Orc Carnosaur

Hi!

Well its been a busy few days here as I finish sculpting work on turning the cheap plastic D&D miniature into a fully operational Orc warbeast but he's almost done:

 Carnosaur Wartower

I must admit that the work has been worth it. This is how I always envisioned the Orcish warbeasts as a primitive sort of gigantic lizard which was mostly mouth and teeth backed up by a massive bulky body.

In my revision of the rules, the Orcs have bred new sub species of warbeasts which are available as upgrades to the core creatures. These range from the Firebelly, a beast with the ability to vomit jets of flame, to the Rivetback, a heavily armoured sub-species. As I have three of the plastic figures, I plan on creating another stock model but also at least one of the dangerous new species too.

Baying Crew!

The crew will be mounted separately on a piece of plasticard so they can be removed and the addition of optional crew like characters and even a light ballista to be swapped out when needed. I must admit I am champing at the bit to get this fellow painted though and will be going for the traditional yellow and black finish as a homage to the classic warbeasts I painted back in the day!

While I am at it, heres a quick list of the warbeasts available to the Horde:

Necrodon: A roughly horse sized creature used as the mount of choice for the Orcish cavalry. Foul tempered and vicious, these creatures are surprisingly agile and will eat just about anything.

Carnosaur: The size of a large elephant and legendary for their uncontrollable frenzy at the scent of blood, these great creatures have immensely powerful jaws that can gobble up any infantry that get in its way and can even pulverise Dwarven steamtanks that get within reach of their terrible maw. This is the most common of the Orcish warbeasts and they ride into battle in specially constructed howdahs on the beasts back either with a mob of spear or bow armed Orcs. They are also used as mobile artillery pieces and equipped with bolt throwers.

Firebelly: A sub-species of the Carnosaur, this beasts hide is cracked and burns to the touch as if a fire burns in its belly. Through vile cross breeding with Dragons, the Orcs have spawned a terrifying new menace which can vomit forth jets of flame. Although riding these beasts is seen as an honour, the crew are often suicide troops as the creature may explode spectacularly if it is wounded. It is visibly a bastard offspring of a dragon and often spouts a set of jagged horns.

Rivetback: When facing the Dwarves with their extensive use of artillery, the Orcs have taken to strapping, rivetting and fastening armour plates on top of the more scaly of Carnosaurs. They are also breeding certain beasts which are naturally more armour plated than common Carnosaurs and these armoured beasts can withstand a direct hit from even the mightiest battle cannon. The extra weight slows down the beast but when facing a defensive force such as the Dwarves this isn't seen as problem. The Orcs also mount a great goring spike on the heads of such beasts to allow them to break the disciplined lines of their foes and savage any other monstrous creature they face.

Spined Devil: Some Carnosaurs are born with tail spikes and a ragged ridge down their back of bone spines. The Orcs value these beasts and often cap their spines with iron or fasten on crushing clubs to their tales. Specialising in destroying infantry formations these beasts are often driven into the midst of the foe, lashing out with their powerful tails and impaling any unfortunate to get too close. The crew of such beasts take great pride in keeping the dead impaled on the spikes after the battle as both a grisly trophy and a handy food source.

Gorathosaur: Since the return of Gorath, some Carnosaurs give birth to a particularly vicious sub-species which has become known as the Gorathosaur. Unlike the more common warbeast, these creatures have a glimmer of intelligence in their eyes and sport a pair of heavy curving horns which they use to gore foes as they charge. Even more unusual is their ability to spit a highly corrosive bile. These are highly prized mounts and it is common to see Orcish Khans using them as favoured mounts.

Necrosaur: One of the larger warbeasts, the Necrosaur is a huge beast with a heavily armoured hide. It is a lumbering beast and as such its howdah will often sport a harpoon launcher to spear and draw back towards it cavernous mouth. The fearsome appearance of these beasts are re-enforced by the tendency of the crew to mount gruesome trophies of past kills on their howdahs.

