Vulture Warriors from Dimension X meet plenty of Cheerful Orks with Plasma Cannon.

Vulture Warriors from Dimension X meet plenty of Cheerful Orks with Plasma Cannon was Paranoia/Warhammer 40k cross over scenario published in White Dwarf #112. The idea was that it could be run either as a 40k game, or as the basis of a Second Edition Paranoia adventure.

For those of you unaware, Paranoia was a roleplay game from the 1980's, published by West End Games and also published in the UK by GW. It is set in a dystopian future where humans lived in vast underground city complexes (the game was set in 'Alpha Complex') and goverened by a Computer. It was more of a tongue in cheek game (beer and prestels to use the Americanism) and less serious minded than some of the other RPG's. I played/GM-ed the Second Edition in the late 1980's and very early 1990's, and it was fun.
Players usually took the role of a 'Troubleshooters'- low ranking citizens sent on some mission which ususally was fatal/nothing to do with the orginal briefing/bizzare/and or almost impossible (but not always) to complete.  Did I mention it being fatal? :)

Added to this, players had thier own secret missions, which usually involved robbing/killing/framing other players, or even just retriving something for someone further up the command structure.

The thing which was also fun was that citizen social status was colour co-ordinated, almost like some sort of 1950's American Sociological Thoery, and people wore clothes of the appropriate colour. Infra red (black clothing was the lowest). Troubleshooters started off as Red Level Citizen, and then could work thier way up society (well not if the GM was doing thier job properly they would'nt!), next yellow, orange, etc, until the top level, Ultraviolet who wore white.

The Cover of the Second Edition. 

Now the idea of the scenario was to have a light hearted game of 40k based on the premise that a bunch of Troubleshooters are transported to the 40k Universe/time via and R&D device known as the Transdimensional Collapsitron Device. Here they meet a bunch of bored Orks in a confined space, and much hilarity (and explosions) ensue. 

Now Citadel produced a small range of miniatures for Paranoia, a list of which can be found here: 

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Paranoia

I collected a few of the miniatures at the time, and picked up the odd one or two over the years. It was only a couple of weeks ago I decided that I would assemble and paint up the Troubleshooter force for this scenario, for no reason other than fun. It turned out I only really needed one more miniature as I had several of the old Paranoia models, including Robot. All of the models in the force are from the Paranoia range, and although in the range the minautres are listed under their released names, I have  re-named them appropriately for this scenario. 

I have more than enough Rogue Trader Orks to act as the unlucky Orks receiving an unexpected housecall. 

Enjoy :) (afterall, as the Computer says 'Happiness is Mandatory').

 The three squads on a couple of Citi-Block floor plans.

 Troubleshooter Team, Red Clearance.

 Gone-R-USS-3 and Toys-R-USS-2.

 Rear view showing the backpack of Toys-R-USS-2.

 Two Red Level Citizens. 

I have painted the one on the right with a slightly different coloured armour like the artwork on the 1st Editon of the Paranoia rulebook.

The end of the Las-Guns were delicate, and snapped off over time.

 IntSec Blue Troopers.

 Nevo-U-MYN-4, the leader of the force,  and Watt-I-WHO-6, with the Transdimensional Collapsitron Device. I have painted most of the gun barrels with the appropriate clearance colours.

 Moe-B-DIK-2, and Jhani-B-GUD-4.

 Rear view of above.

 We-B-BAD-3.

 Troubleshooter Bot Support Team, Red Clearance.

 Bot controllers Gen-R-USS-3 and Tim-R-USS-2.

 Rear views of the above.

 Cind-R-BLK-1. 

I think the miniature looks a little like the comedian/actor Frankie Howerd!

 Rear View.

 Combot.

 Side view.

 Doc Bot.

 Rear view.

The Troubleshooter take on Space Orks! 

I have added the pages of the sceanrio for people to read from White Dwarf#112. 

Again, concerning copyright, this is all owned my GW (or Ken Rolston), and not to me. I have added it to the blog for educational purposes.

I am unsure if I will be able to update my blog next week as I am very busy at work until Xmas. If I can I will. :)

Yet more Squats, a few Zoats, and Nurgle lurgy.

Another slightly later blog this week as I have been ill with the flu and, when not wondering around dazed at work, I have been asleep. I must have annoyed Nurgle somehow to feel this ill. :(

None of these factors have sadly been conducive to painting, or any other miniatures releated things.

I have however been continuing to spend my overtime money on e-bay collecting Squats and generally expanding the army of the Brighthelmstone Stronghold.  I have managed to add 5 bikes to the army, including 3 Exo-armoured Trikes with riders! In order to field an entire Warlord and Hearthguard I moved the 2 converted exo-trikes I already had, gave them spare Exo-Armoured riders I had, and now have a lovely squad of 5 Exo-Armoured Trikes.

To replace the Trikes in the other biker units, I had to get a couple more bikes, one of which is still caught up in the Xmas post at the moment. Apart from that I have bought odds and ends of Squat models, most for not a lot of money, but the odd one or two hovering around the £10 mark. In addition I have (again in the post!!) another Zoat which will complete the two Squads of 4 I have. I am looking forward to painting them finally.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I am buying up odds and ends of Squats for two main reasons:

 Firstly, I like them. Since painting the army at the start of this year I have really grown to like the models and the background, more so than I did in the 1980's. Indeed, I was never a fan of the Bob Olley Squat models, and used to blame them for the lack of success of the race/range. Now while I still think that this is true and may have influenced other peoples attitude to Squats, after painting mine I have grown to really appreciate them. For the record, I have always liked the Iron Claw Goblins :)

Secondly, I was never 100% happy with the finished look and compostion of my Squat army. The background I created worked, and the uniform colour worked too. However, the over look seemed too drab to me, and I felt that I had got the army 'done', rather than spent the time on it and it's finer details which it deserved.
Now I have a very bad habit of tinkering with armies, be it paint schemes or organisation, and is why my Catachan army is only part finished and a mess. I do however want to go back and lightly tiniker with the Squat army. This will involve re-basing them, painting up the new miniatures I have bought, lighting the uniform colour, adding a little more details and adding some green (what was Woodland Green) to the armour/helmets similar to the Mole Mortar crew shown later.

