Sunday 18 August 2013

Space Slann Completed!


At the start of the week I won an auction from e-bay for Quinletz, the final TSF18 Space Slann from the early days of Rogue Trader.
 For the bargain price of £8.50 I have finally got the last Slann I needed to complete the set of the 12 orginal Space Slann released. I have been after him since 1987, especially annoying as I nearly bought him at the time, but changed my mind and bought some Paranoia robots instead, and where this miniature is concerned, e-bay auctions were never very kind to me :(

So finally I have the set. I don't normally go in for the 'got to collect them all' approach (no criticism of those that do), but for the Slann, especially Space Slann, it has been little different as it felt wrong not having them all. I am looking forward painting the full set plus the extra ones now they are complete.

Of course, there is the later 13th Space Slann test model that was unreleased, but I am less concerned with him as I wanted to get the orginal set from 1987. If the opporunity arises, then fine, but he was £50+ last time e-bay offered one up, and so it does'nt look like a practical option anyway.

Other than the Slann,  I have completed painting the Bretonnian army, and now need to varnish, base, and add a couple of flags to them.  I also found the box of Trolls, amusingly they were under the bed!

Anyhow, here are the Slann, some painted, some WIP that had been put on hold, and others unpainted as of yet:



TSF18 Space Slann.
Released 1987.
 At last, Quinletz.
 All 12 Space Slann.
One interesting thing about the Space Slann is they made them in pairs. As I have mentioned before when discussing Goblins and Great Goblins/Gnolls, Citadel used to take one basic model, and then convert several different variants from it. For the Space Slann, they did this, but as there are only 12 in the range, they had six basic versions, and then six variants.
 Xvarn. He seems to be armed with a las-pistol and what I have assumed to be a needler on his left forearm.
 Closer look of the 'needler'. 
Xvarn seems to be the basic model to Capt. Haxl below.
 Capt. Haxl. he is exactly the same as Xavrn, except for the headress, pistol in his right hand, and his head shape is the same Huvez. His arm is only in a differing position because he was an e-bay buy, and the previous owner re-postioned the arm, and I have'nt re-positioned it.
 Side view showing the slightly different pistol and feather.
 Llammas.
He is quite a tall Slann (and named after a Pagan holiday for some reason!) . I have no idea what weapon that is, might be lasgun or could even be a graviton gun.
 Rear view.
Llammas is the basic version to Sschoi.
 Cmmr. Xix.
 I always assumed 'Cmmr' was sort for Commander, but not sure if the XIX is for 19, or it is Xix as his name.  I have gone for Xix as a name as I don't think Slann would use Roman numerals. He is carrying what I lasgun. I love the geometric headress.
 Rear view. He has a communicator on his belt whose design often turns up on the early Imperial Army and Space Marine models.
His twin model is Holx for his body, but has the same style head as Sgt. Yoitz.
 Ixtacha. 
Again I love the headress/helmet. He has a lasgun, the design of which turns up on some early Squats and some models in the Citadel Judge Dredd range.
 Rear view. 
He is the compainion to Sgt. Yoitz body, but the head of Holx with a different helmet.
 Sschoi. 
Twin of Llammas, and with the same gun. He has shoulder pad armour, and fur on the right hand shoulder.
 Side view. I painted the fur purple for Cthellan Cudbear fur, or just dyed. 
His head is that of Xvarn.
 Quinletz. 
I plan to use him as the Warleader of the Slann force. 
He had the same body and axe in his left hand as Huvez, the same head shape as Llammas, and the same odd weapon as Xavrn and Capt. Haxl.

 Rear view. 
I was looking at the model and is think that the basic body shape is a converson of the Fantasy Slann Animal Handler model.
Again, I like the headress/helmet.

 Olassa. 
He is carrying a lasgun or las pistol that is often seen on early Imperial Army, Eldar, and Adventurer models.
He has the same body as Scoitz, but head type looks unique.
 Rear view. 
Slann do not go in for a lot of clothes! He does have the same communicator which I mentioned before, and that is on several Slann.

 Huvez.
He is exactly the same as Quinletz, except for having the head shape of Capt. Haxl.

Side view showing the axe.