Titanosaur: The largest beast yet fielded by the Orcs. This vast creature dwarfs any other warbeast and the very ground shakes under their ponderous tread. The sheer bulk of the creature lends it amazing momentum as it crashes through ranks of infantry with ease and crushes enemy warbeasts and engines beneath its mighty feet. Its maw is large enough to swallow whole squads at once and enterprising Khans mount all manner of fiendish devices upon these titans of the battlefield ranging from heavy catapults to iron capped rams.

Hope that gives you some sort of idea as to what I plan on doing over the coming months! I hope to eventually field at least one or two of each of these fearsome beasts in my horde and hopefully by the end of this year, I will be able to showcase a full army of bloodthirsy Orcs!

All the best!

Somewhere on the Border!

Hi!

I thought it was high time I restarted my old battle reports of Somewhere on the Border. Unlike my old blogs Leviathan stuff, it will be covering the arrival of the new governor general of the Farpoint sector, Baron Laars van Dorn.

It will be covering a mixture of small skirmishes on land and in the air too as I am currently converting an Imperial Shuttle to use in a small dog fighting scenario I am planning which will be pitting the retinues of von Dorn and his nemesis Alexandr Vosk, the corrupt ex governor and now criminal overlord.

 Gothic Overload!

As my budget for gaming is non existent at the moment and I am trying to sort my way through my unpainted miniatures collection, I plan on using some of the super cheap EM-4 Miniatures plastic spaceships that I have had kicking around for years as well as some toys that will be converted and put to good use.

Imperial Thunderbolt

I doubt there will be much need for me to be using vast space cathedrals like the Battlefleet Gothic ships but I can see there being skirmishes fought between Imperial escorts and pirate raiders on the trade routes between Farpoint and its other, far flung colonies out on the border. Hopefully I will have a picture or two to add in the next few days.

All the best!

A Blog of Interest!

Hi!

Alas not much time to get any painting done of late but I have spotted a really great blog that seems to have been a bit under the radar at the moment!

Death Of A Rubricist has been a really interesting read over the weeks since I found it and theres even some new takes on classic miniatures too. I particularly like Apologists conversion of a modern ork into a piece of Rogue Trader history:

Thrugg Bullneck Lives!

Please feel free to nip over and have a peruse as the blog itself is packed with nice conversions and a really interesting setting to boot. The truescale Space Marines are particularly good too!

All the best!

Orc Warband Part 1

Hi!

I thought I should actually get back to work on my Aeroth project with a bit of an attempt to get an Orc warband put together.

My original Leviathan project began and unfortunately ended with an Orc force so I think its quite fitting to start up this blog with attempt to recreate it in a more playable scale. For example, heres a picture of the mighty Titanosaur, the largest warbeast available to the Orcs painted by me all that time ago. Its actually mounted on a 200mm base if memory serves and stood almost a foot tall!

 A Mighty Titanosaur!

Now that made him an ideal centrepiece for an army but in practical terms, he was a bit too big to be practical in 28mm scale. Similarly, some of the smaller warbeasts still towered over pretty much anything else on the board!

A Horde of mostly unpainted lead and resin...

I do believe that the Orc warbeasts are some of the most iconic of the old Leviathan setting and want to recreate them in a somewhat more suitable scale so have settled on some of these chaps:

Yes! The plan is to use some of the cheap plastic D&D miniatures! I actually have three of the above chaps and think the bodies are fine but have hacked the head off one and plan on bulking up its tail to give it a more suitably aggressive Carnosaur look. I hope to add some pictures soon as I complete the resculpted head and tail before moving onto a howdah and some Orcish crew!

Hopefully I will have an update on the next couple of days!

All the best!

The City

Hi!

I have been spending some time coming up with a new region of Aeroth that is a bit different from the endless deserts and badlands that typify much of the land following The Death. The City stands as a meeting neutral for all the races of Aeroth, be they good, evil or unaligned. It also gives me the opportunity to indulge my obsession with Orientalist art and skirmish gaming!