I want the Squats to be an on and off project. I'll paint a few as a break from other projects, rather than be an all encompassing thing. However as many people have found, the Squats can be a compulsive project.
Perversely, given the Squats fate in 40K, I have been really tempted to start collecting a new 40k edition Tyranid army! The models look very nice, and would be fun to paint, but it might be something for later next year.

Enjoy :) 

Five Exo-Armoured Trike riding Squats.

 Side view.

They are not glued together which is why the arms don't look right yet.

 

  Squat Mole Mortar, circa 1988. 

I want to combine some elements of this uniform with my current paint scheme.

 Test model, re-based, slightly lightened uniform, and with some 'Woodland Green' (now aka 'Warpstone Glow').

The base design is similar to the Skaven bases for my 3rd Edition Skaven army. I wanted to lighten the model and make them look slighly more 'Rogue Trader'.

Close up.

  Warlord and Hearthguard artwork. 

I always loved this picture, and so when I bought a spare Warlord model he had to have a Multi-Melta. Incedently I rolled on the Squat Heavy Weapons chart and actually rolled up a Multi Melta!

(I might need a legal bit, so the picture belongs to GW, or the artist, or someone, but not me. I only posted for educational purposes to compare with the miniature below).

 The converted Squat Warlord with a Chaos Renegade Multi-Melta and Eldar Armoured arms.

Rear view. 

I green stuffed the cloak to make it look more furry. I might add more later.

Squats on the workbench. 

I have lots of Squats to sort out!

Zoats.

I have 7 Zoats, and one spare torso. I do have a fantasy Zoat in the post so I can use its legs.

Something odd I found.

I had an old piece of white coral (I think it was a cast of some coral), so I painted it up the other night as a crazy looking alien plant. Painted purple, highlighted it green, and the orange. 

It was just something random. :) 

Hopefully I will be lurgy free by next week, and will have settled on a new project, or at least painted something. 

Soviet Space Orks.

Another little later than planned blog update this week. This week I am focusing on something more modern compared to the older miniatures in my collection.

Due to the importation of the concept of 'Black Friday' to the UK as a general marketing tool, several companies were offering deals, one of which was Bitzbox ( http://www.bitzbox.co.uk/ ), who offered a generous discount on lots of things including their old stock of Kromlech bits. 

Kromlech is a company from Poland which produce resin made alternative heads and equipment for Space Orks, Imperial Guard, Space Marines, as well as complete models and vehicles ( http://www.kromlech.eu/ ).
The resin they use is tough but not brittle, and only slightly bendy. I only had one mishap when one of the earflaps of a fur hat snapped off, but they are not as brittle as Citadels 'Finecast'.

Now I have a fair sized contempary edition 40k Space Ork army which I have never bothered to paint. My plan was orginally to have them as a Wehrmacht Ork/Blood Axe army, but I had already done that idea which my Rogue Trader army, plus it seems a little too cliched now.

So, just like the Indiana Jones franchise of films, I updated my 'generic bad guy' idea from NAZI Germany to Soviet Russia by purchasing some of the the Kromlech Russian style Space Ork heads. It also amused me using the most capitalist of days to buy something Soviet in style. LOL

Kromlech produce two types of Russian looking Ork heads, the ones in Budenovkas; and Soviet heads in fur hats. Budenovkas were a style of hat used in during the Russian Revolution and Civil was by the Red Army, and used up to the early part of World War Two. So I bought a couple of packs and then got glueing!

Enjoy :)

Ork heads in fur hats. 

They come in packs of ten, two of the same sprue. 

Ork heads in Budenovkas.

 The first two of the heads.

Both sets of heads are only slightly larger than the Citadl ones, and fit on the bodies very well. They have lots of teeth too!

Second pair. 

I like the crazy look of the one on the right.

 Final head.

 Two Orks in Budenovkas.

 Ork with an eye patch, which I thought would suit the heavy weapons Ork. 

I thought I could paint some of them up as a targeters, and I have already converted one into a pair of goggles/glasses.

The last two Budenovka Orks. The detailing of the tongue, teeth, and expressional faces are very good.

 I added a Budenovkas to an Ork Nob body to give an idea of scale and that they seem to work just as well.

Budenovka biker!

"Wotch ya reckon Comrade, shall we shoot 'em?"

I painted one of each of the Orks up quickly this morning. 

I am pleased with how they look painted, and might do a mail order for some more and paint up the rest of the army. 

Painted Ork in fur hat.

Painted Ork in Budenovka.

 I also bought some mixed lichen from an art shop in Brighton.

 I think it give that old Rogue Trader feel.

In addition to the lichen, I found an old Space Crusade Jigsaw puzzle in a charity shop for only £1.50. 

Not sure what the next blog update will be on. I am still buyimg odds and ends of Squats, but really need to find a proper project to get focused on.