Tuesday 13 October 2015

Rogue Quest Level 4: The Rogue

It's level up time in Rogue Quest - the collaborative painting / modelling / gaming project I'm working on in partnership with JB/Asslessman over at Leadplague. My first character was my female Barbarian, Dy-ana.



After JB's very nice wizard from last week, I've taken up the baton yet again with my next adventurer. I was very keen from the outset that I would reflect some of the species diversity common to dungeoneering parties. Although human adventurers are typically well represented, dwarf fighters, elf rangers and even half-orc barbarians add real spice to the mix.

I knew that I wanted to include a squat in my party. Rather than make my squat a traditional barbarian or fighter character, I decided my short-beardy fellow would be a more subtle individual, playing the part of a rogue / thief.

Dwarf Rogue

In my mind, rogues should be discreet, able to blend into shadows, or disappear in a crowded market place. What they shouldn't be, is overtly warlike, festooned with weapons or covered in armour.

The obvious choice was to paint up one of the rather nice Citadel squat adventurers. This set of 5 models is just great - they're so characterful with their individual outfits and gear. Happily, my mate Graham had some spare and was able to provide me with my source figure - adventurer #5:

Citadel's lovely squat adventurers

Adventurer #5 got the nod from the 4 squats I had available - there's so much character in his world-weary face. I also particularly like his vaguely Western-style outfit and slightly comedic hood. Most importantly, he looks like a loner / drifter. Certainly capable of a heist for a valuable set of data-slates, or rare jewelled xenos artefacts!

There are many traders and brokers on the Subdanian fringe worlds who have encountered squat adventurer Jebediah Corbain. Sometimes he buys information - rumours about lost treasures or abandoned facilities. Sometimes he discretely sells unusual artefacts or strange pieces of tech. Rarely does he stay on any one world for long. Often he is alone, but sometimes he is accompanied by exotic or rugged companions - they are never with him the next time he is seen. One day Corbain will never be seen again. Most of his contacts will never notice his absence.

I wanted to keep the open stance and see Jebediah's nicely detailed front, so I turned him into a sort of grizzled gunslinger. His left arm is from the original squat plastic arm sprue, while his right was sculped with the addition of a laspistol from a plastic Necromunda Orlock ganger. I quite like the resulting hip-shooter pose - it reinforces that Western look even more!



I kept Jebediah's colour scheme fairly traditional, with a tan coat, white shirt and black boots and gloves. His blue hood is the same spot colour as used on the trim of Dy-ana's dress. I plan to use this colour on every member of the adventuring party as a way to tie them together, even though they will get quite different colour schemes overall.



I also attempted to add a touch of detail to Jebediah's blanket bundle by painting it in a plaid/tartan design. It's not a fully accurate representation, but I think it does enough to give the correct impression.

A rather scruffy close-up of Jebediah's blanket.


Jebediah and Dy-ana fend off a pair of rabid cultists!

Before I hand back to JB for the next instalment some time next week, I just wanted to mention the exceptional work of Alex over at Leadballony, who's decided to make his own Rogue Quest adventuring party after seeing what JB and I are working on. So far Alex has painted up three excellent figures, all from different manufacturers, and has done a stellar job in tying them together!

Right then JB - back to you for level 5!

See also:

17 comments:

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    1. The sculpt is great - it just oozes character I think!

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  2. He's excellent, I'm even a little jealous since I live yours more than the one I did last year !
    You couldn't pick a better model and the painting is just perfect for the purpose !

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    1. Ah, your paintjob is great JB. I couldn't resist the model either, in spite of having one of the others built and ready to go

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  3. I'm a little confused Axiom. I thought that you had to choose a fantasy mini and RT him/her into a 40K equivalent of a D&D character?

    Or have I completely missed something? :D

    Anyway, misunderstanding aside, he looks great! Your right too, his hat looks quite silly, but fits in with the aesthetic really well.

    Have you got your next mini for this challenge sorted yet?

    Oh, and thanks for the link to Lead ballony. His stuff is quite good isn't it!

    Cheers.

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    1. Sorry about the confusion. The project is to represent D&D archetypes in a 40k setting. It just so happened that the barbarian was based on a fantasy figure. I'm just picking figures which fit the character :)

      I'm settled on 3 of my other minis, but still undecided about #6 ;)

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  4. He's awesome Jon, love the mini choice and Western vibe, he's such a cool choice for a Rogue! Thanks for the shout-out too :-)

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    1. There's a lot of Western vibe in Rogue Trader - something which has disappeared as the future gothic vibe became dominant. Something about gunslingers in frontier towns (with or without wide-brimmed hats) really appeals to me ;)

      And no problem for the shout-out. Love what you're doing :)

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  5. Absolutely great work on this one, I believe you nailed what you were aiming for. The work on the arms and the palette you chose certainly made their work!

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    1. Thanks Suber. Most of the direction really came from the sculpt - I don't think he would have worked so well with a brightly coloured coat. I'm happy to be proved wrong though!

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  6. Gret work - well done on the tartan too, not the easiest of patterns to replicate in 28mm!

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    1. Thanks! I do hope to paint some more tartan at some point, but probably with a more contrasting set of colours. I think it works OK as a little point of detail on this guy though :)

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  7. I think that Adventurer 1 is my favourite sculpt from that bunch, but you did a lovely job in that guy.

    Funnily enough the addition of Western elements to the Necromunda setting post Confrontation initially bothered me, but I grew to like it.

    Like 17th century pirates, mixing a bit of Western in with sci-fi generates rich rewards in terms of narrative and in general look and feel. I look forward to cyber-stetsons, native shamanistic "aliens" and dumb deputies showing up here soon.

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    1. I liked that element of Westerns in Necromunda - I found it very evocative of Rogue Trader, although I concede it was a different feel to the hyper-baroque v feral stylings of Confrontation.

      I think there's a line though - I don't want Bravestarr, but I'm happy to channel Eastwood ;)

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    2. Hive Primus is gargantuan. Some parts are techno-baroque feudalism, some are the rootinest, tootinest places round them thar parts.
      Plenty of room for both interpretations and even to intermingle the two.

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  8. The blues and ochres go very well together. Love the colour combo!

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    1. Thanks! I'm enjoying that colour combination myself too!

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