Quick update

We've been a bit quiet recently, because being hobbyists we're easily distracted by shiny things. Some of us have been playing FFG's Rogue Trader roleplaying game, and others the new edition of Warhammer, so our old school hobby activities have been somewhat curtailed.

So, we'll get some hobby content up soon, but we also thought we'd expand things a bit and use the blog to track our pen and paper Rogue Trader adventures as well as the traditional tabletop ones. We use our RT miniatures for this anyway (and last session they were fighting in the bowels of their engineering deck using a Space Hulk board as the setting) so this seems to fit.

Also, we've invited the guys from the rpg group to post here too, so hopefully they'll be adding whatever content they want to as well.

Maybe we could even expand it to cover a Warhammer campaign we have planned (as I want to get some stuff from the 1st and 2nd edition of that game in too), but one thing at a time!

Any comments welcome!

Inquisimunda

Just a quick one, Jeremy Olson, the Empire of Ghosts blogger has released a set of rules pretty much in line with the sort of thing we ourselves play (even if we never write them down!). Head over to Jeremy's blog and let him (and us) know what you think!

Rogue Trader command crew Work in Progress

Just a quick update as I haven't posted in a while! Here's a Rogue Trader command crew, missing only the Astropath and some armed ratings.

Left to right, we have the Missionary (Citadel Uriah Jacobus miniature), Void Master (conversion), Seneschal (Citadel Master of the Fleet miniature), Rogue Trader (conversion), Navigator (conversion), Void Mistress (Chick Challenge 2004 miniature), Explorator (Citadel Skullz promo miniature), an Arch Miliatnt (based on Citadel Scout Sergeant Telion) and a Kroot Scout (Games Day special).

Hopefully they'll be finished in the next few weeks and we can run a battle report!

Rogue Trader Void Master conversion

Now.. those that know me will know that I rarely if ever bother with the newer stuff for 40k, especially not plastics.

For me its all about the character, collectability and nostalgia of those early ranges - painting and collecting them as an adult (loosely speaking) brings back pleasant memories of golden summers fighting battles over rubbish home made terrain and using tanks made out of star wars toys in my mates garage.

Anyway... I was kindly invited to join on the Colonels Rogue Trader RPG game and in the spirit of the invite and inspired by his awesome Voidmaster I thought I'd have a crack at doing an 'avatar' of my own character.

Again I went for a Voidmaster but on a different track, my characters an ex imperial Navy pilot/helmsman. 'Isiah Crook' is loosely based visually on a certain famous sci fi smugler pilot and I tried to incorporate at least one element from classic RT goodness (its cunningly highlighted in yellow for those failing to spot it).

As a former fighter pilot I gave him some old Navy flight trousers, chopped up some cadian boots to maek pilot boots and used the upper body from some WFB empire free company and cannon crew to give him a more buccaneer look. Originally I'd managed to convert him to have one hand on his hip which was a better pose astride a bucketload of spent casings from his 'boarding shotgun' - but the 'shouting' head looked odd with a static pose. I really liked the head from the tank crew sprue and originally meant to use a valkerie gunner or pilots head but this looked better, especially with black gloss painted shoulder pad put on the front as a 'blast visor' (another nod to said film).

Lastly in a break from tradition I decided to base him in a less rural way as I imagine most of the action in the campaign will be aboard ship and station!

Rogue Trader conversion

Here's a quick shot of the Rogue Trader I've just finished, before the light goes. He's built from so many parts I'm not sure I can remember them all, and he took about three builds to get right, so I'm fairly pleased with him. I'll take a better shot along with some of his companions when the light's better.

Rogue Trader Imperial Scout

Just who do you think gets the dirty job of landing on all these planets first...

I tried to go for a slightly suntanned desert wanderer look and i'm not *amazingly* happy with the shemagh but it will do for now, if i find later i can paint it better I'll give him a repaint.

I particularly like how he's got an eldar pistol being on the fringes of known space and unlikely to get executed for xenos weaponry and also probably having had contact with Eldar several times in the past as the vanguard of humanity.

Rogue Trader RPG Voidmaster

Just finished this miniature (literally, sorry about the glare on the wet paint on the base!). He's my character in the Rogue Trader RPG, a 'Voidmaster', which is character class specialising in anything to do with the running of a starship (could be the master helmsman, gunner, sensor guy, anything like that).

He's converted using the legs from a servitor, torso from a Catachan heavy weapon crew (with greenstuff piping and raggy coat sleeves), the left arm from the original servitor, right from the Catachan command squad set, shoulder pads from Mongoose Judge Dredd Street Punks, a resin Forge World head and the hat is from a Privateer Press mercenary Warcaster - so quite a rummage in the bits box for that lot!