Not all of Aeroth has been consumed by the Death. Standing in the middle of the ruination lies The City. Once it had another name but in the eons since its founding, it has become known simply as The City. A sprawling metropolis that sprouts up into the clouds and deep down under the earth it is inhabited by countless thousands of people from every race and culture imaginable. Here Humans rub shoulders with Elven nobles and Dwarven clansmen exchange insults with Orcish mercenaries in a seething chaos that often erupts into violence.

A View of the lower levels of The City

The City itself is built in seven levels. The First and top level, shrouded in cloud is home to the magnificent palaces and parklands of the god king, an enigmatic being of unimaginable power who resides over the mortal sprawl down below. This level is utterly off limits to all but those chosen of the god kings and any transgressor who manages to get near it are destroyed by the powerful defences, both magical and mundane that defend this paradise.

The Court of the God King

The Second level is the home to the great noble families. Here great fortified manors, churches, temples and all manner of grand buildings stand as testament to the power and wealth of The Cities nobility. Each of the houses has a large standing army as well as a great number of agents and spies working for them in the lower levels and each intrigues and plots against its neighbours and rivals in an unending dance of assassination and vendetta as the houses strive to reach the level of the God King and be found worthy of being given the charter to claim new lands for their immortal ruler.

The Idol Rich

The Third level is the home to the temples of The City. Here devotees from a thousand religions meet to worship all manner of deities, devils and charlatans. Unsurprisingly the greatest temples are those of the god kings but there are temples dedicated to every imaginable cult under the sun. The devotees themselves are often whipped into a religious frenzy against each other and many skirmishes are fought against unbelievers from nearby temples. Ruling over and controlling this chaos is the temple of the god kings. With thousands of fanatically loyal templars the cardinal of the god king wields the power to put down all but the most serious of religious zealotry by force of arms if necessary.

The Fourth level  is a vast and dizzying mix of wide streets, twisting alleys, merchants houses, tenements, artisans workshops and taverns. Here the buildings are of a more uniform appearance and are relatively safe and law abiding. Law is enforced here, either by the power of the god kings troops or the armed retinues of the nobility, many of whom have vast business interests based here.

One of the Fourth Levels many markets

The Fifth level is approximately at ground level and is a warren of shanties, industrial areas and quite often ruined. The rule of law doesn't extend this far and much of it is either prowled by gangs or groups of the noble houses troops. It is at this level that much of the action takes place as gangs jockey for position, lowly guilds seek to garner noble contracts and the noble houses themselves act through their proxies, seeking to undermine their competitors while strengthening their own positions.

The Ruins of the outer fifth level

The Sixth level is buried underground and is a maze of interconnected basements, passageways, covered pits and the assorted detritus of The Cities populous. This far down, the inhabitants are savage and often mutated by exposure to magical runoff and industrial sludge. Gang warfare is incessant and brutal but wealth and power can still be found in these stinking depths. in the mines that dot the region and amongst the great piles of scrap that litter this level, treasures can be unearthed of great power and some of the more daring noble families will fund expeditions into the depths in search of just such booty.

The Seventh and final level lies deep beneath the earth and is home to the worst of the worst and the most piteous of the inhabitants of The City. This far from the sun, evil men and women rule petty kingdoms of savages and fight amongst themselves or the many vile creatures that thrive in the dark and dank places. It is from this level that rumours spread of the demon king, the polar opposite of the ruler of The City,  a terrible being who hungers for power, carnage and chaos and who sends his own dark messengers up through the levels to sow discord and mayhem.

Hopefully I will be able to get some warbands put together soon to game out some skirmishes based in the urban sprawl of The City soon!

All the best!

Zykhee Soulless

Hi!

Here's the latest addition to my Rogue Trader project, a Zykhee Soulless.

 Zykhee Soulless

Originally from the rather awesome Vor: The Maelstrom, The Zykhee are a tall race of androgenous humanoids with an extra joint in their arms and legs. I was never too much of a fan of them when they were first released but I picked up this chap from Gateshead Gaming at a convention last year.

Game wise, I think he will be a combat esper, combining powerful martial arts skills with psyker powers and his staff looks like a good alien tech version of a force rod too!

