Wednesday 15 February 2017

Rogue Trader: Dutchy of Kalitzfornia Part 2

Hej!

So here we are with our third Rogue Trader inspired update showcasing two more conversions. We have on our left, the Kalitzfornian sniper and to the right there is a renegade techpriest.

Both are quite big conversions on some more Wargames Foundry miniatures. 



So the techpriest was made from a Foundry peasant kind of nobleman guy. I used a multitude of parts, from a Mantic Games power fist, some chains (mechandrites) from Brettonian peasants, bits and bobs from Warlord Games Germans, GW chaos cultist and finally, a spring from my fencing epee... which most likely shouldn't have been removed... but... y'know... ;D



He was a bit of a menace to do... but he'll do as some sort of non high-level member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, or the Kalitzfornian copy-cat version of that most esteemed institution.


The sniper was an easier conversion, but still not easy. You see, this model was originally a halberdiers-man. So amongst everything else I had to kind of remove his halberd and switch it for a GW Kroot rifle minus stupid spiky bits. The original thought for this model was that he was going to be a heavy weapons specialist, but seeing that the Dutchy of Kalitzfornia is rather broke, he ended up with a lame anti-tank rifle and not much else. I am happier with him as a sniper, although I am still keeping to my original idea of him not having anything better to use other than an anti-tank rifle. So he is an anti-tank sniper guy...? Anyways, we can at least be sure that if he manages to hit something with his big baby, they are going to be pulp.

The ammo on his chest is at least as long as my forearm. High velocity forearms clad in metal impacting onto your chest cant be pleasant!


I gave him a satchel from some WG (hehehehe, I just noticed that WG (Warlord Games) is backwards GW... maybe these companies set out with the direct goal of confusing us!). Anyway, from a WG (haha, cant stop laughing) German paratrooper.


And of course the classic shield thingy shoulder pad (impeccable English if I may add).


That's all for now. More updates are incoming!

Regards,
Joshua

Sunday 12 February 2017

Rogue Trader: Dutchy of Kalitzfornia Part 1

Hej!

So here we are again with some more Rogue Trader inspired miniatures. The chap on the right as awesome source fun to do. He was based on a Foundry peasant. I swapped out his bucket with a barrel, and swapped his head for the storks head from the plastic Brettonian banner (something I've always wanted to do). I call this this new race Stawks. Very creative and imaginative, I know.

The chap on the right is a scout for my personal faction that I'm building, the Dutchy of Kalitzfornia, a small but slowly growing nation situated on the sparsely populated planet of Phobia.


He is going to be part of a unit of soldiers/peacekeeper (kind of jacks of all trades). I have plans to add other specialists, like perhaps a sniper, to pair with him to make a recon team.





The model itself is an old metal crossbowmen from a company that I cannot remember the name of. I  put a space marine combat knife in his one hand and a GW chaos cultist auto pistol in the other. His backpack is a WW2 Warlord games German assortment. Lastly, I used one of those funny small shields that came on the Brettonian Knights sprue as a shoulder pad, a theme that I would like to continue with the rest of this unit.


The Stawk is probably going to be used in some auxiliary position, maintaining vehicles and other such things. I used a whole range of different parts from a old WW2 20mm barrel, a Brettonian man-at-arms glove to an old Dark Eldar pistol.


As I've said before these were a lot of fun to do, and I plan to keep at it for as long as I am motivated!

Regards,
Joshua

Monday 6 February 2017

Rogue Trader: Rebel Scum Part 1

Hej!

So for today something a little different. I am an utter hobby butterfly but thankfully I believe I am narrowing down my range of interests! So at the moment, after a lot of LoTR enthused madness, I have sunk back into the lowly depths of the far future. I have decided to convert/build/paint up warbands for my games in the 40k universe. However, as I am a sucker for old-school stuff in general, I have decided to run with a semi Rogue Trader theme.

So far I haven't used a single Rogue Trader model, and I have converted every model I have done. However, I shall feed you my progress in bite sized chunks, so here goes!

