Early Rogue Trader era Eldar Pirates.

 Keeping with my recent early Rogue Trader era theme, I have painted some early release Eldar. Now I never liked the Eldar at the time, too busy collecting Orks and Slann, but on later reflection I quite like them and see them nearly as iconic as the Crimson Fist Space Marines for the early era (1987/8) as the are photograph all through the rule book. 

I have organised them as per the Eldar army list in the Book of the Astronomican (1988), in squads of five miniatures. There were two basic types of squads. The first was the Serpent Squads, consisting of a squad leader with flamer and power sword, a trooper with a melta gun, and three troopers with shuriken catapults. The other type was the heavy/special weapon squad, the Dragon Squads, consisting of a leader with power glove and a plasma gun, a trooper with a heavy plasma gun, a trooper with a flamer, and two troopers with shuriken catapults. 

As for painting I chose the series of paint schemes found in both the Rogue Trader rule book, and in both the artwork and Eldar Dreadnought advert in White Dwarf #100. I really wanted to capture that old Eldar Pirate look, before the re-dux in 1990 with all of the Aspect Warriors, etc. I also want to paint each squad slightly differently, even if they are in the same Pirate group, just to break up a monotonous look. They were great fun to paint and I am happy with how they turned out. I might paint some more! 

Enjoy :) 

A Dragon Squad belonging to Yriel's Eldritch Raiders, copied from the rule book miniatures. 

Squad leader. 

Heavy weapon and flamer. 

Troopers.

A Serpent squad of Xian's Black Raiders. 

Squad Leader and melta gun trooper. 

Troopers. 

A Serpent Squad based on some of the miniatures painted for the early Eldar (Space Elves) adverts. I will use them as a squad of the Scarlet Command Pirate force. 

Squad leader and melta gunner. 

Trooper. 

Serpent Squad, based on some of the Eldar painted on p180-181 in the Rogue Trader rule book. These will end up as a Scarlet Command squad as well. 

Melta gunner and squad leader. 

Troopers. 

Eldar Pirates from Yriel's Eldritch Raiders and Xian's Black Raiders defend themselves from an attack by the Scarlet Command. 

The next update might be some more Rogue Trader stuff as I am in that vibe at the moment,

and I am in between projects. 

Rogue Trader era Zoats.

 For a lot of the year I have so far been blogging about my Mithril Evil Army, which is fine, but I had  finished painting them in about May and have really only been catching up with photographs. Since then I have been doing a lot of other things, mainly re/basing Rogue Trader era miniatures. Outside of the hobby my life has been taken over by a lot of various busy things, and so I have been relaxing mainly by re/basing rather than painting. However yesterday I had some free time and got to painting. 

Zoats! I love 'em. 

When I first saw the 40k versions back in 1987 I thought they really did have that alien feel. Unlike the humanoid looking aliens (except for the Slann), the Zoats (and the Tyranids) really felt alien. The green sickly, unearthly looking green painting in the advert (see below) worked well, and that was how mine were painted for ages (give or take the odd experimental scheme). Anyway, as mentioned,  I have been re/basing a lot of Rogue Trader stuff and so it was only a matter of time before I got to the Tyranids. I had collected a fair sized army based on the 1992 Tyranid Army list, which was the first army list since the basic one in the 40k rule book. So with the Zoats, paint stripped and re-based, and sitting on the desk I thought, 'I want to paint these'. And so I did. 

Now the original colour scheme was great, but I want these to be part of a wider Tyranid Hive Fleet. So I opted for the Hive Fleet Behemoth. This was apparently the first Hive Fleet to be encountered, which I thought suited Rogue Trader era miniatures, and it was similar to the 1992 paint scheme. Also I just really liked the alien looking red and blue. Painting wise (as always) I wanted to keep it simple, concentrating on the two main colours.

Using all Citadel paints, after a Mechanicus Standard Grey undercoat, the red was Khorne Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, with light highlights of Troll Slayer Orange. The blue was Kantor Blue, Thunderhawk Blue, with Calgar Blue highlights, and a final edge highlight with White Scar. I added a little Moot Green highlights on a little of the equipment/weapons. I used Technical 'Ardcoat to varnish them as I wanted that shiny, icky, alien look.