I had quite a lot of fun adding some freehand designs onto his robe but the figure itself took very little time to paint, just a basecoat, some drybrushing and a few washes. I am really pleased with how he turned out and I believe he was actually sculpted by Kev Adams so has loads of character.

He's a really tall figure and heres a couple of shots showing just how big, compared to a Ork Ripper Suit and a Bloodaxe trooper:

I have a few other bits and bobs which I plan on painting up to use as an Inquisitorial hit team and may include the Zykhee in their numbers!

Finally heres a quick shot of my Bloodaxes thus far:

Mobbed Up!

I only need to finish a couple more of their kin to get a playable force and quite like the eclectic mix of figures and ranges that are beginning to emerge from my leadpile as its giving me a brilliant selection to choose from and really seems to embody the spirit of Rogue Trader. It also seems to be rather in the spirit of my Budgethammer pledge from last year.

Hopefully I will manage to get some more of my leadpile sorted out over the coming week or so and have some more Imperials to work on as well as a possible Inquisitor too!

All the best!

Hobby Ponderings

Hi!

Well its my day off and I find myself pondering what I am doing with my hobby once again. Worry not its all a bit more positive than some of my previous wailing and gnashing of teeth!

Over the last month or so, I seem to have found myself enjoying a bit of a renaissance in 28mm painting and I do hope to continue it as it has been a most pleasant way to enjoy my hobby. In fact I seem to have managed to paint no less than 17 figures in a month which must be some sort of a record for me, not matched since back in the day!

The problem is I just don't have space to play any games but more on that later as for the moment I am thinking of doing something a bit heretical. I am banning myself from buying any more miniatures. Heresy you say! Well the truth of it is I want to paint my way through my lead pile.

I must admit it is much diminished from years past when I had the terrible habit of buying stuff with the intention of painting it and then spotting something else and suffering a bout of the Ooh Shiny Syndrome. I think this was part of the problem with my old Leviathan blog where I rapidly acquired so much stuff that it became so daunting that I gave up.

Just part of the Old Lead (and Resin) Pile

Sadly that whole collection ended up on ebay or traded away (something I am kicking myself for now!) The remedy to this is, I hope, to get cracking on with my painting of the bits and bobs I currently have lying around and there is good news there as I think I have currently only got about 100 unpainted figures in my possession. 

That's not a huge amount to work through and I figure I could potentially finish it all this year with a little bit of effort! If I can get myself down to 50 or so unpainted figures, I am going to allow myself the luxury of buying one figure for every miniature I manage to finish which should then give me some extra motivation to complete the project.

Now onto the gaming side of things. As much as I would love to get some games in for Rogue Trader and Oldhammer in general, I just don't have the space for even a moderately big board and suspect I may even struggle to get a 4x4 in my man cave without a bit of a squeeze! 

I refuse to worry about it though as for the time being, I have enough to keep me going on the painting front and who knows, maybe I will even manage a board at some point in the future but theres no point fretting about it now!

UPDATE!

Well it looks like my decision to cut my gaming budget to nil for the next few months has been prophetic as I just received a whopping £300 bill from those kind souls at N Power! Still, there's no point fuming about it I suppose but it irks me that I am having to sacrifice more to the suits in the power companies!

Ah well! 

Imperial Wolfbane Commando

Hi!

A bit of a blast from the past here with an old Wolfbane Commando from Warzone!

Wolfbane

He is actually one of the first miniatures I bought after giving up on Games Workshop and giving away my collection and was sat painted to a rather iffy standard for years until I finally stripped him back this week.

I do have fond memories of using him and his kin in many a solo game of Warzone as the few gamers in town were die hard 40k fans. Ah the joys of being a teenager!

I went for the traditional leather brown colours on his armour and Rogue Trader wise, he will be classed as a feral world henchman armed with a sword and bolt pistol. I do have several more commando's kicking around in the Dettol bath and hope to get some more worked on as time allows!

All the best!

Mutant Warband Part 1

Hi!

Following on from my last post, I have decided to create a small Mutant warband using a bit of a combination of the mutant tables from Rogue Trader and a little low cunning!