Here we have Bruce the Beastman (very imaginative, but we will get to that later(on the left)), and Lord Alskandr de Chemy (on the right).



Bruce's original name was Broo'Sqye which was too much for ordinary folks to pronounce so De Chemy renamed him Bruce for short.


De Chemy, or by his full title: Alskandr de Chemy, Lord Inquisitor of the Rogue Association of Freetraders of the East Fringe Trading Alliance, the Collector of Depts.

The model for De Chemy is a complete mash up of different parts, from Skaven, High Elf, Dark Eldar and tons of Greenstuff!

Bruce is a bit of a simpler conversion, with parts from Dark Eldar, Chaos Cultists and Kroot.


They were immensely fun to put together and by the time I am writing this there are plenty more done and even more on the way! I shall try get some regular posts happening!

Regards,
Joshua

Sunday 29 January 2017

Gondorian Infantry Battalion

Hej!

So, its been a while, but hopefully we will be able to get some regular updates on this blog!

So I will just dive right in and show off one of the many projects I worked on while Llama was here. So for a while I have been dissatisfied with GeeDubb (GW). But I will not go into that here. Suffice to say that I was not going to directly purchase any of their products anymore. And so, when my hobby butterfly brain inevitably flitted back to LoTR, I needed to find some models that I could use. I have always had some problems with Peter-OvertheTop-Jacksons LoTR. Especially with the Gondorians. Yeah, they looked awesome, but I felt they just didn't suit the Gondorians realistically. Just looking at the sheer economics of arming all those soldiers is frightening, especially for a nation on the decline.
There really isn't any hard or fast rule, so this is just my interpretation.

In my opinion, the Gondorians would have behaved in wartime a little like the Late Imperial Romans.
I believe there would have been a core of heavily armoured troops (but still no plate armour) aided by a levy system, perhaps each province providing troops for the kingdom at large as well as maintaining a reserve, and being able to call up a levy in times of need.
These levies in my opinion would have been lightly armoured, to make it as cheap and as expedient as possible to raise significant forces within a given time period.

I would also imagine that they made extensive use of the shieldwall, fighting in a Nordic or Saxon style (albeit with more discipline in some cases). Therefore shields would have been a key component in the levy's military inventory. The use of shields in this manner would allow these relatively light infantry units to fight alongside their more heavily armoured brethren in the front line.

I will cease to theorize here, and perhaps save more ideas for another more appropriate time. So, here are the miniatures.

Gondorian Infantry Battalion

Comprised of an armoured command troop, two troops of levy infantry, a troop of skirmishers and the baggage train.



The Command Troop

With a Captain, Veteran, Standard Bearer and Hornblower.




One of the Infantry Troops




Levy Lebennian Javelinmen




Ye Olde Baggage




The idea behind this force was that they had been promoted from auxiliary duty guarding Lebennin (their home province) to one of the field battalions in the Southern Gondorian Army (no doubt after some particularly nasty clashes with the Haradrim!) As such I have avoided helmets wherever possible using caps/hats/hoods as a substitute.




Still, the Infantry are uniformed in the classic "black" of the Guard, although the blue hats/hoods/caps do lighten this up a bit and giving it some life.



Below is the standard bearer with the White Tree of Gondor and the Seven Stars.

 On the back their is a smaller representation of the Tree, along with Lebennin inscribed on the bottom (just in case they forget where they came from!).


And here lastly is the Veteran (on the left), second in command to the Captain. And the Hornblower.


Anyway, these were a blast to paint, and I really enjoyed working on the backstory and explanations. Llama also completed several warbands, which shall be portrayed on this blog at a later stage!

Oh and by the way, in case anyone is interested, the models used are Gripping Beast Vikings and Dark Age Warriors as well as some Warlord Games Celts and Dacians.

And last but not least, a snap of my next LoTR project, a Cavalry Battalion, using some troops that llama kindly converted for me! ;D