All in all, I am very pleased with how they came out, and I will be seeing if I have enough time to paint the rest of the Zoats, and maybe the rest of the Hive Fleet army. I am also pleased with how the muddy, barbed wire strewn bases, which are going to be standard for my Rogue Trader era miniatures, look. 

Enjoy :) 

Zoats!
In the 1992 army list Zoats aren't organised into squads but are purchased individually. However I have kept with the old rule book (and Book of the Astronomicon 1988) convention of squads of four. 

Squad leader with Power Fist and Flesh Ripper Pistol. 

Zoat with Barber Strangler. 

Two Zoat troopers with Flesh Ripper Pistols. 

All of my Zoats! 
(one of the squads here is the one which I have painted). 

The advertisement from 1987. 
(from the Stuff of Legends website). 

Next update might be some more Tyranids.  

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 8.

This is a bit of a photo drop really, as I had finished painting this army quite some time ago  (May or June) and have moved on to other things. 

 I have been too busy at the moment with other life commitments to have had time to blog. I have really enjoyed collecting, painting and completing this army, it is just a shame that I was unable to blog it as I went along, hence the drib-drab of blogging for it. When I have had any spare time I have been re/basing old 1980's miniatures (Rogue Trader stuff and Realms of Chaos Daemons), which is quite relaxing of an evening, and which I intend to start as new projects as summer turns into autumn. I have photographed a few of the last couple of evenings WIP at the end of this blog update. 

Enjoy :) 

Warg Riders.
I have eight bases of orc warg riders, and two accompanying heroes for each group of four bases. The warg riders represent Light Riders (Noble Cavalry and Light Chariots) class in the Midgard rules as this category has been used to represent orc warg/wolf in the army lists in the rulebook. Instead of four miniatures per base I have opted for three for the same reasons I reduced the numbers of infantry miniatures on the orc warrior bases: the size, and the scarcity of the miniatures. 

Warg Riders.
From left to right: a Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg, M1314 Orc on charging Warg, and a converted M315 Orc on running Warg (the spear was broken and replaced with a sword).
The 2008 Salute miniature is relatively common compared to the other Orc Warg riders, and so I have mixed several on the bases, as well as using two for heroes. 

M1314 Orc on charging Warg, M51 Angmar Wolf Rider with horn and scimitar, and another Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg.

M1314 Orc on charging Warg, M315 Orc on running Warg, and a Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg.

One of the Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg, individually based so he can do heroic (well maybe not quite heroic!) things on the battlefield. 

The Warg riders riding off to war. 

Orc skirmishers. 
I thought that the army would require some skirmishers and so I based up eight bases of three to represent Skirmisher (shooters), and one hero. Again, three rather than four to a base, but this also allowed me to add more rocks and give the bases a feel of much more broken ground. 
The miniatures used are a mix of Mithril Miniatures archers from various ranges, and from the MW336 Orcs of Mordor boxset. 
I might add another Orc hero to these as one doesn't seem enough. 

Orc Hero.
This orc is the Orc archer from the M288 pack. I painted his bow with bands of colour to differentiate him as a hero, and to add a little bit of extra detail. 

Orc archers. 
I'm not going to list each of the archers on the bases as they, like the warrior bases are a good mix of the Mithril ranges. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

WIP
I have been, amongst other things, re-basing my old early Rogue Trader miniatures. Here are some Eldar Dreadnoughts, with a re-based Eldar Pirate as well. 

Rogue Trader era Eldar War Walkers, and a Vampire Class Spirit-Warrior. 

The next update will probably be either a mix of Mithril Miniatures and Rogue Trader things, or just Rogue Trader stuff. I am currently basing and painting some Imperial Army miniatures, a range I really like, and remember waiting all summer of 1987 to purchase them once Rogue Trader/40k was released.

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 7.