Heres the results:

First up I need a leader for my warband so settled on rolling a D6 and consulting the following chart:
1-2 Level 5 Champion
3-4 Level 10 Hero
5 Level 15 Hero
6 Level 20 Hero

I rolled a 6 so I get a very powerful character to lead the warband but he is currently totally generic so I roll D3 for Mutations and get  a 1. Although he's a Mutie, he's not going to be totally weird looking. Consulting the Rogue Trader Mutation Chart I roll a 92 and get a Timeslip mutation allowing the character to move forward in time at will and vanish from the game for a random amount of time.

Already he is beginning to sound more interesting but what about equipment?

I Rolled a D3-1 for basic weapons and got a Shuriken catapult and another for close combat weapons but got none.

Next up D3 Miscellaneous Equipment and ended up with a Bio Scanner and a Flight Pack!

Lastly, I rolled for a random piece of armour and got Carapace.

Now my Mutant leader has been created, I figured he should have some underlings to do his bidding!

D6 Mutants later and I got the following characters, each with D3 Mutations:

Mutie 1: Hideous Appearance
Mutie 2: Arms Elongate at Will and Very Agile
Mutie 3: Metal Body, Overgrown Body Part (Leg, -2 Weapon Skill and -50% move), Arms Elongate at will
Mutie 4: Long Nose, Enormously Fat
Mutie 5: Bestial Face, Great Fangs

Equipment wise, they all ended up with Chainmail as its good and primitive for a bunch of sump dwelling Mutie scum!

They got access to D3 Basic Weapons and D6 Close Combat Weapons and got a Lasgun and another Shuriken Catapult, not to mention a Hand Flamer, Jokero Digital Laser, a Hand Weapon and a chainsword.

Finally they got a 50% chance of a random piece of equipment but failed to claim any swag.

This gives me a mutant leader armed with a piece of cutting edge alien tech, heavy armour and a flight pack who can also timeslip at will! Hows that for a villain to cause all kinds of woes on the battlefield, especially when combined with his retinue of more seriously mutated scum!

The last thing to do was give him a name. A quick tour over to Seventh Sanctum (a handy website with all manner of interesting name and equipment generators) and Flickerblink the Ever Traveling is born!

I now have a really great little warband that literally oozes character. I could try and find suitable figures but I am rather tempted to sculpt up the members of the group as they sound so interesting!

Progress to follow!

Mutant Hordes?

Hi!

Well I am going to be shuffling off to bed in a bit but have been playing around with the idea of rolling up some of the rather interesting mutations available in the Rogue Trader rules to provide me with some handy low level villains to menace my Imperial Garrison.

I must admit I have found the change in the way mutants are portrayed in the Rogue Trader universe. In the original rulebook they are unusual and often unfortunate looking as this rogues gallery suggests but they don't seem to be quite so degenerated and scabby as the later versions that can be seen in the likes of Necromunda and Inquisitor.

I find myself sorely tempted to have a bash sculpting up one or two to see how I get on as they would make for a really characterful addition to any small skirmish game, be they pin heads, enormously fat or just have a freakishly squeaky voice!

Thats the joy of the random nature of the charts in Rogue Trader when you can roll a result that totally effects how your character will be viewed but in game terms, it has no real effect. Yes some of the mutations are vastly powerful but with a suitable scenario they have the opportunity to shine and literally make a game a bit special!

One can see how the likes of 2000ad and Judge Dredds Cursed Earth has effected the development, at least in the early years of the Muties and its very tempting to recreate some Mutant raids into surrounding cities for slaves/food or sacrifices and it could be quite a fun process to add some freaky looking sculpts to the existing forces!

All the best!

Ogre! Ogre!

Hi!

Just a quick update this morning before we head out for the day! I've just finished another figure, this time a Chainmail Ogre or more properly an Ogress!

 Ogress

Its another figure I have had sat half painted for quite a while so its been really great to add the finishing touches to her and get her ready for games.

