is the guilt of talking on things whereon we should be silent.”  I’ll save the Depeche Mode for some goofy Rogue Trader or Blood Bowl nonsense.

Patterns in the Ivy

The ivy on the banner was originally a Captain Crooks suggestion.  I used swirly ivy creepers on the breechcloths and cloak outsides, and angular ivy leafs on cloak insides.  In folklore, ivy is taken into the home to ward off evil spirits much like Sisters are taken in your Imperial force to ward off evil.  Aaaaand, ivy is mildly poisonous to humans, in the same way Sisters of Silence and their Pariah gene are psychically unsettling for humans to be around.  I’m so happy with the symbolism of the plant that I might spin it out to the iconography of the whole Sisterhood Vigil (equivalent to a Space Marine Chapter), if I do any more.  Call them “Crimson Ivy”?  Mmm, no, too burlesque.  “Ivy League”?  Mmm, also no.

The skullrific bases are from a Shadespire warband (Magore’s Fiends) with their footholes sculpted over.  To ground them in the Warhammer 40,000 universe I added a helmet from a Thousand Sons Scarab Occult Terminator.

Squad Philomela supporting the Nemesis Chapter battlelines.

Patreon Painting Tutorial

Last week the Patrons of Ninjabread got access to a detailed stage-by-stage write up of the paints and  techniques used to paint the copper armour.

If you become a supporter today and you’ll get access to this in depth masterclass tutorial, and also the back catalogue that also covers two varieties of Space Marines power armour, and human flesh.  Thanks to everyone’s that signed up to date, I’m really enjoying spending the time sharing the secrets.

Now the competition is over, and the intense focus has ended, I’m enjoying picking at preslotta odds and ends on the painting desk, toying with possible future competition entries.  I need to blast through some gaming level paintjobs for a bitand get back to my Space Marine armies over the Christmas break.  Watch this space!

More of my minaitures at: http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

[Suber]

Silent. I remain silent in awe

[Tungdil]

Amazing brushwork! Love the Sisters and this terrific banner.

[Exiledadmiral]

Wow! Well done on your statuette, competition must have been fierce, they look gold standard to me! All the freehand work on the banner and the clothes is incredible, I can't imagine the skill and  patience you must have to complete these to such a standard.

[Curis]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Exiledadmiral – the patience comes easily as I treated myself to a big stack of classic Inspector Morse episodes while I was painting.

I love doctors. And I love Space Marines. Put them together, and you get Doctor Space Marines, dispensing healthcare and the Emperor’s justice across the battlefields of the 41st millennium.

Brother Herophilus on the Nemesis Chapter battlelines.

Here’s the 2017 Primaris Apothecary alongside his very own primogenitor – the very first Apothecary miniature Games Workshop produced back in 1987. Oh, how far miniature design has come in thirty years.

“Here child, have this necklace.”

The Primaris Apothcary is absolutely loaded with so much detail he crosses the line from miniature into micro-diorama. He stands over a fallen Battle Brother, having removed the progenoid glands, and every surface is festooned with details like cannisters, helix motifs, lenses and surgical tools. However, I have become obsessed with one detail – the mysterious skull strapped to his arse.

“Dad, your bum is looking at me.”

During the long evenings of painting, I came up with my own backstory about who this skull belonged to…

“Ultracurses. Thus I die.”

The Rogue Trader Apothecary came from Rochie of Buried Under Lead. Rochie has converted and painted up this mini already – you should check it out here. Thanks for the gift, Rochie!

If you’d like to learn how to paint white exactly like this, I took super-detailed stage-by-stage photos on the Ninjabread Patreon, and have written up the method, colours and theory.

A twelve-step tutorial teaching twelve steps to crisp white armour.

On top of this tutorial, patrons get instant access to the whole six month back catalogue with five more masterclasses covering other colours of power armour, cloth and my Golden Demon winning piece.

I’m really keen on collecting more Apothecaries now, and am taken by the idea of one with a Crimson Fists one with a bike or jump pack with “Fist Responder” armour graffiti.

Brother Rochfort supporting the improvised Crimson Fists defences./

The sheet-metal walls you can see above are a preview casting of a Fogou Models terrain set that’s coming soon! Keep your eyes peeled!

Coming soon: even more Space Marines, old and new!

More miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

[OSHIROmodels]

Outstanding 

[Suber]

Marvellous work