 Another quick update on my ongoing Mithril Miniatures Evil army. I say ongoing, but I have actually already finished painting the army. My main problem is having enough time for photography and then updating the blog. I have already moved onto painting some Chaos Dwarfs, and some 40k Praetorians, but their photographs will have to wait until the Mithril Miniatures have had their turn. I did really enjoy painting the army, and I am very pleased with how they turned out. 

Anyway, back to this blog update. This update concerns Mithril Miniatures boxset MB396 Shelob's Lair. Originally produced in 1997, this boxset was made to represent the confrontation by Frodo and Sam against Shelob, with Gollum lurking in the background. The set consists of Shelob, who is a multi-part kit, and a single miniature of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum respectively. I haven't painted the latter three yet as I wanted to focus on Shelob. I only acquired this boxset this year, in March, as a birthday present from my mother (who incidentally, doesn't really like spiders!). 

As mentioned, the Shelob miniature is multi-part, consisting of a body, an abdomen, eight legs, and two arms. She was surprisingly easy to assemble, the arms being a little fiddly but no real problem. The design of Shelob represents her spider-like form, but does have other elements also suggesting the fact that she is more a daughter of Ungoliant than a giant spider per se. This is suggested in such details as her more humanoid looking face, and her possessing arms (although ending in claws). One last thing to mention is the model is big, very big. The last photograph demonstrates how large she is. 

With painting I wanted make her both dark but with colour, so I opted for a gradation of red, with the brighter red on the legs joints and edges of the body to contrast the darker red parts. I also thought it would give her a spider look, without actually copying a particular spider colouration. In addition, I also wanted to keep the look simple and uncomplicated, and to preserve an stark evil feel. I'm very pleased with how she came out. 

Enjoy :) 

Shelob.

Top view showing the colouration on her legs.
 I positioned the legs to give the impression she was creeping along.

Her face and arms.
As I mentioned before, the sculpt suggests her true non spider ancestry from Ungoliant, which I think was a good choice. 

Legs and rocks. 

Rear view of her huge abdomen.

Scale comparison. 
I had to make a special custom base for her. In the foreground is a base Orc warriors on the standard 125mm by 50mm base. At the far side is one of Shelob's Giant Spider daughters from Mirkwood. Shelob is a big model, and her base is much bigger than a normal Midgard base, but it's an appropriate size for her.

My next  update will be something else from the Evil army, but I am not sure what. 

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 6.

It's time for the Trolls! These form the heavy hitting shock troops of the evil army. I have collected six bases of them, with three to a base, made up of a mixture of different Trolls from the Mithril Miniatures ranges. In the Midgard rules they will count as Heavy Infantry, with Big and Brutal traits.

Painting them was very straight forward. I recall reading somewhere that the Trolls of Middle Earth had a greenish tinge to their flesh (but not in the same hue as GW Trolls!) and so I went for a dark olive green look,. I also kept their clothing suitably drab, and their armour rusty. Again, like all of the Mithril Miniatures, they were fun to paint and looked good when painted due to the good sculpting and detailing. Like their Orc miniatures, Mithril Miniatures Trolls are very dynamically posed. I am pleased with how they have turned out.

Enjoy :)

The column of Trolls advances!

From left to right:
M416 Dol Guldur Troll attacking; M148 Olog-Hai Troll; M284 Cave Troll attacking.

M414 Dol Guldur Troll throwing rock; M295 Mordor Black Troll; and a converted M174 Troll of the Underdeep (he was missing his dagger in his right hand, and so I added a bits box blade in his left).

M148 Olog-Hai Troll; M23 Large Stone Troll; M48 Troll with Morning Star.

Another M148 Olog-Hai Troll; an unconverted M174 Troll of the Underdeep; M415 Dol Guldur Troll with stone axe.

MS471 Troll Drummer; MM443 MERP 'Dagorhir the Warlord'; M284 Cave Troll.
This base is designed to look a little like a command base.

M295 Mordor Black Troll; M148 Olog-Hai Troll; M49 Angmar Troll with cleaver.

The next update will probably be on some of the individually based character models and heroes which I have painted for the army.