I don't know what it is about her but she really reminds me of some of the villains from Army of Darkness and she has loads of character too and I must admit its good to get a bit of diversity too as how many female ogres have been released that you can think of?

Snarl!

I have a second one of these models which I am going to be converting to 40k as a big mutie or scavvy when time allows!

All the best!

Loritta the Space Pirate

Hi!

Its been a rather slow week painting wise but a much needed distraction from a rather stressful work week and I have managed to finish off an old Bob Olley sculpt called Loritta from the old Iron Claw Space Pirate range:

 Loritta

I originally picked up the figure from a gaming store for about £1.00 a couple of years back and she's been languishing in my lead pile ever since. She might not the most beautiful sculpt in the world but like so many of the old school figures, she's got buckets of character and painting her was a breeze.

Unusually, I primed her white and the richness of the colours really shines through because of it so I may try doing a few more in a similar style. I will be using her as a generic mercenary/ganger/pirate or scum but do want to see if I can track down a few more older sculpts to bulk out a decent number of henchmen and women!

All the best!

The Farpoint Sector and the Imperium Re-imagined

Hi!

Whee! Two posts in a day! Its surprisingly been my day off today and I decided to have a bash at developing a bit of background on the setting I want to use for my Rogue Trader skirmishes that I mentioned on my previous post. I also wanted to continue developing my alternative version of the Warhammer 40k setting to give me some more interesting bits and bobs to set my games around!

I will spend a fair amount of time with the setting in a moment but want to write out some thoughts I have had on the 40k background first.

I have waxed lyrical about the OTT nature of the Grimdark setting that 40k seems to have found itself in with its dark age gloom and medieval gothic view of things. All fine and well if you are into that but I find myself rather unhappy with it and have pondered how it could be changed to meet my own outlook on things.

I have looked at several of the races in the game and how they could be re-imagined but what if the whole setting got a shift? The idea is to bring the setting out of the medieval and into a more Tudor/Age of Enlightenment type of approach.

New technologies are being created and barely understood before being put into use and a period of exploration and conquest has begun with the Imperium setting out to settle the galaxy. Unlike the GW setting, the Emperor is not a mouldering corpse kept alive by arcane technology but is alive and well, well at least his descendants are in the form of Empress Lionstone XVI. The Empress sits upon the golden throne of Terra and the High Lords, great houses and all manner of adventurers, cads and villains flock to her palace in search of patronage.

Space Marines are the Empresses elite shock troops, genetically engineered to be the superhuman warriors of legend but they are decidedly more down to earth than the traditional warrior monk of GW fame. They are professional soldiers but have the same needs and ambitions as any human but most of these legions are fanatically loyal to the throne of Terra, if not the person sat upon it.

Humanity now numbers in the untold Billions and thousands of star systems are colonised, from peaceful agri worlds to chaotic hive worlds and industrial worlds and everything in between. Each planet is ruled by a Governor charted by the Empress herself to rule in her place, keep law and order and more importantly collect taxes. Each world will have at least one regiment of Imperial Guard or some sort of planetary defence force to defend their homes from alien invasion as despite everything, it is still a dangerous place in the 40th Millenium.

Alien species are an accepted and relatively common sight throughout the Imperium with many cultures under the benign rule of the Imperium although rebellions are common. One race that has thrived in this setting is the Ork. From border raiders and savages to rulers of large swathes of space, these greenskinned creatures have even found a place amongst the ranks of the Imperium with regiments of Askaris and mercenaries often used when Guard regiments are stretched thin.

The Squats and other abhuman races also form a significant minority amongst the Imperium but there still remains a stigma on many worlds where anyone different is to be mistrusted and slavery is not unheard of in the outer colonies.

Things aren't all a bed of roses though as the resurgent Eldar constantly war upon the Imperium to reclaim large stretches of their lost empire and constant raids by Eldar pirates have become a fact of life out on the rim.

More ominously, there are murmurings of rebellion amongst the Imperiums citizens as humanity chafes under the heavy taxes and constant need for supplies and manpower in the many warzones that dot the Imperium. Malcontents and even the notorious Traitor Space Marine Legions have time and again plunged while sectors into chaos while cults, secret societies and even greedy corporations seek to undermine the Empresses realm.

