Our Little Town

Welcome, weary traveler, to our home town. Out here in the Wasteland, it may not seem much, but the water is fairly transparent, the air is free to breathe and the meat genuinely came off an animal (probably not a biped). People here are just plain folks and speak plainly, especially if you're some kind of city boy.

A local's house is his castle, and that's doubly true once he's erected the barricades.

Our main industry is sludge farming. While the sludge that bubbles up is somewhat caustic, high standards of safety are in place and nobody has died for, oh, weeks. Here Walter and Jesse, our expert sludge technicians, persuade a passer-by to test the crop with a specially prepared bit of stick.

Folks around here are pious and god-fearing. After dark, the worshipers gather at the Church of the Serpent (which, our lawyers would like to remind you, is not a cult) to discuss matters of faith. As far as religion is concerned, forewarned is four-armed.

So welcome to our little town! Whether you're a mutant, unbeliever, zombie or just vaguely different, rest assured of a warm welcome from our citizens and their militia.

Raw Meat

I've had a plastic Hellbrute knocking around for ages. It was from the Dark Vengeance (as opposed to the Happy Revenge) boxed set, along with a horde of very good chaos cultists and some excellent chaos space marines.

The Hellbrute is what we used to call a chaos dreadnought. It's a weird sculpt, more organic beast than machine, with a stubby little multi-melta and funny stumpy feet. I only made two conversions: the gun was lengthened with spare bits from the mephitic blighthauler (where do they get these names?) and the head was replaced with a suitably disgusting and eel-like tongue.

I originally painted it an odd light purple, but used a nasty raw flesh colour this time around, which was basecoated in crimson and worked up with flesh tones and bleached bone. I gave the most raised areas a glaze of yellow, for added unwholesomeness.

Life for a Hellbrute can be a lonely business, so I've made him a little friend, in the form of a decaying human torso with spider legs and a screaming mouth. I'm sure they'll get on fine.

Here's a back view, showing the Hellbrute's charming metal spine and gills.

Lovely! I really ought to paint up the marines, too. It's a shame that 40k doesn't have rules like the old Warhammer Path To Glory rules, where you had a handful of loonies wandering the wasteland and growing extra limbs. Perhaps they'll bring some out one day.

More Tombstoners

It's been another fairly low-key week. I was invited to a wedding (not that one) in Cardiff, and I thought the other guests wouldn't appreciate me painting through the speeches.


Anyway, I did manage to get a couple more Tombstoners painted. I like the guy on the left's positioning - not quite going for his guns, but certainly giving it thought. His coat was painted grey and highlighted up with blue: given the limited palette, different highlighting colours can really make a difference. The guy on the right looks as if he's stolen his various items of clothing from my wardrobe. I'm not sure if that does him much credit to be honest.

I also managed to finish the buggy that I started making a while ago for the genestealer cult. Following the good advice of Mr Papafakis, I went with a bright colour scheme like those in Chris Foss' spaceship paintings. I think it works nicely.

In the game, I suppose I'd use this as a Sentinel, armed with a missile launcher. As it stands, I just like the look of the thing. It would look right in some border town, impressing the locals.

I really ought to get the Tombstone people together and have a group shot - or a group shoot-out, whichever works better. I've built up quite a few now!

Killer Robot Time!

Mankind's first steps to the stars were helped greatly by legions of servant robots. Despite being programmed to do what they were told, for some reason the robots inevitably rose up, and it was only with a great loss of life that the humans took charge again.

Earth's leaders were keen to avoid a repeat of the carnage. Many innovative concepts were proposed, including the daring idea of not building quite so many homicidal robots in the first place. However, it was Nebula Robotics Associated, one of the leading android producers, who came up with the brilliant idea of stopping dangerous rogue robots by building a horde of even more dangerous robots to hunt them down and destroy them.

Needless to say, this went horribly wrong. Self-repairing hunter-killers like H-7 here continue to stalk the wastelands: sometimes carving up their comrades for parts, but more often turning on the humans who try to eke out a living there (their shacks are a good source of iron). More unscrupulous renegades may hire such a machine - but its obedience will never be guaranteed.

This is the painted version of the WIP model in the previous post. I bent the legs out somewhat and mounted it on a very attractive (if slightly impractical) Micro Arts scenic base. The painting was fairly simple: largely metal and grey. I find that painting Umbral Umber as a base coat for the metal parts makes them look oily and slightly used, without being decrepit.

I could imagine this guy being quite a cool bounty hunter for Necromunda.

Shy One Horse

I've been working on more people for Tombstone, or perhaps the same person twice.

Tombstone includes rules for horses, enabling models to mount up and charge about as necessary in a Wild West adventure. Conveniently, Black Scorpion make a sheriff model, which comes in two forms: (i) ridin' and (ii) shy one horse. And as with all their stuff, it's really good.

I went for a chestnut-type colour for the horse. One of the problems with the Wild West is that the range of colours is pretty small (you get shot for lookin' fancy unless you're a saloon girl). I tried mixing in red to get away from that and stop it all getting too drab.

The only thing I've done here is to add a cattle skull to the base, which was taken from an old Warhammer elf kit. It helps give the model that Death Valley feel. Also in the picture is a chest of gold and valuables, which came with the Tombstone Kickstarter. I think it looks rather nice!


Also, I started this guy. He's based on an old Necron Immortal model. I think he's some sort of renegade robot.

Worstworld

I've been quite busy for the last week and a half. I finished and edited a story, played D&D for the first time in about a decade and went on a friend's stag do to a monumentally naff (but rather enjoyable) medieval-themed restaurant.

Anyhow, I've only had time to do a couple more Wild West people. As usual, they're Black Scorpion models, full of character and really well sculpted.

The guy on the left is either a doctor or an undertaker. Either way, he's looking at his pocketwatch and thinking, "Will this be over soon?" The tubby bloke on the right seems to be a deputy. At any rate, he doesn't look like lawman material to me, but he's got a big shotgun to make up for it. Strangely, the miniature only started to look right when I decided on a whim to paint his trousers and waistcoat brown instead of black. Funny how a choice like that can make a model.

I'm building up quite a posse of Wild West chaps. It's just a shame that I can't think of a way to include them in my science fiction games.

HBO, if you're watching, my fees are very low.

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PS - Some while ago, I converted a demon of Nurgle from one of those infected tree things. I subsequently entered a competition to make a Great Unclean One. It is, quite embarassingly, up against a range of models that could comfortably win the Golden Demon contest. I feel like a yokel who's sneaked into a symphony orchestra with a two-string banjo. So, if you fancy a laugh, or your sense of good taste has mysteriously fallen out, you can go and have a look HERE.