 Sgt. Yotiz wielding a lasgun. 
Same body as Ixtacha, same head and helmet as Cmmr. Xix

 Rear view .
 Holx with lasgun. 
Body type the same as Cmmr. Xix, and head type as Ixtacha. The helmet is the same but with the tall part rotated 90 degrees and slightly modified.

Side view.
 Scoitz, carrying the lasgun/pistol. 
Same body as Olassa. I am not sure if the head is unique, a 'fattened up' version of Olassa, or from one the Fantasy Slann.
  Rear view, showing the almost fantasy Slann style headress.
 23 Space Slann.
The plan is to split them down into squads of 5 or 6  and have Quinletz wondering around as an independent Warleader character. I have some old Ground Zero Games vehicles that I can add to them too if needed. Might work out a little 1,500 point skirmish list.
Many are WIP, but the plan is to give them a very bright colour scheme, with a 1960's/70's sci-fi feel from the colours, along with colourful skin tones.
I based them on 25mm square bases rather than round bases to fit in with the fantasy Slann, and visa versa.
 A converted Slann carrying a conversion beamer, made from a broken version of Holx.
First contact: not always an easy encounter!

11 comments:

  1. Good job on your PokeSlann collection :), gotta collect them all indeed :)

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  2. Congratulation! That is an excellent collection. Must say that the Space Slann is a bit of a favorite of the early Rouge Trader minis. Thx/Hans

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    1. They have always been a love of mine, it was their background and the Imperial Army that drew me to Rogue Trader at first.
      I will be painting them when I get the chance in between projects, re-living those early days of 1987/8! :)

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  3. Lee, dude, seriously... I'm really jealous this time. I haven't been able to remove the space slanns form my mind since I first saw them in the RT rulebook.
    I guess you amongst all people deserve to get the full collection so they are in good hands I know. You tretaing them like ni thos old SF graphic novels is a very good idea, it's actually the way I see them as well.
    Always felt their was so much to be done with this army, I've even considered building a converted army with stone dreadnaughts made of ruin parts bound with magic, but that would be a LOT of work, maybe some time ... (sigh)

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    1. Like a lot of the early Rogue Trader things the Slann were an exotic eye catcher. I always liked the way the background was built on from the Fantasy Slann and giving them the link from the Space Slann to the fantasy Slann.
      That's why I based them on 25mm Square bases so they can fit in better with the fanatsy Slann if I ever played one of the rule book/Warhammer Siege scenarios about supporting primiative/medieval armies.

      Painting them, I wanted to give that very alien and slightly out of place feel, very similar to graphic novels, and the old Sci-Fi book covers, with a dash of early Roxy Music! I did have a larger 40k Slann army converted up from some Warhammer Slann, but when I re-did the Fantasy army I disbanded them and added them to it and kept the 40k army with just the TSF18 miniatures.

      Good ideas for the army. I do have an old American magazine from the 1990's called Dark Libary which did a big feature on a re-vamped Slann army for 2nd Edition 40k. I will have to find it and put in on the blog.
      The Slann were a great missed opportunity, and many of the ideas they could have used are now coming to the fore with the Necrons. Slann vs Necrons would be a fun thing as the Necron background mentions their war with the 'Old Ones', which were the Slann in the older background.

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    2. Yep, the conflict between necrons and Slanns is actually what made me love the necrons at first.
      If you find your reference on the army, that would be sweet.
      I may try to build a small warband for skirmish purposes only to not let myself fall into some neverending project.

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  4. Great! I didn't even knew I wanted them... Now I do! :)

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    1. Don't know whether to be happy for you or guilty I have started you on a road to collecting Slann.
      You can still pick them up on e-bay sometimes, but anything 1980's Slann related can be costly.

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  5. Wow!
    I didn’t even knew that the Slann existed outside of fantasy!
    Seeing them for the first time, I thought that they are some sort of kit bash or conversion!

    But they look fantastic! And they are in good hands.

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  6. Glad you like them.
    They were designed and sculpted by the same sculptress, Trish Morrison (now Trish Carden) who sculpted the slotta based fantasy Slann of the mid to late 1980's.

    There was also a 13th Space Slann which was unreleased, which I covered in a later blog update:
    http://goblinlee.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-13th-warrior-unreleased-space-slann.html

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