Worse yet, from the depths of space, the Tyrand menace has appeared, worlds have been stripped of life and entire armies sacrificed to hold the voracious xenos at bay. The Empress has ordered her Space Marine Legions to wipe out this deadly threat and the engineers of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the cult of the Machine on Mars have begun experimenting with genetic engineering using strange new bio weapons captured from the Tyranids and retro-fitted to be fielded by new races of augmented men.

This brings me onto the setting where the action is going to take place. Farpoint is a sector on the western rim of the Imperium and contains seven inhabited systems and has just received a new Governor General, Baron Laars van Dorn. The Empress has given von Dorn the position as a reward for some skullduggery in the past and she has commanded him to set forth exploration teams to find potential worlds suitable for colonisation or mining.

Sector Map

Farpoint has the potential to both enrich van Dorn and his clan, and provide the Imperium with valuable mineral wealth and colonies and already several lesser families, Rogue Traders and corporate interests have arrived in the sector in preparation for the gold rush that is bound to happen with the opening of the borders.

Farpoint itself is a rather arid world but contains rich sources of mineral wealth and several great mining concerns currently have holdings there, including at least two Squat Guilds. To this dusty world van Dorn has brought a full regiment of his own Imperial Guard to supplement the PDF force and the Empress has loaned him a company of Ultramarines under the command of Captain Tiberius Aquilonius to help bring order to this lawless region.

The Planet Farpoint as seen from space

Van Dorn faces a great challenge with his arrival as the previous Governor, Alexandr Vosk, was removed for being corrupt but still resides in the capitol city of Freeport, surrounded by a veritable army of thugs, toadies and courtiers and rumour has it that Vosk has been tapping his underworld contacts to provide van Dorn with a warm welcome. 

Fortunately the new Governor General is no stranger to intrigue and his agents are already conducting a secret war on all seven worlds with Vosks underlings. The Empress is fully aware of the situation but is confident that the Baron will rise to the challenge and subdue Vosk before things get out of hand.

 Freeport, the capitol city of Farpoint

Word of the unrest has spread across the border and several Eldar pirate flotillas have been seen cruising the shipping lanes. Word of the Empresses attack dogs arrival has also spread to the rebel held world of Bone and several raiding parties have been dispatched to sow chaos and disorder along the border in hopes of dissuading the Imperium from sticking its nose into local matters.

Hopefully that should give me enough stuff to keep me going!

All the best!

Bloodaxe Mega Armour!

Greetings!

Well its taken long enough but I have finally finished the Ripper Suited Marauder for use with my Bloodaxe warband!

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!

Its been a titanic job to get him finished but I must admit I am rather pleased with the results. I replaced his main gun for an Orky bolter and reworked some of his armour including adding a new breastplate, reworked helmet and lots of badges not to mention new boots.

I had even added a back banner for a proper Ork look but ended up removing it as it just didn't look right with the sculpt. I do like the combination of tech and savagery that the figure has and he's just the thing for breaching ships during boarding actions or mixing it up in melee.

In hindsight, I should have probably added some sort of underslung hand flamer to his chainfist to give him a bit more close range firepower but I am quite happy with the amount of work I did on him. I do have a second Ripper Suit which will be seeing use as a heavy weapons platform at some point but as I now have four Bloodaxes finished with another half dozen or so to go but want to take a break from the greenskins and paint up something else for a change as the Mega Armour really took it out of me to finish.

1st Mordor Rifles

Painting up this small band has got me thinking of what I want to do with them and perusing my copy of Inquisitor, Inquisimunda, In The Emperors Name and so on for some inspiration. Likewise the utterly fantastic Gorkamorka stuff being posted over on THE CHICKEN NINJAS BLOG such as these chaps:

The Chicken Ninjas Ork Boyz

I must admit I am sorely tempted to build up some more gangs to allow me to play out some mayhem in the badlands and frontier worlds that comprise the Farpoint Sector!

All the best!